Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants' communication filed on 7/5/2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 21-35 are currently presented in the instant application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 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.
Claims 21-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US Patent Application Publication 20230037028 (hereinafter referred to as Kumar).
Consider claim 21, Kumar teaches a method for receiving a signal by a reduced-capacity user equipment (UE) (see at least ¶ [0047], “…The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout a coverage area 110 of the wireless communications system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary, or mobile, or both at different times. The UEs 115 may be devices in different forms or having different capabilities…” and see at least ¶ [0089], Fig. 5, “…UE 115-b may perform a tracking procedure for broadcast channels transmission from base station 105-b…”), the method comprising:
receiving configuration information for receiving a synchronization signal block (SSB) in a limited bandwidth from a base station (see at least ¶ [0088], “…a UE may receive and decode a first PBCH in a first SSB occasion. The UE may identify a change …of the PBCH that will be received in a second SSB occasion…”);
receiving a first physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the SSB in a first frequency resource based on the configuration information (and see at least ¶ [0090], “…base station 105-b may transmit a first signal over a broadcast channel during a first synchronization signal block occasion. The first signal may include a first payload having one or more spare bits or reserved bits having first values…”); and
receiving a second PBCH of the SSB in a second frequency resource based on the configuration information (see at least ¶ [0102], “…UE 115-b may receive the second signal over the broadcast channel during the second SSB occasion…” and see at least ¶ [0103], “…UE 115-b may refrain from decoding the second signal received during the second SSB occasion based at least in part on the second SSB occasion occurring after the first SSB occasion…”).
Consider claim 26, Kumar teaches a method for transmitting a signal to a reduced-capacity UE, by a base station (see at least ¶ [0047], “…The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout a coverage area 110 of the wireless communications system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary, or mobile, or both at different times. The UEs 115 may be devices in different forms or having different capabilities…” and see at least ¶ [0089], Fig. 5, “…UE 115-b may perform a tracking procedure for broadcast channels transmission from base station 105-b…”), the method comprising:
transmitting configuration information for receiving a synchronization signal block (SSB) in a limited bandwidth (see at least ¶ [0088], “…a UE may receive and decode a first PBCH in a first SSB occasion. The UE may identify a change …of the PBCH that will be received in a second SSB occasion…”);
transmitting a first physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the SSB in a first frequency resource based on the configuration information (and see at least ¶ [0090], “…base station 105-b may transmit a first signal over a broadcast channel during a first synchronization signal block occasion. The first signal may include a first payload having one or more spare bits or reserved bits having first values…”); and
transmitting a second PBCH of the SSB in a second frequency resource based on the configuration information (see at least ¶ [0102], “…UE 115-b may receive the second signal over the broadcast channel during the second SSB occasion…” and see at least ¶ [0103], “…UE 115-b may refrain from decoding the second signal received during the second SSB occasion based at least in part on the second SSB occasion occurring after the first SSB occasion…”).
Consider claim 31, Kumar teaches a reduced-capacity user equipment (UE) receiving a signal (see at least ¶ [0047], “…The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout a coverage area 110 of the wireless communications system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary, or mobile, or both at different times. The UEs 115 may be devices in different forms or having different capabilities…” and see at least ¶ [0089], Fig. 5, “…UE 115-b may perform a tracking procedure for broadcast channels transmission from base station 105-b…”), comprising:
a transmitter configured to transmit signals to at least one of a base station and another UE (see at least ¶ [0045], “…The wireless communications system 100 may include one or more base stations 105, one or more UEs 115, and a core network 130…” see at least ¶ [0046], “…The base stations 105 may be dispersed throughout a geographic area to form the wireless communications system 100 and may be devices in different forms or having different capabilities…” and see at least ¶ [0088], “…a UE may receive and decode a first PBCH in a first SSB occasion. The UE may identify a change …of the PBCH that will be received in a second SSB occasion…”);
a receiver configured to receive signals from at least one of the base station and another UE (see at least ¶ [0045], “…The wireless communications system 100 may include one or more base stations 105, one or more UEs 115, and a core network 130…” see at least ¶ [0046], “…The base stations 105 may be dispersed throughout a geographic area to form the wireless communications system 100 and may be devices in different forms or having different capabilities…”); and
a controller configured to control the transmitter and the receiver, receive configuration information for receiving a synchronization signal block (SSB) in a limited bandwidth from the base station, receive a first physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the SSB in a first frequency resource based on the configuration information (and see at least ¶ [0090], “…base station 105-b may transmit a first signal over a broadcast channel during a first synchronization signal block occasion. The first signal may include a first payload having one or more spare bits or reserved bits having first values…”), and
receive a second PBCH of the SSB in a second frequency resource based on the configuration information (see at least ¶ [0102], “…UE 115-b may receive the second signal over the broadcast channel during the second SSB occasion…” and see at least ¶ [0103], “…UE 115-b may refrain from decoding the second signal received during the second SSB occasion based at least in part on the second SSB occasion occurring after the first SSB occasion…”).
