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 .
Applicant’s amendment filed 4/14/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 1,11, and 25 are amended.
Claims 3,12,20-24, and 26 are cancelled.
Claims 1,2,4-11,13-19, and 25 are pending.
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 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) 1,2,4,5,7-11,13,14,16-19, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20200351950) in view of Jeon (US 20200053799).
Re claim 1:
Liu discloses a resource indication method, performed by a network side device, comprising (Fig.2A ref. S201 Receive SUL configuration information):
sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a transmission resource list or a carrier list, each of one or more transmission resources in the transmission resource list is a single carrier supporting an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission, or is a carrier combination consisting of a carrier supporting the uplink transmission and a carrier supporting the downlink transmission; and one carrier in the carrier list constitutes a transmission resource independently or more than one carrier in the carrier list constitute a transmission resource (Fig.2A ref. S201 Receive SUL configuration information, where the SUL configuration information includes at least one first supplementary uplink SUL resource and at least one SUL selection thresholds that are corresponding to a first SSB and Para.[0195] the SUL configuration information may include…frequency channel number information of a carrier (or a downlink resource) on which the downlink reference signal is located and Para.[0144] the terminal device receives configuration information of an uplink resource sent by the network device. The configuration information of the uplink resource may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: frequency-domain information of the uplink resource and common configuration information of the uplink resource and Fig.1 shows uplink and downlink on multiple carriers and Para.[0180] Optionally, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and one NR SUL resource may be one NR carrier resource (serving cell). Further, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and a plurality of NR SUL resources may also be one NR carrier resource (serving cell)); and
sending second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used to indicate a signal quality threshold corresponding to the transmission resource in the transmission resource list, or the second indication information is used to indicate a signal quality threshold corresponding to a first carrier supporting the uplink transmission in the carrier list (Fig.2A ref. S201 Receive SUL configuration information, where the SUL configuration information includes at least one first supplementary uplink SUL resource and at least one SUL selection thresholds that are corresponding to a first SSB and Para.[0011] if the downlink measurement value of the first SSB is greater than or equal to the one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB, the carrier resource used for random access includes the non-SUL resource; or if the downlink measurement value of the first SSB is less than the one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB, the carrier resource used for random access includes the one first SUL resource corresponding to the first SSB);
wherein each of one or more transmission resources in the transmission resource list being a carrier combination consisting of a carrier supporting the uplink transmission and a carrier supporting the downlink transmission refers to that each of one or more transmission resources is formed by combining multiple carriers together and supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability, and the carrier combination comprises at least one of: a carrier Al supporting only a capability of the uplink transmission and a carrier B 1 supporting only a capability of downlink transmission; a carrier A2 supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability and a carrier B2 supporting only a capability of the downlink transmission; a carrier A3 supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability and a carrier B3 supporting only a capability of the uplink transmission; or carriers A4 and B4 both supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability (Para.[0179] An uplink resource in the embodiments of this application may be understood as a part of carriers (including a carrier in a non-carrier aggregation (non-CA) scenario and a carrier in a carrier aggregation (CA) scenario) used for uplink transmission, or a part of serving cells (including a serving cell in a CA scenario and a serving cell in a non-CA scenario) used for uplink transmission. The carrier (the serving cell) in the CA scenario may be a primary component carrier (a primary serving cell) or a secondary component carrier (or a secondary serving cell), The uplink resource may also be referred to as an uplink carrier. Correspondingly, a part of a carrier or a serving cell used for downlink transmission may be understood as a downlink resource or a downlink carrier. For example, in a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, on a carrier, a frequency resource used for uplink transmission may be understood as an uplink resource or an uplink carrier, and a frequency resource used for downlink transmission may be understood as a downlink resource or a downlink carrier. For another example, in a time division duplex (TDD) system, on a carrier, a time-domain resource used for uplink transmission may be understood as an uplink resource or an uplink carrier, and a time-domain resource used for downlink transmission may be understood as a downlink resource or a downlink carrier and Para.[0180] Para. Optionally, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and one NR SUL resource may be one NR carrier resource (serving cell). Further, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and a plurality of NR SUL resources may also be one NR carrier resource (serving cell)); and
