DETAILED ACTION
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-3, 5-8, 10-12, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bala et al. (US 2022/0303795, “Bala”) in view of Islam et al. (US 2020/0008260, “Islam”) and further in view of Sahin et al. (US 2022/0095228, “Sahin”).
Regarding claim 1, Bala discloses an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to (See Fig.1B):
- determine a wake-up signal beam failure relating to a subset of configured wake-up signal beams in a cell (See 604 Fig.6 and ¶.234, detect a beam failure for the WUS (Wake-Up Signal) monitoring (BF-WUS) based on a failure of all beams in the subset of beams; See ¶.53, each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown));
- provide to a node controlling the cell a request to recover from the wake-up signal beam failure, the request comprising a list of wake-up signal beam identities ordered based on received signal strengths at which the respective wake-up signal beams are received at the apparatus (See ¶.13, the WTRU may request the WUS-BFR (Wake-Up Signal Beam Failure Recovery) by informing a network node about the BF-WUS and by indicating the at least one preferred beam for the WUS-BFR. A WTRU may receive reconfigured WUS beams (e.g., including the at least one preferred beam) from the network node for the WUS BFR; See ¶.170, a WTRU may send (e.g., to a network) a request for beam recovery of a WUS, for example, if the WTRU detects BF-WUS (e.g., as shown in 608 of FIG. 6); See 606 Fig.6 and ¶.234, the WUS-BFR may be requested by informing a network node about the BF-WUS and by indicating the at least one preferred beam for the WUS BFR; Examiner’s Note: Islam discloses the limitation “a list of WUS beam identities ordered based on received signal strengths”).
Bala does not explicitly disclose what Islam discloses,
- the request comprising a list of wake-up signal beam identities ordered based on received signal strengths at which the respective wake-up signal beams are received at the apparatus (Islam, See 129, the feedback information may include beam indexes of beams selected by the UE from the first ordered set of beams. For example, the feedback information may indicate a ranked list of beams from the first ordered set of beams. The ranked list generated by the UE based on the signal quality of a subset of reference signals transmitted using the respective beam; See ¶.81, received beam determined to have a highest signal strength; Examiner’s Note: Sahin discloses “a list ordered based on received signal strength”);
- receive a response from the node controlling the cell, the response indicating a second subset of the configured wake-up signal beams in the cell (Islam, See 1520 Fig.15, the base station may identify a second beam of the first ordered set of beams to be used to communicate the wake-up signal to the UE based on the feedback information); and
- begin monitoring the second subset of the configured wake-up signal beams (Islam, See 1535 Fig.15, UE monitors the set of reference signals using the second ordered set of beams transmitted by the base station; See ¶.141, when listening to the reference signals transmitted using the second ordered set of beams, the UE may monitor the primary beam first (e.g., the beam with the best signal quality). If the signal quality of primary beam of the second ordered set of beams does not satisfy a threshold, the UE may monitor the beam with the second best signal quality).
Islam discloses the method of generating a list based on the signal quality, but does not explicitly disclose the limitations “ordered/ranked list based on received signal strengths.” However, Sahin discloses “ordered/ranked list based on received signal strengths (Sahin, ¶.153, the preferred beam index may be, for example, the beam index that provides high (e.g., a highest) received signal strength (e.g., L1-reference signal received power (L1-RSRP), L1-reference signal received quality (L1-RSRQ), or L1-SINR)).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “the request comprising a list of wake-up signal beam identities ordered based on received signal quality at which the respective wake-up signal beams are received at the apparatus receive a response from the node controlling the cell, the response indicating a second subset of the configured wake-up signal beams in the cell begin monitoring the second subset of the configured wake-up signal beams” as taught by Islam and “an ordered/ranked list based on received signal strengths” as taught by Sahin into the system of Bala, so that it provides a way of ranking the beams of the ordered set of beams based on signal quality (e.g. a signal strengths) of at least a subset of beams (Islam, See ¶.127; Sahin, See ¶.153).
Regarding claim 2, Bala discloses “wake-up signal beams in the cell outside of the subset of wake-up signal beams are not monitored by the apparatus before the wake-up signal beam failure (See ¶.9, skip decoding of the WUS in the WUS-BFR and monitor for the WUS using the selected beam based on the message received from the gNB; See ¶.12, a WTRU, during some periods, may be allowed to not to monitor for a WUS. A WTRU may be configured to not monitor for a WUS while in certain states, for example, to avoid misinterpretation/misdetection of signals as a WUS. A WTRU may enter wake-up state and may not monitor for a WUS while it is not in a wake-up state. A WTRU may be configured to stay in a wake-up state regardless whether a WUS has been received. A WTRU may be configured to ignore WUSs under various conditions, for example, when the WTRU is not in a wake-up state).”
