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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/03/2025 has been entered.
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, 3, 5-8, 11-12, 14, 16-18, and 22-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei et al. (US 2022/0330348), hereinafter "Wei", in view of Wu et al. (US 2024/0040628), hereinafter “Wu”.
Regarding claims 1, 14, Wei teaches:
A user equipment (UE) (see Wei, Fig. 10, item 1005, par. [0170], lines 1-6: FIG. 10 shows a diagram of a system 1000 including a device 1005 that supports association of SSBs to random access occasions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 1005 may be an example of or include the components of device 705, device 805, or a UE 115 as described herein) or a method for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE) (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0132], lines 1-5: FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a process flow 600 that supports association of SSBs with random access occasions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some aspects, the process flow 600 may be implemented by aspects of the wireless communications system 100), comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code (see Wei, Fig. 10, items 1030 and 1035, par. [0170], lines 6-11: The device 1005 may include components for bi-directional voice and data communications including components for transmitting and receiving communications, including a communications manager 1010, an I/O controller 1015, a transceiver 1020, an antenna 1025, memory 1030, and a processor 1040, and see Wei, par. [0176], lines 9-13: The processor 1040 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (e.g., the memory 1030) to cause the device 1005 to perform various functions (e.g., functions or tasks supporting association of SSBs to random access occasions)); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the UE (see Wei, Fig. 10, items 1030 and 1035, par. [0170], lines 6-11: The device 1005 may include components for bi-directional voice and data communications including components for transmitting and receiving communications, including a communications manager 1010, an I/O controller 1015, a transceiver 1020, an antenna 1025, memory 1030, and a processor 1040, and see Wei, par. [0176], lines 9-13: The processor 1040 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (e.g., the memory 1030) to cause the device 1005 to perform various functions (e.g., functions or tasks supporting association of SSBs to random access occasions)) to:
receive first control signaling indicating a random access configuration (see Wei, Fig. 6, item 605, par. [0133], lines 1-3: At 605, the base station 105-a may transmit to the UE 115-a, and the UE 115-a may receive from the base station 105-a, one or more random access configurations), the random access configuration comprising a plurality of spatial-domain parameters for one or more random access procedures (see Wei, par. [0133], lines 8-10: the first random access configuration may indicate a first configuration period and a first set of random access opportunities for the first configuration period, and see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-7: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index); in this case, the first random access configuration may contain parameters for RACH procedures (i.e. random access procedures)), wherein the random access configuration indicates spatial-domain resources (see Wei, par. [0082], lines 7-12: The sets of parameters may include a variety of parameters, such as a RACH configuration period (e.g., 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms), a RACH format (or PRACH format), and a resource configuration that allocates certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, and/or spatial resources) for the RACH procedures), wherein the spatial-domain resources comprise one or more random access occasions (see Wei, par. [0006], lines 2-12: each of the RACH configurations may configure an association between one or more SSBs in a set of SSBs (e.g., an SSB burst set) and corresponding sets or subsets of RACH resources for RACH opportunities (e.g., assigning resources for corresponding RACH preambles). In such cases, the base station may indicate to its respective UEs, in the RACH configuration, a set of parameters including, for example, a number of transmitted SSBs, a number of SSBs mapped per RACH occasion, a number of contention-based RACH preambles per SSB for one or more RACH occasions, one or more configuration periods, and see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-12: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index). The sets of parameters may include a variety of parameters, such as a RACH configuration period (e.g., 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms), a RACH format (or PRACH format), and a resource configuration that allocates certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, and/or spatial resources) for the RACH procedures; in this case, RACH configuration, which includes resource configuration, may indicate number of SSBs and ratio of SSBs mapped per RACH occasion (i.e. may indicate one or more random access occasions to be used))
However, Wei does not teach:
wherein the one or more random access occasions associated with one or more beams;
receive second control signaling one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE; and
perform a random access procedure via the spatial-domain resources that are different from the one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE.
