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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed on 12/03/2024, 02/20/2026 and 06/06/2026 comply with all application rules and regulations. Therefore, the information referred to therein have been considered.
Claim Objection
Claims 10 and 13 objected to because of the following informalities:
• Claim 10, line 2, “disjoint” should be “disjointed”.
• Claim 13, line 3, “skips” should be “skip”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Specification Objection
The use of the term Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Zigbee or Z-Wave which is a trade name or a mark used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The term should be accompanied by the generic terminology; furthermore, the term should be capitalized wherever it appears or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM , or ® following the term.
Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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.
Claims 1-3, 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US-20240334538-A1), as field on Mar 29, 2024, and published on Oct. 3, 2024, in view of Pezeshki et al. (US-20200314857-A1), as field on Mar. 27, 2020, and published on Oct. 01, 2020.
Regarding claim 1, Zhou teaches 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 (Figs. 33-34 and 40-41 describe the UE and network node (BS) communicated through wireless communication network. Figs. 15-16-20 and [0015]-[0018], [0215]-[0219] and [0517]-[0520] provide both the UE and BS includes a transceiver, and at least one processor configured to control the transceiver to transmit/receive signals where computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-executable or computer-readable memory that may direct the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-executable or computer-readable memory may produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the functions specified in the method);
and monitor the first subset of beams based at least in part on the indication (Fig. 31[0113] lines 27-37, [0114], [0150], [0156]-[0157], [0183] and [0476]-[0477] confirm that the UE can monitor/measure/report the subset of beams based on the configuration parameters may indicate at least one of: a number of PDCCH candidates to be monitored per aggregation level; a PDCCH monitoring periodicity and a PDCCH monitoring pattern; one or more DCI formats to be monitored by the wireless device; and/or whether a search space set is a common search space set or a wireless device-specific search space set (e.g., a UE-specific search space set), see [0203]. [0293] and [0483] also describes the scenario where the UE may skip/stop monitoring/reporting as states “ A wireless device may skip/stop reporting L1/2 CSI (and/or L3 CSI/beam) for a candidate cell, even if L1-RSRP (and/or L3 CSI/beam) of the candidate cell is better than a serving cell or a configured threshold, based on (e.g., in response to) a NES/C-DTX/DRX operation being enabled/activated on the candidate cell.” That means the UE can monitor the subset of beams based at least in part on the indication (activated/deactivated).
Zhou does not explicitly teach receive a set of beams comprising a plurality of subsets of beams; receive an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams.
However, Pezeshki teaches receive a set of beams comprising a plurality of subsets of beams (Abstract explicitly states “ A method by a user equipment (UE) includes receiving a configuration of multiple beam indication sets. The method includes receiving an indication of parameters and, for each parameter, an associated subset of the multiple beam indication sets. The method includes determining a subset of the multiple configured beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters”.[0007], [0013], [0024], Figs 8A-8B and Step 1005 also confirm that the UE can receive a plurality of beam indication sets that can be applied for the a plurality of beam sets);
receive an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams ([0009] states “the UE determines a subset of configured beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters and: receives signaling indicating one or more active beam indication sets from the subset of configured beam indication sets; or determines the one or more active beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters.” That confirms receiving, by the UE, an activation indication to activate at least one or more beam set (subset of beams)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Pezeshki (in analogous art) by adding receiving an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams to improve the communications between access points, wireless devices and the telecommunication standards in a wireless network when employ these technologies (Pezeshki, [0005]-[0006]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 1,
Zhou further teaches wherein the set of beams is associated with a beam hopping framework, and the indication is received via a downlink control information (DCI) ([0134] states “A base station may semi-statically configure a wireless device with one or more BWPs. A wireless device may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) receiving DCI indicating the second BWP as an active BWP. A wireless device may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) an expiry of the BWP inactivity timer (e.g., if the second BWP is the default BWP).” See also Fig. 9 [0134], and [0136]-[0137] which describe how the switching/skipping/hopping between the beams according to the activation indication by DCI, see also Fig. 49, [0352], [0464] and [0467] which confirms that the DCI controls the mechanism for dynamically beam management by enabling the switching/hopping between different beams/subset of beams as configuring by the BS).
