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 .
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.
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/844,582 filed on 6 September 2024. This application claims 371 priority to PCT/CN2022/079545 filed on 7 March 2022. The response filed 6 September 2024 amends claims 1-9 and 11-15, cancels claim 10, and adds claims 16-21 is hereby presented. Claims 1-9 and 11-21 are presented for examination.
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.
Claims 1-9 and 11-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PGPUB 2023/0284287 A1 to Kung et al and US PGPUB 2024/0188015 A1 to Comsa et al.
Regarding Claim 1, Kung discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication having multiple links to a network device (FIG. 1, 0037, and 0389 provides for the Access terminal/UE 116 could perform inter-cell mTRP operation on one serving cell and one non-serving cell to network device 100), each link being associated with a time alignment (TA) (0335 provides for each TRP is associated with TA information), wherein the multiple links include one or more synchronized links and one or more un-synchronized links (0335 provides for the first TRP and the second TRP are not synchronous), the UE comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE (FIG. 1 and 0037 provides for Access terminal/UE 116) to: determine to update the TA for at least one un-synchronized link of the one or more un-synchronized links (FIG. 1 and 0349 provides for Access terminal/UE 116 determines to obtain a second TA based on the update current TA bit field). Kung doesn’t explicitly disclose transmit a request to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link. Comsa, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses transmit a request to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link (FIG. 1, 0013, 0067, and 0242-0244 provides for WTRU/UE 102 sends a message to gNB to update the expired TAT of the second TRP). One of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filed date of the claimed invention would have recognized the ability to utilize the teachings of Comsa for communicating a time difference in a network. The TA expiration signaling of Comsa, when implemented with the second TAT expiry of Kung system, will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to communicate TRP expiration in order to communicate with the network when TRPs lack synchronization. Therefore, the examiner concludes it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to utilize the TA expiration signaling of Comsa with the second TAT expiry of Kung system for the desirable purpose of resolving inter-cell mTRP operation synchronization conditions.
Regarding Claim 2, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: monitor an indication received from the network device to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link (Kung, 0348 provides for UE monitors an indication from the network to perform mTRP operation to identify that the first TRP and the second TRP are not synchronous), and update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link in response to the indication of updating the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link being received from the network device (Kung, 0349 provides for update current TA field bit).
Regarding Claim 3, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: determine to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link upon or after an expiry of a TA timer (TAT) for the at least one un-synchronized link (Kung, 0426 provides for time alignment timer associated with non-serving cell expires).
Regarding Claim 4, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: determine to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link in response to a configured threshold related to the one or more synchronized links being reached (Kung, 0426 provides for time alignment timer associated with non-serving cell expires).
Regarding Claim 5, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: determine to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link in response to information related to the at least one un-synchronized link triggering the update of the TA (Kung, 0349 provides for update current TA field bit).
Regarding Claim 6, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: determine to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link in response to information related to the one or more synchronized links or related to the one or more synchronized links and the at least one un-synchronized link triggering the update of the TA (Kung, 0426 provides for time alignment timer associated with non-serving cell expires).
Regarding Claim 7, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein, the request is (1) an indication of a preamble or preamble index or a Random Access Resource (Kung, 0326-0330 provides for “Random Access Preamble index”) or (2) specific index or a specific index on a specific resource.
Regarding Claim 8, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein, the request comprises an indication of the at least one un-synchronized link for which the TA is updated (Kung, 0349 provides for update current TA field bit).
Regarding Claim 9, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to: receive a response to the request from the network device, and transmit to the network device, an indicated specific index on scheduled resource on the at least one un-synchronized link, or initiate, a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure (Kung, 0333, 0346, and 0382-0383 provides for RACH resources for a second TRP).
Regarding Claim 11, Kung discloses a network device for wireless communication, having multiple links to a UE (FIG. 1, 0037, and 0389 provides for network device 100 for inter-cell mTRP operation to Access terminal/UE 116), each link being associated with a time alignment (TA) (0335 provides for each TRP is associated with TA information), wherein the multiple links include one or more synchronized links and one or more un-synchronized links (0335 provides for the first TRP and the second TRP are not synchronous), the network device comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the network device (FIG. 1 and 0037 provides for network device 100) to: transmit to the UE an indication to update the TA for one un-synchronized link of the one or more un-synchronized links (FIG. 1 and 0349 provides for Access terminal/UE 116 determines to obtain a second TA based on the update current TA bit field). Kung doesn’t explicitly disclose receive, from the UE, a request to update the TA for at least the one un-synchronized link. Comsa, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses receive, from the UE, a request to update the TA for at least the one un-synchronized link (FIG. 1, 0013, 0067, and 0242-0244 provides for receive, from WTRU/UE 102, a message to update the expired TAT of the second TRP). Same motivation as claim 12
Regarding Claim 12, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the network device of claim 11, wherein, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network device to: transmit the indication to the UE in response to the TA being invalid for the at least one un-synchronized link (Kung, 0351 provides for UE transmits message to determine valid TA information for second TRP).
Regarding Claim 13, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the network device of claim 11, wherein, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network device to: transmit the indication to the UE in response to data to be transmitted on the at least one un-synchronized link (Kung, 0351 provides for UE transmits message to determine valid TA information for second TRP).
Regarding Claim 14, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the network device of claim 11, wherein, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network device to: receive, from the UE, information related to the at least one un-synchronized link (Kung, 0426 provides for receiving time alignment timer associated with non-serving cell expires); and transmit the indication to the UE in response to the information related to the at least one un-synchronized link reaching a threshold (Kung, 0426 provides for time transmit response).
Regarding Claim 15, the Kung/Comsa system discloses the network device of claim 11, wherein, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network device to: transmit, to the UE, a response to the request to update the TA for the at least one un-synchronized link (Comsa, FIG. 1, 0013, 0067, and 0242-0244 provides for WTRU/UE 102 sends a message to gNB to update the expired TAT of the second TRP). Same motivation as claim 11.
Regarding Claim 16, similar rejection where the user equipment of claim 1 teaches the method of claim 16.
Regarding Claim 17, similar rejection where the user equipment of claim 2 teaches the method of claim 17.
Regarding Claim 18, similar rejection where the user equipment of claim 7 teaches the method of claim 18.
Regarding Claim 19, similar rejection where the user equipment of claim 1 teaches the processor for wireless communication of claim 19.
Regarding Claim 20, similar rejection where the user equipment of claim 2 teaches the processor for wireless communication of claim 20.
Regarding Claim 21, similar rejection where the user equipment of claim 7 teaches the processor for wireless communication of claim 21.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PGPUB 2024/0365261 A1 to Jung et al discloses multi-path environment synchronization.
US PGPUB 2017/0367058 A1 to Pelletier et al discloses latency reduction.
US PGPUB 2019/0350003 A1 to Jang et al discloses whether TA is valid.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCHQUITA GOODWIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm EST.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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