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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 13, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2022/0022113 A1), hereinafter, “Chen”.
Claims 1, 13, 14, and 15:
Regarding claim 1, Chen teaches, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system (Chen: [abstract]; Fig.3 showing communication between terminal device and network device).
Regarding claim, the method comprising: determining at least two kinds of periods of a signal, though Chen does not expressly teach the claim element, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to come up with the claimed invention based on the disclosures by Chen:
Clm.1, “a receiver, configured to receive interference randomization configuration information, wherein the interference randomization configuration information comprises configuration information in at least two time periods … receiving modes of a reference signal in the at least two time periods are different, and each of the receiving modes indicates a manner in which the reference signal is sent to the terminal device on a reference signal resource or a reference signal resource set;
[0011] “an interference randomization method is provided, and is used by a network device to determine a reference signal transmitted in each time period, and send the reference signal in each time period … where the reference signals sent in time periods are different from each other”;
([0105] (S305 Fig.3): “The terminal device receives the reference signal based on the reference signal configuration information.”.
A person of ordinary skill would be motivated to come up with the claimed invention from the disclosures in Chen to avoid inter-beam interference, as disclosed by Chen, “this application provides an interference randomization method and apparatus. Through beam rotation, beam switching, or beam muting, a reference signal is randomly sent in different time periods. This avoids continuous inter-beam interference generated due to fixed reference signal configurations” (Chen: [0005]).
Chen teaches, receiving or transmitting the signal based on the at least two kinds of periods ([abstract]; “[0105] S305: The terminal device receives the reference signal based on the reference signal configuration information.”; Fig.3; Fig.10 shows the transmitting (sending unit 1003), implying transmission of signal.
Claim 13 is for a method in a base station which is complementary to method of claim 1. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 1.
Claim 14 is for apparatus performing method of claim 1. The claim is a change in category with respect to claim 1. Existence of processor and transceiver is implied.
Claim 15 is for a base station and is a change in category with respect to claim 13. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 13.
Regarding claim 2, Chen teaches the method according to claim 1 (discussed above), wherein receiving or transmitting the signal based on the at least two kinds of periods comprise at least one of the following ways:
receiving or transmitting the signal based on a second period during a first duration within each cycle or some cycle of first period corresponding to the signal;
receiving or transmitting the signal based on alternately the first period and the second period; or in case of receiving or transmitting the signal based on the first period, based on at least one of an indication of medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) or downlink control information (DCI), receiving or transmitting the signal based on the second period during a second duration, wherein the first period is greater than the second period, and wherein the alternately the first period and the second period comprise: alternately M successive first periods and N successive second periods, and both M and N are positive integers (implied by disclosures in the following:
[0106] “The terminal device receives the reference signal in the receiving mode determined based on the reference signal configuration information. Specifically, the reference signal is received based on the reference signal information and the indexes that are of the start beams in the different time periods and that are determined based on the reference signal configuration information. The reference signal information includes a resource for reference signal transmission, in other words, a time-frequency resource for reference signal transmission, or may include a space resource for reference signal transmission.”;
[0096] When the network device is the serving base station, the interference randomization configuration information may be sent to the terminal device by using an RRC message; and
Figs 5 and 6 showing consecutive time periods which are successive where number of periods M and N are positive numbers (as shown in figure)
Claims 3-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Akkarakaran et al. (US-20220006586-A1), hereinafter, “Akkarakaran”.
Regarding claim 3, Chen teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
Chen however fails to expressly teach, but Akkarakaran in the same field of endeavor teaches, claim further comprising. receiving indication information from the base station, wherein the indication information indicates that the signal is set as mute state at a specific occasion ([0154] When a PRS occasion is muted for a base station 105, the base station 105 may refrain from sending a PRS during the muted PRS occasion.); and
Identifying not receiving or transmitting the signal at the specific occasion based on the indication information ([0154] “In such examples, UE 115 may refrain from monitoring at all during the muted PRS occasion.”).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Akkarakaran with that of Chen to improve PRS reception, as disclosed by Akkarakaran, “Muting a PRS occasion for all coordinating base stations 105 may improve PRS reception at a UE 115 by allowing non-coordinating base stations 105 to send signals (e.g., PRSs for other UEs 115) during the muted PRS occasion ([0154].
