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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to application no. 18/556,162 filed on 10/19/2023.
Claims 1 – 6, 9 – 10, 12, and 14 – 20 are amended.
Claims 8, 11, 22 and 24 – 26 are cancelled.
Claims 1 – 7, 9 – 10, 12 – 21 and 23 are pending and ready for examination.
Priority
This application is a Submission Under 35 U.S.C. § 371 for U.S. National Stage Patent Application of International Application Number: PCT/SE2021/050359, filed April 20, 2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/26/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 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 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.
Claims 1 – 2, 5, 13 – 14, 18 – 20 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU et al. (ZHOU hereinafter referred to ZHOU) (US 2022/0124711 A1) in view of CHOI et al. (CHOI hereinafter referred to CHOI) (US 20190281610 A1).
Regarding claim 1, ZHOU teaches a method (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NODE AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM) in first scheduler for use in a New Radio base station that is spectrum sharing with a Long Term Evolution, LTE, base station ([0208], there are a first system and a second system in a wireless communication system, the frequency domain resources used by the first system and the second system at least partially overlap with each other, and there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system, if the first system is NR, and the second system is LTE. Here, the first system NR and the second system LTE at least partially overlap frequency domain resources; therefore, a NR base station shares spectrum with a LTE base station. It is obvious to have a first scheduler in the NR base station), the method comprising:
determining that one or more NR messages are to be scheduled for transmission during a time period ([0060], transmission occurs in the second system is dynamically scheduled by the base station; [0160], time-frequency resources are used by the uplink or downlink signals transmitted in a certain regular periodicity in the LTE system; [0209], there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system. Here, the uplink or downlink signals transmitted periodically is considered as one or more NR messages that are scheduled for transmission using time-frequency resource i.e. in a time period), the one or more NR messages cannot perform LTE Cell Specific Reference Signal, CRS, rate matching ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature); and
responsive to the determination, transmitting a first indication that there are one or more NR messages that cannot perform LTE CRS rate matching to be transmitted during the time period ([0209], when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states on the overlapped frequency domain resources, it will not assume that rate matching has been performed for NR downlink transmissions around the periodic downlink signals (i.e. CRS) in the LTE system; instead, it performs the decoding in a manner that no periodic downlink signal in the LTE system exists in the NR system, that is, the actually received periodic downlink signal in the LTE system is decoded as a part of the NR downlink signals/channels. Here, the decoded downlink signal is considered as a first indication).
ZHOU does not specifically teach
a shared resource allocator configured to allocate resources to the NR base station and the LTE base station.
However, CHOI teaches a method (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATION IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM) for use in a New Radio base station that is spectrum sharing with a Long Term Evolution, LTE, base station ([0005], a method of enabling new 5G communication (also referred to as NR communication) and legacy LTE communication to coexist in the same spectrum in a mobile communication system), the method comprising:
transmitting a first indication to a shared resource allocator (Fig.5A, integrated controller 507) configured to allocate resources to the NR base station and the LTE base station (Fig.5A and [0123], an integrated controller 507 that controls the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504, is capable of managing and operating the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504 in real time. When the integrated controller 507 operates the LTE system and the 5G system at different times by dividing time resources, the integrated controller 507 dynamically selects allocation of time resources to the LTE system and the 5G system, and transmits a corresponding signal to the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504. Here, the integrated controller 507 controls both the base stations; therefore, it is obvious to consider that a first indication is transmitted to it).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ZHOU as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of CHOI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method of operating LTE and 5G communication systems by enabling them to coexist on one LTE carrier or multiple LTE carriers without introducing an additional carrier for 5G (or NR) (CHOI, [0014]).
