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 .
Claims 1-18 and 21-32 are pending.
Claims 19 and 20 are canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-18 and 21-32 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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2,6,17-18, and 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being
unpatentable over as Rahman et al, US 20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Rahman discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication([0043]
The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS), comprising: a memory([0049] FIG. 2 a memory 230);
and one or more processors, coupled to the memory ([0063]FIG. 3 The processor 340 can move data into or out of the memory 360 as required by an executing process. ), configured to:
and transmit a beam report based at least in part on detecting the event([0216] In step 1508, the UE
transmits the determined beam report.).
Rahman does not disclose detect an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management,
However, Cha does disclose detect an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management([0313] [0352] The CSI computation is related to CSI acquisition and L1-RSRP computation is related to beam management (BM). Here, CSI-IM (or ZP CSI-RS for IM) is primarily used for inter-cell interference measurement.),
wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount([0453][0462] For example, when a measurement value (e.g., interference signal power, RSRP, etc.) acquired by using RS resource(s) and/or RS resource set(s) (e.g., CSI-IM resource(s)/resource set(S), NZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s) for interference measurement, and ZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s)) for interference measurement configured from the BS exceeds a specific threshold value, the UE may request the BS to change the TX beam of the adjacent cell/BS/TP configured/transmitted to the specific resource(s) or all resource(s). The operation of the UE which performs the new beam setting reporting/request to the BS may be (changed to) interpreted as a meaning of notifying the BS of occurrence of a specific event (e.g., a situation in which a preconfigured of a beam and/or a quality of a beam which the UE currently measures/recognizes is lower than a specific threshold value). Further, a method for notifying the BS of the occurrence of the event may use a resource which the BS configures to the UE and may be performed by a grant-free scheme.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman with detect an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount as taught by Cha. The motivation for doing so would be to improve delay and overhead increase. (Cha, [0019]).
Regarding claim 2, Rahman discloses the UE wherein the beam report includes measurement- based indications for beams associated with different physical cell identifications ([0215][0217][0219] In step 1506, the UE determines the beam report based on a metric, where the beam report includes an indicator indicating at least one of the K resource RSs. The K resource RSs comprises a first subset and a second subset, at least one resource RS in the first subset is transmitted from a serving cell in a set of serving cells and at least one resource RS in the second subset is transmitted from a non-serving cell in a set of non-serving cells, and 1£K. In one embodiment, the information about the cells includes a physical cell identifier (PCID).).
Regarding claim 6, Rahman discloses the UE wherein the beam report includes information associated with one or more of: beams having an inactive non-serving cell physical cell identification ([0184] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the beam measurement and reporting of non-serving cell RSs is facilitated via incorporating non-serving cell information (such as PCID or non-serving cell ID) with at least some TCI state(s).),
beams having a non-serving cell physical cell identification(optional element no citation required),
or beams having a serving cell physical cell identification(optional element no citation required).
Regarding claim 17, Rahman does disclose a base station for wireless communication([0007] a
BS in a wireless communication system is provided), comprising:
a memory([0049] FIG. 2 a memory 230);
and one or more processors, coupled to the memory([0049]FIG. 2 The gNB 102 also includes a controller/processor 225, a memory 230, and a backhaul or network interface 235.), configured to:
and receive the beam report based at least in part on detection of the event([0228] In
step 1606, the BS receives the beam report, where the beam report includes an indicator indicating at
least one of the K resource RSs.).
Rahman does not disclose transmit, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of a configuration for transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detection of an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount.
