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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in response to application filed on 6/04/2026.
Claims 1-9 have been elected with traverse in response to the restriction.
Claims 1-9 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Claims 10-15 have been non-elected based on amendment filed on 6/4/2026.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of CT/US2023/010366 filed on 1/17/2023.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 5/25/2024 and these drawings are accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/25/2024 in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Election/Restriction
Applicant’s election with traverse of Group I, claims 1-9 in the reply filed on 5/5/2026 is acknowledged.
Examiner Note: Examiner suggests Applicant to cancel the non-elected claims which are 10-15.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over FU (WO 2021081997 A1) in view of Zhe (WO 2021082009 A1).
INDEPENDENT:
As per claim 1, FU discloses a method for synchronization signal measurement implemented in a user equipment (FU: “ the UE performs cell measurement by receiving SSB (Synchronization Signal Block) sent by each cell in the whitelisted cell list. In the implementation, due to the difference between the signal transmission delay between the UE and the current serving cell”), the method comprising:
receiving, by the UE from a non-terrestrial network (FU: “ In NTN technology, the terminal 110 may also be referred to as an NTN terminal. The NTN terminal may be a terminal defined by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project),”), a measurement configuration that indicates a timing pattern for inter-frequency measurement “ (PRG. 60, 66, 76: "Further, when a neighboring cell in the whitelist neighboring cell list and the current serving cell are of inter-frequency or inter-system, the first measurement configuration further includes second configuration information of a second measurement window and a second starting time offset corresponding to the neighboring cell in the whitelist neighboring cell list";
PRG. 78: "Among them, the second configuration information includes a second window period, a second window starting offset and second window duration, wherein the second window starting offset is used to indicate a starting time offset of the second measurement window within one second window period"; PRG. 79, 80, 81, 108), the timing pattern having a measurement gap of a certain duration (FU: At present, the maximum configurable duration of the SMTC window is 5ms (milliseconds), and the maximum configurable duration of the measurement gap window is 6ms (milliseconds).”);
receiving, by the UE from the NTN (FU: “ In NTN technology, the terminal 110 may also be referred to as an NTN terminal. The NTN terminal may be a terminal defined by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project),”), a synchronization signal during the measurement gap in accordance with the timing pattern (FU: “ The receiving window of the synchronization signal block SSB corresponding to the neighboring cell in the neighboring cell list of the list & The measurement gap window is configured for the UE, that is, different UEs can be configured with different measurement gap windows.”);
performing, by the UE, a measurement of the synchronization signal (FU: “ the UE performs cell measurement by receiving SSB (Synchronization Signal Block) sent by each cell in the whitelisted cell list. In the implementation, due to the difference between the signal transmission delay between the UE and the current serving cell”); and
FU does not transmitting, by the UE to the NTN, an indication related to the measurement gap.
Zhe however discloses transmitting, by the UE to the NTN (Zhe: “ in FIG. 3. Suppose there are 3 NTN cells, namely cell 0, cell 1, and cell 2. Among them, the serving cell of the terminal device is cell 0, and cell 1 and cell 2 are two cells on an inter-frequency frequency point f. The base stations of these 3 NTN cells send SSB at the same time.”), an indication related to the measurement gap (Zhe: “ the RRC configuration measurement information indicates the target start time of the SMTC and/or the start time of the measurement gap to the terminal device in a pattern or bitmap manner.”);
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
Claim 9 is rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1.
