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 1-16 are pending.
Drawings are accepted.
IDS has been considered.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
3GPP TS 38.213 version 17.1.0 Release 17 – ETSI TS 138 213 (2022-05) – hereafter 3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi - US 2026/0012242.
As to claims 1 and 9:
3GPP TS 38.213 discloses:
A method for executing random access resource selection in a User Equipment (UE) served by a Network (See Clause 8 – describing UE performing random access, Clause 8.1 – UE performs random access after a SS/SPBCH block index is selected, i.e. random access resource selection in a UE), and
A User equipment (UE) configured for operation in a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) (See Clause 8 – describing UE performing random access), the UE comprising: a transceiver; and a processor, coupled to the transceiver (processor/memory/transceiver are intrinsic to such a UE configured to perform wireless communication network), configured to perform
the method comprising:
detecting, by the UE controlling the transceiver, a synchronization signal block (SSB) transmitted by an NTN cell, based on a predefined communication resource associated with the SSB; (See page 10, 4.1, “A UE receives the following synchronization signals (SS) in order to perform cell search: the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS), …reception occasions of a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), PSS, and SSS are in consecutive symbols, as defined in [4, TS 38.211], and form a SS/PBCH block”, see also page 10-12 for detailed discussion resources, i.e. time and frequency blocks, defined corresponding to SSB. That is to say detecting an SSB on a predefined resource associated with that SSB)
determining, by the UE, an identifier (ID) associated with the detected SSB; ( see page 11, “UE determines the 2 LSB bits of a candidate SS/PBCH block index per half frame from a one-to-one For mapping with an index of the DM-RS sequence transmitted in the PBCH” “an SS/PBCH block index is same as a candidate SS/PBCH block index”. That index determined by the UE corresponds to the claimed ID)
maintaining, by the UE, assistance information (See at least page 11, “A UE can be provided per serving cell by ssb-periodicityServingCell a periodicity of the half frames for reception of the SS/PBCH blocks for the serving cell”, see also page 12 for discussion of knowledge of assistance for detecting SSB the UE either obtains or configured for assumption, for example SSB/RA configuration (ssb-PositionsInBurst,ssb-perRACH-OccassionANDCB-PremablesPerSSB), and a set of SS/PBCH block indexes)
selecting, by the UE, one of the detected SSB as a first SSB based on the assistance information when a plurality of SSB are detected; and applying, by the UE, a random access resource associated with the first SSB for performing a random access procedure. (See Clause 8, Random access procedure, Clause 8.1 and 8.2 which discusses selection of SSB from a plurality of SSBs using assistance information and perform random access procedure. See page 47, “Prior to initiation of the physical random access procedure, Layer 1 receives from higher layers a set of SS/PBCH block indexes”. Clause 8.1 in entirety discloses in detail a procedure for using the selected SS/PBCH block index and performing random access based on the selected index)
Except 3GPP TS 38.213 discloses the Network in a general category, not in the sub-type NTN as claimed, and is silent on further information pertaining the assistance information, namely “wherein the assistance information comprises at least one of the following: first information associated with a presentation order of the detected SSB; and second information associated with an available service duration of a random access resource associated with the detected SSB”
Shi, also in related field of performing random access using network-provided assistance information for a UE with processor and memory/transceiver per Abstract, ¶0210, discloses the very same process but specifically name an applicable network cell type of NTN (¶0089-0091), effectively disclosing the network assisted random access can be applicable to NTN network to remedy 3GPP TS 38.213.
Shi further discloses wherein the assistance information comprises at least one of the following: first information associated with a presentation order of the detected SSB;(See at least ¶0114-0115, 0124, the coverage (assistance) information is provided by the network to assist SSB scanning to the UE, comprising scanning sequence of SSB scanning beams (i.e. presentation order) and second information associated with an available service duration of a random access resource associated with the detected SSB (¶0129 – a validity period of SSB for performing the PRACCH). Shi further discloses performing the random access based on selection of SSB from the plurality of SSBs per fig. 2, 6.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing time of the invention to execute the random access resource selection in a User Equipment (UE) served by a Network of 3GPP TS 38.213 in context of NTN and with assistance information comprising at least presentation order and validity duration. 3GPP TS 38.213 does not exclude any network types. Shi in Abstract, 0089-0091, has demonstrated the process can be readily applicable to NTNs as well, as it is a standard applying known NR RA technique to a specific type of network, i.e. NTN Along with assistance information comprising at least presentation order and validity duration, this combination with Shi advantageously allow for higher chance of success random access procedure with the UE is helped to obtain optimal SSB and minimize error due to changes caused by mobility of both the UE and the NTN access point.
