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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 7, 13-14 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites “wherein Energy per resource element (EPRE) in the first reference signal resource group is constant, and EPRE in the second reference signal resource group cannot be assumed to be identical to the EPRE in the first reference signal resource group; of the first-type measurement and the second-type measurement only the first-type measurement is used for a first purpose, the first purpose being any purpose in a candidate purpose set; …”. These claim limitations need clarity. It appears “the first purpose being any purpose” does not place any restriction on the “first purpose”. Furthermore, it is suggested to remove the optional phase “cannot be”, replace it with non-optional phase, such as “need not to be”.
Independent claim 14 has the same problems as claim 1.
Claims 7, 13 and 20 recites “wherein the third signaling is used to determine first time; for at least one reference signal resource in the second reference signal resource group, EPRE before the first time and after the first time cannot be deemed constant”. This claim limitation needs clarity. It is unclear how the third signaling is used to determine the “first time” to ensure “EPRE before the first time and after the first time cannot be deemed constant”, and the specification does not appear to have a clear support for it (FIG. 7 shows a first j1; and [0389]-[0395] teaches the third signaling; [0431]-[0432] provide information between “the first instance of time” and the third signaling; [0471] simply state the received third signaling “is used to determine first time”, [0485] also teaches third signaling “is used to determine first time” but fails to show how to ensure “EPRE before the first time and after the first time cannot be deemed constant”). Furthermore, the phase “cannot be” needs to be replaced as explained in claim 1.
Appropriate correction is required.
To continue prosecution on merit, the claims will be interpreted as best understood.
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.
Claims 1, 3-8, 10-14 and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (US 20230078059 A1) in view of Kim (US 20230318687 A1).
For claim 1, Zhang discloses a first node (FIG. 9 shows a communication node/terminal) for wireless communications, characterized in comprising:
a first receiver (FIG. 9, the receiver 93 of the first node),
performing a first-type measurement on a first reference signal resource group of a first serving cell (FIGs 1-9 and the associated text, such as “[0041] In operation S1010, a first control signaling is received, where the first control signaling includes a first-type parameter corresponding to a measurement reference signal, and the first-type parameter includes a PCI or the first-type parameter includes a PCI and a second-type parameter.”, and “[0034] A base station configures a measurement configuration (MeasConfig) to one terminal through a radio resource control (RRC) signaling. Each cell group corresponds to one MeasConfig. The cell group includes a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). The MeasConfig includes one or more measurements (Meas), and one Meas includes the following information: a measurement identifier (MeasID) of this Meas, one measurement object (MeasObject) of this Meas or one piece of report configuration (ReportConfig) of this Meas.”); and
performing a second-type measurement on a second reference signal resource group of the first serving cell (FIGs 1-9 and the associated text, such as “[0034] A base station configures a measurement configuration (MeasConfig) to one terminal through a radio resource control (RRC) signaling. Each cell group corresponds to one MeasConfig. The cell group includes a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). The MeasConfig includes one or more measurements (Meas), and one Meas includes the following information: a measurement identifier (MeasID) of this Meas, one measurement object (MeasObject) of this Meas or one piece of report configuration (ReportConfig) of this Meas.”, or “[0008] … a measurement reference signal in a measurement reference signal resource set configured in a serving cell, or, a measurement reference signal in a beam failure candidate reference signal resource set”),
