DETAILED ACTION
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 statement (IDS) submitted on 07/08/2026; the submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-13, filed 07/24/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) claims 1-5 and 11-30 under 35 U.S.C. @ 103 over U.S. Patent Publication No. 2018/0160407 to Wang et al. ("Wang"), in view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2021/0160911 to Park et al. ("Park") have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of CN-116266943-B to Hu.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-13, filed 07/24/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) claim 6 under 35 U.S.C. @ 103 over Wang, in view of Park and US- 20200 1544393- to Hoglund et al. ("Hoglund") have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of CN-116266943-B to Hu.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-13, filed 07/24/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 7 under 35 U.S.C. @ 103 over Wang, in view of Park and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2020/00 15280 to Fujishiro et al. ("Fujishiro") have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of CN-116266943-B to Hu.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-13, filed 07/24/2026with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 26 under 35 U.S.C. @ 103 over Wang, in view of Park and U.S. Patent No. 10,728,079 to Abdoli et al. ("Abdoli") have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of CN-116266943-B to Hu.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 11-25, and 27-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20180160407-A1 to Wang et al., from hereon Wang in view of CN-116266943-B to Hu.
Regarding claim 1 Wang teaches…a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE),comprising (Fig. 6, P.65 discloses…a wireless communication method performed by a UE ): receiving an indication of a configuration for a flexible cell supported by a base station (P.71 discloses…The wireless communication method 6 further comprises the following steps: performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors after receiving the first resource configuration; and performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors after receiving the second resource configuration; note as per the specification a flexible cell is a cell with multiple carriers and the carriers can be denoted as anchor, and non-carriers ), selecting, from among the set of carriers of the flexible cell and based at least in part on the configuration for the flexible cell, a carrier for transmission of a request for system information associated with the flexible cell (P.33-35 disclose… the base station 11 may decide to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to one or more of the following reasons: a certain paging message transmitted to the user equipment does not comprise a paging record that is consistent with the user equipment identity of the user equipment 13, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) is overloaded, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) has a poor channel condition (e.g., there is much interference therein), and the base station 11 needs to reserve a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) for other applications, or the like. The base station 11 may also determine whether to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to other reasons instead of being limited to the aforesaid reasons. [0035] In some embodiments, in order to reduce the data amount to be transmitted for indicating the aforesaid first correspondence table and the second correspondence table, the first resource configuration C1 may instead comprise a first carrier list, and the first carrier list may record a plurality of carriers (e.g., the anchor carrier 21, the non-anchor carrier 23 and the non-anchor carrier 25 or the like shown in FIG. 2) and respective first weight factors of the plurality of carriers. In this case, the use equipment 13 may select a carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2) from the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors and the user equipment identity, and then perform the wireless communication procedure WCP1 with the base station 11 via the carrier. Similarly, the second resource configuration C2 may instead comprise a second carrier list, and the second carrier list may record the plurality of carriers and respective second weight factors of the plurality of carriers. In this case, the use equipment 13 may select another carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 25 shown in FIG. 2) from the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors and the user equipment identity, and then perform the wireless communication procedure WCP1 with the base station 11 via the another carrier ); and transmitting the request for the system information via the selected carrier (P. 29 discloses…the transmission request for system information that includes as disclosed… he wireless communication system 1 provides a plurality of carriers, the base station 11 may place the first resource configuration C1 into a system information message 201 and may transmit the system information message 201 to the user equipment 13 via an anchor carrier 21. After the system information message 201 is received by the user equipment 13, the base station 11 and the user equipment 13 can perform a wireless communication procedure WCP1 about paging according to a certain carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 (e.g., a non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2)). but does not teach…wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers ; selecting, from among the set of carriers of the flexible cell and based at least in part on the configuration for the flexible cell, a carrier for transmission of a request for system information associated with the flexible cell; and transmitting the request for the system information via the selected carrier.
Hu teaches… wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers (Page 7, Lns. 51-55flexible cell, assuming that the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier is the anchor carrier, and the 1.8 GHz 51 FDD carrier, 2.0 GHz FDD carrier, 2.3 GHz SUL carrier, and 4.9 GHz TDD carrier can be non-anchor carriers, 52 then the network-side device can broadcast the downlink reference signal associated with the 2.3 GHz SUL 53 located on the 1.8 GHz FDD carrier through the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier.;
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang by incorporating the teachings of Hu because the method and device allow for various modes to transmit/receive network-side device determines the configuration information, it can broadcast 45 the configuration information via the anchor carrier so that the terminal device can obtain the configuration 46 information from the data carried by the anchor carrier. (Hu, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Note: Wang covers the concept of multiple non-anchor carriers but to be precise, the Park reference covers “two or more non-anchor” carriers.
