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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
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Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 25th September 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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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.
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.
Claims 1 – 5, 6 – 10, 11 – 15 and 16 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Turtinen et al (US 2020/0059959 A1) in view of Islam et al (US 2017/0303263 A1).
Claim 11 (similarly Claim 1). Turtinen shows a user equipment for performing a multi-beam based scheduling request in wireless communications (fig. 2: communication device 20; figs. 3A/3B/3C: multiple beams), the user equipment comprising: a receiver (fig. 2: transceiver 27) configured to receive, from a base station, multi-beam based scheduling request configuration information for configuring N scheduling requests using multiple scheduling request resources ([0088]: there are three ways in which Scheduling Requests may be made via a Scheduling Request “sweep,” via a scheduled uplink resource; and via a Random Access procedure; [0128]: if any physical uplink control channel resources are assigned for transmitting Scheduling Requests during this delay period, these assigned resources may be used in place of the random access procedure for transmitting the Scheduling Request; [0152]: on the expiry of a first one of said timers, the remainder of the timers in the plurality of timers may be reset, and random access procedures initiated in respect of each of the plurality of Scheduling Requests); a controller (fig. 2: data processing entity 23) configured to allocate multiple scheduling request resources based on the multi-beam based scheduling request configuration information ([0102]: based on the BRS measurements by different sets of receive beams, a user apparatus is configured to determine an association between sets of 5G-NB beams, per the receive direction of each beam. In the event that a user apparatus is able to form multiple beams concurrently, the user apparatus may group the detected 5G Node B beams per receive direction as one group; [0137] – [0138]: the user apparatus may be configured to receive an allocation of resources for an uplink channel prior to expiry of said timer… the allocated resources for transmission of the uplink data may be assigned on the physical uplink shared channel); and a transmitter (fig. 2: transceiver 27) configured to transmit the N scheduling requests to the base station using the multiple scheduling request resources ([0152]: each Scheduling Request may be associated with a respective set of data for transmission in the uplink wherein the sets of data may be stored in the same uplink buffer (where the uplink buffer may be distributed in the user apparatus) and/or the sets of data may be stored in different uplink buffers – N can be any integer number), wherein N is a number of uplink beams indicated by radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0157]: the Buffer Status reporting procedure is used to provide the serving Node B with information about the amount of data available for transmission in the uplink buffers associated with the MAC at the user apparatus wherein the radio resource control level at the user apparatus controls buffer status reports reporting by configuring the two timers periodicbuffer status reports-Timer and retxbuffer status reports-Timer and by, for each logical channel, optionally signalling logicalChannelGroup which allocates the logical channel to an logical channel group), and the N uplink beams are individually allocated to the multiple scheduling request resources ([0095]: identify a single beam… when a user apparatus indicates to a network the preferred communication beam during initial access, or when mapping a measurement to a common reference index to a beam when reporting such measurements to network).Turtinen does not expressly describe wherein the multiple scheduling request resources are consecutive time resources or resources based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in time domain, and the N scheduling requests are received from the user equipment consecutively or based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in the time domain.Islam shows features of: a multiple scheduling request resources are consecutive time resources or resources based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in time domain ([0051]: the PRACH may include six consecutive RB pairs within a subframe wherein the PRACH allows the UE to perform initial system access and achieve UL synchronization and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) may be located on edges of the UL system bandwidth and the PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and HARQ ACK/NACK feedback), and a N scheduling requests are received from a user equipment consecutively or based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in the time domain ([0049]: each subframe may include two consecutive time slots wherein a resource grid may be used to represent the two time slots, each time slot including one or more time concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) wherein the resource grid is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) wherein in LTE, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB contains 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols (for DL, OFDM symbols; for UL, SC-FDMA symbols) in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs).It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the features as taught by Islam in the scheduling process of Turtinen to facilitate determining a beam direction that provides a desirable gain.
