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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on 11/9/2023.
Claims 8, 11, 13, 23 are amended.
Claims 9, 12, 14 and 24-27 are cancelled.
Claims 1-8, 10-11, 13, 15-23 are examined and rejected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-7, 10, 13, 15-20 and 22-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang (US 20230180078 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Zhang discloses an inter-cell measurement reporting method performed by a terminal device (see FIG. 2, UE 202), comprising:
receiving measurement reporting configuration and indication information of one or more to-be-measured cells sent by a network device (see paras 27-28, FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified signal flow diagram for performing L3 and L1 measurements. The UE may perform a number of L3 measurements and, based on the L3 measurements may perform L1 measurements on one or more identified cells… limiting the L1 measurements based on the L3 measurements … The network node may be a serving cell for the UE. The network node may transmit a configuration message to the UE/i.e., representing the measurement reporting configuration. The configuration message may be used to configure the UE to perform neighbor cell beam discovery based on an L3 first L1 second (L1+L3) measurement scheme/i.e., representing the indication information);
determining at least one to-be-measured cell according to the indication information (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling; also see step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K);
measuring the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the measurement reporting configuration, to obtain a first measurement result (see para 32, The network node 204 may receive the L3 report 220 and select one cell as candidate cell based on the L3 report … FIG. 2. step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K); and
reporting the first measurement result to the network device (see para 36, the enabled and/or disabled status for a CSI-reportConfig corresponding to the neighbor cells can be determined based on how the reported L3 measurements compare to a threshold. For example, in some embodiments, if the L3 measurements (e.g., RSRP or SINR or RSRQ) from a neighbor cell is larger than a threshold, the corresponding CSI-reportConfig can be enabled. The threshold may also be used in combination with measurements from the current serving cell).
Regarding Claims 2, 16, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method: before receiving the measurement reporting configuration and the indication information of the one or more to-be-measured cells sent by the network device (see para 29, In a first step, the UE may perform L3 measurement and report on those L3 measurements. The measurements and reporting may be based on Layer 3 reference signal received power (L3-RSRP) or Layer 3 Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio (L3-SINR) or Layer 3 Reference Signal Received Quality (L3-RSRQ). The network node provides several measurement objects on which the UE shall perform the measurements for intra-frequency and inter-frequency for neighbor cell measurement. These measurement objects may be configured for neighbor cell measurement in a measurement configuration (MeasConfig) information element and multiple Channel-State Information report configurations (CSI-reportConfig) information elements with neighbor cell reference signals configured in CSI-ResourceConfig information element by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling), the method further comprises:
measuring at least one predetermined cell to obtain a second measurement result (see para 31, The UE 202 may generate and transmit an L3 report 220 based on the L3 measurements);
reporting the second measurement result to the network device; wherein the indication information is determined according to the second measurement result (para 32, The network node may receive the L3 report and select one or more cells as candidate cells based on the L3 report. The network node may enable the candidate cells or enable a report configuration for L1 measurement for the candidate cells … see para 40, The UE may perform L1 measurements and transmit an L1 measurement report 212 based on L1-reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or L1-Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio (SINR). The UE may select a neighbor cell beam and update the status for L1 measurement report 212).
Regarding Claims 3, 17, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method: the second measurement result is a Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurement result or a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) measurement result (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig/i.e., CSI-RS/SSB, corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling).
Regarding Claims 4, 18, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method: the measurement reporting configuration comprises related information of one or more candidate to-be-measured cells see paras 27-28, FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified signal flow diagram for performing L3 and L1 measurements. The UE may perform a number of L3 measurements and, based on the L3 measurements, may perform L1 measurements on one or more identified cells… limiting the L1 measurements based on the L3 measurements), and the indication information is configured to indicate related information of the at least one to-be-measured cell in the measurement reporting configuration (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling; also see step 222).
Regarding Claims 5, 19, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method: the measurement reporting configuration comprises at least one physical cell identifier of the one or more candidate to-be-measured cells, and the indication information is configured to indicate at least one physical cell identifier of the at least one to-be-measured cell in the measurement reporting configuration (see para 34, he higher layer signaling 222 (e.g., MAC CE) can include a set of enabled physical cell ID and/or disabled physical cell ID. The enabled physical cell ID set and the disabled physical cell ID set may be where the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to the physical cell ID can be enabled or disabled. In some embodiments, the network node may only include enabled physical cell ID set in the higher layer signaling 222).
