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
1. 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.
2. 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 of this title, 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 1-18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No US 2022/0279590 to Lee et al. (hereinafter Lee) in view of U.S. Publication No US 2023/0108745 to Yang et al. (hereinafter Yang)
As to claims 1, 10 and 16, Lee discloses a method for initial access communications, comprising: determining, based on a configuration index included in a higher layer parameter, a position of random access channel (RACH) occasion (RO) slots with a first sub-carrier spacing (SCS) within a last slot of a reference physical RACH (PRACH) slot window of a reference sub- carrier spacing (SCS) (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151] shows and discloses one reference slot in radio resources to which 120 kHz SCS is applied may include four actual slots in radio resources to which 480 kHz SCS is applied. one reference slot in radio resources to which 120 kHz SCS is applied may include four actual slots in radio resources to which 480 kHz SCS is applied. The reference slot may be referred to as ‘RO reference slot’ or ‘reference RO slot’. Each of the four actual slots may be referred to as ‘RO actual slot’ or ‘actual RO slot’. In FIG. 11B, there may be four actual slots within one reference slot, and among the four actual slots, the second actual slot (e.g., actual slot #1) or the fourth actual slot (e.g., actual slot #3) may be configured as the slot (e.g., start slot) of the RO. The reference SCS of 120 kHz SCS and the actual SCS of 480 kHz SCS are applied, but other reference SCS (e.g., 60 kHz SCS) and other actual SCS (e.g., 120 kHz SCS) may also be applied identically or similarly. Information (e.g., position information) of the slot of the RO according to the reference SCS and/or within the reference slot may be preconfigured by higher layer signaling);
Determining a distribution of the RO slots with the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0150] shows and discloses one reference slot in radio resources to which 120 kHz SCS is applied may include four actual slots in radio resources to which 480 kHz SCS is applied. The actual slots may mean slots actually used for the RA procedure. There may be four actual slots within one reference slot, and among the four actual slots, the second actual slot (e.g., actual slot #1) or the fourth actual slot (e.g., actual slot #3) may be configured as the slot (e.g., start slot) of the RO corresponding to a distribution of the RO slots with the first SCS);
Lee discloses RO slots, but fails to disclose transmitting during a determined RO slot. However, Yang discloses
transmitting during a determined RO slot (Yang; Abstract; [0073] discloses transmitting an RA preamble on one RO among a plurality of Ros).
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to send the RA in RO
As to claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein the first SCS is one of a 480 kHz SCS or a 960 kHz SCS (Lee; [0007])
As to claim 3, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein the reference SCS is 60 kHz (Lee; Fig.12A; 12B; [0146])
As to claim 4, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein, when a number of RO slots of the first SCS in the PRACH slot of the reference SCS is greater than or equal to a total number of time-domain ROs, N, within a reference slot, the time-domain ROs with the first SCS are evenly distributed over a last N slots of the first SCS in the reference slot of the reference SCS with one RO per slot of the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151]).
As to claim 5, the rejection of claim 4 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein each time-domain RO uses a same starting symbol in a slot of the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151])
As to claim 6, the rejection of claim 5 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein the starting symbol is configured via higher layers for each slot of the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151])
As to claims 7 and 13, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein, when a number of RO slots of the first SCS in the PRACH slot of the reference SCS is less than a number of time-domain ROs, N, within a reference slot, the time-domain ROs are distributed over all slots of the first SCS in the reference slot (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151])
As to claims 8 and 14, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein determining the distribution of the RO slots with the first SCS is based on a total number of time domain ROs in the PRACH slot of the reference SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151])
As to claims 9, 15 and 20, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses wherein, when a number of RO slots of the first SCS in the PRACH slot of the reference SCS is less than a number of time-domain ROs, N, within a reference slot, the time-domain ROs are located in a last slot of the first SCS of a reference slot window (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151])
As to claims 11 and 17, the rejection of claim 10 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses
wherein the first SCS is one of a 480 kHz SCS or a 960 kHz SCS (Lee; [0007]); and
wherein the reference SCS is 60 kHz (Lee; Fig.12A; 12B; [0146])
As to claims 12 and 18, the rejection of claim 10 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Lee-Yang discloses
wherein, when a number of RO slots of the first SCS in the PRACH slot of the reference SCS is greater than or equal to a total number of time-domain ROs, N, within a reference slot, the time-domain ROs with the first SCS are evenly distributed over a last N slots of the first SCS in the reference slot of the reference SCS with one RO per slot of the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151]);
wherein each time-domain RO uses a same starting symbol in a slot of the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151]); and
wherein the starting symbol is configured via higher layers for each slot of the first SCS (Lee; Fig.11A; 11B; 12A; 12B; [0147]-[0151]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 19 is objected, 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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/FAISAL CHOUDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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