DETAILED ACTION
Applicant’s Application filed on January 20, 2026 has been reviewed.
Claims 2 is cancelled in the amendment.
Claims 1 and 20 are amended in the amendment.
Claims 1 and 3-20 have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1 and 3-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al. (US 2025/0106844 A1), hereinafter referred to as Kang, in view of Liu et al. (US 2020/0120534 A1), hereinafter referred to as Liu.
With respect to claim 1, Kang teaches A method for reporting a remaining delay budget information, adapted to a user equipment (the WD (wireless device) estimates the PDB_left (i.e., PDB (packet delay budget) remaining) for each buffered packet in a one of the buffers, e.g., LCID (logical channel ID) or across a set of buffers, e.g., LCIDs, or across all buffers, i.e., all LCIDs, para. 0120), wherein the method comprising:
receiving a radio resource control configuration (the network node 16 configure the WD 22 (wireless device) to use the delay-aware BSR and related functionality that configured via RRC (radio resource control) signaling, para. 0139), wherein the radio resource control configuration indicates the user equipment to report the remaining delay budget information of a logical channel or a logical channel group through a status report message (a WD 22 (wireless device) report a legacy long BSR (buffer size report) either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, para. 0133; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity, para. 0012; wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, para. 0039; and the at least one PDB is associated with at least one logical channel, para. 0043);
determining whether a triggering condition is met (a WD 22 (wireless device) report a legacy long BSR (buffer size report) either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, para. 0133; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity, para. 0012), and
in response to the triggering condition being met, transmitting the status report message including the remaining delay budget information (a network node 16 configured to communicate with a wireless device (WD) 22 to receive a buffer status report from the WD 22, para. 0155-0156), wherein the remaining delay budget information indicates at least one remaining delay budget and at least one associated buffer size (wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, wherein the buffer status parameter being based on a total size of queued data packets associated with each of the at least one delay group index and the at least one delay group index corresponding to at least one range of PDB left values, para. 0039; also see para. 0031, 015 and 0189; PDB_left (i.e., PDB remaining), para. 0114).
Kang does teach each delay group represent a range of remaining PDB (packet delay budget) of the packets within the group; the exact sizes of each delay group be configured by the network node 16, this could be configured through an RRC (radio resource control) message which provides information regarding the remaining PDB threshold for each group (para. 0143).
But Kang does not explicitly teach
determining whether a triggering condition is met, wherein the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to
However, Liu teaches
determining whether a triggering condition is met, wherein the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to (LCG (logical channel group) is an LCG with a delay less than or equal to a preset delay threshold, the preset delay threshold is a delay of an LCH (logical channel), in the LCG, para. 0128; LCG having to-be-sent data whose remaining delay time is less than or equal to a third preset threshold; the remaining delay budget herein is a remaining delay budget of a service to which the to-be-sent data belongs which specifically determined based on a system configuration, para. 0157; after obtaining the remaining delay budget of the to-be-sent data on each LCG (logical channel group), the terminal device compare the remaining delay budget of the to-be-sent data on each LCG with the third preset threshold, to determine whether there is a first LCG in which a remaining delay budget of to-be-sent data is less than or equal to the third preset threshold, para. 0161) in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008);
Therefore, based on Kang in view of Liu, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Liu to the method of Kang in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
With respect to claim 3, Kang teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering condition is further associated with at least one of the following:
a period aligns with an extended reality frame rate; an arrival of extended reality traffic (the characteristics of XR (extended reality) traffic arrival are quite distinct, para. 0009; a WD (wireless) 22 can report a legacy long BSR either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, e.g., when a traffic arrives, para. 0133); a starting of on-duration; an arrival of first traffic of a protocol data unit set; an arrival of last traffic of a protocol data unit set; a threshold of inter-arrival time of arrived traffic; a discard of protocol data unit of extended reality traffic; a starting of an extended reality service; or a stopping of an extended reality service.
With respect to claim 4, Kang in view of Liu teaches The method of claim 3 as described above,
Further, Liu teaches wherein at least one of the threshold of remaining delay budget, the period aligns with an extended reality frame rate, or the threshold of inter-arrival time of arrived traffic is configured by the radio resource control configuration (LCG (logical channel group) is an LCG with a delay less than or equal to a preset delay threshold, the preset delay threshold is a delay of an LCH (logical channel), in the LCG, para. 0128; LCG having to-be-sent data whose remaining delay time is less than or equal to a third preset threshold; the remaining delay budget herein is a remaining delay budget of a service to which the to-be-sent data belongs which specifically determined based on a system configuration, para. 0157) in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
Therefore, based on Kang in view of Liu, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Liu to the method of Kang in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
With respect to claim 5, Kang teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the radio resource control configuration further indicates at least one of the following:
the logical channel (the exact sizes of each delay group configured by the network node 16 through an RRC message, a MAC Control Element, which provides information regarding the remaining PDB threshold for each group, para. 0143; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity, para. 0012; wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, para. 0039; and the at least one PDB is associated with at least one logical channel, para. 0043), a buffer size table for setting a buffer size field in the status report message; or a media access control element format of the status report message.