However, Cha does disclose transmit, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of a configuration for transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detection of an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management([0461-0462] UE operation of transmitting, to BS, a request of transmission/configuration of new DL TX beam(s) different from legacy/currently configured/transmitted TX beam(s). The operation of the UE which performs the new beam setting reporting/request to the BS may be (changed to) interpreted as a meaning of notifying the BS of occurrence of a specific event (e.g., a situation in which a preconfigured of a beam and/or a quality of a beam which the UE currently measures/recognizes is lower than a specific threshold value). Further, a method for notifying the BS of the occurrence of the event may use a resource which the BS configures to the UE and may be performed by a grant-free scheme);
wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount([0453][0462] For example, when a measurement value (e.g., interference signal power, RSRP, etc.) acquired by using RS resource(s) and/or RS resource set(s) (e.g., CSI-IM resource(s)/resource set(S), NZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s) for interference measurement, and ZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s)) for interference measurement configured from the BS exceeds a specific threshold value, the UE may request the BS to change the TX beam of the adjacent cell/BS/TP configured/transmitted to the specific resource(s) or all resource(s). The operation of the UE which performs the new beam setting reporting/request to the BS may be (changed to) interpreted as a meaning of notifying the BS of occurrence of a specific event (e.g., a situation in which a preconfigured of a beam and/or a quality of a beam which the UE currently measures/recognizes is lower than a specific threshold value). Further, a method for notifying the BS of the occurrence of the event may use a resource which the BS configures to the UE and may be performed by a grant-free scheme.);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman with transmit, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of a configuration for transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detection of an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount as taught by Cha. The motivation for doing so would be to improve delay and overhead increase. (Cha, [0019]).
Regarding claim 18, Rahman discloses the base station wherein the beam report includes measurement-based indications for a number of beams and for a number of non-serving cell physical cell identifications (PCIs) in a single reporting instance ([0215][0217] [0219] In step 1506, the UE determines the beam report based on a metric, where the beam report includes an indicator indicating at least one of the K resource RSs. The K resource RSs comprises a first subset and a second subset, at least one resource RS in the first subset is transmitted from a serving cell in a set of serving cells and at least one resource RS in the second subset is transmitted from a non-serving cell in a set of non-serving cellsIn one embodiment, the information about the cells includes a physical cell identifier (PCID).).,
and wherein one or more of the number of beams or the number of non-serving cell PCIs is based at least in part on one or more of a configuration indicated by a network device or a capability of the UE([0149] In one sub-embodiment (1.1), for beam measurement (S1), the UE is configured (via higher layer RRC signaling) with K reference RSs that are SSBs associated with (transmitted from) multiple cells/entities (comprising the serving or/and neighboring cells/entities, where a neighboring cell is equivalent to a non-serving cell). In one example, the configuration includes both location (in frequency domain) and cell-ID/entity-ID associated with each SSB.).
Regarding claim 29, Rahman discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE)([0043] The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS)), comprising:
and transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detecting the event([0216] In
step 1508, the UE transmits the determined beam report.).
Rahman does not disclose detecting an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount;
However, Cha does disclose detecting an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management([0313] [0352] The CSI computation is related to CSI acquisition and L1-RSRP computation is related to beam management (BM). Here, CSI-IM (or ZP CSI-RS for IM) is primarily used for inter-cell interference measurement.);
wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount([0453][0462] For example, when a measurement value (e.g., interference signal power, RSRP, etc.) acquired by using RS resource(s) and/or RS resource set(s) (e.g., CSI-IM resource(s)/resource set(S), NZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s) for interference measurement, and ZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s)) for interference measurement configured from the BS exceeds a specific threshold value, the UE may request the BS to change the TX beam of the adjacent cell/BS/TP configured/transmitted to the specific resource(s) or all resource(s). The operation of the UE which performs the new beam setting reporting/request to the BS may be (changed to) interpreted as a meaning of notifying the BS of occurrence of a specific event (e.g., a situation in which a preconfigured of a beam and/or a quality of a beam which the UE currently measures/recognizes is lower than a specific threshold value). Further, a method for notifying the BS of the occurrence of the event may use a resource which the BS configures to the UE and may be performed by a grant-free scheme.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman with detect an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount as taught by Cha. The motivation for doing so would be to improve delay and overhead increase. (Cha, [0019]).
Regarding claim 30, Rahman does disclose a method of wireless communication performed by a base station([0007] a BS in a wireless communication system is provided), comprising:
and receiving the beam report based at least in part on detection of the event([0228] In
step 1606, the BS receives the beam report, where the beam report includes an indicator indicating at
least one of the K resource RSs.).