Regarding claim 3, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 1,
Zhou further teaches wherein the indication is received via a downlink control information (DCI), and the DCI corresponds to a DCI format associated with one or more of a cell discontinuous transmission (DTX), cell discontinuous reception (DRX) (Figs. 45-49, [0198]-[0199], [0208], [0250]-[0253], [0407]-[0468] include extensive illustration about how the DCI format associated with activation DTX and DRX , see also claims 6 and 9), or a conditional handover (CHO) (Figs. 34, 37, 39 and 49-50, [0333]-[0334], [0341]-[0345] and [0481] explicitly provide the use of DCI/MAC CE for mobility/handoff procedure, including CHO and layer triggering mobility (LTM)).
Regarding claim 11, , Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to further
Zhou further teaches transmit a set of beams to a network entity, wherein each beam in the set of beams corresponds to a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted by the UE ([0164] and [0168]-[0169] describe the procedure of transmitting the one or more SRS to the BS/network entity and how to determine the selection of beams, where [0169] states “ The wireless device may perform the uplink beam selection procedure, for example, based on one or more SRS resources configured to the wireless device by the base station. The base station may select and indicate uplink beams for the wireless device, for example, based on measurements of the one or more SRS resources sent/transmitted by the wireless device.”).
Regarding claim 12, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 11, wherein
Zhou further teaches the SRS is transmitted at least in part on a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) pattern (Figs. 30, 45, [0279], [0409], [0411] describe how the SRS is transmitted based on ON/OFF DRX status, as states in [0279] that The wireless device may be sending (e.g., transmitting) periodic CSI and/or SRS frequently (e.g., based on the configuration), for example, if DRX is not configured. With DRX, for DRX OFF periods, the wireless device may not send (e.g., transmit) periodic CSI and/or SRS), the cell DRX pattern comprises alternating sequences of active slots and inactive slots (Fig. 45, [0278], [0282], [0409]-[0410] describe using DRX pattern as a mechanism for saving energy by switching between ON, active, to OFF, inactive status for each slot sequentially, as states “The periodically turning the cell on and off (or partially off) for uplink reception may be referred to as a cell DRX (or C-DRX) operation, in this specification, which may comprise a time period when the cell is turned on and a time period when the cell is turned off (or partially off), see also Fig. 45), the active slots correspond to time slots in which the UE transmits the SRS, and the inactive slots correspond to time slots in which the UE suspends transmitting the SRS (Fig. 30, [0278] and [0409] that confirm that the wireless device may monitor all PDCCHs on (or for) the multiple cells for the DRX Active state, for example, if multiple cells are in active state. For the DRX off duration, the wireless device may stop monitoring all PDCCH on (or for) the multiple cells. The wireless device may repeat the DRX operations according to the one or more DRX parameters).
Regarding claim 13, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the indication is received via a downlink control information (DCI), and wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to
Zhou further teaches transmit a channel state information (CSI) report or skips transmitting the CSI report based at least in part on information in the DCI (Figs. 39, 41-44, [0383], [0468], [0482] and [0485] provide the transmission/skipping of the CSI report based on the DCI triggering indication, as confirmed by [0383] “ At step 3922, the wireless device may (e.g., after performing the layer 1 or layer 2 measurement) send (e.g., transmit) the layer 1 or layer 2 measurement report indicating whether at least one candidate target PCell has better CSI measurement than the current PCell, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) receiving the triggering indication. The wireless device may skip sending (e.g., transmitting) the layer 1 or layer 2 measurement of candidate target PCell (e.g., Cell 1, Cell 2, etc.) or may send (e.g., transmit) only layer 1 or layer 2 CSI measurement of the serving cell (Cell 0)”).
Regarding claim 14, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to
Zhou further teaches transmit the CSI report in response to receiving the indication within a threshold duration, wherein the indication identifies the activation of the first subset of beams in an information block ([0422] states “The time duration threshold may be configured by the base station in the one or more RRC messages or predefined as a fixed value. “ and [0494] states the wireless device, during the time period outside of the C-DTX on duration (between T6 and T8) of the C-DTX cycle of the second C-DTX configuration, may stop receiving, from Cell 2, P/SP CSI-RSs, PRSs, CG-PDSCHs, PDCCH with wireless device specific RNTIs, PDCCH in type 3 common search spaces and/or may stop sending (e.g., transmitting), via Cell 2, P/SP SRSs, P/SP CSI reports, CG-PUSCHs, SR and etc.,” see also [0462], [0485]-[0486], [0496] where the transmission of the CSI report based on the configured threshold).