wherein, in a case that the first indication information is used to indicate the carrier (Para.[0195] the SUL configuration information may include…frequency channel number information of a carrier (or a downlink resource) on which the downlink reference signal is located and Para.[0180] Para. Optionally, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and one NR SUL resource may be one NR carrier resource (serving cell). Further, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and a plurality of NR SUL resources may also be one NR carrier resource (serving cell)),
wherein the second carrier is, in the carrier list, a carrier with a lowest frequency among one or more carriers each supporting a frequency higher than or equal to a frequency of the first carrier and supporting the downlink transmission (alternative limitation addressed below and Para.[0003] NR supports frequency bands from below 6 GHz to 60 GHz. Generally, frequency bands below 3 GHz are mainly used for long term evolution (LTE) carrier deployment, and frequency bands above 3 GHz are mainly used for NR carrier deployment – Examiner Note the SUL carrier is on LTE, which is a lower frequency that the UL/DL carriers on NR), or
wherein a selection criterion of the second carrier is configured for a terminal by the network side device (Para.[0187] In this step, a terminal device (an NR terminal that supports uplink sharing) receives the SUL configuration information sent by a first network device and Para.[0221] if the SUL configuration information includes N1 first SUL resources corresponding to the first SSB and one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB (or referred to as an SUL selection threshold corresponding to the N1 first SUL resources), where N1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, the carrier resource used for random access is determined based on the downlink measurement value of the first SSB and the SUL, selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB and Para.[0037] It can be learned that, in the embodiments of this application, the terminal device can select an appropriate resource from the non-SUL resource and the at least one SUL resource to perform random access), or
wherein the terminal obtains the selection criterion of the second carrier in a specification-predefined manner (alternative limitation addressed above).
As shown above, Liu discloses indication information having multiple carriers. Liu does not a carrier list.
Jeon discloses a carrier list (Para.[0486] A wireless device may receive, from a base station, a message comprising configuration parameters of a cell comprising at least one downlink carrier, a first uplink carrier (e.g., NUL), and a second uplink carrier (e.g., SUL). The configuration parameters may indicate one or more downlink pathloss references of the downlink carrier and/or a threshold. The wireless device may measure a received signal strength of the one or more downlink pathloss references. The wireless device may perform a first energy detection procedure (e.g., LBT procedure) of the first uplink carrier. The wireless device may perform a second energy detection procedure (e.g., LBT procedure) of the second uplink carrier. The wireless device may select the second uplink carrier for performing random access procedure of the cell based on at least one of: (i) the received signal strength being greater than the threshold, (ii) the first energy detection procedure (e.g., LBT) detecting high channel occupancy, and/or (iii) the second energy detection procedure (e.g., LBT procedure) detecting low channel occupancy).
Liu and Jeon are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu to include a carrier list as taught by Jeon in order to improve performance of a wireless network (Jeon Para.[0323]).
Re claim 2:
Liu discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the resource indication method is used in a random-access procedure (Para.[0005] Embodiments of this application provide a random access method and an apparatus, so as to select an appropriate resource from a non-SUI, resource and at least one SUL resource to perform random access).
Re claim 4:
Liu discloses the method of claim 1, wherein selection criteria corresponding to different transmission resources are different, or selection criteria corresponding to at least two transmission resources are same (Para.[0020] determining, based on the downlink measurement value of the first SSB and an SUL selection threshold corresponding to the third SUL resource, the carrier resource used for random access, where the carrier resource includes the third SUL resource and Para.[0056] n SUL selection threshold corresponding to a fourth SUL resource and is greater than or equal to a selection threshold corresponding to a fifth SUL resource).