With respect to claim 6, Kang teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the status report message indicates a type of protocol data unit set corresponding to the at least one remaining delay budget (wireless device 22 configured to determine a buffer status report, the buffer status report including queue information for a first protocol data unit (PDU) set, the first PDU set including at least one queued packet. Wireless device 22 is further configured to receive, from the network node 16, a scheduling grant based on the queue information and at least one packet delay budget (PDB) left value associated with the first PDU set, para. 0111).
With respect to claim 7, Kang teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the remaining delay budget information indicates a bitmap of delay field corresponding to the at least one remaining delay budget and a plurality of buffer size fields corresponding to the at least one associated buffer size (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132), wherein a bit of the bitmap of the delay field indicates one of the plurality of buffer size fields is available (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132).
With respect to claim 8, Kang teaches The method of claim 7, wherein the status report message indicates a logical channel group identifier field (what LCIDs or LCGs are reported can be also preconfigured by a network (e.g., network node 16) to allocate the right size of grant for the BSR report specific to needed LCIDs or LCGs, para. 0133; The Legacy BSR reports the buffer size within a set of LCIDs (i.e., LCG), and the Legacy BSR provides information about the LCG index and the corresponding size, para. 0125; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132).
With respect to claim 9, Kang teaches The method of claim 7, wherein the status report message indicates a bitmap field corresponding to a plurality of logical channel group identifiers (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132), wherein a bit of the bitmap field indicates one of the plurality of logical channel group identifiers is available (the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity; when more than one LCG has data available for transmission, then the WD uses the long BSR format and reports all LCGs which have data, para. 0012).
With respect to claim 10, Kang teaches The method of claim 9, wherein the status report message comprises the remaining delay budget information for each available logical channel group identifier (the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity; when more than one LCG has data available for transmission, then the WD uses the long BSR format and reports all LCGs which have data, para. 0012).
With respect to claim 11, Kang teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the status report message indicates a ratio by a ratio field (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132), the ratio and the at least one associated buffer size indicate amount of data corresponding to the at least one remaining delay budget (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132), and the ratio field has a mapping relationship with the at least one remaining delay budget (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS (buffer size) is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132).
With respect to claim 12, Kang teaches The method of claim 11, wherein the status report message comprises a plurality of buffer size fields and a logical channel group identifier field (the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity; when more than one LCG has data available for transmission, then the WD uses the long BSR format and reports all LCGs which have data, para. 0012), wherein the logical channel group identifier field indicates one of the plurality of buffer size fields is available (the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity; when more than one LCG has data available for transmission, then the WD uses the long BSR format and reports all LCGs which have data, para. 0012).
With respect to claim 13, Kang teaches The method of claim 11, wherein the status report message comprises a logical channel group identifier field (the BSR provides one or more buffer statuses, one buffer status for each DG index, which indicates the presence of a buffer status (BS), para. 0127; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132), wherein the logical channel group identifier field indicates the ratio field is available (the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity; when more than one LCG has data available for transmission, then the WD uses the long BSR format and reports all LCGs which have data, para. 0012), wherein a logical channel group corresponding to the logical channel identifier field is configured for an extended reality service (the characteristics of XR (extended reality) traffic arrival are quite distinct, para. 0009; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132; LCID 1 and LCID 2 received ADUs from an XR application, e.g., video and pose with different PDB (packet delay budget); due to the different traffic characteristics of each flow, the different arrival and/or grant time, there is a different amount of remaining bits (X, Y, M, N, W) in each of the buffers, para. 0017).
With respect to claim 14, Kang teaches The method of claim 11, wherein the triggering condition is further associated with at least one of the following:
a period aligns with an extended reality frame rate; an arrival of extended reality traffic (the characteristics of XR (extended reality) traffic arrival are quite distinct, para. 0009; a WD (wireless) 22 can report a legacy long BSR either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, e.g., when a traffic arrives, para. 0133); a starting of on-duration; an arrival of first traffic of a protocol data unit set; an arrival of last traffic of a protocol data unit set; a threshold of inter-arrival time of arrived traffic; a discard of protocol data unit of extended reality traffic; a starting of an extended reality service; or a stopping of an extended reality service.
