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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
Claim 16 and its dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
Limitation “the measurement result of the SRS or the PRACH” in Claim 16, dependent from Claim 14, lack antecedent because the limitation is recited in the alternative with another limitation in Claim 14.
Examiner Note: Regarding the required limitation “the measurement result of the SRS or the PRACH” in Claim 16, dependent from Claim 14 wherein the same limitation is recited in the alternative, although the informative PTAB decision in Ex parte Jung says that the plain meaning of "at least one of A and B" is the conjunctive unless the record indicates otherwise (i.e., the plain meaning of this claim recitation is "at least one of A and at least one of B.") – See Ex parte Jung, 2016-008290 (PTAB Mar. 22, 2017); see also SuperGuide Corp. v. DirecTV Enters., Inc., 358 F.3d 870 (Fed. Cir. 2004), here the Specification clearly states that when “’at least one of A, B, and C, etc.’ is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., ‘a system having at least one of A, B, and C’ would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.” no different from “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” – See [¶0063]. Therefore, when interpreting Claim 14 to recite the above limitation, e.g., B in the alternative with another limitation, e.g., A, and Claim 14 is examined under the “A alone” meaning of the alternative, limitation B recited in Claim 16 does not hold patentable weight.
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)(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 1-2, 6-9, 13-15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hathiramani et al, WIPO Patent Application Publication No. WO 2025/005953 (hereinafter Hathiramani).
Regarding Claim 1, Hathiramani teaches a method (“a method, and a computer program for improving dormant MRSS SCells measurements and/or reporting” – See [¶0022]), comprising:
transmitting, by a processor of an apparatus utilizing a first radio access technology (RAT), user equipment (UE) capability information to a first network node of the first RAT, wherein the UE capability information indicates that the apparatus supports multi-RAT spectrum sharing (MRSS) (“a User Equipment, UE, configured to support connecting via a Primary Cell, PCell, towards a first network node supporting a first radio access technology, first RAT, and via at least one of two Multi-Radio access technology Spectrum Sharing Secondary Cells, MRSS SCells . . . wherein the UE comprises: at least one processor” – See [¶0023] and a “6G UE is in carrier aggregation or dual connectivity mode and is connected via a PCell and via an SCell. A 6G UE supports other RATs so that the UE for example includes a 5G receiver in order to be available to services that are not supported by 6G” and “in case when the Cells are in 6G, accordingly a 6G PCell and a MRSS SCell which is shared between 5G and 6G, UE is measuring the 6G SSB and staying synchronized, for allowing to continuously receive data”– See [¶0098] whereby the “UE which is a 6G UE, can keep the synchronization by using a 5G signal and perform its reporting to a 6G cell. An inter-RAT measurement at layer 1 can then be performed and forwarded via a layer 1 measurement report to the PCell” – See [¶00100] and “the configuration for the reporting could be based on UE capability, where one type of UE just performs padding/truncation of fields and another type of UE performs translation followed by encoding of some measurement metrics, such as CQI, from NR to 6G” – See [¶00112], i.e., the UE transmits to the PCell capability information to indicate support for MRSS);
receiving, by the processor, a signaling from the first network node, wherein the signaling indicates the apparatus to provide channel information for MRSS (“The configuration of NR/6G signals may be employed for reporting and the configuration may be different per SCell and also dependent on the UE capability” – See [¶00129] whereby “the UE receives, from the PCell, configuration information for layer 1, L1, measurements considering a dormant and a non-dormant state of the 6G MRSS SCell, wherein at least for the dormant state the UE is provided with information e.g., on the NR SSB/NR-CSI-RS, QCL for mapping between NR and 6G beams and optionally how to perform reporting to the 6G cell (in particular the 5G-6G mapping for reporting)” – See [¶00105] and Fig. 1A-A); and
performing, by the processor, at least one of the following based on the signaling:
transmitting a measurement report of a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) of a second RAT to the first network node (“the UE transmits an adapted L1 measurement report, towards the 6G network node via 6G PCell, wherein the adapted L1 measurement report for the 6G RAT is generated based on the performed L1 measurements of the NR RAT by mapping and/or encoding information related to at least part of the performed measurements into a format supported by the 6G RAT” – See [¶00109] because “[t]he UE may be configured to use/employ NR and 6G signals for measurement and reporting in dormant state and non-dormant state of the SCell(s)” – See [¶00132] and Fig. 1B); and
transmitting a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a physical random access channel (PRACH) to a second network node of the second RAT (e.g., “based on the report it is further determined whether to activate the 6G SCell (non-dormant state) at least for a subset of 6G beams” whereby the “6G UE receives the DCI indication for the state transition,” i.e., executes a PRACH to second node supporting 6G MRSS based on the DCI indication – See [¶00110] and Figs. 1A-A and 1B).