Regarding claim 2 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 1, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises: receiving an indication of a set of carrier identifiers comprising a respective carrier identifier for each carrier of the set of carriers; and receiving an indication of the respective carrier identifier for the selected carrier, wherein the indication of the respective carrier identifier for the selected carrier indicates which carrier the UE is to select for transmission of the request for the system information (P.61 discloses…FIG. 1, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, after receiving the system information message 401 transmitted by the base station 11, the user equipment 13 may perform the wireless communication procedure WCP2 with the base station 11 on the uplink-downlink non-anchor carrier pair 43 specified by the first resource configuration C1. In the wireless communication procedure WCP2, the user equipment 13 first transmits a random access preamble message (i.e., a first message (MSG1)) to the base station 11 on the uplink non-anchor carrier pair 431, and then the base station 11 transmits a random access response message (i.e., the second message (MSG2)) to the user equipment 13 on the downlink non-anchor carrier pair 433. If the random access response message comprises a random access preamble ID that is consistent with the random access preamble message, then the user equipment 13 and the base station 11 will continue the subsequent random access processing (i.e., the processing of the third message (MSG3) and the fourth message (MSG4)) ).
Regarding claim 3 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 2, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises: receiving radio resource control signaling that indicates the set of carrier identifiers, the respective carrier identifier for the selected carrier, or both (Fig. 2, P.30 and P. 52 discloses…the base station 11 wants to change the first resource configuration C1 after the system information message 201 is transmitted, then the base station 11 may place the second resource configuration C2 into a downlink control message 203, and transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 via the carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2) within a modification period that is used to notify the user equipment 13 that the system information will be updated in the conventional communication system; the base station 11 may decide to transmit the downlink control message 403 to the user equipment 13 due to one or more of the following reasons: a random access response message transmitted in response to a random access preamble message transmitted by the user equipment 13 does not comprise a random access preamble ID (RAPID) that is consistent with the random access preamble message, a certain uplink-downlink carrier pair (e.g., the uplink-downlink non-anchor carrier pair 43) is overloaded, a certain uplink-downlink carrier pair (e.g., the uplink-downlink non-anchor carrier pair 43) has a poor channel condition (e.g., there is much interference therein), and the base station 11 needs to reserve a certain uplink-downlink carrier pair (e.g., the uplink-downlink non-anchor carrier pair 43) for other applications).
Regarding claim 4 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 2, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the set of carrier identifiers comprises: receiving system information that indicates the set of carrier identifiers, the respective carrier identifier for the selected carrier, or both (P.7 and P. 29 discloses…the case where the wireless communication system 1 provides a plurality of carriers, the base station 11 may place the first resource configuration C1 into a system information message 201 and may transmit the system information message 201 to the user equipment 13 via an anchor carrier 21. After the system information message 201 is received by the user equipment 13, the base station 11 and the user equipment 13 can perform a wireless communication procedure WCP1 about paging according to a certain carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 (e.g., a non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2). In other embodiments, the carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 may also be the anchor carrier 21 ).
Regarding claim 5 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 1, Hu teaches…further comprising: receiving a reference signal from the base station; and measuring a received power level for the reference signal, wherein selecting the carrier based at least in part on the configuration for the flexible cell comprises selecting the carrier for transmission of the request for the system information based at least in part on the received power level for the reference signal (Page 8, Lns. 34-45, Step A1-A2…discloses.. Obtain the measurement results obtained by the terminal device measuring the downlink reference 34 signal.).
Regarding claim 11 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 1, Wang teaches…wherein transmitting the request for the system information comprises: transmitting a random access preamble via the selected carrier, wherein the random access preamble is one of a set of random access preambles each corresponding to a respective set of system information associated with the flexible cell, and wherein the request for system information associated with the flexible cell comprises a request for the respective set of system information corresponding to the transmitted random access preamble (P.49 ).