As to claims 2, 10:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 1/9, wherein the first information associated with the presentation order of the detected SSBs comprises: a list of one or more reference SSB IDs of the NTN cell, each reference SSB ID being associated with a corresponding SSB transmitted by the NTN cell, wherein an order of each of the one or more reference SSB IDs in the list reflects the presentation order of the corresponding SSB. (See ¶0114-0115, 0120 of Shi, a SSB scanning sequence with a list of SSBs identified by their respective index, in particular see the examples discussed in ¶0115)
As to claims 3, 11:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 2/10, wherein the list further comprises one or more entities associated with the one or more reference SSB IDs, each entity being associated with an available service duration of a corresponding random access resource. (See Shi, ¶114, “coverage information includes a scanning sequence of SSB scanning beams, regions covered by different SSB scanning beams”, ¶0129, each SSB is included with a vadility period T associated the SSB and thus the corresponding region),
As to claims 4, 12:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 1/9, wherein the second information comprises at least one of following information: one or more reference SSB IDs of the NTN cell and each of the one or more reference SSB IDs is associated with an available service duration; one or more reference SSB IDs of the NTN cell and each of the one or more reference SSB IDs is associated with a distance value; one or more reference SSB IDs of the NTN cell and each of the one or more reference SSB IDs is associated with a distance indicator, wherein each of the distance indicator indicates a distance between a first reference location associated with the corresponding reference SSB ID and a second reference location associated with the NTN cell.
(See Shi, ¶114, description of the information included in the coverage information, i.e. “coverage information includes a scanning sequence of SSB scanning beams, regions covered by different SSB scanning beams”, ¶0129, each SSB is included with a vadility period T associated the SSB and thus the corresponding region),
As to claims 5, 13:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 1/9, further comprising: in response to determining that a received signal strength of a SSB exceeds a predefined threshold, determining that the SSB is a detected SSB; in response to determining that a positive indication of a SSB has been consecutively identified for a predefined number of times, determining that the SSB is a detected SSB; or in response to determining that the positive indication of a SSB has been identified for the predefined number of times within a predefined observation window, determining that the SSB is a detected SSB. (See 3GPP TS 38.213 ,at least page 17, first four paragraphs discusses the UE accesses radio link qualities for the SS/PBCH blocks, specifically RSRP measurement, and applied a threshold check and report a detected SSB with RSRP that is at least or greater than the threshold)
As to claims 6, 14:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 1/9, wherein selecting, by the UE, the one of the plurality of detected SSBs as the selected SSB based on the assistance information comprises: selecting, by the UE, the one of the plurality of detected SSBs as the first SSB based on the assistance information when initiating a random access procedure, or when the plurality of detected SSBs are determined. (See Shi, ¶0122, a better SSB is selected by a plurality of SSBs are detected based on SSB signal quality. Or ¶0119, the terminal simply selects an optimal SSB based on assistance information sent by the network)
As to claim 7, 15:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 1/9, wherein the assistance information further comprises: a detection order list of a plurality of SSB IDs of the plurality of SSBs, wherein the detection order list is organized by the UE based on a sequence in which each of the plurality of SSBs is determined as being detected. (See Shi, ¶0115, the beam coverage information for SSB scanning may use a plurality of SSB beams as a granularity, that is, use a beam set (one piece of beam coverage information corresponds to a plurality of SSB beams/SSB indexes) as a granularity. FIG. 5, SSB beams {0, 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24} are a beam set, and SSB beams {3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 16, 25, 26, 27} are a beam set. The SSB beams {0, 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24} have adjacent coverage or are located in adjacent position regions, and the SSB beams {3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 16, 25, 26, 27} have adjacent coverage or are located in adjacent position regions)
As to claims 8, 16:
3GPP TS 38.213 in view of Shi discloses all limitations of claim 1/9, wherein the selected SSB corresponds to the random access resource associated with the SSB having a longest available service duration among the plurality of detected SSBs; or the selected SSB is a most recently detected SSB among the plurality of detected SSBs. (Shi, ¶0122, 0169, “If the terminal device 110 detects, through measurement, that SSB signal quality of an adjacent satellite is better, the terminal device 110 subsequently performs a subsequent cell reselection or cell handover procedure based on a measured optimal SSB of the adjacent satellite”, which demonstrate the terminal device updates its measurement to determine if next SSB has better signal, and thus picks that latest SSB if that’s the case)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
WO 202152540 – for a Type-1 random access (four-step RACH), UE transmits multiple PRACH preambles using multiple beam(s)/panel(s). The UE 205 lists (i.e., internally selects) the best N beams, to be associated with the potential preamble beams, based on a predefined threshold of the detected SSBs RSRP. Once the UE receives RRC configuration for the possible M beams for PRACH it chooses L preamble beams, where L < min(A, M).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUAN M HUA whose telephone number is (571)270-7232. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30-6:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony Addy can be reached at 571-272-7795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/QUAN M HUA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
Prosecution Insights