Therefore, Claim 1 is anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 2, dependent from Claim 1, Hathiramani further teaches the method of Claim 1, wherein the UE capability information comprises at least one of the following:
an indication of whether the apparatus supports measurement reporting based on the CSI-RS of the second RAT (“the configuration for the reporting could be based on UE capability, where . . . [a] type of UE performs translation followed by encoding of some measurement metrics, such as CQI, from NR to 6G” – See [¶00112] whereby “[t]he configuration of NR/6G signals employed for reporting and configuration can be different per SCell and also dependent on UE capability” – See [¶00135] e.g., “the UE measures the MRSS SCell NR SSB/CSI-RS and performs the reporting on the PUCCH or PUSCH of its 6G PCell” – See [¶00115]);
an indication of whether the apparatus supports processing time corresponding to the CSI-RS of the second RAT (or, “the NR signals could have a periodicity of 20ms and be based on the NR SSB while the 6G assistance signal could he based on a reference signal with only 160ms of periodicity to help the UE to improve deriving the propagation characteristics” – See [¶00131]);
an indication of whether the apparatus supports a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of the second RAT (“The UE may have different states (e.g., according to 3GPP TS 38.331 V16.5.0 (2021-06) sections 4.2.1 and 4.4, incorporated by reference)” – See[¶0071], whereby §4.4 of the updated 3GPP TS 38.331 v17.7.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331) indicates, at page 36-37, that functions of the RRC protocol include Measurement configuration and reporting and transfer of UE radio access capability information, whereby § 5.6.1 describes, at page 227-228, UE radio access capability information transfer upon receiving a UECapabilityEnquiry from the network by assembling contents of UECapabilityInformation, e.g., as described at page 228 in Note2 for (NG)EN-DC, and at page 229 when the request is rat-Type is nr, and whereby the UECapabilityInformation is further specified in §6.3.3, e.g., at page 1007-17 specifies the MIMO-ParametersPerBand Information Element (IE) used to convey MIMO related parameters specific for a certain band, e.g., NR FR1 or FR2, including csi-ReportFramework and multiDCI-multiTRP-Parameters-r16 indicating, at page 1010, support for DMRS for PDSCH with or without precoding through lowPAPR-DMRS-PDSCH-r16 and lowPAPR-DMRS-PUSCHwithoutPrecoding-r16 fields; see also, at page 1065-1070, the IE UE-NR-Capability “used to convey the NR UE Radio Access Capability Parameters, see TS 38.306” indicating UE NR Capabilities for Rel-17, including highSpeedParameters, crossCarrierSchedulingConfiguration, and phy-ParametersSharedSpectrumChAccess; and, at page 1070-1072, the IE SharedSpectrumChAccessParamsPerBand “used to convey shared channel access related parameters specific for a certain frequency band”);
an indication of whether the apparatus supports processing time corresponding to the DMRS of the second RAT;
an indication of whether the apparatus supports transmitting the SRS or the PRACH to a cell of the second RAT; and
an indication of whether the apparatus supports processing time corresponding to the transmission of the SRS or the PRACH to the cell of the second RAT.
