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 .
Acknowledgment
The Preliminary Amendment filed on 09/29/2023 has been received and placed of record. Accordingly, claims 11 and 22-25 have been cancelled and claims 1-10 and 12-21 are pending in the instant application.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 12-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosseini et al (US 2020/0213955; art cited by applicant) in view of 3GPP (Document entitled: “5G; NR; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification (3GPP TS 38.321 version 16.4.0 Release 16)”; art cited by applicant).
Regarding independent claim 12, Hosseini teaches a power headroom report ([0038]) comprising: a measurement related to transmit power of a user equipment ([0038]). Hosseini fails to teach a timer calculation by the user equipment related to a transmission reception point (TRP) among a plurality of transmission reception points during multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) operation, the timer calculation configured by the user equipment upon detection of a triggering of a plurality of pathloss references from a plurality of transmission reception points (TRPs), the timer calculation determined independently for each respective TRP during multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) operation. However, Hosseini further teaches the “the PHR timer component 950 identifying that a PHR prohibit timer has expired and determining that a current path loss for at least one cell differs from a reference path loss for the at least one cell by more than a path loss change threshold” ([0156] and fig. 9). Moreover, 3GPP, from the same field of endeavor, teaches "RRC controls Power Headroom reporting by configuring the following parameters: phr-PeriodicTimer; phr-ProhibitTimer; phr-Tx-PowerFactorChange; phr-Type2OtherCell; phr-ModeOtherCG; multiplePHR; mpe-Reporting-FR2; mpe-ProhibitTimer; mpe-Threshold", and "A Power Headroom Report (PHR) shall be triggered if any of the following events occur: phr-ProhibitTimer expires or has expired and the path loss has changed more than phr-Tx-PowerFactorChange dB for at least one activated Serving Cell of any MAC entity". See section 5.4.6, pages 57-58. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Hosseini by employing the teachings as taught by 3GPP in order to arrive at the claimed invention.
Regarding dependent claim 13, Hosseini as modified by 3GPP further teaches wherein the timer calculation enables measurement of a plurality of pathloss variations with respect to the plurality of pathloss- references for each of the plurality of TRPs between activation of successive power headroom reporting instances. See Hosseini, fig. 9 and [0156]: “the PHR timer component 950 identifying that a PHR prohibit timer has expired and determining that a current path loss for at least one cell differs from a reference path loss for the at least one cell by more than a path loss change threshold”.
Regarding dependent claim 14, Hosseini as modified by 3GPP further teaches wherein the measurement related to transmit power of a user equipment is taken concurrently by the user equipment while performing power headroom tracking of the plurality of TRPs based on the pathloss references for each respected TRP. See Hosseini, [0079]: "the UE 115 may report different power headroom measurements for different cells", and [0090]: "the pathloss variation for one of the serving cells 225 may correspond to the difference between the pathloss measured at a current time on a first current pathloss reference cell and the pathloss measured at the transmission time of a previous (e.g., the last) transmission of PHR 220 for a second pathloss reference cell used at that time").
Regarding dependent claim 15, Hosseini as modified by 3GPP further teaches wherein the measurement related to transmit power of a user equipment includes a measurement of a plurality of pathloss variations using a single power headroom timer within the user equipment. See Hosseini, [0079]: "the UE 115 may report different power headroom measurements for different cells", and [0090]: "the pathloss variation for one of the serving cells 225 may correspond to the difference between the pathloss measured at a current time on a first current pathloss reference cell and the pathloss measured at the transmission time of a previous (e.g., the last) transmission of PHR 220 for a second pathloss reference cell used at that time").
Regarding dependent claim 16, Hosseini as modified by 3GPP further teaches wherein the measurement related to transmit power of a user equipment is performed after a triggering event when a 'phr- ProhibitTimer expires and pathloss with respect to resource index, qd, identifying a TPR changes more than phr-Tx-PowerFactorChange dB. See Hosseini [0089]: "the PHR may be triggered if a prohibit timer (e.g., phr-ProhibitTimer) expires and if a path loss for a path loss reference cell has changed by more than a threshold").
Regarding dependent claim 17, Hosseini as modified by 3GPP further teaches wherein the measurement related to the transmit power of the user equipment is generated from a plurality of pathloss references, including identification of a TRP index, a physical cell identifier (PCID), and a pathloss reference signal (RS) identifier associated with a medium access control - control element (MAC-CE). See Hosseini, [0156]: "identifying the trigger for transmitting the PHR involves the PHR timer component 950 identifying that a PHR prohibit timer has expired and determining that a current path loss for at least one cell differs from a reference path loss for the at least one cell by more than a path loss change threshold, where the reference path loss corresponds to a most recent PHR transmission for the at least one cell", and [0047]: "The term "cell" refers to a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station 105 (e.g., over a carrier), and may be associated with an identifier for distinguishing neighboring cells (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCID), a virtual cell identifier (VCID)) operating via the same or a different carrier") and 3GPP, section 5.4.6, page 60: "if the allocated UL resources can accommodate the MAC CE for PHR which the MAC entity is configured to transmit, plus its subheader").
Regarding dependent claim 18, Hosseini as modified by 3GPP further teaches wherein the measurement related to the transmit power of the user equipment is generated by a power headroom timer activation based on the plurality of pathloss references. See Hosseini, [0156]: "identifying the trigger for transmitting the PHR involves the PHR timer component 950 identifying that a PHR prohibit timer has expired and determining that a current path loss for at least one cell differs from a reference path loss for the at least one cell by more than a path loss change threshold, where the reference path loss corresponds to a most recent PHR transmission for the at least one cell".
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 1-10 and 19-21 are allowed over prior art of record.
Conclusion
Examiner's note: Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References Cheng et al (US 2020/0100193), Huang et al (US 2022/0225247), Cirik et al (US 2022/0322246), Xu et al (US 2024/0205840) and Gao et al (US 2024/0298271) are cited because they are pertinent to the method and apparatus for power headroom reporting. However, none of the cited references teaches or suggests the arrangements of a method for user equipment in a wireless network comprising: detecting a triggering of a plurality of pathloss references from a plurality of transmission reception points (TRPs) between activation of successive power headroom reporting instances; tracking a power headroom concurrently for the plurality of TRPs during multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) operation to enable power headroom reporting for each respective TRP; tracking power headroom concurrently for each TRP of the plurality of TRPs in use during mTRP operation upon detection of the triggering of the plurality of pathloss references; and providing a power headroom determination and a power headroom report to each of the plurality of TRPs in use during mTRP operation based on the triggered plurality of pathloss references as recited in claim 1 and similar limitations as recited in claim 19 and further limitations of dependent claims 2-10 and 20-21.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DON NGUYEN VO whose telephone number is (571) 272-3018. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 6:30PM.
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/DON N VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2634