DETAILED ACTION
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 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, 4-8, 10, 11, 14-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2019/0028243, “Kim”) in view of Lawton et al. (US 2016/0337105, “Lawton”).
Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses a method implemented by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising:
- receiving a primary synchronization signal (PSS) scrambled with a first sequence (See ¶.10 and S1910, UE receives M-PSS over PBCH; See ¶.223, a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence of length 63 is defined in the frequency domain and the sequence is used as a sequence for the PSS; See ¶.230, two different PSS-based sequences are defined and scrambled into the SSS. In this case, scrambling may be performed on S1 and S2 using different sequences. Thereafter, an S1-based scrambling code is defined, and then scrambling is performed on S2 the PSS-based scrambling code is defined based on an m-sequence generated from the generation polynomial of x5+x2+1 by applying six cyclic shift schemes according to PSS indices);
- determining a PSS sequence index (uk) associated with the PSS (See ¶.230, by applying six cyclic shift schemes according to PSS indices; See ¶.224, In Equation 6, NZC indicates the length of the ZC sequence, 63 and du(n) indicates the PSS sequence in accordance with a root index, u);
- determining a first sequence index (wi) associated with the first sequence (See ¶.230, PSS indices and S1 indices; See Fig.15 and ¶.245, from the sequence design shown in FIG. 15, it can be seen that the M-PSS and M-SSS are repeated on average every 20 ms and occur 4 times within an 80 ms block. In the case of the normal CP, in the subframes including the synchronization sequences, the M-PSS occupies the last 9 OFDM symbols);
- determining a first offset based on the PSS sequence index (uk) and the first sequence index (wi) (See Fig.15 and ¶.243, referring to FIG. 15, one PSS is used for the M-PSS, and the M-PSS is transmitted in 9 OFDM symbols. In addition, the M-PSS is used to determine subframe timing and correct a frequency offset. In this case, the M-PSS is transmitted in the 9 OFDM symbols, which are consecutive in the time domain; See ¶.251, In the NB-LTE system, a single M-PSS is defined. In a PSS synchronization procedure, a specific number of frequency hypotheses are used for each PSS to roughly estimate symbol timing and a frequency offset; See ¶.11, frequency shift (v-shift));
- determining a first parameter set based on the first offset (See ¶.13, receiving the M-PBCH may include calculating a frequency shift (v-shift) value for a cell-specific reference signal (M-CRS) of the NB-IoT system using the N-Cell ID and estimating resource elements (REs) to which the M-CRS is allocated by considering the v-shift value. In this case, the UE may calculate the v-shift value by assuming the number of antenna ports through which the M-CRS is transmitted to be equal to a specific value; See further Fig.16 and ¶.253-258; Examiner’s Note: Lawton further discloses the limitation “a first parameter set”); and
- sending information using at least one parameter from the determined first parameter set (See ¶.324-326, when the M-PRACH is transmitted in the legacy cell-specific SRS subframe, the following methods can be considered: The UE may perform rate matching so that data is not transmitted in the last transmission symbol, where the M-PRACH is transmitted. That is, when the UE transmits the M-PRACH in the subframe designated as the legacy cell-specific SRS subframe, it is desirable that the UE does not transmit the M-PRACH in the last symbol of the corresponding subframe; Examiner’s Note: Lawton discloses the limitations “one parameter from the determined first parameter set”).
