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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 8, “wherein said adjusted timing identifies the extension of monitoring time, wherein said information is transmitted within an unadjusted time frame of the next ON duration”; however, the language of claim 5, on which claim 8 depends, states “wherein the adjusted timing identifies: an extension of monitoring time of the next ON duration”. Thus, it is clear from the language of claim 5 that “the next ON duration” is an adjusted ON duration, while the language of claim 8 states that the next ON duration is “unadjusted”. It is unclear how the next ON duration can be both an “adjusted” ON duration and “unadjusted” ON duration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-7, 9-10, 14-19, and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by the paper titled “Enhanced Power Saving Schemes for eXtended Reality” by Li et al. (as cited by the Applicant’s IDS filed 8/8/2024 and hereafter referred to as Li et al.).
With respect to claim 1, Li et al. discloses a method carried out in an access node of a wireless network for managing configuration of discontinuous reception (DRX) for a user equipment (UE), said DRX configuration comprising ON durations repeated with a DRX cycle (See section II., Section II. C., and section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to a method performed by a NR RAN network device, which is an access node of wireless network, managing a DRX cycle of a XR device that may be a UE, wherein the DRX cycle includes DRX ON durations repeated during the DRX cycle, as illustrated in Figure 3). Li et al. also discloses obtaining adjusted timing for a next ON duration, based on traffic information of data for the UE (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to determining a DRX start-offset, which is an adjusted timing, based on predicting that the DRX ON duration of the next DRX cycle can no longer cover the arriving frame, which is traffic information). Li et al. further discloses transmitting, to the UE, information identifying the adjusted timing; and transmitting the data to the UE in the next ON duration according to the adjusted timing (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to the network device transmitting the DRX start-offset to the UE and transmitting data to the UE in the next DRX ON duration according to the DRX start-offset).
With respect to claim 2, Li et al. discloses wherein the traffic information is indicative of expected packet arrival time of the data (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to the traffic information being a prediction that that the DRX ON duration of the next DRX cycle can no longer cover the arriving frame).
With respect to claim 3, Li et al. discloses wherein the adjusted timing is configured to accommodate for misalignment of the expected arrival time and the DRX configuration (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to determining the DRX start-offset, which is the adjusted timing, based on the prediction that the DRX ON duration of the next DRX cycle can no longer cover the arriving frame, thus accommodating between misalignment between the DRX ON duration and a corresponding XR traffic period).
With respect to claim 4, Li et al. discloses wherein the adjusted timing identifies a starting point of the next ON duration which is offset by an adjustment time from an intended starting point according to the DRX configuration (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to indicating DRX start offset).
With respect to claim 5, Li et al. discloses wherein the adjusted timing identifies: an extension of monitoring time of the next ON duration, responsive to expected packet arrival time occurring within a preconfigured period later than an intended starting point of the next ON duration according to the DRX configuration, or a starting point of the next ON duration which is offset by an adjustment time from an intended starting point according to the DRX configuration (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to indicating DRX start offset, which is an offset of the starting point of the next DRX ON duration; Note: this claim includes multiple limitations listed in the alternative using the word ‘or’, and that only one of the alternatives needs to be shown to be taught by the art to properly anticipate this claim).
With respect to claim 6, Li et al. discloses wherein the adjustment time comprises a difference between the expected packet arrival time and the intended starting point of the next ON duration (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to determining the DRX start-offset, which is the adjusted timing, based on the prediction that the DRX ON duration of the next DRX cycle can no longer cover the arriving frame, such that the offset compensates for the difference between the DRX ON duration timing and a corresponding XR traffic period).
With respect to claim 7, Li et al. discloses wherein said information is transmitted in the ON duration preceding the next ON duration (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to pre-sending the indication to the UE in a previous DRX ON duration before the next DRX ON duration to compensate for an application delay).
With respect to claim 9, Li et al. discloses wherein said information is transmitted in an early indication signal, configured between the ON durations of the DRX cycle (See section III. A. and section III. C. of Li et al. for reference to transmitting a wake-up signal during a configured monitoring occasion between DRX ON durations that triggers restoration of PDCCH monitoring to monitor for timing adjustments of the DRX ON durations).
With respect to claim 10, Li et al. discloses wherein the early indication signal is transmitted in a downlink control channel (See section III. A. and section III. C. of Li et al. for reference to transmitting the information via DCI of a PDCCH, which is a downlink control channel).
With respect to claim 14, Li et al. discloses configuring the UE with a monitoring window for the early indication signal, at a configured time distance in advance of each ON duration (See section III. A. and section III. C. of Li et al. for reference to pre-sending the indication to the UE before the next DRX ON duration to compensate for an application delay, such that the configured monitoring occasions are in advance of each DRX ON duration).
