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 .
2. This office action is a response to an application filed on 10/29/2024 where claims 1-30 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/29/2024, 05/04/2026 has been considered by the examiner. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37CFR 1.97.
4. The drawings were received on 10/29/2024. These drawing are acceptable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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(s) 1-4, 6-12, 14-18, 20-24, 26-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Butt et al. (US 20230171836 A1)hereinafter Butt and further in view of Shen et al. (US 20220124538 A1)hereinafter Shen
As to claim 1. Butt teaches A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising([0063] Fig. 2, a method for beam failure management for the UE)
obtaining measurement information regarding a set of reference signals;([0064] Fig. 2, using the RF fingerprinting, UE radio measurements like Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), may be a layer one (L1) reference signal received power (RSRP) i.e. L1-RSRP from best beams of a serving cell or L1-RSRP from serving and neighboring cells)
generating, using a model, predicted blockage information based at least in part on the measurement information; ([0095] Fig. 10, UE 104 may perform the ML model inference using local radio measurements i.e. UE radio measurement when the BFI_counter>0, at step 1008.; radio measurements in 5G NR may be performed natively by the UE 104, used to determine a beam failure probability factor. Successively, the UE 104 may check whether a condition is met, condition may be whether the beamFailureProb is higher than a beam failure threshold probability (beamFailureThresholdProb) or the BFI counter is greater than or equal to beam failure instance max count (beamFailureInstanceMaxCount).
Butt does not teach and transmitting a report indicating the predicted blockage information, wherein the report indicates at least one of:
a prediction window associated with the predicted blockage information,
a time associated with an occurrence of a predicted blockage event,
a severity value associated with the predicted blockage event, or
a direction value associated with the predicted blockage event.
Shen teaches transmitting a report indicating the predicted blockage information, wherein the report indicates at least one of([0074] [0076] Fig. 6, The terminal measures the beam 2 at the time point 1 to form measurement values such as SS-RSRP 1, CSI-RSRP 1, SS-RSRQ 1, CSI-RSRQ 1, SS-SINR 1 and CSI-SINR 1, which are reported through the first information; terminal may form, based on a future moving trend (moving direction, moving speed) of the terminal, predicted values such as SS-RSRP 2, CSI-RSRP 2, SS-RSRQ 2, CSI-RSRQ 2, SS-SINR 2 and CSI-SINR 2, at a future time point 2, which are reported through the second information.)
prediction window associated with the predicted blockage information, ([0079] {0080] Fig. 7, he terminal predicts based on the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal that at the time point 2, the beam 2 will be blocked. )
a time associated with an occurrence of a predicted blockage event,
a severity value associated with the predicted blockage event, or
a direction value associated with the predicted blockage event.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that reporting predicted value of the measurement quantity of the reference signal at the second time point would enable network to obtain an absolute value of an amplitude change based on a comparison between the predicted value and the measurement value at the first time point. (Shen [0057])
Regarding claims 15, 27, 29, there is recited a UE with steps that identical to the functions performed by the method recited in claim 1. Prior art Butt discloses a UE in para [0025] [0060]includes a processor couple to a memory with computer readable medium may comprise instructions for causing a processor to perform functions of the disclosed functionalities of claims 15, 27, 29. As a result, claims 15, 27, 29 is rejected for the same reasons as in claim 1.
As to claim 2 the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Shen teaches, wherein the predicted blockage information indicates the time based at least in part on at least one of a time value or a time range. ([0079] {0080] Fig. 7, he terminal predicts based on the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal that at the time point 2, the beam 2 will be blocked. i.e., time point 1 to time point 2/time range )
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that r proactive beam failure detection helps time sensitive services to start UE beam recovery without waiting for N consecutive beam failure events, and thus helps to maintain connectivity of the UE (Shen [0100])
Claims 16,28,30 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 2.
