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 .
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because contains illegal words (claim terms) such as “comprise”. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Clarity of record.
Claim 1 recites the following contingent limitations: ‘b) in case that a value of the indicator is a first value, transmitting the SRS to the base station, based on the MAC CE indicating the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information;
and ‘c) in case that the value of the indicator is a second value, transmitting the SRS to the base station, based on the configuration information”. These limitations are contingent because they recite steps that are only required to be performed if their conditions precedent are met. Limitation b) only needs to be performed if a value of the indicator is a first value, transmitting the SRS to the base station, based on the MAC CE indicating the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information.
C) only needs to be performed if the value of the indicator is a second value, transmitting the SRS to the base station, based on the configuration information.
These conditions are mutual exclusive, and therefore only one of limitations b) and C) can be performed. Therefore, the BRI of claim 1 requires limitation a) and only one of either limitations b) or limitations c).
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.
Claims 1-3,5-7,9-11 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over "3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)", 3GPP DRAFT; DRAFT_38331-H10_V5, 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (3GPP), MOBILE COMPETENCE CENTRE ; 650, ROUTE DES LUCIOLES ; F-06921 SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS CEDEX ; FRANCE ,18 July 2022 (2022-07-18), XP052211871, Retrieved from the Internet: URL:https://tp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran/WG2_RL2/Specifications/ 202206_draft_specs_after_RAN_96/Draft_38331-h10_v5.docx [retrieved on 2022-07-18] (See IDS) in view of SAMSUNG: "TCI State Indication for SRS Resource", 3GPP DRAFT; R2-2206443, 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (3GPP), MOBILE COMPETENCE CENTRE ; 650, ROUTE DES LUCIOLES ; F-06921 SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS CEDEX ; FRANCE vol. RAN WG2, no. Electronic; 20220509 - 20220520 16 May 2022 (2022-05-16), XP052205012, Retrieved from the Internet: URL:https://ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran/WG2_RL2/TSGR2_118-e/Inbox/ R2-2206443.zip R2-2206443 6.17.3.2 SRS TCI indication.docx [retrieved on 2022-05-16] (See IDS).
With regards to claim 1, 3rd Generation Partnership Project discloses A method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system (Fig. 4.2.1-1), the method comprising receiving, from a base station, configuration information comprising information enabling a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for a sounding reference signal (SRS), information indicating that the unified TCI state is applied for the SRS, and information on an identity (ID) of a serving cell and an ID of a
bandwidth part (BWP) which are referenced to apply the unified TCI state (p. 498, "BWP-UplinkDedicated information element", "ul-TCI-StateList-r17", "unifiedTCI-StateRef-r17 ServingCellAndBWP-Id-r17"; p. 501, "ul-TCI-StateList Indicate the
applicable UL TCI states for [...] SRS.; "unifiedTCI-StateRef Provides the
serving cell and UL BWP where applicable UL TCI states applicable to this UL BWP are defined.");
3rd Generation Partnership Project discloses all of the subject matter discussed above, but is not explicit about,
(i) receiving, from the base station, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for indicating a TCI state of the SRS, the MAC CE comprising a one-bit indicator.
(ii) in case that a value of the indicator is a first value, transmitting the SRS to the base station, based on the MAC CE indicating the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information; and in case that the value of the indicator is a second value, transmitting the SRS to the base station, based on the configuration information.
(a) With regards to items (i) and (ii) above;
However, SAMSUNG discloses in section 2.1, "For Rel-17 unified TCI state framework, a new MAC CE "Serving Cell Set based SRS TCI State Indication MAC CE" is needed for unified TCI state update of RRC configured serving cell sets simultaneousSpatial-UpdatedList1 and simultaneousSpatial-UpdatedList2, and the actual activation can be done by the new MAC CE "SP/AP SRS TCI State Indication MAC CE"."; section 2.2, If this field is set to 1, TCI State Serving Cell ID field(s) and TCI State BWP ID field(s) are present"; section 2.3, "If this field is set to 1, TCI State Serving Cell ID field(s) and TCI State BWP ID field(s) are present"; section 2.2, "otherwise they are not present so MAC entity shall ignore TCI State Serving Cell ID field(s) and TCI State BWP ID field(s);"; section 2.3, "otherwise they are not present so MAC entity shall ignore TCI State Serving Cell ID field(s) and TCI State BWP ID field(s);").
