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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. 2023109453843, filed on 07/28/2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
The listing of the following references in the in the specification is not a proper information disclosure statement.
Para. [0003] 3GPP RAN #75th plenary
Para. [0007] 3GPP 38.101-1/38101-1-h00.zip
Para. [0008] 3GPP 38.304/38304-h00.zip
Para. [0009] 3GPP 38.321/38321-h00.zip
Para. [0010] 3GPP /38.331/38331-h00.zip
Para. [0014] 3GPP TS 37 series.
Para. [0015] 3GPP TS38 series.
Para. [246] 3GPP chapter 4.5 of 3GPP TS 38.304
Para. [458] 3GPP TS 38.101-1
37 CFR 1.98(b) requires a list of all patents, publications, or other information submitted for consideration by the Office, and MPEP § 609.04(a) states, “the list may not be incorporated into the specification but must be submitted in a separate paper.” Therefore, unless the references have been cited by the examiner on form PTO-892, they have not been considered.
Accordingly, Applicant is reminded of the duty to disclose to the Office all information known to be material to patentability (37 CFR 1.56) and is requested to submit an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) in compliance with 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98 listing all information that is materially relevant to patentability.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent from including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained through the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-4, 6-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP (TS 38.304 v17.5.0, 2023-07) in view of Cheng (US 20250112715 A1)
Regarding claims 1 and 17, 3GPP in pg. 36 section 5.2.6 discloses: a first receiver, receiving a first signaling, the first signaling indicating releasing an RRC connection; (“At reception of an RRCRelease message, the UE performs actions associated with the transition (i.e., the “first signaling” indicating release):
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as a response to receiving the first signaling, entering RRC_IDLE state or RRC_INACTIVE state; (3gpp in pg. 36 section 5.2.6 discloses that reception of the RRCRelease is for transitioning the UE to “RRC_IDLE” or “RRC_INACTIVE”)
accompanying the entering RRC_IDLE state or RRC_INACTIVE state, executing cell selection; (3gpp in pg. 36, section 5.2.6 describes a method of performing cell selection if no suitable cell is found when transitioning to idle/inactive: “If no suitable cell is found ... the UE shall perform cell selection ...”)
3gpp does not explicitly disclose: A first node for wireless communications, comprising (in claim 1) and a method in a first node for wireless communications, comprising (in claim 17)
However, Cheng in FIG. 1 and paragraph [0035] illustrate a wireless communication network (“[0035] FIG. 1 illustrates an example scenario 100 of ... Scenario 100 involves at least one network node (e.g., gNB) and a plurality of UEs, which may be a part of a wireless communication network”)
3gpp does not expressly teach evaluating a first cell within a target time length: the executing cell selection comprises evaluating a first cell within a target time length;
However, Cheng in paragraph [0037] discloses that the UE may assume for evaluating SCell within SSB periodicity as 20 milliseconds (i.e., “target time length”) and the network can be configured anywhere in {5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160} milliseconds:
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3gpp does not explicitly teach that target time length depending on whether a first Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB) group is on demand: the target time length depending on whether a first Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB) group is on demand; the first SSB group belonging to the first cell:
However, Cheng in paragraph [0057] discloses a method of employing “ON/OFF” switch field to enable or disable on-demand SSB transmission, which also results the target time length for on-demand and not on-demand (default) value to be anywhere in {5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160} milliseconds according to the paragraph [0037] depending on how network may be configured.
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Moreover, 3gpp also does not explicitly teach when an SSB of the first cell is on demand, the target time length is a first value;”: wherein the meaning of the target time length depending on whether an SSB of the first cell is on demand comprises: when an SSB of the first cell is on demand, the target time length is a first value; when an SSB of the first cell is not on demand, the target time length is a second value.
However, Cheng in paragraph [0057] explicitly teaches employing “ON/OFF” switch between “on-demand” and “default” state wherein the first and second value can be any one of {5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160} milliseconds depending on the network configuration (See paragraph [0037])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a PHOSITA to incorporate Cheng’s SSB measurement timing-window controls (e.g., SMTC start/end and SMTC duration) and on-demand SSB ON/OFF signaling into 3GPP TS 38.304’s post-RRCRelease transition to RRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE and associated cell selection, because 3gpp TS 38.304’s required cell selection/evaluation relies on SSB acquisition/measurement and Cheng provides a known, compatible way to schedule and bound those measurements to improve predictability and efficiency.
Doing so, predictably yields reduced UE scanning time and power consumption and more reliable measurement opportunities during cell selection by tailoring the target measurement time length based on whether the SSB is “on-demand” versus “not on-demand”, without changing the fundamental operation of 3GPP TS 38.304’s cell selection workflow.