Rahman does not disclose transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of a configuration for transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detection of an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount;
However, Cha does disclose transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of a configuration for transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detection of an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management([0461-0462] UE operation of transmitting, to BS, a request of transmission/configuration of new DL TX beam(s) different from legacy/currently configured/transmitted TX beam(s). The operation of the UE which performs the new beam setting reporting/request to the BS may be (changed to) interpreted as a meaning of notifying the BS of occurrence of a specific event (e.g., a situation in which a preconfigured of a beam and/or a quality of a beam which the UE currently measures/recognizes is lower than a specific threshold value). Further, a method for notifying the BS of the occurrence of the event may use a resource which the BS configures to the UE and may be performed by a grant-free scheme);
wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount([0453][0462] For example, when a measurement value (e.g., interference signal power, RSRP, etc.) acquired by using RS resource(s) and/or RS resource set(s) (e.g., CSI-IM resource(s)/resource set(S), NZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s) for interference measurement, and ZP CSI-RS resource(s)/resource set(s)) for interference measurement configured from the BS exceeds a specific threshold value, the UE may request the BS to change the TX beam of the adjacent cell/BS/TP configured/transmitted to the specific resource(s) or all resource(s). The operation of the UE which performs the new beam setting reporting/request to the BS may be (changed to) interpreted as a meaning of notifying the BS of occurrence of a specific event (e.g., a situation in which a preconfigured of a beam and/or a quality of a beam which the UE currently measures/recognizes is lower than a specific threshold value). Further, a method for notifying the BS of the occurrence of the event may use a resource which the BS configures to the UE and may be performed by a grant-free scheme.);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman with transmit, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of a configuration for transmitting a beam report based at least in part on detection of an event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management, wherein the event comprises an identification of a change in a beam quality of one or more measured beams of one or more non-serving cells by more than a preconfigured threshold amount as taught by Cha. The motivation for doing so would be to improve delay and overhead increase. (Cha, [0019]).
Claims 3-5,7-8,10,11, 21, and 24-25are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as Rahman et al, US 20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1 as applied to claim 2 above, and in further view of Cao et al, US 20240179590 A1.
Regarding claim 3 Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE wherein the beam report comprises the measurement-based indications for a number of beams and for a number of non-serving cell physical cell identifications (PCIs) in a single reporting instance, and wherein one or more of the number of beams or the number of non-serving cell PCIs is based at least in part on one or more of a configuration indicated by a network device or a capability of the UE.
However, Cao does disclose the UE wherein the beam report comprises the measurement-based indications for a number of beams and for a number of non-serving cell physical cell identifications (PCIs) in a single reporting instance ([0124-0126] The UE may report the beam measurements to the serving cell in various ways. In one example, the UE forms identification information and the L1 measurements of the beams of the non-serving cells that are determined to be reported into a beam report. The UE also needs to include information about which cell the reference signal comes from in the beam report, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, the contents reported by the UE may include a PCI of the non-serving cell to which the reference signal belongs.),
and wherein one or more of the number of beams or the number of non-serving cell PCIs is based at least in part on one or more of a configuration indicated by a network device or a capability of the UE ([0124-0126] [0135] For example, if a reference signal of a certain non-serving cell is also configured in a reference signal set of the serving cell, the serving cell cannot determine whether the reference signal is from the cell itself or from the non-serving cell by virtue of only the reference signal index. The contents reported by the UE may include a PCI of the non-serving cell to which the reference signal belongs. When the beam reporting is performed with a PUSCH carrying the UCI or MAC CE, the transmission of the PUSCH itself has an implicit error control, that is, when the transmission fails, UE will receive a NACK, and if UE does not receive a NACK, it shows that transmission is successful. Therefore, the UE can know whether the network has correctly received the UCI or the MAC CE. ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE/base station(as cited in claim 19) wherein the beam report comprises the measurement-based indications for a number of beams and for a number of non-serving cell physical cell identifications (PCIs) in a single reporting instance, and wherein one or more of the number of beams or the number of non-serving cell PCIs is based at least in part on one or more of a configuration indicated by a network device or a capability of the UE as taught by Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility management. (Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claim 4, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the beam report, are configured to:transmit the beam report via uplink control information, or transmit the beam report via one or more medium access control elements.
