DETAILED ACTION
1. Claims 1, 3-12 are presented for examination. Claims 1, 3, and 7-12 are amended. Claim 2 is canceled.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
3. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot based on the new grounds of rejection necessitated by applicant’s amendments.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 non-obviousness.
7. Claim(s) 1, 3, 4, and 7-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0210679 A1 Crik et al. (hereafter referred to as Crik), in view of US 2021/0029737 A1 by Pan et al. (hereafter referred to as Pan).
Regarding Claim 1, Crik teaches a terminal, comprising:
control circuitry, which, in operation, controls, separately for each of a plurality of synchronization signal blocks, configuration of a random access channel (RACH) preamble resource in a random access occasion (RO) associated with each of the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least ¶ [0172]; “A base station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UE with an association between one or more preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs). If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion.”); and
transmission circuitry, which, in operation, transmits a RACH preamble using the RACH preamble resource, wherein the control circuitry configures the RACH preamble resource in the RO corresponding to a first synchronization signal block among the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least ¶ [0172]; “If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion.”).
Crik does not appear to specifically disclose configures no RACH preamble resource in the RO corresponding to a second synchronization signal block different from the first synchronization signal block among the plurality of synchronization signal blocks.
In the same field of endeavor, Pan teaches configures no RACH preamble resource in the RO corresponding to a second synchronization signal block different from the first synchronization signal block among the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least Fig. 7 and ¶ [0148]; If mapping cycle not finished for all ROs the discard the remaining ROs).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Crik with Pan in order to guarantee the sufficient coverage of wireless devices.
Regarding Claim 3, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 1.
In addition, Crik teaches further comprising reception circuitry, which, in operation, receives information on association of the first synchronization signal block and the RACH preamble resource (see at least ¶ [0172]; “A base station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UE with an association between one or more preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs). If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion.”).
Regarding Claim 4, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 3.
In addition, Crik teaches wherein the information includes bitmap- format information indicating whether each of the plurality of synchronization signal blocks is the first synchronization signal block (see at least ¶ [0259]; “The configuration parameters may comprise/indicate a bitmap indicating one or more monitoring occasions for a control channel repetition. FIG. 21 illustrates that a bitmap size is 14 (e.g., the bitmap corresponds to a slot where each bit maps to each OFDM symbol). The bitmap indicates monitoring occasions of 1st OFDM symbol and 6th OFDM symbol of a slot. The configuration parameters may indicate/comprise a first monitoring periodicity as two slots (e.g., monitor in every two slots). In each monitoring periodicity, the wireless device may determine one or more monitoring occasions based on the bitmap.”).
Regarding Claim 5, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 3. In addition, Crik teaches wherein the information includes bitmap-format information indicating whether each of a plurality of groups obtained by grouping the plurality of synchronization signal blocks includes the first synchronization signal block (see at least ¶ [0246]; “The base station may indicate, for example via the configuration parameters, a bitmap indicating a number of control channel repetition. Each bit of the bitmap may represent which TRP may transmit i-th repetition. The repetition pattern may be [0, 1, 0, 1, . . . , 0, 1]. The repetition pattern may be [0, 0, . . . , 0, 1, 1, . . . , 1, 0, 0, . . . , 0, 1, 1, . . . , 1]. Various repetition patterns may be considered. Based on the repetition pattern, the wireless device may receive a control channel repetition based on a TCI state of the plurality of TCI states. For example, when the repetition pattern indicates the first TRP, the wireless device may receive the control channel repetition based on the first TCI state. When the repetition indicates the second TRP, the wireless device may receive the control channel repetition based on the second TCI state.”).
Regarding claim 6, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 3. In addition, Crik teaches wherein the information includes information for identifying any one of a plurality of candidates for a combination of a plurality of the first synchronization signal blocks in the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least ¶ [0256]; “The first DCI/PDCCH and the second DCI/PDCCH may indicate same resource(s) for a transport block. The wireless device may receive/monitor a DCI via the one or more monitoring occasions, where a search space candidate for the DCI may comprise one or more candidates of the one or more monitoring occasions. For example, the search space candidate may comprise a first candidate of the first monitoring occasion and a second candidate of the second monitoring occasion. For example, a first starting CCE index of the first candidate of the first monitoring occasion may be same as a second starting CCE index of the second candidate of the second monitoring occasion.”).
Regarding Claim 7, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 1. In addition, Crik further teaches wherein the control circuitry configures, separately for the plurality of synchronization signal blocks, the number of preambles in the transmission occasion corresponding to each of the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least ¶ [0170]-[0173]; “A base station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UE with an association between one or more preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs). If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion.”).
Regarding Claim 8, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 1. In addition, Crik further teaches further comprising reception circuitry, which, in operation, receives system information that is separate for each of the plurality of synchronization signal blocks, wherein the system information includes information on the resource corresponding to the synchronization signal block corresponding to this system information (see at least Figs. 5A, 5B and ¶ [0077]; “a broadcast control channel (BCCH) for carrying system information messages in the form of a master information block (MIB) and several system information blocks (SIBs), wherein the system information messages may be used by the UEs to obtain information about how a cell is configured and how to operate within the cell”).
Regarding Claim 9, Crik in view of Pan teaches the terminal according to claim 1. In the obvious combination, Pan teaches wherein the resource is a resource for requesting repetition transmission of an uplink signal (see at least ¶ [0151]-[0152]).
Regarding Claim 10, Crik teaches a base station, comprising:
control circuitry, which, in operation, controls, separately for each of a plurality of synchronization signal blocks, configuration of a random access channel (RACH) preamble resource in a random access occasion (RO) associated with each of the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least ¶ [0172]; “A base station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UE with an association between one or more preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs). If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion.”); and
reception circuitry, which, in operation, receives RACH preamble using the RACH preamble resource, wherein the control circuitry configures the RACH preamble resource in the RO corresponding to a first synchronization signal block among the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least ¶ [0172]; “If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion.”).
Crik does not appear to specifically disclose configures no RACH preamble resource in the RO corresponding to a second synchronization signal block different from the first synchronization signal block among the plurality of synchronization signal blocks.
In the same field of endeavor, Pan teaches configures no RACH preamble resource in the RO corresponding to a second synchronization signal block different from the first synchronization signal block among the plurality of synchronization signal blocks (see at least Fig. 7 and ¶ [0148]; If mapping cycle not finished for all ROs the discard the remaining ROs).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to modify Crik with Pan in order to guarantee the sufficient coverage of wireless devices.
Regarding Claim 11, which is the corresponding method of the system as recited in claim 1, the rejection and analysis made for claim 1 also applies for claim 11.
Regarding Claim 12, Crik in view of Pan teaches which is the corresponding method of the system as recited in claim 10, the rejection and analysis made for claim 10 also applies for claim 12.
Conclusion
8. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATASHA W COSME whose telephone number is (571)270-7225. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-4. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at 571-270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NATASHA W COSME/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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