Regarding claim 12 Wang teaches…a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE),comprising(Fig. 6, P.65 discloses…a wireless communication method performed by a UE ): (P.71 discloses…The wireless communication method 6 further comprises the following steps: performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors after receiving the first resource configuration; and performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors after receiving the second resource configuration; note as per the specification a flexible cell is a cell with multiple carriers and the carriers can be denoted as anchor, and non-carriers ): receiving an indication of a configuration for a flexible cell supported by a base station(P.71 discloses…The wireless communication method 6 further comprises the following steps: performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors after receiving the first resource configuration; and performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors after receiving the second resource configuration; note as per the specification a flexible cell is a cell with multiple carriers and the carriers can be denoted as anchor, and non-carriers ), selecting, from among the set of carriers of the flexible cell and based at least in part on the configuration for the flexible cell, a carrier for reception by the UE of an acknowledgement for a request for system information associated with the flexible cell(P.33-35 disclose… the base station 11 may decide to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to one or more of the following reasons: a certain paging message transmitted to the user equipment does not comprise a paging record that is consistent with the user equipment identity of the user equipment 13, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) is overloaded, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) has a poor channel condition (e.g., there is much interference therein), and the base station 11 needs to reserve a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) for other applications, or the like. The base station 11 may also determine whether to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to other reasons instead of being limited to the aforesaid reasons.) ; transmitting, to the base station, the request for the system information associated with the flexible cell; and receiving the acknowledgement for the request for the system information via the selected carrier(P. 29 discloses…the transmission request for system information that includes as disclosed… he wireless communication system 1 provides a plurality of carriers, the base station 11 may place the first resource configuration C1 into a system information message 201 and may transmit the system information message 201 to the user equipment 13 via an anchor carrier 21. After the system information message 201 is received by the user equipment 13, the base station 11 and the user equipment 13 can perform a wireless communication procedure WCP1 about paging according to a certain carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 (e.g., a non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2)).but does not teach…wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers.
Hu teaches… wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers (Page 7, Lns. 51-55flexible cell, assuming that the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier is the anchor carrier, and the 1.8 GHz 51 FDD carrier, 2.0 GHz FDD carrier, 2.3 GHz SUL carrier, and 4.9 GHz TDD carrier can be non-anchor carriers, 52 then the network-side device can broadcast the downlink reference signal associated with the 2.3 GHz SUL 53 located on the 1.8 GHz FDD carrier through the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier.;
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang by incorporating the teachings of Hu because the method and device allow for various modes to transmit/receive network-side device determines the configuration information, it can broadcast 45 the configuration information via the anchor carrier so that the terminal device can obtain the configuration 46 information from the data carried by the anchor carrier. (Hu, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Note: Wang covers the concept of multiple non-anchor carriers but to be precise, the Park reference covers “two or more non-anchor” carriers.
Regarding claim 13 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises: receiving, prior to selecting the carrier, additional system information that indicates the configuration for the flexible cell (P. 61).
Regarding claim 14 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 13, Wang teaches…wherein the additional system information comprises an indication of a carrier identifier for the selected carrier (P. 30 and P. 52).
Regarding claim 15 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 13, Wang teaches…wherein an absence from the additional system information of an indication of a carrier identifier for the selected carrier comprises an indication that the UE is to select the anchor carrier as the selected carrier (P.33 ).
Regarding claim 16 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 13, Hu teaches…wherein receiving the acknowledgement for the request for the system information via the selected carrier comprises: receiving a control message via the selected carrier; and receiving a shared channel message via the selected carrier, the shared channel message scheduled by the control message and comprising the acknowledgement (Page 8, Lns. 49).
Regarding claim 17 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, Hu teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises receiving a first indication of a first carrier of the set of carriers, wherein the first carrier is for receiving a control message, the method further comprising: receiving a second indication of a second carrier of the set of carriers, wherein the second carrier comprises the selected carrier and is for receiving a shared channel message that is scheduled by the control message and comprises the acknowledgement (Page 11, Lns. 41 ).
Regarding claim 18 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 17, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises: receiving, prior to selecting the carrier, additional system information that comprises the first indication of the first carrier and the second indication of the second carrier (P. 35).
Regarding claim 19 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 17, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises: receiving, prior to selecting the carrier, additional system information that comprises the first indication of the first carrier; and receiving the second indication of the second carrier within the control message (P. 6).
Regarding claim 20 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 17, Wang teaches…wherein the first carrier is different than the second carrier (Fig. 12 ).
Regarding claim 21 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 17, Wang teaches…wherein the first carrier and the second carrier comprise a same carrier (P. 38).
Regarding claim 22 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, Wang teaches…wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises: receiving an indication of a set of random access preambles for the UE to use for transmitting system information requests (Fig. 4, P. 45).