However, Cao does disclose the UE wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the beam report, are configured to:transmit the beam report via uplink control information([0130] The UE may complete the reporting via Uplink Control Information (UCI) carried by Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). In another example, the UE may complete the reporting via UCI or MAC control element (MAC CE) carried by Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).),
or transmit the beam report via one or more medium access control elements(optional element no citation required).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the beam report, are configured to:transmit the beam report via uplink
control information, or transmit the beam report via one or more medium access control
elements as taught by Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient
inter-cell mobility management. (Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claim 5 Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE wherein an instance of the beam report includes information associated with: only beams having a same physical cell identification, or beams having different physical cell identifications.
However, Cao does disclose the UE wherein an instance of the beam report includes information associated with: only beams having a same physical cell identification(optional element no citation required),
or beams having different physical cell identifications ([0126-0127] The contents reported by the UE may include a PCI of the non-serving cell to which the reference signal belongs. Furthermore, the SSB itself consists of a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and 3x336-1008 different PCIs can be expressed based on a sequence ID (0 to 2) of the PSS and a sequence ID (0 to 335) of the SSS.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UEwherein an instance of the beam report includes information associated with:only beams having
a same physical cell identification, or beams having different physical cell identifications as taught by
Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility
management. (Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Rahman and Cha does not disclose the UE/base station(as cited in claim 22) wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit a request for resources to transmit the beam report.
However, Cao does disclose the UE/base station(as cited in claim 22) wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit a request for resources to transmit the beam report([0133] It is more preferable for the UE to trigger the beam reporting, since unnecessary overhead can be avoided for the system. When the UE needs to perform the beam reporting, the UE may request PUCCH resources or PUSCH resources from the serving cell, so as to send the UCI or MAC CE including the contents to be reported.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE/base station(as cited in claim 22) wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:transmit a request for resources to transmit the beam report as taught by Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility management. (Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claim 8, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE wherein the request for the resources comprises: a request to transmit the beam report that includes measurement-based indications for beams associated with different physical cell identifications.
However, Cao does disclose the UE wherein the request for the resources comprises: a request to transmit the beam report that includes measurement-based indications for beams associated with different physical cell identifications ([0127][0133] Furthermore, the SSB itself consists of a Primary
Synchronization Signal (PSS) and a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and 3x336-1008 different PCIs can be expressed based on a sequence ID (O to 2) of the PSS and a sequence ID (0 to 335) of the SSS. In this case, the UE may not need to report the PCI. It is more preferable for the UE to trigger the beam reporting, since unnecessary overhead can be avoided for the system. When the UE
needs to perform the beam reporting, the UE may request PUCCH resources or PUSCH resources from the serving cell, so as to send the UCI or MAC CE including the contents to be reported.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE wherein the request for the resources comprises: a request to transmit the beam report that includes measurement-based
indications for beams associated with different physical cell identifications as taught by Cao. The
motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility management.
(Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claims 10 and 24, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE/base station(as cited in claim 24) wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive an indication of a configuration for receiving a set of periodic or semi- persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement.
However, Cao does disclose the UE/base station(as cited in claim 24) wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive an indication of a configuration for receiving a set of periodic or semi- persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement([0131-0132]
The UE may report the reference signals (e.g., CRIs, SSBRIs, PRS index identifiers) and the L1
measurements (e.g., L1-RSPRs, L1-SINRs) corresponding to the beams in the UCI or MAC CE, and optionally the cell identification information, the type of the measurement event, and the like. The beam reporting may be triggered by the serving cell, including periodic reporting, semi-static reporting, aperiodic reporting, and the UE may perform the reporting on available transmission resources that are configured in advance or temporarily scheduled by the serving cell, such as PUCCH resources or PUSCH resources.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE/base station (as cited in claim 24) wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:receive an indication of a configuration for receiving a set of periodic or semi- persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement as taught by Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility management. (Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claims 11 and 25, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE wherein the set of periodic or semi-persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement comprises one or more of:one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) having a same physical cell identification (PCI) as a serving cell PCI,one or more SSBs having a different PCI from the serving cell PCI, one or more channel state information (CSI) reference signals (RSs) associated with a first quasi-co-location (QCL) resource or a first root QCL resource that is a first SSB having the same PCI as the serving cell PCI, or one or more CSI RSs associated with a second QCL resource or a second root QCL resource that is a second SSB having a different PCI from the serving cell PCI.