Regarding claim 13, ZHOU teaches a method (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NODE AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM) to a Long Term Evolution base station and a New Radio, NR, base station that are spectrum sharing ([0208], there are a first system and a second system in a wireless communication system, the frequency domain resources used by the first system and the second system at least partially overlap with each other, and there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system, if the first system is NR, and the second system is LTE. Here, the first system NR and the second system LTE at least partially overlap frequency domain resources; therefore, a NR base station shares spectrum with a LTE base station), the method comprising:
receiving a first indication, from the NR base station ([0209], when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states on the overlapped frequency domain resources, it will not assume that rate matching has been performed for NR downlink transmissions around the periodic downlink signals (i.e. CRS) in the LTE system; instead, it performs the decoding in a manner that no periodic downlink signal in the LTE system exists in the NR system, that is, the actually received periodic downlink signal in the LTE system is decoded as a part of the NR downlink signals/channels. Here, the decoded downlink signal is considered as a first indication), that one or more NR messages to be scheduled for transmission during a time period ([0060], transmission occurs in the second system is dynamically scheduled by the base station; [0160], time-frequency resources are used by the uplink or downlink signals transmitted in a certain regular periodicity in the LTE system; [0209], there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system. Here, the uplink or downlink signals transmitted periodically is considered as one or more NR messages that are scheduled for transmission using time-frequency resource i.e. in a time period) cannot perform LTE CRS rate matching ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature); and
the first indication, that there are one or more NR messages to be scheduled for transmission during the time period that cannot perform LTE CRS rate matching (same as above).
ZHOU does not specifically teach
a shared resource allocator configured to allocate shared resources;
responsive to receiving the first indication from the NR base station, transmitting a second indication, to the LTE base station.
However, CHOI teaches a method (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATION IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM) a shared resource allocator (Fig.5A, integrated controller 507) configured to allocate shared resources to a Long Term Evolution base station and a New Radio, NR, base station (Fig.5A and [0123], an integrated controller 507 that controls the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504, is capable of managing and operating the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504 in real time) that are spectrum sharing ([0005], a method of enabling new 5G communication (also referred to as NR communication) and legacy LTE communication to coexist in the same spectrum in a mobile communication system), the method comprising:
responsive to receiving the first indication from the NR base station, transmitting a second indication, to the LTE base station (Fig.5A and [0123], When the integrated controller 507 operates the LTE system and the 5G system at different times by dividing time resources, the integrated controller 507 dynamically selects allocation of time resources to the LTE system and the 5G system, and transmits a corresponding signal to the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504. Here, the integrated controller 507 controls both the base stations; therefore, it is obvious to consider that a first indication is received from the NR base station and in response to that a second indication is transmitted to the LTE base station).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ZHOU as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of CHOI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method of operating LTE and 5G communication systems by enabling them to coexist on one LTE carrier or multiple LTE carriers without introducing an additional carrier for 5G (or NR) (CHOI, [0014]).
Regarding claims 5 and 18, combination of ZHOU and CHOI teaches all the features with respect to claims 1 and 13, respectively as outlined above.
ZHOU further teaches
wherein the one or more NR messages comprises one or more of: a message to be transmitted during a random access procedure, a paging message and a message to be transmitted whilst a wireless device is in an idle state ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature. Therefore, if there are overlapped frequency domain resources in the frequency domain resources used by the NR system and the LTE system, when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states (such as Msg2, Msg4, Msg B in the random access process, or other downlink signals/channels, downlink channels carrying paging signals).