As to claim 3. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Shen teaches, wherein the predicted blockage information indicates a selected time interval, of the prediction window, indicating the time. ([0075] [0076] Fig. 6, can select a beam constantly optimal for a period of time in the future based on the measurement value and the predicted value reported by the terminal)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that r proactive beam failure detection helps time sensitive services to start UE beam recovery without waiting for N consecutive beam failure events, and thus helps to maintain connectivity of the UE (Shen [0100])
Claim 17 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 3.
As to claim 4. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Shen teaches, wherein the severity value is associated with an expected duration of the predicted blockage event. ([0080] Fig. 7, Table 2, the terminal predicts based on the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal that at the time point 2, the beam 2 will be blocked; terminal can form predictions of change increment values of these measurement quantities accordingly, after receiving the report from the terminal, the network may find that current SS-RSRP, CSI-RSRP, SS-RSRQ, CSI-RSRQ, SS-SINR, CSI-SINR, etc., of the beam 2 are desirable, but may deteriorate significantly at a next time point)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that r proactive beam failure detection helps time sensitive services to start UE beam recovery without waiting for N consecutive beam failure events, and thus helps to maintain connectivity of the UE (Shen [0100])
Claim 18 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 4.
As to claim 6. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically, wherein the direction value is expressed relative to a reference point. ([0079] terminal measures beam 2 at the time point 1 (i.e., reference time point) to form measurement values such as the SS-RSRP, the CSI-RSRP, the SS-RSRQ, the CSI-RSRQ, the SS-SINR and the CSI-SINR, which are reported through the first information. Also, the terminal can form, based on the future moving trend (moving direction, moving speed) of the terminal, predictions of change increments of these measurement quantities, which are reported through the second information.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that reporting predicted value of the measurement quantity of the reference signal at the second time point would enable network to obtain an absolute value of an amplitude change based on a comparison between the predicted value and the measurement value at the first time point. (Shen [0057])
Claim 20 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 6.
As to claim 7. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Shen teaches , wherein the direction value indicates one or more parameters relating to movement associated with a moving blocker or movement of a blockage associated with the predicted blockage event. ([0080] Fig. 7, Table 2, the terminal predicts based on the moving direction and moving speed (i.e., direction parameter) of the terminal that at the time point 2, the beam 2 will be blocked. )
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that r proactive beam failure detection helps time sensitive services to start UE beam recovery without waiting for N consecutive beam failure events, and thus helps to maintain connectivity of the UE (Shen [0100])
As to claim 8. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Shen teaches wherein the direction value is based at least in part on at least one of movement of the UE or movement of a network node associated with the UE. ([0079] Fig. 7, table 2, [0079] terminal measures the beam 2 at the time point 1 to form measurement values such as the SS-RSRP, the CSI-RSRP, the SS-RSRQ, the CSI-RSRQ, the SS-SINR and the CSI-SINR, which are reported through the first information, the terminal can form, based on the future moving trend (moving direction, moving speed) of the terminal (i.e., terminal moved from time point 1 to time point 2)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that r proactive beam failure detection helps time sensitive services to start UE beam recovery without waiting for N consecutive beam failure events, and thus helps to maintain connectivity of the UE (Shen [0100])
As to claim 9. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Butt teaches, wherein the model is trained based at least in part on a machine learning algorithm. ([0032] machine learning ML model may be trained to minimize a loss function defining a relationship between the beam failure probability factor and a beam failure probability, the beam failure probability indicating the probability that a beam failure occurs after beamFailureInstanceMaxCount time instances for a given value of the BFI counter at the UE location)
Claim 21 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 9.
As to claim 10. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Butt teaches, wherein the model is trained based at least in part on a label assigned to a blockage. ([0082] Fig. 6, an ML model training (shown as 608). The UE location history (shown as 602) as the ML model input may be helpful to determine the mobility and trajectory aspects of the UE 104. Successively, the training set may be determined by labeling pairs comprising a UE location and a beam failure instance counter, BFI counter, with a beam failure probability factor)
Claim 22 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 10.