where each of the first reference signal resource group and the second reference signal resource group respectively comprises at least one reference signal resource, of the at least one reference signal resource each reference signal resource being indicated by an SSB-Index (FIGs 1-9 and the associated text, such as “[0008] A first control signaling is sent, where the first control signaling includes a first-type parameter corresponding to a measurement reference signal, the first-type parameter includes a PCI or the first-type parameter includes a PCI and a second-type parameter, and the measurement reference signal includes one of the following: a measurement reference signal in a report configuration of a CSI, a measurement reference signal with a measurement result included in a UCI, a measurement reference signal in a measurement reference signal resource set configured in a serving cell, or, a measurement reference signal in a beam failure candidate reference signal resource set”, or [0034] “…The cell group includes a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG) …” and “[0035] … The information of the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH Block, SSB) includes the information of SSBs corresponding to all PCIs in a MeasObject. … one PCI corresponds to multiple SSBs in the time domain, and SSBs with different time domains are represented by SSB indexes (SSB-Indexes) …”);
of the first-type measurement and the second-type measurement only the first-type measurement is used for a first purpose (“[0023] In the methods described in the embodiments of the present application, the uplink control signaling includes the mobility measurement result or the CSI measurement reference signal includes the mobility measurement reference signal or one serving cell corresponds to multiple first-type parameters so that the speeds of inter-cell beam measurement report and inter-cell beam handover are equivalent to the speeds of intra-cell beam measurement report and inter-cell beam handover, effectively supporting high-frequency cell handover and dense cells.”), the first purpose being any purpose in a candidate purpose set (FIGs 1-9 and the associated text, such as “[0008] A first control signaling is sent, where the first control signaling includes a first-type parameter corresponding to a measurement reference signal, the first-type parameter includes a PCI or the first-type parameter includes a PCI and a second-type parameter …”);
the candidate purpose set comprises at least one of Cell Search (“[0131] … The beam failure detection CORESET includes a CORESET associated with a beam failure detection search space.”).
Zhang is silent but Kim, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses: wherein Energy per resource element (EPRE) in the first reference signal resource group is constant, and EPRE in the second reference signal resource group cannot be assumed to be identical to the EPRE in the first reference signal resource group (“[0202] The base station may define a parameter for SS/PBCH block power (ss-PBCH-BlockPower) in a power such as resources/physical channels with different SSBs corresponding to the serving cell of the terminal … for serving cell common configuration to serve as a criterion for energy per resource element (EPRE))”, “[0386] … Here, the EPRE for the signal of the non-serving cell may be configured as an offset value based on the EPRE for the signal of the serving cell of the terminal.”);
the candidate purpose set comprises at least one Layer3 (L3) Cell Handover (“[0011] … since the higher layer (i.e., the third layer (L3)) measurement and handover procedure may be omitted, the resources of the non-serving cell (ie, the neighboring cell) may be efficiently used, and the time for this may be shortened.”; or “[0295] … 2) performing by the terminal and the base station a handover procedure from PCI #1 to PCI #2 based on the above L3 measurement and report values”).
For claim 8 is rejected because it is the corresponding second/transmitting node (in reference to the first/receiving node/terminal of claim 1) and has the same subject matter as claim 1.
Claim 14 is rejected because it is a claim of method that is performed by the first node of claim 1 and has same subject matter.
As to claims 3, 10 and 16, Zhang in view of Kim discloses claims 1, 8 and 14, Kim further discloses:
receiving/transmitting a second signaling (FIG. 9, the receiver and transceiver of the first node);
wherein the second signaling indicates an SSB-index of each reference signal resource in the second reference signal resource group (“[0035] … The information of the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH Block, SSB) includes the information of SSBs corresponding to all PCIs in a MeasObject. … one PCI corresponds to multiple SSBs in the time domain, and SSBs with different time domains are represented by SSB indexes (SSB-Indexes) …”; “[0008] A first control signaling is sent, where the first control signaling includes a first-type parameter corresponding to a measurement reference signal, the first-type parameter includes a PCI or the first-type parameter includes a PCI and a second-type parameter, and the measurement reference signal includes one of the following: a measurement reference signal in a report configuration of a CSI, a measurement reference signal with a measurement result included in a UCI, a measurement reference signal in a measurement reference signal resource set configured in a serving cell, or, a measurement reference signal in a beam failure candidate reference signal resource set”, or [0034] “…The cell group includes a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG) …” in view of the parent claims).
