DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The instant First Office Action on the merits is in response to claims filed on 7/29/2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1 and 20 are the base independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted was filed before the mailing of a first Office action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97(b). Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged.
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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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al (US 2019/0052379) in view of Shrestha et al (US 2022/0132565).
Regarding claim 1, Lin discloses an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) based on communication associated with New Radio (NR) in Unlicensed Spectrum (NR-U) (par 49; UE), comprising:
a memory configured to store instructions (par 49; memory); and
a processor (par 49; processor) coupled to the memory and configured to execute the instructions to:
wherein the reference cell is an active serving cell (fig. 4 & par 57; e.g. a short offset between the beginning of the measurement gap pattern in the serving cell);
set up a target data measurement configuration in accordance with the reference timing (fig. 3 & par 53-56; e.g. identifying a RRSI measurement timing configuration RMTC; the RMTC may include the periodicity of RSSI measurement or timing offset of the RSSI symbols); and
perform a target data measurement in accordance with the target data measurement configuration (par 56; e.g. performing a RSSI measurement on at least one downlink (DL) symbol outside of a synchronization signal (SS) block received from a first cell), wherein the target data measurement configuration comprises at least one of (examining note: since the claim shows a limitation in an alternative form, the prior art may teach either or both limitations, and this notice applies to subsequent occurrences of claim limitations that are in the alternative form):
received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement timing configuration (RMTC); synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block measurement timing configuration (SMTC); and measurement gap (MG) configuration (par 56; e.g. determine a beginning of a measurement gap (MG)).
Although the reference discloses identifying timing information, the reference does not explicitly disclose:
obtain a timing associated with a reference cell as a reference timing (emphasis added).
However, it is obvious in view of Shrestha, because Shrestha discloses:
obtain a timing associated with a reference cell as a reference timing, wherein the reference cell is an active serving cell (par 52, par 62, par 67; e.g. UE may include means for receiving form a base station that provides a serving cell, a measurement time indication).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Shrestha with the electronic system of Lin. One is motivated as such to improve the technology (Shrestha, par 5).
Claims 2-4, 7-12 and 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al (US 2019/0052379) in view of Shrestha et al (US 2022/0132565), further in view of Belleschi et al (US 2022/0078873), view of Chen et al (US 2021/0377892) or in view of Edge et al (US 2019/0230475).
Regarding claim 2, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Belleschi discloses:
wherein the communication is associated with carrier aggregation between NR in licensed spectrum and the NR-U (par 60; e.g. carrier aggregation between licensed band NR in PCell and NR-U in SCell), and obtaining the information including the reference timing comprises:
obtaining a timing (par 153; a given time window) associated with a reference cell as the reference timing, wherein the reference cell is an active serving cell (par 48; e.g. a beam failure recovery procedure which is used for indicating to the serving radio network node of a new synchronization signal block (SSB) or channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) when beam failure is detected on the serving SSB(s)/CSI-RS(s). Beam failure is detected by counting beam failure instance indication; thus, SSB/reference signal is obtained from the serving radio cell for measurement reference timing. also par 213).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Belleschi with the electronic system of Lin and Shrestha. One is motivated as such to handle recovery in an efficient manner (Belleschi, par 1).
Regarding claim 3, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Chen discloses:
wherein the reference cell is a Primary Cell (PCell) (par 261; a compensation reference source may be a primary cell or the serving cell), and the reference timing is a timing of one of active serving cells (par 161; when sending uplink signal to a serving cell and a neighboring cell, the terminal device sends the uplink signal based on an uplink TA of the serving cell), which are in the same Primary Timing Advance Group (pTAG) as the PCell (par 437; receiving a timing advance group TAG from a network device, where the TAG includes the uplink TA of the serving cell; also par 197, the terminal device may determine the downlink subframe timing based on a downlink subframe timing of a primary cell or a downlink subframe timing of the serving cell), the method further comprising:
based on a result of the target data measurement (par 359; e.g. The terminal device reports a beam measurement result of the neighboring cell to the LMF), selectively using the current reference cell or another serving cell, which is in the same pTAG as the current reference cell, as a new reference cell (par 300-301; The terminal device measures downlink reference signals of these cells, and selects, based on measurement results, for example, a cell with a highest RSRP or a cell with a lowest RSRP; an uplink TA of a cell selected by the terminal device is closest to the uplink TA of the serving cell).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chen with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to improve performance of communication (Chen, par 5).
Regarding claim 4, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Edge discloses:
obtaining, from network side, an indication of which active serving cell associated with the NR-U to be selected as the reference cell (par 76; e.g. LMF 120 then selects a reference cell, the reference cell may correspond to a current serving cell); and
obtaining a timing of one of active serving cells, which are in the same Timing Advance Group (TAG) as the indicated reference cell, as the reference timing (par 77; e.g. LMF 120 sends assistance data to the UE 105. the assistance data includes information for one or more signals broadcast by each of the reference and neighboring cells selected at stage 325 and possibly other information for the reference and neighboring cells such as cell timing).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Edge with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to allow a UE to change RAT (Edge, par 33).