Regarding claim 19, ZHOU teaches (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NODE AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM) a first scheduler for use in a New Radio base station that is spectrum sharing with a Long Term Evolution, LTE, base station ([0208], there are a first system and a second system in a wireless communication system, the frequency domain resources used by the first system and the second system at least partially overlap with each other, and there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system, if the first system is NR, and the second system is LTE. Here, the first system NR and the second system LTE at least partially overlap frequency domain resources; therefore, a NR base station shares spectrum with a LTE base station. It is obvious to have a first scheduler in the NR base station), the first scheduler (Fig.14 and [0242], radio node 1400) comprising processing circuitry (Fig.14 and [0242], a processing unit or a processor 1401) configured to:
determine that one or more NR messages are to be scheduled for transmission during a time period ([0060], transmission occurs in the second system is dynamically scheduled by the base station; [0160], time-frequency resources are used by the uplink or downlink signals transmitted in a certain regular periodicity in the LTE system; [0209], there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system. Here, the uplink or downlink signals transmitted periodically is considered as one or more NR messages that are scheduled for transmission using time-frequency resource i.e. in a time period), the one or more NR messages cannot perform LTE Cell Specific Reference Signal, CRS, rate matching ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature); and
responsive to the determination, transmit a first indication that there are one or more NR messages that cannot perform LTE CRS rate matching to be transmitted during the time period ([0209], when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states on the overlapped frequency domain resources, it will not assume that rate matching has been performed for NR downlink transmissions around the periodic downlink signals (i.e. CRS) in the LTE system; instead, it performs the decoding in a manner that no periodic downlink signal in the LTE system exists in the NR system, that is, the actually received periodic downlink signal in the LTE system is decoded as a part of the NR downlink signals/channels. Here, the decoded downlink signal is considered as a first indication).
ZHOU does not specifically teach
a shared resource allocator configured to allocate resources to the NR base station and the LTE base station.
However, CHOI teaches (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATION IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM) a New Radio base station that is spectrum sharing with a Long Term Evolution, LTE, base station ([0005], a method of enabling new 5G communication (also referred to as NR communication) and legacy LTE communication to coexist in the same spectrum in a mobile communication system), comprising:
transmit a first indication to a shared resource allocator (Fig.5A, integrated controller 507) configured to allocate resources to the NR base station and the LTE base station (Fig.5A and [0123], an integrated controller 507 that controls the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504, is capable of managing and operating the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504 in real time. When the integrated controller 507 operates the LTE system and the 5G system at different times by dividing time resources, the integrated controller 507 dynamically selects allocation of time resources to the LTE system and the 5G system, and transmits a corresponding signal to the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504. Here, the integrated controller 507 controls both the base stations; therefore, it is obvious to consider that a first indication is transmitted to it).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ZHOU as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of CHOI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method of operating LTE and 5G communication systems by enabling them to coexist on one LTE carrier or multiple LTE carriers without introducing an additional carrier for 5G (or NR) (CHOI, [0014]).
Regarding claims 2, 14 and 20, combination of ZHOU and CHOI teaches all the features with respect to claims 1, 13 and 19, respectively as outlined above.
ZHOU further teaches
wherein the time period comprises a transmission time interval ([0063], when the NR and the LTE coexist, the base station in the NR system indicates a block of reserved resources by indicating a triplet bitmap {Bitmap-1, Bitmap-2, Bitmap-3}, wherein Bitmap-1 is resource reservation at the RB level, Bitmap-2 is resource reservation at the symbol level, and Bitmap-3 is resource reservation at the subframe level; [0038], a sub-frame is a …, a time slot, a NB-IoT time slot, a NR time slot, a TTI (Transmission Time Interval)).
Regarding claim 23, ZHOU teaches (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NODE AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM) a Long Term Evolution base station and a New Radio, NR, base station that are spectrum sharing ([0208], there are a first system and a second system in a wireless communication system, the frequency domain resources used by the first system and the second system at least partially overlap with each other, and there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system, if the first system is NR, and the second system is LTE. Here, the first system NR and the second system LTE at least partially overlap frequency domain resources; therefore, a NR base station shares spectrum with a LTE base station), comprising processing circuitry (Fig.14 and [0242], a processing unit or a processor 1401) configured to:
receive a first indication, from the NR base station ([0209], when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states on the overlapped frequency domain resources, it will not assume that rate matching has been performed for NR downlink transmissions around the periodic downlink signals (i.e. CRS) in the LTE system; instead, it performs the decoding in a manner that no periodic downlink signal in the LTE system exists in the NR system, that is, the actually received periodic downlink signal in the LTE system is decoded as a part of the NR downlink signals/channels. Here, the decoded downlink signal is considered as a first indication), that one or more NR messages to be scheduled for transmission during a time period ([0060], transmission occurs in the second system is dynamically scheduled by the base station; [0160], time-frequency resources are used by the uplink or downlink signals transmitted in a certain regular periodicity in the LTE system; [0209], there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system. Here, the uplink or downlink signals transmitted periodically is considered as one or more NR messages that are scheduled for transmission using time-frequency resource i.e. in a time period) cannot perform LTE CRS rate matching ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature); and
the first indication, that there are one or more NR messages to be scheduled for transmission during the time period that cannot perform LTE CRS rate matching (same as above).
