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 § 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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #105-e (R1-2104770) (cited and included in IDS filed 09/09/2024) and in further view of Zhou et al. (US 2023/0217397 A1) (hereinafter as Zhou).
Regarding Claim 1. R1-2104770 teaches a method for determining an update of a timing offset, performed by a terminal, comprising:
determining to update the timing offset; and updating the timing offset according to update information sent by a network device (see section 2, in a last RAN1 conference, a K-offset update after an initial access has been determined by means of RRC or MAC-CE. Proposal 3: both MAC-CE and RRC reconfiguration can be supported for the K-offset update, In addition to K_offset update signaling. A UE periodically reports its UE-specific TA to gNB, and then gNB can decide whether the K_offset should be updated. In a second option, the UE may trigger the K_offset update because the UE fully knows whether the configured K_offset is outdated and should be adjusted. Proposal 5: the K_offset update that is triggered by the UE and controlled by gNB can be supported in an RRC connection mode).
R1-2104770 does not explicitly teach wherein the timing offset is used to compensate a timing advance.
However, Zhou in a similar field of endeavor discloses a timing offset parameter update system including when wherein the timing offset is used to compensate a timing advance (a timing advance adjustment amount corresponding to the terminal device decreases, the terminal device may send, to the network device, first indication information for decreasing the value of the timing offset parameter; or when a timing advance adjustment amount corresponding to the terminal device increases, the terminal device may send, to the network device, first indication information for increasing the value of the timing offset parameter, so that the network device updates the value of the timing offset parameter according to the update regularity indicated in the first indication information, par [0029]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou in R1-2104770 to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine R1-2104770/Zhou to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claim 2. R1-2104770/Zhou teach the method according to claim 1, wherein determining to update the timing offset comprises:
determining to update the timing offset according to a feedback situation of at least one uplink transmission from the network device (Zhou: k1 is the preset delay, and k1 ≤ 15. Specifically, the terminal device may determine k1 based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ timing indicator (PDSCH-to-HARQ-timing-indicator) index table in the DCI, and the network device may send the index table to the terminal device by using downlink data to uplink acknowledgement (downlink data to uplink acknowledgement, DL-data to UL-ACK) signaling, par [0106] and the terminal device may use a cyclic shift corresponding to one of the symbols to indicate a feedback status of a scheduling request (scheduling request, SR) and/or a HARQ-ACK, and use a cyclic shift corresponding to the other symbol to indicate the first indication information, par [0182]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou in R1-2104770 to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine R1-2104770/Zhou to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claim 3, R1-2104770/Zhou teach the method according to claim 2, wherein determining to update the timing offset according to the feedback situation of the at least one uplink transmission from the network device comprises at least one of: determining to update the timing offset in a case that no feedback on the uplink transmission is received within a preset time window; determining to update the timing offset in a case that a proportion of uplink transmissions for which feedbacks are received within a preset time window to a plurality of uplink transmissions is lower than a preset proportion; or determining to update the timing offset in a case that a proportion of uplink transmissions for which feedbacks received within a preset time window are acknowledgments to a plurality of uplink transmissions is lower than a preset proportion (Zhou: a preset delay may be a preset delay between a time at which a terminal device receives a downlink signal sent by a network device and a time at which the terminal device feeds back, to the network device, an uplink signal corresponding to the downlink signal, par [0104]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou in R1-2104770 to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine R1-2104770/Zhou to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claim 6. R1-2104770/Zhou teach the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 claim 1, further comprising:
entering an idle state (Zhou: a preset delay may be a preset delay between a time at which a terminal device receives a downlink signal sent by a network device and a time at which the terminal device feeds back, par [0104], the time between is being interpreted as an idle state);
receiving system information sent by the network device, wherein the system information comprises the update information; and updating the timing offset according to the update information (see section 2, in a last RAN1 conference, a K-offset update after an initial access has been determined by means of RRC or MAC-CE. Proposal 3: both MAC-CE and RRC reconfiguration can be supported for the K-offset update, In addition to K_offset update signaling. A UE periodically reports its UE-specific TA to gNB, and then gNB can decide whether the K_offset should be updated. In a second option, the UE may trigger the K_offset update because the UE fully knows whether the configured K_offset is outdated and should be adjusted. Proposal 5: the K_offset update that is triggered by the UE and controlled by gNB can be supported in an RRC connection mode).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claim 7. 2104770/Zhou teach the method according to claim 6, further comprising:
initiating a random access to the network device (Zhou: the terminal device may use a cyclic shift corresponding to one of the symbols to indicate a feedback status of a scheduling request (scheduling request, SR) and/or a HARQ-ACK, and use a cyclic shift corresponding to the other symbol to indicate the first indication information, par [0033]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claim 8. 2104770/Zhou teach the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 claim 1, further comprising:
receiving indication information sent by the network device, wherein the indication information is used to indicate updating the timing offset; (Zhou: the terminal device may use a cyclic shift corresponding to one of the symbols to indicate a feedback status of a scheduling request (scheduling request, SR) and/or a HARQ-ACK, and use a cyclic shift corresponding to the other symbol to indicate the first indication information, par [0033]).