Therefore, Claim 2 is anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 6, dependent from Claim 1, Hathiramani further teaches the method of Claim 1, wherein the signaling comprises a radio resource control (RRC) message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a downlink control information (DCI) (“A MAC CE is used to trigger activation of one or more SCell(s) and trigger the aperiodic CSI-RS” – See [¶0019] in order “to provide an efficient usage of MRSS SCells from spectral and energy point of view” – See [¶0021]; in addition, “a first network node, that supports a first radio access technology, first RAT” may “send, to the UE, configuration information for layer 1, L1, measurements considering a dormant and a non-dormant state of the first MRSS SCell; wherein the configuration for the dormant state is related to L1 measurements of signals of the second RAT, and wherein the configuration for the nondormant state is related to L1 measurements of the first RAT” – See [¶0037] whereby sending is done via “[t]he RRC protocol [that] includes e.g. the following main functions: . . . measurement configuration and reporting;” and “establishment/modification/release of measurement configuration (e.g. intra-frequency, inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements)” – See [¶0074]);
Therefore, Claim 6 is anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 7, dependent from Claim 1, Hathiramani further teaches the method of Claim 1, wherein the first network node and the second network node are co-located (“an MRSS SCell may be a shared cell supported by 2 different DU(CU) entities, one for 5G and one for the 6G counterpart” and “such an MRSS SCell, which is a shared cell, may include a first Secondary Cell, first SCell, of a first RAT and a second Secondary Cell, second SCell, of a second RAT, which is different from the first RAT” – See [¶0081]) or connected for cross-RAT network collaboration (“two separates, but interconnected gNBs, e.g., a 5G gNB and a 6G gNB, providing one shared MRSS cell, where, e.g. timely dependent the shared MRSS cell is used as a 5G cell, or 6G cell, thus as two cells” – See [¶0082] and Fig. 1A-A wherein S102 is performed over the Xn interface for cross-RAT network collaboration).
Therefore, Claim 7 is anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 8, teaches an apparatus, utilizing a first radio access technology (RAT), comprising: a transceiver which, during operation, wirelessly communicates with one or more network nodes; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver (“there is provided a first network node, that supports a first radio access technology, first RAT, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instruction which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first network node at least to: establish a connection with a user equipment apparatus, UE, via a Primary cell, PCell, and a connection with at least one of two network nodes” and “send, to the UE configuration information for layer 1, L1, measurements” and “receive, the adapted L1 measurement report for the first RAT, from the UE via the PCell” – See [¶0037] therefore the transceiver is inherent) such that, during operation, the processor performs operations comprising: the steps of the method recited in Claim 1 using the same language.
Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 8 is also anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Claim 8, it recites the same limitations as Claim 2, using the same language, only applied to the apparatus of Claim 8. Because each of the claims 2 and 8 is anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 9 is anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 13, dependent from Claim 8, the claim language recites in the alternative the same limitations as in Claims 6-7 only applied to the apparatus of Claim 8. Because each of the Claims 6-8 is anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 13 is also anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 14, teaches a method, comprising the steps recited in Claim 1 only from the perspective of a first network node utilizing a first radio access technology (RAT). Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 14 is also anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claims 15, dependent from Claim 14, the claim recites the same limitations as in Claim 2 using the same language. Because Claims 2 and 14 are anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 15 is also anticipated by Hathiramani.
Regarding Claim 20, dependent from Claim 14, the claim language recites in the alternative the same limitations as in Claims 6-7 only applied to the method of Claim 14. Because each of the Claims 6-7 and 14 is anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 20 is also anticipated by Hathiramani.
In sum, Claims 1-2, 6-9, 13-15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hathiramani.
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 3-5, 10-12 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hathiramani as applied to claims 1, 8 and 14 above, and further in view of Hosseini et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0267749 (hereinafter Hosseini).
Regarding Claim 3, dependent from Claim 1, Hathiramani further teaches the method of Claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, by the processor, a configuration of a resource block (RB) scheduled for the apparatus of the first RAT and another apparatus of the second RAT from the first network node (“UE may Report Inter-RAT layer 1 measurements over a different RATs PUCCH/PUSCH,” i.e., on either RAT air interface, whereby, when “MRSS Cells spatial division multiplexing (SDM) could be employed . . . a set of beams could be used for NR while another set of beams could be used for 6G simultaneously” and “[t]he beam ids would be configured based on the RAT signals the UE is configured to measure per state” and “[b]ased on the beam ids reported by 6G UEs for an MRSS SCell the gNB may determine whether a subset of beams for 6G should he enabled in an MRSS SCell” – See [¶0085], i.e., beams with different ids received and/or transmitted on the 6G node/cell and from 5G NR node/cell can be SDM-ed on the same resource block scheduled for/by the apparatus of the first RAT, e.g., the 6G PCell and another apparatus of the second RAT, e.g., a 5G gNB/Scell).
