DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to claims filed on 09 November 2023. Claims 1-20 are pending for examination.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 9-14 and 16-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Dependent claims 9-14 and 16-20 refer to back to independent claim 1 by the wireless device of claim 1. However, claim 1 is a method claim (not apparatus claim). Thus, the examiner is unclear if claims 9-14 and 16-20 are referring to method claim (1) or a different independent claim (wireless device of claim 8 or CRM of claim 15). Since the examiner cannot determine their dependency, the claims are vague and indefinite.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-9, 11-16, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xu et al. (US 2024/0080830 A1) (hereinafter Xu).
In regards to claims 1, 8, and 15, Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising:
receiving, by a wireless device from a base station, at least one radio resource control (RRC) message comprising (Xu, Fig. 4, [0064]-[0066], [0075]-[0095], [0097]: [0076] As shown by reference number 405, the UE may receive configuration information (e.g., from the base station, another base station, and/or the like) and/or may determine the configuration information based at least in part on a communication protocol. In some aspects, the UE may receive the configuration information via one or more of RRC signaling, medium access control control elements (MAC CEs), and/or the like. In some aspects, the configuration information may include an indication of one or more configuration parameters (e.g., already known to the UE) for selection by the UE, explicit configuration information for the UE to use to configure the UE, and/or the like.):
one or more processors and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the wireless device to (Xu, Fig. 8, [0134]-[0142]: [0137] The transmission component 804 may transmit communications, such as reference signals, control information, data communications, or a combination thereof, to the apparatus 806. In some aspects, one or more other components of the apparatus 806 may generate communications and may provide the generated communications to the transmission component 804 for transmission to the apparatus 806. In some aspects, the transmission component 804 may perform signal processing on the generated communications (such as filtering, amplification, modulation, digital-to-analog conversion, multiplexing, interleaving, mapping, or encoding, among other examples), and may transmit the processed signals to the apparatus 806. In some aspects, the transmission component 804 may include one or more antennas, a modulator, a transmit MIMO processor, a transmit processor, a controller/processor, a memory, or a combination thereof, of the UE described above in connection with FIG. 2. In some aspects, the transmission component 804 may be co-located with the reception component 802 in a transceiver.):
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a wireless device to (Xu, Fig.2, [0040]-[0045]: [0044] Controller/processor 240 of base station 110, controller/processor 280 of UE 120, and/or any other component(s) of FIG. 2 may perform one or more techniques associated with dynamic bandwidth part switching for control message monitoring, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, controller/processor 240 of base station 110, controller/processor 280 of UE 120, and/or any other component(s) of FIG. 2 may perform or direct operations of, for example, process 600 of FIG. 6, process 700 of FIG. 7, and/or other processes as described herein. Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for base station 110 and UE 120, respectively. In some aspects, memory 242 and/or memory 282 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions (e.g., code and/or program code) for wireless communication. For example, the one or more instructions, when executed (e.g., directly, or after compiling, converting, and/or interpreting) by one or more processors of the base station 110 and/or the UE 120, may cause the one or more processors, the UE 120, and/or the base station 110 to perform or direct operations of, for example, process 600 of FIG. 6, process 700 of FIG. 7, and/or other processes as described herein. In some aspects, executing instructions may include running the instructions, converting the instructions, compiling the instructions, and/or interpreting the instructions, among other examples.):
first configuration parameters for a first bandwidth part (BWP) of a first cell, of the base station, that is configured as a serving cell (Xu, Fig.4 [0075]-[0095]: [0079] As shown by reference number 415, the UE may receive, and the base station may transmit, a BWPs configuration. The BWPs configuration may indicate configurations of a set of candidate BWPs. For example, the BWPs configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated with a PDCCH and/or monitoring of a PDCCH for a first BWP and a PDCCH for a second BWP. In some aspects, the BWPs configuration may indicate a number of resource blocks occupied by the first BWP and by the second BWP, a number of resource blocks occupied by the PDCCH of the first BWP and the PDCCH of the second BWP, a monitoring period associated with the PDCCH of the first BWP and the PDCCH of the second BWP, and/or identifications of one or more symbols in each slot that are to be monitored by the UE for PDCCH communications associated with the PDCCH of the first BWP and the PDCCH of the second BWP, among other examples.);
second configuration parameters of resources of a second cell that is configured as resources of the first BWP of the first cell (Xu, Fig. 4, [0046]-[0054], [0064]-[0074], [0075]-[0094]: [0091] As shown by reference number 450, the base station may determine whether the one or more BSRs satisfy the BSR threshold and/or whether to activate the first BWP. In some aspects, the base station may determine that the one or more BSRs have an average BSR index that is greater than the BSR threshold and may determine to activate the first BWP based at least in part on the first BWP having a bandwidth size that is larger than a bandwidth size of the second BWP. In some aspects, the base station may determine that the one or more BSRs have an average BSR index that is less than the BSR threshold and may determine to activate the first BWP based at least in part on the first BWP having a bandwidth size that is smaller than a bandwidth size of the second BWP.); and
