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
As required by M.P.E.P. 609(C), the applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statements dated 02/27/2025, 09/24/2024 are acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending. As required by M.P.E.P. 609 C(2), a copy of the PTOL-1449 initialed and dated by the examiner is attached to the instant office action.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Independent Claims
Claim(s) 1, 6, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Interdigital, “Running CR to 38.321 for Network Energy Saving”, R2-2308393, 3GPP TSG-RAN2 Meeting #123, 11 August 2023.
As to claim 1, 6, 11: Interdigital teaches a method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including configuration information associated with a cell discontinuous transmission (DTX) (p.1 R2 agreed that a periodic cell DTX/DRX configuration is explicitly signalled to the UEs by RRC configuration. Cell DTX/DRX configuration); in case that the cell DTX is configured for a serving cell (p.26 When CellDTX-Config is configured for a Serving Cell, the cell DTX Active Period includes the time), identifying whether one of a first timer associated with a discontinuous reception (DRX) retransmission of downlink (DL) or a second timer associated with a DRX retransmission of uplink (UL) is running on any serving cell in a DRX group of the serving cell (p.19 When DRX is configured, the Active Time for Serving Cells in a DRX group includes the time while: … drx-RetransmissionTimerDL, drx-RetransmissionTimerUL or drx-RetransmissionTimerSL is running on any Serving Cell in the DRX group); and monitoring, in case that one of the first timer or the second timer is running, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the serving cell in the DRX group (p.28 When the retransmission timer is running (if C-DRX is configured), the UE is expected to monitor PDCCH, like in legacy. It is up to the network whether it schedules retransmissions out of the Cell DTX active period, i.e., when the DRX retransmission timer is running, the UE should monitor PDCCH regardless of the Cell DTX).
Dependent Claims
Claim(s) 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Interdigital, “Running CR to 38.321 for Network Energy Saving”, R2-2308393, 3GPP TSG-RAN2 Meeting #123, 11 August 2023.
As to claim 2, 7, 12: Interdigital teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first timer comprises a drx-Retransmission TimerDL and the second timer comprises a drx-RetransmissionTimerUL (p.18-19 drx-RetransmissionTimerUL (per UL HARQ process): the maximum duration until a grant for UL retransmission is received; drx-RetransmissionTimerDL, drx-RetransmissionTimerUL or drx-RetransmissionTimerSL is running on any Serving Cell in the DRX group).
As to claim 3, 8, 13: Interdigital teaches the method of claim 1, wherein an activation of the cell DTX for the serving cell is indicated based on downlink control information (DCI) or the RRC message including the configuration information associated with the cell DTX (p.1 R2 agreed that a periodic cell DTX/DRX configuration is explicitly signalled to the UEs by RRC configuration. Cell DTX/DRX configuration contains at least: periodicity, start slot/offset, on duration. Cell DTX/DRX is activated/deactivated implicitly by RRC signalling or explicitly by reception of L1 signalling; p.25-26 RRC controls cell DTX operation by configuring the following parameters in CellDTX-Config: celldtx-onDurationTimer: the active duration at the beginning of a cell DTX cycle; p.27 As a baseline Cell DTX/DRX is activated/deactivated implicitly by RRC signalling, i.e. activated immediately once configured by RRC and deactivated once the RRC configuration is released).
As to claim 4, 9, 14: Interdigital teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the PDCCH on the serving cell is monitored on serving cells of the DRX group regardless of an active time or non-active time for the cell DTX (p.22 if a DRX group is in Active Time: monitor the PDCCH on the Serving Cells in this DRX group as specified in TS 38.213 [6]; p.28 when the DRX retransmission timer is running, the UE should monitor PDCCH regardless of the Cell DTX).
As to claim 5, 10, 15: Interdigital teaches the method of claim 1, wherein, in case that both of the first timer and the second timer are not running (p.19 drx-onDurationTimer or drx-InactivityTimer configured for the DRX group is running and at least one Serving Cell in the DRX group is not configured with CellDTX-Config or is in the cell DTX Active Period), the PDCCH is monitored on the serving cell in an active time for the cell DTX (p.22 if a DRX group is in Active Time: monitor the PDCCH on the Serving Cells in this DRX group).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW CHUNG SUK OH whose telephone number is (571)270-5273. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 12p-8p.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Faruk Hamza can be reached at 5712727969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW C OH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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