DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
Double Patenting
2. The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
3. Claims 1-13 and 17-23 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over Claims 1-16 and 20-23 of copending application No.:18/730,232. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the copending application claims limitations are transparently found in the instant application claims limitation. Application’s merely broadens the independent claim(s) of the copending application by adding some limitation(s) to arrive claims of instant application. Thus, both set of claims are obvious variant of each other. See table and claim mapping below:
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection because the patentably indistinct claims have not in fact been patented.
Copending Application: 18/730,232
Instant Application: 18/730,232
Claim 1: A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to cause, while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the UE to: trigger generation of beam information for a base station, the beam information indicating a new serving beam;
generate the beam information; and
transmit the beam information to the base station as part of a small data transmission session.
Claim 1: A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:
trigger transmission of beam information to a base station in response to a current serving beam for transmitting data between the UE and the base station having changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam; and
initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure.
The copending application discloses virtually all the limitations of the instant application with the exception of ‘initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was filed to provide ‘initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’ as disclosed by the instant application into the copending application so as to effectively manage beam for data transmission in inactive state in wireless communication system.
Claim 1: Trigger transmission of beam information to a base station in response to a current serving beam for transmitting data between the UE and the base station having changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam
.
Claim 2: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to trigger transmission of the beam information to the base station in response to the serving beam for reception of downlink data having changed while the UE is in a small data transmission session with the base station and in the radio resource control inactive state.
Claim 10: Wherein the beam information includes a channel state information reference signal index of the new serving beam.
Claim 3: Wherein the beam information includes a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to the new serving beam.
Claim 5: Comparing the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block to the reference signal received power of an immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, and detecting that the current serving beam has changed if the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block is at least a threshold amount less than the reference signal received power of the immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block.
Claim 4: Wherein the beam information includes a synchronization signal block index corresponding to the new serving beam.
Claim 10: Wherein the beam information includes a channel state information reference signal index of the new serving beam.
Claim 5: Wherein at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the beam information within a medium access control control element indicating one or more candidate beam information.
Claim 5: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to detect that the current serving beam has changed by measuring a reference signal received power of a most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, comparing the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block to the reference signal received power of an immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, and detecting that the current serving beam has changed if the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block is at least a threshold amount less than the reference signal received power of the immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block.
Claim 6: Wherein the candidate beam information is comprised of a synchronization signal block index corresponding to a new candidate beam or a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to a new candidate beam or a combination thereof.
Claim 3: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine to trigger generation of the beam information in response to a current serving beam for receiving paging messages from the base station having changed.
Claim 7: Wherein the beam information includes, as the information indicating the new serving beam, an identity of a candidate downlink transmission beam.
Claim 5: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to detect that the current serving beam has changed by measuring a reference signal received power of a most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, comparing the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block to the reference signal received power of an immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, and detecting that the current serving beam has changed if the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block is at least a threshold amount less than the reference signal received power of the immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block.
Claim 8: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to trigger transmission of the beam information in response to determining that the current serving beam has a synchronization signal block with a reference signal received power below a threshold.
Claim 8: Wherein the request from the base station is a request for the UE to initiate a random access channel procedure, and wherein to transmit the beam information is to transmit the beam information to the base station as part of a random access channel small data transmission session.
Claim 9: Wherein to initiate the random access procedure is to trigger a contention free random access to identify the new serving beam to the base station.
Claim 23: Wherein the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to determine to trigger generation of the beam information in response to a current serving beam for receiving paging messages from the base station having changed.
Claim 10: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: receive, from the base station, a beam measurement configuration including a periodicity; and check whether to trigger beam measurements to determine whether the current serving beam has changed at the periodicity indicated in the beam measurement configuration.
Claim 5: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to detect that the current serving beam has changed by measuring a reference signal received power of a most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, comparing the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block to the reference signal received power of an immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block of the current serving beam, and detecting that the current serving beam has changed if the reference signal received power of the most recently received synchronization signal block is at least a threshold amount less than the reference signal received power of the immediately previous most recently received synchronization signal block.
