DETAILED ACTION
Claims 48-60 are pending in this application.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Oath/Declaration
The applicant’s oath/declaration has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Priority
This application is a 371 of PCT/EP2021/074333 filed on 09/03/2021.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609(C), the applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statements dated 05/21/2024 is acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending. As required by M.P.E.P 609 C(2), a copy of the PTOL-1449 initialed.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 48-60 in the reply filed on 09/02/2026 is acknowledged.
Note: examiner suggests applicant to withdraw or cancel the non-elected claims (group I claims 41-47).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 52 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 52 line 2 recites “the third and second least significant bits” is lack of antecedent basis issue because there is no disclosure of any significant bits in the precedent claims .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(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.
Claim(s) 48-60 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ko et al. (US 2021/0235418 A1).
Regarding claim 48, Ko teaches an apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
receive a synchronization signal block of a transmission frame, wherein the synchronization signal block comprises a data channel (UE receive SSB includes SFN see Ko: Fig.9; ¶0119-0120]; ¶[0060]);
extract data from resource elements of the data channel, wherein the extraction of the data from the resource elements of the data channel is dependent on a frame number of the transmission frame (the UE obtains the upper N-bit information (e.g., S0, S1, and S2) of the SFN information by performing the blind decoding at least 8 times and then obtains not only the rest of the SFN information corresponding to the remaining (10−N) bits (e.g., S3 to S9) from the PBCH contents but also the 1-bit half radio frame boundary information see Ko: ¶[0118-0120]); and
decode the data (when the UE intends to decode PBCHs of neighbor cells before handover, the UE may perform the decoding with reference to the transmission periodicity of the actually transmitted SS blocks see Ko: ¶[0285]) .
Regarding claim 49, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 48 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the synchronization signal block comprises a plurality of symbols, each of the plurality of symbols comprising a plurality of resource elements (SSB comprising SFN, SS/PBCH index within SS burst set see Ko: Fig.9; ¶[0119-0123]), wherein at least one of the plurality of symbols comprises a synchronization signal on a subset of the plurality of resource elements, and wherein the plurality of symbols comprise the resource elements of the data channel (SS signal includes SFN, SS index within block group and PBCH contents see Ko: Fig.9; ¶[0119-0123]).
Regarding claim 50, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 48 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: determine a pair of scrambling and resource allocation schemes based on the frame number of the transmission frame (scrambling sequence based on SFN information see Ko: ¶[0123]); and de-scramble the data based on the determined pair of scrambling and resource allocation schemes (descramble a scrambled sequence and bits obtained from the PBCH DMRS see Ko: ¶[0308]).
Regarding claim 51, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 50 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the extraction of the data from the resource elements of the data channel and the de- scrambling of the data are dependent on a subset of bits for the frame number of the transmission frame (obtain bits of index of SSB and descrambling the scramble sequence using significant bits of SFN see Ko: ¶[0308]).
Regarding claim 52, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 51 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the subset of bits comprises the third and second least significant bits for the frame number (the second and third least significant bits see Ko: ¶[0308]).
Regarding claim 53, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 48 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the extraction of the data from the resource elements of the data channel comprises de- interleaving the data based on an interleaving pattern, or de-mapping the data from the resource elements of the data channel based on a resource element mapping pattern, wherein the interleaving pattern and the resource element mapping pattern is dependent on the frame number of the transmission frame (The UE processor is configured to obtain information on the specific half frame and information on a frame including the specific half frame by descrambling the scrambled sequence using the cell identifier, the second and third least significant bits, and the first scrambling sequence see Ko: ¶[0308]).
Regarding claim 54, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 53 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein allocation of the data to the resource elements of the data channel is dependent on the frame number of the transmission frame for a plurality of consecutive transmissions of the synchronization signal block, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: decode the data from the plurality of consecutive transmissions of the synchronization signal block, wherein parameters of a channel decoder are fixed over the plurality of consecutive transmissions of the synchronization signal block, wherein the deinterleaving is performed by a de-interleaver of the channel decoder; and combine the data decoded from the plurality of consecutive transmissions of the synchronization signal blocks (decode 8 times to 8 scrambling sequences and combine SFN and PBCH contents “the UE performs blind decoding 8 times to obtain 8 scrambling sequences, which are transmitted every 10 ms during 80 ms. In this case, the UE obtains 1-bit half frame boundary information (e.g., C0) by decoding another channel rather than the PBCH” see Ko: ¶[0118-0120]; Fig.9).
Regarding claim 55, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 53 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the resource element mapping pattern comprises resource elements or blocks of resource elements of the data channel cyclically shifted based on the frame number of the transmission frame (cyclic shift value determine according to the time indicator see Ko: ¶[0222-0223]).
Regarding claim 56, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 55 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein a number of the blocks of resource elements is higher or equal to a number of combinations of a subset of bits for the frame number of the transmission frame (if L is more than P, an SS block index is obtained by combining an index transmitted through the DMRS sequence and an index transmitted through PBCH contents see Ko: ¶[0196]).
Regarding claim 57, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 53 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein a subset of the resource elements of the data channel overlaps with the at least one synchronization signal in frequency, and wherein resource element mapping patterns associated with different frame numbers cause different data to be carried on the subset of the resource elements of the data channel overlapping with the at least one synchronization signal in frequency (different frame number S2 and S0 each have different ms frame boundary see Ko: ¶[0153-0157].
Regarding claim 58, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 48 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the synchronization signal block comprises: a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol comprising a primary synchronization signal on a subset of a plurality of subcarriers; a second OFDM symbol comprising resource elements of the data channel at the plurality of subcarriers; a third ODFM symbol comprising a secondary synchronization signal on the subset of the plurality of subcarriers and resource elements of the data channel at edges of the plurality of subcarriers; and a fourth OFDM symbol comprising resource elements of the data channel at the plurality of subcarriers (a subframe carrying a broadcast signal is referred to as a broadcast subframe or a PBCH subframe, and a subframe carrying a synchronization signal (SS) (e.g., a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and/or a secondary synchronization signal (SSS)) is referred to as an SS subframe or a PSS/SSS subframe. An OFDM symbol/subcarrier/RE to which a PSS/SSS is allocated or for which the PSS/SSS is configured is referred to as a PSS/SSS symbol/subcarrier/RE see Ko: ¶[0039]; Fig.9; ¶0053]).
Regarding claim 59, Ko taught the apparatus according to claim 48 as described hereinabove. Ko further teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: jointly decode the data based on a plurality of the synchronization signal blocks (the UE should additionally perform blind decoding to combine a plurality of pieces of information received at each of 0, 5, 10, and 15 ms see Ko: ¶[0166]).
Regarding claim 60, claim 60 is rejected for the same reason as claim 48 as described hereinabove. Claim 60 recites a method that perform the same functionalities as the apparatus described in claim 48.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GUANG W LI whose telephone number is (571)270-1897. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday 7AM-5PMET.
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GUANG W. LI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2478
September 18, 2026
/GUANG W LI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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