Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
2. Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d), with foreign priority claimed to 10-2023-0130621, filed on September 27, 2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on September 26, 2024, was filed before the mailing of a first Office action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
4. Claims 3-5 and 7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Examiner suggests replacing “when” in claim 3 (lines 4 and 12), claim 4 (line 2), claim 5 (line 5), and claim 7 (lines 6, 8, and 11) with - - in response to - -.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. Claims 3-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elkotby ‘136 (US 2026/0067136, “Elkotby ‘136”), in view of Madier ‘819 (US 2026/0067819, “Madier ‘819”).
Regarding claim 3, Elkotby ‘136 discloses a method for Low Power Wake-Up Signal (LP-WUS) monitoring by a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (FIGS. 1A and 30a-32, para 47, 102-103, 108, 111-112, 192-198, and 201-205; method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), in which an ultra-low power (ULP) receiver of the WTRU monitors for a LP-WUS, and, upon detection of the LP-WUS, wakes up a main receiver to monitor for a following paging occasion (PO)), the method comprising:
receiving, based on system information, LP-WUS configuration information (FIG. 30a, para 192; system information is received, where the system information includes timing parameters of LP-WUS, for determination of a LP-WUS monitoring window and other characteristics);
monitoring, per Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle, one LP-WUS monitoring occasion set, wherein the LP-WUS monitoring occasion set comprises one or more LP-WUS monitoring occasions (FIGS. 30a-31, para 192-198; monitoring is performed in LP-WUS monitoring windows that are part of a paging occasion inside a paging frame, and, in turn, a DRX cycle);
determining a time position of the LP-WUS monitoring occasion set associated with a Paging Occasion (PO) by using a start of a reference Paging Frame (PF) as a reference point and applying time offset information included in the system information (FIGS. 30a-31, para 192-198 and 201-205; system information is received, where the system information includes timing parameters of LP-WUS, for determination of the LP-WUS monitoring window, including a timing offset of the LP-WUS monitoring window relative to a paging frame);
detecting an LP-WUS within the LP-WUS monitoring occasion set; and monitoring the PO when the LP-WUS is detected within the LP-WUS monitoring occasion set (FIG. 30a, para 102-103, 111-112, and 192-198; LP-WUS is monitored within the LP-WUS monitoring windows; upon detection of the LP-WUS, the main receiver is woken up to monitor for the following PO).
However, Elkotby ‘136 does not specifically disclose initiating LP-WUS monitoring when an entry condition is satisfied.
Madier ‘819 teaches initiating LP-WUS monitoring when an entry condition is satisfied (para 114; apparatus is configured to start monitoring the LP-WUS after receiving an activation signal instructing it to start monitoring the LP-WUS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elkotby ‘136’s method for LP-WUS monitoring, to include Madier ‘819’s activation signal instructing the apparatus to start monitoring the LP-WUS. The motivation for doing so would have been to determine how to integrate the LP-WUS mechanism with other power-saving techniques in 3GPP NR (Madier ‘819, para 6).
Regarding claim 4, Elkotby ‘136 in combination with Madier ‘819 discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 3, as outlined above.
Further, Elkotby ‘136 teaches wherein the LP-WUS monitoring occasion set corresponding to the time offset is selected when a time gap between an LP-WUS monitoring occasion at a specific order in the LP-WUS monitoring occasion set and the PO satisfies a predetermined criterion (FIGS. 30a-31, para 192-198 and 201-205; system information is received, where the system information includes timing parameters of LP-WUS, for determination of the LP-WUS monitoring window, including timing offset of the LP-WUS monitoring window relative to a paging occasion; thus, the LP-WUS monitoring window is determined when a time gap between the LP-WUS monitoring window and the paging occasion is determined based on the system information).
Regarding claim 5, Elkotby ‘136 in combination with Madier ‘819 discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 3, as outlined above.
Further, Elkotby ‘136 teaches wherein determining whether the LP-WUS is associated with the UE comprises (FIGS. 30a-31, para 192-198 and 201-205; WTRU receives system information, where the system information includes timing parameters of LP-WUS; thus, LP-WUS is associated with the WTRU):
monitoring a first codepoint corresponding to a subgroup identifier of the UE and a second codepoint applicable to all subgroups within the PO (FIGS. 30a-31, para 192 and 197-198; WTRU receives system information, including parameters related to groups and subgroups, used for determining the LP-WUS monitoring window and supported groups and subgroups; WTRU monitors LP-WUS in LP-WUS monitoring window determined based on a subgroup identifier and a group identifier within a PO; thus, WTRU monitors for values corresponding and applicable to the subgroup identifier of the WTRU and the subgroups in the group within the PO); and
determining that the LP-WUS is associated with the UE when at least one of the first codepoint or the second codepoint is detected in the LP-WUS (FIGS. 30a-31, para 192 and 197-198; WTRU receives system information, including parameters related to groups and subgroups, and used for determining the LP-WUS monitoring window and supported groups and subgroups; WTRU monitors LP-WUS in LP-WUS monitoring window determined based on a subgroup identifier and a group identifier within a PO; thus, WTRU monitors LP-WUS for values associated with the subgroup identifier of the WTRU and the subgroups in the group associated with the WTRU).
Regarding claim 6, Elkotby ‘136 in combination with Madier ‘819 discloses all the limitations with respect to claim 5, as outlined above.
Further, Elkotby ‘136 teaches wherein:
a first parameter indicates a number of subgroups determined based on a UE identifier per PO (FIG. 30a, para 195-196; WTRU determines group and subgroup identifier based on a unique 5G-s-Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (5G-s-TMSI), and number of supported subgroups per PO); and
a second parameter indicates a total number of subgroups per PO (FIG. 30a, para 195-196; WTRU determines group and subgroup identifier based on a unique 5G-s-Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (5G-s-TMSI), and number of supported subgroups per PO).
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 7 and 8 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if amended to overcome the above claim objections related to informalities, and rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Internet Communication
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NEVENA SANDHU whose telephone number is (571) 272-0679. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 9AM-5PM EST, Friday variable.
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/NEVENA ZECEVIC SANDHU/Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/Michael Thier/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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