Claim 11: Wherein to check whether to trigger transmission of the beam information is to measure one or more reference signals in order to determine whether to trigger transmission of the beam information.
Claim 8: Wherein the request from the base station is a request for the UE to initiate a random access channel procedure, and wherein to transmit the beam information is to transmit the beam information to the base station as part of a random access channel small data transmission session.
Claim 12: Wherein to check whether to trigger transmission of the beam information is to measure one or more reference signals for an uplink configured grant small data transmission resource the UE is configured with regardless of whether data is to be transmitted on the uplink configured grant small data transmission.
Claim 7: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to receive a request from the base station for the beam information, and wherein to trigger generation of the beam information is to trigger generation and transmission of the beam information in response to the request from the base station.
Claim 13: Wherein the beam information includes a medium access control control element identifying the new serving beam.
Claim 13: A base station for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to:
receive beam information from a user equipment (UE) while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam; and
use the beam information for subsequent transmissions to the UE.
Claim 17: A base station for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to:
receive beam information from a user equipment (UE), the beam information being received in response to the UE having detected that a current serving beam for transmitting data between the base station and the UE changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam; and
consider the beam information for subsequent data transmissions to the UE.
The copending application discloses virtually all the limitations of the instant application with the exception of ‘receive beam information from a user equipment (UE), the beam information being received in response to the UE having detected that a current serving beam for transmitting data between the base station and the UE changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam’. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was filed to provide ‘receive beam information from a user equipment (UE), the beam information being received in response to the UE having detected that a current serving beam for transmitting data between the base station and the UE changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam’ as disclosed by the instant application into the copending application so as to effectively manage beam for data transmission in inactive state in wireless communication system.
Claim 7: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to receive a request from the base station for the beam information, and wherein to trigger generation of the beam information is to trigger generation and transmission of the beam information in response to the request from the base station.
Claim 18: Wherein the beam information is transmitted within a medium access control control element indicating one or more candidate beam information.
Claim 23: Wherein the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to determine to trigger generation of the beam information in response to a current serving beam for receiving paging messages from the base station having changed.
Claim 19: Wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the base station to transmit, to the UE, a beam measurement configuration including a periodicity indicating a periodicity at which the UE is to check whether to trigger transmission of the beam information to the base station.
Claim 20: A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
triggering, while in a radio resource control inactive state, generation of beam information for a base station, the beam information indicating a new serving beam;
generating, while in the radio resource control inactive state, the beam information; and transmitting, while in the radio resource control inactive state, the beam information to the base station as part of a small data transmission session.
Claim 20: A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
triggering transmission of beam information to a base station in response to a current serving beam for transmitting data between the UE and the base station having changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam;
initiating a random access procedure; and
transmitting the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure.
The copending application discloses virtually all the limitations of the instant application with the exception of ‘initiating a random access procedure; and
transmitting the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was filed to provide ‘initiating a random access procedure; and
transmitting the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’ as disclosed by the instant application into the copending application so as to effectively manage beam for data transmission in inactive state in wireless communication system.
Claim 21: A processor for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause, while the processor is in a radio resource control inactive state, the processor to:
trigger generation of beam information for a base station, the beam information indicating a new serving beam;
generate the beam information; and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of a small data transmission session.
Claim 21: A processor for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to:
trigger transmission of beam information to a base station in response to a current serving beam for transmitting data between the processor and the base station having changed while the processor is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam; and
initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure.
The copending application discloses virtually all the limitations of the instant application with the exception of ‘initiating a random access procedure; and
transmitting the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was filed to provide ‘initiating a random access procedure; and
transmitting the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’ as disclosed by the instant application into the copending application so as to effectively manage beam for data transmission in inactive state in wireless communication system.