Regarding claim 7, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Belleschi discloses:
wherein the communication is associated with dual connectivity between Long Term Evolution (LTE) in licensed spectrum and the NR-U (par 62; e.g. Dual connectivity between licensed band LTE in the PCell and NR-U in the Primary secondary cell (PSCell)), and obtaining the information including the reference timing comprises:
obtaining a timing (par 153; a given time window) associated with a reference cell as the reference timing, wherein the reference cell is an active serving cell (par 48; e.g. a beam failure recovery procedure which is used for indicating to the serving radio network node of a new synchronization signal block (SSB) or channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) when beam failure is detected on the serving SSB(s)/CSI-RS(s). Beam failure is detected by counting beam failure instance indication; thus, SSB/reference signal is obtained from the serving radio cell for measurement reference timing. also par 214).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Belleschi with the electronic system of Lin and Shrestha. One is motivated as such to handle recovery in an efficient manner (Belleschi, par 1).
Regarding claim 8, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Chen discloses:
wherein the MG and one or more of the RMTC and the SMTC are configured from LTE Master Node (MN) (par 22; e.g. master node MN), and wherein
the reference cell is a Primary Cell (PCell) (par 261; a compensation reference source may be a primary cell or the serving cell); and
the reference timing is a timing of one of active serving cells, which are in the same Primary Timing Advance Group (pTAG) as the PCell (par 161; when sending uplink signal to a serving cell and a neighboring cell, the terminal device sends the uplink signal based on an uplink TA of the serving cell).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chen with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to improve performance of communication (Chen, par 5).
Regarding claim 9, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Edge discloses:
wherein the MG and one or more of the RMTC and the SMTC are configured from LTE Master Node (MN) (par 33; e.g. LTE);
obtaining, from network side, an indication of which active serving cell associated with the LTE in licensed spectrum to be selected as the reference cell (par 76; e.g. LMF 120 then selects a reference cell, the reference cell may correspond to a current serving cell); and
obtaining a timing of one of active serving cells, which are in the same Timing Advance Group (TAG) as the indicated reference cell, as the reference timing (par 77; e.g. LMF 120 sends assistance data to the UE 105. the assistance data includes information for one or more signals broadcast by each of the reference and neighboring cells selected at stage 325 and possibly other information for the reference and neighboring cells such as cell timing).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Edge with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to allow a UE to change RAT (Edge, par 33).
Regarding claim 10, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Chen discloses:
based on a result of the target data measurement (par 359; e.g. The terminal device reports a beam measurement result of the neighboring cell to the LMF), selectively using the current reference cell or another serving cell, which is in the same pTAG as the current reference cell, as a new reference cell (par 300-301; The terminal device measures downlink reference signals of these cells, and selects, based on measurement results, for example, a cell with a highest RSRP or a cell with a lowest RSRP; an uplink TA of a cell selected by the terminal device is closest to the uplink TA of the serving cell).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chen with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to improve performance of communication (Chen, par 5).
Regarding claim 11, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Chen discloses:
wherein one or more of the RMTC and the SMTC are configured from NR-U Secondary Node (SN) (par 22; secondary node SN), and wherein
wherein the reference cell is a Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) (par 261; a compensation reference source may be a primary cell or the serving cell), and the reference timing is a timing of one of active serving cells (par 161; when sending uplink signal to a serving cell and a neighboring cell, the terminal device sends the uplink signal based on an uplink TA of the serving cell), which are in the same Primary Timing Advance Group (pTAG) as the PSCell (par 437; receiving a timing advance group TAG from a network device, where the TAG includes the uplink TA of the serving cell; also par 197, the terminal device may determine the downlink subframe timing based on a downlink subframe timing of a primary cell or a downlink subframe timing of the serving cell).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chen with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to improve performance of communication (Chen, par 5).
Regarding claim 12, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Edge discloses:
wherein one or more of the RMTC and the SMTC are configured from NR-U Secondary Node (SN) (par 33; e.g. NR);
obtaining, from network side, an indication of which active serving cell associated with the NR-U to be selected as the reference cell (par 76; e.g. LMF 120 then selects a reference cell, the reference cell may correspond to a current serving cell); and
obtaining a timing of one of active serving cells, which are in the same Timing Advance Group (TAG) as the indicated reference cell, as the reference timing (par 77; e.g. LMF 120 sends assistance data to the UE 105. the assistance data includes information for one or more signals broadcast by each of the reference and neighboring cells selected at stage 325 and possibly other information for the reference and neighboring cells such as cell timing).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Edge with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to allow a UE to change RAT (Edge, par 33).