Kim discloses the method of sending uplink PRACH and showing a frame for SS transmission in a system using a Cyclic Prefix (CP) such as normal CP and extended CP (See Fig.12 and ¶.218), but does not explicitly disclose what Lawton discloses “information using at least one parameter from the determined first parameter set (Lawton, See ¶.158, the one or more channel estimation and/or noise estimation parameters may include a normal cyclic prefix (NCP) indicator. The NCP may indicate whether the CP is normal, extended, etc. For example, a value of 1 may indicate a normal CP and a value of 0 may indicate extended CP (e.g., for time factor in mid-point calculation). The NCP may be a runt time parameter; See ¶.159, the one or more channel estimation and/or noise estimation parameters may include Vshift. Vshift may indicate a cell-specific frequency shift. The cell-specific frequency shift may determine a starting location of the RS at the first OFDM symbol in each sub-frame. Vshift may include supported values from zero (0) to five (5). For example, top level control may alternate between Vshift and Vshift+3 mod 6 (e.g., based on a symbol count). Vshift may be a run time parameter).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “sending information using at least one parameter from the determined first parameter set” as taught by Lawton into the system of Kim, so that it provides a way of indicating whether the CP is normal or extended, etc. and determining a starting location of the RS at the first OFDM symbol in each sub-frame (Lawton, See ¶.158-159).
Regarding claim 4, Kim discloses “the information is a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission (See ¶.73, to complete connection to the eNB, the UE may perform a random access procedure with the eNB. In the random access procedure, the UE may transmit a preamble on a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)).”
Regarding claim 5, Kim discloses “the first offset is a delta offset, wherein the delta offset is a difference between the PSS sequence index and the first sequence index (See ¶.230, See Fig.15 and ¶.243, ¶.249-¶.297 for frequency offset).”
Regarding claim 6, Kim does not explicitly disclose what Lawton discloses “wherein the first offset is an index to a pre-configured table (Lawton, See ¶.12, Fig.44 and ¶.481).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 7, Kim discloses “receiving a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) using at least one parameter from the first parameter set, wherein the SSS is scrambled with a second sequence (See ¶.230).”
Regarding claim 8, Kim does not explicitly disclose what Lawton discloses “determining a SSS sequence index (mi) associated with the SSS; determining a second sequence index (nj) associated with the second sequence; determining a second parameter set based on the SSS sequence index (mi) and the second sequence index (nj); and sending a PRACH transmission using at least one parameter from the second parameter set (Lawton, See Fig.12-13 and ¶.220, ¶.226-230 for SSS sequence index).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 10, Kim and Lawton disclose “receiving information in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission using at least one parameter from the determined first parameter set (Kim, See ¶.11, receiving the M-PBCH may include calculating a frequency shift (v-shift) value for a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) of a legacy system using the N-Cell ID and estimating resource elements (REs) to which the CRS is allocated by considering the v-shift value. In this case, the UE may calculate the v-shift value by assuming a maximum CRS antenna port number that can be supported by the legacy system; Examiner’s Note: as rejected in claim 1, Lawton discloses one parameter).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 11, it is a WTRU claim corresponding to the method claim 1 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 14-18 and 20, they are claims corresponding to claims 4-8 & 10, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Claims 2-3 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim in view of Lawton and further in view of Hwang et al. (US 2024/0163902, “Hwang”).
Regarding claim 2, Kim and Lawton do not explicitly disclose what Hwang discloses “the first parameter set is associated with a waveform (Hwang, See ¶.231, the NR system may support two options for an uplink waveform. One may be CP-OFDM (identical to DL waveform), and the other may be DFT-s-OFDM. Whether the UE shall use CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM may be determined by the BS through an RRC parameter).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “the first parameter set being associated with a waveform” as taught by Hwang into the system of Kim and Lawton, so that it provides a way of whether the UE to use CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM being determined by a parameter (Hwang, See ¶.231).
Regarding claim 3, Kim and Lawton do not explicitly disclose what Hwang discloses “the first parameter set comprises at least one of: an indication of a waveform type or an indication of a multiplexing scheme (Hwang, See ¶.231, an uplink transmission waveform …CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM; See ¶.230, a downlink transmission waveform may be normal orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) which uses cyclic prefix (CP). For downlink, transform precoding (i.e., discrete Fourier transform (DFT)) may not be applied). Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 2.
Regarding claims 12 and 13, they are claims corresponding to claims 2 & 3, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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