Consider claims 22, 27, 32 (depends on at least claims 21, 26, 31), Kumar discloses the limitations of claims 21, 26, 31 as applied to claim rejection 21, 26, 31 above and further discloses:
Kumar teaches wherein the first frequency resource and the second frequency resource each are configured of less than 20 resource blocks (RBs) (see at least ¶ [0076], “…the SSB … and may occupy a number of subcarriers (e.g., 127 subcarriers) in the frequency domain…”, implied 127 subcarriers is less than 20 resource blocks (RBs)).
Consider claims 23, 28, 33 (depends on at least claims 21, 26, 31), Kumar discloses the limitations of claims 21, 26, 31 as applied to claim rejection 21, 26, 31 above and further discloses:
Kumar teaches wherein the second PBCH is configured of a PBCH other than the first PBCH among PBCHs of the SSB (see at least ¶ [0103], “…the second SSB occasion occurs after the first SSB occasion but within the periodic time interval. Accordingly, UE 115-b may refrain from decoding the second signal received during the second SSB occasion based at least in part on the second SSB occasion occurring after the first SSB occasion…”)
Consider claims 24, 34 (depends on at least claims 21, 31), Kumar discloses the limitations of claims 21, 31 as applied to claim rejection 21, 31 above and further discloses:
Kumar teaches the first PBCH and the second PBCH are configured to include the same information; and the method further comprises soft-combining the first PBCH and the second PBCH (see at least ¶ [0088], “…two PBCH payloads (e.g., identical payloads, similar payloads) to track one or more conditions of the channel between the UE and the transmitting device …”).
Consider claims 25, 30, 35 (depends on at least claims 21, 26, 31), Kumar discloses the limitations of claims 21, 26, 31 as applied to claim rejection 21, 26, 31 above and further discloses:
Kumar teaches the first PBCH and the second PBCH are configured to have a quasi-co-located (QCL) relationship; and the first PBCH and the second PBCH are configured to have different resource mapping positions of a demodulate reference signal (DMRS) or configured to indicate the same remaining minimum system information (RMSI) resource area (see at least ¶ [0077], “…a UE may perform SSB tracking in which the UE may receive DMRSs 325 and/or SSSs 315 of subsequent SSBs to improve the performance of the UE. DMRS 325 and SSS 315 tones may be constant from one SSB occasion to another, and as such, the UE may compare the received DMRS 325 and/or SSS 315 tones of a first SSB occasion 300 to those of a second SSB occasion 300 to determine whether to update time resources, frequency resource, etc …”).
Consider claim 29 (depends on at least claim 26), Kumar discloses the limitations of claim 26 as applied to claim rejection 26 above and further discloses:
Kumar teaches wherein the first PBCH and the second PBCH are configured to include the same information (see at least ¶ [0088], “…two PBCH payloads (e.g., identical payloads, similar payloads) to track one or more conditions of the channel between the UE and the transmitting device …”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUONG A NGO whose telephone number is (571)270-7264. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday from 5:30AM-3:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony S Addy can be reached at (571) 272-7795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHUONG A NGO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
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