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 .
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 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.
Claims 1-5, 7-12, 14, 16-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang Yuantao et al., US 20230164715 A1 (hereinafter Zhang Yuantao) in view of Zhang Xiaoxia et al. US 20190313260 A1 (hereinafter Zhang Xiaoxia), and further view of Hedayat et al., US 20230254076 A1 (hereinafter Hedayat).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang Yuantao teaches
A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising: a transceiver configured to receive, from a cell of a first base station (BS), a first synchronization signals and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block;
"at least one receiving circuitry 704 and at least one transmitting circuitry 706 and be integrated into at least one transceiver. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium 702 may have computer executable instructions stored therein. The at least one processor 708 may be coupled to the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium 702, the at least one receiving circuitry 704 and the at least one transmitting circuitry 706." [0098]"a UE may detect a first SSB received from a BS" [0052]"In some embodiments of the present application, the one or more OFDM symbols include a primary synchronization signal (PSS) 21, a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) 22, and a plurality of physical broadcast channels (PBCH) 23. "[0029]"Master system information (MIB) for initial accesses can be transmitted on the PBCH 23. "[0030]
and a processor operably coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to: determine, based on an indication in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the first SS/PBCH block, a first value of kSSB;
"determining whether a subcarrier offset value indicated by the first SSB is within a first range or a second range"[0006]" for FR1, k.sub.SSB is indicated in the SSB by 5 bits, wherein the 4 least significant bits are given in MIB by a parameter ssb-SubcarrierOffset as specified in 3GPP standard documents, and the most significant bit is given by the fifth bit of the 8 bits introduced in the physical layer for PBCH of the SSB."[0037]
determine, based on the first value of kSSB, whether the cell is associated with an
" In the case that the subcarrier offset value (e.g., k.sub.SSB) of the detected SSB is within a range [0, 23] for FR1 or a range [0, 11] for FR2, the UE 103 may determine that the MIB in the detected SSB include the access configuration for the UE 103, which may include control resource set configuration information for SIB1 scheduling"[0040]"In the case that the subcarrier offset value (e.g., k.sub.SSB) of the detected SSB is within a range [24, 30] for FR1 or a range [12, 14] for FR2, the UE 103 may determine that the MIB in the detected SSB does not include access configuration for the UE 103"[0041]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly teach whether the cell is associated with an on-demand system information block 1 (SIB1)
However, Zhang Xiaoxia teaches whether the cell is associated with an on-demand system information block 1 (SIB1)
"In order to utilize system resources efficiently and/or reduce system overhead, the BS 205 may transmit at least some of the broadcast signals in the normal coverage mode and may switch to the CE mode based on requests. For example, upon detection of a request from a UE 215b requiring the CE support, the BS 205 may switch to transmit the broadcast signals in the CE mode "[0045] "the BS may begin with transmitting SSBs in a CE mode and transmitting SIBs in a non-CE mode without the deep coverage. The BS may switch to transmit SIBs in the CE mode upon a request from a UE."[0027]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly teach transmit, based on a determination that the cell is associated with the on-demand SIB1, a request for the on-demand SIB1 to a second BS; receive the on-demand SIB1.
However, Hedayat teaches transmit, based on a determination that the cell is associated with thetarget base station);
"a component 820 configured to operate the UE to send a request to the target base station for a SIB1 in response to a determination that a SIB1 was not detected during the monitoring" [0102]
receive the
" component 834 configured to operate the UE to received a SIB1 from the target base station in response to the request for a SIB1"[0102]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person having of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine Zhang Xiaoxia, Zhang Yuantao, and Hedayat’s teachings because all three are directed to the identical technical field of NR initial access configuration determination. Zhang Xiaoxia provides a SIB transmission until the UE specifically requests it, instead of consistently broadcasting. Zhang Yuantao provides the PBCH/MIB kSSB mechanism for determining SIB1 scheduling configuration presence. Hedayat provides the on demand framing for that same SIB1. For the benefit of network energy saving.
