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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-10, 13-15, 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ghanbarinejad et al. (12,557,052) in view of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki et al. (12,562,844).
For claims 1, 13, Ghanbarinejad teaches a method (abstract, background, summary and claims; col. 3, line 25 – col. 6, line 40) of a terminal (col. 7, lines 1-15), comprising:
Receiving (col. 7, lines 15-30), from a base station (col. 7, lines 45-60), information on Timing Advance (TA) groups (col. 9, lines 55-65), which are divided into groups (col. 14, lines 45-55) based on a range for TAs (col. 13, lines 50-60) occurring within a cell (col. 12, lines 35-55 in view of col. 9, lines 45-55), and information on group-specific scheduling offsets mapped to the TA groups (col. 9, lines 45-55);
calculating a pre-compensated TA (col. 12, lines 25-50) based on satellite ephemeris information of the base station (col. 14, lines 30-65) and location information of the terminal (col. 12, lines 50-55);
identifying a group-specific scheduling offset mapped to a TA group corresponding to the pre-compensated TA (col. 11, line 35 – col. 12, line 25); and
transmitting a first uplink signal (col. 9, lines 5-20) including a preamble to the base station (col. 9, line 60 – col. 10, line 15) using an uplink timing adjusted based on the group-specific scheduling offset (col. 13, line 45 – col. 14, line 15).
Ghanbarinejad does not expressly disclose each having a specific unit size. Dashtaki teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims; col. 2, line 25 – col. 4, line 55) that includes this limitation (col. 11, lines 15-35 in view of col. 33, line 40 – col. 34, line 15). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Dashtaki in order to provide improvements to the building blocks of TA messages (col. 10, lines 35-55).
For claims 2, Dashtaki teaches that the specific unit size is a unit of a random access preamble cyclic prefix (CP) length (col. 17, lines 20-30), slot length (N/A), or frame length (N/A).
For claims 3, 14, Ghanbarinejad teaches the calculating of the pre-compensated TA comprises:
receiving the satellite ephemeris information from the base station (col. 14, lines 30-65);
obtaining the location information of the terminal by receiving global positioning system (GPS) signals from GPS satellites; and
calculating the pre-compensated TA using the satellite ephemeris information and the location information (col. 12, lines 50-55).
For claims 4, 15, Ghanbarinejad teaches that the transmitting of the first uplink signal comprises:
adjusting an uplink timing based on the group-specific scheduling offset to derive the adjusted uplink timing (col. 11, line 35 – col. 12, line 25);
generating the first uplink signal including the preamble (col. 9, line 60 – col. 10, line 15); and
transmitting the first uplink signal including the preamble to the base station using the adjusted uplink timing (col. 13, line 45 – col. 14, line 15).
For claims 6, 17, further comprising:
receiving a terminal-specific scheduling offset calculated based on the group-specific scheduling offset from the base station (col. 11, line 35 – col. 12, line 25); and
transmitting a second uplink signal to the base station using an uplink timing adjusted based on the terminal-specific scheduling offset (col. 13, line 45 – col. 14, line 15).
For claim 7, Ghanbarinejad teaches a method (abstract, background, summary and claims; col. 3, line 25 – col. 6, line 40) of a base station (col. 7, lines 45-60), comprising:
grouping Timing Advances (TAs) (col. 9, lines 55-65) occurring within a cell (col. 9, lines 45-55) into TA groups (col. 14, lines 45-55) based on a range of the TAs (col. 13, lines 50-60);
generating group-specific scheduling offsets mapped to the TA groups (col. 12, lines 35-55 in view of col. 9, lines 45-55);
transmitting (col. 7, lines 15-30), to a terminal (col. 7, lines 1-15), information on the TA groups and information on the group-specific scheduling offsets mapped to the TA groups (col. 11, line 35 – col. 12, line 25); and
receiving, from the terminal, a first uplink signal (col. 9, lines 5-20) including a preamble (col. 9, line 60 – col. 10, line 15) using an uplink timing adjusted based on the group-specific scheduling offset (col. 13, line 45 – col. 14, line 15).
Ghanbarinejad does not expressly disclose each having a specific unit size. Dashtaki teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims; col. 2, line 25 – col. 4, line 55) that includes this limitation (col. 11, lines 15-35 in view of col. 33, line 40 – col. 34, line 15). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Dashtaki in order to provide improvements to the building blocks of TA messages (col. 10, lines 35-55).
For claim 8, Dashtaki teaches wherein the specific unit size is a unit of a random access preamble cyclic prefix (CP) length (col. 17, lines 20-30), slot length (N/A), or frame length (N/A).
For claim 9, Ghanbarinejad taches further comprising:
identifying a position of a slot in which the first uplink signal is received (col. 10, line 40 – col. 11, line 5);
estimating the group-specific scheduling offset based on the identified position of the slot (col. 11, lines 5-50);
calculating a terminal-specific scheduling offset based on the group-specific scheduling offset (col. 11, line 50 – col. 12, line 35); and
transmitting the terminal-specific scheduling offset to the terminal (col. 12, lines 35-60).
For claim 10, Ghanbarinejad teaches receiving, from the terminal, a second uplink signal using an uplink timing adjusted based on the terminal-specific scheduling offset (col. 31, line 25 – col. 32, line 5).
Claim(s) 5, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ghanbarinejad and Dashtaki as applied to claims 1, 13 above, and further in view of Lin (12,647,948).
For claims 5, 16, Ghanbarinejad and Dashtaki do not expressly disclose the limitations, though Dashtaki does teach some background on mappings (col. 9, lines 45-60 in view of col. 28, lines 30-45). Lin teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that includes receiving information on preamble groups mapped to the TA groups from the base station (col. 26, line 40 – col. 27, line 45), wherein the preamble is a preamble selected from a preamble group mapped to the TA group among the preamble groups (col. 17, lines 5-40). At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Lin in order to provide improvements to uplink timings (col. 1, lines 40-50).
For claim 11, Lin teaches further comprising:
grouping preambles used in the cell to generate preamble groups (col. 17, lines 5-40);
mapping the preamble groups to the TA groups (col. 26, line 40 – col. 27, line 45); and
transmitting information on the preamble groups mapped to the TA groups to the terminal (col. 26, line 40 – col. 27, line 45),
wherein the preamble is a preamble selected from a preamble group mapped to the TA group among the preamble groups (col. 17, lines 5-40).
For claim 12, Lin teaches further comprising:
identifying the preamble group including the preamble of the first uplink signal (col. 17, lines 5-40);
estimating the group-specific scheduling offset based on the identified preamble group (col. 26, line 40 – col. 27, line 45);
calculating a terminal-specific scheduling offset based on the group-specific scheduling offset (col. 26, line 40 – col. 27, line 45); and
transmitting the terminal-specific scheduling offset to the terminal (col. 17, lines 5-40).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELVIN H POLLACK whose telephone number is (571)272-3887. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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/MELVIN H POLLACK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
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