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 .
This Office action is in response to the amendment filed on 01/08/2026.
Claims 1-29 and 31 are presented for examination.
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.
Claims 1-29 and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bishwarup et al. (US 2022/0158715 A1), in view of KARMOOSE et al. (US 2022/0045789 A1).
As to claims 1-2 and 29, Bishwarup discloses the invention as claimed, including an apparatus for wireless communication by a user-equipment (UE) (Fig. 5, 501; Fig. 9), comprising:
one or more memories (Fig. 9, 920, 923; ¶0182-¶0184); and
one or more processors (Fig. 9, 905; ¶0182-¶0184) coupled to the one or more memories and configured to cause the UE to:
receive an indication from a base station (BS) to switch to a first channel configuration of multiple channel configurations to support a first code rate from a second channel configuration of the multiple channel configurations supporting a second code rate that is different from the first code rate (Fig. 3; Abstract, “configure the UE to receive, one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) using a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam, obtain a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”; ¶0003, “obtain a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”; ¶0006, “determine a first PDSCH target code-rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of the transport block (TB) and a second PDSCH target code-rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB)”; ¶0023, “receives one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) with default physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) receive (Rx) beam, and subsequently switches the PDSCH beam based on downlink control information (DCI) indicated transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to further receive one or more repetition of the same TB”; ¶0284-¶0286),
another of the first and second channel configurations indicates that the data channel is to be repeated on multiple TBs with each TB of the multiple TBs being on a respective one of the multiple segments (¶0006, “UE may be configured to receive one or more repetitions of the transport block (TB) using the second physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam. In some examples the processor may determine a first PDSCH target code-rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of the transport block (TB) and a second PDSCH target code-rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB)”; ¶0025, “wherein a TB is repeated four times with PDSCH-1, PDSCH-2, PDSCH-3 and PDSCH-4”; ¶0026, “The UE may be indicated by DCI using a sequence of TCI states representing different PDSCH beams to be applied for the different repetitions”; ¶0028, “wherein a TB is repeated 5 times with PDSCH-1, PDSCH-2, PDSCH-3, PDSCH-4 and PDSCH-5. PDSCH-1 is received with default PDSCH beam due to beam/panel switch delay with target code-rate R and PDSCH duration L. In FIG. 3, PDSCH-2 to PDSCH-5 are received with DCI indicated beams with target code-rate 2R and PDSCH duration L/2”);
communicate the data channel in accordance with the indication (¶0023; ¶0026; ¶0028, “In FIG. 3, PDSCH-2 to PDSCH-5 are received with DCI indicated beams with target code-rate 2R and PDSCH duration L/2”; ¶0125, “The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the DCI and the channel condition”; ¶0284-¶0287-).
Although Bishwarup discloses another of the first and second channel configurations indicates that the data channel is to be repeated on multiple TBs with each TB of the multiple TBs being on a respective one of the multiple segments (¶0006; ¶0023), Bishwarup does not specifically disclose wherein one of the first and second channel configurations indicates transmission of a data channel uses a transport block (TB) on multiple segments of a data unit.
However, KARMOOSE discloses wherein one of the first and second channel configurations indicates transmission of a data channel uses a transport block (TB) on multiple segments of a data unit (Fig. 5B, 539; Fig. 6, 602-605; Figs. 10-13; ¶0162, “a Mapping Across Slots (MAS) processing technique for transport blocks that may be used by transmitters (UE or gNB) in a wireless network, such as a 5G wireless network. MAS processing maps a TB of size B across the resources of K slots”; ¶0167, “MAS selects code blocks CB1-CB4 that are mapped into a single transport block 1301 across three consecutive slots 1302-1304”; ¶0229, “A TBoMS (also referred to as MAS herein) scheduling a TB for transmission may result in a corresponding TBS based on the TBS determination rule”; ¶0265, “X may be computed as the value of the TBS corresponding to the legacy (Rel-16) counterpart of the scheduled TBoMS”) and another of the first and second channel configurations indicates that the data channel is to be repeated on multiple TBs with each TB of the multiple TBs being on a respective one of the multiple segments (Fig. 5B, 539; Fig. 6, 602-605; Figs. 10-13; ¶0110, “each repetition may be used to transmit the same TB; and in each repetition, a different Redundancy Version (RV) index may be used that may change the RM output for each repetition”; ¶0171, “Multi-slot TBS Mapping-With-Repetition (M-MWR). M-MWR includes the possibility of scheduling higher TBS values that are not possible using a typical MWR-based or a Rel-16-based TBS determination process”; ¶0229, “A TBoMS (also referred to as MAS herein) scheduling a TB for transmission may result in a corresponding TBS based on the TBS determination rule”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Bishwarup to include wherein one of the first and second channel configurations indicates transmission of a data channel uses a transport block (TB) on multiple segments of a data unit, as taught by KARMOOSE because it would Increase scheduling flexibility by dynamically configuring the number of slots used for a single TB (KARMOOSE; ¶0162; ¶0167; ¶0229; ¶0265).