Claim 8: Wherein the request from the base station is a request for the UE to initiate a random access channel procedure, and wherein to transmit the beam information is to transmit the beam information to the base station as part of a random access channel small data transmission session.
Claim 22: Wherein the at least one controller is further configured to cause the processor to trigger transmission of the beam information to the base station in response to the serving beam for reception of downlink data having changed while the processor is in a small data transmission session with the base station and in the radio resource control inactive state.
Claim 10: Wherein the beam information includes a channel state information reference signal index of the new serving beam.
Claim 23: Wherein the beam information includes a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to the new serving beam.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 1-13, 18 and 20-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 3,934,346 A1 to Laselva et al. (Laselva) as disclosed in the IDS, in view of Publication No.: US 2023/0042828 A1 to Uchino et al. (Uchino).
As to Claims 1 and 20, Laselva discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory (Fig. 13, ‘memory 404’); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to (Fig. 13, ‘the processor 402 is configured to read from and write to the memory 404. The processor 402 may also comprise an output interface via which data and/or commands are output by the processor 402 and an input interface via which data and/or commands are input to the processor 402’, ¶ 0178):
trigger transmission of beam information to a base station in response to a current serving beam for transmitting data between the UE and the base station having changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam (‘according to various, but not necessarily all, embodiments there is provided a method comprising: receiving, at a UE, from a base station, provisioning of at least a pre-configured radio resource for data transfer during an inactive state of the UE, wherein the provisioned pre-configured radio resource is associated with a set of one or more beams; acquiring at the UE validity information associated with one or more said pre-configured resources; and using at least the validity information to verify a provisioned preconfigured radio resource for use for data transfer during the inactive state of the UE’, ¶ 0023; see also ¶s 0004, 0019 and 0131).
Laselva does not expressly disclose initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure.
However, Uchino discloses initiate a random access procedure (‘the UE 115 may receive the PDCCH order on the SCell 510 as a result of using the TCI state indicated by the TCI state modification command and may initiate a random access procedure on the SCell 510 to measure, calculate, or otherwise determine a valid TA for the SCell 510 (and for the sTAG to which the SCell 510 belongs)’, ¶ 0109) and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure (‘in some implementations, a UE may select a TA value for an sTAG (for example, without or prior to performing a random access procedure) and may transmit beam measurement information via the PUCCH-SCell using the selected TA value for the sTAG. In some other implementations, the UE may transmit beam measurement information (such as CSI) on an available serving cell that is different than the PUCCH-SCell (such as the SpCell), which may include one or more transmissions under temporary conditions. For example, the UE may transmit the beam measurement information on the available serving cell (the SpCell) until the UE receives a TCI state modification message or until expiration of a configured timer’, ¶ 0043).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide ‘initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’ as disclosed by Uchino into Laselva so as to effectively activate cells for uplink control information (UCI) in wireless communication system, Uchino ¶ 0004.
As to Claims 2 and 22, Laselva further discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to trigger transmission of the beam information to the base station in response to the serving beam for reception of downlink data having changed while the UE is in a small data transmission session with the base station and in the radio resource control inactive state (‘the examples described below enable, in the inactive state, data transmission, for example, small data transmission, by the terminal node 110 (e.g. the UE) to the access node 120 (the base station e.g. gNB).
Data transmission can occur in the inactive state via one of a plurality of modes for uplink data transmission during the inactive state. In some examples, data is ciphered as per the security keys in the stored UE AS context’, ¶s 0048-0049).
As to Claims 3 and 23, Laselva does not expressly disclose wherein the beam information includes a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to the new serving beam.
However, Uchino discloses wherein the beam information includes a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to the new serving beam (‘in other words, the devices within the CA deployment 200 may directionally transmit to each other, directionally receive from each other, or both. The directional signaling of the devices of the CA deployment 200 may be controlled or configured by a TCI state setting. For example, a directional beam, such as a transmit beam, may be associated with a reference signal transmitted using the directional beam, such as an SSB or a CSI-RS, and a device may indicate a directional beam to use by indicating a TCI state associated with the directional beam and the reference signal’, ¶ 0092).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide ‘wherein the beam information includes a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to the new serving beam’ as disclosed by Uchino into Laselva so as to effectively activate cells for uplink control information (UCI) in wireless communication system, Uchino ¶ 0004.