Regarding claim 2, Limitations of parent claim 1 have been discussed above. Zhang Yuantao teaches
The UE of Claim 1, wherein the cell is associated with the
"In the case that the subcarrier offset value (e.g., k.sub.SSB) of the detected SSB is within a range [24, 30] for FR1 or a range [12, 14] for FR2, "[0041]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly teach whether the cell is associated with an on-demand system information block 1 (SIB1)
However, Zhang Xiaoxia teaches whether the cell is associated with an on-demand system information block 1 (SIB1)
"In order to utilize system resources efficiently and/or reduce system overhead, the BS 205 may transmit at least some of the broadcast signals in the normal coverage mode and may switch to the CE mode based on requests. For example, upon detection of a request from a UE 215b requiring the CE support, the BS 205 may switch to transmit the broadcast signals in the CE mode "[0045] "the BS may begin with transmitting SSBs in a CE mode and transmitting SIBs in a non-CE mode without the deep coverage. The BS may switch to transmit SIBs in the CE mode upon a request from a UE."[0027]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person having of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine Zhang Xiaoxia, Zhang Yuantao, and Hedayat’s teachings because all three are directed to the identical technical field of NR initial access configuration determination. Zhang Xiaoxia provides a SIB transmission until the UE specifically requests it, instead of consistently broadcasting. Zhang Yuantao provides the PBCH/MIB kSSB mechanism for determining SIB1 scheduling configuration presence. Hedayat provides the on demand framing for that same SIB1. For the benefit of network energy saving.
Regarding claim 3, Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Hedayat teaches
The UE of Claim 1, wherein the first BS (serving base station) and the second BS (target base station) are different.
"the UE to send the generated report included a global cell identifier (NCGI/ECGI) of the target base station and the TDD configuration information for the target base station to the serving base station."[0102]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person having of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine Zhang Xiaoxia, Zhang Yuantao, and Hedayat’s teachings because all three are directed to the identical technical field of NR initial access configuration determination. Zhang Xiaoxia provides a SIB transmission until the UE specifically requests it, instead of consistently broadcasting. Zhang Yuantao provides the PBCH/MIB kSSB mechanism for determining SIB1 scheduling configuration presence. Hedayat provides the on demand framing for that same SIB1. For the benefit of network energy saving.
Regarding claim 4, Limitations of parent claim 1 have been discussed above. Zhang Yuantao teaches
The UE of Claim 1, wherein: the transceiver is further configured to receive, from the cell of the first BS, a second SS/PBCH block;
“at least one transceiver”[0098]"the UE 103 may determine that a GSCN offset value (e.g., N.sub.GSCN.sup.offset) is 40 and the GSCN of the second SSB …after locating the second SSB, the UE 103 may detect the second SSB to determine the access configuration for performing initial access to a cell."[0044] "The BS 101 may transmit synchronization information to the at least one UE 103 for initial accesses to the BS 101. The synchronization information may include one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs, or SS blocks) as shown in FIG. 2. Each SSB may be associated with information of a beam transmitted from the BS 101."[0026]
and the processor is further configured to: determine, based on an indication in a PBCH of the second SS/PBCH block, a second value of kSSB;
"In an embodiment of the present application, the second GSCN offset is based on the subcarrier offset value and control resource set configuration information and search space configuration information in the MIB of the first SSB."[0086]" For example, for FR1, k.sub.SSB may be indicated by using 5 bits in the first SSB, wherein the 4 least significant bits are given in the MIB of the first SSB by a parameter ssb-SubcarrierOffset as specified in 3GPP standard documents, and the most significant bit is given by the fifth bit of the 8 bits introduced in the physical layer for PBCH of the first SSB. "[0079]" For the second SSB, the same procedure as stated above for the first SSB will be performed."[0063]
and determine, based on the second value of kSSB, a presence of a control resource set #0 (CORESET#0) for monitoring a type 0 physical downlink control channel (Type0-PDCCH) that schedules the
"The MIB information may include configuration information for a control resource set (CORESET), e.g., CORESET #0 and a search space (e.g., searchspace0) for initial accesses of UEs 103. CORESET #0 may indicate frequency resource(s) on which system information block1 (SIB1) information is transmitted."[0030]"the UE 103 may determine that the MIB in the detected SSB include the access configuration for the UE 103, which may include control resource set configuration information for SIB1 scheduling and other configuration information for channel scheduling"[0040]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly teach the on-demand SIB1. However, Zhang Xiaoxia teaches the on-demand SIB1.