Wu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the one or more random access occasions associated with one or more beams (see Wu, par. [0228]: The SSB has respective index, and may correspond to different beams (mainly analog beams), respectively. Different beams are transmitted through beam sweeping at multiple occasions to cover different directions of the whole cell. For example, if there are N beams pointing to different directions in a cell, there may be N SSBs actually transmitted in an SSB set cycle, and each SSB corresponds to a different beam and points to a different direction at a different occasion for SSB transmission. In the random access procedure, there is an association between PRACHs and SSB, so that the base station may know the best downlink beam (i.e., the SSB beam associated with the PRACH) through the PRACH; in this case, PRACH is associated with SSB which is associated with beams, corresponding to random access occasions being associated with beams);
receive second control signaling one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE (see Wu, Fig. 4, pars. [0175-0177]: In embodiments of the disclosure, the PRACH resource being muted means that this PRACH resource may not be used by the UE, the UE may not initial a random access procedure on this PRACH resource, and the base station does not need to monitor this PRACH resource. The PRACH resource being muted may also be referred to as the PRACH resource being not available, the PRACH resource being off, the PRACH resource being disabled, or the PRACH resource being deactivated, etc. Correspondingly, the remaining part of PRACH resources is available, and other names may be deduced similarly and will not be repeated here. In embodiments of the disclosure, regardless of the energy saving state or the non-energy saving state of the base station, the base station may indicate, to the UE, available part of PRACH resources and/or unavailable part of PRACH resources in one PRACH resource pool. The UE may receive the information related to PRACH resources and then determine available PRACH resources in the energy saving state and/or non-energy saving state of the base station, i.e., PRACH resources that may be used by the UE, and see pars. [0224-0225]: In embodiments of the disclosure, the first information and/or the second information is indicated by at least one of the following signaling. 1. SIB. That is, the information of available and/or unavailable part of PRACH resources is indicated in the system information. The configuration information is semi-static, that is, it may remain unchanged for a long time. For example, the base station indicates the information of the PRACH resources muted within a period of time, and the PRACH resources muted within this period of time are repetitive in a certain period. The period of the muted PRACH resources and the length of the time window where the muted PRACH resources are located may be a same value, or be configured separately. Similarly, the information of the second PRACH resource pool that is only used in the energy saving state of the base station or the non-energy saving state of the base station may be indicated in the system information; in this case, information on unavailable, disabled, or deactivated PRACH resources is received, corresponding to receiving spatial-domain resources to be disregarded); and
perform a random access procedure via the spatial-domain resources that are different from the one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE (see Wu, Fig. 4, pars. [0176-0179]: In embodiments of the disclosure, regardless of the energy saving state or the non-energy saving state of the base station, the base station may indicate, to the UE, available part of PRACH resources and/or unavailable part of PRACH resources in one PRACH resource pool. The UE may receive the information related to PRACH resources and then determine available PRACH resources in the energy saving state and/or non-energy saving state of the base station, i.e., PRACH resources that may be used by the UE. The UE may initiate random access on this part of PRACH resources, and the base station will monitor this part of PRACH resources. The available PRACH resources in the energy saving state of the base station are not exactly the same as the available PRACH resources in the non-energy saving state of the base station. In operation S102, a PRACH is transmitted to the base station based on the available PRACH resources and the state of the base station; in this case, PRACH is transmitted using available PRACH resources different than the unavailable PRACH resources (i.e. via spatial-domain resources that are different from the one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UE or method of Wei with the resources to be disregarded and random access procedure with different resources of Wu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of improving transmission efficiency and saving power (see Wu, pars. [0228] and [0361]).
Regarding claims 3, 16, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method. Wei further teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive third control signaling indicating one or more additional spatial-domain resources (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0133]: At 605, the base station 105-a may transmit to the UE 115-a, and the UE 115-a may receive from the base station 105-a, one or more random access configurations (e.g., RACH configurations, as described herein), and see par. [0133], lines 11-13: the second random access configuration may indicate a second configuration period and a second set of random access opportunities for the second configuration period, and see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-12: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index). The sets of parameters may include a variety of parameters, such as a RACH configuration period (e.g., 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms), a RACH format (or PRACH format), and a resource configuration that allocates certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, and/or spatial resources) for the RACH procedures) for performing a second random access procedure relative to the spatial-domain resources indicated in the random access configuration (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0137], lines 1-5: At 635, the UE 115-a may determine a first set of random access occasions within a first association period based on the first random access configuration and the second random access configuration, as the UE 115-a may have received at 605; in this case, performance of a random access procedure may be based on resources indicated in a first random access configuration (corresponding to the random access configuration) and resources indicated in a second random access configuration (corresponding to second signaling)), wherein the second random access procedure is performed using at least one of the one or more additional spatial-domain resources (see Wei, Fig. 6, items 655 and 680, par. [0146], lines 1-7: At 680, the UE 115-a may transmit to the base station 105-a, and the base station 105-a may receive from the UE 115-a, a first random access sequence over one or more of the one or more (e.g., the first subset of) random access occasions selected from the first set of random access opportunities (e.g., as the UE 115-a may have determined, or selected, at 655); in this case, the resources indicated by second random access configuration are used as part of the selection for performing random access).
