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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1, 13, 15, 17, 29 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ciochina et al. (US 2023/0370154 A1).
Ciochina teaches a UE receiving assistance Information on the accessibility of satellite beams at future time periods (paragraph 0037).
With respect to the claims, references to the prior art appear in parenthesis.
Claims
1. An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Ciochina, US 2023/0370154 A1), comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory (UE components in Figure 1) , and configured to:
receive, from a network entity, a downlink message associated with a first random access procedure between the network entity and the UE (Assistance Information in Step 13 in Figure 4) , the downlink message comprising an accessibility indicator of a first cell supported by the network entity, the accessibility indicator indicating whether the first cell is inactive at a future time period; and perform one of the first random access procedure for the first cell based at least in part on the accessibility indicator indicating that the first cell supported by the network entity is active at the future time period or a second random access procedure for a second cell based at least in part on the accessibility indicator indicating that the first cell supported by the network entity is inactive at the future time period (Assistance Information provides accessibility of a plurality of cells in which the UE selects a cell to perform the RACH procedure in paragraphs 0017-0023) .
13. The apparatus of claim1 ,wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a message instructing the UE to perform the second random access procedure for the second cell based at least in part on the accessibility indicator indicating that the first cell is inaccessible (UE receives instruction to perform RACH procedure on a second cell based on accessibility of a first and second cell in paragraph 0119) .
15. An apparatus for wireless communication at a network entity (Ciochina, US 2023/0370154 A1), comprising: a memory and a processor coupled to the memory (BS components in Figure 1), and configured to:
receive, from a user equipment (UE), an uplink message associated with a random access procedure between the UE and a cell supported by the network entity (Random access procedure request to the cell in paragraph 0096) ; and
transmit ,to the UE and in response to the uplink message, a downlink message associated with the random access procedure between the UE and the cell the downlink message comprising an accessibility indicator of the cell supported by the network entity ,the accessibility indicator indicating whether the cell is inactive at a future time period (Assistance Information provides accessibility of a plurality of cells in which the UE selects a cell to perform the RACH procedure in paragraphs 0017-0023) .
27. The apparatus of claim15 .wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a message instructing the UE to perform a second random access procedure between UIE and a second cell based at least in part on the accessibility indicator indicating that the cell is inactive at the future time period (UE receives instruction to perform RACH procedure on a second cell based on accessibility of a first and second cell in paragraph 0119) .
29. A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (Ciochina, US 2023/0370154 A1)comprising:
receiving, from a network entity, a downlink message associated with a first random access procedure between the network entity and the UE (Assistance Information in Step 13 in Figure 4), the downlink message comprising an accessibility indicator of a first cell supported by the network entity, the accessibility indicator indicating whether the first cell is inactive at a future time period; and performing one of the first random access procedure for the first cell based at least in part on the accessibility indicator indicating that the first cell supported by the network entity is active at the future time period or a second random access procedure for a second cell based at least in part on the accessibility indicator indicating that the first cell supported by the network entity is inactive at the future time period (Assistance Information provides accessibility of a plurality of cells in which the UE selects a cell to perform the RACH procedure in paragraphs 0017-0023) .
30. A method for wireless communication at a network entity (Ciochina, US 2023/0370154 A1), comprising:
receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an uplink message associated with a random access procedure between the UIE and a cell supported by the network entity (Random access procedure request to the cell in paragraph 0096) ; and
transmitting, to the UE and in response to the uplink message, a downlink message associated with the random access procedure between the UE and the cell the downlink message comprising an accessibility indicator of the cell supported by the network entity the accessibility indicator indicating whether the cell is inactive at a future time period (Assistance Information provides accessibility of a plurality of cells in which the UE selects a cell to perform the RACH procedure in paragraphs 0017-0023) .
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.
Claim(s) 2-12, 14, 16-26 and 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ciochina et al. in view of Li et al. publication (‘On Contention-based 2-step Random Access Procedure’).
Ciochina teaches to use a RACH procedure, but does not specify a particular RACH procedure. Li teaches both the 2-Step RACH procedure (section II. 2-STEP RACH CONCEPT on page 771) and 4-Step RACH procedure (section III. 2-STEP RACH VS 4-STEP RACH on page 772). Therefore, it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure.
With respect to the claims, references to the prior art appear in parenthesis.
Claims
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the first random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure) .
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the first random access procedure, wherein the first random access procedure is a four-step random access procedure and the message is a Msg2 of the four-step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
4. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the first random access procedure, wherein the first random access procedure is a two-step random access procedure and the message is a MsgB of the two- step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the first random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure), wherein the downlink control information comprises a plurality of reserved bits and the accessibility indicator of the first cell comprises a bit of the plurality of reserved bits (It 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 to provide the assistance Information in the reserved bits of a downlink control Information for the reason that UE needs to decode the downlink message to determine whether it is the assistance Information that is sent in the downlink message in Ciochina, paragraph 0115) .