With respect to claim 15, Li et al. discloses wherein said time distance is configured to exceed a maximum possible offset between expected packet arrival time and a starting point of the ON duration following the early indication signal (See section III. A. and section III. C. of Li et al. for reference to pre-sending the indication to the UE before the next DRX ON duration to compensate for an application delay, which is a max time needed between receiving the signal and beginning the next DRX ON duration).
With respect to claim 16, Li et al. discloses measuring jitter on a communication link for receiving the data, wherein said time distance further comprises a component accounting for the measured jitter (See section III. C. of Li et al. for reference to the monitoring occasion being configured during a measured jitter range).
With respect to claim 17, Li et al. discloses wherein the information identifies whether or not data is transmitted to the UE in the ON duration following the early indication signal (See section III. C. of Li et al. for reference to the presence of the wake-up signal indicating there is data to be transmitted to the UE in the next DRX ON duration, wherein absence of the signal indicates there is no data).
With respect to claim 18, Li et al. discloses wherein the information comprises a first adjustment indicator identifying whether adjustment of the ON duration following the early indication signal is made (See section III. A. and section III. C. for reference to indicating whether there is a DRX start-offset of the DRX ON duration following the wake-up signal).
With respect to claim 19, Li et al. discloses wherein the information comprises a second adjustment indicator identifying whether a delay or advance adjustment is made (See section III. A. and section III. C. for reference to indicating whether there is a DRX start-offset of the DRX ON duration following the wake-up signal, wherein the offset may be either an offset that delays the DRX ON duration or an offset that advances the DRX ON duration as shown by the different offset patterns of Figure 4).
With respect to claim 31, Li et al. discloses a method carried out in a user equipment (UE), for managing discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration, said DRX configuration comprising ON durations repeated with a DRX cycle (See section II., Section II. C., and section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to a method performed by a XR device that may be a UE managing a DRX cycle, wherein the DRX cycle includes DRX ON durations repeated during the DRX cycle, as illustrated in Figure 3). Li et al. also discloses receiving, based on misalignment of expected arrival time of data for the UE and an intended next ON duration, information from an access node, wherein said information identifies adjusted timing for a next ON duration; and receiving the data the next ON duration according to the adjusted timing (See section III. A. of Li et al. for reference to the UE receiving from a RAN device, which is an access node of the RAN, a DRX start-offset indication, which adjusts the timing of the next DRX ON duration based on a misalignment between a DRX ON duration and an arriving frame, and for reference to the UE receiving data in the next DRX ON duration based on the DRX start-offset).
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.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. in view of Ryu et al. (U.S. Publication US 2023/0239842 A1).
With respect to claim 8, Li et al. does not specifically disclose wherein said adjusted timing identifies the extension of monitoring time, wherein said information is transmitted within an unadjusted time frame of the next ON duration. However, Ryu et al., in the field of communications, discloses adjusting a DRX duration by indicating an extension of the duration of a subsequent ON duration in order to compensate for jitter associated with XR packets (See paragraph 97, paragraph 174, and Figure 7 of Ryu et al.). Extending a DRX ON duration has the advantage of allowing for compensation for jitter associated with XR packets. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Ryu et al., to combine indicating an extension of a subsequent DRX ON duration, as suggested by Ryu et al., within the system and method of Li et al., with the motivation being to allow for compensation for jitter associated with XR packets.
Claims 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al., in view of Zhang et al. (U.S. Publication US 2025/0056655 A1).
With respect to claim 11, although Li et al. does disclose an equivalent of an early indication signal transmitted via DCI in a PDCCH (See section III. A. and section III. C. of Li et al.), Li et al. does not specifically disclose the early indication signal being scrambled with a temporary identifier.
With respect to claim 12, Li et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the temporary identifier is assigned to the UE by the access node.
With respect to claim 13, Li et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the temporary identifier is a predefined.
With further respect to claims 11-13, scrambling control information with a temporary identifier of a UE is old and well known in the art of cellular communications. For example, Zhang et al., in the field of communications, discloses a wake-up signal for a DRX on-duration being conveyed by DCI signaling scrambled by a power saving radio temporary identifier (PS-RNTI), which is known in the art to be pre-configured by the network to the UE before transmission of the wake-up signal (See paragraph 77 of Zhang et al.). Scrambling a DCI by a PS-RNTI pre-configured by the network for a UE has the advantage of allowing the UE to recognize whether or not a received DCI is intended for the UE. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Zhang et al., to combine using the old and well known technique of scrambling a DCI by a PS-RNTI pre-configured by the network for a UE, as suggested by Ryu et al., within the system and method of Li et al., with the motivation being to allow the UE to recognize whether or not a received DCI is intended for the UE.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kunt et al. (U.S. Publication US 2025/0008597 A1) discloses another relevant system and method of adjusting DRX on-durations to compensate for changes in transmission periodicity.
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/JASON E MATTIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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