Regarding claims 5, 22, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method. Wei further teaches:
wherein the third control signaling (see Wei, Fig. 6, item 605, par. [0133], lines 1-3: At 605, the base station 105-a may transmit to the UE 115-a, and the UE 115-a may receive from the base station 105-a, one or more random access configurations) indicates a quantity of random access occasions associated with the one or more additional spatial-domain resources (see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-17: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index). The sets of parameters may include a variety of parameters, such as a RACH configuration period (e.g., 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms), a RACH format (or PRACH format), and a resource configuration that allocates certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, and/or spatial resources) for the RACH procedures. For example, in some cases, the resource configuration may be a time-domain resource configuration, which may indicate frame numbers, subframe numbers, a number of RACH slots per subframe, a number of RACH occasions (e.g., time-domain RACH occasions) per slot; in this case, a subsequent RACH configuration (corresponding to second control signaling) may include resource configuration, including of spatial resources, which may configure the number of RACH occasions).
Regarding claims 6, 17, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method. Wei further teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive third control signaling indicating an additional random access configuration index (see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-7: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index), and see Wei, par. [0139], lines 5-9: the second set of random access opportunities may be associated with a random access configuration index of the first random access configuration or the second random access configuration, or both), wherein the additional random access configuration index indicates one or more additional random access occasions (see Wei, par. [0130], lines 2-7: a UE may first map one or more SSBs 510 transmitted from a base station to the UE for one or more RACH occasions (e.g., the low-tier resources 515 allocated for RACH transmissions from the low-tier UE, as described herein) within an association period 525 according to a first RACH configuration index that the UE received; in this case, RACH occasions are mapped for RACH transmissions based on the index (i.e. the index indicates the additional random access occasions)) and a second random access procedure is performed using at least one of the one or more additional random access occasions (see Wei, Fig. 6, items 655 and 680, par. [0146], lines 1-7: At 680, the UE 115-a may transmit to the base station 105-a, and the base station 105-a may receive from the UE 115-a, a first random access sequence over one or more of the one or more (e.g., the first subset of) random access occasions selected from the first set of random access opportunities (e.g., as the UE 115-a may have determined, or selected, at 655); in this case, the random access procedure may be performed using the one or more random access occasions as configured with the index).
Regarding claims 7, 18, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method. Wei further teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive third control signaling indicating a random access occasion periodicity (see Wei, Fig. 2, par. [0091], lines 5-9: a RACH configuration may include one or more parameters that indicate a value for a duration of the RACH configuration periods 220-a, for example, a value corresponding to one of 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms, and see Wei, par. [0092], lines 7-10: For example, as shown by the transmission timeline 200-a, each configuration period 220-a has a duration that, according to the configured pattern for the RACH occasions 215-a, includes three RACH occasions 215-a; in this case, a RACH configuration includes configuration periods (corresponding to an indication of a random access occasion periodicity)).
Regarding claims 8, 23, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method. Wei further teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive third control signaling indicating one or more additional time domain resources (see Wei, par. [0109], lines 1-6: the RACH configuration may indicate low-tier resources 315 for low-tier device RACH transmissions via a first RACH configuration index corresponding to a first set of time-domain resources and a second RACH configuration index corresponding to a second set of time-domain resources) for RA configuration for performing a second random access procedure relative to the spatial-domain resources indicated in the random access configuration (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0133], lines 11-13: the second random access configuration may indicate a second configuration period and a second set of random access opportunities for the second configuration period, and see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-12: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index). The sets of parameters may include a variety of parameters, such as a RACH configuration period (e.g., 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms), a RACH format (or PRACH format), and a resource configuration that allocates certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, and/or spatial resources) for the RACH procedures, and see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0137], lines 1-5: At 635, the UE 115-a may determine a first set of random access occasions within a first association period based on the first random access configuration and the second random access configuration, as the UE 115-a may have received at 605, and see Wei, Fig. 6, items 655 and 680, par. [0146], lines 1-7: At 680, the UE 115-a may transmit to the base station 105-a, and the base station 105-a may receive from the UE 115-a, a first random access sequence over one or more of the one or more (e.g., the first subset of) random access occasions selected from the first set of random access opportunities (e.g., as the UE 115-a may have determined, or selected, at 655); in this case, the RACH procedure is performed according to at least second random access configuration which includes time domain resource configurations and spatial domain resource configurations), wherein the second random access procedure is performed using at least one of the one or more additional time domain resources (see Wei, par. [0139], lines 1-9: determining the one or more random access occasions ( )may include identifying a time-domain offset for a first set of random access opportunities relative to a second set of random access opportunities within the first association period where, for example, the second set of random access opportunities may be associated with a random access configuration index of the first random access configuration or the second random access configuration, or both, and see Wei, Fig. 6, items 655 and 680, par. [0146], lines 1-7: At 680, the UE 115-a may transmit to the base station 105-a, and the base station 105-a may receive from the UE 115-a, a first random access sequence over one or more of the one or more (e.g., the first subset of) random access occasions selected from the first set of random access opportunities (e.g., as the UE 115-a may have determined, or selected, at 655); in this case, the random access procedure is performed using random access occasions determined using time-domain resources and configurations).