Although Hathiramani teaches the “node providing NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE, and connected via the NG interface to the 5GC, e.g., according to 3GPP TS 38.300 V16.6.0 (2021-06) section 3.2 incorporated by reference” – See [¶0058] whereby 3GPP TS 38.300 V17.6.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage 2 (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.300) specifies, in § 5.2, at page 33, that “[a] closed loop Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) based spatial multiplexing is supported for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)” whereby “[t]he DMRS and corresponding PDSCH are transmitted using the same precoding matrix and the UE does not need to know the precoding matrix to demodulate the transmission,” and “up to 4 orthogonal DL DMRS ports per UE are supported for MU-MIMO,” e.g., using the 5G NR and 6G SDM scheme above, Hathiramani does not explicitly teach wherein the RB comprises a DMRS common for both the apparatuses; receiving, by the processor, the DMRS based on the configuration; and performing, by the processor, a transmission or reception to or from the first network node based on the DMRS.
Hosseini, like Hathiramani, teaches dynamic spectrum sharing between a first RAT and a second RAT (“the first RAT may be a next generation RAT, such as a 6G RAT or a 5G NR RAT, whereas the second RAT may be a legacy RAT, such as a 5G NR RAT or a 4G LTE RAT” – See [¶0089]) and a UE “configured to receive, from a network node associated with the first RAT, information indicating a first subset of resources from a set of resources available for dynamic spectrum sharing between the first RAT and a second RAT with one of rate matching or spatial domain multiplexing” – See [¶0007]. Hosseini further teaches resource block (RB) allocation for DM-RS and CSI-RS on the 3GPP standard resource grid1 – See [¶¶0062-63] and Fig. 3A and that “network nodes of the first RAT (e.g., gNBs or 6G base stations) and network nodes of the second RAT (e.g., eNBs or gNBs) may tightly coordinate scheduling in a dynamically shared spectrum” whereby in the uplink “timing advances may be set for timing synchronization between the first and second RATs in the dynamically shared spectrum and subcarrier spacing may be aligned across the first and second RATs” and in the downlink “synchronization between RATs may be obtained in the time and/or frequency domains by networks nodes of the two RATs using a common frequency reference” wherein “communication associated with the first RAT may be rate matched around some resources of the second RAT, and symbol-level, RB level, and/or RE-level rate matching patterns may be configured and dynamically transmitted to devices of the first RAT” – See [¶0088] and Fig. 6 wherein, like in Hathiramani, “spatial domain multiplexing may be utilized for dynamically sharing the spectrum band 620” – See [¶0091].
Hosseini further teaches wherein the RB comprises a DMRS common for both the apparatuses (MRSS or “multi-RAT spectrum sharing may be performed in the spatial domain based on one or more parameters used for communication on resources included in the spectrum band 620, such as one or more of a DMRS port indication, a DMRS scrambling identifier (ID)” – See [¶0091] and Fig. 6, e.g., “604 for dynamic spectrum sharing between a first RAT and a second RAT” – See [¶0089] wherein “the UE may be configured to refrain from rate matching a PDSCH ( or a PUSCH) if the UE is configured to use DMRS port #Y DMRS scrambling ID W, QCL state w, and/or TCI state y” and “data associated with the first RAT for the UE may be carried on the resources 626 that are dynamically shareable between the first RAT and the second RAT” – See [¶0094] i.e., a common DMRS resource is dynamically shared between the two RATs based on SDM because “transmissions associated with the first RAT may be non-orthogonal in the time and frequency domains to transmissions associated with the second RAT on the resources 626, such as where the transmissions of the first and second RATs are scheduled on overlapping resources that are dynamically shareable by both RATs” – See [¶0095]);
receiving, by the processor, the DMRS based on the configuration (“the PDSCH (or PUSCH) may be scheduled on resources 626 that are dynamically shareable between the first RAT and the second” – See [¶0094] whereby DMRS is associated with each scheduled PDSCH as explained in 3GPP TS 38.300 supra); and
performing, by the processor, a transmission or reception to or from the first network node based on the DMRS (“data associated with the first RAT may be multiplexed in the spatial domain with other data associated with the second RAT on the dynamically shared resources 626” – See [¶0095] and the “UE may receive signaling from a non-serving RAT on a band ( or carrier) that is configured for multi-RAT spectrum sharing so that the UE may measure such inter-RAT interference and report the results back to a network node of the serving RAT” – See [¶0097] and Fig. 7 wherein the reference signal at step 726 is the common DMRS).