Regarding claim 4, combination of Chen and Akkarakaran teaches the method of claim 3 (discussed above), wherein the indication information comprises at least one of the following:
location information for indicating the specific occasion in which the signal is set as mute state, wherein the locations of the specific occasions are equally spaced;
bitmap information for indicating whether the signal is respectively set as mute state at each occasion within the third duration;
bitmap information for indicating whether the signal is respectively set as mute state at each occasion during K periods after the indication information, K is a positive integer; or information for indicating that the signal is set as mute state at the transmission occasion after the indication information, and
wherein the indication information is indicated by at least one of the following:
radio resource control (RRC) signaling; or at least one of medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) or downlink control information (DCI) (Akkarakaran: [0152] In some examples, base station 105 may apply a flexible muting pattern to the set of PRS occasions described with respect to FIG. 3. A muting pattern may be a pattern of duty-cycling which has a longer period than a PRS period. Base station 105 may trigger (e.g., via a DCI, a MAC-CE, or the like) the muting pattern”); see also [0153] – [0157]).
Regarding claim 5, combination of Chen and Akkarakaran teaches the method of claim 4 (discussed above), wherein the indication information being indicated by DCI comprises: the indication information being indicated by multiple indication fields included in the DCI, the multiple indication fields respectively correspond to information for indicating being set as mute state for one of multiple signals (Akkarakaran: [0152] In some examples, base station 105 may apply a flexible muting pattern to the set of PRS occasions described with respect to FIG. 3. A muting pattern may be a pattern of duty-cycling which has a longer period than a PRS period. Base station 105 may trigger (e.g., via a DCI, a MAC-CE, or the like) the muting pattern”; [0153] ” Muting patterns may be indicated as on or off for a number M PRS occasions out of every number N PRS occasions.”). .
Regarding claim 6, Chen teaches the method according to claim 1 (discussed above), wherein the receiving or transmitting the signal comprises at least one of the following:
receiving a synchronization signal block (SSB);
receiving paging messages; receiving a first system information block (SIB I);
receiving Type 0 physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) common search space (CSS);
receiving other system information (OSI);
receiving Type 0 PDCCH CSS;
receiving channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS);
receiving a positioning reference signal (PRS);
receiving a semi-persistent scheduling physical downlink shared channel (SPS PDSCH);
transmitting a physical random access channel (PRACH);transmitting a scheduling request (SR);transmitting a sounding reference signal (SRS);
reporting channel state information (CSI);transmitting a pre-configured grant physical uplink shared channel (CG-PUSCH); and
transmitting a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (Akkarakaran: [0152]:
"base station 105 may apply a flexible muting pattern to the set of PRS occasions").).
Claims 7-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pang et al. et al. (US 20160081137 A1), hereinafter “Pang”.
Regarding claim 7, Chen teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
Chen however fails to expressly teach, but in the same field of endeavor Pang teaches, claim further comprising: receiving discontinuous transmission (DTX) configuration information of a base station; determining, based on the DTX configuration information, at least one of an active time of DTX or a non-active time of DTX of the base station (implied by disclosure in Pang: [0078] The serving base station of the UE can control activation and deactivation of the DTX of the UE.).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Pang with that of Chen and come up with the claimed invention so as the activate and deactive DTX based on UE capability as disclosed by Pang, “the serving base station first needs to obtain the DTX capability information of the UE, and then can deliver an activation/deactivation indication to the UE that supports the capability.” ([Pang: [0078])
Claims 8-12 are listed below:
Regarding claim 8, combination of Chen and Pang teaches the method of claim 7 (discussed above), wherein the DTX configuration information comprises at least one of the following: DTX period, and a length of DTX duration within each DTX cycle.
