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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the application filed on 04/08/2024 has a total of 22 claims pending in the application; there are 3 independent claims and 19 dependent claims, all of which are ready for examination by the examiner.
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.
Claims 32-53 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LUO et al. Publication No. (US 2025/0227809 A1) in order of Kela et al. Publication No. (US 2018/0007734 A1).
Claims 1-31. (Canceled).
Regarding claim 32, LUO teaches a method for a user equipment (UE) configured to operate in a wireless network according to a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration comprising periodic DRX on durations (a terminal device operating according to DRX On duration and the DRX Off duration, thereby saving a certain power consumption and reducing the wait delay of the service [0250-251]), the method comprising:
awakening for a first duration from a state (receiving, by the terminal, first indication information sent by the network-side device, wherein the first indication information is configured to indicate at least one of following: that the terminal skips monitoring and/or sleeps state in the DRX On duration; that the terminal skips monitoring and/or sleeps in the DRX Off duration [0023-24]), wherein the first duration is one of the following:
outside of the periodic DRX on durations, or within but shorter than one of the periodic DRX on durations (monitoring the first DCI in the DRX On duration by the terminal according to a first search space set configured by the network-side device; and/or monitoring the first DCI in the DRX Off duration [outside the DRX on durations] by the terminal according to a second search space set configured by the network-side device [0022-23]); and
during the first duration, monitoring a semi-persistent physical downlink control channel (SP-PDCCH) from the wireless network for downlink control information (DCI) intended for the UE (monitoring position information of the first DCI in the DRX On duration including start time/end time and a second offset value of the periodic or semi-persistent behavior [0148-149] in the DRX On duration, the terminal monitors the PDCCH search space configured according to the DRX On duration; and in the DRX Off duration, the terminal performs scheduling-DCI monitoring according to the pre-configured monitoring position information (the monitoring window or the monitoring start position) [0296] FIG.3).
LUO does not explicitly teach the UE entering a low energy consumption state
Kela teaches the UE entering a low energy consumption state (LUO: All UEs that expect any data on the downlink has to monitor the DCI on the PDCCH first. The DCI informs the UEs about the downlink resource allocation, an “on-duration” period, during which the UE is awake and should monitor control signals CTRLS carried by the PDCCH [0082-83] UEs that do not have scheduled data to transmit or receive may be set to function according to sleep DRX mode. The sleep DRX mode is an option that maximizes the energy saving of the UEs, the receiver is only on during the on-duration time, and is off for the remaining time of one cycle to achieve low energy consumption [0125-126] FIG.4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified LUO by the teaching of Kela to enter into low energy consumption state during the first duration include the universal mobile telecommunications system when transferring data between a server and a mobile node in order to maximizes the energy saving of the UEs while ensuring low-latency and mobility support in the eventuality that data transmission and/or reception is scheduled during this energy-saving sleep DRX mode [0103-104] FIG.4)
Regarding claim 33, LUO teaches the method of claim 32, wherein: the monitoring is performed in a first search space associated with SP-PDCCH; the first search space is distinct from a second search space associated with a second PDCCH that is not a SP-PDCCH; and the method further comprises monitoring the second PDCCH in the second search space for DCI intended for the UE (configuring, for the first DCI by the network side device, a first search space set in a DRX On duration and/or a second search space set in a DRX Off duration, the first search space set and the second search space set are same or different [0088-89]).
Regarding claim 34, LUO teaches the method of claim 33, wherein monitoring the second PDCCH in the second search space is performed according to one of the following: during the first duration, which is within but shorter than one of the UE's periodic DRX on durations; or during the periodic DRX on durations, and the first duration is outside of the periodic DRX on durations (the terminal may only use the first search space set to monitor the first DCI in the DRX On duration, or the terminal may only use the second search space set to monitor the first DCI in the DRX Off duration, or the terminal monitors the first DCI by using the first search space set configured by the network-side device in the DRX On duration, and monitors the first DCI by using the second search space set configured by the network-side device in the DRX Off duration [0089-90]).
Regarding claim 35, LUO teaches the method of claim 32, further comprising: during the first duration, detecting DCI intended for the UE based on the monitoring; during the first duration, receiving downlink (DL) data or transmitting uplink (UL) data using resources indicated by the DCI; and returning to the low energy consumption state after completion of receiving DL data or transmitting UL data in accordance with the DCI (When the network-side device receives X-service indication sent by the core network, or the network-side device identifies that the downlink data service is indicated as the X service, the network-side device may notify the terminal and starting the data transmission at the DRX On duration, when the data transmission service is the X service, the terminal may monitor the DCI scheduling the X service in the DRX On duration and/or the DRX Off duration according to the pre-configured monitoring window or the monitoring occasion. [0287-288]).
Regarding claim 36, LUO teaches the method of claim 35, wherein: returning to the low energy consumption state after completion of receiving DL data or transmitting UL data is based on a first condition being met; and the first condition is one of the following: a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the DCI is scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) associated with SP-PDCCH; the DCI is detected in a search space associated with SP-PDCCH; or a field in the DCI that indicates for the UE to return to the low energy consumption state after completion of receiving DL data or transmitting UL data in accordance with the DCI (in order to obtain downlink scheduling information, the terminal needs to monitor DCI at each DCI monitoring occasion to determine whether there is downlink scheduling information, each process of monitoring DCI is a DCI decoding process, and then according to a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) check result, the DCI carrying the scheduling information of the UE is determined. If the DCI has scheduling information of the terminal, the UE may obtain a positive CRC check, and may obtain scheduling information carried in the DCI; otherwise, the CRC check is negative, and the UE cannot obtain any information in the DCI [0094-95]).