With respect to claim 15, Kang in view of Liu teaches The method of claim 14 as described above,
Further, Liu teaches wherein at least one of the period aligns with an extended reality frame rate, the threshold of remaining delay budget, or the threshold of inter-arrival time of arrived traffic is configured by the radio resource control configuration (LCG (logical channel group) is an LCG with a delay less than or equal to a preset delay threshold, the preset delay threshold is a delay of an LCH (logical channel), in the LCG, para. 0128; LCG having to-be-sent data whose remaining delay time is less than or equal to a third preset threshold; the remaining delay budget herein is a remaining delay budget of a service to which the to-be-sent data belongs which specifically determined based on a system configuration, para. 0157) in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
Therefore, based on Kang in view of Liu, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Liu to the method of Kang in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
With respect to claim 16, Kang teaches The method of claim 11, wherein the radio resource control configuration further indicates at least one of the following:
a number of delay value combinations to be reported by the status report message; a number of type of protocol data unit set combination to be reported by the status report message; a number of bits used by a ratio field in the status report message; a logical channel group configured for extended reality traffic (the characteristics of XR (extended reality) traffic arrival are quite distinct, para. 0009; a field explicitly indicating the LCG is provided as well as a bitmap of the configured delay-groups (DGs); a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132; LCID 1 and LCID 2 received ADUs from an XR application, e.g., video and pose with different PDB (packet delay budget); due to the different traffic characteristics of each flow, the different arrival and/or grant time, there is a different amount of remaining bits (X, Y, M, N, W) in each of the buffers, para. 0017); a buffer size table for setting a buffer size field in the status report message; or a ratio table for setting a ratio field in the status report message.
With respect to claim 17, Kang teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the status report message comprises a plurality of buffer size fields (wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, para. 0039; and the at least one PDB is associated with at least one logical channel, para. 0043), a plurality of delay fields (a BS is included for each DG set to 1, there is an association between one specific DG and a buffer status, one example rule is that the first DG set to 1 starting from right to left is associated with the first octet, i.e., the first instance of the buffer status, para. 0132), and a logical channel identifier field corresponding to the at least one remaining delay budget (a WD 22 (wireless device) report a legacy long BSR (buffer size report) either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, para. 0133; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity, para. 0012; wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, para. 0039; and the at least one PDB is associated with at least one logical channel, para. 0043).
With respect to claim 18, Kang teaches The method of claim 17, wherein the logical channel identifier field indicate one of the plurality of buffer size fields and one of the plurality of delay fields are available (each delay group index included in the buffer status report, the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter. In some embodiments, the buffer status parameter is based on a total size of queued data packets associated with the delay group index, para. 0031; the buffer status report includes at least one of: a logical channel indication and a logical channel group indication, para. 0032; LCID 1 and LCID 2 received ADUs from an XR application, e.g., video and pose with different PDB (packet delay budget); due to the different traffic characteristics of each flow, the different arrival and/or grant time, there is a different amount of remaining bits (X, Y, M, N, W) in each of the buffers, at a given LCID, each set of remaining bits also has a different amount of remaining PDB, denoted as PDB_left, para. 0017).
With respect to claim 19, Kang in view of Liu teaches The method of claim 1 as described above,
Further, Liu teaches wherein the threshold of remaining delay budget is configured by the radio resource control configuration (LCG (logical channel group) is an LCG with a delay less than or equal to a preset delay threshold, the preset delay threshold is a delay of an LCH (logical channel), in the LCG, para. 0128; LCG having to-be-sent data whose remaining delay time is less than or equal to a third preset threshold; the remaining delay budget herein is a remaining delay budget of a service to which the to-be-sent data belongs which specifically determined based on a system configuration, para. 0157) in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
Therefore, based on Kang in view of Liu, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Liu to the method of Kang in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
With respect to claim 20, Kang teaches A user equipment (the WD (wireless device) estimates the PDB_left (i.e., PDB (packet delay budget) remaining) for each buffered packet in a one of the buffers, e.g., LCID (logical channel ID) or across a set of buffers, e.g., LCIDs, or across all buffers, i.e., all LCIDs, para. 0120), comprising:
a transceiver (one or more RF transceivers, para. 0092); and
a processor (processor, para. 0090), coupled to the transceiver and configured to:
receive, via the transceiver, a radio resource control configuration (the network node 16 configure the WD 22 (wireless device) to use the delay-aware BSR and related functionality that configured via RRC (radio resource control) signaling, para. 0139), wherein the radio resource control configuration indicates the user equipment to report remaining delay budget information of a logical channel or a logical channel group through a status report message (a WD 22 (wireless device) report a legacy long BSR (buffer size report) either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, para. 0133; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity, para. 0012; wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, para. 0039; and the at least one PDB is associated with at least one logical channel, para. 0043);
determine whether a triggering condition is met (a WD 22 (wireless device) report a legacy long BSR (buffer size report) either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, para. 0133; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity, para. 0012), and
in response to the triggering condition being met, transmit, via the transceiver, the status report message including the remaining delay budget information (a network node 16 configured to communicate with a wireless device (WD) 22 to receive a buffer status report from the WD 22, para. 0155-0156), wherein the remaining delay budget information indicates at least one remaining delay budget and at least one associated buffer size (wherein the buffer status report includes a corresponding buffer status parameter for each of the at least one delay group index, at least one PDB (packet delay budget) left value associated with the at least one queued packet, wherein the buffer status parameter being based on a total size of queued data packets associated with each of the at least one delay group index and the at least one delay group index corresponding to at least one range of PDB left values, para. 0039; also see para. 0031, 015 and 0189; PDB_left (i.e., PDB remaining), para. 0114).
