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 .
Claims 1-19 are subject to examination and rejected.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 4-8, 12-15, 18 and 19 are objected to because of the following informalities: The recited ACRONYMS such as WTRU, MSG1-based, MSG3-based, RACH, RRC and UL must be defined within the claims. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 8 and 15 recite the limitations "… a direct path quality threshold for sending a system information (SI) request via the direct path, …”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claims. The term “the direct path” does not have a proper antecedent basis in the referenced claims 1, 7 and 14.
Claims 1 and 15 recites the limitations "above/below”. The phrase "above/below" renders the claim indefinite because the claim includes elements not actually disclosed, thereby rendering the scope of the claim unascertainable. Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 1 and 15 further recite the limitations "… determining an indication based on whether …” and “… depending on an indication from the relay WTRU.” respectively. There are two ‘an indication’ within the claims and if these terms ‘an indication’ refers to the same feature, the later ‘an indication’ should be treated to show antecedent basis. Appropriate correction is required.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 8-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Peisa (US PGPub 2019/0261421).
Regarding claim 8, Peisa teaches a method for a WTRU (Peisa, see paragraph 0060, the wireless communications system 10 includes a radio access node 12 that provides wireless, or radio, access to a wireless device 14), the method comprising:
receiving information (Peisa, see paragraph 0061, The network (e.g., the gNB 12) broadcasts and the UE 14 receives minimum system information (sysinfo) including a set of signal quality (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), or other quality indication) levels for coverage extension and corresponding Random Access (RA) information (e.g., preamble, timing, resources, etc.), step 100), the information including a direct path quality threshold for sending a system information (SI) request via the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0031, upon determining that the signal quality level measurement is less than a threshold that is indicative of the UE being in a bad coverage scenario, sending a message to the cellular communications network where the message comprises a request for on-demand system information and receiving on-demand system information from the cellular communications network via dedicated signaling in response to the request for on-demand system information), a direct path quality threshold for receiving SI via the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0033, upon determining that the signal quality level measurement is greater than a threshold that is indicative of the UE being in a good coverage scenario, sending, to the cellular communications network, a random access preamble that will lead to broadcast of the on-demand system information and receiving, from the cellular communications network, a broadcast of the on-demand system information), and an SI request configuration indicating configuration information of the SI request (Peisa, see paragraph 0061, The network (e.g., the gNB 12) broadcasts and the UE 14 receives minimum system information (sysinfo));
measuring a quality of the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0061, The UE 14 measures the quality (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, or other quality indication) level, step 102); and
based on the measured quality of the direct path being above the direct path quality threshold for sending a SI request via the direct path or the SI request configuration information indicating a MSG1-based SI request (Peisa, see paragraph 0033, upon determining that the signal quality level measurement is greater than a threshold that is indicative of the UE being in a good coverage scenario, sending, to the cellular communications network, a random access preamble that will lead to broadcast of the on-demand system information and receiving, from the cellular communications network, a broadcast of the on-demand system information):
sending the SI request via the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0066, the UE 14 monitors the downlink for a possible response to the transmitted random access preamble requesting on-demand system information from the network, e.g., from the gNB 12, step 108); and
receiving the requested SI via the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0066, If the UE 14 has received a Random Access Response (RAR), step 108; YES, the UE 14 initiates an RRC connection request with a request for on-demand system information, step 110. The gNB 12 then provides the on-demand system information to the UE 14 using dedicated signaling).
Regarding claim 9, Peisa teaches wherein the direct path quality threshold for sending SI request via the direct path is greater than the direct path quality threshold for receiving SI via the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0033, upon determining that the signal quality level measurement is greater than a threshold that is indicative of the UE being in a good coverage scenario, sending, to the cellular communications network, a random access preamble that will lead to broadcast of the on-demand system information and receiving, from the cellular communications network, a broadcast of the on-demand system information).
Regarding claim 10, Peisa teaches wherein the direct path quality threshold for sending SI request via the direct path is substantially equal to the direct path quality threshold for receiving SI via the direct path (Peisa, see paragraph 0031, upon determining that the signal quality level measurement is less than a threshold that is indicative of the UE being in a bad coverage scenario, sending a message to the cellular communications network where the message comprises a request for on-demand system information and receiving on-demand system information from the cellular communications network via dedicated signaling in response to the request for on-demand system information).
Regarding claim 11, Peisa teaches wherein the SI request configuration indicating configuration information for the SI request comprises MSG1-based messaging (Peisa, see paragraph 0074, the UE 14 initiates a second random access procedure from Msg1 to request resources to send an RRC connection request. In other words, rather than following the normal random access procedure with Msg1, followed by a RAR, followed by Msg3, the random access procedure is restarted with Msg1, where this re-start is referred to as the second random access procedure).
Regarding claim 12, Peisa teaches wherein MSG1 includes a RACH in UL (Peisa, see paragraph 0074, the UE 14 initiates a second random access procedure from Msg1 to request resources to send an RRC connection request. In other words, rather than following the normal random access procedure with Msg1, followed by a RAR, followed by Msg3, the random access procedure is restarted with Msg1, where this re-start is referred to as the second random access procedure).
Regarding claim 13, Peisa teaches wherein the SI request configuration indicating configuration information for the SI request comprises MSG3-based messaging (Peisa, see paragraph 0074, the UE 14 initiates a second random access procedure from Msg1 to request resources to send an RRC connection request. In other words, rather than following the normal random access procedure with Msg1, followed by a RAR, followed by Msg3, the random access procedure is restarted with Msg1, where this re-start is referred to as the second random access procedure).
Regarding claim 14, Peisa teaches wherein MSG3 includes a RACH in RRC (Peisa, see paragraph 0074, the UE 14 initiates a second random access procedure from Msg1 to request resources to send an RRC connection request. In other words, rather than following the normal random access procedure with Msg1, followed by a RAR, followed by Msg3, the random access procedure is restarted with Msg1, where this re-start is referred to as the second random access procedure).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/NICHOLAS R TAYLOR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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