Regarding Claim 6, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 4, wherein the measurement reporting configuration comprises at least one first identifier, the at least one first identifier is configured to identify at least one second measurement result, the at least one second measurement result is at least one measurement result of the one or more candidate to-be-measured cells measured by the terminal device before the terminal device receives the measurement reporting configuration and the indication information, and the indication information is configured to indicate at least one first identifier corresponding to the at least one to-be-measured cell in the measurement reporting configuration, determining the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the indication information includes:
determining the at least one first identifier indicated by the indication information as at least one target identifier; and determining at least one cell to which at least one second measurement result represented by the at least one target identifier belongs as the at least one to-be-measured cell (see paras 33-34, after receiving the L3 report, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell/i.e., cell to-be-measured, based on higher layer signaling, (e.g. Medium Access Control, control element (MAC CE) or RRC)… the higher layer signaling (e.g., MAC CE) may include component carrier (CC) ID or a CC list to support cross-CC activation… the higher layer signaling (e.g., MAC CE) can include a set of enabled physical cell ID).
Regarding Claim 7, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 4, wherein the measurement reporting configuration includes one or more reference signal resources of the one or more candidate to-be-measured cells, and the indication information is configured to indicate at least one reference signal resource of the at least one to-be-measured cell in the measurement reporting configuration, determining the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the indication information comprises:
determining the at least one reference signal resource indicated by the indication information as at least one target reference signal resource (see paras 33-34, after receiving the L3 report, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled);
determining at least one cell to which the at least one target reference signal resource belongs as the at least one to-be-measured cell (see paras 33-34, The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell/i.e., cell to-be-measured, based on higher layer signaling, (e.g. Medium Access Control, control element (MAC CE) or RRC).
Regarding Claim 10, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 1, wherein the indication information comprises related information of a to-be-measured cell (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling; also see step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K).
Regarding Claim 13, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 1, wherein measuring the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the measurement reporting configuration comprises: measuring one or more Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) or one or more Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSs) of the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the measurement reporting configuration (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig/i.e., measuring CSI-RS, corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling; also see step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K); or,
Regarding Claim 15, Zhang discloses an inter-cell measurement reporting method performed by a network device (see FIG. 2, network device 204), wherein the method comprises:
sending measurement reporting configuration and indication information of at least one to-be-measured cell to a terminal device (see paras 27-28, FIG. 2 .The network node may be a serving cell for the UE. The network node may transmit a configuration message to the UE/i.e., representing the measurement reporting configuration. The configuration message may be used to configure the UE to perform neighbor cell beam discovery based on an L3 first L1 second (L1+L3) measurement scheme/i.e., representing the indication information);
receiving a first measurement result sent by the terminal device (see para 36, the enabled and/or disabled status for a CSI-reportConfig corresponding to the neighbor cells can be determined based on how the reported L3 measurements compare to a threshold. For example, in some embodiments, if the L3 measurements (e.g., RSRP or SINR or RSRQ) from a neighbor cell is larger than a threshold, the corresponding CSI-reportConfig can be enabled. The threshold may also be used in combination with measurements from the current serving cell), wherein the first measurement result is obtained after the terminal device measures the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the measurement reporting configuration and the indication information (see para 32, The network node 204 may receive the L3 report 220 and select one cell as candidate cell based on the L3 report … FIG. 2. step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K).
Regarding Claim 20, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 15, wherein the indication information comprises related information of the at least one to-be-measured cell (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling; also see step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K).
Regarding Claim 22, Zhang discloses a terminal device (see FIG. 5, para 82), comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data under control of the processor, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and execute the following operations:
controlling the transceiver to receive measurement reporting configuration and indication information of one or more to-be-measured cells sent by a network device (see paras 27-28, FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified signal flow diagram for performing L3 and L1 measurements. The UE may perform a number of L3 measurements and, based on the L3 measurements may perform L1 measurements on one or more identified cells… limiting the L1 measurements based on the L3 measurements … The network node may be a serving cell for the UE. The network node may transmit a configuration message to the UE/i.e., representing the measurement reporting configuration. The configuration message may be used to configure the UE to perform neighbor cell beam discovery based on an L3 first L1 second (L1+L3) measurement scheme/i.e., representing the indication information);
determining at least one to-be-measured cell according to the indication information (see para 33, after receiving the L3 report 220, a CSI-reportConfig associated with neighbor cell RS can be enabled. The network node may enable the CSI-reportConfig corresponding to a candidate cell based on higher layer signaling; also see step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K);
measuring the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the measurement reporting configuration, to obtain a first measurement result (see para 32, The network node 204 may receive the L3 report 220 and select one cell as candidate cell based on the L3 report … FIG. 2. step 222: enable CSI-ReportConfig corresponding to cell K); and
controlling the transceiver to report the first measurement result to the network device (see para 36, the enabled and/or disabled status for a CSI-reportConfig corresponding to the neighbor cells can be determined based on how the reported L3 measurements compare to a threshold. For example, in some embodiments, if the L3 measurements (e.g., RSRP or SINR or RSRQ) from a neighbor cell is larger than a threshold, the corresponding CSI-reportConfig can be enabled. The threshold may also be used in combination with measurements from the current serving cell).
