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 .
DETAILED ACTION
a. Claims 1-19 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA :
- claim 18 is amended
- claims 5, 7, and 15 are canceled
b. This is a third non final action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 02/05/2026.
Response to Arguments
Regarding claim 18 previously objected for informalities, claim 18 has been amended according to the examiner's recommendation and thus the previous objection has been withdrawn.
Regarding Independent claims 1, 11, and 19 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant's arguments, see “Therefore, Turtinen fails to disclose or suggest subsequent to activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, selecting a beam of the LTM candidate cell as part of a Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) procedure with the LTM candidate cell, wherein the beam is associated with the activated TCI state, as recited in Claim 1” on page 9, filed on 02/05/2026, with respect to Turtinen et al. US Pub 2022/0159727 (hereinafter “Turtinen”), have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the previous rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Bai et al. US Pub 2024/0381190, claiming provisional application 63501883 priority 2023-05-12 (hereinafter “Bai”), in combination with previously applied references Kung and Kim. See section Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 below for complete details.
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 of this title, 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.
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 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.
Claims 1-4, 6, 9, 11-14, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kung et al. US Pub 2025/0039942, claiming provisional applications 63529648 priority 2023-07-28 and 63536655 priority 2023-09-05 (hereinafter “Kung”), in view of Kim US Pub 2024/0430944, claiming foreign application priority 2023-06-20 (hereinafter “Kim”), and further in view of Bai et al. US Pub 2024/0381190, claiming provisional application 63501883 priority 2023-05-12 (hereinafter “Bai”).
Regarding claim 1 (Currently Amended)
Kung discloses a method of operating a communication device( “Embodiments provide reporting for random access procedures for candidate cells associated with L1/L2-Triggered Mobility (LTM)” [0005]), the method comprising:
receiving a MAC Control Element (MAC CE) (“LTM is a procedure in which a gNB receives L1 measurement reports from UEs, and on their basis the gNB changes UEs' serving cell(s) through MAC CE.” [0539])
Kung does not specifically teach indicating an activation of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a Layer 1 /Layer 2 Triggered Mobility (LTM) candidate cell; activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell; selecting a preamble and a random access channel (RACH) resource based on the beam of the LTM candidate cell; and transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource, wherein transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource comprises a first preamble transmission attempt using the beam.
In an analogous art, Kim discloses indicating an activation of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a Layer 1 /Layer 2 Triggered Mobility (LTM) candidate cell (“The source cell/DU needs to know whether a candidate cell TA is still valid because the source cell/DU needs to determine whether it can initiate a RACH-less solution for LTM cell switch and then determine whether it needs to include a beam indication (e.g., transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state) and TA information in the LTM MAC CE.” [0087]); activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell (“Therefore, the network can indicate a valid TA to the UE or indicate whether a TA is still valid in LTM MAC CE.” [0087]);
selecting a preamble and a random access channel (RACH) resource based on the beam of the LTM candidate cell (“instruct the physical layer to transmit the random access preamble using the selected PRACH occasion, corresponding RA-RNTI (if available), PREAMBLE_INDEX, and PREAMBLE_RECEIVED_TARGET_POWER. 1> if the random access procedure is triggered by a PDCCH order for a LTM candidate cell (i.e., for TA acquisition of the cell): (The preamble transmission during this random access procedure for TA acquisition (i.e., early RACH) can be considered as this random access procedure is successfully completed)” [0134-0135]); and
transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource, wherein transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource comprises a first preamble transmission attempt using the beam (“except for contention-free random access preamble for beam failure recovery request and random access preamble for an LTM candidate cell by the PDCCH-ordered random access procedure (i.e., for TA acquisition of the cell), compute the RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion in which the random access preamble is transmitted; (UE does not have to compute the RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion in which the random access preamble is transmitted if random access preamble is transmitted by PDCCH order for TA acquisition of the LTM candidate cell because the reception of RAR is not expected. However, UE computes the RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion in which the random access preamble is transmitted, for normal random access procedure or random access procedure for LTM execution (i.e., LTM cell switch).” [0123]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system, to include Kim’s layer 1/2 triggered mobility (LTM) procedure, in order to efficiently select beams for transmission (Kim [0002]).
Kung and Kim do not specifically teach subsequent to activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, selecting a beam of the LTM candidate cell as part of a Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) procedure with the LTM candidate cell, wherein the beam is associated with the activated TCI state, wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell is performed prior to a first preamble transmission attempt of the CBRA procedure.