As to Claim 4, Laselva further disclose wherein the beam information includes a synchronization signal block index corresponding to the new serving beam (‘the mechanism has a fine granularity which allows to trigger the gNB 120 to select a new serving beam (new serving SSB of the UE 110 and for the gNB 120 to use a new Rx beam associated with the new serving SSB) via either (i) a procedure that reuses the CG configuration (in case the L1-RSRP of the serving SSB is within a pre-configured range) to request the beam change, or (ii) the 2-step or 4-step RACH procedure (in case the L1-RSRP of the serving SSB is below a pre-configured threshold)’, ¶ 0124).
As to Claims 5 and 18, Laselva does not expressly disclose wherein at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the beam information within a medium access control control element indicating one or more candidate beam information.
However, Uchino discloses wherein at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the beam information within a medium access control control element indicating one or more candidate beam information (‘in some implementations, the UE 115 may report beam information for the PUCCH-SCell using a BFR mechanism such that the UE 115 reports candidate beams (with may be associated with candidate reference signals) via a BFR MAC-CE. In some implementations, the network entity may blindly (without input from the UE 115) set a TCI state for a PDCCH order and cycle through TCI states until the UE 115 successfully receives the PDCCH order’, ¶ 0116).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide ‘wherein at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the beam information within a medium access control control element indicating one or more candidate beam information’ as disclosed by Uchino into Laselva so as to effectively activate cells for uplink control information (UCI) in wireless communication system, Uchino ¶ 0004.
As to Claim 6, Laselva further disclose wherein the candidate beam information is comprised of a synchronization signal block index corresponding to a new candidate beam or a channel-state information reference signal index corresponding to a new candidate beam or a combination thereof (‘the mechanism has a fine granularity which allows to trigger the gNB 120 to select a new serving beam (new serving SSB of the UE 110 and for the gNB 120 to use a new Rx beam associated with the new serving SSB) via either (i) a procedure that reuses the CG configuration (in case the L1-RSRP of the serving SSB is within a pre-configured range) to request the beam change, or (ii) the 2-step or 4-step RACH procedure (in case the L1-RSRP of the serving SSB is below a pre-configured threshold)’, ¶ 0124).
As to Claim 7, Laselva further discloses wherein the beam information includes, as the information indicating the new serving beam, an identity of a candidate downlink transmission beam (‘for example, in at least some examples, the user equipment 110 comprises means for estimating a quality (e.g. strength, for example received power strength) of one or more of the downlink transmission beams of the base station 120, and for using the estimated quality (e.g. strength) to determine a valid preconfigured radio resource 240. A quality of a transmission beam 202 of the base station 120 can be measured, for example, by measuring the RSRP’, ¶ 0080).
As to Claim 8, Laselva does not expressly disclose wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to trigger transmission of the beam information in response to determining that the current serving beam has a synchronization signal block with a reference signal received power below a threshold.
However, Uchino discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to trigger transmission of the beam information in response to determining that the current serving beam has a synchronization signal block with a reference signal received power below a threshold (‘in implementations in which the UE 115 reports beam information for an SCell (such as the PUCCH-SCell 610) using a BFR mechanism, the UE 115 may receive a BFR configuration for the SCell, and may trigger a reporting of beam information in accordance with one or more aspects of the BFR mechanism for the SCell if a condition is met or satisfied. For example, when a quality of a serving beam is low (such as at or below a threshold quality), the UE 115 may inform the network entity of an event and information associated with candidate new beams. In such implementations, the UE 115 may report the beam information to the network entity via an indication of one or more candidate reference signals, each of which may correspond to or be otherwise associated with a TCI state and a beam direction’, ¶ 0127).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide ‘wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to trigger transmission of the beam information in response to determining that the current serving beam has a synchronization signal block with a reference signal received power below a threshold’ as disclosed by Uchino into Laselva so as to effectively activate cells for uplink control information (UCI) in wireless communication system, Uchino ¶ 0004.