However, Cao does disclose the UE wherein the set of periodic or semi-persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement comprises one or more of:one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) having a same physical cell identification (PCI) as a serving cell PCI(optional element citation not required.),
one or more SSBs having a different PCI from the serving cell PCI([0127] Furthermore, the SSB itself consists of a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and 3x336-1008 different PCIs can be expressed based on a sequence ID (0 to 2) of the PSS and a
sequence ID (0 to 335) of the SSS.),
one or more channel state information (CSI) reference signals (RSs) associated with a first quasi-co-location (QCL) resource or a first root QCL resource that is a first SSB having the same PCI as the serving cell PCI(optional element citation not required.),
or one or more CSI RSs associated with a second QCL resource or a second root QCL resource that is a second SSB having a different PCI from the serving cell PCI(optional element citation not required.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE/base station(as cited in claim 20) wherein an instance of the beam report includes information associated with:only beams having a same physical cell identification, or beams having different physical cell identificatithe UE/base station(as cited in claim 25) wherein the set of periodic or semi-persistent reference signals for intercell multi-beam measurement comprises one or more of:one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) having a same physical cell identification (PCI) as a serving cell PCI, one or more SSBs having a different PCI from the serving cell PCI, one or more channel state information (CSI) reference signals (RSs) associated with a first quasi-co-location (QCL) resource or a first root QCL resource that is a first SSB having the same PCI as the serving cell PCI, or one or more CSI RSs associated with a second QCL resource or a second root QCL resource that is a second SSB having a different PCI from the serving cell PCI as taught by Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility management. (Cao, [0007]).
Regarding claim 21, Rahman discloses the base station wherein the beam report includes information associated with one or more of: beams having a non-serving cell physical cell identification([0184] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the beam measurement and reporting of non-serving cell RSs is facilitated via incorporating non-serving cell information (such as PCID or non-serving cell ID) with at least some TCI state(s).),
beams having an inactive non-serving cell physical cell identification(optional element no citation required),
or beams having a serving cell physical cell identification(optional element no citation required);
Rahman and Cha do not disclose and an instance of the beam report includes information associated with: only beams having a same physical cell identification, or beams having different physical cell identifications.
However, Cao does disclose and an instance of the beam report includes information associated with: or beams having different physical cell identifications([0127] Furthermore, the SSB itself consists of a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and 3x336-1008 different PCIs can be expressed based on a sequence ID (0 to 2) of the PSS and a sequence ID (0 to 335) of the SSS.).
only beams having a same physical cell identification(optional element no citation required).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with and an instance of the beam report includes information associated with: only beams having a same physical cell identification, or beams having different physical cell identifications as taught by Cao. The motivation for doing so would be to achieve faster and more efficient inter-cell mobility management. (Cao, [0007]).
Claims 31 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as
Rahman et al, US 20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1 as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Huang et al, US 20230120407 A1.
Regarding claim 31, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises identification of a change to a cell list, the cell list comprising a list of activated cells.
However, Huang does disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises identification of a change to a cell list, the cell list comprising a list of activated cells([0093] [0111-0113] The area scope can be one cell or a list of cells, one RNA or a list of RNAs. The UE can use the CG resource for transmission; and/or generated and/or include the beam measurement result information. The beam change detection can be based on any of a change of beam (e.g. SSB), the quality of source beam (or current serving beam) above a threshold. A time to trigger will be considered in the evaluation as well, in which case the event will be considered as triggered only in case the criteria of the event is satisfied for a period of time.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE of claim 1, wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises identification of a change to a cell list, the cell list comprising a list of activated cells as taught by Huang. The motivation for doing so would be to provide greater throughput to allow more users connected at the same time. (Huang, [0019]).
