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 .
Claims 1, 2, 4-10, and 12-16 are pending.
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.
(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, 6, 9 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wei et al. (WO 2018/137231)(“Wei”).
As per claim 1, Wei teaches a method implemented by a wireless/transmit receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising:
receiving a synchronization signal (SS) block of a plurality of SS blocks comprised in a SS burst set (see ¶0055, i.e., “bursts comprising more than four SS blocks”), each of the plurality of SS blocks comprised in the SS burst set comprising a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission (see Fig. 3, and ¶0062, i.e., “…PBCH burst 300 includes multiple SS blocks 305, each of which comprises PBCH block(s) 310 and PSS/SSS block(s) 315”), wherein each respective SS block of the plurality of SS blocks comprised in the SS burst set is associated with a respective SS-block index that identifies the respective SS block within the SS burst set (see abstract, i.e., “jointly encoded with synchronization signal indices”);
determining the respective SS-block index for the received SS block based on at least one of: a payload portion of the PBCH transmission comprised in the received SS block (see abstract, “Physical broadcast channel (PBCH) payloads, including MIB transmissions, may be jointly encoded with synchronization signal indices”); and
determining a system frame number (SFN) based on the PBCH transmission comprised in the received SS block (see ¶0050).
As per claim 6, Wei further teaches wherein each of the plurality of SS blocks comprised in the SS burst set is associated with a respective transmission beam (i.e., with respect to different beamforming parameters, see for example ¶0109, which implies the first and second synchronization signal blocks are associated with a respective transmission beam).
Claims 9 and 14 are rejected under the same rationale as claims 1 and 6 since they recite substantially identical subject matter. Any differences between the claims do not result in patentably distinct claims and all of the limitations are taught by the above cited art.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 4 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei in view of R1-1612034, "Conveying symbol index during multi-beam Sync", Qualcomm Incorporated, November 14-18, 2016 (“R1-1612034”)(cited in Applicants’ 04/21/2026 IDS).
As per claims 4 and 12, Wei does not expressly teach wherein the characteristic of the sequence associated with the PBCH transmission is an implicit characteristic.
Nevertheless, in the same art of conveying SS Block Index information, R1-1612034 teaches a technique for implicitly determining a respective SS-block index for the received SS block based on a characteristic of a sequence associated with the PBCH transmission (i.e., based on an RV (redundancy version), read as a “sequence associated with the PBCH transmission”, see Sec. 3, pp. 2-3).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings if Wei to implicitly determine based on an RV sequence associated with the PBCH transmission. The obvious motivation for doing so would have ben to prevent the need for a new signal to carry SS block index and thus avoid addition resource costs and beamsweep latency associated with transmitting an express SS-block index in the payload of PBCH (see R1-1612034 “key design considerations”, pp. 1).
Claims 7, 8, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei in view of Kim et al. (US 2020/0296765)(“Kim”).
As per claims 7 and 15, Wei does not expressly teach sending a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission, the PRACH transmission indicating which SS block of the plurality of SS blocks comprised in a SS burst set was received by the WTRU.
Nevertheless, in the same art of SS block reception/transmission, Kim teaches sending a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission, wherein the PRACH transmission indicates a preferred SS block index among a plurality SS block indexes (see for example, ¶0189, i.e., “A UE attempts PRACH transmission preferentially for the most preferred beam index (e.g., SS block index) among preferred best N beam indices (e.g., SS block indices)”, also note ¶0189 correspond to pp. 17, “Option 1: sequential PRACH transmission” of provisional application 62/441573, with a filing date of Jan. 03, 2017).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, prior to the earliest effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the UE/WRTU in Wei to send a similar PRACH indicating which SS block of the plurality of SS blocks comprised in a SS burst set was received by the UE/WTRU. The obvious motivation for doing so would have been to indicate the UE/WTRU’s preference for a particular beam.
As per claims 8 and 16, Wei does not expressly teach, however, in the same art as noted above, Kim teaches wherein the PRACH transmission corresponds to PRACH message 1 (see for example, ¶0189).
The same motivation that was utilized for combining Wei and Kim in claims 7 and 15 applies equally well to claims 8 and 16.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 5, 10, and 13 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 (see PTO 892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brendan Higa whose telephone number is (571)272-5823. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/BRENDAN Y HIGA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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