DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 5/29/26 has been entered.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The IDS filed 5/29/26 provided new references for the examiner to consider. The LG Electronics “Remaining Issues On Bandwidth Parts” 3GPP reference was relevant and applicable prior art that allowed the examiner to updated his search language of the prior art and previously applied references, particularly section 2.2.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 5/29/26 are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested:
METHOD AND USER EQUIPMENT FOR RANDOM ACCESS WITH BANDWIDTH PART SWITCH .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pang et al (Pub No: 2020/0351946) in view of Lee et al (Pub No: 2020/0288502), and further in view of Yi et al (Pub No: 2021/0092008)
As to claim 1, Pang teaches a method for triggering a random access procedure at a user equipment (Pang, [0332], triggering to perform a RA procedure); responsive to a first uplink bandwidth part that does not support a random access channel (Pang, [0332], switching to a first bandwidth part after a second bandwidth part is not configured for RA) switching, at the user equipment, from the first uplink bandwidth part to a second uplink bandwidth part that has the random access channel configured after the triggering of the random access procedure (Pang, [0332], switching to a first bandwidth part after a second bandwidth part is not configured for RA); and performing the random access procedure at the user equipment using the random access channel configured at the second uplink bandwidth part (Pang, [0332], the UE performing the random access procedure at the first BWP. A BWP is a channel [0191]).
Pang does not explicitly teach a first bandwidth part that is currently active, preventing at the user equipment, transmitting any uplink signals other than the ones related to the random access procedure when a time alignment timer is considered expired, and wherein the switching is autonomously performed by the user equipment.
However, Lee teaches a first bandwidth part that is currently active (Lee, [0126], the first BWP is active), preventing at the user equipment, transmitting any uplink signals other than the ones related to the random access procedure when a time alignment timer is considered expired (Lee, [0128-129], UL transmission is prevented until a resource allocation can be determined. Only random access signals are exchanged).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “prevention of uplink transmission when a timer is expired” as taught by Lee in the system of Pang, so that it would reduce loss of data (Lee, [0015]).
The combination of Pang and Lee does not explicitly teach the switching is autonomously performed by the user equipment.
However, Yi teaches wherein the switching is autonomously performed by the user equipment. (Yi, [0123], a UE automatically changing from one BWP to another).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “autonomous UE BWP switching” as taught by Yi in the system of Pang and Lee, so that it would improve service quality (Yi, [0002]).
As to claim 2, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the switching comprises the user equipment autonomously deactivating the first uplink bandwidth part and activating the second uplink bandwidth part (Yi, [0113-0114], autonomously switching by implicitly activating/deactivating the BWP).
As to claim 3, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein a time alignment timer is considered expired (Lee, [0015], switching BWP when the TAT expires).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “an expired time alignment timer” as taught by Lee in the system of Pang and Yi, so that it would reduce loss of data (Lee, [0015]).
As to claim 4, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the time alignment timer is associated with a timing advance group comprising at least one of the first uplink bandwidth part and the second uplink bandwidth part (Lee, [0092]-[0096], the BWP are part of a cell that a TAG belongs to and is associated with the TAT).
As to claim 5, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches further comprising: switching at the user equipment an active downlink bandwidth part together with the switching from the first uplink bandwidth part to the second uplink bandwidth part (Yang, [0199], the BWP is a BWP pair. The switching [0332] is for the active downlink together with the uplink).
As to claim 6, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the switching of the first downlink bandwidth part occurs when the triggered random access procedure is at least one of a contention-based random access procedure (Pang, [0206-0207], the random access procedure is a contention-based random access procedure).
As to claim 7, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches further comprising: receiving at the user equipment a contention resolution message from a network entity as part of the random access procedure (Pang, [0206], receiving a contention resolution message from the network as the last step in a random access procedure), wherein the switching of at least one of the first uplink bandwidth part or the downlink bandwidth part occurs upon the receiving of the contention resolution message (Pang, [0332], the switch can occur upon completion of another random access procedure).
As to claim 8, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches further comprising: receiving a configuration indication at the user equipment from the network entity (Pang, [0191][0194], receiving configuration information for the BWP); and selecting the second uplink bandwidth part from a plurality of bandwidth parts based on the configuration indication (Pang, [0332], selecting the other BWP based on configuration information not for RA).
As to claim 9, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the plurality of bandwidth parts are configured to the user equipment within a single cell (Pang, [0198] in a single serving cell).
As to claim 10, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches further comprising: selecting at the user equipment the second uplink bandwidth part based on at least one of an implementation of the user equipment, a default or an initial bandwidth part (Pang, [0284], the BWP selection is based off of a default BWP configuration)
As to claim 11, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches further comprising: selecting by the user equipment the second uplink bandwidth part based on at least one of a numerology (Pang, [0293], selecting the BWP based on numerology).