Regarding claim 32, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE of claim 31, wherein the change to the cell list comprises one or more of: one or more non-serving cells being removed from the cell list, one or more non-serving cells being added to the cell list, or one or more non-serving cells being replaced on the cell list.
However, Huang does disclose the UE of claim 31, wherein the change to the cell list comprises one or more of: one or more non-serving cells being removed from the cell list, one or more non-serving cells being added to the cell list, or one or more non-serving cells being replaced on the cell list([0093] [0111-0113][0131] The area scope can be one cell or a list of cells, one RNA or a list of RNAs. The UE can use the CG resource for transmission; and/or generated and/or include the beam measurement result information. The beam change detection can be based on any of a change of beam (e.g. SSB), the quality of source beam (or current serving beam) above a threshold. A time to trigger will be considered in the evaluation as well, in which case the event will be considered as triggered only in case the criteria of the event is satisfied for a period of time. And the inactive data transmission resource configured by dedicated signaling (e.g. CG resource, C-RNTI) can be removed on UE side.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE of claim 31, wherein the change to the cell list comprises one or more of: one or more non-serving cells being removed from the cell list, one or more non-serving cells being added to the cell list, or one or more non-serving cells being replaced on the cell list as taught by Huang. The motivation for doing so would be to provide greater throughput to allow more users connected at the same time. (Huang, [0019]).
Claims 13,15-16,26, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as
Rahman et al, US 20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1 as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Kim et al, US 20200022010 A1.
Regarding claims 13 and 26, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE/base station(as cited in claim 26) wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises one or more of: identification of one or more non-serving cells having a beam quality that is greater than a reference beam quality, or identification of all reported cells as having beam qualities that are greater than the reference beam quality.
However, Kim does disclose the UE wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises one or more of: identification of one or more non-serving cells having a beam quality that is greater than a reference beam quality([0017-0018] [0106] In each aspect of the present invention, if a specific SS block transmitted by a non-serving cell is detected and if a measurement value for the specific SS block is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the UE may transmit a CSI-RS information request for the nonserving cell. In each aspect of the present invention, if the CSI-RS based RRM measurement is interference measurement, the UE may measure the CSI-RS while matching a received beam of the UE to a serving CSI-RS or a serving SS block of the UE. in the present invention, cell-level RRM means cell quality representative of a specific cell and beam-level RRM means beam quality indicating quality of each beam.),
or identification of all reported cells as having beam qualities that are greater than the reference beam quality(optional element citation not required).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE/base station(as cited in claim 26) wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter- cell beam management comprises one or more of: identification of one or more non-serving cells having a beam quality that is greater than a reference beam quality, or identification of all reported cells as having beam qualities that are greater than the reference beam quality as taught by Kim. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce delay/latency compared to the legacy system is demanded. (Kim, [0008]).
Regarding claim 15, Rahman does disclose the UE wherein the reference beam quality comprises one or more of:a beam quality of an activated non-serving cell([0110][0184] The UL multibeam operation 1000 starts with the gNB/NW signaling to a UE an aperiodic CSI-RS (AP-CSI-RS) trigger or indication (step 1001). Upon receiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 1002), the UE measures the AP-CSI-RS and, in turn, calculates and reports a "beam metric" (indicating quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis) (step 1003). In some embodiments of this disclosure, the beam measurement and reporting of non-serving cell RSs is facilitated via incorporating non-serving cell information (such as PCID or non-serving cell ID) with at least some TCI state(s).),
a beam quality of a serving cell(optional element citation not required),
a configured beam quality threshold(optional element citation not required),
or a beam quality associated with a previous beam report(optional element citation not required).