and
temporarily stopping the uplink transmission ( Zhou: a preset delay may be a preset delay between a time at which a terminal device receives a downlink signal sent by a network device and a time at which the terminal device feeds back, par [0104]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claim 9. 2104770/Zhou teach the method according to claim 7, further comprising:
receiving the update information sent by the network device (section 2: A UE periodically reports its UE-specific TA to gNB, and then gNB can decide whether the K_offset should be updated. In a second option, the UE may trigger the K_offset update because the UE fully knows whether the configured K_offset is outdated and should be adjusted); and
updating the timing offset according to the update information (2104770: section 2: A UE periodically reports its UE-specific TA to gNB, and then gNB can decide whether the K_offset should be updated. In a second option, the UE may trigger the K_offset update because the UE fully knows whether the configured K_offset is outdated and should be adjusted).
Regarding Claim 10. 2104770/Zhou teach the method according to claim 9, wherein receiving the update information sent by the network device comprises:
receiving the update information carried in radio resource control (RRC)-dedicated signaling from the network device (2104770: see section 2, in a last RAN1 conference, a K-offset update after an initial access has been determined by means of RRC or MAC-CE. Proposal 3: both MAC-CE and RRC reconfiguration can be supported).
Regarding Claim 11. 2104770/Zhou teach the method according to claim 9, wherein receiving the update information sent by the network device comprises: receiving the update information carried in system information from the network device in a preset time window (Zhou: a preset delay may be a preset delay between a time at which a terminal device receives a downlink signal sent by a network device and a time at which the terminal device feeds back, to the network device, an uplink signal corresponding to the downlink signal, par [0104]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Zhou to use the timing offset for a timing advance. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to minimize signaling overhead.
Regarding Claims 12-18, these method claims comprise limitations substantially the same, as those discussed in claim 1-2 and 6-11 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable. 2104770/Zhou further teaches the step of sending (2104770A: UE periodically reports (sending) its UE-specific TA to gNB, and then gNB can decide whether the K_offset should be updated, see section 2).
Regarding Claim 21, this apparatus (device) claim comprises limitations(s) substantially the same, as those discussed in claim 1 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable. 2104770/Zhou further teaches device terminal comprising a processor and memory for storing a program (Zhou: pars [0146-0142]).
Regarding Claim 22, this network device claim comprises limitations(s) substantially the same, as those discussed in claims 1 and 12 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable. 2104770/Zhou further teaches a communication network device comprising a processor and memory (Zhou: pars [0146-0142]).
Regarding Claim 23, this non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim comprises limitations(s) substantially the same, as those discussed in claim 1 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable. 2104770/Zhou further teaches a computer-readable storage medium (Zhou: pars [0146-0142]).
Regarding Claim 24, this non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim comprises limitations(s) substantially the same, as those discussed in claims 1 and 12 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable. 2104770/Zhou further teaches a computer-readable storage medium (Zhou: pars [0146-0142]).
Conclusion
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/ANTHONY MEJIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2451
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