Regarding Claim 23, Zhang discloses a network device (see FIG. 4, para 72, base station), comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, the transceiver is configured to send and receive data under a control of the processor, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and execute steps of the method according to claim 15.
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.
Claim(s) 8, 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Bai (US 12063085 B2).
Regarding Claim 8, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 4, wherein all reference signal resources configured for the terminal device are divided into at least one resource group, and each of the at least one resource group corresponds to one cell; the measurement reporting configuration comprises at least one identifier of at least one resource groups corresponding to the one or more candidate to-be-measured cells, and the indication information is configured to indicate at least one identifier of at least one resource group corresponding to the at least one to-be-measured cell in the measurement reporting configuration; determining the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the indication information comprises:
determining at least one identifier of at least one resource group indicated by the indication information as at least one target resource group identifier; and determining at least one cell corresponding to the at least one target resource group identifier as the at least one to-be-measured cell (see para 40, the UE can perform the L1 measurement and report for the resource signals… a network node may configure the enabled/disabled status per resource or resource groups for a CSI-reportConfig so that UE does not need to measure some RSs. The resources for the disabled RSs can be considered as “not available” for rate matching);
or
Zhang teaches inter-cell measurement reporting that could be enabled or disabled for every resource group.
Zhang does not teach details regarding the resource group identifier.
Bai teaches this limitation, it further discloses: see col 17, lines 14-20, a gNB may indicate a group of DL/UL resources sharing a common beam via RRC/MAC-CE/DCI. In another example, RRC signalling may configure a resource group ID either per DL/UL resource in the group or for a list of DL/UL resources in the group. A group ID may be a common beam indication or a resource ID whose beam serves as common beam.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Zhang, so that the resource group is identified by a resource group ID as taught by Bai, help reduce signaling overhead and/or latency by applying a common beam operation across both uplink and downlink control and data (see Bai, col 14, lines 46-48).
Regarding Claim 11, Zhang discloses the inter-cell measurement reporting method according to claim 10, wherein all reference signal resources configured for the terminal device are divided into at least one resource group, and each resource group of the at least one resource group corresponds to one cell, the indication information comprises at least one identifier of at least one resource group corresponding to the at least one to-be-measured cell; determining the at least one to-be-measured cell according to the indication information includes:
determining the at least one cell corresponding to the at least one identifier of the at least one resource group comprised in the indication information as the at least one to-be-measured cell (see para 40, The UE performs L1 measurements and transmit an L1 measurement report 212 based on L1-reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or L1-Signal to Noise and Interference Rati0 (SINR). The UE selects a neighbor cell beam and update the status for L1 measurement report. For an enabled CSI-reportConfig, the UE behavior could be as follows. The resource elements for reference signals in the corresponding CSI-reportConfig may be considered as “not available” for rate matching. Additionally, the UE can perform the L1 measurement and report for the resource signals… a network node may configure the enabled/disabled status per resource or resource groups for a CSI-reportConfig so that UE does not need to measure some RSs. The resources for the disabled RSs can be considered as “not available” for rate matching);
or
Zhang teaches inter-cell measurement reporting that could be enabled or disabled for every resource group.
Zhang does not teach details regarding the resource group identifier.
Bai teaches this limitation, it further discloses: see col 17, lines 14-20, a gNB may indicate a group of DL/UL resources sharing a common beam via RRC/MAC-CE/DCI. In another example, RRC signalling may configure a resource group ID either per DL/UL resource in the group or for a list of DL/UL resources in the group. A group ID may be a common beam indication or a resource ID whose beam serves as common beam.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Zhang, so that the resource group is identified by a resource group ID as taught by Bai, to help reduce signaling overhead and/or latency by applying a common beam operation across both uplink and downlink control and data (see Bai, col 14, lines 46-48).
Claim(s) 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Bai, in view of Kim (US 20240039598 A1).
Regarding Claim 21, Zhang in view of Bai teaches reference signal resources configured for the terminal device are divided into at least one resource group and each resource group, and the resource group have an identifier and, the indication information comprises at least one identifier of at least one resource group corresponding to the at least one to-be-measured cell.
Zhang in view of Bai do not disclose detials regarding the underlined limitation: each resource group of the at least one resource group corresponds to one cell; or
Kim teaches this limitation, it further discloses: see para 479, The ‘BM (beam management) report’ may mean a case in which reportQuantity of CSI-ReportConfig is configured as a value including cri-RSRP/ssb-Index-RSRP/cri-SINR/ssb-Index-SINR, etc. ‘The number of TRPs’ may correspond to the number of resource groups in a resource set.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the combined system of Zhang and Bai, so that the r number of TRPs’ may correspond to the number of resource groups in a resource set as taught by Kim, as the optimum channel state information for performing transmission of multiple TRPs (transmission reception point) is acquired/reported, performance of a wireless communication system may be improved (see Kim, para 21).
Conclusion
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/DEEPA BELUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472