Regarding claims 16 and 28, Rahman and Cha do not disclose the UE/base station(as cited in
claim 28) wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises one or more of: identification of one or more non-serving cells having a beam quality that is greater than a reference beam quality by a threshold amount, or identification of all reported cells as having beam qualities that are greater than the reference beam quality by the threshold amount.
However, Kim does disclose the UE/base station(as cited in
claim 28) wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter-cell beam management further comprises one or more of: identification of one or more non-serving cells having a beam quality that is greater than a reference beam quality by a threshold amount ([0189] [0206] For beam-level RRM, if a measurement reporting event for a CSI-RS having RSRP of a predetermined threshold or more is triggered, the UE reports RSRP for the CSI-RS. If an SS block connected to a corresponding CSI-RS is previously signaled, the UE may report SS block RSRP connected to the CSI-RS while reporting CSI-RS RSRP. If it is desired to measure interference of another beam affecting the serving beam (or serving CSI-RS) thereof, the UE may fix a received beam at a specific beam (or non-serving CSI-RS) and measure a corresponding CSI-RS in order to measure the interference quantity from a specific beam (or a non-serving CSI-RS) of a specific neighboring cell.),
or identification of all reported cells as having beam qualities that are greater than the reference beam quality by the threshold amount(optional element citation not required).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman and Cha with the UE /base station(as cited in claim 28) wherein the event associated with beam reporting for inter- cell beam management comprises one or more of: identification of one or more non-serving cells having a beam quality that is greater than the reference beam quality by a threshold amount, or identification of all reported cells as having beam qualities that are greater than the reference beam quality by the threshold amount as taught by Kim. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce delay/latency compared to the legacy system is demanded. (Kim, [0008]).
Claims 14 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as Rahman et al,
US 20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1 as applied to claim 13 above, in view of Kim et al, US 20200022010 A1, and in further view of Eyuboglu et al, US 11271699 B1.
Regarding claims 14 and 27, Rahman, Cha, and Kim do not disclose the UE wherein the beam qualities comprise one or more of: an average beam quality of multiple beams having a same physical cell identification (PCI),a minimum beam quality of the multiple beams having the same PCI, a maximum beam quality of the multiple beams having the same PCI, or sample beam qualities of multiple measurements of sets of beam qualities.
However, Eyuboglu does disclose the UE wherein the beam qualities comprise one or more of:an average beam quality of multiple beams having a same physical cell identification (PCI) (col. 62 row 18-23 and 28-32 Each SSB transmission in an SSB beam sweep is represented by a 6-bit index and otherwise carries the same digital information; i.e., PCI and MIB, but individual SSB transmissions in an SSB beam sweep may use different Tx beam(s). Tx beam(s) are generated using analog, digital, or hybrid analog/digital beamforming. This allows UEs to measure signal quality for each SSB (index) over multiple SSB burst sets, determine the best Rx beam to receive the SSB and also average the measurements over a time interval when selecting the cell (PCI) and the best SSB.),
a minimum beam quality of the multiple beams having the same PCI(optional element citation not required),
a maximum beam quality of the multiple beams having the same PCI(optional element citation not required),
or sample beam qualities of multiple measurements of sets of beam qualities(optional element citation not required).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman, Cha, and Kim with the UE/base station(as cited in claim 27) wherein the beam qualities comprise one or more of:an average beam quality of multiple beams having a same physical cell identification (PCI), a minimum beam quality of the
multiple beams having the same PCI, a maximum beam quality of the multiple beams having the same
PCI, or sample beam qualities of multiple measurements of sets of beam qualities as taught by
Eyuboglu. The motivation for doing so would be to improve the reliability of initial access in single-cell
networks. (Eyuboglu, [col.62 row. 52-53]).
Claims 9 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as Rahman et al,
US 20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1, in view of Cao et al, US 20240179590 A1 as applied to claim 7 above, in view of Zhu et al, US 20220046458 A1, and in further view of Cirik et al, US 20190306765 A1.
