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 office action is in response to Applicant’s preliminary amendment filed on 12/14/2023.
Claims 1-3, 31-42, and 67-71 are currently pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 31-42, and 67-71 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xiong et al. (US 2024/0172272 A1; hereafter XIONG).
With respect to claim 1, XIONG discloses a method (Title; Abstract) at a user equipment (UE) (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) for performing a random access (RA) procedure with a network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), the method comprising:
transmitting, to the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a first message comprising a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble (paragraph [0014]) to initiate the RA procedure (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10);
receiving, from the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a second message in response to the first message (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10);
determining whether a feature is to be performed or not at least partially based on at least one of the second message, a configuration at the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), and a capability of the UE (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10); and
transmitting, to the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a third message with or without the feature performed depending on a result of the determination (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10).
With respect to claim 2, XIONG further discloses 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the feature comprises at least one of:
Msg3 repetition (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11);
repetition for uplink transmission scheduled by the second message; a network slice; small data transmission (SDT); a UE with reduced capability (RedCap UE); a random access in non-terrestrial network; and a specific service type or UE priority.
With respect to claim 3, XIONG further discloses 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second message comprises a random access response (RAR) and/or a downlink control information (DCI), wherein the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not comprises:
determining whether the feature is to be performed or not at least partially based on at least one of the configuration (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11) at the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), the capability of the UE, the RAR, and the DCI.
With respect to claim 31, XIONG further discloses 31. The method of claim 1, wherein the RA procedure is a fallback from a CBRA procedure with 2-step RA type to an RA procedure with 4-step RA type (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 32, XIONG further discloses 32. The method of claim 31, wherein before the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not, the method further comprises: receiving the configuration indicating whether the second message shall be decoded as for scheduling the transmission of the third message with or without the feature performed.
With respect to claim 33, XIONG further discloses 33. The method of claim 32, wherein the configuration is received via at least one of: dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling (paragraph [0081]); medium access control (MAC) control element (CE); and broadcasted system information.
With respect to claim 34, XIONG further discloses 34. The method of claim 31, wherein before the step of transmitting, to the network node, a first message, the method further comprises:
receiving an indicator indicating at least two sets of PRACH resources that comprise a first set indicating that the feature is requested by the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) and a second set indicating that the feature is not requested by the UE (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11), wherein the step of transmitting, to the network node, a first message comprises:
transmitting the first message by using a PRACH resource that is selected from the first set or the second set depending on whether the feature is to be requested or not by the UE (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11), wherein the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not comprises:
determining whether the second message shall be decoded as for scheduling the transmission of the third message (paragraph [0116]) with or without the feature performed based on from which of the first set and the second set the PRACH resource is selected (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 35, XIONG further discloses 35. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not comprises:
in response to determining that there is no configuration, which is related to the feature, at the UE and that the capability of the UE supports the feature:
determining first uplink resource that is decoded (paragraph [0116]) from the second message for transmission of the third message with the feature performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11);
determining second uplink resource that is decoded from the second message for transmission of the third message without the feature performed; transmitting, to the network node, the third message with the feature performed over the first uplink resource (paragraph [0116]); and
transmitting, to the network node, the third message without the feature performed over the second uplink resource in response (paragraph [0116]) to determining that the third message is not correctly decoded by the network node (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 36, XIONG further discloses 36. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not comprises: determining that the second message shall be decoded (paragraph [0116]) as for scheduling the transmission of the third message without the feature performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 37, XIONG further discloses 37. The method of claim 31, wherein after the step of transmitting, to the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a first message and before the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not, the method further comprises:
receiving, from the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), another second message in response to the first message (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11), wherein the step of determining whether a feature is to be performed or not comprises:
determining whether first uplink resource can be decoded from the second message for transmission of the third message with the feature performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11) in response to determining that the capability of the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) supports the feature;
determining first uplink resource that is decoded from the second message for transmission of the third message with the feature performed in response to determining that the first uplink resource can be decoded from the second message; and determining second uplink resource that is decoded from the other second message (paragraph [0116]) for transmission of the third message without the feature performed in response to determining that no uplink resource can be decoded from the second message (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 38, XIONG further discloses 38. The method of claim 1, wherein a PRACH resource comprises at least one of:
a PRACH time/frequency resource; and a PRACH preamble sequence (paragraph [0014]).
