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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 8-11, 13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (Pub No 20190014493) further in view of Kim (Pub No 20210007068)
Regarding claim 1 and 6 and 11,
Kim’93 teaches a terminal, comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores a computer program;
a memory, a processor, and a program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, wherein the program is executed by the processor to implement:
receiving a quasi co-location (QCL) configuration parameter for measuring a neighboring cell, wherein the neighboring cell is a cell adjacent to a serving cell of the terminal, and the QCL configuration parameter is used to determine a synchronization signal block (SSB) set; and (interpreted as According to another embodiment of the disclosure, the base station may transmit to the UE the information on the QCL assumption between the SS-blocks with the same SS-block index in the time domain through an RRC message, see para [0046].
determining, based on the SSB set, a measurement result of the neighboring cell; (interpreted as The terminal may also perform measurement in the serving and neighboring cells under the assumption that the neighboring cells are transmitting the SS-blocks at the same M frequency locations, see para [0064])
However Kim’93 does not teach wherein a modulo operation result of a first index of each SSB in the SSB set is the same, the first index is determined based on a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and the first index is an index of the SSB.
Kim’68 teaches wherein a modulo operation result of a first index of each SSB in the SSB set is the same, the first index is determined based on a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and the first index is an index of the SSB. (interpreted as the UE may recognize that both SSBs are SSB #0 (because the modulo values between DMRS sequence indexes and Lm are equally 0), and acquire SFN information by combining PBCHs included in both SSBs, see para [0613])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the SSBs as taught by Kim’93 with the modulo for determining the SSBs are the same as taught by Kim’68 with the motivation being to determine that the two SSBs are the same for performing measurements.
Regarding claim 3 and 8 and 13,
Kim’93 teaches the method according to claim 1, however does not teach further comprising: receiving SSB measurement timing configurations (SMTC) information; wherein each SSB in the SSB set is within a measurement window corresponding to the SMTC information.
Kim’68 teaches further comprising: receiving SSB measurement timing configurations (SMTC) information; wherein each SSB in the SSB set is within a measurement window corresponding to the SMTC information. (interpreted as An SS-RSRP is defined as the linear average of the power of REs carrying an SSS in a frequency bandwidth. Measurement time resources for the SS-RSRP are confined within an SS/PBCH block measurement time configuration (SMTC) window duration, see para [0247]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the SSBs as taught by Kim’93 with the SMTC as taught by Kim’68 with the motivation being to conserve resources by using a window for performing specific task.
Regarding claim 4 and 9 and 14,
Kim’93 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving a QCL configuration parameter for measuring a neighboring cell comprises: receiving a system information block (SIB) or a radio resource control (RRC) message, wherein the SIB or the RRC message carries the QCL configuration parameter for measuring a neighboring cell. (interpreted as a base station may configure to the UE whether the UE assumes the same QCL among all SS-blocks with the same SS-block index in the frequency domain using an RRC message as shown in Table 1. If an indicator indicating whether the same QCL is assumed among the SS-blocks in the frequency domain is set to ON, the UE may assume the same QCL among all SS-blocks with the same SS-block index in the frequency domain. This assumption may be identically applied to the serving and neighboring cells., see para [0045]
Regarding claim 5 and 10 and 15,
Kim’93 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the QCL configuration parameter is configured per cell, or the QCL configuration parameter is configured per frequency-domain resource. (interpreted as If the same QCL index is assigned to the SS-blocks with different SS-block indices in the frequency domain, the UE may apply the same QCL assumption among the SS-blocks. Here, the terminal may assume that the SS-block corresponding to a reference frequency location agreed between the base station and the UE has the SS-block index and QCL index that are identical to each other, see para [0046])
Claim(s) 2, 7, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (Pub No 20190014493) further in view of Kim (Pub No 20210007068) and Tang (Pub No 20210367825)
Regarding claim 2 and 7 and 12,
Kim’93 teaches the method according to claim 1, however does not teach wherein the QCL configuration parameter comprises a QCL modulus q, and that the modulo operation result of the first index of each SSB in the SSB set is the same comprises: the modulo operation result of the first index of each SSB with respect to q is the same.
Tang teaches wherein the QCL configuration parameter comprises a QCL modulus q, and that the modulo operation result of the first index of each SSB in the SSB set is the same comprises: the modulo operation result of the first index of each SSB with respect to q is the same. (interpreted as wherein the QCL configuration parameter comprises a QCL modulus q, and that the modulo operation result of the first index of each SSB in the SSB set is the same comprises: the modulo operation result of the first index of each SSB with respect to q is the same, see para [0054])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the QCL parameters as taught by Kim’93 in view of Kim’68 with the QCL modulus as taught by Tang with the motivation being to combine and filter the measurements to improve system performance.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAO G NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7732. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10pm - 6:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Huy Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BAO G NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2461
/HUY D VU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2461