Re claim 5:
Liu discloses the method of claim 4, wherein in a case that the selection criteria corresponding to the at least two transmission resources are the same, different priorities are configured for the transmission resources corresponding to the same selection criteria (Para.[0015] if the downlink measurement value of the first SSB is less than the one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB, determining, based on access priority information, that the carrier resource used for random access includes a second SUL resource in the N1 first SUL resources, where Para. [0016] the access priority information is used to indicate an access priority order of the N1 first SUL resources, and an access priority of the second SUL resource is higher than a priority of a first SUL resource of the N1 first SUL resources other than the second SUL resource.).
Re claim 7:
Liu discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: configuring one or more carriers in the transmission resource list or the carrier list, wherein at least one of the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission is configured for each carrier (Para.[0195] the SUL configuration information may include…frequency channel number information of a carrier (or a downlink resource) on which the downlink reference signal is located and Fig.1 shows uplink and downlink on multiple carriers and Para.[0144] the terminal device receives configuration information of an uplink resource sent by the network device. The configuration information of the uplink resource may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: frequency-domain information of the uplink resource and common configuration information of the uplink resource).
Re claim 8:
Liu discloses the method of claim 7, wherein the configuring comprises at one of: configuring a period of a frame structure; configuring an allocation of an uplink transmission slot of the carrier; or configuring an allocation of a downlink transmission slot of the carrier (Para.[0144] The frequency-domain information of the uplink resource may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: frequency channel number information of an uplink carrier and offset information of an uplink subcarrier. The common configuration information of the uplink resource may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: random access channel (RACH) configuration information, physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) configuration information, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration information, sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration information, and power control configuration information. The RACFI configuration information may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: a time-domain (a subframe, a slot, a symbol, a period, and/or the like) resource, a frequency-domain (resource block information, whether frequency hopping is performed, and/or the like) resource).
Re claim 9:
Liu discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: sending third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used to indicate a correspondence between synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel signal block (S SB) indexes of carriers in the transmission resource list (Para.[0195] In a possible implementation, the SUL configuration information may include an identifier of the first SSB and an identifier of the at least one first SUL resource corresponding. to the first SSB. Optionally, the identifier may be index information, or may be other indication information that may be used to uniquely indicate an SSB and/or the first SUL resource and Para.[0213] If the SUL configuration information includes identifiers of a plurality of SUL resources, and an index of one SSB corresponding to the plurality of SUL resources).
Re claim 10:
Liu discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: sending fourth indication information, wherein the fourth indication information is used to indicate cell identity (ID) information of a carrier in the transmission resource list or the carrier list (Para.[0171] PCID information of a carrier on which the downlink reference signal is located and Para.[0159] physical cell identity (PCID)).
Re claim 11: Claim 11 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 1 from the perspective of the terminal device.
Re claim 13: Claim 13 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 4.
Re claim 14: Claim 14 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 5.
Re claim 16: Claim 16 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 7 from the perspective of the terminal device.
Re claim 17:
Liu discloses the method of claim 16, selecting the target transmission resource from the one or more transmission resources based on the signal quality threshold for the random-access related data transmission comprises: in a case that a second carrier selected by the terminal for random-access is different from the first carrier receiving a system message, determining, based on the SSB index selected on the first carrier and the correspondence between the SSB indexes of the first carrier and the second carrier, an SSB index of the second carrier corresponding to an SSB index of the first carrier, and performing the random-access based on a random-access resource determined according to the SSB index of the second carrier (Para.[0197] If the first SSB is corresponding to indexes of a plurality of first SUL resources, optionally, the SUL configuration information may further include at least one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB. For example, if the SUL configuration information includes one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB, it indicates that a plurality of first SUL resources corresponding to the first SSB share one SUL selection threshold. If the SUL configuration information includes a plurality of SUL selection thresholds corresponding to the first SSB, the at least one first SUL resource corresponding to the plurality of SUL selection thresholds needs to be indicated, or one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the plurality of the first SUL resources is indicated. If SUL selection thresholds corresponding to the at least one first SUL resource are different, one first SUL resource is corresponding to one SUL selection threshold; or if SUL selection thresholds corresponding to the plurality of the first SUL resources are the same, the plurality of first SUL resources share one SUL selection threshold).