Thus, Hosseini and Hathiramani each discloses MRSS communication whereby a UE is equipped with a 6G RAT and a 5G NR RAT and configured, e.g., in dual connection (MR/NR-DC) and/or carrier aggregation (CA) , with two network nodes, one for each RAT, configuring the UE for dynamic resource sharing through spatial division multiplexing (SDM). A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that configuring the UE to receive a common DRMS in a dynamically shared resource as taught by Hosseini could have been combined with the scheduling of a shared RB for the apparatus of the first RAT and another apparatus of the second RAT from the first network node, as taught in Hathiramani, because both rely on SDM for communication in MRSS. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the combination through techniques known in the art. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of allowing a common DRMS to be received on a dynamically shared resource for the UE to measure the interference in the direction of the receive beam based on receiving the at least one reference signal, as taught in Hosseini.
Therefore Claim 3 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Regarding Claim 4, dependent from Claim 3, Hathiramani further teaches the method of Claim 3, wherein an event that the first RAT and the second RAT comprise a 5G RAT and a 6th generation (6G) RAT (“the UE is a 6G user equipment with carrier aggregation and/or dual connectivity capability” – See [¶0031]; “the second RAT is different than 6G RAT” – See [¶0033] and “the UE is further configured to employ 5G to 6G beam mapping via Quasi-Co-location, QCL, assistance information in case of that the second radio access technology is 5G” – See [¶0027]). Although Hathiramani does not explicitly teach the DMRS comprises a 5th generation (5G) DMRS, Hathiramani implicitly teaches 5G DMRS reception at the UE ( “the UE shall receive PDSCH and PDCCH (if the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH from this SCell) and is expected to be able to perform CQI measurements” – See [¶0010] i.e., the UE will also receive the DMRS corresponding to the scheduled PDSCH, as taught in 3GPP 38.300 supra, because “the UE is configured to use first RAT signals and at least part of the second RAT signals for measurement in non-dormant state,” e.g., “in non-dormant mode 6G measurements might be extended/supplemented by at least partial 5G measurements” – See [¶0036]).
To be sure, Hosseini, like Hathiramani teaches that at least one RAT is 5G (“the first RAT may be a next generation RAT, such as a 6G RAT or a 5G NR RAT, whereas the second RAT may be a legacy RAT, such as a 5G NR RAT” or “the first RAT may be a legacy RAT, such as a 5G NR RAT or a 4G LTE RAT, whereas the second RAT may be a next generation RAT, such as a 6G RAT or a 5G NR RAT” – See [¶0089]) and further teaches common DMRS sent on dynamically shared resource (“the UE is configured to refrain from rate matching, the PDSCH ( or PUSCH) may be scheduled on resources 626 that are dynamically shareable between the first RAT and the second RAT” when “the UE is configured to use DMRS port #Y DMRS scrambling ID W, QCL state w, and/or TCI state y” – See [¶0094]) therefore the DMRS must be at least partially (through SDM) 5G DMRS and therefore, a UE configured to employ 5G to 6G beam mapping via Quasi-Co-location, QCL, like the one disclosed in Hathiramani supra would be able to even map the 5G beams to 6G. Because the method in Hathiramani is combinable with Hosseini on the common DMRS feature, Claim 4 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Regarding Claim 5, dependent from Claim 3, Hosseini further teaches the method of Claim 3, wherein the RB comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmitted for the first RAT and the second RAT by space-division multiplexing (SDM) (“Where the UE is configured to refrain from rate matching, the PDSCH ( or PUSCH) may be scheduled on resources 626 that are dynamically shareable between the first RAT and the second RAT” – See [¶0094] and Fig. 6-604 wherein “data associated with the second RAT may be scheduled on the dynamically shareable resources 626, as well” because “data associated with the first RAT may be multiplexed in the spatial domain with other data associated with the second RAT on the dynamically shared resources 626” – See [¶0095]).
