Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 12 and 13, filed 8/4/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 35 USC § 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Palm.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-10, 12-23, and 25-30 ae rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liao (US 2020/0221308) in view of Palm et al. (US 2016/0262053) (“Palm”).
For claims 1, 14, 27, and 30; Liao discloses: each subband group of the set of subband groups comprising a plurality of non-contiguous subbands (paragraph 41: intra-band non-contiguous spectrum using cluster BWP configuration…The radio resource clusters in a DL or UL BWP is contiguous or non-contiguous) of a same radio frequency spectrum band (paragraph 41: intra-band non-contiguous spectrum using cluster BWP configuration), wherein each subband of the plurality of non-contiguous subbands comprises one or more sub-component carriers (paragraph 41: Each radio resource cluster contains a set of contiguous resource blocks (RBs) in frequency domain); and receive a control message that indicates scheduling information associated with one or more messages for communication via the virtual cell (paragraph 36: If a UE-specific DL BWP is a multi-cluster DL BWP, at least one of radio resource clusters within the UE-specific DL BWP shall be associated with at least one CORESET for DL/UL scheduling), wherein the one or more messages are scheduled on a set of resources corresponding to one or more subband groups of the set of subband groups based at least in part on the subset of the set of configuration parameters of the virtual cell that the UE supports (paragraph 35: UE 702 receives one or multiple UE-specific BWP configurations from the network through dedicated RRC signals. Each UE-specific BWP configuration can be either a single-cluster BWP or a multi-cluster BWP. In addition to UE-specific BWP configuration, the UE also receives CORESET configurations, each of which is associated to a DL BWP. When a CORESET is associated with a DL BWP, the frequency-domain location of the CORESET shall be within the DL BWP no matter it's a single-cluster BWP or a multi-cluster BWP. The network shall not configure to a UE a DL BWP (or UL BWP) with a number of radio resource clusters larger than the UE capability reported to the network).
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Palm from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receive an indication of a set of configuration parameters of a virtual cell that supports communications for the UE (paragraph 39-40: the base station want information regarding the frequency bands and/or frequency band combinations supported by the wireless device 501. Thus, the base station may send an enquiry message to the wireless device…The message may comprise parameters for selecting the subset of a total number of frequency bands and/or frequency band combinations supported by the wireless device), the set of configuration parameters indicating a set of subband groups associated with the virtual cell (paragraph 40-41: the eNB informs the UE of the different bands that it supported…The eNB could also include information such as its network supported bands/CA combinations); transmit a capability message indicating a capability of the UE to support a subset of the set of configuration parameters of the virtual cell (paragraph 41-43: The UE will then report the band or band combinations that it supports that matches those bands that the eNB request…wireless device may thereafter select the subset based on the provided parameters and send the subset to the base station in a carrier aggregation compatibility report). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the capability negotiation as described by Palm in the configuration of subband clusters described by Liao. The motivation is to improve reporting capability information of a wireless device in which an amount of utilized system resources may be reduced.
For claims 2, 15, and 28; Liao discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Palm from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receive an indication of a set of bandwidth aggregation states associated with the virtual cell, wherein a bandwidth aggregation state of the set of bandwidth aggregation states corresponds to a respective quantity of subband groups configured for the virtual cell, a respective frequency bandwidth configured for the communications with the UE via the virtual cell, a respective threshold quantity of subbands included in each subband group of the quantity of subband groups, a respective threshold frequency gap between adjacent subbands of a subband group, or any combination thereof (paragraph 56: eNB indicates interest in band A, band B, band C). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the capability negotiation as described by Palm in the configuration of subband clusters described by Liao. The motivation is to improve reporting capability information of a wireless device in which an amount of utilized system resources may be reduced.
For claims 3, 16, and 29; Liao discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Palm from similar fields of endeavor teaches: transmit an indication of a subset of the set of bandwidth aggregation states associated with the virtual cell that the UE supports (paragraph 57-58: UE supports CA between band A+band B, band B+band C and band A+band D The UE only has to report the first two combinations). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the capability negotiation as described by Palm in the configuration of subband clusters described by Liao. The motivation is to improve reporting capability information of a wireless device in which an amount of utilized system resources may be reduced.