ZHOU does not specifically teach
a shared resource allocator configured to allocate shared resources;
responsive to receiving the first indication from the NR base station, transmit a second indication, to the LTE base station.
However, CHOI teaches (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATION IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM) a shared resource allocator (Fig.5A, integrated controller 507) configured to allocate shared resources to a Long Term Evolution base station and a New Radio, NR, base station (Fig.5A and [0123], an integrated controller 507 that controls the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504, is capable of managing and operating the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504 in real time) that are spectrum sharing ([0005], a method of enabling new 5G communication (also referred to as NR communication) and legacy LTE communication to coexist in the same spectrum in a mobile communication system), the shared resource allocator configured to:
responsive to receiving the first indication from the NR base station, transmitting a second indication, to the LTE base station (Fig.5A and [0123], When the integrated controller 507 operates the LTE system and the 5G system at different times by dividing time resources, the integrated controller 507 dynamically selects allocation of time resources to the LTE system and the 5G system, and transmits a corresponding signal to the LTE base station 501 and the 5G base station 504. Here, the integrated controller 507 controls both the base stations; therefore, it is obvious to consider that a first indication is received from the NR base station and in response to that a second indication is transmitted to the LTE base station).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ZHOU as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of CHOI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method of operating LTE and 5G communication systems by enabling them to coexist on one LTE carrier or multiple LTE carriers without introducing an additional carrier for 5G (or NR) (CHOI, [0014]).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU in view of CHOI and further in view of HWANG et al. (HWANG hereinafter referred to HWANG) (US 2021/0329591 A1).
Regarding claim 6, combination of ZHOU and CHOI teaches all the features with respect to claim 1 as outlined above.
ZHOU does not specifically teach
wherein the first indication is for use in the LTE base station to mute CRS on one or more resources during the time period.
However HWANG teaches (Title, METHOD FOR OPERATING TERMINAL AND BASE STATION IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM SUPPORTING NB-IOT, AND APPARATUS SUPPORTING)
wherein the first indication is for use in the LTE base station to mute CRS on one or more resources during the time period ([0551], base station supporting legacy LTE supports CRS muting in a duration of several subframes).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified combination of ZHOU and CHOI as mentioned in claim 1 and further incorporate the teaching of HWANG. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for operating a UE in a wireless communication system supporting NB-IoT that includes determining a time period for receiving a narrowband reference signal (NRS) on a non-anchor carrier used for paging and receiving the NRS within the time period, wherein the UE is restricted not to assume the CRS transmission in the subframe in which the NRS transmission is assumed. Accordingly, the base station connected with the UE avoids the unnecessary and forced CRS transmission (HWANG, [0008] and [0554]).
Claim 7, 12 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU in view of HWANG).