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of 3rd Generation Partnership Project as taught by SAMSUNG to arrive at the claimed invention, wherein the differences relate to signaling states of the three or more connectors and wherein each symbol defines one of at least three signaling states for each of the three or more connectors with a reasonable expectation of success, thus allowing increased throughput (see SAMSUNG).
With regards to claim 5, the combination of 3rd Generation Partnership Project and Samsung discloses a terminal in a wireless communication system ( see3rd Generation Partnership Project fig. 4.2.1-1), the terminal comprising: a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver, wherein the controller is configured to: receive, from a base station, configuration information comprising information enabling a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for a sounding reference signal (SRS), information indicating that the unified TCI state is applied for the SRS, and information on an identity (ID) of a serving cell and an ID of a bandwidth part (BWP) which are referenced to apply the unified TCI state, receive, from the base station, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for indicating a TCI state of the SRS, the MAC CE comprising a one-bit indicator, in case that a value of the indicator is a first value, transmit the SRS to the base station, based on the MAC CE indicating the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information, and in case that the value of the indicator is a second value, transmit the SRS to the base station, based on the configuration information.( Claim recites similar limitations as in claim 1, see similar rejections as in claim1 above)
With regards to claim 9, the combination of 3rd Generation Partnership Project and Samsung discloses a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system( see3rd Generation Partnership Project fig. 4.2.1-1),, the method comprising: transmitting, to a terminal, configuration information comprising information enabling a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for a sounding reference signal (SRS), information indicating that the unified TCI state is applied for the SRS, and information on an identity (ID) of a serving cell and an ID of a bandwidth part (BWP) which are referenced to apply the unified TCI state; transmitting, to the terminal, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for indicating a TCI state of the SRS, the MAC CE comprising a bit indicator; in case that a value of the indicator is a first value, receiving the SRS from the terminal, based on the MAC CE indicating the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information; and in case that the value of the indicator is a second value, receiving the SRS from the terminal, based on the configuration information. Claim recites similar limitations as in claim 1, see similar rejections as in claim1 above)
With regards to claim 13, the combination of 3rd Generation Partnership Project and Samsung a base station in a wireless communication system( see3rd Generation Partnership Project fig. 4.2.1-1),, the base station comprising: a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver, wherein the controller is configured to: transmit, to a terminal, configuration information comprising information enabling a unified transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for a sounding reference signal (SRS), information indicating that the unified TCI state is applied for the SRS, and information on an identity (ID) of a serving cell and an ID of a bandwidth part (BWP) which are referenced to apply the unified TCI state, transmit, to the terminal, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for indicating a TCI state of the SRS, the MAC CE comprising a bit indicator, in case that a value of the indicator is a first value, receive the SRS from the terminal, based on the MAC CE indicating the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information, an in case that the value of the indicator is a second value, receive the SRS from the terminal, based on the configuration information. Claim recites similar limitations as in claim 1, see similar rejections as in claim1 above)
With regards to claims 2, 6, 10 and 14, the combination of 3rd Generation Partnership Project and Samsung the method of claim 1, wherein, in case that the value of the indicator is the second value, the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP are ignored in the MAC CE. (SAMSUNG: section 2.1-- - the actual activation can be done by the new MAC CE "SP/AP SRS TCI State Indication MAC CE", section 2.3, "If this field is set to 1, TCI State Serving Cell ID field(s) and TCI State BWP ID field(s) are present"; );
With regards to claims 3, 7, 11, 15, the combination of 3rd Generation Partnership Project and Samsung the method of claim 1, wherein the MAC CE comprises a semi- persistent/aperiodic (SP/AP) SRS TCI state indication MAC CE, or a serving cell set based SRS TCI state indication MAC CE.(see section 2.1, the actual activation can be done by the new MAC CE "SP/AP SRS TCI State Indication MAC CE").
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4,8, 12 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior arts cited alone or in combination provides the motivation to teach a The method of claim 1, further comprising: in case that the value of the indicator is the first value, and the MAC CE comprises an ID of a serving cell and an ID of a BWP which are different from the ID of the serving cell and the ID of the BWP comprised in the configuration information as recited in claim 4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Davydov et al (US 20210328739 A1) discloses a sounding reference signal (SRS) received from a user equipment (UE) is disclosed
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/HELENE E TAYONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631 May 30, 2026
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