Regarding claim 9, combination of Chen and Pang teaches the method of claim 7 (discussed above), wherein the DTX configuration information comprises at least one of the following:
first DTX state switching information, wherein the first DTX state switching information is for at least one of indicating the base station to switch from the active time of DTX to the non-active time of DTX, or indicating the base station to switch from the active time of DTX to the non-active time of DTX and keep a fifth duration for the Non-active time of DTX; or
second DTX state switching inform wherein the second DTX state switching information is for at least one of indicating the base station to switch from the non-active time of DTX to the active time of DTX, or indicating the base station to switch from the non-active time of DTX to the active time of DTX and keep a sixth duration for the active time of DTX, and
wherein at least one of the following is satisfied-the first DTX state switching information is indicated by at least one of medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), downlink control information (DCI), and a physical layer signal sequence; or the second DTX state switching information is indicated by at least one of the DCI or the physical layer signal sequence.
Regarding claim 10, combination of Chen and Pang teaches the method of claim 7 (discussed above), further comprising:
transmitting request information carried by at least one of the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or the physical layer signal sequence, wherein the request information is for at least one of requesting the base station to switch from the non-active time of DTX to the active time of DTX, or requesting the base station to switch from the non-active time of DTX to the active time of DTX and keep a seventh duration for the active time of DTX.
Regarding claim 11, combination of Chen and Pang teaches the method of claim 7 (discussed above), wherein operations performed by the UE in the RRC non-connected state during the non-active time of DTX of the base station comprise at least one of the following:
not expecting to receive downlink broadcast signaling;
not initiating a random access procedure;
receiving downlink broadcast signaling based on a third period, wherein the third period is greater than a period in which the UE receives the downlink broadcast signaling during the active time of DTX of the base station;
determining an available physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission occasion based on a fourth period, wherein the fourth period is greater than a period in which the UE determines the available PRACH transmission occasion during the active time of DTX of the base station.
Regarding claim 12, combination of Chen and Pang teaches the method of claim 7 (discussed above), wherein operations performed by the UE in the RRC connected state during the non-active time of DTX of the base station comprises at least one of the following:
not monitoring the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH);
determining whether to monitor the PDCCH based on a network configuration;
not monitoring the PDCCH in the UE-specific search space and type3 common search space;
determining the search space where the PDCCH to be monitored is located based on the network configuration;
stopping a running discontinuous reception (DRX) timer;
not starting a DRX-onDurationTimer at the beginning of the DRX cycle;
determining whether to start the DRX-onDurationTimer at the beginning of a specific DRX cycle based on at least one of a high layer signaling configuration or an indication of a wake-up signal;not receiving downlink broadcast signaling;
determining whether to receive downlink broadcast signaling based on the network configuration;
not initiating a random access procedure;
determining whether to initiate the random access procedure based on the network configuration;
receiving a downlink periodic signal based on a fifth period, wherein the fifth period is greater than a period in which the UE receives the downlink periodic signal during the Active time of DTX of the base station; and
transmitting an uplink periodic signal based on a sixth period, wherein the sixth period is greater than a period in which the UE transmits the uplink periodic signal during the Active time of DTX of the base station
The features of claims 8-10 would be easily derived from the disclosure of Akkarakaran (see paragraphs [0091]-[0093], [0104]-[0120]: 'the DTX configuration information may include DTX cycle').
The features of claims 11-12 would be easily derived from the disclosure of D4 ( see paragraphs [0033]-[0034]: "configuring, by the UE according to the DTX sleep indication information, that to-be-sent uplink data does not belong to any logical channel during the period when the network-side device is in the sleep state"; and "prohibiting, by the UE according to the DTX sleep indication information, sending of a sequence number during the period when the network-side device is in the sleep state, and skipping monitoring a paging channel").
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US-20150305084-A1 teaches generating, by a network-side device, DTX sleep indication information, where the DTX sleep indication information is used to indicate a start time at which the network-side device enters a sleep state each time during DTX execution, and a time length of the network-side device being in the sleep state each time during the DTX execution.
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/INTEKHAAB A SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