Regarding claim 23 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 22, Wang teaches…wherein the request for the system information associated with the flexible cell is transmitted using a preamble of the set of random access preambles, the method further comprising: receiving the system information associated with the flexible cell via a second carrier of the set of carriers, wherein the acknowledgement for the request comprises medium access control signaling that indicates the second carrier (P. 46 and P. 52).
Regarding claim 24 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, Wang teaches…further comprising: receiving, after receiving the acknowledgement for the request via the selected carrier, the system information associated with the flexible cell via the selected carrier (P.35 ).
Regarding claim 25 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, Wang teaches…further comprising: receiving, prior to transmitting the request for the system information associated with the flexible cell, a first system information block via a second carrier of the set of carriers; and receiving, after receiving the acknowledgement for the request via the selected carrier, the system information associated with the flexible cell via the second carrier (P. 135 and P. 145).
Regarding claim 27 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, Wang teaches…wherein: transmitting the request for the system information comprises transmitting a random access preamble; and receiving the acknowledgement for the request for the system information comprises receiving a random access response message in response to transmitting the random access preamble (P. 49).
Regarding claim 28 Wang teaches…an apparatus for wireless communication (ABs ), comprising: memory; a transceiver; and at least one processor of a user equipment (UE) (P.22 ), the at least one processor coupled with the memory and the transceiver, and the at least one processor configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, via the transceiver (P.25 ), an indication of a configuration for a flexible cell supported by a base station(P.71 discloses…The wireless communication method 6 further comprises the following steps: performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors after receiving the first resource configuration; and performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors after receiving the second resource configuration; note as per the specification a flexible cell is a cell with multiple carriers and the carriers can be denoted as anchor, and non-carriers ), select, from among the set of carriers of the flexible cell and based at least in part on the configuration for the flexible cell, a carrier for transmission of a request for system information associated with the flexible cell(P.33-35 disclose… the base station 11 may decide to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to one or more of the following reasons: a certain paging message transmitted to the user equipment does not comprise a paging record that is consistent with the user equipment identity of the user equipment 13, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) is overloaded, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) has a poor channel condition (e.g., there is much interference therein), and the base station 11 needs to reserve a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) for other applications, or the like. The base station 11 may also determine whether to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to other reasons instead of being limited to the aforesaid reasons. [0035] In some embodiments, in order to reduce the data amount to be transmitted for indicating the aforesaid first correspondence table and the second correspondence table, the first resource configuration C1 may instead comprise a first carrier list, and the first carrier list may record a plurality of carriers (e.g., the anchor carrier 21, the non-anchor carrier 23 and the non-anchor carrier 25 or the like shown in FIG. 2) and respective first weight factors of the plurality of carriers. In this case, the use equipment 13 may select a carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2) from the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors and the user equipment identity, and then perform the wireless communication procedure WCP1 with the base station 11 via the carrier. Similarly, the second resource configuration C2 may instead comprise a second carrier list, and the second carrier list may record the plurality of carriers and respective second weight factors of the plurality of carriers. In this case, the use equipment 13 may select another carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 25 shown in FIG. 2) from the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors and the user equipment identity, and then perform the wireless communication procedure WCP1 with the base station 11 via the another carrier ); and transmit, via the transceiver, the request for the system information via the selected carrier carrier (P. 29 discloses…the transmission request for system information that includes as disclosed… he wireless communication system 1 provides a plurality of carriers, the base station 11 may place the first resource configuration C1 into a system information message 201 and may transmit the system information message 201 to the user equipment 13 via an anchor carrier 21. After the system information message 201 is received by the user equipment 13, the base station 11 and the user equipment 13 can perform a wireless communication procedure WCP1 about paging according to a certain carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 (e.g., a non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2)), but does not teach…wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers;
Hu teaches… wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers(Page 7, Lns. 51-55flexible cell, assuming that the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier is the anchor carrier, and the 1.8 GHz 51 FDD carrier, 2.0 GHz FDD carrier, 2.3 GHz SUL carrier, and 4.9 GHz TDD carrier can be non-anchor carriers, 52 then the network-side device can broadcast the downlink reference signal associated with the 2.3 GHz SUL 53 located on the 1.8 GHz FDD carrier through the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier.;
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang by incorporating the teachings of Hu because the method and device allow for various modes to transmit/receive network-side device determines the configuration information, it can broadcast 45 the configuration information via the anchor carrier so that the terminal device can obtain the configuration 46 information from the data carried by the anchor carrier. (Hu, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Note: Wang covers the concept of multiple non-anchor carriers but to be precise, the Park reference covers “two or more non-anchor” carriers.