In an analogous art, Bai discloses subsequent to activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell (“an activated transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state for the candidate cell that is indicated by the PDCCH order” [0133]), selecting a beam of the LTM candidate cell as part of a Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) procedure with the LTM candidate cell (“In some aspects, such as aspects in which the RACH procedure is associated with a contention-based random access (CBRA) procedure without an RAR, the UE 120 may use as a path loss reference signal a reference signal (e.g., an SSB) associated with a beam selected by the UE 120 for the CBRA procedure. Put another way, in the operations shown in connection with reference number 630, the UE 120 may select, for the CBRA procedure, a beam, of multiple beams associated with the candidate cell that is indicated by the PDCCH order, and/or identify a transmission power level associated with the RACH procedure based at least in part on using, as a path loss reference signal, a reference signal associated with the beam selected for the CBRA procedure.” [0132]), wherein the beam is associated with the activated TCI state ([0133]), wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell is performed prior to a first preamble transmission attempt (i.e. “RACH procedure”) of the CBRA procedure (“the RACH procedure is associated with a CBRA procedure, and a beam, of multiple beams associated with the candidate cell that is indicated by the PDCCH order is used for the CBRA procedure” [0260]);
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system, as modified by Kim, to include Bai’s method for layer 1/layer 2 triggered mobility differential reporting, in order to efficiently mitigate beam transmission failures (Bai [0006]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Bai’s method for layer 1/layer 2 triggered mobility differential reporting into Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2 (Currently Amended)
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1, wherein selecting the beam comprises selecting at least one of:
Kung further discloses a reference signal (RS) (“The IE TCI-State associates one or two DL reference signals with a corresponding quasi-colocation (QCL) type.” [0528]);
a synchronization signal (SS) (“transmitted SS-blocks in a half frame with SS/PBCH blocks as defined in TS 38.213” [0527]);
a synchronization signal block (SSB) (“a list of reference signals (CSI-RS and/or SSB) identifying the candidate beams for recovery” [0061]);
a channel state information RS (CSI-RS) (“a list of reference signals (CSI-RS and/or SSB) identifying the candidate beams for recovery” [0061]); and
a mobility RS (MRS).
Regarding claim 3 (Currently Amended)
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1,
Kung further discloses wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell comprises selecting a beam that is associated with the TCI state and that is configured as a quasi-co-location (QCL) source of the TCI state (“The IE TCI-State associates one or two DL reference signals with a corresponding quasi-colocation (QCL) type.” [0528]; Tables 13-14).
Regarding claim 4
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1,
Kung further discloses wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell comprises selecting the beam from a plurality of beams of the LTM candidate cell based on a measurement associated with the beam (“The UE performs L1 measurements on the configured LTM candidate target cell(s), and transmits lower-layer measurement reports to the gNB.” [0572] and furthermore “If the TA maintenance etc. for candidate cell(s) in the UE is needed, the TA(s) associated with candidate cell(s) can be maintained during LTM” [0645]).
Regarding claim 6
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1,
Kung further discloses wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell comprises selecting the beam from a plurality of beams of the LTM candidate cell (“candidateBeamRSList: a list of reference signals (CSI-RS and/or SSB) identifying the candidate beams for recovery and the associated Random Access parameters” [0061]) based on the beam being used for a previous random access procedure (“The network can precisely know whether to optimize the candidate cell RACH configuration or not (e.g., failure due to Serving Cell beam management) based on the random access information” [0711] and furthermore “Additionally and/or alternatively, the UE could indicate or include information (e.g., one or more ID(s) or an index) associated with the non-serving cell in RA-InformationCommon (in the random access information). The one or more ID(s) or an index could indicate the non-serving cell associated with one or more beam(s) (in the RA-InformationCommon) (e.g., Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or CSI-RS) used for the random access procedure.” [0792]).
Regarding claim 9
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1,
Kung further discloses wherein activating the TCI state of the candidate cell (as previously taught by Khoshkholgh) comprises activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell while connected to a source cell that is separate from the LTM candidate cell (“an objective of the work item is to specify mechanism and procedure (e.g., an L1/L2-triggered Mobility (LTM) procedure) for dynamic switching mechanism among serving cells, including Special Cell(s) (SpCell(s)) and/or Secondary Cell(s) (SCell(s)) based on L1/L2 signaling. The serving cells could include a target Cell of the LTM procedure and one or more SCell(s) (to be added or released) in the LTM procedure. An LTM procedure could consist of a Next Generation Node B (gNB) of a source Cell providing a first information and a second information. The first information could contain or indicate candidate cell information (e.g., candidate cell configuration) (via an RRC message). The first information could contain or indicate one or more RRC reconfiguration messages associated with one or more candidate cell(s) (or candidate cell group(s)).” [0675]).