Therefore, Claim 5 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Regarding Claims 10-12, dependent from Claim 8, each claim recites the same limitations as Claims 3-5, respectively, only applied to the apparatus of Claim 8. Because each of the claims 3-5 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini and Claim 8 is anticipated by Hathiramani, each of claims 10-12 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Regarding Claim 16, dependent from Claim 14, further teaches the method of Claim 14, further comprising:
determining, by the processor, a configuration of a resource block (RB) scheduled for the apparatus of the first RAT and another apparatus of the second RAT (“send, to the UE, configuration information for layer 1, L1, measurements considering a dormant and a non-dormant state of the first MRSS SCell; wherein the configuration for the dormant state is related to L1 measurements of signals of the second RAT, and wherein the configuration for the nondormant state is related to L 1 measurements of the first RAT” – See [¶0037] whereby “when an SCell is active, the UE shall receive PDSCH and PDCCH (if the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH from this SCell) and is expected to be able to perform CQI measurements” – See [¶0010] e.g., receive a DCI for scheduling/allocating PUCCH/PUSCH resources for measurement reporting, whereby “UE may Report Inter-RAT layer 1 measurements over a different RATs PUCCH/PUSCH,” i.e., on either RAT air interface, whereby, when “MRSS Cells spatial division multiplexing (SDM) could be employed . . . a set of beams could be used for NR while another set of beams could be used for 6G simultaneously” and “[t]he beam ids would be configured based on the RAT signals the UE is configured to measure per state” and “[b]ased on the beam ids reported by 6G UEs for an MRSS SCell the gNB may determine whether a subset of beams for 6G should he enabled in an MRSS SCell” – See [¶0085], i.e., beams with different ids received and/or transmitted on the 6G node/cell and from 5G NR node/cell can be SDM-ed on the same resource block scheduled for/by the apparatus of the first RAT, e.g., the 6G PCell and another apparatus of the second RAT, e.g., a 5G gNB/Scell).
based on
the measurement report of the CSI-RS of the second RAT (“the UE is further configured to employ 5G to 6G beam mapping via Quasi-Co-location, QCL, assistance information in case of that the second radio access technology is 5G” – See [¶0027] and “the UE employs . . . the second RAT signals for measurement and reporting in dormant state of the first MRSS SCell” – See [¶0028] and the first node “receive[s], the adapted L1 measurement report for the first RAT, from the UE via the PCell, wherein the adapted Ll measurement report is generated based on a L1 measurements of the second RAT” – See [¶0037])
wherein the RB comprises a DMRS common for both the apparatuses; and the steps and limitations of Claim 3, recited with the same language, only performed by the method of Claim 14 from the perspective of a network node.
In addition, Hosseini teaches configuration of a resource block (RB) scheduled for the apparatus of the first RAT and another apparatus of the second RAT based on the measurement result of the SRS or the PRACH (“The UE may transmit sounding reference signals (SRS). The SRS may be transmitted in the last symbol of a subframe” and “used by a base station for channel quality estimation . . . on the uplink” – See [¶0065] and Fig. 3C whereby the SRS signal is “data associated with the second RAT [that] may be scheduled on the dynamically shareable resources 626” – See [¶0095] and Fig. 6-604).
