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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on March 21, 2024
Claims 1-23 and 25 are under examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/30/2024, 07/14/2025, 10/14/2025, 10/29/2025, 01/09/2025 and 02/25/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 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 1-23 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by ZHOU et al. (US 2021/0153284A1).
As per Claim 1 ZHOU teaches a method comprising:
determining a set of failed cells associated with the first device based on a beam failure detection (Paragraph 0007, 0126, 0127 where the UE detects an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a set of cells. Beam failure detection and recovery procedures allow for beam switching when a beam failure event occurs. ); and
generating a beam failure report indicating respective one or more failure detection resource sets associated with at least a portion of the set of failed cells (Paragraph 0007, 0139 a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule. and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response. The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a failed cell in a set of cells).
As per Claim 2 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein generating the beam failure report comprises: determining a respective first failed failure detection resource set for each of the set of failed cells; and generating the beam failure report based on the determined first failed failure detection resource sets (Paragraph 0141, 0143 a UE reports a beam failure corresponding to a first SCell, then a BFR response may be received on any SCell, not limited only to the first SCell. For example, assume that a UE reports a beam failure on a first SCell. The UE may subsequently receive a BFR response on a second SCell. However, the first SCell and second SCell may have different numerologies, and correspondingly, different symbol lengths).
As per Claim 3 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the determined first failed failure detection resource sets are associated with a set of control resource sets having indices lower than a threshold number (Paragraph 0007, 0102-0104, 0126 a beam failure instance to occur when a measured quality of a downlink reference signal falls below a given threshold quality metric. A reference signal strength indicator (RSSI), or other signal quality metrics (and corresponding thresholds) to determine that a beam failure event has occurred. Once the UE detects a threshold number of consecutive beam failure events, the UE may then declare a beam failure, and the slots 410 illustrates the slot 410 including a control region 412 and a data region 414. In general, the control region 412 may carry control channels (e.g., PDCCH), and the data region 414 may carry data channels (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH). Of course, a slot may contain all DL, all UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. the transmitting device (e.g., the scheduling entity 108) may allocate one or more REs 406 (e.g., within a control region 412) to carry DL control information 114 including one or more DL control channels.).
As per Claim 4 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the determined first failed failure detection resource sets have identifiers lower than a threshold number (Paragraph 0129, 0132, 0137 where the network entity receives, from a user equipment (UE), a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of a candidate beam. the UE transmits, to one or more cells in the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam.).
As per Claim 5 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein generating the beam failure report comprises: determining a respective first failed failure detection resource set for each of the set of failed cells; in accordance with a determination that a subset of failed cells in the set of failed cells are detected with more than one failed failure detection resource sets, determining a respective second failed failure detection resource set for at least a portion of the subset of failed cells, the determined second failed failure detection resource sets being different from the determined first failed failure detection resource sets; and generating the beam failure report based on the determined first and the second failed failure detection resource sets (Paragraph 0141, 0146 For example, assume that a UE reports a beam failure on a first SCell. The UE may subsequently receive a BFR response on a second SCell. However, the first SCell and second SCell may have different numerologies, and correspondingly, different symbol lengths. The amount of time corresponding to the K symbol waiting period may thus differ based on whether the K symbol waiting period is measured based on the numerology (or subcarrier spacing) of the first SCell or the second SCell. ).
As per Claim 6 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the beam failure report includes an indication whether the determined second failed failure detection resource sets are failed to be included after the first failed failure detection resource sets have been determined (Paragraph 0123, 0148, The aggregated CCs can be contiguous to one another, or non-contiguous, and they may be inter-band or intra-band. Further, the aggregated CCs can use different numerologies, e.g., having different subcarrier spacing (SCS), slot lengths, etc. In some examples, one of the CCs may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell), while one or more other CCs may be referred to as secondary cells (SCell). After identifying the candidate beam at block 1012, UE 1002 transmits a BFR request 1014 to a cell 1004. Cell 1004 may be, in some aspects, a secondary cell (SCell) in a group of cells that serve the UE 1002. The BFR request 1014 generally includes an identification of the candidate beam. In response cell 1004 transmits a BFR response 1016 to the UE 1002.).