Regarding claim 11 (Currently Amended)
Kung discloses a communication device (“communication device 300” in Fig. 3; [0037]) comprising:
one or more processors (“central processing unit (CPU) 308” in Fig. 3; [0037]);
a memory (“memory 310” in Fig. 3; [0037]) storing instructions (“program code 312” in Fig. 3; [0037]) which, when executed by the one or more processors cause the communication device to:
receive a MAC Control Element (MAC CE) indicating an activation of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a Layer 1 /Layer 2 Triggered Mobility (LTM) candidate cell;
activate the TCI, state of the LTM candidate cell;
subsequent to activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, select a beam of the LTM candidate cell as part of a Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) procedure with the LTM candidate cell, wherein the beam is associated with the activated TCI state, wherein the beam is associated with the activated TCI state, wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell is performed prior to a first preamble transmission attempt of the CBRA procedure;
select a preamble and a random access channel (RACH) resource based on the beam of the LTM candidate cell; and
transmit the preamble to the RACH resource, wherein transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource comprises a first preamble transmission attempt using the beam.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 11 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 1. Therefore apparatus claim 11 corresponds to method claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 12 (Currently Amended)
The communication device of Claim 11, wherein selecting the beam comprises selecting at least one of:
a reference signal (RS);
a synchronization signal (SS);
a synchronization signal block (SSB);
a channel state information RS (CSI-RS); and
a mobility RS (MRS).
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 12 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 2. Therefore apparatus claim 12 corresponds to method claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 12 rejection above.
Regarding claim 13 (Currently Amended)
The communication device of Claim 11, wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell comprises selecting a beam that is associated with the TCI state and that is configured as a quasi-co-location (QCL) source of the TCI state.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 13 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 3. Therefore apparatus claim 13 corresponds to method claim 3 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 13 rejection above.
Regarding claim 14
The communication device of Claim 11, wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell comprises selecting the beam from a plurality of beams of the LTM candidate cell based on at least one of:
a measurement associated with the beam; the beam being associated with an active TCI state; or
the beam being used for a previous random access procedure.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 14 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claims 4-6. Therefore apparatus claim 14 corresponds to method claims 4-6 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claims 4-6 rejections above.
Regarding claim 17
The communication device of Claim 11, wherein activating the TCI state of the candidate cell comprises activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell while connected to a source cell that is separate from the LTM candidate cell.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 17 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 9. Therefore apparatus claim 17 corresponds to method claim 9 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 9 rejection above.
Regarding claim 19 (Currently Amended)
A non-transitory computer-readable media storing instruction which, when executed by processing circuitry of a communication device, cause the communication device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a MAC Control Element (MAC CE) indicating an activation of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a Layer 1 /Layer 2 Triggered Mobility (LTM) candidate cell;
activating the TCI, state of the LTM candidate cell;
subsequent to activating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, selecting a beam of the LTM candidate cell as part of a Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) procedure with the LTM candidate cell, wherein the beam is associated with the activated TCI state, wherein selecting the beam of the LTM candidate cell is performed prior to a first preamble transmission attempt of the CBRA procedure;
selecting a preamble and a random access channel (RACH) resource based on the beam of the LTM candidate cell; and
transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource, wherein transmitting the preamble to the RACH resource comprises a first preamble transmission attempt using the beam.
The scope and subject matter of non-transitory computer readable medium claim 19 is drawn to the computer program product of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 1. Therefore computer program product claim 19 corresponds to method claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Claims 8, 10, 16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kung, in view of Kim and Bai, and further in view of Khoshkholgh et al. US Pub 2024/033428, claiming provisional application 63455364 priority 2023-03-29 (hereinafter “Khoshkholgh”).
Regarding claim 8
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1,
Kung, Kim, and Bai do not specifically teach wherein selecting the beam of the candidate cell comprises selecting the beam in response to a predetermined number of failed preamble transmission attempts of the CBRA procedure.