Because Claim 3 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini and Claim 14 is anticipated by Hathiramani, Claim 16 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Regarding Claims 17, dependent from Claim 16, Hathiramani further teaches the method of Claim 16, further comprising:
forwarding, by the processor, the measurement report of the CSI-RS of the second RAT to the second network node (e.g., when “the CU-CP (or more generically, the CU) may also be referred to as a (first) network node that supports at least one of central unit control plane functionality or a layer 3 protocol of a radio access network; and similarly, the DU may be referred to as a (second) network node that supports at least one of distributed unit functionality or the layer 2 protocol of the radio access network” – See [¶0068] it would be obvious for a person of ordinary skills in the art that the CU can and/or may forward the CSI report, and/or a dynamically shared resource block allocation to the DU because a “Distributed Unit (DU) may also be called RRH/RRU/RE/RU,” i.e., the radio interface to the UE – See id. ; otherwise, when “a 6G UE is in carrier aggregation or dual connectivity mode and is connected via a 6G PCell and via an MRSS SCell. The 6G UE supports other RATs so that the UE for example includes a 5G receiver in order to be available to services that are not supported by 6G” – See [¶00137] and the “UE is configured with at least some layer 1 measurements of a different RAT,” e.g., “the measurement and reporting could be based on some NR signals of the MRSS SCell” – See [¶00138] “[t]he inter-RAT measurement at layer 1 can then be performed and forwarded via a layer 1 the measurement report to the PCell” – See [¶00139] and the PCell or first node can forward it to the Scell of the second node e,g,, on the Xn interface shown in Fig. 1A-A).
Hosseini further teaches or forwarding, by the processor, the configuration of the RB to the second network node (“The network nodes of the at least two RATs may coordinate to select the resource(s) on which a UE is to measure inter-RAT interference,” e.g., “as shown in Fig. 7, first network node 702 associated with a first RAT may communicate, with a second network node 706 associated with a second RAT, information indicating resource(s) 722 that are dynamically shareable between the first RAT and the second RAT” – See [¶0098]).
Because the first and the second network nodes of Hathiramani and Hosseini can be substituted or combined with each other through techniques known in the art for reasons of executing the MRSS method as explained in Regarding Claim 16, Claim 17 is obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Regarding Claims 18-19, dependent from Claim 16, each claim recites the same limitations as in Claims 4-5, using the same language, only appliued to the method of Claim 16. Because each of the claims 4-5 and 16 are obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini, Claims 18-19 are also obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
In sum, Claims 3-5, 10-12 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as obvious over Hathiramani in view of Hosseini.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Lei et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0345253 discloses RATs in shared spectrum;
Lei et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0422756 discloses methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications that provide for multi-RAT spectrum sharing (MRSS) for network access procedures;
Lei et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0422763 discloses multi-stage grant for multiple RATs in shared spectrum;
Liu et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0048387 discloses techniques related to control signaling for multiple radio access technology (RAT) carrier aggregation whereby a UE receives downlink control information (DCI) for a first RAT (e.g., 5G and/or a second RAT (e.g., 6G), in a downlink control channel of the first RAT;
Deiss et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0063378 discloses determination of utilization of one or more radio chains of at least two radio chains for spectrum sharing between at least the first radio access technology and the second radio access technology;
Hasanzadezonuzy et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0126651 discloses system information for assisted access in wireless communications;
Rai et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20230284254 discloses determining DSS policy between multiple RATs;
Barac et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0367064 discloses a method for resource allocation between a first network node associated with a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second network node associated with a second RAT where the first RAT and the second RAT use an overlapping spectrum;
3GPP TS 38.211 V18.0.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical channels and modulation (Release 18)”;
3GPP TS 38.213 V18.0.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 18)”;
3GPP TS 38.214 V18.0.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 18)”;
3GPP TS 38.300 V17.6.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage 2 (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.331 v17.7.0 (2023-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17).”
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/L.G.G./Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1 In addition, Hosseini teaches “[t]he UE may transmit sounding reference signals (SRS). The SRS may be trans
Mitted in the last symbol of a subframe” and PUCCH/PUSCH DM-RS “for channel estimation at the base station”– See [¶0065] and Fig. 3C.
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