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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 8th February 2024 and 18th August 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 – 4, 5, 6, 7 – 12, 17, 18, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Shi et al (US 2023/0199752 A1).
Claim 1. Shi shows a cross-carrier scheduling method (abstract; fig. 1: wireless network node; fig. 7), performed by a network device (fig. 2), comprising: configuring an associated secondary cell associated with a target secondary cell ([0070]: receiving, by the UE, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a network base station, the MAC CE used to switch the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell… the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell comprises PDCCH of a secondary cell (SCell) scheduling a physical shared channel on the primary cell), the target secondary cell being a secondary cell configured to schedule a physical shared channel of a primary cell and/or a primary secondary cell (see above); and in response to determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell ([0072]: through independent MAC CE or joint coding with other MAC CE indicate activation/release SCell-schedule-PCell, dynamic support of SCell-schedule-PCell is achieved… ensure that the change of PDCCH capacity can be flexibly adapted when the SCell supports the scheduling of the PCell/PSCell wherein dynamic release of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell may reduce the complexity of blind detection and save the power consumption of UEs; [0073]: in response to the field in the MAC CE indicating a release of the activation of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell, the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is dynamically switched off – “released” or “switched off” being “unable to schedule”), switching a scheduling carrier carrying a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the target secondary cell to the associated secondary cell ([0076]: switching cross-carrier scheduling primary cell for a user equipment (UE) by a timer, wherein a secondary cell is configured or activated to schedule the primary cell), the PDCCH being configured to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell ([0077]: the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell comprises PDCCH of a secondary cell (SCell) scheduling a physical shared channel on the primary cell).
Claim 17. Shi shows a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program (fig. 2: memories with instructions), the computer program when executed by one or more processors (fig. 2: processor(s)) cause the one or more processors collectively to perform the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 1 (see claim 1).
Claim 19. Shi shows a cross-carrier scheduling apparatus (fig. 2), comprising: a memory for storing processor-executable instructions (fig. 2: memories with instructions); and one or more processors that are communicatively coupled to the memory (fig. 2: processor(s)), wherein the one or more processors are collectively configured to perform the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 1 (see claim 1).
Claim 2. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 1, further comprising: sending configuration information of the associated secondary cell to a terminal ([0046]: the secondary cell is configured with a first BWP having a first search space index, and the first BWP is configured to support the cross-carrier scheduling).
Claim 3. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 2, wherein the configuration information of the associated secondary cell comprises at least one of: a control resource set of the associated secondary cell ([0031]: NR PDCCH enhancements for cross-carrier scheduling including PDCCH of SCell scheduling PDSCH or PUSCH of PCell/PSCell at least to mitigate the restricted/limited PDCCH resource PCell/PSCell and/or to offload the data transmission on PDCCH of PCell/PSCell); a search space of the associated secondary cell ([0042]: at least one search space index configured in other BWP of the secondary cell is same as a search space index configured for one BWP of the primary cell); and/or an index value of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell in scheduling information of the associated secondary cell ([0053]: the configuration of a secondary cell (cell B) may support cross-carrier scheduling of a primary cell (cell A) wherein cell A is configured with a search space index = {0, 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, and 13} in a BWP).
Claim 4. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 1, wherein determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell comprises at least one of: in response to determining that the target secondary cell is de-activated, determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell ([0078]: when the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is released, deactivated, indicated to be dormant, or not supported, the BD/CCE budget scale factor (or cell weight factor) in the PCell for scheduling the PCell may be dynamically restored); and/or in response to receiving indication information of radio link failure (RLF) for the target secondary cell sent by a terminal, determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell (n/a).
