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 .
This Office action is in response to the preliminary amendment filed on 08/02/2024. Claims 25-28 have been canceled, and new claims 29-30 have been added.
Claims 1-24 and 29-30 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 08/02/2024 and 01/27/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are considered by the examiner.
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 1-24 and 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LEE et al. (US 2023/0163834 A1), in view of WANG et al. (US 2025/0159519 A1).
As to claim 1, LEE discloses the invention as claimed, including a method for wireless communications by a network entity (Fig. 1, HAPS), comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE) while the network entity is deployed on an aerial platform, a periodic beam switching configuration (Fig. 1; ¶0004, “transmitting, to one or more user equipment (UEs), an indication of beam switching on/off operation comprising at least one of the selected beam on/off pattern, a pattern rotation speed, and a reference time slot for a start of the selected beam on/off pattern, and initiating the beam switching on/off operation”; ¶0031, “To deploy NTN with HAPS, the flight platform should stay above the targeting coverage area. To this end, HAPS can fly in a circular flight path above the service area. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a HAPS deployment scenario where the flight trajectory is a circular path to provide cellular coverage for a certain area. In that case, FIG. 2 illustrates the different beams observed by the UE over the time period when the UE is located at the location 105 marked in FIG. 1. In particular, FIG. 2 shows that UE may observe the different beam indices of the beams transmitted by the HAPS”; ¶0032, “deploying HAPS can include providing a large coverage area for an extended time period with a flexible deployment capability”; ¶0039, “HAPS may broadcast information on the beam switching ON/OFF operation including, for example, beam pattern, pattern rotation speed, and/or pattern start reference time in a system information block (SIB)”; ¶0049, “the decision on the beam switching on/off operation can be shared with UE, e.g., via SIB broadcast. For example, the HAPS may send a SIB including a ‘one-bit indication’ to activate the beam switching ON/OFF operation”; ¶0063, “receiving, from a network node, such as HAPS, an indication of beam switching on/off operation. The indication of the beam switching on/off operation may include one or more of a selected beam on/off pattern, a pattern rotation speed, and/or a reference time slot for a start of the selected beam on/off pattern”).
Although LEE discloses monitoring the UE feedback, including the latency or other similar metrics such as quality of service (¶0053), and controlling signals for channel quality measurement including at least SS/PBCH blocks may be transmitted regardless of a status of the selected beam on/off pattern (¶0061), LEE does not specifically disclose receiving, from the UE, a report with beam measurement results in accordance with the periodic beam switching configuration.
However, WANG discloses receiving, from the UE, a report with beam measurement results in accordance with the periodic beam switching configuration (¶0080, “The terminal device 110 may perform 222 the radio measurements based on the set of measurement objects (for example, Measurement Object_2 and Measurement Object_3) and report 223, to the network device 120, results of the radio measurements based on the set of report configurations (for example, ReportConfig_2 and ReportConfig_3)”; ¶0111, “the terminal device 110 may determine a subset of configuration parameters associated with the determined aerial state information from the set of configuration parameters…the set of configuration parameters may comprise a configuration parameter (for example, includeBeamMeasurements comprised in PeriodicalReportConfig) indicating whether beam measurements are reported”; ¶0112, “the terminal device 110 may report, to the network device 120, results of the radio measurements based on the subset of configuration parameters”; ¶0154, “configured to report the results of the radio measurements by: determining a subset of configuration parameters associated with the aerial state information from the set of configuration parameters; and reporting the results of the radio measurements based on the subset of configuration parameters”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LEE to include receiving, from the UE, a report with beam measurement results in accordance with the periodic beam switching configuration, as taught by WANG because it would ensure seamless beam mobility, maximize signal strength, and minimize link failures during user movement (WANG; ¶0043; ¶0111-¶0112).
As to claim 2, LEE discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the periodic beam switching configuration is transmitted via at least one of a system information block (SIB) or an information element (IE) (¶0039, “HAPS may broadcast information on the beam switching ON/OFF operation including, for example, beam pattern, pattern rotation speed, and/or pattern start reference time in a system information block (SIB)”; ¶0049, “the decision on the beam switching on/off operation can be shared with UE, e.g., via SIB broadcast. For example, the HAPS may send a SIB including a ‘one-bit indication’ to activate the beam switching ON/OFF operation”).
As to claim 3, LEE discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the periodic beam switching configuration is transmitted as: broadcast signaling as a common configuration; or unicast signaling as a dedicated configuration to a set of one or more UEs (¶0039, “HAPS may broadcast information on the beam switching ON/OFF operation including, for example, beam pattern, pattern rotation speed, and/or pattern start reference time in a system information block (SIB)”; ¶0049, “the decision on the beam switching on/off operation can be shared with UE, e.g., via SIB broadcast. For example, the HAPS may send a SIB including a ‘one-bit indication’ to activate the beam switching ON/OFF operation”).
As to claim 4, LEE discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the periodic beam switching configuration indicates at least one of: a set of periodic beam switching resources, a pattern of the set of periodic beam switching resources, or a time interval of the set of periodic beam switching resources (¶0039, “HAPS may broadcast information on the beam switching ON/OFF operation including, for example, beam pattern, pattern rotation speed, and/or pattern start reference time in a system information block (SIB)”; ¶0063, “receiving, from a network node, such as HAPS, an indication of beam switching on/off operation. The indication of the beam switching on/off operation may include one or more of a selected beam on/off pattern, a pattern rotation speed, and/or a reference time slot for a start of the selected beam on/off pattern”).