Regarding claim 2, 3gpp does not explicitly discloses “measuring at least one SSB in the first SSB group to obtain a first measurement result: The first node according to claim 1, wherein the meaning of evaluating a first cell comprises: measuring at least one SSB in the first SSB group to obtain a first measurement result; the first measurement result measures quality of the first cell
However, Cheng in paragraph [0067] teaches SSB that measurement configuration used by the UE to obtain measurement results indicative of cell quality. ([0067] “The UE may determine whether to trigger an on-demand SSB request based on its QOS requirement, L1-RSRP or L1-SINR measurement. For example, if the QoS requirement or the RSRP threshold cannot be met, the UE will initiate a request for on-demand SSB.”)
Regarding claim 3 and 18, 3gpp in pg.21, section 5.2.3.2 explicitly discloses: The first node according to claim 1, wherein the meaning of the evaluating a first cell comprises: determining Srxlev of the first cell, and whether the Srxlev of the first cell comprises a first offset (determining “Srxle” (Cell Selection Criterion) based on Qoffset value (i.e., “first offset” as claimed))
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3gpp does not explicitly teach applying a first offset in Srxlev depending on whether the first SSB group is on-demand: depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; when the first SSB group is on demand, the Srxlev of the first cell comprises a first offset; when the first SSB group is not on demand, the Srxlev of the first cell does not comprise a first offset
However, Cheng teaches an ON/OFF indicator for on-demand SSB transmission, and describes that the on-demand SSB operation is associated with a set of SSB parameters, which includes SSB offset (i.e., “a first offset” as claimed) Further, Cheng also disclose that the ON request is a message to start the on-demand SSB transmission and the OFF request is a message to fall back to the SSB transmission with the basic configurations, which will result configuring with different set of SSB parameters including the offset values associated with (See paragraph [0040]) Cheng [0057] “The field of ON/OFF request may indicate the recommended to switch ON/OFF on-demand SSB transmission, which could be per SSB frequency, cell, TRP, or SSB . . . [0058] The field of SSB periodicity and offset may indicate a recommended periodicity of on-demand SSB allocation in slots and the slot offset with respect to system frame number (SFN) 0 and slot number 0 . . . [0040] the UE may initiate a request for on-demand SSB resources and provide preferred parameters (e.g., SSB offset and periodicity, beam direction, or positions in time).
Regarding claim 4, The first node according to claim 2, wherein the meaning of evaluating a first cell comprises: determining Srxlev of the first cell, and whether the Srxlev of the first cell comprises a first offset
Claim 4 is analogous to Claims 3 and 18, except that it depends on Claim 2, therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 6, The first node according to claim 4, wherein the executing cell selection comprises: when no suitable cell is found within a time length of the first value, performing a cell evaluation within a time length of the second value; when a suitable cell is found within a time length of the first value, selecting the suitable cell
Claim 6 is analogous to Claims 5 and 19, except that it depends on Claim 4, therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 7, 3GPP does not explicitly teach that the second target time-length value (i.e., used when the SSB is not on-demand) is derived from or depends on a “period of resources requesting SSBs” for an SSB group: The first node according to claim 1, wherein the second value depends on a period of resources requesting SSBs comprised in the first SSB group
However, Cheng in paragraph [0059] teaches a method of indexing the recommended SSB group (i.e., “SSBs comprised in the first SSB group”) by their index number wherein the first/leftmost bit may correspond to the SS/PBCH index 0-7 to address a value among the available resources in the list (i.e., “second value depends on a period of resources” as claimed) described in paragraph ([0037] “... the network can configure {5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160} ms ... [0059] “The field of SSB group presence may indicate a recommended group of SSB indices. The first/leftmost bit may correspond to the SS/PBCH index 0-7. The second bit may correspond to SS/PBCH block 8-15 and so on. Value 0 in the bitmap may indicate that the SSBs according to inOneGroup are absent. Value 1 may indicate that the SS/PBCH blocks are transmitted by inOneGroup. The field of SSB inOneGroup may indicate a recommended SSB index based on the SSB group presence. The first/leftmost bit may correspond to the first SS/PBCH block index in the group (i.e., to SSB index 0, 8 and so on). The second bit may correspond to the second SS/PBCH block index in the group (i.e., to SSB index 1, 9 and so on) and so on.”)
Regarding claim 8, 3gpp discloses: The first node according to claim 1, comprising: a first receiver, monitoring a paging on at least one time-frequency resource
3gpp in pg. 11 teaches that, in RRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE, the UE performs paging monitoring/reception by monitoring configured paging occasions/resources (i.e., paging is monitored on at least one time-frequency resource (or control channel)).
