DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim need to recite all limitations of claim 1. 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 7-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Rastegardoost et al (US20240389129).
Regarding claim 7, the cited reference Rastegardoost discloses a terminal (¶0269 discloses an example of uplink operating modes of UE with Uplink Tx Switching in inter-band CA scenario) comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit, to a base station, a capability related to a switching period of a band of a transmission chain(¶0279 discloses that the UE may send an RRC message comprising the UE capability information. The UE capability information may comprise a list of band combinations supported by the UE. ¶0282 discloses that the capability information may also indicate for each band pair, a switching gap/period associated with the two frequency bands of the band pair); a receiver configured to receive, from the base station, a notification related to the switching period (¶0284 discloses that the UE may receive one or more RRC messages comprising configuration parameters… For an uplink carrier, the configuration parameters may indicate that UL Tx switching is configured (e.g., uplinkTxSwitching). ¶0286 discloses that the UL Tx switching configuration associated with an uplink carrier of a cell may indicate a location of UL Tx switching period); and a controller configured to determine a transmission antenna port corresponding to the transmission chain, wherein the controller is configured to execute an uplink transmission by using the transmission chain and the transmission antenna port, wherein the controller is configured to execute, when the band of the transmission chain is to be switched, the switching of the band based on information indicating a position of a carrier on which the switching period is set and information indicating a length of the switching period that are included in the notification related to the switching period (¶0402 discloses that the UE may determine the location of the UL Tx switching period to be in an uplink carrier (of the two uplink carriers involved in the switching) … scheduled with an uplink transmission comprising a larger number of antenna ports… the UE may determine the location of the UL Tx switching period to be in the second uplink carrier, based on the second uplink transmission via the second uplink carrier being a two-port uplink transmission. ¶0291 discloses FIG. 23A and FIG. 23B show examples of UL Tx switching period location and The UL Tx switching period for switching between two uplink carriers… A capability information indicating UL Tx switching period/gap (e.g., uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod, NTx1-Tx2) may be present for the respective band combination associated with the two uplink carriers and/or sent to the network. For example, NR UL carrier 1 is capable of one transmit antenna connector and NR UL carrier 2 is capable of two transmit antenna connectors… The UE may support the switch between single layer transmission with one antenna port and two-layer transmission with two antenna ports on the two uplink carriers following the scheduling commands), and wherein the capability related to the switching period is a capability of supporting an individual switching period for a set of bands to be switched (¶0279 and ¶0282 discloses UE capability information. The UE capability information may comprise a list of band combinations supported by the UE… The capability information indicates, for each band pair (e.g., ULTxSwitchingBandPair), an index of a first frequency band (e.g., bandlndexUL1) and an index of a second frequency band (e.g., bandlndexUL2) for simultaneous transmission. The capability information may also indicate for each band pair, a switching gap/period associated with the two frequency bands of the band pair).
Regarding claim 8, the cited reference Rastegardoost discloses all limitations of claim 7.Rastegardoost further discloses wherein, when a combination of the transmission chain and the transmission antenna port is to be switched, a switching period is always provided(¶0318 discloses that during the UL Tx switching period, to reconfigure the Tx
chains and switch the UL Tx antenna)
Regarding claim 9, the cited reference Rastegardoost discloses all limitations of claim 7.Rastegardoost further discloses when a combination of the transmission chain and the transmission antenna port is to be switched, a switching period is provided per band combination(¶0344 discloses that the UE may … switch the UL Tx chain/antenna from a first UL carrier in a first band to a second UL carrier in a second band. ¶0354 discloses that the UE may use UL carrier pair # 1 during (T0, T1), UL carrier pair # 2 during (T1, T2), UL carrier pair # 3 during (T2, T3), and UL carrier pair # 4 after T3. The UE may switch UL Tx chains/antennas between the two UL carriers of a pair (the pair in use, or active pair) during the associated time interval. The UE may switch UL Tx chains/antennas between the two UL carriers of a pair based on received scheduling commands (e.g., DCI and/or RRC). For example, the UE may switch UL Tx chains/antennas between UL carrier 1 and UL carrier 2 during (T0, T1); between the UL carrier 1 and UL carrier 3 during (T1, T2); and so on).
Regarding claim 10, the claim is drawn to a communication method performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 7. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 7.
Regarding claim 11, the claim is drawn to a radio communication system performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 7. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 7.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is drawn to a base station performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 7. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 7.
Claims 7 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Cao et al (US20240137958).
Regarding claim 7, the cited reference Cao discloses a terminal (¶0006 discloses a method for wireless communication at a UE) comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit, to a base station, a capability related to a switching period of a band of a transmission chain; a receiver configured to receive, from the base station, a notification related to the switching period (¶0097 discloses that the UE 115-a may transmit the UE capability message 220 to the base station 105-a where ¶0051 discloses that the UE may report an uplink switching period as a UE capability and ¶0096 further discloses that the UE 115 may transmit, to a base station 105, a UE capability message that indicates a UE capability to support both a first uplink switching period and a second uplink switching period for transmit chain switching); and a controller configured to determine a transmission antenna port corresponding to the transmission chain, wherein the controller is configured to execute an uplink transmission by using the transmission chain and the transmission antenna port, wherein the controller is configured to execute, when the band of the transmission chain is to be switched, the switching of the band based on information indicating a position of a carrier on which the switching period is set and information indicating a length of the switching period that are included in the notification related to the switching period (¶0115 discloses that the base station 105-a may transmit the indication of the uplink switching period. ¶0123 discloses that the UE 115 may be configured with one or more transmit chains. ¶0124 discloses that the UE 115 may operate according to a transmit chain configuration that supports concurrent transmissions on the first carrier and the second carrier using the carrier switching timeline 300 where ¶0123 discloses that the carrier switching timeline 300 illustrates a timeline, including uplink switching periods 315 and other delays and time periods, for a UE 115 to perform a switch between transmission on a first uplink carrier and transmission on a second uplink carrier where ¶0156 discloses that one antenna port transmission or two antenna port transmissions on a frequency band of a frequency band combination configured for the transmit chain switching. ¶0106-¶0107 further discloses that the first uplink switching period may provide time for the UE 115-a to switch between a one-port transmission on the first carrier 205 and a two-port transmission on the second carrier 210, or vice-versa… The uplink switching period parameter may include a set of potential uplink switching period durations (e.g., [35 us, 140 us, 210 us], or some other set of uplink switching period durations)), and wherein the capability related to the switching period is a capability of supporting an individual switching period for a set of bands to be switched (¶0252 discloses a UE may signal support for two uplink switching periods via a UE capability message. The indicated switching periods may be for different types of configuration switches between different transmit chain configurations of the UE. For example, the configuration switches may include a switch between a one antenna port transmit chain configuration on a first carrier and a two antenna port transmit chain configuration on a second carrier. ¶0107 further discloses that The UE 115-a may transmit the UE capability message 220 to indicate a supported uplink switching period. In some cases, the UE capability message 220 may include a first uplink switching period parameter (e.g., uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod-r16) that is configured to indicate the first uplink switching period for switching between a one-port transmission on the first carrier 205 and a two-port transmission on the second carrier 210, or vice-versa).
Regarding claim 10, the claim is drawn to a communication method performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 7. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 7.
Regarding claim 11, the claim is drawn to a radio communication system performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 7. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 7.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is drawn to a base station performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 7. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 7.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELILLAH ELMEJJARMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1656. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri: 8AM-5PM EST.
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Respectfully submitted,
/ABDELILLAH ELMEJJARMI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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