Claim 12 (similarly claim 2). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the user equipment according to claim 11, wherein the pre-configured time unit is one of a radio frame (figs. 2A/2B/2C/2D), a slot ([0049]: a resource grid may be used to represent the two time slots), a mini-slot (n/a), a sub-slot (n/a), a subframe ([0049]: each subframe may include two consecutive time slots), or a symbol ([0049]: in LTE, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB contains 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols (for DL, OFDM symbols; for UL, SC-FDMA symbols) in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs), or is a combination of two or more thereof (see above).
Claim 13 (similarly claim 3). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the user equipment according to claim 11, wherein: the multiple scheduling request resources are frequency resources identical to or different from one another over an identical time resource ([0128]: if any physical uplink control channel resources are assigned for transmitting Scheduling Requests during this delay period, these assigned resources may be used in place of the random access procedure for transmitting the Scheduling Request); and the transmitter is configured to transmit the N scheduling requests to the base station over frequencies identical to or different from one another in an identical time ([0128]: such a delay procedure allows a user apparatus to wait for possible Scheduling Request indication opportunities via the physical uplink control channel, which may reduce the uplink latency, as latency problems associated with contention resolution of the Random Access procedure may be avoided).
Claim 14 (similarly claim 4). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the user equipment according to claim 13, wherein the transmitter is configured to multiplex the N scheduling requests in the identical time and transmit the multiplexed N scheduling requests to the base station ([0094]: the Scheduling Request resources may be frequency and/or time multiplexed with the Random Access Channel resources).
Claim 15 (similarly claim 5). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the user equipment according to claim 13, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the N scheduling requests to the base station over independent frequencies by frequency multiplexing modulation in the identical time ([0094]: the Scheduling Request resources may be frequency and/or time multiplexed with the Random Access Channel resources).
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Claim 16 (similarly Claim 6). Turtinen shows a base station for performing a multi-beam based scheduling request in wireless communications (fig. 1: base station 12; figs. 3A/3B/3C: multiple beams), the base station comprising: a transmitter (implicit) configured to transmit, to a user equipment, multi-beam based scheduling request configuration information for configuring N scheduling requests using multiple scheduling request resources ([0088]: there are three ways in which Scheduling Requests may be made via a Scheduling Request “sweep,” via a scheduled uplink resource; and via a Random Access procedure; [0128]: if any physical uplink control channel resources are assigned for transmitting Scheduling Requests during this delay period, these assigned resources may be used in place of the random access procedure for transmitting the Scheduling Request; [0152]: on the expiry of a first one of said timers, the remainder of the timers in the plurality of timers may be reset, and random access procedures initiated in respect of each of the plurality of Scheduling Requests); and a receiver (implicit) configured to receive, the N scheduling requests from the user equipment using the multiple scheduling request resources based on the multi-beam based scheduling request configuration information ([0102]: based on the BRS measurements by different sets of receive beams, a user apparatus is configured to determine an association between sets of 5G-NB beams, per the receive direction of each beam. In the event that a user apparatus is able to form multiple beams concurrently, the user apparatus may group the detected 5G Node B beams per receive direction as one group; [0137] – [0138]: the user apparatus may be configured to receive an allocation of resources for an uplink channel prior to expiry of said timer… the allocated resources for transmission of the uplink data may be assigned on the physical uplink shared channel), wherein N is a number of uplink beams indicated by radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0157]: the Buffer Status reporting procedure is used to provide the serving Node B with information about the amount of data available for transmission in the uplink buffers associated with the MAC at the user apparatus wherein the radio resource control level at the user apparatus controls buffer status reports reporting by configuring the two timers periodicbuffer status reports-Timer and retxbuffer status reports-Timer and by, for each logical channel, optionally signalling logicalChannelGroup which allocates the logical channel to an logical channel group), and the N uplink beams are individually allocated to the multiple scheduling request resources ([0095]: identify a single beam… when a user apparatus indicates to a network the preferred communication beam during initial access, or when mapping a measurement to a common reference index to a beam when reporting such measurements to network).Turtinen does not expressly describe wherein the multiple scheduling request resources are consecutive time resources or resources based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in time domain, and the N scheduling requests are received from the user equipment consecutively or based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in the time domain.Islam shows features of: a multiple scheduling request resources are consecutive time resources or resources based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in time domain ([0051]: the PRACH may include six consecutive RB pairs within a subframe wherein the PRACH allows the UE to perform initial system access and achieve UL synchronization and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) may be located on edges of the UL system bandwidth and the PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and HARQ ACK/NACK feedback), and a N scheduling requests are received from a user equipment consecutively or based on a unit of a pre-configured time, in the time domain ([0049]: each subframe may include two consecutive time slots wherein a resource grid may be used to represent the two time slots, each time slot including one or more time concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) wherein the resource grid is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) wherein in LTE, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB contains 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols (for DL, OFDM symbols; for UL, SC-FDMA symbols) in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs).It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the features as taught by Islam in the scheduling process of Turtinen to facilitate determining a beam direction that provides a desirable gain.