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Regarding claim 9, 3GPP does not explicitly teach triggering such an SSB-request signal based on failure to receive an SSB within a bounded “first value” time length: The first node according to claim 1, comprising: a first transmitter, as a response to a first condition being satisfied, transmitting a first signal, the first signal requesting an SSB of the first cell;
and the first receiver, receiving an SSB of the first cell; wherein the first condition comprises failure to receive an SSB of the first cell within a time length of a first value
Regarding claim 10, 3gpp does not explicitly discloses triggering that SSB-request signal specifically when the UE fails to find a suitable cell within a bounded time length (the “third value”) The first node according to claim 1, comprising: a first transmitter, as a response to a second condition being satisfied, transmitting a first signal, the first signal requesting an SSB of the first cell; and the first receiver, receiving an SSB of the first cell; wherein the second condition comprises failure to found a suitable cell within a time length of a third value.
Regarding claim 11, The first node according to claim 3, comprising: a first transmitter, as a response to a second condition being satisfied, transmitting a first signal, the first signal requesting an SSB of the first cell; and the first receiver, receiving an SSB of the first cell; wherein the second condition comprises failure to found a suitable cell within a time length of a third value
Claim 11 is analogous to Claims 10, except that it refencing Claim 3, therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 12, The first node according to claim 5, comprising: a first transmitter, as a response to a second condition being satisfied, transmitting a first signal, the first signal requesting an SSB of the first cell; and the first receiver, receiving an SSB of the first cell; wherein the second condition comprises failure to found a suitable cell within a time length of a third value
Claim 12 is analogous to Claims 10, except that it refencing Claim 5, therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 13 and 20, 3GPP does not explicitly teach that the UE initiates measurements on all neighboring cells specifically “as a response to the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length,” where the first time length depends on whether the first SSB group is on-demand: The first node according to claim 1, comprising: the first receiver, as a response to the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length, initiating measurements on all neighboring cells; the first time length depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; wherein the first node selects the first cell.
However, Cheng in [0056] and [0068] discloses: (i) an ON/OFF indication for on-demand SSB operation associated with an SSB set/group for a cell and (ii) timing-window parameters (e.g., SMTC start/end and SMTC duration) that provide a configurable number of time-length for SSB measurement/evaluation and determining SSB failure(i.e., “the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length” as claimed) thereby supplying the missing on-demand-dependent time-length gating for when to trigger fallback measurements. (“[0068] When the UE cannot measure SSB within the configured SMTC window or pre-defined resources, the UE may initiate on-demand SSB based on the measurement result and/or UE location for expected SSB configurations. The network node may configure a threshold for a number of SSB detection failures. For example, the UE may trigger an on-demand SSB request if the number of failures is greater than 3.”)
Regarding claim 14, The first node according to claim 2, comprising: the first receiver, as a response to the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length, initiating measurements on all neighboring cells; the first time length depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; wherein the first node selects the first cell.
Claim 14 is analogous to Claims 13 and 20, except referencing Claim 2, therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 15, The first node according to claim 4, comprising: the first receiver, as a response to the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length, initiating measurements on all neighboring cells; the first time length depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; wherein the first node selects the first cell
Claim 15 is analogous to Claims 13 and 20, except referencing Claim 4, therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 16, The first node according to claim 5, comprising: the first receiver, as a response to the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length, initiating measurements on all neighboring cells; the first time length depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; wherein the first node selects the first cell (Apparatus versions referencing Claims 5).
Regarding claim 18, The method in a first node according to claim 17, wherein the meaning of evaluating a first cell comprises: determining Srxlev of the first cell, and whether the Srxlev of the first cell comprises a first offset depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; when the first SSB group is on demand, the Srxlev of the first cell comprises a first offset; when the first SSB group is not on demand, the Srxlev of the first cell does not comprise a first offset (This claim is analogous to Claim 3).
Regarding claim 19, The method in a first node according to claim 17, wherein the executing cell selection comprises: when no suitable cell is found within a time length of the first value, performing a cell evaluation within a time length of the second value; when a suitable cell is found within a time length of the first value, selecting the suitable cell (This claim is analogous to Claim 5).
Regarding claim 20, The method in a first node according to claim 17, comprising: as a response to the first cell not meeting S criterion within a first time length, initiating measurements on all neighboring cells; the first time length depending on whether the first SSB group is on demand; wherein the first node selects the first cell (This Claim is analogous to Claim 13).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONGSUH (John) PARK whose telephone number is 408-918-7574. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00-5:30 PST
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Avellino, Joseph can be reached at 571-272-3905 The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONGSUH PARK/Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478