As to claim 12, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the network entity may be included in a primary cell (Pang, [0203], in a primary cell).
As to claim 13, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the user equipment is in a radio resource control connected state during the triggering of the random access procedure (Pang, [0262], the UE is in a connected state to the gNB for performing the RA).
As to claim 14, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the triggering of the random access procedure occurs after a beam failure is detected by the user equipment (Pang, [0352], the RA procedure is after a beam scheduling failure).
As to claim 15, Pang teaches a user equipment comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment at least to (Pang, [0556], UE with processor transceiver and memory),: trigger a random access procedure (Pang, [0332], triggering to perform a RA procedure); responsive to a first uplink bandwidth part that does not support a random access channel (Pang, [0332], switching to a first bandwidth part after a second bandwidth part is not configured for RA) switch from the first uplink bandwidth part to a second uplink bandwidth part that has the random access channel configured after the triggering of the random access procedure (Pang, [0332], switching to a first bandwidth part after a second bandwidth part is not configured for RA)and perform the random access procedure using the second uplink bandwidth part (Pang, [0332], the UE performing the random access procedure at the first BWP. A BWP is a channel [0191]).
Pang does not explicitly teach a first bandwidth part that is currently active, preventing at the user equipment, transmitting any uplink signals other than the ones related to the random access procedure when a time alignment timer is considered expired, and wherein the switching is autonomously performed by the user equipment.
However, Lee teaches a first bandwidth part that is currently active (Lee, [0126], the first BWP is active), preventing at the user equipment, transmitting any uplink signals other than the ones related to the random access procedure when a time alignment timer is considered expired (Lee, [0128-129], UL transmission is prevented until a resource allocation can be determined. Only random access signals are exchanged).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “prevention of uplink transmission when a timer is expired” as taught by Lee in the system of Pang, so that it would reduce loss of data (Lee, [0015]).
The combination of Pang and Lee does not explicitly teach the switching is autonomously performed by the user equipment.
However, Yi teaches wherein the switching is autonomously performed by the user equipment. (Yi, [0123], a UE automatically changing from one BWP to another).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “autonomous UE BWP switching” as taught by Yi in the system of Pang and Lee, so that it would improve service quality (Yi, [0002]).
As to claim 16, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the switch comprises the user equipment autonomously deactivating the first uplink bandwidth part and activating the second uplink bandwidth part (Yi, [0113-0114], autonomously switching by implicitly activating/deactivating the BWP).
As to claim 17, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the user equipment at least to: switch an active downlink bandwidth part together with the switching from the first uplink bandwidth part to the second uplink bandwidth part (Yang, [0199], the BWP is a BWP pair. The switching [0332] is for the active downlink together with the uplink).
As to claim 18, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the user equipment at least to: receive a configuration indication from a network entity (Pang, [0191][0194], receiving configuration information for the BWP); and select the second uplink bandwidth part from a plurality of bandwidth parts based on the configuration indication (Pang, [0332], selecting the other BWP based on configuration information not for RA).
As to claim 19, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the user equipment at least to: select the second uplink bandwidth part based on at least one of an implementation of the apparatus, a default or an initial bandwidth part (Pang, [0284], the BWP selection is based off of a default BWP configuration)
As to claim 20, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the user equipment is in a radio resource control connected state during the triggering of the random access procedure (Pang, [0262], the UE is in a connected state to the gNB for performing the RA).
As to claim 21, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein a time alignment timer is considered expired (Lee, [0015], switching BWP when the TAT expires).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “an expired time alignment timer” as taught by Lee in the system of Pang and Yi, so that it would reduce loss of data (Lee, [0015]).
As to claim 22, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the time alignment timer is associated with a timing advance group comprising at least one of the first uplink bandwidth part and the second uplink bandwidth part (Lee, [0092]-[0096], the BWP are part of a cell that a TAG belongs to and is associated with the TAT).
As to claim 23, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the switching of the active downlink bandwidth part occurs when the triggered random access procedure is at least one of a contention-based random access procedure (Pang, [0206-0207], the random access procedure is a contention-based random access procedure).
As to claim 24, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the plurality of bandwidth parts are configured to the user equipment within a single cell (Pang, [0198] in a single serving cell).
As to claim 25, the combination of Pang, Lee and Yi teaches wherein the network entity may be included in a primary cell (Pang, [0203], in a primary cell).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Amuru et al (Pub No: 2019/0104554) [0179]
Miao et al (Pub No: 2019/0044811) [0024]
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AFSHAWN M TOWFIGHI whose telephone number is (571)270-7296. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM -5:00 PM.
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, Ian N Moore can be reached at 571-272-3085. 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.
/AFSHAWN M TOWFIGHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
Prosecution Insights