Claim 17 (similarly claim 7). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the method according to claim 16, wherein the pre-configured time unit is one of a radio frame (figs. 2A/2B/2C/2D), a slot ([0049]: a resource grid may be used to represent the two time slots), a mini-slot (n/a), a sub-slot (n/a), a subframe ([0049]: each subframe may include two consecutive time slots), or a symbol ([0049]: in LTE, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB contains 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols (for DL, OFDM symbols; for UL, SC-FDMA symbols) in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs), or is a combination of two or more thereof (see above).
Claim 18 (similarly claim 8). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the method according to claim 16, wherein: the multiple scheduling request resources are frequency resources identical to or different from one another over an identical time resource ([0128]: if any physical uplink control channel resources are assigned for transmitting Scheduling Requests during this delay period, these assigned resources may be used in place of the random access procedure for transmitting the Scheduling Request); and the N scheduling requests are received from the user equipment over frequencies identical to or different from one another in an identical time ([0128]: such a delay procedure allows a user apparatus to wait for possible Scheduling Request indication opportunities via the physical uplink control channel, which may reduce the uplink latency, as latency problems associated with contention resolution of the Random Access procedure may be avoided).
Claim 19 (similarly claim 9). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the method according to claim 18, wherein the N scheduling requests are multiplexed in the identical time and received from the user equipment ([0094]: the Scheduling Request resources may be frequency and/or time multiplexed with the Random Access Channel resources).
Claim 20 (similarly claim 10). Turtinen, modified by Islam, shows the method according to claim 18, wherein the N scheduling requests are received from the user equipment over independent frequencies by frequency multiplexing modulation in the identical time ([0094]: the Scheduling Request resources may be frequency and/or time multiplexed with the Random Access Channel resources).
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Lee et al, US 2019/0159228 A1: an information transmitting method and terminal for transmitting beam-related uplink information, wherein the terminal can determine whether a beam mismatch from a base station has occurred, and transmit beam-related information including the beam mismatch to the base station, so as to solve a beam mismatch.
Lin et al, US 2016/0344519 A1: a method for reference signal (RS) transmissions in a cell, transmission point (TP), or transmission and reception point (TRP), wherein there are multiple beams used for transmission and/or reception in the cell, TP, or TRP, comprising the cell, TP, or TRP broadcasts a first RS periodically for measurement, wherein the first RS is transmitted at multiple occasions (or timings) in each period on different beams; and the cell, TP, or TRP transmits a second RS to a UE (User Equipment) for PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) demodulation, wherein the second RS is transmitted on multiple beams in a beam set of the UE in a subframe (or symbol) in which the PDCCH is transmitted.
Kim et al, US 2016/0174244 A1: a method of scheduling a beam in a mobile communication system, the method comprising receiving, by a terminal, signals through a plurality of switching beam directions; selecting a signal having largest intensity among the received signals; and transmitting an uplink scheduling request signal in a beam direction corresponding to the selected signal, wherein the receiving of signals comprises receiving a plurality of beams that are transmitted while performing beam switching in a transmission time interval (TTI) unit by a base station.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Xavier Szewai Wong whose telephone number is 571.270.1780. The examiner can normally be reached on 11:30 am - 8:30 pm Mon to Fri.
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/XAVIER S WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415 14th August 2026
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