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
Claims 4-5, 7-8, 11, 13-14, 16-17 have been amended. The status of claim 1, 3-19 remains pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on April 22, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant argued that TSENG and Cirik either singly or in combination fail to teach, disclose or suggest “switching between the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier in response to the ignoring the uplink grant during the SDT procedure.”
In response, the Examiner respectfully discloses the applicant claim invention under the broadest reasonable interpretation discloses and renders the claim invention obvious. In particular, the Examiner respectfully submits that Cirik boradly discloses the small data configuration or procedure based on the disclosure of the paragraphs 00454-0455 because MTC-based transmission is implicitly associated with low bandwidth transmission.
Moreover, with respect to the Applicant’s arguments which alleged that “Furthermore, paragraph [0454] of Cirik merely describes data packets with small packet sizes in the context of URLLC and MTC communications. Notably, the small packet size, described in paragraph [0454] of Cirik, cannot, in any way, be equated to, or interpreted as, "the SDT procedure," as recited in unamended independent claim 1. The SDT procedure is a specifically defined procedure for a UE operating in an RRC inactive state, governed by particular signaling and resource configurations. Paragraph [0454] of Cirik (or any other section of Cirik to the knowledge of Applicant), however, contains no disclosure of an RRC inactive state, no SDT-specific signaling or configuration, and no mechanism whatsoever for disabling carrier switching. The mere fact that small data packets are mentioned in paragraph [0454] does not transform Cirik's general description of small packet communications into a teaching of "the SDT procedure," as recited in unamended independent claim 1.”
In response, the Examiner respectfully disagrees because primary reference of TSENG discloses the SDT procedure being applied in the RRC inactive state, and Cirik was not cited in the rejection for discloses SDT procedure for a UE operating in the RRC inactive state.
Given that TSENG discloses the SDT procedure for a UE operating in an RRC inactive state, it is clear that modify the teaching of TSENG with disabling aspect as taught by Cirik would have been obvious prior to the effective of the claim invention. Hence, the combination would yield a working model because the modification would not have rendered the SDT system and method inoperable.
In response to applicant's argument that “Even assuming, arguendo, that the small packet sizes, as described in paragraph [0454] of Cirik, could be construed as corresponding to an SDT procedure, the Office Action's combination of paragraph [0454] and paragraph [0493] of Cirik still fails to establish the claimed feature. Specifically, paragraph [0493]”, the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981).
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 (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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 3-5, 8-15, 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSENG et al (US 2023/0180223 A1, Provisional application No. 63/024,409, filed on May 13, 2020) in view of the Cirik et al (US 2020/0146059 A1, IDS).
Regarding claim 1, TSENG et al (US 2023/0180223 A1, Provisional application No. 63/024,409, filed on May 13, 2020) discloses a method for handling small data transmission (SDT) (see, small data/packet transmission on both normal uplink component (NUL) carrier and supplementary uplink component carrier (section 0088) performed by a user equipment (UE) (see, small data transmission by the UE in the RRC inactive state, where the UE receives, from a serving cell, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary UL (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007), the method comprising: receiving, from a serving cell (see, small data transmission by the UE in the RRC inactive state, where the UE receives, from a serving cell, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary uplink carrier (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007), an SDT configuration (see, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary UL: (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007, 0017, the SDT procedure relating to NUL and SUL frequency carriers section 0007, 0017) associated with both a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and a normal uplink (NUL) carrier (see, small data transmission by the UE in the RRC inactive state, where the UE receives, from a serving cell, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007); selecting one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier as a first operating uplink (UL) carrier (see, the UE selects resources for small data transmission on both normal uplink component (NUL) carrier and supplementary UL component (SUL) carrier, section 0095, 0106, 0117) when the UE is triggered to start an SDT procedure and while the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state (see, the selection takes place in the RRC inactive state, section 0116-0118, noted: triggering small data transmission from the RRC-Inactive state, section 0074, 0124, 0024-the UE transmits UL data while in an RRC Inactive state, section 0024); selecting at least one configured grant (CG) resource (see, configured UL grant resources and RA resource, section 0114, noted: the UE is configured with uplink grant, section 0102-0103, noted: the UE selects RA resource for UL packet transmission/small data packets, section 0119-0121 ) or at least one random access (RA) resource associated with the first operating UL carrier for the SDT procedure as at least one operating UL resource (see, the UE selects any of NUL and SUL frequency carriers with which RA resource, section 0116, ); performing the SDT procedure with the serving cell on the first operating UL carrier by using the at least one UL operating resource associated with the first operating UL carrier (see, the UE transmits , to the serving cell, at least one UL packet on the selected one of NUL frequency carrier and SUL frequency carrier via UL resource, section 0007, 0009, 0017, 0081, 0115-01121-small data packet transmissions using selected carrier relating to first and second resources).