As to claim 11 the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Butt teaches wherein the model is trained based at least in part on a label assigned to an observed time associated with a blockage. ([0082] [0084] the ML training set may be determined by labeling pairs comprising a UE location and a beam failure instance counter ; beam failure probability may indicate the probability that a beam failure occurs after beamFailureInstanceMaxCount time instances for a given value of the BFI counter at the UE location)
Claim 23 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 11.
As to claim 12. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Butt teaches does not teach wherein the model is trained based at least in part on a label assigned to an observed severity value ([0022] determining a training set by labeling pairs comprising a UE location and a beam failure instance counter (BFI counter)(i.e., observed severity /failure instances),
Butt does not explicitly teach associated with a blockage
Shen teaches associated with a blockage. ([0100] UE running latency constrained services in the areas with a lot of predictable blockage)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Shen with the teaching of Butt because Shen teaches that r proactive beam failure detection helps time sensitive services to start UE beam recovery without waiting for N consecutive beam failure events, and thus helps to maintain connectivity of the UE (Shen [0100])
Claim 24 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 12.
As to claim 14. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Butt teaches, wherein the model is trained based at least in part on information regarding a downlink beam direction associated with an observed direction value associated with a blockage. ([0062][0065]Fig. 1, The beam pair may be established in downlink and uplink transmission directions, for example, when a connection is established, using a set of procedures and functions performed by beam management; movements and rotations of the UE 104 and gradual changes in the communication network, may lead to blocking an established beam pair; the beam failure probability factor may be determined by a trainable machine learning, ML, model)
Claim 26 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 14.
Claim(s) 5 , 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Butt, Shen and further in view of Mustafa et al. (US 20200252838 A1)hereinafter Mustafa
As to claim 5. the combination of Butt and Shen does not teach , wherein the direction value is a binary value.
Mustafa teaches wherein the direction value is a binary value. ([0346] the UE can implement a binary search over a wider beam pattern and narrow the beam in subsequent binary searches/downlink direction)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Mustafa with the teaching of Butt and Shen because Shen teaches that beam sweeping would allow UE to perform beam adjustment, antenna training etc., subsequent to beam switching.(Mustafa[0346])
Claim 19 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 5.
Claim(s) 13, 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Butt, Shen and further in view of Uusitalo; Mikko Aleksi et al. (US 20120282942 A1)hereinafter Uusitalo
As to claim 13. the combination of Butt and Shen specifically Butt teaches wherein the model is trained ([0065] Fig. 2, the beam failure probability factor may be determined by a trainable machine learning, ML, model.)
Butt does not teach based at least in part on a signal from a sensor regarding an observed direction value associated with a blockage.
Shen teaches regarding an observed direction value associated with a blockage. ([0080] Fig. 7, Table 2, the terminal predicts based on the moving direction and moving speed (i.e., direction parameter) of the terminal that at the time point 2, the beam 2 will be blocked. )
the combination of Butt and Shen does not teach based at least in part on a signal from a sensor
Uusitalo teaches based at least in part on a signal from a sensor ([0095] a sensed primary user measurement; (2) a sensed disturbance measurement; (7) one or more measures associated with quality of service (QoS) (e.g., bit rate, delay, jitter measures, etc.) requirements (e.g., measures of QoS requirements below a predetermined threshold);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of Uusitalo with the teaching of Butt and Shen because Uusitalo teaches that sensing frequency spectrum to detect primary user disturbance/interference or any other suitable disturbance thereby allowing to determine whether the apparatus should be deactivated from a secondary cell.( Uusitalo[0102])
Claim 25 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 13
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Mosnier; Thomas et al. [US 20210145518 A1] SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES FOR DEVELOPING PATIENT-SPECIFIC SPINAL IMPLANTS, TREATMENTS, OPERATIONS, AND/OR PROCEDURES
Akdeniz; Mustafa et al. [US 11290923 B2] Handover-related technology, apparatuses, and methods
Azizi; Shahrnaz et al. [US 20190364492 A1] METHODS AND DEVICES FOR RADIO COMMUNICATIONS
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ATIQUE AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-6244. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30 - 7:30 PM M-F Eastern.
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/ATIQUE AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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