Regarding claims 11, 24, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method.
Wei does not teach, but Wu teaches:
wherein the second control signaling indicates one or more random access occasions in which the one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE are located (see Wu, pars. [0029-0038]: the PRACH resources include RACH occasions (ROs), and the first information indicates available part of ROs or unavailable part of ROs in the first PRACH resource pool through at least one of the following indication granularities: all ROs in multiple PRACH cycles, all ROs in one association cycle, the association cycle being an association cycle between PRACHs and synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), all ROs in one PRACH cycle, a group of Ros, all ROs associated with one SSB index, all ROs associated with one SSB burst set, all ROs in one time slot, all ROs on one time-domain resource, or one RO; in this case, random access occasions of the PRACH resources are indicated).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UE or method of Wei with the random access occasions of resources to be disregarded of Wu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of improving transmission efficiency and saving power (see Wu, pars. [0228] and [0361]).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE.
Wei does not teach, but Wu teaches:
wherein the one or more of the spatial-domain resources that are to be disregarded by the UE comprise the one or more random access occasions that occur first in time or last in time in a random access slot of one of the one or more of the spatial-domain resources (see Wu, par. [0232]: In embodiments of the disclosure, the PRACH resources include ROs, and the first information indicates available part of ROs and/or unavailable part of ROs in the first PRACH resource pool through at least one of the following indication granularities. That is, the following indication granularities may be combined in various ways, and see pars. [0245-0246]: 7. All ROs in One Time Slot That is, all ROs in one time slot are indicated to be available or unavailable. For example, the base station indicates the related information of the time-domain position of the muted RO; in this case, all random access occasions in a time slot include the first in time or last in time in a random access slot and may all be unavailable or muted (i.e. disregarded)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UE or method of Wei with the random access occasions in a slot of resources to be disregarded of Wu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of improving transmission efficiency and saving power (see Wu, pars. [0228] and [0361]).
Claims 4, 10, 13, 21, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei in view of Wu, as applied to claims 1, 3, 5-8, 11-12, 14, 16-18, and 22-24, and further in view of Shibaike et al. (WO 2024/219411), published 24 October, 2024, hereinafter "Shibaike" (see “WO2024219411_Translation.pdf” for citations).
Regarding claims 4, 21, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method.
However, the combination of Wei in view of Wu does not teach:
wherein the third control signaling indicates a beam associated with the one or more additional spatial-domain resources.
Shibaike, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the third control signaling indicates a beam associated with the one or more additional spatial-domain resources (see Shibaike, page 3, par. 14: As in Figure 1, the common RACH configuration (RACH-ConfigCommon) may include a generic RACH configuration (rach-ConfigGeneric), a total number of RA preambles (totalNumberOfRA-Preambles), and SSB per RACH occasion and contention-based (CB) preambles per SSB (ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB, and see Shibaike, page 4, par. 5: Figure 2A shows an example (mapping 1) of PRACH occasion (RACH occasion (RO)) and beam (SSB/CSI-RS) association based on the higher layer parameter ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB. If ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB indicates oneHalf,n16 (N=1/2, R=16) and msg1-FDM is 4, four ROs are FDMed in one time instance and one SSB is mapped to two ROs. Preamble indexes 0 to 15 are associated with two ROs, and preamble indexes 0 to 15 are associated with SSB0. Thus, when N<1, one SSB is mapped to multiple Ros; in this case, RACH configuration may include an mapping between RACH occasion and beam association (corresponding to a beam associated with the resources)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the control signaling of the combination of Wei in view of Wu with the control signaling indicating resources being associated with one or more beams of Shibaike with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of increasing RACH occasion capacity per beam (see Shibaike page 5, par 5).
Regarding claims 10, 25, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE or method.
However, the combination of Wei in view of Wu does not teach:
wherein the second control signaling indicates a beam associated with the one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE.
