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 .
Oath/Declaration
The applicant’s oath/declaration has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
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.
Independent Claims
Claim(s 1, 4, 8, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei (US-20200236716) in view of Nokia. “On 2-Step RACH Channel Structure.” 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #96, Athens, Greece, 24 Feb.-1 Mar. 20, 19, R1-1902135; KDDI Corporation. “Discussion on Channer Structure for Two-Step RACH.” 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #96, Athens, Greece, 25 Feb.-1 Mar. 2019, R1-1902961.
As to claim 1, 4, 8, 11: Lei teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: transmitting a first message comprising a random access preamble and an uplink data channel ([0082, 91, 175, 183] For the RACH procedure 410, the UE 404 may generate the msgA 414 to include at least a PRACH preamble 422 and a payload 426. The payload 426 may include at least one reference signal 428 and data on an uplink data channel 430); and receiving a second message comprising a random access response based on the first message ([0084] In the wireless communications system 400, the two-step RACH procedure 410 may include the exchange of two messages. Specifically, the UE 404 may initiate the message exchange of the two-step RACH procedure 410 by sending a first RACH message 414 to the base station 402 and, responsive to the first RACH message 414, the base station may complete the message exchange of the RACH procedure 410 by sending a second RACH message 516 (also known as a RACH response message) to the UE 404.), wherein the random access preamble is transmitted in at least one first occasion from among first occasions ([0108-110] The base station 402 may allocate specific sets of resources for preamble transmissions initiating two-step RACH procedures, and each of the specific sets of resources may be a RACH occasion), … , wherein the random access preamble is obtained from among at least one preconfigured random access preamble ([0093, 94, 177] The payload size of the msgA 414 may be indicated by the preamble 422 of the msgA 414. For example, for a specific RRC state, the preamble sequences configured on a RACH occasion may be divided into two groups: group A and group B), … , and wherein a time offset as a number of slot is configured via system information ([0087, 92, 132] the base station 402 may periodically transmit (e.g., broadcast) the configuration information 420, such as in a MIB and/or one or more SIBs).
Lei may not explicitly teach wherein the uplink data channel is transmitted in at least one second occasion from among second occasions that are consecutive in a frequency domain and a time domain … and a start slot of the at least one second occasion is determined based on the time offset from a slot of the at least one first occasion. However, Nokia teaches wherein the uplink data channel is transmitted in at least one second occasion from among second occasions that are consecutive in a frequency domain and a time domain (p.3 In the time-frequency grid, multiple 2SR PUSCH resource units can be used for data transmission according to the preamble index. The PUSCH resources are consecutive in frequency and in time) … and a start slot of the at least one second occasion is determined based on the time offset from a slot of the at least one first occasion (p.3 the earliest 2SR PUSCH resource unit at the lowest frequency starts Preamble2DataTime symbols/slots from the start fo the RO used for preamble transmission in the time domain).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement determine preamble mapping and association, taught by Nokia , into the communication system, taught by Lei, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and reduce collisions. In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Nokia and Lei in a known manner to obtain predictable results as the combination would not change the essence, quiddity, or functionality of the prior art references.
Lei may not explicitly teach wherein at least one index of the at least one random access preamble is mapped to the at least one second occasion in ascending order. However, KDDI teaches wherein at least one index of the at least one random access preamble is mapped to the at least one second occasion in ascending order (p.2, figure 2 In order to alleviate the collision and to avoid the blind decoding of the PUSCH, one solution is to configure a mapping table from a preamble to a unique PUSCH resource in the pool).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement map preamble to PUSCH resource, taught by KDDI, into the communication system, taught by Lei, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and reduce collisions. In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Lei and KDDI in a known manner to obtain predictable results as the combination would not change the essence, quiddity, or functionality of the prior art references.
Dependent Claims
Claim(s) 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei (US-20200236716) in view of Nokia. “On 2-Step RACH Channel Structure.” 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #96, Athens, Greece, 24 Feb.-1 Mar. 20, 19R1-1902135; KDDI Corporation. “Discussion on Channer Structure for Two-Step RACH.” 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #96, Athens, Greece, 25 Feb.-1 Mar. 2019, R1-1902961.
As to claim 2, 5, 9, 12: Lei teaches the method according to claim 1.
Lei may not explicitly teach wherein the at least one index of the at least one random access preamble is mapped to the at least one second occasion in ascending order based on at least one of: (i) the second occasions being frequency-multiplexed in the frequency domain being considered in ascending order, or (ii) the second occasions being time-multiplexed in the time domain being considered in ascending order. However, KDDI teaches wherein the at least one index of the at least one random access preamble is mapped to the at least one second occasion in ascending order based on at least one of: (i) the second occasions being frequency-multiplexed in the frequency domain being considered in ascending order, or (ii) the second occasions being time-multiplexed in the time domain being considered in ascending order (p.2, figure 2 A preamble is mapped to a unique Msg A PUSCH resources to alleviate the occurrence of collision and to reduce complexity of blind decoding at the gNB side).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement map preamble to PUSCH resource, taught by KDDI, into the communication system, taught by Lei, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and reduce collisions. In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Lei and KDDI in a known manner to obtain predictable results as the combination would not change the essence, quiddity, or functionality of the prior art references.
Ao to claim 3, 6, 10, 13: Lei teaches the method according to claim 2.
Lei may not explicitly teach wherein (i) after the second occasions frequency-multiplexed in the frequency domain are considered in ascending order, (ii) the second occasions time-multiplexed in the time domain are considered in ascending order. However, KDDI teaches wherein (i) after the second occasions frequency-multiplexed in the frequency domain are considered in ascending order, (ii) the second occasions time-multiplexed in the time domain are considered in ascending order (p.2, figure 2 A preamble is mapped to a unique Msg A PUSCH resources to alleviate the occurrence of collision and to reduce complexity of blind decoding at the gNB side).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement map preamble to PUSCH resource, taught by KDDI, into the communication system, taught by Lei, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and reduce collisions. In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Lei and KDDI in a known manner to obtain predictable results as the combination would not change the essence, quiddity, or functionality of the prior art references.
As to claim 7: Lei teaches the apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the apparatus is configured to communicate with at least one of a mobile terminal, a network, or an autonomous vehicle other than a vehicle comprising the apparatus ([0043]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW CHUNG SUK OH whose telephone number is (571)270-5273. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 12p-8p.
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/ANDREW C OH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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