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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. KR-10-2021-0163695, filed on 24th November 2021.
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Claim Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Please insert -- Synchronization Signal Blocks -- prior to the first occurrence of the “SSBs” term.
Appropriate correction is required.
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 – 4 and 10 – 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma et al (US 2022/0217658 A1) in view of Wigard et al (US 2022/0061004 A1).
Claim 10 (similarly Claim 1). Ma shows a base station apparatus (figs. 1 – 4, 6 and 8: Macro BS) comprising: a processor (fig. 2: controller / processor 290 of BS 200); and a transceiver (fig. 2: antenna 234a-t of BS 200) configured to transmit or receive signals to or from a plurality of satellites through a gateway 350), wherein the processor is configured to: control first SSBs corresponding to a number of beams of each of the satellites to be transmitted through respective transmission beams in a first SSB period ([0099]: NTN entity may transmit a configuration message that indicates a first quantity of consecutive repetitions of a first paging MO for a first SSB transmitted in a first beam and a second quantity of consecutive repetitions of a second paging MO for a second SSB transmitted in a second beam; [0101]: UE may monitor for the first SSB in the first quantity of repetitions of the first paging MO and for the second SSB in the second quantity of repetitions of the second paging MO… UE may receive the SSB in a beam transmitted during the first paging MO repetitions… UE may monitor for SSB 1 in the first four repetitions of the first paging MO, receive SSB 1, and then go to sleep); determine a transmission beam of each of the satellites based on a first measurement report for the respective transmission beams, the first measurement report being received from a terminal ([0057]: a transmit processor may receive and process data from a data source and control information (e.g. for reports that include RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, and/or the like) from controller/processor; [0099]: NTN entity may generate the configuration message allocating consecutive repetitions of each paging MO based at least in part on a quantity of SSBs, a capability of the UE, a power status of the UE, a location of the UE, and/or a reported quantity of SSBs for a set of paging MOs).Ma does not expressly describe further features of: controlling second SSBs for determining one combination including two or more gateways among the plurality of gateways to be transmitted in a second SSB period; and determining a first combination including two or more gateways based on a second measurement report for the second SSBs, the second measurement report being received from the terminal, wherein the number of the second SSBs is determined according to a number of combinations of the gateways.Wigard teaches features of: controlling second SSBs for determining one combination including two or more gateways among a plurality of gateways to be transmitted in a second SSB period (figs. 2 and 3a; [0067]: during t2 and t3, where t2 can be starting at t1 and t3 can continue until t4, the gNB comprised in the second satellite boosts its SSB frequency thereby applying a second SSB periodicity; [0070]: the concept may be utilized for providing coverage for high-speed trains, where the trajectory of terminal devices is predictable and thus allow for coordinated boosting of SSB transmissions when a larger set of terminal devices is departing a cell and having a new target cell… radio signalling of the first and/or the second gNB may be transmitted via a respective satellite; [0071]: a second SSB transmission mode that is to be applied during the second time period is determined); and determining a first combination including two or more gateways based on a second measurement report for the second SSBs, the second measurement report being received from the terminal ([0059]: the movement of the satellites in an NTN with Earth-fixed cells means that as the cell is provided by different satellites at different times, the terminal devices being served by the satellite serving the cell need to perform radio mobility to the other satellite once the satellites have moved such that the satellite providing the cell changes… the movement of the satellites in this exemplary embodiment is predictable and therefore the time window for the radio mobility to be performed may be predicted; [0061]: the SMTC window periodicity may be set in the same range as the SSB and the duration of the SMTC window may be set according to the number of SSBs transmitted on the cell being measured), wherein the number of the second SSBs is determined according to a number of combinations of the gateways (see above; [0058]: there may be a feeder link between the LEO satellite and a gateway that provides a connection to a data network; [0059]: the number of radio mobility events to be performed during that time window may be rather high).It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the features as taught by Wigard in the base station of Ma to facilitate providing facilities for networks of different operators to cooperate in spectrum sharing.
Claim 11 (similarly claim 2). Ma, modified by Wigard, shows the base station apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to control the first SSBs to be transmitted through all bandwidth parts (BWPs) of the satellites ([0067]: a first SSB periodicity is used by the gNB comprised in the second satellite and providing the target cell).
Claim 12 (similarly claim 3). Ma, modified by Wigard, shows the base station apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to determine one BWP when determining the transmission beam of each of the satellites ([0071]: an SSB boosting as described above when the SSB transmission periodicity is higher than the normal periodicity and/or more 5G beams are used than in the first SSB transmission mode).
Claim 13 (similarly claim 4). Ma, modified by Wigard, shows the base station apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first measurement report includes information on received signal strength(s) for at least one beam in at least one BWP ([0055]: a channel processor may determine reference signal received power (RSRP), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), channel quality indicator (CQI), and/or the like).
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 – 9 and 14 – 18 are 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.
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
1. Li et al, US 2023/0209526 A1: a method for selecting an initial Bandwidth Part (BWP), comprising sending, by a network device, initial BWP selection configuration information to a terminal device, wherein the initial BWP selection configuration information is used for the terminal device to determine a target initial BWP to be selected among a plurality of initial BWPs.
2. Wang et al, US 2022/0225432 A1: a beam indication method, comprising determining, by a terminal device, first random access information associated with a first synchronization broadcast block (SSB) and a beam parameter that identifies a satellite beam; and sending, by the terminal device, a preamble to a satellite based on the first random access information.
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/XAVIER S WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415 16th September 2026
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