Regarding claim 29 Wang and Hu teach the apparatus of claim 28, Wang teaches….wherein, to receive the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, via the transceiver, an indication of a set of carrier identifiers comprising a respective carrier identifier for each carrier of the set of carriers; and receive, via the transceiver, an indication of the respective carrier identifier for the selected carrier, wherein the indication of the respective carrier identifier for the selected carrier indicates which carrier the UE is to select for transmission of the request for the system information(P.61 discloses…FIG. 1, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, after receiving the system information message 401 transmitted by the base station 11, the user equipment 13 may perform the wireless communication procedure WCP2 with the base station 11 on the uplink-downlink non-anchor carrier pair 43 specified by the first resource configuration C1. In the wireless communication procedure WCP2, the user equipment 13 first transmits a random access preamble message (i.e., a first message (MSG1)) to the base station 11 on the uplink non-anchor carrier pair 431, and then the base station 11 transmits a random access response message (i.e., the second message (MSG2)) to the user equipment 13 on the downlink non-anchor carrier pair 433. If the random access response message comprises a random access preamble ID that is consistent with the random access preamble message, then the user equipment 13 and the base station 11 will continue the subsequent random access processing (i.e., the processing of the third message (MSG3) and the fourth message (MSG4)) ).
Regarding claim 30 Wang teaches…an apparatus for wireless communication (Abs ), comprising: memory; a transceiver; and at least one processor of a user equipment (UE) (P. 22), the at least one processor coupled with the memory and the transceiver, and the at least one processor configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, via the transceiver (P.25 ), an indication of a configuration for a flexible cell supported by a base station(P.71 discloses…The wireless communication method 6 further comprises the following steps: performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors after receiving the first resource configuration; and performing, by the user equipment, the wireless communication procedure with the base station on one of the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors after receiving the second resource configuration; note as per the specification a flexible cell is a cell with multiple carriers and the carriers can be denoted as anchor, and non-carriers ), select, from among the set of carriers of the flexible cell and based at least in part on the configuration for the flexible cell, a carrier for reception by the UE of an acknowledgement for a request for system information associated with the flexible cell(P.33-35 disclose… the base station 11 may decide to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to one or more of the following reasons: a certain paging message transmitted to the user equipment does not comprise a paging record that is consistent with the user equipment identity of the user equipment 13, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) is overloaded, a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) has a poor channel condition (e.g., there is much interference therein), and the base station 11 needs to reserve a certain carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23) for other applications, or the like. The base station 11 may also determine whether to transmit the downlink control message 203 to the user equipment 13 due to other reasons instead of being limited to the aforesaid reasons. [0035] In some embodiments, in order to reduce the data amount to be transmitted for indicating the aforesaid first correspondence table and the second correspondence table, the first resource configuration C1 may instead comprise a first carrier list, and the first carrier list may record a plurality of carriers (e.g., the anchor carrier 21, the non-anchor carrier 23 and the non-anchor carrier 25 or the like shown in FIG. 2) and respective first weight factors of the plurality of carriers. In this case, the use equipment 13 may select a carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2) from the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of first weight factors and the user equipment identity, and then perform the wireless communication procedure WCP1 with the base station 11 via the carrier. Similarly, the second resource configuration C2 may instead comprise a second carrier list, and the second carrier list may record the plurality of carriers and respective second weight factors of the plurality of carriers. In this case, the use equipment 13 may select another carrier (e.g., the non-anchor carrier 25 shown in FIG. 2) from the plurality of carriers according to the plurality of second weight factors and the user equipment identity, and then perform the wireless communication procedure WCP1 with the base station 11 via the another carrier ); transmit, via the transceiver and to the base station, the request for the system information associated with the flexible cell; and receive, via the transceiver, the acknowledgement for the request for the system information via the selected carrier(P. 29 discloses…the transmission request for system information that includes as disclosed… he wireless communication system 1 provides a plurality of carriers, the base station 11 may place the first resource configuration C1 into a system information message 201 and may transmit the system information message 201 to the user equipment 13 via an anchor carrier 21. After the system information message 201 is received by the user equipment 13, the base station 11 and the user equipment 13 can perform a wireless communication procedure WCP1 about paging according to a certain carrier specified by the first resource configuration C1 (e.g., a non-anchor carrier 23 shown in FIG. 2)), but does not teach…wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers.