With respect to claim 39, XIONG discloses a user equipment (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), comprising:
a processor; a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform of:
transmitting, to the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a first message comprising a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble (paragraph [0014]) to initiate the RA procedure (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10);
receiving, from the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a second message in response to the first message (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10);
determining whether a feature is to be performed or not at least partially based on at least one of the second message (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10), a configuration at the UE, and a capability of the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7); and
transmitting, to the network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7), a third message with or without the feature performed depending on a result of the determination (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10).
With respect to claim 40, XIONG discloses a method at a network node (gNB in FIG. 1; 706 in FIG. 7) for performing a random access (RA) procedure with a user equipment (UE) (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), the method comprising:
receiving, from the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), a first message comprising a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble (paragraph [0014]) to initiate the RA procedure (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10);
determining whether a feature shall be performed for the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) or not at least partially based on at least one of the first message (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10), a configuration at the network node, and a capability of the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7);
determining uplink resource for transmission of a third message by the UE at least partially based on the determination of whether the feature shall be performed for the UE or not (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10); and
transmitting, to the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), a second message indicating the determined uplink resource (Msg1, Msg2, Msg3, Msg4 in FIG. 1; 1005, 1010 in FIG. 10).
With respect to claim 41, XIONG further discloses 41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:
receiving, from the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7), the third message with or without the feature performed depending on the determination of whether the feature shall be performed for the UE or not (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 42, XIONG further discloses 42. The method of claim 40, wherein the feature comprises at least one of:
Msg3 repetition (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11);
repetition for uplink transmission scheduled by the second message; a network slice; small data transmission (SDT); a UE with reduced capability (RedCap UE); a random access in non-terrestrial network; and a specific service type or UE priority.
With respect to claim 67, XIONG further discloses 67. The method of claim 40, wherein the RA procedure is a fallback from a CBRA procedure with 2-step RA type to an RA procedure with 4-step RA type (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 68, XIONG further discloses 68. The method of claim 67, wherein before the step of transmitting, to the UE, a second message, the method further comprises:
transmitting or broadcasting the configuration indicating whether the second message shall be decoded (paragraph [0116]) as for scheduling the transmission of the third message with or without the feature performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 69, XIONG further discloses 69. The method of claim 68, wherein the configuration is transmitted via at least one of:
dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling (paragraph [0081]); medium access control (MAC) control element (CE); and broadcasted system information.
With respect to claim 70, XIONG further discloses 70. The method of claim 67, wherein before the step of receiving, from the UE, a first message, the method further comprises:
transmitting an indicator indicating at least two sets of PRACH resources that comprise a first set indicating that the feature is requested by the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) and a second set indicating that the feature is not requested by the UE, wherein the step of receiving, from the UE (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11), a first message comprises:
receiving the first message by using a PRACH resource that is selected from the first set or the second set (paragraph [0116]), wherein the step of determining whether a feature shall be performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11) for the UE or not comprises:
determining whether the second message shall be decoded as for scheduling the transmission of the third message with or without the feature performed based on (paragraph [0116]) from which of the first set and the second set the PRACH resource is selected (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
With respect to claim 71, XIONG further discloses 71. The method of claim 67, further comprising one of: determining a second uplink resource for transmission of the third message by the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) with the feature performed in response to the uplink resource being determined for transmission of the third message by the UE without the feature performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11); and
determining a second uplink resource for transmission of the third message by the UE (UE in FIG. 1; 702 in FIG. 7) without the feature performed in response to the uplink resource being determined for transmission of the third message by the UE with the feature performed (paragraph [0016]; 1105, 1110 in FIG. 11).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brian T O'Connor whose telephone number is (571)270-1081. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri Flex 10am-6:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached at 571-270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN T O CONNOR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465 January 2, 2026