As to Claim 9, Laselva further disclose wherein to initiate the random access procedure is to trigger a contention free random access to identify the new serving beam to the base station (‘if not, at block 256, the UE 110 uses (falls-back) to RA data transmission (2-step or 4-step) for the transmission of the payload at block 256. Thus, if the initial beam is deemed no longer valid, the UE triggers a fallback to RA data transmission (2-step or 4-step). During the associated random access procedure, the UE 110 indicates to the gNB 120 the new best beam via preamble selection; the indication of the new beam will trigger an Rx gNB beam change’, ¶ 0131).
As to Claim 10, Laselva further disclose receive, from the base station, a beam measurement configuration including a periodicity (‘at block 262, the UE informs the gNB of its traffic characteristics, including the traffic periodicity and typical size of its periodic traffic data payload’, ¶ 0136); and check whether to trigger beam measurements to determine whether the current serving beam has changed at the periodicity indicated in the beam measurement configuration (‘at block 262, the UE informs the gNB of its traffic characteristics, including the traffic periodicity and typical size of its periodic traffic data payload’, ¶ 0136).
As to Claim 11, Laselva further disclose wherein to check whether to trigger transmission of the beam information is to measure one or more reference signals in order to determine whether to trigger transmission of the beam information (‘the signaling mechanism may include messaging designs and triggering conditions according to which the UE 115 transmits an indication of beam measurement information for beams (for example, reference signals) associated with one or more SCells (for example, of a TAG or sTAG, or of a PUCCH group) or according to which the UE 115 transmits signaling from which the network entity (for example, a BS 105) may derive the beam measurement information for the beams (for example, for the reference signals) associated with the one or more SCells’, ¶ 0094).
As to Claim 12, Laselva further disclose wherein to check whether to trigger transmission of the beam information is to measure one or more reference signals for an uplink configured grant small data transmission resource the UE is configured with regardless of whether data is to be transmitted on the uplink configured grant small data transmission (‘the examples described below enable, in the inactive state, data transmission, for example, small data transmission, by the terminal node 110 (e.g. the UE) to the access node 120 (the base station e.g. gNB). Data transmission can occur in the inactive state via one of a plurality of modes for uplink data transmission during the inactive state. In some examples, data is ciphered as per the security keys in the stored UE AS context’, ¶s 0048-0049).
As to Claim 13, Laselva does not expressly disclose wherein the beam information includes a medium access control control element identifying the new serving beam.
However, Uchino discloses wherein the beam information includes a medium access control control element identifying the new serving beam (‘in some implementations, the UE 115 may report beam information for the PUCCH-SCell using a BFR mechanism such that the UE 115 reports candidate beams (with may be associated with candidate reference signals) via a BFR MAC-CE. In some implementations, the network entity may blindly (without input from the UE 115) set a TCI state for a PDCCH order and cycle through TCI states until the UE 115 successfully receives the PDCCH order’, ¶ 0116).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide ‘wherein the beam information includes a medium access control control element identifying the new serving beam’ as disclosed by Uchino into Laselva so as to effectively activate cells for uplink control information (UCI) in wireless communication system, Uchino ¶ 0004.