Hu teaches… wherein the flexible cell comprises a set of carriers comprising an anchor carrier and two or more non-anchor carriers (Page 7, Lns. 51-55flexible cell, assuming that the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier is the anchor carrier, and the 1.8 GHz 51 FDD carrier, 2.0 GHz FDD carrier, 2.3 GHz SUL carrier, and 4.9 GHz TDD carrier can be non-anchor carriers, 52 then the network-side device can broadcast the downlink reference signal associated with the 2.3 GHz SUL 53 located on the 1.8 GHz FDD carrier through the 2.6 GHz TDD carrier.;
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang by incorporating the teachings of Hu because the method and device allow for various modes to transmit/receive network-side device determines the configuration information, it can broadcast 45 the configuration information via the anchor carrier so that the terminal device can obtain the configuration 46 information from the data carried by the anchor carrier. (Hu, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Claim(s) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20180160407-A1 to Wang et al., from hereon Wang and CN-116266943-B to Hu in view of US-202001544393-A1 to Hoglund et al., from hereon Huglund.
Regarding claim 6 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 5, but do not teach…further comprising: comparing the received power level for the reference signal to one or more thresholds, wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises receiving an indication of the one or more thresholds, and wherein selecting the carrier for transmission of the request for the system information is based at least in part on the comparing.
Hoglund teaches… further comprising: comparing the received power level for the reference signal to one or more thresholds, wherein receiving the indication of the configuration for the flexible cell comprises receiving an indication of the one or more thresholds, and wherein selecting the carrier for transmission of the request for the system information is based at least in part on the comparing (P.51 discloses… The UE measures its downlink and compared the level with eNB broadcast thresholds ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang and HU by incorporating the teachings of Hoglund because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration the network devices monitor, messages and indications from the carriers to select the carriers based on the configurations and measurements (Huglund, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Claim(s) 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20180160407-A1 to Wang et al., from hereon Wang and CN-116266943-B to Hu in view of US-20200015280-A1 to Fujishiro et al., from hereon Fujishiro.
Regarding claim 7 Wang, Hu, and Huglund teach the method of claim 6, but do not teach…wherein the one or more thresholds comprises a single threshold, the method further comprising: using the single threshold to select one of the two or more non-anchor carriers to use as a supplemental uplink carrier.
Fujishiro teaches… wherein the one or more thresholds comprises a single threshold, the method further comprising: using the single threshold to select one of the two or more non-anchor carriers to use as a supplemental uplink carrier (P. 52).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang, Hu, and Huglund by incorporating the teachings of Fujishiro because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration via random access (Fujishiro, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Claim(s) 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20180160407-A1 to Wang et al., from hereon Wang and CN-116266943-B to Hu in view of US-10728079-B2, to Abdoli et al., from hereon Abdoli.
Regarding claim 26 Wang and Hu teach the method of claim 12, but do not teach…further comprising: receiving, prior to transmitting the request for the system information associated with the flexible cell, a synchronization signal block via a second carrier of the set of carriers; and receiving, after receiving the acknowledgement for the request via the selected carrier, the system information associated with the flexible cell via the second carrier.
Abdoli teaches… further comprising: receiving, prior to transmitting the request for the system information associated with the flexible cell, a synchronization signal block via a second carrier of the set of carriers; and receiving, after receiving the acknowledgement for the request via the selected carrier, the system information associated with the flexible cell via the second carrier (clm 11).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Wang and Hu by incorporating the teachings of Abdoli because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration of resources (grids) in the various carriers with particular information that include the SIB, SSB, and others (Abdoli, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the main reason for objection of the claim under discussion is the inclusion of “the set of carriers comprises a plurality of subsets of one or more carriers, the plurality of subsets corresponding to a plurality of received power ranges that are each delimited by at least one threshold of the one or more thresholds; comparing the received power level for the reference signal to the one or more thresholds comprises determining that the received power level for the reference signal is within a first received power range of the plurality of received power ranges; and selecting the carrier for transmission of the request for the system information comprises selecting the carrier from a first subset of carriers based at least in part on the first subset of carriers corresponding to the first received power range” as the prior art of record in stand-alone form nor in combination read into the discloses claim as supported by the specification. Furthermore, the nearest such as WO-2023015406-A1 to Ly, US-20210307059-A1 Rathonyi, US-20190223212-A1 to Xiao, US-20180249511-A1 to Rathonyi .
Claim 9 and 10 are allowed as they depend from an allowed claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO form PTO-892: US-20210307059-A1 Rathonyi, US-20190223212-A1 to Xiao, US-20180249511-A1 to Rathonyi.
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/L.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2476
/AYAZ R SHEIKH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2476
