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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/23/2024, 01/26/2026, and 02/17/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 14-15, 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hu et al. (US 20230276388).
Regarding claim 1, Hu discloses a user Equipment (UE) comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (FIG. 19, UE 1905; [0147]) and configured to:
receive a System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1) containing configuration information for a plurality of initial downlink (DL) bandwidth parts (BWPs) and a plurality of initial uplink (UL) BWPs specific to a particular type of UE (Due to a potential large number of NB RedCap UEs performing random access procedures within a limited maximum UE BW or BWP, the network may configure multiple narrow band initial DL and UL BWPs (referred to as i DL BWP and i UL BWP) to alleviate congestion in a single initial DL and UL BWP. The set of multiple initial narrow DL and UL BWPs may be pre-configured in the (e)SIB1; [0102]); and
select, from the plurality of initial DL BWPs and the plurality of initial UL BWPs, one initial DL BWP and one initial UL BWP to be used for random access (allow each NB RedCap UE to select an initial UL BWP for sending msg1 in the random access procedure. For example, there may be i UL BWP 1, i UL BWP 2, i UL BWP 3, i UL BWP 4 pre-configured by the network in eSIB1. In each of the i UL BWPs, there may be a dedicated RO pool. Each NB RedCap UE may select one of the i UL BWPs and/or i DL BWPs; [0102-0103]).
Regarding claim 2, Hu discloses randomly select the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP (Each NB RedCap UE may select one of the i UL BWPs and/or i DL BWPs in the following manner: 1) Randomly; [0103]).
Regarding claim 3, Hu discloses select the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP based on a UE identifier (UL BWP/DL BWP may be selected by the UE e.g., based on a UE ID; [0103]).
Regarding claim 6, Hu discloses wherein the at least one processor is configured to select the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP based on a measured value of received power or received quality of a downlink signal (Each NB RedCap UE may select one of the i UL BWPs and/or i DL BWPs in the following manner: A UE may perform measurements to detect which BWP is the least loaded; [0103]).
Regarding claim 14, Hu discloses wherein the particular type of UE is a Reduced Capability (RedCap) UE (Each NB RedCap UE may select one of the i UL BWPs and/or i DL BWPs in the following manner: A UE may perform measurements to detect which BWP is the least loaded; [0103]).
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 18, Hu discloses wherein the configuration information causes the particular type of UE to select, from the plurality of initial DL BWPs and the plurality of initial UL BWPs, one initial DL BWP and one initial UL BWP to be used for random access (allow each NB RedCap UE to select an initial UL BWP for sending msg1 in the random access procedure. For example, there may be i UL BWP 1, i UL BWP 2, i UL BWP 3, i UL BWP 4 pre-configured by the network in eSIB1. In each of the i UL BWPs, there may be a dedicated RO pool. Each NB RedCap UE may select one of the i UL BWPs and/or i DL BWPs; [0102-0103]).
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 2.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 3.
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.
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) 4, 5, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al. (US 20230276388) in view of Xu (US 20250024375).
Regarding claim 4, Hu does not expressly disclose select the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP based on a group identifier assigned by a core network.
In an analogous art, Xu discloses select the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP based on a group identifier assigned by a core network (the configuration information of the target initial BWP may further include a new UE identifier, and the new UE identifier may also be one of: a new UE ID, a new UE group ID, and a new cell ID. In a case where the terminal device determines that terminal device itself is the terminal device that conforms to the UE identifier based on the new UE identifier contained in the configuration information of the target initial BWP, the second component of the terminal device determines the target initial BWP based on the configuration information of the target initial BWP, so as to perform the initial access on the target initial BWP; [0322]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Xu into the system of Hu in order to shorten a latency of the traffic transmission and improve the processing efficiency of the system (Xu; [0269]).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Hu and Xu, particularly Xu discloses wherein the group identifier is a Paging Subgroup ID (multiple initial BWPs may be pre-configured to ensure that when the network device indicates different terminal devices to perform the initial access, the uplink BWP and/or downlink BWP to be used this time may be determined only by the first information in the WUS indicating the ID of the target initial BWP, and then the processing for the initial access is performed on the uplink BWP and/or downlink BWP; [0323]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Xu into the system of Hu in order to shorten a latency of the traffic transmission and improve the processing efficiency of the system (Xu; [0269]).
Regarding claim 21, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 4.
Claim(s) 7, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al. (US 20230276388) in view of Li et al. (US 20230209526).
Regarding claim 7, Hu does not expressly disclose the measured value of the received power is a measured value of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of a resource within a Cell Defining (CD) Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block (SSB), and the measured value of the received quality is a measured value of Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) of a resource within the CD-SSB.