TSENG ‘223 discloses the SDT procedure and stopping of the SDT procedure, including switch the SULK carrier for retransmissions or changing the operating uplink component carrier (section 0097-0099) in the above rejection but fails explicitly disclose: disable a switching from the first operating UL carrier to the other one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier during the SDT procedure.
However, Cirik et al (US 2020/0146059 A1) from a similar field of endeavor (see, switching between an SUL carrier and NUL carrier, section 0492) discloses: disable a switching from the first operating UL carrier to the other one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier during the SDT procedure (section 00492-0493, see, the wireless device may not perform the switching between the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier in response to the ignoring the uplink grant, noted: small packet size transmission, section 0454).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious 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 to implement the switching method between normal uplink (NUL) carrier and supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier from PUSCH transmissions as taught by Cirik ‘059 into the small data transmission method and apparatus of TSENG ‘223. The motivation would have been to provide a reduction in signal overhead in small data transmission.
Regarding claim 3, TSENG ‘223 discloses the method of claim 1, wherein: the first operating UL carrier is selected based on a downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) measurement result of the UE (see, the UE which may select the SUL carrier if the measured quality of the DL-RSRP is lower than a broadcast threshold, section 0066) and a threshold configured by the SDT configuration for UL carrier selection during the SDT procedure (see, carrier selection based on measured downlink reference signal received power, section 0066), the DL RS measurement result (noted: the DL RSRP measurement is implicitly based on the DL reference signal received from the serving cell, section 0117) is based on a reference signal received power (RSRP) associated with the serving cell (see, the RA resource/UL grant configuration associated with the serving cell, section 0100-0111, 0115), and the threshold is configured with a DL-RSRP value different from another DL-RSRP threshold value configured to the UE for UL carrier selection during an RRC resume procedure (see, the DL-RSRP measurement thresholds relating to RRC signaling, RRC reconfiguration messages, section 0094-0101) or an RRC setup procedure with the same serving cell (see, the UE implements small data transmission on the SUL carrier based on DL-RSRP measurement having a DL-RSRP value than a threshold-DL-RSRP, section 0066, 0092, 0099-0100-threshold value in relation to small data transmission).
Regarding claim 4, TSENG ‘223 discloses the method of claim 3, wherein selecting the first operating UL carrier (see, the UE which may select the SUL carrier if the measured quality of the DL-RSRP is lower than a broadcast threshold, section 0066) comprises: selecting the SUL carrier as the first operating UL carrier in a case that the DL RS measurement result is less than the threshold (see, the UE which may select the SUL carrier if the measured quality of the DL-RSRP is lower than a broadcast threshold, section 0066), and selecting the NUL carrier as the first operating UL carrier in a case that the DL RS measurement result greater than or equal to the threshold (see, the UE may select of NUL frequency carrier for transmitting uplink packet to the serving cell based on DL_RSRP threshold/NUL carrier when the DL-RSRP measurement result is higher than the CG threshold-DL-RSRP, section 0108, 0117).