6. The apparatus of claim 1. wherein the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the first random access procedure, wherein the downlink control information further comprises a cyclic redundancy check that is scrambled by an identifier of the message (Li teaches CRC in section B. Successive Interference Cancellation on page 774, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure) .
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the first random access procedure, wherein the first random access procedure is a four-step random access procedure and the message is a Msg4 of the four-step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a physical downlink control channel comprising downlink control information that schedules a message of the first random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
9. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a physical downlink control channel comprising downlink control information that schedules a message of the first random access, wherein the physical downlink control channel further comprises a demodulation reference signal comprising the accessibility indicator (Li teaches DMRS in section A. Simulation Assumption on page 773 , where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure) .
10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a physical downlink control channel comprising downlink control information that schedules a message of the first random access procedure wherein the message is a Msg2 or a Msg4 (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a reserved bit of a medium access control sub-header or a medium access control payload of the downlink message, wherein the downlink messages a response message of the first random access procedure (Li teaches sub-header in the downlink Msg2 and MsgB in section A. Signaling Overhead Evaluation on page 772 , where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure) .
12. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a reserved bit of a medium access control sub-header or a medium access control payload of the downlink message wherein the downlink message is a MsgB of the first random-access procedure (Li teaches sub-header in the downlink Msg2 and MsgB in section A. Signaling Overhead Evaluation on page 772 , where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
14. The apparatus of claim13, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive the message via a Msg2 of a four-step random access procedure, a Msg4 of a four-step random-access procedure, or a MsgB of a two-step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
16.The apparatus of claim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
17. The apparatus of claim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the random access procedure, wherein the random access procedure is a four-step random access procedure and the message is a Msg2 of the four-step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure) .
18.The apparatus ofclaim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the random access procedure, wherein the random access procedure is a two-step random access procedure and the message is a MsgB of the two-step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure) .
19. The apparatus of claim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure), wherein the downlink control information comprises a plurality of reserved bits and the accessibility indicator of the cell comprises a bit of the plurality of reserved bits
20.The apparatus of claim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the random access procedure, wherein the downlink control information further comprises a cyclic redundancy check that is scrambled by an identifier of the message (Li teaches CRC in section B. Successive Interference Cancellation on page 774, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
21. The apparatus of claim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit downlink control information comprising scheduling information for a message of the random access procedure. wherein the random access procedure is a four-step random access procedure and the message is aMsg4 of the four-step random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
22. The apparatus of claim 15,wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a physical downlink control channel comprising downlink control information that schedules a message of the random access procedure (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
23. The apparatus of claim15, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a physical downing control channel comprising downlink control information that schedules a message of the random access procedure, wherein the physical downlink control channel further comprises a demodulation reference signal comprising the accessibility indicator of the cell (Li teaches DMRS in section A. Simulation Assumption on page 773 , where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
24.The apparatus of claim15,wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a physical downlink control channel comprising downlink control information that schedules a message of the random access procedure, wherein the message is a Msg2 or a Msg4 (Li teaches scheduling resources in traditional 4-Step RACH in section I. INTRODUCTION on page 771 and Figure 1 RACH procedures for 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH on page 772, where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
25.The apparatus of claim15 wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a reserved bit of a medium access control sub-header or a medium access control payload of the downlink message; and wherein the downlink message is a response message of the random access procedure (Li teaches sub-header in the downlink Msg2 and MsgB in section A. Signaling Overhead Evaluation on page 772 , where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
26. The apparatus of claim15,wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a reserved bit of a medium access control sub-header or a medium access control payload of the downlink message, wherein the downlink message is a MsgB of the random access procedure (Li teaches sub-header in the downlink Msg2 and MsgB in section A. Signaling Overhead Evaluation on page 772 , where it 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 to adopt Li’s teaching of 2-STEP RACH and 4-STEP RACH since a skilled artisan would have been motivated to by Ciochina’s explicit teaching to use a RACH procedure).
28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit an indication comprising a cell identifier, a sync raster frequency ,a set of random access parameters ,an indication of whether the second cell supports one or more power savings features, or a combination thereof (Ciochina teaches that the content of the assistance Information can be complemented with an existing ability of the UE to make measurements with one or several satellite beams managed by a considered base station in paragraph 0103, such that it 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 to include cell identifier, sync raster frequency, set of RACH parameters and indication of whether a particular cell supports power savings features for the reason that a skilled artisan would have been motivated to adopt any complementary Information that would have assisted the UE in accessing a considered base station with the associated features) .
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELVIN C MARCELO whose telephone number is (571)272-3125. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6:00.
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MELVIN C. MARCELO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/MELVIN C MARCELO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463 June 27, 2026
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