Regarding claim 15, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 1,
Zhou further teaches wherein the set of beams is associated with a beam hopping framework that corresponds to the UE receiving the first subset of beams from the set of beams at a first time duration, and the UE receiving a second subset of beams from the set of beams at a second time duration, and wherein the first time duration and the second time duration are non-overlapping. ([0134] states “A base station may semi-statically configure a wireless device with one or more BWPs. A wireless device may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) receiving DCI indicating the second BWP as an active BWP. A wireless device may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) an expiry of the BWP inactivity timer (e.g., if the second BWP is the default BWP).” Which means the UE can monitor one of them at each time. See also Fig. 9 [0134], and [0136]-[0137] which describe how the switching/skipping/hopping between the beams according to the activation indication by DCI, see also Fig. 49, [0352], [0464] and [0467] which confirms that the DCI controls the mechanism for dynamically beam management by enabling the switching/hopping between different beams/subset of beams as configuring by the BS. [0168] illustrates the first and second sets of beams have different time durations, which means the two time durations are not overlapped, , as also states “A wireless device may be served with beams in orthogonal symbols (e.g., no overlapping symbols), for example, by using the TDM.”, Fig. 12 describes the download beam management process, which also including beam hopping framework, [0171] )
Regarding claim 16, Zhou teaches a processor for wireless communication, comprising: at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to (Figs. 33-34 and 40-41 describe the UE and network node (BS) communicated through wireless communication network. Figs. 15-16-20 and [0015]-[0018], [0215]-[0219] and [0517]-[0520] provide both the UE and BS includes device controller, a transceiver, and at least one processor configured to control the transceiver to transmit/receive signals where computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-executable or computer-readable memory that may direct the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-executable or computer-readable memory may produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the functions specified in the method):
and monitor the first subset of beams based at least in part on the indication (Fig. 31[0113] lines 27-37, [0114], [0150], [0156]-[0157], [0183] and [0476]-[0477] confirm that the UE can monitor/measure/report the subset of beams based on the configuration parameters may indicate at least one of: a number of PDCCH candidates to be monitored per aggregation level; a PDCCH monitoring periodicity and a PDCCH monitoring pattern; one or more DCI formats to be monitored by the wireless device; and/or whether a search space set is a common search space set or a wireless device-specific search space set (e.g., a UE-specific search space set), see [0203]. [0293] and [0483] also describes the scenario where the UE may skip/stop monitoring/reporting as states “ A wireless device may skip/stop reporting L1/2 CSI (and/or L3 CSI/beam) for a candidate cell, even if L1-RSRP (and/or L3 CSI/beam) of the candidate cell is better than a serving cell or a configured threshold, based on (e.g., in response to) a NES/C-DTX/DRX operation being enabled/activated on the candidate cell.” That means the UE can monitor the subset of beams based at least in part on the indication (activated/deactivated).
Zhou does not explicitly teach receive a set of beams comprising a plurality of subsets of beams; receive an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams.
However, Pezeshki teaches receive a set of beams comprising a plurality of subsets of beams (Abstract explicitly states “ A method by a user equipment (UE) includes receiving a configuration of multiple beam indication sets. The method includes receiving an indication of parameters and, for each parameter, an associated subset of the multiple beam indication sets. The method includes determining a subset of the multiple configured beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters”.[0007], [0013], [0024], Figs 8A-8B and Step 1005 also confirm that the UE can receive a plurality of beam indication sets that can be applied for the a plurality of beam sets);
receive an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams ([0009] states “the UE determines a subset of configured beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters and: receives signaling indicating one or more active beam indication sets from the subset of configured beam indication sets; or determines the one or more active beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters.” That confirms receiving, by the UE, an activation indication to activate at least one or more beam set (subset of beams)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Pezeshki (in analogous art) by adding receiving an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams to improve the communications between access points, wireless devices and the telecommunication standards in a wireless network when employ these technologies (Pezeshki, [0005]-[0006]).
Regarding claim 17, Zhou teaches a network equipment 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 network equipment to (Figs. 33-34 and 40-41 describe the UE and network node (BS) communicated through wireless communication network. Figs. 15-16-20 and [0015]-[0018], [0215]-[0219] and [0517]-[0520] provide both the UE and BS includes a transceiver, and at least one processor configured to control the transceiver to transmit/receive signals where computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-executable or computer-readable memory that may direct the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-executable or computer-readable memory may produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the functions specified in the method);
Zhou does not explicitly teach transmit a set of beams comprising a plurality of subsets of beams; and transmit an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams.