For claims 4 and 17; Liao discloses: wherein the set of resources corresponding to the scheduled one or more messages is based at least in part on a first frequency bandwidth of a first bandwidth aggregation state of the set of bandwidth aggregation states, a first quantity of subband groups associated with the first bandwidth aggregation state, or both (paragraph 38: if the active DL BWP is BWP #1 for a UE and each radio resource cluster in BWP #1 corresponds to a subchannel, the base station performs LBT over each radio resource cluster in BWP #1 and transmits the serving RAT signal over the radio resource cluster(s) where LBT passes. The subchannel can be either defined for a frequency band or configured by the network. UE then filters the received signal in each radio resource cluster in BWP #1, performs serving RAT signal detection in each radio resource cluster in BWP #1, and decodes the serving RAT signal in the radio resource cluster(s) where the serving RAT signal is detected. Similarly, if the active DL BWP is BWP #2 for a UE and part of radio resource clusters in BWP #2 consist of multiple subchannels, the base station performs LBT over each radio resource cluster in BWP #2 and transmits the serving RAT signal over the radio resource cluster(s) where LBT passes), and wherein the first bandwidth aggregation state is based at least in part on the subset of the set of configuration parameters of the virtual cell that the UE supports (paragraph 35: UE 702 receives one or multiple UE-specific BWP configurations from the network through dedicated RRC signals. Each UE-specific BWP configuration can be either a single-cluster BWP or a multi-cluster BWP. In addition to UE-specific BWP configuration, the UE also receives CORESET configurations, each of which is associated to a DL BWP. When a CORESET is associated with a DL BWP, the frequency-domain location of the CORESET shall be within the DL BWP no matter it's a single-cluster BWP or a multi-cluster BWP. The network shall not configure to a UE a DL BWP (or UL BWP) with a number of radio resource clusters larger than the UE capability reported to the network).
For claims 5 and 18; Liao discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Palm from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receive an indication of a first subband group comprising a first subband of a first band of a first radio frequency spectrum band and a second subband of the first band (paragraph 52: the eNB indicates interest for all the UEs supported bands or band-combinations). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the capability negotiation as described by Palm in the configuration of subband clusters described by Liao. The motivation is to improve reporting capability information of a wireless device in which an amount of utilized system resources may be reduced.
For claims 6 and 19; Liao discloses: the first subband comprises a second set of resources corresponding to a plurality of component carriers of the first band, and wherein the second set of resources is contiguous over the plurality of component carriers (paragraph 30. 41: The radio resource clusters can be either distributed (e.g., distributed multi-cluster BWP 320) or localized (e.g., localized multi-cluster BWP 330) …Each radio resource cluster contains a set of contiguous resource blocks (RBs) in frequency domain).
For claims 7 and 20; Liao discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Palm from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receive an indication of a first subband group comprising a first subband of a first band of a first radio frequency spectrum band and a second subband of a second band of the first radio frequency spectrum band (paragraph 52: the eNB indicates interest for all the UEs supported bands or band-combinations). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the capability negotiation as described by Palm in the configuration of subband clusters described by Liao. The motivation is to improve reporting capability information of a wireless device in which an amount of utilized system resources may be reduced.
For claims 8 and 21; Liao discloses: wherein the first subband group comprises a third subband corresponding to a frequency gap between the first band and the second band (paragraph 38, fig. 8: if the active DL BWP is BWP #2 for a UE and part of radio resource clusters in BWP #2 consist of multiple subchannels, the base station performs LBT over each radio resource cluster in BWP #2 and transmits the serving RAT signal over the radio resource cluster(s) where LBT passes).
For claims 9 and 22; Liao discloses: receive an indication of a first subband group comprising one or more first subbands of a first band of a first radio frequency spectrum band and a second subband group comprising one or more subbands of a second band of the first radio frequency spectrum band (paragraph 38: if the active DL BWP is BWP #1 for a UE and each radio resource cluster in BWP #1 corresponds to a subchannel, the base station performs LBT over each radio resource cluster in BWP #1 and transmits the serving RAT signal over the radio resource cluster(s) where LBT passes. The subchannel can be either defined for a frequency band or configured by the network. UE then filters the received signal in each radio resource cluster in BWP #1, performs serving RAT signal detection in each radio resource cluster in BWP #1, and decodes the serving RAT signal in the radio resource cluster(s) where the serving RAT signal is detected. Similarly, if the active DL BWP is BWP #2 for a UE and part of radio resource clusters in BWP #2 consist of multiple subchannels, the base station performs LBT over each radio resource cluster in BWP #2 and transmits the serving RAT signal over the radio resource cluster(s) where LBT passes) (paragraph 35: UE 702 receives one or multiple UE-specific BWP configurations from the network through dedicated RRC signals. Each UE-specific BWP configuration can be either a single-cluster BWP or a multi-cluster BWP. In addition to UE-specific BWP configuration, the UE also receives CORESET configurations, each of which is associated to a DL BWP. When a CORESET is associated with a DL BWP, the frequency-domain location of the CORESET shall be within the DL BWP no matter it's a single-cluster BWP or a multi-cluster BWP. The network shall not configure to a UE a DL BWP (or UL BWP) with a number of radio resource clusters larger than the UE capability reported to the network).