DEPENDENTS:
As per claim 2, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the indication includes: transmitting, to the NTN and prior to an end of the measurement gap, a request to terminate the measurement gap (Zhe: t this time, the RRC configuration measurement information may include not only the target start time of the SMTC and/or the target start time of the measurement gap, but also the target end time of the SMTC and/or the target end time of the measurement gap.”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
As per claim 3, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the transmitting the request includes one of: (i) transmitting a dedicated preamble during a contention-free random access procedure (RACH) (Zhe: “ the terminal device can use any one of the following messages to send the third information to the terminal device: Random Access Channel (RACH),.”). (ii) transmitting a signal on a dedicated Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, or (iii) performing a contention-based random access channel, RACH, procedure to acquire a resource for transmitting a Radio Resource Control RRC, message, and transmitting, using the resource, the RRC message including the request (Zhe: “In 320, the network device sends RRC configuration measurement information to the terminal device. The RRC measurement configuration information may include a cell list, and include the target start time of the SMTC and/or the start time of the measurement gap..”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
As per claim 4, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the indication includes: transmitting, to the NTN (Zhe: “ in FIG. 3. Suppose there are 3 NTN cells, namely cell 0, cell 1, and cell 2. Among them, the serving cell of the terminal device is cell 0, and cell 1 and cell 2 are two cells on an inter-frequency frequency point f. The base stations of these 3 NTN cells send SSB at the same time.”), and after the measurement gap completes, a recommendation for setting a new measurement gap (Zhe: “ the RRC configuration measurement information indicates the target start time of the SMTC and/or the start time of the measurement gap to the terminal device in a pattern or bitmap manner.”);
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
As per claim 5, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the recommendation includes one or more of: (i) a length of the measurement gap, (ii) an offset of the measurement gap in a frame, or (iii) a periodicity of the measurement gap (Zhe: “ Method 1: The terminal device can determine the adjustment rule of the measurement gap and/or SMTC position within the first time or within the Repetition period, that is, at least one adjustment rule of the target start time and target length of the measurement gap and/or SMTC, such as adjustment Period, adjustment step size, etc.”);
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
As per claim 6, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the NTN, an indication of whether the UE is allowed to transmit (Zhe: “ in FIG. 3. Suppose there are 3 NTN cells, namely cell 0, cell 1, and cell 2. Among them, the serving cell of the terminal device is cell 0, and cell 1 and cell 2 are two cells on an inter-frequency frequency point f. The base stations of these 3 NTN cells send SSB at the same time.”), the indication related to the measurement gap.
an indication related to the measurement gap (Zhe: “ the RRC configuration measurement information indicates the target start time of the SMTC and/or the start time of the measurement gap to the terminal device in a pattern or bitmap manner.”);
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
As per claim 7, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the NTN, an uplink resource for the transmitting (Zhe: “ measurement period of the terminal device, the uplink and downlink data transmission between the terminal device and the serving cell will be interrupted. In order to reduce the communication interruption between the terminal device and the serving cell,”) the indication related to the measurement gap (Zhe: “ the RRC configuration measurement information indicates the target start time of the SMTC and/or the start time of the measurement gap to the terminal device in a pattern or bitmap manner.”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of FU in view of Zhe to figure out indication related to the measurement gap. One would be motivated to do so because this measures the target length of the synchronization block measurement timing configuration SMTC for a cell (Zhe).
As per claim 8, Fu/Zhe discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, from the NTN (FU: “ In NTN technology, the terminal 110 may also be referred to as an NTN terminal. The NTN terminal may be a terminal defined by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project),”), a timing parameter related to a change in timing alignment between the UE and a node of the NTN that generates the synchronization signal (FU: “ the UE performs cell measurement by receiving SSB (Synchronization Signal Block) sent by each cell in the whitelisted cell list. & Through the measurement configuration, the corresponding SMTC (SS (Synchronization Signal)/PBCH (Physical Broadcast Channel, physical broadcast channel) block measurement timing configuration) window can be configured for different frequency points, so that the UE can Receive SSBs of different cells in the SMTC window.”).
wherein performing the measurement of the synchronization signal is based in part on the timing parameter (FU: “ the UE performs cell measurement by receiving SSB (Synchronization Signal Block) sent by each cell in the whitelisted cell list. In the implementation, due to the difference between the signal transmission delay between the UE and the current serving cell & Through the measurement configuration, the corresponding SMTC (SS (Synchronization Signal)/PBCH (Physical Broadcast Channel, physical broadcast channel) block measurement timing configuration) window can be configured for different frequency points, so that the UE can Receive SSBs of different cells in the SMTC window.”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
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/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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