Re claim 18: Claim 18 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 10 from the perspective of the terminal device.
Re claim 19:
Liu discloses the method of claim 18, wherein indicating the cell ID information of the carrier in the transmission resource list or the carrier list comprises: indicating a cell ID corresponding to a carrier co-sited or sharing a system message with acarrier receiving the system message (Para.[0171] PCID information of a carrier on which the downlink reference signal is located and Para.[0159] physical cell identity (PCID) and Fig.1A shows carrier co-sited).
Re claim 25: Claim 25 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 11. Liu further discloses a processor and memory configured to store a computer program executable by the processor (Fig. 7).
Claim(s) 6 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20200351950) in view of Jeon (20200053799) as applied to claims 5 and 14 above, and further in view of MolavianJazi (US 20190313348).
Re claim 6:
As discussed above, Liu in view of Jeon meets all the limitations of the parent claims.
Liu does not explicitly disclose the method of claim 5, wherein a priority is related to a service type.
MolavianJazi discloses the method of claim 5, wherein a priority is related to a service type (Para.[0118] In certain embodiments, the active UL BWP that corresponds to higher numerology (e.g., larger subcarrier spacing) has higher priority. In certain embodiments, the active UL BWP that corresponds to a higher-priority service/traffic type (e.g., URLLC) has higher priority over the active UL BWP that corresponds to a lower-priority service/traffic type (e.g., eMBB)).
Liu and MolavianJazi are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Liu to include priority related to service type as taught by MolavianJazi in order to improve transmit power accuracy (MolavianJazi Para.[0102]).
Re claim 15: Claim 15 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 6.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1,11, and 25 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Newly cited Jeon (20200053799) is used in placed of Jeon (20190254074).
Applicant's arguments filed 4/14/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In the remarks, Applicant contends Liu does not disclose limitation (a) sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a transmission resource list or a carrier list, each of one or more transmission resources in the transmission resource list is a single carrier supporting an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission, or is a carrier combination consisting of a carrier supporting the uplink transmission and a carrier supporting the downlink transmission; and one carrier in the carrier list constitutes a transmission resource independently or more than one carrier in the carrier list constitute a transmission resource.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As an initial note, the Examiner would like to note the alternative limitation language in the claim. The claim limitation states: sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a transmission resource list or a carrier list, each of one or more transmission resources in the transmission resource list is a single carrier supporting an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission, or is a carrier combination consisting of a carrier supporting the uplink transmission and a carrier supporting the downlink transmission; and one carrier in the carrier list constitutes a transmission resource independently or more than one carrier in the carrier list constitute a transmission resource. The italicized text shows the first alternative of a transmission resource list and the underlined text shows the second alternative of a carrier list. The carrier list alternative only includes a transmission resource independently.
The newly amended limitations also are directed towards alternatives. The claim states: wherein each of one or more transmission resources in the transmission resource list being a carrier combination consisting of a carrier supporting the uplink transmission and a carrier supporting the downlink transmission refers to that each of one or more transmission resources is formed by combining multiple carriers together and supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability, and the carrier combination comprises at least one of: a carrier Al supporting only a capability of the uplink transmission and a carrier B 1 supporting only a capability of downlink transmission; a carrier A2 supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability and a carrier B2 supporting only a capability of the downlink transmission; a carrier A3 supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability and a carrier B3 supporting only a capability of the uplink transmission; or carriers A4 and B4 both supporting an uplink-downlink transmission capability; and wherein, in a case that the first indication information is used to indicate the carrier list, the first carrier and a second carrier constitute the transmission resource, (sub limitation alternative #1) wherein the second carrier is, in the carrier list, a carrier with a lowest frequency among one or more carriers each supporting a frequency higher than or equal to a frequency of the first carrier and supporting the downlink transmission (sub limitation alternative #2), or wherein a selection criterion of the second carrier is configured for a terminal by the network side device, (sub limitation alternative #3) or wherein the terminal obtains the selection criterion of the second carrier in a specification-predefined manner.