"the BS may begin with transmitting SSBs in a CE mode and transmitting SIBs in a non-CE mode without the deep coverage. The BS may switch to transmit SIBs in the CE mode upon a request from a UE."[0027]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person having of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine Zhang Xiaoxia with Zhang Yuantao’s teachings because both references are directed to the identical technical field of NR initial access configuration determination. Zhang Xiaoxia provides a SIB transmission until the UE specifically requests it, instead of consistently broadcasting. Zhang Yuantao provides the PBCH/MIB kSSB mechanism for determining SIB1 scheduling configuration presence. For the benefit of refining the on-demand SIB1 determination using a second, independent data point, without requiring any additional protocol, signaling, or hardware beyond what the UE already uses for the first SSB, directly serving the network energy saving and the network avoids broadcasting SIB1 it doesn’t need to send.
Regarding claim 5, Limitations of parent claim 4 have been discussed above. Zhang Yuantao teaches
the second value of kSSB is between 0 to 23, for a frequency range 1 (FR1), or between 0 to 11, for a frequency range 2 (FR2).
" the subcarrier offset value (e.g., k.sub.SSB) of the detected SSB is within a range [0, 23] for FR1 or a range [0, 11] for FR2" [0040]
Regarding claim 7, Limitations of parent claim 6 have been discussed above. Zhang Yuantao teaches
wherein the set of configurations is determined from (i
"the UE 103 may determine that a GSCN offset value (e.g., N.sub.GSCN.sup.offset) is 40 and the GSCN of the second SSB …after locating the second SSB, the UE 103 may detect the second SSB to determine the access configuration for performing initial access to a cell."[0044]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly teach wherein the set of configurations is determined from (i) higher layer parameters from the second BS.
However, Zhang Xiaoxia wherein the set of configurations is determined from (i) higher layer parameters from the second BS.
“The BS 205 may configure the UE with a UE-specific search space for DL control channel information monitoring. The BS 205 may transmit a DL schedule assigned to the UE 215 in the UE-specific search space. The BS 205 may transmit an RRC message carrying the UE-specific CE mode communication parameters according to the DL schedule.” [0044]
Regarding claim 8,
claim 8 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 1 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 9,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 9 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 2 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 10,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 10 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 3 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 11,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 11 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 4 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 12,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 12 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 5 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 13,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 13 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 6 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 14,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 14 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 7 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 16,
Limitations of parent claim 15 have been discussed above. Claim 16 reflects device a for implementing the method in claim 9 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 17,
Limitations of parent claim 15 have been discussed above. Claim 17 reflects device a for implementing the method in claim 10 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 18,
Limitations of parent claim 15 have been discussed above. Claim 18 reflects device a for implementing the method in claim 11 and 12 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 20,
Limitations of parent claim 15 have been discussed above. Claim 20 reflects device a for implementing the method in claim 14 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Claims 6, 13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang Yuantao in view of Zhang Xiaoxia , in view of Hedayat and further view of further view of LIU et al., US 20230254828 A1 (hereinafter Liu).
Regarding claim 6, Limitations of parent claim 1 have been discussed above. Liu teaches
the processor is further configured to determine a set of configurations for receiving the on-demand SIB1, and the set of configurations include: a subcarrier spacing value for the on-demand SIB1;
a configuration for a control resource set #0 (CORESET#0); and a configuration for a type 0 physical downlink control channel (Type0-PDCCH).
"an initial DL BWP is defined by a location and number of contiguous physical resource blocks (PRBs), starting from a PRB with the lowest index and ending at a PRB with the highest index among PRBs of a CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set (i.e. CORESET #0), and a subcarrier spacing (SCS) and a cyclic prefix for PDCCH reception in the CORESET for Type0-PDCCH CSS set."[0140]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person having of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine Liu with Zhang Yuantao, Zhang Xiaoxia, and Hedayat’s teachings because all three are directed to the identical technical field of NR initial access configuration determination. Liu and Zhang Yuantao each disclose determination of the configuration parameters needed to receive SIB1 (COREST#0/SCS)via the same PBCH/MIB signaling pathway. Zhang Xiaoxia provides a SIB transmission until the UE specifically requests it, instead of consistently broadcasting. For the benefit of using only the PBCH/MIB content already read, with out extra signaling or hardware required.