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Claim 5. Shi shows a cross-carrier scheduling method (abstract; fig. 1: wireless network node; fig. 7), performed by a network device (fig. 2), comprising: in response to determining that a physical shared channel of a primary cell and/or a primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through a target secondary cell ([0070]: receiving, by the UE, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a network base station, the MAC CE used to switch the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell… the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell comprises PDCCH of a secondary cell (SCell) scheduling a physical shared channel on the primary cell), determining that no associated secondary cell associated with the target secondary cell is configured, the target secondary cell being a secondary cell configured to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell ([0072]: through independent MAC CE or joint coding with other MAC CE indicate activation/release SCell-schedule-PCell, dynamic support of SCell-schedule-PCell is achieved… ensure that the change of PDCCH capacity can be flexibly adapted when the SCell supports the scheduling of the PCell/PSCell wherein dynamic release of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell may reduce the complexity of blind detection and save the power consumption of UEs; [0073]: in response to the field in the MAC CE indicating a release of the activation of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell, the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is dynamically switched off – “released” as “no association”); and switching a scheduling carrier carrying a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the target secondary cell to the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell ([0076]: switching cross-carrier scheduling primary cell for a user equipment (UE) by a timer, wherein a secondary cell is configured or activated to schedule the primary cell), the PDCCH being configured to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell ([0077]: the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell comprises PDCCH of a secondary cell (SCell) scheduling a physical shared channel on the primary cell).
Claim 6. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 5, wherein determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell comprises at least one of: in response to determining that the target secondary cell is de-activated, determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell ([0078]: when the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is released, deactivated, indicated to be dormant, or not supported, the BD/CCE budget scale factor (or cell weight factor) in the PCell for scheduling the PCell may be dynamically restored); and/or in response to receiving indication information of radio link failure (RLF) for the target secondary cell sent by a terminal, determining that the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell is unable to be scheduled through the target secondary cell (n/a).---------- ---------- ----------
Claim 7. Shi shows a cross-carrier scheduling method, performed by a terminal (figs. 1 and 3: user equipment), comprising: receiving configuration information of an associated secondary cell associated with a target secondary cell sent by a network device ([0070]: receiving, by the UE, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a network base station, the MAC CE used to switch the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell… the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell comprises PDCCH of a secondary cell (SCell) scheduling a physical shared channel on the primary cell), the target secondary cell being a secondary cell configured to schedule a physical shared channel of a primary cell and/or a primary secondary cell (see above); determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell ([0072]: through independent MAC CE or joint coding with other MAC CE indicate activation/release SCell-schedule-PCell, dynamic support of SCell-schedule-PCell is achieved… ensure that the change of PDCCH capacity can be flexibly adapted when the SCell supports the scheduling of the PCell/PSCell wherein dynamic release of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell may reduce the complexity of blind detection and save the power consumption of UEs; [0073]: in response to the field in the MAC CE indicating a release of the activation of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell, the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is dynamically switched off); and based on the configuration information of the associated secondary cell, determining that the network device switches a scheduling carrier carrying a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the target secondary cell to the associated secondary cell ([0076]: switching cross-carrier scheduling primary cell for a user equipment (UE) by a timer, wherein a secondary cell is configured or activated to schedule the primary cell), the PDCCH being configured to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell ([0077]: the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell comprises PDCCH of a secondary cell (SCell) scheduling a physical shared channel on the primary cell).
Claim 18. Shi shows a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program (fig. 2: memories with instructions), the computer program when executed by one or more processors (fig. 2: processor(s)) cause the one or more processors collectively to perform the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 7 (see claim 7).
Claim 20. Shi shows a cross-carrier scheduling apparatus, comprising: a memory for storing processor-executable instructions (fig. 2: memories with instructions); one or more processors that are communicatively coupled to the memory (fig. 2: processor(s)), wherein the one or more processors are collectively configured to perform the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 7 (see claim 7).
Claim 8. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 7, wherein determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell comprises at least one of: in response to determining that the target secondary cell is de-activated, determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell ([0078]: when the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is released, deactivated, indicated to be dormant, or not supported, the BD/CCE budget scale factor (or cell weight factor) in the PCell for scheduling the PCell may be dynamically restored); and/or in response to sending indication information of radio link failure (RLF) for the target secondary cell to the network device, determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell (n/a).