Regarding claim 5, TSENG ‘223 as modified by Cirik ‘059 discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the serving cell during the SDT procedure (see, small data transmission by the UE in the RRC inactive state, where the UE receives, from a serving cell, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007), first downlink control information (DCI) including a first indication (Cirik, uplink grant in a DCI indicating SUL carrier and NUL carrier, section 0492), the first indication indicating an UL carrier switching from the first operating UL carrier to a second operating UL carrier (Cirik, uplink grant in a DCI indicating SUL carrier and NUL carrier, section 0492), the second operating UL carrier being the other one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier (Cirik, section 0492-the use of the second PUSCH resources of the NUL carrier or SUL); and performing the SDT procedure with the serving cell by transmitting at least one first transport block (TB) (TSENG, the UE transmits UL packets suing UL grant resources/UL data on NUL and/or SUL carrier in the SDT procedure, section 0017, 0081, 0115-0117 ) on a UL physical resource on the second operating UL carrier indicated by the first DCI (Cirik, section 0492-0493, 0496-the use of the second PUSCH resources).
Regarding claim 8 (Currently Amended), TSENG ‘223 discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one CG resource (see, configured grants for allocating uplink resources, section 0068, 0073) on the first operating UL carrier for the SDT procedure is selected as the at least one operating UL resource in a case that the at least one CG resource (see, the UE transmits UL data on NUL carrier and/or SUL carrier using UL configured grant and/or random access resources, section 0081-0082) is available for the SDT procedure in case that a time alignment (TA) timer of the at least one CG resource is still running when selecting the at least one operating UL resource (see, the UE resumes using uplink resources, section 0088-0091, 0157, noted: the suspended UL configured grant configuration while T310 has stopped counting, 0161).
Regarding claim 9, TSENG ‘223 discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: releasing all of configured CG resources on the NUL carrier and the SUL carrier (see, releasing of the resources/releases all of the configured UL configured grant configured and dedicated RA resource configuration, section 0110, 0147) in a case that a time alignment (TA) timer of the at least one CG resource expires (see, releases based on TA timer has expired, section 0147).
Regarding claim 10, TSENG ‘223 discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one RA resource on the first operating UL carrier for the SDT procedure is selected as the at least one UL operating resource (see, the UE selects UL resource which includes two resources-NUL and SUL frequency carriers, section 0114-0118) in a case that there is no available CG resource associated with the first operating UL carrier (noted: link failure detection, and suspension of the UL configured grant configuration, section 0161).
Regarding claim 11, TSENG ‘223 discloses a user equipment (UE) for handling small data transmission (SDT) (see, small data/packet transmission on both normal uplink component (NUL) carrier and supplementary uplink component carrier (section 0088), comprising: one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (fig. 5, claim 11, see, the UE that comprises a processor and one or more non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the processor, section 0195-0198) storing one or more computer-executable instructions (fig. 5, see, memory-computer-readable medium/instructions executed by a processor, section 0032-0032); and at least one processor coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (fig. 5, claim 11, see, the UE that comprises a processor and one or more non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the processor, section 0195-0198) and configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions (fig. 5, see, memory-computer-readable medium/instructions executed by a processor, section 0032-0032) to cause the UE to: receive, from a serving cell (see, small data transmission by the UE in the RRC inactive state, where the UE receives, from a serving cell, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary uplink carrier (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007, 0017), an SDT configuration (see, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary UL: (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, the SDT procedure relating to NUL and SUL frequency carriers section 0007, 0017) associated with both a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and a normal uplink (NUL) carrier (see, small data transmission by the UE in the RRC inactive state, where the UE receives, from a serving cell, a configuration of UL resource associated with a normal UL (NUL) frequency carrier and a supplementary (SUL) frequency carrier of UL frequency carriers, section 0007, 0017); select one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier as a first operating uplink (UL) carrier (see, the UE selects resources for small data transmission on both normal uplink component (NUL) carrier and supplementary UL component (SUL) carrier, section 0095, 0106, 0117) when the UE is triggered to start an SDT procedure and while the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state (see, the selection takes place in the RRC inactive state, section 0116-0118, noted: triggering small data transmission from the RRC-Inactive state, section 0074, 0124); select at least one configured grant (CG) resource (see, configured UL grant resources and RA resource, section 0114, noted: the UE is configured with uplink grant, section 0102-0103, noted: the UE selects RA resource for UL packet transmission/small data packets, section 0119-0121 ) or at least one random access (RA) resource associated with the first operating UL carrier for the SDT procedure as at least one operating UL resource (see, the UE selects any of NUL and SUL frequency carriers with which RA resource, section 0116); perform the SDT procedure with the serving cell on the first operating UL carrier by using the at least one UL operating resource associated with the first operating UL carrier (see, the UE transmits , to the serving cell, at least one UL packet on the selected one of NUL frequency carrier and SUL frequency carrier via UL resource, section 0007, 0009, 0017, 0081, 0115-01121-small data packet transmissions using selected carrier relating to first and second resources).