Regarding claim 13,
Limitations of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 13 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 6 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Regarding claim 19,
Limitations of parent claim 15 have been discussed above. Claim 19 reflects a method for implementing the device in claim 6 and is rejected along the same rationale.
Claims 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang Yuantao in view of Zhang Xiaoxia , and further view of further view of Fujishiro, US 10873898 B2.
Regarding claim 15, Zhang Yuantao teaches
A base station (BS) in a wireless communication system, the BS comprising: a processor configured to: determine whether a cell is associated with an
“The apparatus 700 may be a BS 101”[0097] “the apparatus 700 may include at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium 702, at least one receiving circuitry 704, at least one transmitting circuitry 706, and at least one processor 708. In some embodiment of the present application, at least one receiving circuitry 704 and at least one transmitting circuitry 706 and be integrated into at least one transceiver.”[0098] " The BS 101 may transmit synchronization information to the at least one UE 103 for initial accesses to the BS 101. The synchronization information may include one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs, or SS blocks) as shown in FIG. 2. Each SSB may be associated with information of a beam transmitted from the BS 101."[0026] "In some embodiments of the present application, the one or more OFDM symbols include a primary synchronization signal (PSS) 21, a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) 22, and a plurality of physical broadcast channels (PBCH) 23. "[0029]"Master system information (MIB) for initial accesses can be transmitted on the PBCH 23. "[0030]"determining whether a subcarrier offset value indicated by the first SSB is within a first range or a second range"[0006]" for FR1, k.sub.SSB is indicated in the SSB by 5 bits, wherein the 4 least significant bits are given in MIB by a parameter ssb-SubcarrierOffset as specified in 3GPP standard documents, and the most significant bit is given by the fifth bit of the 8 bits introduced in the physical layer for PBCH of the SSB."[0037]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly teach whether the cell is associated with an on-demand system information block 1 (SIB1)
However, Zhang Xiaoxia teaches whether the cell is associated with an on-demand system information block 1 (SIB1)
"In order to utilize system resources efficiently and/or reduce system overhead, the BS 205 may transmit at least some of the broadcast signals in the normal coverage mode and may switch to the CE mode based on requests. For example, upon detection of a request from a UE 215b requiring the CE support, the BS 205 may switch to transmit the broadcast signals in the CE mode "[0045] "the BS may begin with transmitting SSBs in a CE mode and transmitting SIBs in a non-CE mode without the deep coverage. The BS may switch to transmit SIBs in the CE mode upon a request from a UE."[0027]
Zhang Yuantao fails to expressly receive, from another BS, an indication for transmitting the on-demand SIB1; and transmit, to the UE, the on-demand SIB1 in the cell.
However, Fujishiro teaches receive, from another BS, an indication for transmitting the on-demand SIB1;
"the gNB 200-1 and the gNB 200-2 may notify each other of the on-demand SIBs (Other SIBs), which are possessed by themselves, on the inter-base station interface."[col 8 lines 4-7]" the UE 100 transmits, to the gNB 200-1, a request signal (Other SIB request) requesting the provision of the on-demand SIB. The UE 100 may be allowed to transmit a request signal requesting the provision of the neighbor cell on-demand SIB only when a value indicating the moving speed of the UE 100 (e.g., the number of times of inter-cell movement within a unit time) exceeds a threshold value. In this case, the threshold value may be configured to the UE 100 from the gNB 200-1."[col 8 lines 8-15]
and transmit, to the UE, the on-demand SIB1 in the cell.
“Then, in Step S127, the gNB 200-1 provides the UE 100 with the neighbor cell on-demand SIB.”[col 8, lines 43-45]
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person having of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine Zhang Xiaoxia, Zhang Yuantao, and Fujishiro’s teachings because all three are directed to the identical technical field of NR initial access configuration determination. Zhang Xiaoxia provides a SIB transmission until the UE specifically requests it, instead of consistently broadcasting. Zhang Yuantao provides the PBCH/MIB kSSB mechanism for determining SIB1 scheduling configuration presence. Fujishiro provides the inter base station acquisition and transmission of on-demand SIB1 to the UE. For the benefit of network energy saving.
Conclusion
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/F.O.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2646
/JEANETTE J PARKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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