Claim 9. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 7, wherein the configuration information of the associated secondary cell comprises at least one of: a control resource set of the associated secondary cell ([0031]: NR PDCCH enhancements for cross-carrier scheduling including PDCCH of SCell scheduling PDSCH or PUSCH of PCell/PSCell at least to mitigate the restricted/limited PDCCH resource PCell/PSCell and/or to offload the data transmission on PDCCH of PCell/PSCell); a search space of the associated secondary cell ([0042]: at least one search space index configured in other BWP of the secondary cell is same as a search space index configured for one BWP of the primary cell); and/or an index value of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell in scheduling information of the associated secondary cell ([0053]: the configuration of a secondary cell (cell B) may support cross-carrier scheduling of a primary cell (cell A) wherein cell A is configured with a search space index = {0, 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, and 13} in a BWP).
Claim 10. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 7, further comprising: in response to determining that no configuration information of an associated secondary cell associated with the target secondary cell sent by the network device is received ([0030]: a secondary serving cell (SCell) may be the only scheduling cell or scheduled cell, while a primary cell (PCell) or a primary secondary cell (PSCell) may be a scheduling cell and may not be a scheduled cell; [0041]: multiple BWPs are configured to support or not support the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell combined with BWP switching indication), determining that the network device switches a scheduling carrier carrying a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the target secondary cell to the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell ([0041]: multiple BWPs are configured to support or not support the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell combined with BWP switching indication, or all of them support the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell together with BWP switching indication and indicate whether the BWP supports SCell-schedule-PCell, to achieve dynamic support of the cross-carrier scheduling primary cell… to ensure that the change of PDCCH capacity can be flexibly adapted when the SCell supports the scheduling of the PCell/PSCell), the PDCCH being configured to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell (see above).
Claim 11. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 10, wherein determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell comprises at least one of: in response to determining that the target secondary cell is de-activated, determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell ([0078]: when the cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell by the secondary cell is released, deactivated, indicated to be dormant, or not supported, the BD/CCE budget scale factor (or cell weight factor) in the PCell for scheduling the PCell may be dynamically restored); and/or in response to sending indication information of radio link failure (RLF) for the target secondary cell, determining that the network device is unable to schedule the physical shared channel of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell through the target secondary cell (n/a).
Claim 12. Shi shows the cross-carrier scheduling method according to claim 10, wherein the configuration information of the associated secondary cell comprises at least one of: a control resource set of the associated secondary cell ([0031]: NR PDCCH enhancements for cross-carrier scheduling including PDCCH of SCell scheduling PDSCH or PUSCH of PCell/PSCell at least to mitigate the restricted/limited PDCCH resource PCell/PSCell and/or to offload the data transmission on PDCCH of PCell/PSCell); a search space of the associated secondary cell ([0042]: at least one search space index configured in other BWP of the secondary cell is same as a search space index configured for one BWP of the primary cell); and/or an index value of the primary cell and/or the primary secondary cell in scheduling information of the associated secondary cell ([0053]: the configuration of a secondary cell (cell B) may support cross-carrier scheduling of a primary cell (cell A) wherein cell A is configured with a search space index = {0, 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, and 13} in a BWP).
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
1. Miao et al, US 2022/0110181 A1: an apparatus for beam failure recovery (BFR) configured to detect a beam failure instance, initiate a beam failure recovery procedure by activating or deactivating candidate beams for at least one uplink bandwidth part (BWP) associated with a user equipment (UE), generate a control signal to identify the one or more activated or deactivated candidate beams for the at least one BWP associated with the UE, and transmit, using the radio front end circuitry, the control signal to the UE.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Xavier Szewai Wong whose telephone number is 571.270.1780. The examiner can normally be reached on 11:30 am - 8:30 pm Mon to Fri.
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/XAVIER S WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415 22nd March 2026
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