As per Claim 7 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the beam failure report includes an indication whether a single failure detection resource set or more than one failure detection resource sets for one failed cell in the set of failed cells are failed (Paragraph 0007, 0071 The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a failed cell in a set of cells; identifying a candidate beam for restoring the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures; transmitting, to one or more cells in the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule; and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response. ).
As per Claim 8 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the determined first failed failure detection resource sets are associated with a set of control resource sets having indices lower than a threshold number (Paragraph 0139 the beams of all control resource sets (CORESETs) in the failed SCell will be reset to the reported new beam in the step 2 MAC-CE. Thus, in each of the SCells, if there is a beam failure, the UE may transmit a beam candidate to a gNB via the BFR request message (step 2 MAC CE), and the gNB may transmit a BFR response in response to receiving the BFR request message. Resetting beams for each control resource set (CORESET) to the identified beam, wherein the BFR response is received on the identified beam from the failed cell. ).
As per Claim 9 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the determined first failed failure detection resource sets have identifiers lower than a threshold number (Paragraph 0007, 0126 , 0128 the UE identifies a candidate beam for restoring the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures. The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a failed cell in a set of cells; identifying a candidate beam for restoring the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures; transmitting, to one or more cells in the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule; and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response.).
As per Claim 10 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 5, further comprising: determining the respective second failed failure detection resource set for at least a portion of the subset of failed cells based on indices of the subset of failed cells and a grant size for the beam failure report (Paragraph 0066, 0081 example, the cells 202, 204, and 126 may be referred to as macrocells, as the base stations 210, 212, and 214 support cells having a large size. Further, a base station 218 is shown in the small cell 208 (e.g., a microcell, picocell, femtocell, home base station, home Node B, home eNode B, etc.) which may overlap with one or more macrocells. In this example, the cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell, as the base station 218 supports a cell having a relatively small size. Cell sizing can be done according to system design as well as component constraint).
As per Claim 11 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 5, further comprising: determining the respective second failed failure detection resource set for at least a portion of the subset of failed cells based on cell types of the subset of failed cells and a grant size for the beam failure report (Paragraph 0081, 0154, a subset of the resource grid 404. An RB may be the smallest unit of resources that can be allocated to a UE. Thus, the more RBs scheduled for a UE, and the higher the modulation scheme chosen for the air interface, the higher the data rate for the UE. the base stations 210, 212, and 214 support cells having a large size. Further, a base station 218 is shown in the small cell 208 (e.g., a microcell, picocell, femtocell, home base station, home Node B, home eNode B, etc.) which may overlap with one or more macrocells. In this example, the cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell, as the base station 218 supports a cell having a relatively small size. Cell sizing can be done according to system design as well as component constraints.. ).
As per Claim 12 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein generating the beam failure report comprises: in accordance with a determination that more than one transceiver points (TRPs) are configured for respective one of failed cells, determining a respective first failure detection resource set for each of the set of failed cells and a respective second failure detection resource set for at least a portion of the set of failed cells; and generating the beam failure report based on the determined first and second failure detection resource sets (Paragraph 0151 The transceiver 1208 is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communications device 1200 via an antenna 1210, such as the various signals as described herein. The processing system 1202 may be configured to perform processing functions for the communications device 1200, including processing signals received and/or to be transmitted by the communications device 1200).
As per Claim 13 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 12, wherein the beam failure report includes respective indications whether the determined first and second failure detection resource set are failed (Paragraph 0104, 0139 Generally, after K symbols from receiving a BFR response from a secondary cell (SCell) (e.g., a response to the step 2 MAC-CE discussed above, which may include the BFR request), the beams of all control resource sets (CORESETs) in the failed SCell will be reset to the reported new beam in the step 2 MAC-CE. a secondary synchronization signal (SSS); demodulation reference signals (DM-RS); phase-tracking reference signals (PT-RS); channel-state information reference signals (CSI-RS); etc. ).