Regarding claims 9 and 23, Rahman does disclose the UE wherein the request for the resources comprises:a single bit indication([0049] This configuration can be via RRC signaling including a bitmap indicating cell-IDs//entity-IDs.),
Rahman, Cha, and Cao do not disclose multi-bit indication within uplink control information([0487] In yet another example, for the one-bitflag/multi-bit indicator in uplink RS/channel parameter(s)/configuration(s) indicating the non-serving (or neighboring) cell RS as the reference RS for
setting the spatial transmission filter for SRS/PUCCH or as the path-loss RS for PUCCH/PUSCH),,
However, Zhu does disclose an indication of a channel state information report configuration identification for the beam report([0113] This disclosure considers various design aspects and enhancements for TCI state/beam indication, beam measurement and reporting, and uplink RS/channel configurations in an inter-cell system wherein different cells/TRPs could broadcast different PCIs and/or one or more cells/TRPs could broadcast different PCIs from that of the serving cell/TRP. )),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman, Cha, and Cao with a multi-bit indication within uplink control information, an indication of a channel state information report configuration identification for the beam report as taught by Zhu. The motivation for doing so would be to improve the system reliability. (Zhu, [0107]).
Rahman, Cha, Cao, and Zhu do not disclose a multi-bit indication within a periodic physical uplink control channel occasion,a multi-bit indication within a medium access control control element, or an indication of a physical cell identification that the UE is to report within the beam report.
However, Cirik does disclose a multi-bit indication within a periodic physical uplink control channel occasion([0263] FIG. 25 shows a table of an example mapping ofL1-RSRP values to 7-bit values
for a periodic PUCCH beam reporting. To report L1-RSRP values in the range of[-140, -44] dBm, with a
7-bit value assigned to each 1 dB step size, another 7-bit value assigned to indicate all values less than
-140 dBm, and another 7-bit value assigned to indicate all values greater than -44 dBm, 98 7-bit values
may be used, leaving 30 7-bit values for other uses. ),
a multi-bit indication within a medium access control element ([0162] A MAC subheader may comprise: an R field comprising one bit; an F field with one bit in length; an LCID field with multiple bits in length; an L field with multiple bits in length, for example, if the MAC subheader corresponds to a MAC SDU, a variable-sized MAC CE, and/or padding.),
or an indication of a physical cell identification that the UE is to report within the beam report (optional element citation not required).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman, Cha, Cao, and Zhu with a multi-bit indication within a periodic physical uplink control channel occasion, a multi-bit indication within a medium access control element, or an indication of a physical cell identification that the UE is to report within the beam report as taught by Cirik. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce interference to and from one or more neighbor carriers. (Cirik, [0092]).
Claim 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as Rahman et al, US
20210153085 A1, in view of Cha et al, US 20210376894 A1, in view of Cao et al, US 20240179590 A1 as applied to claim 10 above, and in further view of Ying et al, US 20240340152 A1.
Regarding claim 12, Rahman, Cha, and Cao do not discloses the UE wherein the set of periodic or semi-persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement comprises:a number of reference signals that is based at least in part on a capability of the UE.
However, Ying does disclose the UE wherein the set of periodic or semi-persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement comprises:a number of reference signals that is based at least in part on a capability of the UE ([0228] A capability signalling (e.g., csi-ReportFramework, csi- ReportFrameworkExt-mobility) may comprise a parameter (e.g., simultaneousCSI-Reportsnonservingcell) which indicates the number of CSI report(s) for which the UE can measure and
process reference signals simultaneously in all non-serving cell(s) for which this capability is provided.
The CSI report comprises periodic, semi-persistent and aperiodic CSI and any latency classes and
codebook types. The CSI report in simultaneous CSI-Reports-nonserving cell includes the beam report and CSI report. Whether to apply/use/implement the maximum number of CSI processing units (CPU)
associated with non-serving cell(s) for L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility and/or inter-cell mTRP. ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of
the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Rahman, Cha, and Cao with the UE wherein the set of periodic or semi-persistent reference signals for inter-cell multi-beam measurement comprises:a number of reference signals that is based at least in part on a capability of the UE as taught by Ying. The motivation for doing so would be to provide support and specification for the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). (Cirik, [0052]).
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.
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/RYA TEON NELSON/Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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