Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/555,521

AN APPARATUS, A METHOD, AND A NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR DETERMINING A RANDOM ACCESS PREAMBLE IDENTIFIER

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Oct 14, 2023
Priority
Apr 16, 2021 — nonprovisional of PCTEP2021059927
Examiner
DUONG, DUC T
Art Unit
2467
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Nokia Corporation
OA Round
2 (Non-Final)
89%
Grant Probability
Favorable
2-3
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
92%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 89% — above average
89%
Career Allowance Rate
683 granted / 765 resolved
+31.3% vs TC avg
Minimal +2% lift
Without
With
+2.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 10m
Avg Prosecution
15 currently pending
Career history
790
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.8%
-36.2% vs TC avg
§103
50.6%
+10.6% vs TC avg
§102
31.8%
-8.2% vs TC avg
§112
8.6%
-31.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 765 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . Response to Amendment The indicated allowability of claims 2, 5-9, and 13 are withdrawn in view of applicant’s admitted prior art. Rejections based on the cited reference follow. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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 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. Claims 1-5, 10, 12, 14, 15, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Mostafa Ahmed Elhamy et al: “Aggregate Preamble Sequence Design and Detection for Massive IoT With Deep Learning”, IEEE Transactions On Vehicular Technology, IEEE, USA, vol. 70, 9 March 2021. Regarding to claims 1 and 12, Mostafa discloses a receiver (fig. 5) comprising at least one processor (implicitly shown) and at least one memory storing instructions (implicitly shown), the at least one memory and the instructions configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the receiver to: perform a correlation processing (correlator) of a first signal (y) received by the receiver and/or of a second signal which is derived from the first signal (page 5, left column line 10-12), and at least temporarily modify an output signal (c[n]) of the correlation processing using at least one neural network (DNN) of the receiver to generate a modified output signal (page 7, right column; equation 10), wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the receiver to determine at least one random access preamble identifier (page 5, right column; equation 6) based on at least one of a) the output signal of the correlation processing and b) the modified output signal of the correlation processing (page 6, right column lines 5-7). Regarding to claim 3, Mostafa discloses determine a weighted sum (v) of the output signal of the correlation processing and of the modified output signal of the correlation processing (page 7 paragraph 2; equation 9). Regarding to claim 4, Mostafa discloses the receiver to determine a weight factor (w) for determining the weighted sum (page 7 paragraph 2). Regarding to claims 5 and 17, Mostafa discloses determines a weight factor for determining a weighted sum based on at least one of the following elements: a) a first signal to noise ratio characterizing an estimated signal to noise ratio of the output signal of the correlation processing (page 8, right column paragraph 4), b) a second signal to noise ratio for which the weight factor equals 0.5, c) a predetermined slope parameter, which characterizes a sensitivity of the weight factor with respect to the first signal to noise ratio, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the receiver to determine the weight factor based on the equation: α = 1/1+e(SNRest-SNRtrans)/Slope, wherein α characterizes the weight factor, wherein SNRest characterizes the first signal to noise ratio (SNR-1), wherein SNRtrans characterizes the second signal to noise ratio, wherein Slope characterizes the slope parameter, and wherein e(*) characterizes the exponential function; and determines the weighted sum of the output signal of the correlation processing and of the modified output signal of the correlation processing (page 7 paragraph 2; equation 9). Regarding to claim 10, Mostafa discloses the at least one neural network is configured to modify noise-related statistics of the output signal of the correlation processing (page 8, right column paragraph 4). Regarding to claim 14, Mostafa discloses a wireless communications system comprising at least one receiver according to claim 1 (page 1, left column, “Introduction”). Regarding to claim 15, Mostafa discloses a receiver for performing the method of claim 12 (page 1 Abstract), thus it is inherent the receiver include a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing the receiver to perform the method. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 6-9 and 18-21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 13 and 16 allowed. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Duc T Duong whose telephone number is (571)272-3122. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 9am-6pm. 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, Hassan Phillips can be reached at (571)272-3940. 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. /DUC T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 14, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 03, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102
Feb 03, 2026
Response Filed
Jun 09, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

2-3
Expected OA Rounds
89%
Grant Probability
92%
With Interview (+2.2%)
2y 10m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 765 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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