However, Pezeshki teaches transmit a set of beams comprising a plurality of subsets of beams (Abstract explicitly states “ A method by a user equipment (UE) includes receiving a configuration of multiple beam indication sets. The method includes receiving an indication of parameters and, for each parameter, an associated subset of the multiple beam indication sets. The method includes determining a subset of the multiple configured beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters”.[0007], [0013], [0024], Figs 8A-8B and Step 1005 also confirm that the UE can receive, from the BS, a plurality of beam indication sets that can be applied for the a plurality of beam sets);
transmit an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams ([0009] states “the UE determines a subset of configured beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters and: receives signaling indicating one or more active beam indication sets from the subset of configured beam indication sets; or determines the one or more active beam indication sets based on the one or more parameters.” That confirms receiving, from the BS, an activation indication to activate at least one or more beam set (subset of beams)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Pezeshki (in analogous art) by adding receiving an indication of an activation or deactivation of a first subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams to improve the communications between access points, wireless devices and the telecommunication standards in a wireless network when employ these technologies (Pezeshki, [0005]-[0006]).
Regarding claim 18, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the network equipment of claim 17,
Zhou further teaches wherein the set of beams is associated with a beam hopping framework, and the indication is transmitted via a downlink control information (DCI) ([0134] states “A base station may semi-statically configure a wireless device with one or more BWPs. A wireless device may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) receiving DCI indicating the second BWP as an active BWP. A wireless device may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP, for example, based on (e.g., after or in response to) an expiry of the BWP inactivity timer (e.g., if the second BWP is the default BWP).” See also Fig. 9 [0134], and [0136]-[0137] which describe how the switching/skipping/hopping between the beams according to the activation indication by DCI, see also Fig. 49, [0352], [0464] and [0467] which confirms that the DCI controls the mechanism for dynamically beam management by enabling the switching/hopping between different beams/subset of beams as configuring by the BS).
Regarding claim 19, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the network equipment of claim 17, wherein the indication is transmitted via a downlink control information (DCI), and wherein a format of the DCI corresponds to a DCI format associated with one or more of a cell discontinuous transmission (DTX), cell discontinuous reception (DRX), (Figs. 45-49, [0198]-[0199], [0208], [0250]-[0253], [0407]-[0468] include extensive illustration about how the DCI format associated with activation DTX and DRX , see also claims 6 and 9), or a conditional handover (CHO) (Figs. 34, 37, 39 and 49-50, [0333]-[0334], [0341]-[0345] and [0481] explicitly provide the use of DCI/MAC CE for mobility/handoff procedure, including CHO and layer triggering mobility (LTM)).
As to claim 20, see similar rejection to claim 1, the apparatus teaches the method.
Claims 4 , 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US-20240334538-A1), as field on Mar 29, 2024, and published on Oct. 3, 2024, in view of Pezeshki et al. (US-20200314857-A1), as field on Mar. 27, 2020, and published on Oct. 01, 2020, further in view of Alriksson et al. (WO-2020064939-A1), as field on Sep. 26, 2019, and published on Apr. 02, 2020.
Regarding claim 4, Zhou and Pezeshki teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the indication is received via a downlink control information (DCI),
Zhou and Pezeshki fail to teach the DCI comprises a plurality of information blocks, each information block of the plurality of information blocks corresponds to a respective subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams.
However, Alriksson teaches the DCI comprises a plurality of information blocks, each information block of the plurality of information blocks corresponds to a respective subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams ([0036]-[0038], [0053]-[0056], [0083], [0087] and claim 6 illustrate the that DCI can include bitmap, where the bitmap can serve as control information block, which consists of a number of bits that indicate presence/absence of SS/PBCH block position in the burst set, where these positions associated with beam direction, as states “[0035] Determining presence of the SS/PBCH block may include receiving an indication in the DCI of the presence of the SS/PBCH block in the second resource elements. [0036] The indication in the DCI may include a bit in the DCI indicating presence of one or more SS/PBCH block(s) in predetermined SS/PBCH block locations within the second resource elements. [0037] The indication may include a bitmap indicating presence of one or more SS/PBCH blocks at predetermined locations within the second resource elements.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou in view of Pezeshki to incorporate the teachings of Alriksson (in analogous art) by adding wherein each information block of the plurality of information blocks corresponds to a respective subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams for multiplexing in an efficient manner which leads to reduce latency with high reliability transmission (Alriksson, [0003] and [0077]).