For claims 10 and 23; Liao discloses: receive a reference signal via a first subband of a first subband group, wherein the reference signal indicates timing information associated with both the first subband and a second subband of the first subband group (paragraph 33: UE 602 performs cell detection and synchronization, which detects a serving cell and synchronizes with the serving cell by gNB 601. In step 612, UE 602 acquires system information provided by gNB 601, e.g., master information block (MIB) carried in physical broadcast channel (PBCH). The MIB contains the essential DL CORESET configuration, which defines the initial DL BWP. The essential SIBs scheduled via the essential DL CORESET further configure the initial DL BWP and the initial UL BWP. The essential DL CORESET (e.g. CORESET #0) and SSB is contained in at least one radio resource clusters within the initial DL BWP, for UE to receive broadcast message, perform RACH procedure and perform SSB related measurements).
For claims 12 and 25; Liao discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Palm from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receive the indication via a system information message or a radio resource control message (paragraph 53, 62: the eNB broadcasts specific bands and/or band-combinations that are of interest as part of System Information Block (SIB). The SIB used could for example be, but is not limited to, SIB5). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the capability negotiation as described by Palm in the configuration of subband clusters described by Liao. The motivation is to improve reporting capability information of a wireless device in which an amount of utilized system resources may be reduced.
For claims 13 and 26; Liao discloses: wherein the one or more sub-component carriers comprise a fraction of a component carrier (paragraph 3, 41: Multiple access in the downlink is achieved by assigning different sub-bands (i.e., groups of subcarriers, denoted as resource blocks (RBs)) …Each radio resource cluster contains a set of contiguous resource blocks (RBs) in frequency domain).
Claim(s) 11 and 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over of Liao in view Palm as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Gonuguntla et al. (US 2024/0421958) in view of Kazmi et al. (US 2025/0159706) (“Kazmi”).
For claim 11 and 24; Liao discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Gonuguntla from similar fields of endeavor teaches: in accordance with a first spatial filter, transmission via a first subband of a first subband group; in accordance with the first spatial filter, transmission via a second subband of the first subband group (paragraph 128: a CBM UE 100 can only manage one beam at any given point in time. For Carrier aggregation (CA) this leads to a necessary precondition that all Component Carriers (CC) involved in CA have to be collocated and that the CC shall have the same spatial domain filter, i.e., the same TX and RX lobes in space). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the beam management as described by Gonuguntla in the distributed spectrum integration as described by Liao. The motivation is to improve CA over CBM.
Liao does not expressly disclose, but Kazmi from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receive, at a first transmit power (paragraph 16: the first downlink BWP and the second downlink BWP may be determined to be similar to each other when at least one of following conditions is satisfied:… a difference between transmission powers of the first RS and the second RS is within a predetermined threshold power; the difference between transmission powers of the first RS and the second RS is known to the terminal device) and a first reference signal via a first subband of a first subband group (paragraph 14: a bandwidth of the first downlink BWP may contain a first reference signal (RS), and a bandwidth of the second downlink BWP may contain a second RS); and receive, at a second transmit power (paragraph 16: the first downlink BWP and the second downlink BWP may be determined to be similar to each other when at least one of following conditions is satisfied:… a difference between transmission powers of the first RS and the second RS is within a predetermined threshold power; the difference between transmission powers of the first RS and the second RS is known to the terminal device) and a second reference signal via a second subband of the first subband group (paragraph 14: a bandwidth of the first downlink BWP may contain a first reference signal (RS), and a bandwidth of the second downlink BWP may contain a second RS), wherein a difference between the second transmit power and the first transmit power satisfies a threshold (paragraph 16: the first downlink BWP and the second downlink BWP may be determined to be similar to each other when at least one of following conditions is satisfied:… a difference between transmission powers of the first RS and the second RS is within a predetermined threshold power). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the similarity check as described by Kazmi in the distributed spectrum integration as described by Liao. The motivation is to improve compatibility of grouped clusters under the single carrier bwp.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Selvanesan et al. (US 2024/0406985); Selvanesan discloses CA in NR in accordance with embodiments allows to aggregate carriers in different BWPs, and thus, frequency bands with different numerologies can be aggregated. This has implications on timings and data rates if numerologies differ between the aggregated carriers.
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/JOHN D BLANTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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