Shibaike, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the second control signaling indicates a beam associated with the one or more of the spatial-domain resources to be disregarded by the UE (see Shibaike, page 3, par. 14: As in Figure 1, the common RACH configuration (RACH-ConfigCommon) may include a generic RACH configuration (rach-ConfigGeneric), a total number of RA preambles (totalNumberOfRA-Preambles), and SSB per RACH occasion and contention-based (CB) preambles per SSB (ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB, and see Shibaike, page 4, par. 5: Figure 2A shows an example (mapping 1) of PRACH occasion (RACH occasion (RO)) and beam (SSB/CSI-RS) association based on the higher layer parameter ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB. If ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB indicates oneHalf,n16 (N=1/2, R=16) and msg1-FDM is 4, four ROs are FDMed in one time instance and one SSB is mapped to two ROs. Preamble indexes 0 to 15 are associated with two ROs, and preamble indexes 0 to 15 are associated with SSB0. Thus, when N<1, one SSB is mapped to multiple Ros; in this case, RACH configuration (i.e. second control signaling) includes mapping of RACH occasion (i.e. spatial-domain resources) and beam association which is supported for all RACH occasions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the control signaling of the combination of Wei in view of Wu with the inclusion of beams associated with resources of Shibaike with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of increasing RACH occasion capacity per beam (see Shibaike page 5, par 5).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Wei in view of Wu teaches the UE. Wei further teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive third control signaling indicating one or more additional spatial-domain resources (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0133], lines 11-13: the second random access configuration may indicate a second configuration period and a second set of random access opportunities for the second configuration period, and see par. [0133], lines 11-13: the second random access configuration may indicate a second configuration period and a second set of random access opportunities for the second configuration period, and see Wei, par. [0082], lines 2-12: a RACH configuration may specify a certain set of values that these UEs 115 may then use to perform RACH procedures. In some cases, sets of parameters (e.g., presented in a look-up table) may be indexed according to a certain index (e.g. a PRACH configuration index). The sets of parameters may include a variety of parameters, such as a RACH configuration period (e.g., 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms), a RACH format (or PRACH format), and a resource configuration that allocates certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, and/or spatial resources) for the RACH procedures) for performing the random access procedure relative to spatial-domain resources indicated in the random access configuration (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0137], lines 1-5: At 635, the UE 115-a may determine a first set of random access occasions within a first association period based on the first random access configuration and the second random access configuration, as the UE 115-a may have received at 605), wherein a second random access procedure is performed using at least one of the one or more additional spatial-domain resources (see Wei, Fig. 6, par. [0137], lines 1-5: At 635, the UE 115-a may determine a first set of random access occasions within a first association period based on the first random access configuration and the second random access configuration, as the UE 115-a may have received at 605; in this case, performance of the random access procedure may be based on resources indicated in a first random access configuration (corresponding to the random access configuration) and resources indicated in a second random access configuration (corresponding to third signaling));
However, the combination of Wei in view of Wu does not teach:
wherein the one or more additional spatial-domain resources are associated with a beam.
Shibaike, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the one or more additional spatial-domain resources are associated with a beam (see Shibaike, page 3, par. 14: As in Figure 1, the common RACH configuration (RACH-ConfigCommon) may include a generic RACH configuration (rach-ConfigGeneric), a total number of RA preambles (totalNumberOfRA-Preambles), and SSB per RACH occasion and contention-based (CB) preambles per SSB (ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB, and see Shibaike, page 4, par. 5: Figure 2A shows an example (mapping 1) of PRACH occasion (RACH occasion (RO)) and beam (SSB/CSI-RS) association based on the higher layer parameter ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB. If ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB indicates oneHalf,n16 (N=1/2, R=16) and msg1-FDM is 4, four ROs are FDMed in one time instance and one SSB is mapped to two ROs. Preamble indexes 0 to 15 are associated with two ROs, and preamble indexes 0 to 15 are associated with SSB0. Thus, when N<1, one SSB is mapped to multiple Ros; in this case, RACH configuration may include an mapping between RACH occasion and beam association (corresponding to a beam associated with the resources)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the control signaling of the combination of Wei in view of Wu with the control signaling indicating resources being associated with one or more beams of Shibaike with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of increasing RACH occasion capacity per beam (see Shibaike page 5, par 5).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 14 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Jiang et al. (US 2021/0227578) teaches a random access configuration method, a signal transmission method, apparatuses thereof and a system.
Qian et al. (US 2023/0232461) teaches a base station and a random access preamble sequence detection method thereof, and a terminal and a random access channel configuration method thereof.
Tsai (US 2020/0373969) teaches a method for a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) retransmission, executed by a UE.
Yuan et al. (US 2021/0337605) teaches a random access resource configuration method and an apparatus.
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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419