DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 1-11 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nattha et al. (US 20230077982 A1) in view of Shen et al. (US 20240196347 A1)
Considering claims 1, 17, Nattha teaches a method for wireless communication, comprising:
receiving, by a terminal device (UE), first information from a network device (BS 904), wherein the network device corresponds to a serving cell of the terminal device (Fig.9, [0066]-[0067] At 906, the base station 904 may transmit a beam refinement configuration to the UE 902), wherein the first information an indicator indicating whether to measure concurrent SSB of neighbor cell and serving cell (Fig.1, 5-9, [0061]-[0063], [0072] UE may receive a beam refinement configuration),
determining, based on the first information, at least one of a first transmit beam or a first receive beam on a first time unit (Fig.1, 9-10, [0037] The UE 104 may receive the beamformed signal from the base station 180 in one or more receive directions 182″. The UE 104 may also transmit a beamformed signal to the base station 180 in one or more transmit directions, [0074] UE may identify the refined beam for the serving cell based on the sweeping of the multiple beams).
Nattha do not clearly teach determine a synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first neighbor cell based on a SSB index transmitted by a serving cell.
Shen teaches determine a synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first neighbor cell based on a SSB index transmitted by a serving cell (network device 12, Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036] step 201 may refer to receiving a QCL configuration parameter transmitted by a network device and used for measuring the neighboring cell..).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filling date of the application to provide above teaching of Shen to Nattha, in order to improve communication reliability by supporting beam related handover parameter configurations between neighboring base stations.
Considering claims 2, 19, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information is further used for the terminal device to determine the beam directions and the sending times of the plurality of transmit beams corresponding to at least one of the serving cell or the first neighbor cell (Natha: Fig.5-9), and the method further includes: determining, by the terminal device, the first receive beam based on a transmit beam corresponding to the first time unit among the plurality of transmit beams (Natha: Fig.1, [0037] The base station 180/UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions for each of the base station 180/UE 104); and receiving, by the terminal device, a signal on the first time unit through the first receive beam (Natha:Fig.1, [0037] The base station 180/UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions for each of the base station 180/UE 104, Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claims 3, 20, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information is used for the terminal device to determine the first receive beam on the first time unit, and when a beam direction of a transmit beam of at least one of the serving cell or the first neighbor cell on the first time unit is a degrees, a receive direction of the first receive beam is a+180 degrees (Natha:Fig.1, 5-9, [0037] The base station 180/UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions for each of the base station 180/UE 104, Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claim 4, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information is received over broadcast signaling (Natha: [0067]).
Considering claim 5, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information is carried in a management information base (MIB) or a system information block (SIB) (Natha: [0048]).
Considering claim 6, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information indicates whether there is zero direction offset between transmit beam by the first neighbor cell and the transmit beam by the serving cell (Natha: Fig.1, [0037] The base station 180/UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions for each of the base station 180/UE 104), and the first receive beam is determined according to a transmit beam of the serving cell on the first time unit (Natha: [0037], [0061]).
Considering claim 7, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information includes at least one of a time offset value or direction offset value of the transmit beam by the first neighbor cell relative to the transmit beam by the serving cell (Natha: Fig.5-9, [0041], [0061]-[0063] FIG. 5, a time delta Δt 506 may be present between the serving cell SSB X 502 and the neighbor cell SSB X 504), and the beam direction of the first receive beam is determined according to a transmit beam of the serving cell on the first time unit and the at least one of the time offset value or direction offset value (Natha: Fig.5-9, [0041], [0061]-[0063] FIG. 5, a time delta Δt 506 may be present between the serving cell SSB X 502 and the neighbor cell SSB X 504).
Considering claim 8, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first receive beam is one of a plurality of receive beams for the terminal device to perform beam sweeping on at least one of the serving cell or the first neighbor cell, and a number of receive beams of the terminal device is different from a number of transmit beams of one or both of the serving cell and the first neighbor cell (Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claim 9, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first neighbor cell is any one of a plurality of neighbor cells corresponding to the terminal device, the first information is used for the terminal device to determine a plurality of transmit beams corresponding to the plurality of neighbor cells (Natha: Fig.1, 5-9, [0037], [0061]), and the method further includes: determining, by the terminal device, one or more receive beams corresponding to the plurality of neighbor cells via the plurality of transmit beams, wherein the one or more receive beams are used for the terminal device to measure the plurality of neighbor cells (Natha: Fig.1, 5-9, [0037], [0061], Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claim 10, Nattha and Shen teach wherein when a number of the plurality of transmit beams corresponding to the plurality of neighbor cells and a number of transmit beams of the serving cell are different, the method further includes: determining, by the terminal device, transmit beams of each of the plurality of neighbor cells or transmit beams of the serving cell on the first time unit based on a maximum transmit beam number, wherein the maximum transmit beam number is a maximum value of a plurality of transmit beam numbers corresponding to the plurality of neighbor cells and the serving cell (Natha: Fig.1, [0037] The base station 180/UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions for each of the base station 180/UE 104).
Considering claim 11, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the beam directions and sending times of the plurality of transmit beams corresponding to at least one of the serving cell or the first neighbor cell are received from a core network (Natha: Fig.1, 5-9, [0037], [0061], Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claim 14, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first neighbor cell is any one of a plurality of neighbor cells corresponding to the terminal device, the first information further includes a maximum transmit beam number corresponding to a first valid region (Natha: Fig.1, 5-9, [0037], [0061]).
Considering claim 15, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the plurality of transmit beams corresponding to one or both of the serving cell and the first neighbor cell are used to carry synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) (Natha: Fig.1, 5-9, [0037], [0061], Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claim 16, Nattha and Shen teach wherein the first information includes beam directions and sending times of a plurality of transmit beams corresponding to one or both of the serving cell and the first neighbor cell (Natha: Fig.1, 5-9, [0037], [0061], Shen: Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036]).
Considering claim 18, Nattha teaches an apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media coupled to the at least one processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor (Fig.1, 3), wherein the programming instructions, when executed, cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving first information from a network device (BS 904), wherein the network device corresponds to a serving cell of the terminal device (Fig.9, [0066]-[0067] At 906, the base station 904 may transmit a beam refinement configuration to the UE 902), wherein the first information an indicator indicating whether to measure concurrent SSB of neighbor cell and serving cell (Fig.1, 5-9, [0061]-[0063], [0072] UE may receive a beam refinement configuration),
determining, based on the first information, at least one of a first transmit beam or a first receive beam on a first time unit (Fig.1, 9-10, [0037] The UE 104 may receive the beamformed signal from the base station 180 in one or more receive directions 182″. The UE 104 may also transmit a beamformed signal to the base station 180 in one or more transmit directions, [0074] UE may identify the refined beam for the serving cell based on the sweeping of the multiple beams).
Nattha do not clearly teach determine a synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first neighbor cell based on a SSB index transmitted by a serving cell.
Shen teaches determine a synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first neighbor cell based on a SSB index transmitted by a serving cell (network device 12, Fig.1-2, [0030], [0032]-[0036] step 201 may refer to receiving a QCL configuration parameter transmitted by a network device and used for measuring the neighboring cell..).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filling date of the application to provide above teaching of Shen to Nattha, in order to improve communication reliability by supporting beam related handover parameter configurations between neighboring base stations.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-13 is 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAI MINH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7923. The examiner can normally be reached 6-3.
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/KHAI M NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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