As per Claim 14 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 12, wherein the beam failure report includes an indication of identifiers for the determined first failure detection resource sets (Paragraph 0007, 0141 Various actions may be taken after waiting K symbols based, for example, on a numerology (or subcarrier spacing (SCS)) of a failed cell and a cell on which the BFR response was received. For example, assume that a UE reports a beam failure on a first SCell. The UE may subsequently receive a BFR response on a second SCell. However, the first SCell and second SCell may have different numerologies, and correspondingly, different symbol lengths. The amount of time corresponding to the K symbol waiting period may thus differ based on whether the K symbol waiting period is measured based on the numerology (or subcarrier spacing) of the first SCell or the second SCell ).
As per Claim 15 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 12, wherein the beam failure report includes respective indications whether the determined second failure detection resource sets are failed (Paragraph 0139, 0141 For example, assume that a UE reports a beam failure on a first SCell. Receiving a BFR response from a secondary cell (SCell) (e.g., a response to the step 2 MAC-CE discussed above, which may include the BFR request), the beams of all control resource sets (CORESETs) in the failed SCell will be reset to the reported new beam in the step 2 MAC-CE. Thus, in each of the SCells, if there is a beam failure, the UE may transmit a beam candidate to a gNB via the BFR request message (step 2 MAC CE), and the gNB may transmit a BFR response in response to receiving the BFR request message. After receiving the BFR response, the UE waits for K symbols).
As per Claim 16 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 12, wherein determining the respective second failure detection resource set for the at least a portion of the set of failed cells comprises: determining a portion of failed cells from the set of failed cells based on at least one of the following: indices of the set of failed cells, or cell types of the set of failed cells; and determining the respective second failure detection resource set for each of the portion of failed cells (Paragraph 0143, 0144 a UE may apply no SCell restriction, such that a BFR response can be sent on any SCell. In this example, if a UE reports a beam failure corresponding to a first SCell, then a BFR response may be received on any SCell, not limited only to the first SCell. In this example, the UE may determine a length of time corresponding to “K symbols” in accordance with the numerology of the BFR response receiving SCell, the numerology of the failed SCell, or the numerology of the SCell with the larger or smaller numerology of those two SCells.).
As per Claim 17 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein generating the beam failure report comprises: determining the portion of the set of failed cells based on cell types of the set of failed cells; determining a respective first failed failure detection resource set for the portion of the set of failed cells; and generating the beam failure report based on the determined first failed failure detection resource sets (Paragraph 0008, 0152 generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam; transmitting, to the UE, the BFR response based on a restriction rule; and communicating with the UE based on the identified candidate beam. Generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam; code 1218 for transmitting, to the UE, the BFR response based on a restriction rule; and code 1220 for communicating with the UE based on the identified candidate beam. In certain aspects, the processor 1214 has circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium/memory 1212. The processor 1214 includes circuitry 1222 for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of a candidate beam; circuitry 1224 for generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam; circuitry 1226 for transmitting, to the UE, the BFR response based on a restriction rule; and circuitry 1228 for communicating with the UE based on the identified candidate beam. ).
As per Claim 18 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining the portion of the set of failed cells comprises: in accordance with a determination that more than one failure detection resource sets are associated with each of at least one failed cell and the more than one failure detection resource sets associated with each of at least one failed cell are failed, determining the at least one failed cell as the portion of the set of failed cells (Pargarph 0007, 0027 a failed cell in a set of cells; identifying a candidate beam for restoring the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures; transmitting, to one or more cells in the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule; and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response. ).