Regarding claim 7, ZHOU teaches a method (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NODE AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM) in second scheduler for use in a Long Term Evolution base station that is spectrum sharing with a New Radio, NR, base station ([0208], there are a first system and a second system in a wireless communication system, the frequency domain resources used by the first system and the second system at least partially overlap with each other, and there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system, if the first system is NR, and the second system is LTE. Here, the first system NR and the second system LTE at least partially overlap frequency domain resources; therefore, a NR base station shares spectrum with a LTE base station. It is obvious to have a second scheduler in the LTE base station), the method comprising:
receiving a first indication ([0209], when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states on the overlapped frequency domain resources, it will not assume that rate matching has been performed for NR downlink transmissions around the periodic downlink signals (i.e. CRS) in the LTE system; instead, it performs the decoding in a manner that no periodic downlink signal in the LTE system exists in the NR system, that is, the actually received periodic downlink signal in the LTE system is decoded as a part of the NR downlink signals/channels. Here, the decoded downlink signal is considered as a first indication) that there are one or more NR messages to be transmitted by the NR base station during a time period ([0060], transmission occurs in the second system is dynamically scheduled by the base station; [0160], time-frequency resources are used by the uplink or downlink signals transmitted in a certain regular periodicity in the LTE system; [0209], there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system. Here, the uplink or downlink signals transmitted periodically is considered as one or more NR messages that are scheduled for transmission using time-frequency resource i.e. in a time period) that cannot perform LTE Cell Specific Reference Signal, CRS, rate matching ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature).
ZHOU does not specifically teach
responsive to receiving the indication, instructing a DL transmitter in the LTE base station to mute CRS on one or more resources during the time period.
However HWANG teaches (Title, METHOD FOR OPERATING TERMINAL AND BASE STATION IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM SUPPORTING NB-IOT, AND APPARATUS SUPPORTING)
responsive to receiving the indication, instructing a DL transmitter in the LTE base station to mute CRS on one or more resources during the time period ([0551], base station supporting legacy LTE supports CRS muting in a duration of several subframes, the base station is configured to transmit no CRS in specific subframe(s) to control interference to neighboring base station. Here, the specific subframe is the time period and to control interference to neighboring base station is the first indication. It is obvious to consider that the LTE base station comprises a DL transmitter that mutes the CRS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ZHOU as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of HWANG. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for operating a UE in a wireless communication system supporting NB-IoT that includes determining a time period for receiving a narrowband reference signal (NRS) on a non-anchor carrier used for paging and receiving the NRS within the time period, wherein the UE is restricted not to assume the CRS transmission in the subframe in which the NRS transmission is assumed. Accordingly, the base station connected with the UE avoids the unnecessary and forced CRS transmission (HWANG, [0008] and [0554]).
Regarding claim 12, combination of ZHOU and HWANG teaches all the features with respect to claim 7 as outlined above.
ZHOU further teaches
wherein the one or more NR messages comprises one or more of: a message to be transmitted during a random access procedure, a paging message and a message to be transmitted whilst a wireless device is in an idle state ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature. Therefore, if there are overlapped frequency domain resources in the frequency domain resources used by the NR system and the LTE system, when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states (such as Msg2, Msg4, Msg B in the random access process, or other downlink signals/channels, downlink channels carrying paging signals).
Regarding claim 21, ZHOU teaches (Title, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NODE AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM) a second scheduler for use in a Long Term Evolution base station that is spectrum sharing with a New Radio, NR, base station ([0208], there are a first system and a second system in a wireless communication system, the frequency domain resources used by the first system and the second system at least partially overlap with each other, and there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system, if the first system is NR, and the second system is LTE. Here, the first system NR and the second system LTE at least partially overlap frequency domain resources; therefore, a NR base station shares spectrum with a LTE base station. It is obvious to have a second scheduler in the LTE base station) the first scheduler (Fig.14 and [0242], radio node 1400) comprising processing circuitry (Fig.14 and [0242], a processing unit or a processor 1401) configured to:
receive a first indication ([0209], when the NR UE receives downlink signals/channels in the IDLE and/or inactive states on the overlapped frequency domain resources, it will not assume that rate matching has been performed for NR downlink transmissions around the periodic downlink signals (i.e. CRS) in the LTE system; instead, it performs the decoding in a manner that no periodic downlink signal in the LTE system exists in the NR system, that is, the actually received periodic downlink signal in the LTE system is decoded as a part of the NR downlink signals/channels. Here, the decoded downlink signal is considered as a first indication) that there are one or more NR messages to be transmitted by the NR base station during a time period ([0060], transmission occurs in the second system is dynamically scheduled by the base station; [0160], time-frequency resources are used by the uplink or downlink signals transmitted in a certain regular periodicity in the LTE system; [0209], there is a uplink or downlink signals are transmitted periodically in the second system. Here, the uplink or downlink signals transmitted periodically is considered as one or more NR messages that are scheduled for transmission using time-frequency resource i.e. in a time period) that cannot perform LTE Cell Specific Reference Signal, CRS, rate matching ([0209], for the NR UE in an IDLE and/or Inactive state, since the UE cannot report the UE capability to the base station and/or receive the UE capability related configuration indicated by the base station, the UE cannot enable the LTE CRS-based rate matching feature).