As to Claim 21, Laselva discloses a processor for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one controller (Fig. 13, ‘controller 400’) coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to (‘as illustrated in Fig 13, the controller 400 may be implemented using instructions that enable hardware functionality, for example, by using executable instructions of a computer program 406 in a general-purpose or special-purpose processor 402 that may be stored on a computer readable storage medium (disk, memory, etc.) to be executed by such a processor 402. The processor 402 is configured to read from and write to the memory 404. The processor 402 may also comprise an output interface via which data and/or commands are output by the processor 402 and an input interface via which data and/or commands are input to the processor 402’, ¶ 0177-0178):
trigger transmission of beam information to a base station in response to a current serving beam for transmitting data between the processor and the base station having changed while the processor is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam (‘according to various, but not necessarily all, embodiments there is provided a method comprising: receiving, at a UE, from a base station, provisioning of at least a pre-configured radio resource for data transfer during an inactive state of the UE, wherein the provisioned pre-configured radio resource is associated with a set of one or more beams; acquiring at the UE validity information associated with one or more said pre-configured resources; and using at least the validity information to verify a provisioned preconfigured radio resource for use for data transfer during the inactive state of the UE’, ¶ 0023; see also ¶s 0004, 0019 and 0131).
Laselva does not expressly disclose initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure.
However, Uchino discloses initiate a random access procedure (‘the UE 115 may receive the PDCCH order on the SCell 510 as a result of using the TCI state indicated by the TCI state modification command and may initiate a random access procedure on the SCell 510 to measure, calculate, or otherwise determine a valid TA for the SCell 510 (and for the sTAG to which the SCell 510 belongs)’, ¶ 0109) and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure (‘in some implementations, a UE may select a TA value for an sTAG (for example, without or prior to performing a random access procedure) and may transmit beam measurement information via the PUCCH-SCell using the selected TA value for the sTAG. In some other implementations, the UE may transmit beam measurement information (such as CSI) on an available serving cell that is different than the PUCCH-SCell (such as the SpCell), which may include one or more transmissions under temporary conditions. For example, the UE may transmit the beam measurement information on the available serving cell (the SpCell) until the UE receives a TCI state modification message or until expiration of a configured timer’, ¶ 0043).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide ‘initiate a random access procedure and transmit the beam information to the base station as part of the random access procedure’ as disclosed by Uchino into Laselva so as to effectively activate cells for uplink control information (UCI) in wireless communication system, Uchino ¶ 0004.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
6. 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.
7. Claims 17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated EP 3,934,346 A1 to Laselva et al. (Laselva) as disclosed in the IDS.
As to Claim 17, Laselva discloses a base station for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory (Fig. 13, ‘memory 404’); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to (Fig. 13, ‘the processor 402 is configured to read from and write to the memory 404. The processor 402 may also comprise an output interface via which data and/or commands are output by the processor 402 and an input interface via which data and/or commands are input to the processor 402’, ¶ 0178):
receive beam information from a user equipment (UE), the beam information being received in response to the UE having detected that a current serving beam for transmitting data between the base station and the UE changed while the UE is in a radio resource control inactive state, the beam information indicating a new serving beam (‘if not, at block 256, the UE 110 uses (falls-back) to RA data transmission (2-step or 4-step) for the transmission of the payload at block 256. Thus, if the initial beam is deemed no longer valid, the UE triggers a fallback to RA data transmission (2-step or 4-step). During the associated random access procedure, the UE 110 indicates to the gNB 120 the new best beam via preamble selection; the indication of the new beam will trigger an Rx gNB beam change’, ¶ 0131); and
consider the beam information for subsequent data transmissions to the UE (‘at block 292, the UE 110 in RRC Inactive state is trying to support CG-SDT, and has a data payload in buffer to transmit to the base station 120. The UE 110 has determined or does determine the strongest beam for reception of a data transmission by the UE 110 to the base station 120’, ¶ 0163).
As to Claim 19, Laselva further disclose wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the base station to transmit, to the UE, a beam measurement configuration including a periodicity indicating a periodicity at which the UE is to check whether to trigger transmission of the beam information to the base station (‘at block 262, the UE informs the gNB of its traffic characteristics, including the traffic periodicity and typical size of its periodic traffic data payload’, ¶ 0136).
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GBEMILEKE J ONAMUTI whose telephone number is (571)270-5619. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/GBEMILEKE J ONAMUTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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