As to claims 4 and 17, Zhang in view of Kim discloses claims 1 and 14, Kim further discloses: the first-type measurement and the second-type measurement are respectively used for assessing the radio link quality and Non-L3 Cell Switch (“[0279] … CSI-RS for mobility may be used/configured/indicated as a resource for L1 measurement (e.g., for L1-RSRP/L1-SINR). In this case, since the resources of the neighboring cell may be considered in the CSI measurement/acquisition/reporting process in the L1/L2 phase, the terminal may examine more candidate resources, and report resources more suitable for control data transmission/data transmission to the base station. In addition, since the above operation may be performed in the L1/L2 phase, the existing L3 measurement (e.g., RRM measurement, etc.) and handover procedure may not be performed, so the time required for the terminal to use the resources of the neighboring cell may be greatly shortened, and the terminal may use the resources of the neighboring cell more dynamically.”). The motivation of combining Zhang and Kim is the same as stated in the parent claims.
As to claims 5 and 18, Zhang in view of Kim discloses claims 4 and 17, Zhang further discloses: the candidate purpose set comprises radio link monitoring (suggested by “[0023] In the methods described in the embodiments of the present application, the uplink control signaling includes the mobility measurement result or the CSI measurement reference signal includes the mobility measurement reference signal or one serving cell corresponds to multiple first-type parameters so that the speeds of inter-cell beam measurement report and inter-cell beam handover are equivalent to the speeds of intra-cell beam measurement report and inter-cell beam handover, effectively supporting high-frequency cell handover and dense cells” in view of parent claims; note that handover suggests monitoring).
As to claims 6, 12 and 19, Zhang in view of Kim discloses claims 1, 8 and 14, Zhang further discloses: a first transmitter, transmitting a first Channel State Information (CSI) report; wherein the first CSI report depends on the second-type measurement (“[0042] The reference signal resource adopted by the terminal for cell measurement is determined according to the serving cell identifier in the CSI configuration (CSI-ReportConfig) of channel state information (CSI) sent by the base station, and only the measurement reference signal of the serving cell may be uniquely determined in the CSI report configuration information according to the serving cell identifier. At this point, only the measurement of the serving cell may be completed according to the CSI report configuration sent by the base station, and the measurement result may be reported through the RRC signaling.”).
As to claims 7, 13 and 20, Zhang in view of Kim discloses claims 1, 8 and 14, Kim further discloses:
receiving/transmitting a third signaling (FIG. 9, the receiver and transceiver of the first node, which receives a third signaling);
wherein the third signaling is used to determine first time; for at least one reference signal resource in the second reference signal resource group, EPRE before the first time and after the first time cannot be deemed constant (“[0345] … Here, the EPRE for the signal of the non-serving cell may be configured as an offset value based on the EPRE for the signal of the serving cell of the terminal. ...”; note that it did not say EPRE value to be a constant).
Claims 2, 9 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (US 20230078059 A1) in view of Kim (US 20230318687 A1), further in view of Svenman (US 20220322325 A1).
As to claims 2, 9 and 15, Zhang in view of Kim discloses claims 1, 8 and 14, Zhang further discloses:
receiving/transmiting a first signaling (FIG. 9, the receiver and transceiver of the first node);
wherein the first signaling comprises a SSB related field, where all reference signal resources indicated by SSB-indexes corresponding to bits with a value of 1 in the SSB related field in the first signaling form the first reference signal resource group (“[0035] … The information of the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH Block, SSB) includes the information of SSBs corresponding to all PCIs in a MeasObject. … one PCI corresponds to multiple SSBs in the time domain, and SSBs with different time domains are represented by SSB indexes (SSB-Indexes) …”).
Zhang in view of Kim is silent but Farag, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses: the SSB related field is an ssb-PositionsInBurst (“[0143] … that the SSB carries a corresponding cell identity, e.g. physical cell identity (PCI), and/or that the RS can be, at least partly, configured in the system information of the cell received by the UE, e.g. an indication of actually transmitted SSBs (e.g. ssb-PositionsInBurst in SIB1).).
Conclusion
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/JIANYE WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462