a first time value of a first inactivity timer for the first BWP of the first cell (Xu, Fig. 3, [0064]-[0074]: [0073] In some aspects described herein, a UE may be configured with a set of candidate BWPs (e.g., a first BWP and a second BWP). The first BWP may have a first bandwidth size, and the second BWP may have a second bandwidth size. For example, the first BWP may include a full bandwidth, and the second BWP may include a portion of the full bandwidth (e.g., with the second bandwidth size being less than the first bandwidth size). The UE may activate the first BWP (e.g., based at least in part on receiving an indication to activate the first BWP or as a default BWP, among other examples). The UE may transmit one or more BSRs to an associated base station to indicate a request to transmit data. The base station may monitor BSRs received from the UE to determine an amount of traffic associated with the UE (e.g., an amount of previous traffic and/or an amount of expected traffic, among other examples). For example, the base station may determine if the BSRs satisfy a BSR threshold for a time period. Additionally, or alternatively, the base station may determine whether an average BSR index satisfies the BSR threshold during the time period. Based at least in part on satisfaction of the BSR threshold for the time period, the base station may transmit an indication to activate the second BWP for monitoring for a control message. Based at least in part on transmitting the indication to activate the second BWP, the base station may use one or more resources of the second BWP to transmit a control message and/or the UE may monitor resources of the second BWP to receive a control message. Additionally, or alternatively, the base station and/or the UE may deactivate the first BWP, which may include the base station ceasing to use resources of the first BWP to transmit a control message and the UE ceasing to monitor resources of the first BWP (e.g., resources that do not overlap with the second BWP) to receive a control message.); and
restarting the first inactivity timer for the first BWP of the first cell, in response to communicating a transport block via a configured grant resource of the second cell (Xu, Fig. 1, [0025]-[0061]: [0038] At base station 110, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source 212 for one or more UEs, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for each UE based at least in part on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS(s) selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. Transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI)) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, and/or upper layer signaling) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. Transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS)) and synchronization signals (e.g., a primary synchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronization signal (SSS)). A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, the overhead symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Each modulator 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. T downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via T antennas 234a through 234t, respectively.).
In regards to claims 2, 9, and 16 Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising: wherein the restarting is further in response to receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) comprising an uplink grant or a downlink assignment indicating a resource of a second cell (Xu, Fig. 3, [0064]-[0074]: [0065] As shown by reference number 305, the UE may receive, and the base station may transmit, a configuration of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), associated with a BWP, for the UE to monitor. The configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated with the PDCCH and/or monitoring of the PDCCH. For example, the configuration may include an indication (e.g., locationAndBandwidth) of a number of resource blocks occupied by a BWP associated with the PDCCH. The configuration may include an indication (e.g., frequencyDomainResources) of a number of resource blocks occupied by the PDCCH. Additionally, or alternatively, the configuration may include an indication (e.g., monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset) of a monitoring period associated with the PDCCH. The configuration may further include an indication (e.g., monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot) of one or more symbols in each slot that are to be monitored by the UE for PDCCH communications.).
In regards to claims 4, 11, and 18 Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising: wherein the first configuration parameters of the first BWP of the first cell comprise the second configuration parameters of the resources of the second cell (Xu, Fig. 4, [0046]-[0054], [0064]-[0074], [0075]-[0094]: See above for paragraph [0091].).
In regards to claims 5, 12, and 19 Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising: wherein the second configuration parameters of the resources of the second cell comprise a physical cell identifier (PCI) of the second cell (Xu, Fig. 4, [0075]-[0095]: [0079] As shown by reference number 415, the UE may receive, and the base station may transmit, a BWPs configuration. The BWPs configuration may indicate configurations of a set of candidate BWPs. For example, the BWPs configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated with a PDCCH and/or monitoring of a PDCCH for a first BWP and a PDCCH for a second BWP. In some aspects, the BWPs configuration may indicate a number of resource blocks occupied by the first BWP and by the second BWP, a number of resource blocks occupied by the PDCCH of the first BWP and the PDCCH of the second BWP, a monitoring period associated with the PDCCH of the first BWP and the PDCCH of the second BWP, and/or identifications of one or more symbols in each slot that are to be monitored by the UE for PDCCH communications associated with the PDCCH of the first BWP and the PDCCH of the second BWP, among other examples.).