Regarding claim 6, Zhou, Pezeshki, Alriksson and Lee teach The UE of claim 4,
Zhou and Pezeshki fail to teach wherein each information block of the plurality of information blocks identifies whether beams in the first subset of beams are activated or deactivated.
However, Alriksson teaches wherein each information block of the plurality of information blocks identifies whether beams in the first subset of beams are activated or deactivated ([0036]-[0038], [0053]-[0056], [0083], [0087] and claim 6 illustrate the that DCI can include bitmap, where the bitmap can serve as control information block, which consists of a number of bits that indicate presence/absence of SS/PBCH block position in the burst set, “ where these positions associated with beam direction, as states “[0035] Determining presence of the SS/PBCH block may include receiving an indication in the DCI of the presence of the SS/PBCH block in the second resource elements. [0036] The indication in the DCI may include a bit in the DCI indicating presence of one or more SS/PBCH block(s) in predetermined SS/PBCH block locations within the second resource elements. [0037] The indication may include a bitmap indicating presence of one or more SS/PBCH blocks at predetermined locations within the second resource elements.” That implies the information blocks by DCI identifies whether beams in the first subset of beams are activated or deactivated).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou in view of Pezeshki to incorporate the teachings of Alriksson (in analogous art) by adding wherein each information block of the plurality of information blocks corresponds to a respective subset of beams of the plurality of subsets of beams for multiplexing in an efficient manner which leads to reduce latency with high reliability transmission (Alriksson, [0003] and [0077]).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US-20240334538-A1), as field on Mar 29, 2024, and published on Oct. 3, 2024, in view of Pezeshki et al. (US-20200314857-A1), as field on Mar. 27, 2020, and published on Oct. 01, 2020, in view of Alriksson et al. (WO-2020064939-A1), as field on Sep. 26, 2019, and published on Apr. 02, 2020, and further in view of Lee et al. (US-20240049130-A1), as field on Aug. 02, 2023, and published on Feb. 08, 2024.
Regarding claim 5, Zhou, Pezeshki and Alriksson teach the UE of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to
Zhou, Pezeshki and Alriksson do not explicitly teach receive a higher-layer signal that identifies a location corresponding to a first bit of one or more information blocks of the plurality of information blocks of the DCI that the UE is to monitor.
However, Lee teaches receive a higher-layer signal that identifies a location corresponding to a first bit of one or more information blocks of the plurality of information blocks of the DCI that the UE is to monitor (Table 17, [0242], [0431]-[0433] describe the scenario that the DCI contains multiple information blocks for each UE via higher layer signaling where its associated block begin/start “ a start position of a block is determined by parameter nes-PositionDCI-2-8 provided from a higher layer for a UE configured of blocks. Here, when UEs are grouped for N blocks to notify all UEs within the BS, it is set that N=1.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou in view of Pezeshki in view of Alriksson to incorporate the teachings of Lee (in analogous art) by adding receiving a higher-layer signal that identifies a location corresponding to a first bit of one or more information blocks of the plurality of information blocks of the DCI for improving the energy saving mode of a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system. (Lee, [0002]).
Claims 7-10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US-20240334538-A1), as field on Mar 29, 2024, and published on Oct. 3, 2024, in view of Pezeshki et al. (US-20200314857-A1), as field on Mar. 27, 2020, and published on Oct. 01, 2020, and further in view of Lee et al. (US-20240049130-A1), as field on Aug. 02, 2023, and published on Feb. 08, 2024.
Regarding claim 7, Zhou and Pezeshki the UE of claim 1,
Zhou and Pezeshki fail to teach wherein each beam in the set of beams corresponds to at least one of a non-zero power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a synchronization signal block (SSB).