Regarding claim 3, Bala discloses “providing the request and receiving the response are performed while remaining in a radio resource control, RRC, inactive state (See ¶.3, power saving signal operations may include beam failure detection (e.g., beam failure wake up signal (BF-WUS) detection) and beam failure recovery (BFR) operations (e.g., WUS-BFR operations); See Fig.3, power saving signal during inactive time; See ¶.183, a WUS may be configured by an RRC; See ¶.214, PSS (Power Saving Signal) WUS search space monitoring and DRX parameters may be configured, for example, via one or more of the following: DRX configuration, DCI, and/or RRC signaling).”
Regarding claim 5, Bala discloses “determining the wake-up signal beam failure is performed based on determining that wake-up signal beacon transmissions on each one of the wake-up signal beams in the subset are below a threshold (See ¶.13, a certain type of signal (e.g., aWUS) may be used and may be associated with beam failure detection and/or recovery. A WTRU may measure a beam quality of one or more beam reference signals associated with configured CORESETs. A WTRU may determine that a beam may have failed, for example, if the beam measurement quality is below a threshold).”
Regarding claim 6, Bala discloses “select a synchronization signal block beam to use based at least in part on a mapping between synchronization signal block (SSB) beams and the configured wake-up signal beams (See ¶.146, a TCI state may include a CSI-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) index and/or an SSB index with QCL type information. In an example, a WTRU may apply a receive beam to the OFDM symbol(s). The receive beam may be determined from the CSI-RS or the SSB with QCL Type D; See ¶.151, a WTRU may be triggered to ignore s WUS if a measure (e.g. RSRP) of the RSs indicated by an active TCI state of a CORESET_PSS is below a threshold. In an example, an indicated RS may be an SSB).”
Regarding claim 7, it is an apparatus claim performed by a network node corresponding to the apparatus claim 1 performed by a UE and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 8, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 3 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 10, it is a method claim performed by an apparatus corresponding to the apparatus claim 1 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 11, 12, 14, and 15, they are claims corresponding to claims 2, 3, 5, & 6, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Claims 4, 9, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bala and Islam in view of Sahin and Liao and further in view of Shih et al. (US 2023/0209463, “Shih”).
Regarding claim 4, Bala discloses “providing the request and receiving the response are performed, and using radio RRC signalling or medium access control, MAC, control element signalling (Bala, See ¶.170, a type of physical uplink channel may be determined based on a beam failure type. For example, PRACH (Physical Random Access CH) may be used to indicate a preferred beam if a WTRU declared BF-RL, and PUCCH may be used to indicate a preferred beam if the WTRU declared BF-WUS; See ¶.156, a WTRU may be triggered to ignore a WUS, for example, if a certain time duration exceeds a threshold. A WTRU may start ignoring a PSS (Power Saving Signal), for example, if a time (e.g., from the activation of a TCI state of a CORESET_PSS to the time the WTRU is configured to monitor the PSS) exceeds a threshold. The TCI state of a CORESET_PSS may be activated explicitly (e.g., by a MAC CE) or implicitly; ¶.183, a WUS may be configured by an RRC; See ¶.214, PSS WUS search space monitoring and DRX parameters may be configured, for example, via one or more of the following: DRX configuration, DCI, and/or RRC signaling),”
but do not explicitly disclose what Shih discloses “using a 2-step random access (RA) process or a 4-step RA process (Shih, See ¶.131, if the UE is in RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE may inform the NW via triggering an RA procedure (e.g., a 2-step RA procedure, a 4-step RA procedure via initiating an RRC procedure).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “using a 2-step random access (RA) process or a 4-step RA process” as taught by Shih into the system of Bala, Islam, and Sahin, so that it provides a way for the specific PRACH resources to be applied for the power saving mode switch (Shih, See ¶.131).
Regarding claim 9, Bala, Islam, and Sahin do not explicitly disclose what Shih discloses “store an access stratum context for the user equipment while the user equipment is in the RRC inactive state” (Shih, ¶.28, for a UE in RRC_IDLE state, a UE-specific DRX operation may be configured by an upper layer (e.g., Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer). For a UE in RRC_INACTIVE state, a UE-specific DRX operation may be configured by an upper layer (e.g., NAS layer and/or by Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer; See ¶.48, the UE in RRC_INACTIVE state may receive multiple power saving configurations via NAS message. The NW in the core network may transmit the NAS message to the UE in RRC IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE state via the BS. The BS may encapsulate the NAS message into an RRC message and transmit the RRC message including the NAS message to the UE in RRC_INACTIVE state. The RRC layer of the UE may receive the RRC message from the BS and forward the NAS message in the RRC message to the NAS layer of the UE; See ¶.65, if the UE has the stored power saving configuration, when the UE receives the one power saving configuration from the serving cell via the dedicated RRC message).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “storing an access stratum context for the user equipment while the user equipment is in the RRC inactive state” as taught by Shih into the system of Bala, Islam, and Sahin, so that it provides a way for UE to receive the RRC message from the BS and forward the NAS message in the RRC message to the NAS layer of the UE (Shih, ¶.48).
Regarding claim 13, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 4 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411