Regarding claim 14, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Chen discloses:
based on a result of the target data measurement (par 359; e.g. The terminal device reports a beam measurement result of the neighboring cell to the LMF), selectively using the current reference cell or another serving cell, which is in the same pTAG as the current reference cell, as a new reference cell (par 300-301; The terminal device measures downlink reference signals of these cells, and selects, based on measurement results, for example, a cell with a highest RSRP or a cell with a lowest RSRP; an uplink TA of a cell selected by the terminal device is closest to the uplink TA of the serving cell).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chen with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to improve performance of communication (Chen, par 5).
Regarding claim 15, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Belleschi discloses:
wherein the communication is associated with stand-alone NR-U (par 63; e.g. stand-alone NR-U), and obtaining the information including the reference timing comprises:
obtaining a timing (par 153; a given time window) associated with a reference cell as the reference timing, wherein the reference cell is an active serving cell (par 48; e.g. a beam failure recovery procedure which is used for indicating to the serving radio network node of a new synchronization signal block (SSB) or channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) when beam failure is detected on the serving SSB(s)/CSI-RS(s). Beam failure is detected by counting beam failure instance indication; thus, SSB/reference signal is obtained from the serving radio cell for measurement reference timing).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Belleschi with the electronic system of Lin and Shrestha. One is motivated as such to handle recovery in an efficient manner (Belleschi, par 1).
Regarding claim 16, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Chen discloses:
wherein the reference cell is a Primary Cell (PCell) (par 261; a compensation reference source may be a primary cell or the serving cell), and the reference timing is a timing of one of active serving cells (par 161; when sending uplink signal to a serving cell and a neighboring cell, the terminal device sends the uplink signal based on an uplink TA of the serving cell), which are in the same Primary Timing Advance Group (pTAG) as the PCell (par 437; receiving a timing advance group TAG from a network device, where the TAG includes the uplink TA of the serving cell; also par 197, the terminal device may determine the downlink subframe timing based on a downlink subframe timing of a primary cell or a downlink subframe timing of the serving cell).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Chen with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to improve performance of communication (Chen, par 5).
Regarding claim 17, the combination does not explicitly disclose the subject matter, however Edge discloses:
obtaining, from network side, an indication of which active serving cell associated with the NR-U to be selected as the reference cell (par 76; e.g. LMF 120 then selects a reference cell, the reference cell may correspond to a current serving cell); and
obtaining a timing of one of active serving cells, which are in the same Timing Advance Group (TAG) as the indicated reference cell, as the reference timing (par 77; e.g. LMF 120 sends assistance data to the UE 105. the assistance data includes information for one or more signals broadcast by each of the reference and neighboring cells selected at stage 325 and possibly other information for the reference and neighboring cells such as cell timing).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Edge with the electronic system of Lin, Shrestha and Belleschi. One is motivated as such to allow a UE to change RAT (Edge, par 33).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al (US 2019/0052379) in view of Shrestha et al (US 2022/0132565).
Regarding claim 20, Lin discloses method for a base station based on communication associated with New Radio (NR) in Unlicensed Spectrum (NR-U) (par 49; base station), comprising:
the reference timing is used for setting up a target data measurement configuration (fig. 3 & par 53-56; e.g. identifying a RRSI measurement timing configuration RMTC; the RMTC may include the periodicity of RSSI measurement or timing offset of the RSSI symbols); and
receiving, from the UE, a result of a target data measurement (par 56; e.g. performing a RSSI measurement on at least one downlink (DL) symbol outside of a synchronization signal (SS) block received from a first cell; also par 84) based on the target data measurement configuration (fig. 3 & par 53-56; e.g. identifying a RRSI measurement timing configuration RMTC; the RMTC may include the periodicity of RSSI measurement or timing offset of the RSSI symbols), wherein the target data measurement configuration comprises at least one of (examining note: since the claim shows a limitation in an alternative form, the prior art may teach either or both limitations, and this notice applies to subsequent occurrences of claim limitations that are in the alternative form):
received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement timing configuration (RMTC); synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block measurement timing configuration (SMTC); and measurement gap (MG) configuration (par 56; e.g. determine a beginning of a measurement gap (MG)).
Although the reference discloses identifying timing information, the reference does not explicitly disclose:
generating information including a reference timing for transmission to a user equipment (UE) (emphasis added).
However, it is obvious in view of Shrestha, because Shrestha discloses:
obtain a timing associated with a reference cell as a reference timing, wherein the reference cell is an active serving cell (par 53, par 62, par 67; e.g. a wireless communication device (e.g., base station 110) may include means for transmitting, to a UE that is served by a serving cell provided by the wireless communication device, a measurement time indication), wherein the reference timing is used for setting up a target data measurement configuration (par 75; e.g. the UE 515 may search the neighbor cell and determine a measurement time parameter and may inform the network (e.g., by transmitting a report to the wireless communication device 505)).
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Shrestha with the electronic system of Lin. One is motivated as such to improve the technology (Shrestha, par 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, 13 and 18-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/YAOTANG WANG/SCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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