In an analogous art, Khoshkholgh discloses wherein selecting the beam of the candidate cell comprises selecting the beam in response to a predetermined number of failed preamble transmission attempts of the CBRA procedure (“The wireless device may count the quantity/number of preamble transmissions and/or retransmissions, for example, using a counter parameter (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER). The wireless device may determine that a random access procedure has been completed unsuccessfully, for example, if the quantity/number of preamble transmissions exceeds a threshold configured by the one or more RACH parameters (e.g., preambleTransMax) without receiving a successful response (e.g., an RAR).” [0162]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system, as modified by Kim and Bai, to include Khoshkholgh’s layer 1/2 triggered mobility (LTM) procedure, in order to efficiently select beams for transmission (Khoshkholgh [0287]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Khoshkholgh’s layer 1/2 triggered mobility (LTM) procedure into Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 10
Kung, as modified by Kim and Bai, previously discloses the method of Claim 1,
Kung further discloses further comprising, subsequent to activating the TCI state of the candidate cell, determining to perform the CBRA procedure based on at least one of:
receiving a Layer 1/Layer 2 triggered mobility, LTM, cell switch command (“Support TA acquisition of candidate cell(s) before cell switch command is received in L1/L2 based mobility.” [0587] and furthermore “For LTM, both a RACH-based and a RACH-less LTM will be supported. For a RACH-based LTM, the UE initiates/performs a random access procedure to a target Cell in an LTM procedure (in response to receiving a cell switch command to switch to the target cell). The right part of FIG. 8 is an example.” [0676]);
receiving a handover command (“While configured with LTM candidate cells, the UE can also execute any L3 handover command sent by the network. R2 assumes that is could be up to the network to avoid any issue due to the race condition between LTM execution and RRC Reconfiguration (e.g. L3 HO cmd), e.g. avoid sending LTM switch cmd and L3 HO cmd in the same TB.” [0639]); or
initiation of a re-establishment procedure (“Primary Cell: The MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.” [0376] and furthermore “If the LTM supervisor timer for MCG expires, as baseline, the UE considers LTM failure and initiates RRC re-establishment” [0636]).
Kung, Kim, and Bai do not specifically teach applying a handover command in response to fulfillment of a conditional handover execution condition; applying a handover command in response to fulfillment of a LTM execution condition.
In an analogous art, Khoshkholgh discloses applying a handover command in response to fulfillment of a conditional handover execution condition (“FIG. 19 shows an example of a conditional handover (CHO) procedure. For example, a network (e.g., a base station, a source base station) may configure a wireless device 1901 (e.g., via the one or more configuration parameters), for example, to perform measurement reporting (e.g., the configuration of measurement gaps) for a plurality of neighbor/candidate cells (e.g., cells from a candidate target base station 1 1910, a candidate target base station 2 1920, etc.).” [0258]);
applying a handover command in response to fulfillment of a LTM execution condition (“The target base station (e.g., target base station 1 1910 and/or target base station 2 1920) may decide which cells are configured for use after the CHO, which may include cells other than the ones indicated by the source base station. For example, the source base station 1902 may send (e.g., transmit) a handover request 1942 to the target base station (e.g., target base station 1 1910 and/or target base station 2 1920). The target base station (e.g., target base station 1 1910 and/or target base station 2 1920) may response with a handover message. In an example, in the handover message, the target base station (e.g., target base station 1 1910 and/or target base station 2 1920) may indicate access stratum configuration (e.g., RRC configurations of the target cells) to be used in the target cell(s) for the wireless device 1901.” [0259]);
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system, as modified by Kim and Bai, to include Khoshkholgh’s layer 1/2 triggered mobility (LTM) procedure, in order to efficiently select beams for transmission (Khoshkholgh [0287]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Khoshkholgh’s layer 1/2 triggered mobility (LTM) procedure into Kung’s method for handling random access reporting in a wireless communication system since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 16
The communication device of Claim 11, wherein selecting the beam of the candidate cell comprises selecting the beam in response to a predetermined number of failed preamble transmission attempts of the CBRA procedure.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 16 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 8. Therefore apparatus claim 16 corresponds to method claim 8 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 8 rejection above.
Regarding claim 18
The communication device of Claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the communication device to:
subsequent to activating the TCI state of the candidate cell, determine to perform the CBRA procedure based on at least one of:
receiving a Layer 1/Layer 2 triggered mobility, LTM, cell switch command;
receiving a handover command;
applying a handover command in response to fulfillment of a conditional handover execution condition;
applying a handover command in response to fulfillment of a LTM execution condition; or
initiation of a re-establishment procedure.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 18 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 10. Therefore apparatus claim 18 corresponds to method claim 10 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 10 rejection above.
Conclusion
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411