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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 22 October 2004 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-5, 7-14, 16-21 and 23-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by HE et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2022/0312246), hereinafter HE.
Regarding Claim 1, HE discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (Figure 2 – UE 110), comprising:
a memory (Figure 2 and paragraph 0025 – memory arrangement 210); and
one or more processors, coupled to the memory (Figure 2 and paragraphs 0024-0025 – processor 205 that performs operations based on data stored in the memory arrangement), configured to:
receive configuration information indicating a plurality of configurations (Figure 4 at step 405 and paragraph 0031 – the UE receives TRP configuration which includes configuration related to primary and secondary TRPs; paragraph 0040 - the UE may be configured with multiple CSI-RS resources corresponding to multiple TRPs, possibly with different PCIs), the plurality of configurations indicating at least one of:
a plurality of values for a measurement reporting event (paragraph 0031 - the UE receives a time difference (TD) measurement configuration from the gNB; paragraph 0032 - the TD reporting may be set to be periodic as configured by the gNB … the TD reporting may alternatively or additionally be triggered by an event. For example, in some embodiments, the triggering event is a change in the TD greater than a predetermined threshold value ΔT for all activated TRPs; paragraph 0040 – in a multi-TRP scenario, one CSI trigger state in scheduling downlink control information (DCI) Format may trigger the UE 110 to perform CSI reporting across multiple TRPs with different PCIs; paragraph 0033 - to limit the frequency of TD reporting by the UE, a prohibitTDR-Timer may be defined and configured by gNB using higher layer signaling e.g. RRC on a per UE basis. The UE 110 may report the TD when the prohibitTDR-Timer expires or has expired), or
a plurality of scaling factors for a metric associated with the measurement reporting event (Note: this is claimed in the alternative and is not required as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation);
receive an indication of a selected configuration of the plurality of configurations (paragraph 0035 - the UE may process the PDSCH transmissions from P-TRP and S-TRP jointly or separately based at least in part on the multi-TRP configuration received from the gNB or an indication received from one of the TRPs via, for example, a DCI format (e.g., a flag); paragraph 0040 - a single bit field may be added to the DCI Format 1_1 to dynamically switch between the single-TRP CSI feedback or the multi-TRP CSI feedback based on the current location of the UE); and
measure a reference signal based at least in part on the selected configuration (Figure 4 at step 415 and paragraph 0032 – the UE performs the TD measurements for the P-TRP and S-TRP radio frames based on the received configuration).
Claim 24 is directed to a method comprising the same steps performed by the UE of Claim 1. Therefore, Claim 24 is rejected for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 1.
Regarding Claims 4 and 27, HE discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit a measurement report based at least in part on a selected value, of the plurality of values, for the measurement reporting event being satisfied (Figure 4 at step 420 – the UE reports the measured time differences; paragraph 0032 - the TD reporting may be set to be periodic as configured by the gNB … the TD reporting may alternatively or additionally be triggered by an event. For example, in some embodiments, the triggering event is a change in the TD greater than a predetermined threshold value ΔT for all activated TRPs; paragraph 0040 – in a multi-TRP scenario, one CSI trigger state in scheduling downlink control information (DCI) Format may trigger the UE 110 to perform CSI reporting across multiple TRPs with different PCIs; paragraph 0033 - to limit the frequency of TD reporting by the UE, a prohibitTDR-Timer may be defined and configured by gNB using higher layer signaling e.g. RRC on a per UE basis. The UE 110 may report the TD when the prohibitTDR-Timer expires or has expired).
Regarding Claim 5, HE discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: perform a handover to a cell indicated by the measurement report (paragraph 0018 – the UE may be within range of and simultaneously connect to a plurality of gNBs; paragraphs 0039-0040 - UE may report a preferred TRP using a preferred TRP indicator 502 in the report and the CSI measurements 504 associated with the preferred TRP. As a result of this type of CSI reporting, the gNB 120a may select a TRP for DL transmissions for the UE 110).
Regarding Claim 8, He discloses wherein the plurality of values are common across two or more cells (paragraph 0018 – the UE may be within range of and simultaneously connect to a plurality of gNBs; paragraph 0040 – in a multi-TRP scenario, one CSI trigger state in scheduling downlink control information (DCI) Format may trigger the UE 110 to perform CSI reporting across multiple TRPs with different PCIs; paragraph 0033 - to limit the frequency of TD reporting by the UE, a prohibitTDR-Timer may be defined and configured by gNB using higher layer signaling e.g. RRC on a per UE basis. The UE 110 may report the TD when the prohibitTDR-Timer expires or has expired).