In regards to claims 6, 13, and 20 Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising:
wherein the second cell comprises at least one of (Xu, Fig. 4, [0046]-[0054], [0064]-[0074], [0075]-[0094]):
a transmission reception point (TRP) with a different physical cell identifier (PCI) than the first cell (Xu, Fig.1, [0025]-[0043]: [0025] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless network 100, in accordance with the present disclosure. The wireless network 100 may be or may include elements of a 5G (NR) network and/or an LTE network, among other examples. The wireless network 100 may include a number of base stations 110 (shown as BS 110a, BS 110b, BS 110c, and BS 110d) and other network entities. A base station (BS) is an entity that communicates with user equipment (UEs) and may also be referred to as an NR BS, a Node B, a gNB, a 5G node B (NB), an access point, a transmit receive point (TRP), or the like. Each BS may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a BS and/or a BS subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.); or
a neighbor cell of the first cell.
In regards to claims 7 and 14, Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising:
further comprising, in response to expiration of the first inactivity timer for the first BWP of the first cell (Xu, [0045]-[0047], [0053]-[0071], [0073]-[0074]: [0074] In this way, the UE may conserve computing, communication, and/or power resources based at least in part on monitoring a BWP with a size that is based at least in part on the amount of traffic associated with the UE (e.g., based at least in part on an average BSR index during the time window). For example, the UE may conserve computing, communication, and/or power resources that may have otherwise been used to monitor the first BWP that has a size that is not based at least in part on an amount of traffic associated with the UE (e.g., based at least in part on an average BSR index during the time window).):
switching, by the wireless device, from the first BWP to a default BWP of the first cell (Xu, Fig. 4, [0075]-[0096]: [0075] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example 400 associated with dynamic bandwidth part switching for control message monitoring, in accordance with the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 4, a UE (e.g., UE 120) may communicate with a base station (e.g., base station 110). In some aspects, the UE may be in an RRC connected state. The UE and the base station may be part of a wireless network (e.g., wireless network 100).); or
switching, by the wireless device, from the resources of the second cell to second resources of the second cell, wherein the second resources of the second cell are associated with the default BWP of the first cell (Xu, Fig. 6, Fig. 7, [0103]-[0117], [0118]-[0133]: [0104] As further shown in FIG. 6, in some aspects, process 600 may include receiving, based at least in part on satisfaction of a BSR threshold for a time period, an indication to activate a second BWP, of the set of candidate BWPs, having a second bandwidth size (block 620). For example, the UE (e.g., using reception component 802, depicted in FIG. 800) may receive, based at least in part on satisfaction of a BSR threshold for a time period, an indication to activate a second BWP, of the set of candidate BWPs, having a second bandwidth size, as described above (e.g., with reference to reference number 435 of FIG. 4).) .
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, 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 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.
Claim(s) 3, 10, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu as applied to claim 1/8/15 above, and further in view of Nory et al. (US 2022/0399982 A1) (hereinafter Nory).
In regards to claims 3, 10, and 17 Xu teaches:
A method (Xu, see fig. 4)/An apparatus (Xu, see fig. 1)/ A process (Xu, see fig. 9) for a wireless device comprising: wherein the at least one RRC message comprises periodic resource configuration parameters indicating that the configured grant resource is configured to use a second TCI state associated with at least one downlink reference signal of the second cell (Xu, Fig. 3, [0064]-[0074]: See above for paragraph [0065]).
However, Xu does not explicitly teach TCI state.
Similar to Xu, Nory teaches if above parameters or TCI state assumptions (e.g., for CSI measurements) of dormant and regular BWP are same, the switching delay can be a first value, otherwise it can be a second value larger than first value. In some cases, the first value is smaller than the second value, which can be seen as TCI state (Nory, [0072]-[0082]: [0082] In some cases, switching delay from/to a dormant BWP to regular BWP can be based on whether some attributes (e.g. the attributes discussed above) of the dormant BWP are same as that of the regular BWP. For example, if above parameters or TCI state assumptions (e.g., for CSI measurements) of dormant and regular BWP are same, the switching delay can be a first value, otherwise it can be a second value larger than first value. In some cases, the first value is smaller than the second value.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Xu with Nory to dynamically improve the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network (Nory, [0252]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Francesca Lima Santos whose telephone number is (571)272-6521. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday 7:30am-5pm, ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Marcus R Smith can be reached at (571) 270-1096. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/FRANCESCA LIMA SANTOS/Examiner, Art Unit 2468
/MARCUS SMITH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2468