Regarding claim 37, LUO teaches the method of claim 36, wherein when the first condition is not met, monitoring the SP-PDCCH is performed at least until the end of a periodic DRX on duration that includes the first duration (the terminal receives the first DCI sent by the network-side device in the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) On duration and/or the DRX Off duration, the first DCI being used for scheduling the first service, and the terminal monitors the first DCI in the DRX On duration and/or the DRX Off duration. In this way, the terminal can perform corresponding Downlink Control Information (DCI) monitoring for data dynamic scheduling according to service characteristics without being limited by the DRX mechanism [0174]).
Regarding claim 38, LUO teaches the method of claim 36, further comprising, based on detecting the DCI intended for the UE during the first duration, refraining from activating an inactivity timer associated with the DRX configuration (the first information may be a monitoring timer or a duration timer [0298]).
Regarding claim 39, LUO teaches the method of claim 38, wherein: refraining from activating the inactivity timer is further based on a second condition being met; and the second condition is one of the following: the first duration is outside of the periodic DRX on durations, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the DCI is scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) associated with SP-PDCCH, the DCI is detected in a search space associated with SP-PDCCH, or a field in the DCI that indicates for the UE to refrain from activating the inactivity timer (When the terminal is in the DRX On duration, the data packet of the first service is scheduled by means of the scheduling DCI scrambled by the C-RNTI, that is, the first DCI is scrambled by using C-RNTI, and when the timer affecting the DRX On duration, such as a DRX On duration timer (drx-onDurationTimer), a DRX Off duration timer (drx-InactivityTimer), and the like, expires, the terminal enters an DRX Off duration [0259]).
Regarding claim 40, LUO teaches the method of claim 38, wherein: refraining from activating an inactivity timer associated with the DRX configuration comprises activating a further timer instead of the inactivity timer associated with the DRX configuration; and returning to the low energy consumption state after completion of receiving DL data or transmitting UL data comprises returning to the low energy upon expiration of the further timer (when the monitoring timer does not expire, the terminal may continue to perform the monitoring of the DCI (first DCI) dedicated to the service. When data transmission is performed at the end of the monitoring window due to delay jitter of a service data packet, the data packet can only be transmitted in a next monitoring window or a next monitoring occasion since there is no subsequent monitoring occasion, and the terminal is instructed to skip monitoring or to sleep through the first indication information [0126-127]).
Regarding claim 41, LUO teaches the method of claim 40, wherein: the first duration includes a plurality of PDCCH monitoring occasions (MOs); the DCI intended for the UE is detected during an initial one of the PDCCH Mos (the terminal may monitor the DCI scheduling the X service in the DRX On duration and/or the DRX Off duration according to the pre-configured monitoring window or the monitoring occasion [0288]); and the method further comprises returning to the low energy consumption state and refraining from monitoring the SP-PDCCH during subsequent one or more of the PDCCH Mos (Monitoring position information dedicated to a service in the DRX Off duration is configured. For example, in the DRX On duration, the terminal monitors the PDCCH search space configured according to the DRX On duration; and in the DRX Off duration, the terminal performs scheduling-DCI monitoring according to the pre-configured monitoring position information [0296]).
Regarding claim 42, LUO teaches the method of claim 41, wherein the plurality of PDCCH MOs include at least the following: a first PDCCH MO corresponding to timing of DCI that schedules data traffic that arrives early relative to a traffic period; a second PDCCH MO corresponding to timing of DCI that schedules data traffic that arrives on-time relative to the traffic period; and a third PDCCH MO corresponding to timing of DCI that schedules data traffic that arrives late relative to the traffic period (the independent monitoring position information of the first DCI in the DRX On duration includes a monitoring periodicity and a first offset value; an absolute start time of the monitoring window; start time/end time and a second offset value of the periodic or semi-persistent behavior; a monitoring duration; monitoring end time; a time offset between adjacent monitoring windows; the number of first monitoring windows; or the number of first monitoring start positions [0266-267]).
Regarding claim 43, LUO teaches the method of claim 41, further comprising receiving from the wireless network a PDCCH monitoring configuration including indications of one or more of the following: a traffic period between successive arrivals of data traffic scheduled by PDCCH; an offset of an initial PDCCH MO from the start of each traffic period; a gap between successive PDCCH MOs within each traffic period; and a duration of the plurality of PDCCH MOs within each traffic period (Monitoring position information dedicated to a service in the DRX Off duration is configured. For example, in the DRX On duration, the terminal monitors the PDCCH search space configured according to the DRX On duration; and in the DRX Off duration, the terminal performs scheduling-DCI monitoring according to the pre-configured monitoring position information [0296] the position information includes at least one of the following: monitoring periodicity and a first offset value; an absolute start time of the monitoring window; start time/end time and a second offset value of the periodic or semi-persistent behavior; a monitoring duration; monitoring end time; a time offset between adjacent monitoring windows; the number of first monitoring windows; the number of first monitoring start positions [0226-267]).
Regarding claims 44-51 and 53, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 32-43 where the difference used is the limitations were presented from a method in the “base station” side with an interface circuitry and a professor circuitry in claim 53 (LUO: FIG.5) and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Regarding claim 52, related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claim 1, where the difference used is the limitations were presented from the “user equipment” side and an interface circuitry and a professor circuitry (LUO: FIG.5) and the wordings of the claim were interchanged within the claim itself or were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claim and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to this claim. Therefore, this claim was rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Conclusion
When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111 (c).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELNABI O MUSA whose telephone number is (571)270-1901, and email address is abdelnabi.musa@uspto.gov ‘preferred’. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates, can be reached on 571-2723980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDELNABI O MUSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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