In an analogous art, Li discloses the measured value of the received power is a measured value of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of a resource within a Cell Defining (CD) Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block (SSB), and the measured value of the received quality is a measured value of Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) of a resource within the CD-SSB (Terminal devices in the RRC_IDLE state and the RRC_INACTIVE state may obtain the Master Information Block (MIB) and System Information Block (SIB)1 information of a cell which the terminal devices camp on through the cell defining Synchronization Signal Block (CD-SSB). SIB1 indicates information related to configuration of an initial BWP used for initial access, and contains, for example, information related to configuration of an initial UL BWP and an initial DL BWP. In the information related to configuration of the initial UL BWP, the network configures random access resources (e.g., RACH-ConfigCommon) for a terminal device to perform initial access, and a correspondence between the random access resources and Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs). The network device may also control the selection of random access resource for the terminal device by configuring a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) threshold (e.g., rsrp-ThresholdSSB). The signal quality threshold or beam quality threshold may be a threshold related to the measurement result. For example, when the measurement result is RSRP, the signal quality threshold may be a RSRP threshold and the beam quality threshold may be a RSRP threshold; or, when the measurement result is RSRQ, the signal quality threshold may be a RSRQ threshold and the beam quality threshold may be a RSRQ threshold; [0056, 0099]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Li into the system of Hu in order to enable selecting the initial BWP with better channel quality, thus improving the communication performance (Li; [0004]).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Hu and Li, particularly Li discloses if the measured value exceeds a first threshold value, select as the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP an initial DL BWP and an initial UL BWP that are closest to the CD-SSB in frequency domain, and if the measured value is lower than a second threshold value that is equal to or lower than the first threshold value, select as the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP an initial DL BWP and an initial UL BWP that are furthest from the CD-SSB in frequency domain (The network device may also control the selection of random access resource for the terminal device by configuring a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) threshold (e.g., rsrp-ThresholdSSB). When the random access procedure is triggered, the terminal may select a SSB whose RSRP measurement value satisfies the above RSRP threshold, and further select a corresponding random access resource according to the correspondence between random access resources and SSBs; [0056]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Li into the system of Hu in order to enable selecting the initial BWP with better channel quality, thus improving the communication performance (Li; [0004]).
Claim(s) 10, 11, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al. (US 20230276388) in view of Lei et al. (US 20230074775).
Regarding claim 10, Hu does not expressly disclose measure received power or received quality on a resource within each of a plurality of Non-Cell Defining (NCD) Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) blocks (SSBs), each of which is contained in a respective one of the plurality of initial DL BWPs; and selecting the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP based on a comparison between the measured values of received power or received quality.
In an analogous art, Lei discloses measure received power or received quality on a resource within each of a plurality of Non-Cell Defining (NCD) Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) blocks (SSBs), each of which is contained in a respective one of the plurality of initial DL BWPs; and selecting the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP based on a comparison between the measured values of received power or received quality (a non-cell-defining SSB (NCD-SSB) may be transmitted within the initial BWP that is configured for the reduced capability UE. The NCD-SSB may provide a quasi-co-location (QCL) source, or a reference signal, for the UE to determine the parameters to use in monitoring for and receiving one or more of a random access msg2 (e.g., a random access response (RAR), a random access msg4, or a paging message from a network entity such as a base station. The UE may use the NCD-SSB, received in the BWP configured for the reduced capability UEs, for L1 and L3 measurements (e.g., RSRP measurements, pathloss measurements, radio resource management (RRM) measurements, etc.); [0094]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Lei into the system of Hu in order to enable a configuration of BWPs for initial access that supports reduced bandwidths according to the reduced capabilities of the UEs while maintaining flexibility in configuring bandwidth for higher capabilities of UEs (Lei; [0007]).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Hu and Lei, particularly Lei discloses select a pair of an initial DL BWP having a best measured value of received power or received quality of the resource in the NCD-SSB and a corresponding initial UL BWP as the one initial DL BWP and the one initial UL BWP, respectively (UE may use the NCD-SSB, received in the BWP configured for the reduced capability UEs, for L1 and L3 measurements (e.g., RSRP measurements, pathloss measurements, radio resource management (RRM) measurements, etc.); [0094]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Lei into the system of Hu in order to enable a configuration of BWPs for initial access that supports reduced bandwidths according to the reduced capabilities of the UEs while maintaining flexibility in configuring bandwidth for higher capabilities of UEs (Lei; [0007]).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Hu and Lei, particularly Hu discloses wherein the SIB1 contains configuration information for the plurality of NCD-SSBs (Initial DL BWP is shared by non-RedCap UEs and RedCap UEs using existing MIB/SIB configuration for idle/inactive mode, i.e., the shared initial DL BWP may be configured for paging, contains CD-SSB, MIB-configured CORESET #0, and SIB1. Initial UL BWP for RedCap UEs may be separately configured from that for non-RedCap UEs. Separate initial DL BWP and separate initial UL BWP may have the same center frequency. The pros of option B is that no NCD-SSB is involved, no additional overhead of Paging/SIB in idle/inactive mode; [0066]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Agiwal (US 20260020046), “METHOD AND APPARATUS OF HANDLING BWP SWITCHING COMMAND BASED ON UE TYPE.”
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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