As to claim 5, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, LEE discloses wherein the report comprises at least one of: a periodic beam switching index or a periodic beam switching index set, wherein the beam switching index set comprises at least one of a resource index, a pattern index, or a time interval index (Figs. 2-3; Figs. 6-7; ¶0039, “HAPS may broadcast information on the beam switching ON/OFF operation including, for example, beam pattern, pattern rotation speed, and/or pattern start reference time in a system information block (SIB)”; ¶0050, “he ‘onDurationTimer’ may be set to the ON duration of the UE's serving beam, and the ‘DRX Cycle’ may be matched to the beam rotation period. For example, as illustrated in the example of FIG. 6, if the UE is initially associated with beam 2, the UE can calculate the ON period of beam 2. Then, the ‘onDurationTimer’ places the UE in active mode at the time slot indexes {1, 4, 7, . . . }”).
As to claim 6, LEE discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the report indicates a periodicity of the beam switching pattern (Figs. 6-7; ¶0047, “once HAPS defines the different beam on/off patterns, the HAPS may select (i) a beam on/off pattern and (ii) the rotation period of the beam on/off pattern”; ¶0051-¶0052).
As to claim 7, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, LEE discloses at least one of a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), dedicated control channel (DCCH), control information, or radio resource control (RRC) signaling (¶0039, “transition between discontinuous reception (DRX) active and inactive modes in the radio resource control (RRC) connected state”).
As to claim 8, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, LEE discloses selection of a random access channel (RACH) occasion (RO) or a configured grant (CG) occasion, based on a relationship between the RO or CG to periodic beam measurement results (¶0041, “When transmitting physical random access channel (PRACH) in the random access procedure, the UE can select a random access channel (RACH) occasion corresponding to the intended SSB beam when the SSB beam is turned on”; ¶0049, “the UE can determine the ON/OFF status of the selected SSB beam from its RSRP measurements. When transmitting PRACH, the UE may use a RACH occasion corresponding to the selected SSB beam in a time slot when the beam is ON”).
As to claim 9, LEE discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising determining the periodic beam switching configuration based on one or more sensor measurements taken at the network entity (¶0076; ¶0087).
As to claims 10-12, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, WANG discloses further comprising determining the periodic beam switching configuration based on one or more previously received reports with beam measurement results from the UE , transmitting the UE signaling with a command to activate or deactivate the UE from initiating transmission of the report with beam measurement results in accordance with the periodic beam switching configuration; wherein the signaling further indicates at least one of: whether the UE is to report beam measurement results explicitly or implicitly; a periodic beam switching report resource; one or more conditions that, if met, trigger the UE to send the report; one or more contents of the report; or a maximum period of beam measurement for a periodic beam switching pattern (¶0065, “the configuration parameter in a report configuration may indicate whether beam measurements are reported. In some embodiments, the configuration parameter may indicate the number of detected cells that are required to fulfill an event for a measurement report to be triggered”; ¶0111, “the set of configuration parameters may comprise a configuration parameter (for example, numberOfTriggeringCells comprised in EventTriggerConfig) indicating whether the number of detected cells that are required to fulfill an event for a measurement report to be triggered”; ¶0131, “The set of configuration parameters indicates one of the following: whether beam measurements are reported; the number of detected cells that are required to fulfill an event for a measurement report to be triggered”; ¶0154). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LEE to include the limitations above, as taught by WANG because it would allow the network entity to track the beam switching and maintain precise link alignment (WANG; ¶0043; ¶0111-¶0112).
As to claim 13, LEE discloses the method of claim 11, wherein the signaling comprises at least one of downlink control information (DCI), medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), or radio resource control (RRC) signaling (¶0039, “transition between discontinuous reception (DRX) active and inactive modes in the radio resource control (RRC) connected state”).
As to claim 14, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, LEE discloses a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 14B; ¶0076-¶0081).
As to claims 15-21, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claims 2-8 above, respectively.
As to claims 22-24, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claims 11-13 above, respectively.
As to claim 29, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, LEE discloses an apparatus, comprising: at least one memory (Fig. 14A, 14) comprising computer-executable instructions; one or more processors (Fig. 14A, 12) configured to execute the computer-executable instructions (Fig. 14A; ¶0066-¶0069).
As to claim 30, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 14 above. In addition, LEE discloses an apparatus, comprising: at least one memory (Fig. 14B, 24) comprising computer-executable instructions; one or more processors (Fig. 14B, 22) configured to execute the computer-executable instructions (Fig. 14B; ¶0076-¶0081).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zhou et al. (US 2020/0204237), Zhang et al. (US 2019/0150013), Hajir et al. (US 2022/0030532), Zhou et al. (US 2022/0029680), CAO et al. (US 2024/0243821), Hsieh et al. (US 2022/0294518), Xu et al. (US 2020/0313817) disclose method and apparatus for beam switch related information feedback in wireless communications.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUNGWON CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3960. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5:30PM.
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/JUNGWON CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454 August 5, 2026
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