However, Lee teaches wherein each beam in the set of beams corresponds to at least one of a non-zero power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a synchronization signal block (SSB) (Tables 9, 23-25 and [0258] describe the CSI resource set list may be configured of a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource set and an SSB set, where those can be used for channel measurement and beam measurement. See also [0271]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou in view of Pezeshki to incorporate the teachings of Lee (in analogous art) by adding receiving a higher-layer signal that identifies a location corresponding to a first bit of one or more information blocks of the plurality of information blocks of the DCI for improving the energy saving mode of a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system. (Lee, [0002]).
Regarding claim 8, Zhou, Pezeshki and Lee teach the UE of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to
Zhou further teaches receive the at least one of the NZP CSI-RS or the SSB based at least in part on a cell discontinuous transmission (DTX) pattern (Figs. 45-48, [0408], [0442]-[0443], [0494]-[0495] and [0520]-[0520] describe the pattern of DTX indicated by the base station that may send a command indicating to enable the cell DTX operation associated with at least one of: the first cell; or the second cell, and how impact on measurements and reporting, for example, if the cell in the DTX off period, the UE may cancel/skip CSI measurements as the SSB/NZP CSI-RS are not transmitted during this time, see also [0423], and [0513]. That implies reception of SSB/NZP CSI-RS based on the DTX state (on/off) ), the cell DTX pattern comprises alternating sequences of active slots and inactive slots ([0408] states “The periodically turning the cell on and off (or partially off) may be referred to as a cell DTX (or C-DTX) operation, in this specification, which may comprise a time period when the cell is turned on and a time period when the cell is turned off (or partially off). A time period when the cell is turned on for the cell DTX operation may be referred to as a cell DTX on duration, a cell DTX active duration, or a cell DTX on period. A time period when the cell is turned off (or partially off) for the cell DTX operation may be referred to as a cell DTX off duration/period, a cell DTX inactive (or non-active) duration/period, “ see also [0423], that means the DTX patten/status might be configured as a repeating cycle, such as active/transmitting slot followed by inactive/not transmitting slots, means that the DTX is designed to alternat between them), the active slots correspond to time slots in which the UE monitors for a reception of the at least one of the NZP CSI-RS or the SSB, and the inactive slots correspond to time slots in which the UE skips monitoring for the at least one of the NZP CSI-RS or SSB ([0473] and [0511] states “a time offset indicating a starting slot of a DTX period of the DTX, a length indication of a DTX on duration of the DTX period and/or a length indication of a DTX off duration of the DTX period. A wireless device may receive the CSI-RSs in a DTX on duration of the DTX period of the DTX. The wireless device may stop receiving the CSI-RSs in a DTX off duration of the DTX period of the DTX.” That confirms that the UE monitors for a reception of the at least one of the NZP CSI-RS or the SSB, and stop/skip the monitoring on DTX off duration).
Regarding claim 9, Zhou, Pezeshki and Lee teach the UE of claim 8,
Zhou further teaches wherein a quantity of inactive slots associated with a first beam in the first subset of beams comprises a quantity of active slots associated with a second beam in a second subset of beams (Fig. 11B, Figs. 32A-32B, and 47-48, [0167]-[0168], [0361], [0407], [0441], [0455] and [0454] describe the UE is configured with multiple Cells, each has different beam set and different C-DTX/DRX configuration parameters, as described extensively in [0441] and [0451]-[0557], such as offset, DTX cycle length/periodicity, C-DTX on duration timer, and delay for each set/subset of beam, where the quantity of slots may be configured in the one or more RRC messages or may be predefined as a fixed value, as stated in [0292]. That implies the active and inactive slots for each can be aligned or offset as needed, see Figs. 32 A-B and 47-48).
Regarding claim 10, Zhou, Pezeshki and Lee teach the UE of claim 9,
Zhou further teaches wherein the first subset of beams and the second subset of beams are disjoint ([0168] states “ A wireless device may be served with beams in orthogonal symbols (e.g., no overlapping symbols), for example, by using the TDM.” see also [0299]-[0300] which confirm “A wireless device may receive multiple PDCCHs scheduling fully/partially/non-overlapped PDSCHs in time and frequency domain” That implies the flexibility of using jointed or disjointed beams).
Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure.
Yi et al. (US-20240373358-A1), Park et al. (US-20260222987-A1), Zhou et al. (US-20260020102-A1), and Zhang et al. (US-20230198681-A1) teach method involved beam management in terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks to improve the power/energy saving.
Conclusion
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/SANAA AL SAMAHI/Examiner, Art Unit 2463 /ASAD M NAWAZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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