Regarding Claim 10, HE discloses wherein the plurality of values are cell-specific (paragraph 0035 - the UE may process the PDSCH transmissions from P-TRP and S-TRP jointly or separately based at least in part on the multi-TRP configuration received from the gNB or an indication received from one of the TRPs via, for example, a DCI format (e.g., a flag)).
Regarding Claim 12, HE discloses wherein the indication is received via downlink control information signaling (paragraph 0035) or medium access control signaling (Note: this is claimed in the alternative and is not required as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation).
Regarding Claim 16, HE discloses wherein the indication is associated with a predicted change in coverage of a serving cell of the UE (paragraph 0018 – the UE may be within range of and simultaneously connect to a plurality of gNBs; paragraph 0035 - the UE may process the PDSCH transmissions from P-TRP and S-TRP jointly or separately based at least in part on the multi-TRP configuration received from the gNB or an indication received from one of the TRPs via, for example, a DCI format (e.g., a flag); paragraph 0040 - a single bit field may be added to the DCI Format 1_1 to dynamically switch between the single-TRP CSI feedback or the multi-TRP CSI feedback based on the current location of the UE).
Regarding Claims 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 25 and 26, these claims further limit a feature based on a non-selected option in independent claims 1 and 24 (“a plurality of scaling factors for a metric associated with the measurement reporting event”) and are not required as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim language. Accordingly, HE anticipates Claims 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 25 and 26.
Regarding Claim 17, HE discloses a network node for wireless communication (Figure 3 – gNB 120A), comprising:
a memory (Figure 3 – memory arrangement 310); and
one or more processors, coupled to the memory (Figure 3 – processor 305; paragraphs 0029-0030 – processor performs operations based on data stored in the memory), configured to:
transmit configuration information indicating a plurality of configurations (Figure 4 at step 405 and paragraph 0031 – the UE receives TRP configuration from the gNB which includes configuration related to primary and secondary TRPs; paragraph 0040 - the UE may be configured with multiple CSI-RS resources corresponding to multiple TRPs, possibly with different PCIs), the plurality of configurations indicating at least one of:
a plurality of values for a measurement reporting event (paragraph 0031 - the UE receives a time difference (TD) measurement configuration from the gNB; paragraph 0032 - the TD reporting may be set to be periodic as configured by the gNB … the TD reporting may alternatively or additionally be triggered by an event. For example, in some embodiments, the triggering event is a change in the TD greater than a predetermined threshold value ΔT for all activated TRPs; paragraph 0040 – in a multi-TRP scenario, one CSI trigger state in scheduling downlink control information (DCI) Format may trigger the UE 110 to perform CSI reporting across multiple TRPs with different PCIs; paragraph 0033 - to limit the frequency of TD reporting by the UE, a prohibitTDR-Timer may be defined and configured by gNB using higher layer signaling e.g. RRC on a per UE basis. The UE 110 may report the TD when the prohibitTDR-Timer expires or has expired), or
a plurality of scaling factors for a metric associated with the measurement reporting event (Note: this is claimed in the alternative and is not required as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation);
transmit, for a user equipment (UE), an indication of a selected configuration of the plurality of configurations (paragraph 0035 - the UE may process the PDSCH transmissions from P-TRP and S-TRP jointly or separately based at least in part on the multi-TRP configuration received from the gNB or an indication received from one of the TRPs via, for example, a DCI format (e.g., a flag); paragraph 0040 - a single bit field may be added to the DCI Format 1_1 to dynamically switch between the single-TRP CSI feedback or the multi-TRP CSI feedback based on the current location of the UE); and
receive a measurement report associated with the UE based at least in part on the selected configuration (Figure 4 at step 415 and paragraph 0032 – the UE performs the TD measurements for the P-TRP and S-TRP radio frames based on the received configuration; Figure 4 at step 420 – the UE reports the measured time differences; paragraph 0032 - the TD reporting may be set to be periodic as configured by the gNB … the TD reporting may alternatively or additionally be triggered by an event. For example, in some embodiments, the triggering event is a change in the TD greater than a predetermined threshold value ΔT for all activated TRPs; paragraph 0040 – in a multi-TRP scenario, one CSI trigger state in scheduling downlink control information (DCI) Format may trigger the UE 110 to perform CSI reporting across multiple TRPs with different PCIs; paragraph 0033 - to limit the frequency of TD reporting by the UE, a prohibitTDR-Timer may be defined and configured by gNB using higher layer signaling e.g. RRC on a per UE basis. The UE 110 may report the TD when the prohibitTDR-Timer expires or has expired).