Kang does teach each delay group represent a range of remaining PDB (packet delay budget) of the packets within the group; the exact sizes of each delay group be configured by the network node 16, this could be configured through an RRC (radio resource control) message which provides information regarding the remaining PDB threshold for each group (para. 0143).
But Kang does not explicitly teach
determining whether a triggering condition is met, wherein the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to
However, Liu teaches
determining whether a triggering condition is met, wherein the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to (LCG (logical channel group) is an LCG with a delay less than or equal to a preset delay threshold, the preset delay threshold is a delay of an LCH (logical channel), in the LCG, para. 0128; LCG having to-be-sent data whose remaining delay time is less than or equal to a third preset threshold; the remaining delay budget herein is a remaining delay budget of a service to which the to-be-sent data belongs which specifically determined based on a system configuration, para. 0157; after obtaining the remaining delay budget of the to-be-sent data on each LCG (logical channel group), the terminal device compare the remaining delay budget of the to-be-sent data on each LCG with the third preset threshold, to determine whether there is a first LCG in which a remaining delay budget of to-be-sent data is less than or equal to the third preset threshold, para. 0161) in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008);
Therefore, based on Kang in view of Liu, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Liu to the equipment of Kang in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on January 20, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive for the following reasons:
Applicant’s main argument is that “the motivation for the combination of Kang and Liu is to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu. However, this motivation is too broad. Liu aims to solve the problem of insufficient MAC PU space, while the present application's objective is an urgent report. The motivations to solve different objectives lead to different methods, so that it is not obvious to combine separate steps in the inventions of Liu and Kang to disclose the feature of "determining whether a triggering condition is met, wherein the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to a threshold of remaining delay budget" as cited in claim 1.” (Argument 1, REMARKS pages 9-10).
Examiner respectfully disagrees with the above arguments.
In response to Applicant’s Argument 1 that “the motivation for the combination of Kang and Liu is to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu. However, this motivation is too broad. Liu aims to solve the problem of insufficient MAC PU space, while the present application's objective is an urgent report. The motivations to solve different objectives lead to different methods, so that it is not obvious to combine separate steps in the inventions of Liu and Kang to disclose the feature of "determining whether a triggering condition is met, wherein the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to a threshold of remaining delay budget" as cited in claim 1.” it is noted that Kang teaches a WD 22 (wireless device) report a legacy long BSR (buffer size report) either in a regular basis or in event-triggered basis, para. 0133; the regular BSR is triggered if uplink (UL) data, for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG), becomes available to the MAC entity (para. 0012).
Kang does not explicitly teach the triggering condition is met in response to a remaining delay budget being below or equal to a threshold of remaining delay budget.
However, Liu teaches LCG (logical channel group) is an LCG with a delay less than or equal to a preset delay threshold, the preset delay threshold is a delay of an LCH (logical channel), in the LCG (para. 0128); LCG having to-be-sent data whose remaining delay time is less than or equal to a third preset threshold; the remaining delay budget herein is a remaining delay budget of a service to which the to-be-sent data belongs which specifically determined based on a system configuration (para. 0157); after obtaining the remaining delay budget of the to-be-sent data on each LCG (logical channel group), the terminal device compare the remaining delay budget of the to-be-sent data on each LCG with the third preset threshold, to determine whether there is a first LCG in which a remaining delay budget of to-be-sent data is less than or equal to the third preset threshold (para. 0161) in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
Therefore, based on Kang in view of Liu, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Liu to the method/equipment of Kang in order to improve uplink transmission resource allocation efficiency as taught by Liu (para. 0008).
For the above reasons, Examiner believed that rejection of the last Office action was proper and within their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification. See MPEP 2111 [R-1] Interpretation of Claims-Broadest Reasonable Interpretation.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL.
Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HAO HONG NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2666. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8AM-4:30PM EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JOON H. HWANG can be reached on 571-272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/H.H.N/Examiner, Art Unit 2447
March 21, 2026
/JOON H HWANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2447