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 .
Claims 1-19 are pending.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5, 7-12, 14-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yerramalli et al, application no. 2020/0154446 (U.S. patent version of IDS submitted Chinese Patent Document), hereinafter known as Yerra in view of Xiong et al, application no. 2023/0224880, hereinafter known as Xiong.
As to claim 1, Yerra discloses a resource processing method, comprising: in response to that a first bandwidth part (BWP) comprises a first synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel signal block (SSB), performing, by a terminal, a first operation (Yerra, [0048], Figure 2, Terminal (user equipment 115-a) processing bandwidth with SSB), wherein the first operation comprises at least one of the following: determining that the first SSB is not transmitted in a first transmission resource allocated to the terminal, wherein the first transmission resource is a resource for transmission of first information, and the first information comprises at least one of a data signal, a control signal, and a reference signal (Yerra, [0091]-[0092], [0104], SSB is not transmitted by the terminal in the resource by using rate matching when PDSCH transmission is needed); and in response to that the first transmission resource overlaps with a transmission resource corresponding to a non-cell defining SSB, determining that the transmission resource corresponding to the non-cell defining SSB is not used for transmitting or receiving the first information. Yerra does not expressly disclose NCD-SSB and rate matching around the NCD-SSB however Xiong dicloses wherein the first SSB comprises a non-cell defining SSB (Xiong, [0020], [0084], where rate matching is done for NCD-SSB per se by the terminal);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Yerra to include the limitations of wherein the first SSB comprises a non-cell defining SSB as taught by Xiong. Not sending control, data or reference signal when NCD-SSB is present avoids collision between the various types of communication.
As to claim 2, Yerra and Xiong disclose the method according to claim 1. Yerra does not disclose however Xiong discloses wherein the non-cell defining SSB comprises at least one of the following: SSB configured by terminal-dedicated signaling; SSB configured by BWP downlink dedicated signaling; and SSB configured by a radio resource control (RRC) parameter related to a non-cell defining SSB configuration (Xiong, [0019], NCD-SSB configured in the DL BWP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Yerra to include the limitations of wherein the non-cell defining SSB comprises at least one of the following: SSB configured by terminal-dedicated signaling; SSB configured by BWP downlink dedicated signaling; and SSB configured by a radio resource control (RRC) parameter related to a non-cell defining SSB configuration as taught by Xiong. Use of downlink bandwidth is well known in the art for indicated plural types of configuration to UE by base station/Network.
As to claim 3, Yerra and Xiong use the method according to claim 1. Yerra dicloses after the determining that the transmission resource corresponding to the SSB is not used for transmitting or receiving the first information, further comprising: performing, by the terminal, a second operation, wherein the second operation comprises: performing rate matching processing on the first information Yerra, [0091]-[0092], [0104], SSB is not transmitted by the terminal in the resource by using rate matching when PDSCH transmission is needed). Yerra does not expressly disclose NCD-SSB and rate matching around NCD-SSB however Xiong dicloses wherein the first SSB comprises a non-cell defining SSB (Xiong, [0020], [0084], where rate matching is done for NCD-SSB per se by the terminal);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Yerra to include the limitations of wherein the first SSB comprises a non-cell defining SSB as taught by Xiong. Not sending control, data or reference signal when NCD-SSB is present avoids collision between the various types of communication.
As to claim 5, Yerra discloses wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following: a data signal transmitted in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); a control signal transmitted in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); a data signal transmitted in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); a control signal transmitted in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH); and a sounding reference signal (Yerra, [0104], SSB is not transmitted by the terminal in the resource by using rate matching when PDSCH transmission is needed).
As to claim 7, Yerra and Xiong disclose the method according to claim 1.Yerra does not disclose Xiong discloses wherein the first operation further comprises at least one of: determining that a first transmission resource allocated to the terminal is expected not to overlap with a transmission resource corresponding to the first SSB (Xiong, [0084], UE determines there is no overlap of first transmission with SSB); and in response to that the first transmission resource overlaps with a resource indicated by a first rate matching pattern, determining that the resource indicated by the first rate matching pattern is not used for transmitting or receiving the first information, wherein the resource indicated by the first rate matching pattern comprises at least a transmission resource corresponding to a non-cell defining SSB.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Yerra to include the limitations of wherein the first operation further comprises at least one of: determining that a first transmission resource allocated to the terminal is expected not to overlap with a transmission resource corresponding to the first SSB as taught by Xiong. Determination of lack of overlap enables UE to communicate normally in the network without having to account for SSB.
As to claim 8, Yerra discloses wherein the first rate matching pattern is configured using a rate matching pattern parameter or an SSB rate matching pattern parameter (Yerra, [0104], [0121], rate matching based on [0104], [0121], based on assigned BWP indication; figure 3 and 4, SSB pattern in bandwidth).
As to claim 9, Yerra discloses wherein a period indicated by the first rate matching pattern comprises period information of the first SSB (Yerra, [0108], different periodicities for SSB indicated by rate matching pattern).
As to claims 10, Yerra discloses terminal, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a program or an instruction capable of running on the processor (Yerra, [0009], figure 7 and 8, processor and memory in terminal with instructions thereon), and when the program or instruction is executed by the processor, the processor is caused to: in response to that a first bandwidth part (BWP) comprises a first synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel signal block (SSB), perform a first operation (Yerra, [0048], Figure 2, Terminal (user equipment 115-a) processing bandwidth with SSB); wherein the first operation comprises at least one of the following: determining that the first SSB is not transmitted in a first transmission resource allocated to the terminal, wherein the first transmission resource is a resource for transmission of first information, and the first information comprises at least one of a data signal, a control signal, and a reference signal (Yerra, [0091]-[0092], [0104], SSB is not transmitted by the terminal in the resource by using rate matching when PDSCH transmission is needed); and in response to that the first transmission resource overlaps with a transmission resource corresponding to a non-cell defining SSB, determining that the transmission resource corresponding to the non-cell defining SSB is not used for transmitting or receiving the first information. Yerra does not expressly disclose NCD-SSB and rate matching around thereof however Xiong dicloses wherein the first SSB comprises a non-cell defining SSB (Xiong, [0020], [0084], where rate matching is done for NCD-SSB per se by the terminal);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Yerra to include the limitations of wherein the first SSB comprises a non-cell defining SSB as taught by Xiong. Not sending control, data or reference signal when NCD-SSB is present avoids collision between the various types of communication.
As to claims 11, 12 and 14, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 2, 3 and 5 above by Yerra in view of Xiong.
As to claims 15-17 and 19, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-3 and 5 above by Yerra in view of Xiong.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 6, 13 and 18 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
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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