TSENG ‘223 discloses the SDT procedure and stopping of the SDT procedure in the above rejection but fails explicitly disclose: disable a switching from the first operating UL carrier to the other one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier during the SDT procedure.
However, Cirik et al (US 2020/0146059 A1) from a similar field of endeavor (see, switching between an SUL carrier and NUL carrier, section 0492) discloses: disable a switching from the first operating UL carrier to the other one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier during the SDT procedure (section 00492-0493, see, the wireless device may not perform the switching between the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier in response to the ignoring the uplink grant, noted: small packet size transmission, section 0454).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious 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 to implement the switching method between normal uplink (NUL) carrier and supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier from PUSCH transmissions as taught by Cirik ‘059 into the small data transmission method and apparatus of TSENG ‘223. The motivation would have been to provide a reduction in signal overhead in small data transmission.
Regarding claim 12, it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 3 as discussed above because the claim substantially comprises the same limitations.
Regarding claim 13, it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 4 as discussed above because the claim substantially comprises the same limitations.
Regarding claim 14, it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 5 as discussed above because the claim substantially comprises the same limitations.
Regarding claim 17 (Currently Amended), it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 8 because the claim substantially comprises the same limitations.
Regarding claim 18, it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 9 because the claim substantially comprises the same limitations.
Regarding claim 19, it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 10 because the claim substantially comprises the same limitations.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 14-16 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.
The closest prior arts either singularly or in combination fails to reasonably anticipate or render obvious “receiving, from the serving cell, during the SDT procedure, first downlink control information (DCI) including a first indication, the first indication indicating an UL carrier switching from the first operating UL carrier to a second operating UL carrier, the second operating UL carrier being the other one of the SUL carrier and the NUL carrier; switching from the first operating UL carrier to the second operating UL carrier in response to receiving the first indication; and performing the SDT procedure with the serving cell by transmitting at least one first transport block (TB) on a UL physical resource on the second operating UL carrier indicated by the first DCI” recited in claims 5, 14.
The closest prior arts either singularly or in combination fails to reasonably anticipate or render obvious “switching from the second operating UL carrier back to the first operating UL carrier automatically after transmitting the at least one first TB on the UL physical resource indicated by the first DCI; and performing the SDT procedure with the serving cell on the first operating UL carrier” recited in claims 6, 15.
The closest prior arts either singularly or in combination fails to reasonably anticipate or render obvious “receiving, from the serving cell during the SDT procedure, second DCI including a second indication after transmitting the at least one first TB on the UL physical resource indicated by the first DCI, the second indication indicating another UL carrier switching from the second operating UL carrier to the first operating UL carrier; and performing the SDT procedure with the serving cell by transmitting at least one second TB on a UL physical resource on the first operating UL carrier indicated by the second DCI” recited in claims 7, 16.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/CANDAL ELPENORD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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