The italicized text of the newly amended language corresponds to the first alternative of a transmission resource list and the underlined text corresponds to the second alternative of a carrier list.
Given the alternative limitations, the grounds of rejection can be stated as:
Liu discloses sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a carrier (Fig.2A ref. S201 Receive SUL configuration information, where the SUL configuration information includes at least one first supplementary uplink SUL resource and at least one SUL selection thresholds that are corresponding to a first SSB and Para.[0195] the SUL configuration information may include…frequency channel number information of a carrier (or a downlink resource) on which the downlink reference signal is located).
wherein, in a case that the first indication information is used to indicate the carrier (Para.[0187] In this step, a terminal device (an NR terminal that supports uplink sharing) receives the SUL configuration information sent by a first network device and Para.[0221] if the SUL configuration information includes N1 first SUL resources corresponding to the first SSB and one SUL selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB (or referred to as an SUL selection threshold corresponding to the N1 first SUL resources), where N1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, the carrier resource used for random access is determined based on the downlink measurement value of the first SSB and the SUL, selection threshold corresponding to the first SSB).
Jeon shows a carrier list with uplink carriers and a downlink carrier (Para.[0486]).
In the remarks, Applicant contends the SUL configuration information in Liu does not include a single carrier supporting both uplink and downlink or a combination of carriers which one carrier supporting pure uplink and the other carrier supporting pure downlink.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Liu discloses include a single carrier supporting both uplink and downlink (Para.[0133] , and NR UE2 is an NR terminal that supports uplink sharing (which can use uplink and downlink resources on an NR carrier to perform signal transmission with the network device 1, and can also use an SUL resource to perform uplink transmission with the network device 1)) or
a combination of carriers which one carrier supporting pure uplink and the other carrier supporting pure downlink (Fig.2A ref. S201 Receive SUL configuration information, where the SUL configuration information includes at least one first supplementary uplink SUL resource and at least one SUL selection thresholds that are corresponding to a first SSB and Para.[0195] the SUL configuration information may include…frequency channel number information of a carrier (or a downlink resource) on which the downlink reference signal is located).
The uplink SUL resource is a carrier supporting uplink and the downlink resource for the downlink reference signal is a downlink carrier supporting downlink.
Additionally, Jeon shows a carrier list with multiple uplink carriers and a downlink carrier.
For compact prosecution, the Examiner has also addressed some of the limitations directed towards a transmission resource. As shown in the citations, Liu discloses a transmission resource comprising an uplink, downlink, and supplementary uplink. Liu also discloses the transmission resource being a carrier that supports uplink and downlink ([0180] Optionally, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and one NR SUL resource may be one NR carrier resource (serving cell). Further, one NR uplink resource, one NR downlink resource, and a plurality of NR SUL resources may also be one NR carrier resource (serving cell))
and carriers that are separate for uplink and downlink ([0179] For example, in a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, on a carrier, a frequency resource used for uplink transmission may be understood as an uplink resource or an uplink carrier, and a frequency resource used for downlink transmission may be understood as a downlink resource or a downlink carrier. For another example, in a time division duplex (TDD) system, on a carrier, a time-domain resource used for uplink transmission may be understood as an uplink resource or an uplink carrier, and a time-domain resource used for downlink transmission may be understood as a downlink resource or a downlink carrier).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD SAJID ADHAMI whose telephone number is (571)272-8615. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached at (571) 272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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