Claim 28 is directed to a method comprising the same steps performed by the network node of Claim 17. Therefore, Claim 28 is rejected for the same reasons as presented above for Claim 17.
Regarding Claim 20, HE discloses wherein the one or more processors, to receive the measurement report, are configured to: receive a measurement report based at least in part on a selected value, of the plurality of values, for the measurement reporting event being satisfied (Figure 4 at step 420 – the UE reports the measured time differences; paragraph 0032 - the TD reporting may be set to be periodic as configured by the gNB … the TD reporting may alternatively or additionally be triggered by an event. For example, in some embodiments, the triggering event is a change in the TD greater than a predetermined threshold value ΔT for all activated TRPs; paragraph 0040 – in a multi-TRP scenario, one CSI trigger state in scheduling downlink control information (DCI) Format may trigger the UE 110 to perform CSI reporting across multiple TRPs with different PCIs; paragraph 0033 - to limit the frequency of TD reporting by the UE, a prohibitTDR-Timer may be defined and configured by gNB using higher layer signaling e.g. RRC on a per UE basis. The UE 110 may report the TD when the prohibitTDR-Timer expires or has expired).
Regarding Claim 21, HE discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: trigger a handover of the UE to a cell indicated by the measurement report (paragraph 0018 – the UE may be within range of and simultaneously connect to a plurality of gNBs; paragraphs 0039-0040 - UE may report a preferred TRP using a preferred TRP indicator 502 in the report and the CSI measurements 504 associated with the preferred TRP. As a result of this type of CSI reporting, the gNB 120a may select a TRP for DL transmissions for the UE 110).
Regarding Claim 23, He discloses wherein the indication is associated with a predicted change in coverage of a cell of the network node (paragraph 0018 – the UE may be within range of and simultaneously connect to a plurality of gNBs; paragraph 0035 - the UE may process the PDSCH transmissions from P-TRP and S-TRP jointly or separately based at least in part on the multi-TRP configuration received from the gNB or an indication received from one of the TRPs via, for example, a DCI format (e.g., a flag); paragraph 0040 - a single bit field may be added to the DCI Format 1_1 to dynamically switch between the single-TRP CSI feedback or the multi-TRP CSI feedback based on the current location of the UE).
Regarding Claims 18, 19, 29 and 30, these claims further limit a feature based on a non-selected option in independent claims 17 and 28 (“a plurality of scaling factors for a metric associated with the measurement reporting event”) and are not required as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim language. Accordingly, HE anticipates Claims 18, 19, 29 and 30.
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.
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.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HE in view of Lee et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20220408294), hereinafter Lee. HE discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. However, HE does not disclose wherein a first value of the plurality of values is larger than a second value of the plurality of values. In an analogous art, Lee discloses this. Specifically, at paragraph 0127 and Table 9, Lee discloses a “ReportConfigNR” field description, including offset values to be used in an NR triggering condition and threshold value associated to the selected trigger quantity (e.g., RSRQ, RSRP, SINR) (which the Office Notes would be larger than the specified Offset value of 0.5 dB). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine HE and Lee. One would have been motivated to do so in order to reduce overhead traffic in the network related to measurement results (i.e., only reporting when triggered).
Claims 15 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HE in view of Liu et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20220216906), hereinafter Liu. He discloses the limitations of Claims 1 and 17, as described above. However, HE does not disclose the indication is associated with a dynamic network antenna adaptation of a network node transmitting the configuration information. In an analogous art, Liu discloses this. Specifically, Liu discloses utilizing a generated measurement report to assist the eNB to perform the LTE processing (e.g., beam management, resource allocation, etc.) especially for massive MIMO radio communications (paragraph 0078). Paragraphs 0087-0092 disclose how the beams can be configured or power can be adjusted based, for example, on channel quality reported to the eNB by the UE. Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine HE and Liu. One would have been motivated to do so in order to allow for effective exchange of beam information in a system utilizing both LTE and NR technologies (refer to paragraphs 0003 and 0006 of Liu).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: 3GPP TS 38.331 V17.0.0 (3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)) describes measurement report triggering, inclusive of the event configurations and associated parameters (refer to clause 5.5.4 at pages 179-196).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates can be reached at (571) 272-3980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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