ZHOU does not specifically teach
responsive to receiving the indication, instruct a DL transmitter in the LTE base station to mute CRS on one or more resources during the time period.
However HWANG teaches (Title, METHOD FOR OPERATING TERMINAL AND BASE STATION IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM SUPPORTING NB-IOT, AND APPARATUS SUPPORTING)
responsive to receiving the indication, instruct a DL transmitter in the LTE base station to mute CRS on one or more resources during the time period ([0551], base station supporting legacy LTE supports CRS muting in a duration of several subframes, the base station is configured to transmit no CRS in specific subframe(s) to control interference to neighboring base station. Here, the specific subframe is the time period and to control interference to neighboring base station is the first indication. It is obvious to consider that the LTE base station comprises a DL transmitter that mutes the CRS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ZHOU as mentioned above and further incorporate the teaching of HWANG. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for operating a UE in a wireless communication system supporting NB-IoT that includes determining a time period for receiving a narrowband reference signal (NRS) on a non-anchor carrier used for paging and receiving the NRS within the time period, wherein the UE is restricted not to assume the CRS transmission in the subframe in which the NRS transmission is assumed. Accordingly, the base station connected with the UE avoids the unnecessary and forced CRS transmission (HWANG, [0008] and [0554]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU in view of HWANG and further in view of Hong et al. (Hong hereinafter referred to Hong) (US 2018/0131454 A1).
Regarding claim 10, combination of ZHOU and HWANG teaches all the features with respect to claim 7 as outlined above.
ZHOU does not specifically teach
instructing the DL transmitting in the LTE base station to boost power on transmission of one or more other CRSs transmitted during the time interval.
However Hong teaches (Title, DEVICE AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHANNEL DECODING OPERATION IN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM)
instructing the DL transmitting in the LTE base station to boost power on transmission of one or more other CRSs transmitted during the time interval ([0009], a downlink of an LTE mobile communication system defines that neighbor base stations shift cell-specific reference signals (CRSs) from a specific CRC on a frequency axis based on different offsets and transmit the shifted CRSs, and each base station power boosts a corresponding CRS using a transmission power greater than transmission power applied to a data signal to transmit the power boosted CRS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified combination of ZHOU and CHOI as mentioned in claim 7 and further incorporate the teaching of Hong. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide an apparatus and method for performing a channel decoding operation in a communication system by considering interference (Hong, [0002]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 – 4, 9 and 15 – 17 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.
Conclusion
The prior arts made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
GE et al. (Pub. No. US 2022/0078629 A1) – “SPECTRUM RESOURCE DETERMINING METHOD AND APPARATUS” discloses a spectrum resource determining method and apparatus, and relates to the field of communication technologies. In the method, sharing information indicating that N first cells and one second cell share a first frequency band may be obtained, and a spectrum resource of each first cell among the N first cells in the first frequency band and a spectrum resource of the second cell in the first frequency band may be determined, where a coverage area of each first cell among the N first cells overlaps a coverage area of the second cell. The first cells can be LTE cells, and the second cell can be an NR cell.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROWNAK ISLAM whose telephone number is (571)272-8009. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 6 pm (EST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached on 571-272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROWNAK ISLAM/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474