As per Claim 19 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining the portion of the set of failed cells: in accordance with a determination that a single failure detection resource set is associated with each of at least one failed cell, determining the at least one failed cell as the portion of the set of failed cells (Paragraph 0075, 0098 wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station 108) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, the scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communication, UEs 106, which may be scheduled entities, may utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity 10 ).
As per Claim 20 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining the portion of the set of failed cells comprises: determining the portion of the set of failed cells based on a type of the beam failure detection (Paragraph 0007, 0126 the UE may then declare a beam failure, and accordingly initiate a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure, as discussed in further detail below. The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a failed cell in a set of cells; identifying a candidate beam for restoring the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures; transmitting, to one or more cells in the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule; and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response. ).
As per Claim 21 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 20, further comprising: in accordance with a determination that more than one beam failure detection resource sets associated with a failed cell of the first device are failed and the failed cell is special cell of the first device, transmit the beam failure report in a message of a random access procedure (Paragraph 0137, 0138 examples, the UE may utilize a random access procedure for transmission of the BFR request. A random access procedure is one in which a UE transmits a random access preamble and a payload (msgA). If a gNB detects a random access preamble and decodes the payload, it responds by transmitting a random access response (RAR, or msgB). Each candidate beam may be associated with a specific random access preamble configuration, such that the gNB may receive the UE's identified candidate beam by detecting the specific random access preamble configuration. In some examples, the payload of the UE's random access message may be referred to as a “step 2 MAC CE.” Here, step 2 may refer to a series of steps in the UE's BFR procedure. Further, the random access response that the gNB transmits may be referred to as a BFR response. Here, the SCell BFR response includes an uplink grant for new transmissions with the same HARQ process ID as that of the step 2 MAC CE ).
As per Claim 22 ZHOU teaches the method of claim 21, wherein generating the beam failure report comprises: determining a failed failure detection resource set from a plurality of failed failure detection resource sets associated with more than one beam failure detection resource sets based on control resource set indices associated with the plurality of failed failure detection resource sets; and generating the beam failure report based on the determined failed failure detection resource set (Paragraph 0132, 0147 the UE receives, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request. The BFR response is generally received according to a restriction rule, as discussed in further detail herein.. The candidate beam may be identified, for example, based on measurements of signaling received on each of a plurality of beam directions from a network entity (e.g., one of a plurality of cells serving the UE, such as cell 1004 or cell 1006 illustrated in FIG. 10). The signaling may be, for example, synchronization signal blocks transmitted in a synchronization signal burst on different beam directions. ).
As per Claim 23 ZHOU teaches a first device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program codes (Paragraph 0150 includes a processor 1104 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory ); the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device at least to perform (Paragraph the processor 1104 has circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium/memory 1112):
determining a set of failed cells associated with the first device based on a beam failure detection (Paragraph 0007, 0126, 0127 where the UE detects an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a set of cells. Beam failure detection and recovery procedures allow for beam switching when a beam failure event occurs. ); and generating a beam failure report indicating respective one or more failure detection resource sets associated with at least a portion of the set of failed cells (Paragraph 0007, 0139 a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule. and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response. The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a failed cell in a set of cells).
24. (canceled)
As per Claim 25 ZHOU teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform (Paragraph 0150 includes a processor 1104 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory):
determining a set of failed cells associated with the apparatus based on a beam failure detection (Paragraph 0007, 0126, 0127 where the UE detects an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a set of cells. Beam failure detection and recovery procedures allow for beam switching when a beam failure event occurs. );; and generating a beam failure report indicating respective one or more failure detection resource sets associated with at least a portion of the set of failed cells (Paragraph 0007, 0139 a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, from a cell in the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule. and resuming communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response. The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures for a connection between the UE and a failed cell in a set of cells).
Examiner’s Note
Examiner is open for discussion if the applicant’s representative need further clarifications.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. (See form 892).
Conclusion
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/SYED ALI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2468