As to claim 3, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication of the second channel configuration indicates the data channel is to be repeated on the multiple TBs with each TB of the multiple TBs being on a respective one of the multiple segments, and wherein each repetition of the data channel comprises different encoding of data carried via the data channel (¶0006, “UE may be configured to receive one or more repetitions of the transport block (TB) using the second physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam. In some examples the processor may determine a first PDSCH target code-rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of the transport block (TB) and a second PDSCH target code-rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB)”; ¶0023, “a UE (e.g., UE 501a and/or UE 501b of FIG. 5) receives one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) with default physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) receive (Rx) beam, and subsequently switches the PDSCH beam based on downlink control information (DCI) indicated transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to further receive one or more repetition of the same TB”).
As to claims 4-7, KARMOOSE discloses wherein each of the multiple segments is in a different slot; wherein the multiple segments include non-contiguous segments; wherein the multiple segments include contiguous segments; wherein the contiguous segments span across a slot boundary between adjacent slots (¶0111, “UL slots may be allocated that are consecutive, non-consecutive, or a combination of consecutive and non-consecutive slots”; ¶0126, “repeat the TB across the K consecutive slots applying the same symbol allocation in each slot”; ¶0164, “Using a Multi-Slot TBS (M-TBS) determination process, the code block CB1 may be mapped into a single transport block 1001 across slots so that in the example of FIG. 10 one code block 1001 spans two consecutive slots (e.g., slots 1002 and 1003). Rate-matching may be used to allow the code block CB1 to exist on both slots 1002 and 1003 (e.g., crossing a slot boundary 1004)”; ¶0168-¶0169). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Bishwarup to include wherein each of the multiple segments is in a different slot; wherein the multiple segments include non-contiguous segments; wherein the multiple segments include contiguous segments; wherein the contiguous segments span across a slot boundary between adjacent slots, as taught by KARMOOSE because it would increase scheduling flexibility by transmitting the transport blocks based on the configuration of slots (KARMOOSE; ¶0111; ¶0126; ¶0164; ¶0168-¶0169).
As to claim 8, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein each segment of the multiple segments comprises a group of consecutive downlink configured symbols or a group of consecutive uplink configured symbols (¶0115, “Downlink and uplink transmissions may be organized into frames with 10 ms durations, where each frame includes ten 1 ms subframes. A slot duration is 14 symbols with Normal CP and 12 symbols with Extended CP, and scales in time as a function of the used sub-carrier spacing so that there is always an integer number of slots in a subframe”).
As to claim 9, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the instructions and cause the UE to: transmit the data channel if the data channel is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); or receive the data channel if the data channel is a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (¶0107, “the physical DL channels include the PDSCH, PMCH, PDCCH, EPDCCH, MPDCCH, R-PDCCH, SPDCCH, PBCH, PCFICH, PHICH, NPBCH, NPDCCH, NPDSCH, and/or any other physical DL channels mentioned herein. As examples, the physical UL channels include the PRACH, PUSCH, PUCCH, SPUCCH, NPRACH, NPUSCH…”; ¶0127, “can be used to schedule DL transmissions on PDSCH and UL transmissions on PUSCH”).
As to claim 10, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication of the first channel configuration is part of a downlink control information (DCI) that schedules the data channel (¶0062, “If a UE is configured with the higher layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI that is set as ‘enabled’ for the CORESET scheduling the PDSCH, the UE assumes that the TCI field is present in the DCI format 1_1 of the PDCCH transmitted on the Control Resource Set (CORESET)”; ¶0063, “when the PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 11, the UE shall use the TCI-State according to the value of the ‘Transmission Configuration Indication’ field in the detected PDCCH with DCI for determining PDSCH antenna port quasi co-location”).
As to claim 11, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 10, wherein: the DCI comprises a field configured to indicate a number of repetitions associated with the transmission of the data channel, and the field also includes the indication of the first channel configuration (¶0025, “wherein a TB is repeated four times with PDSCH-1, PDSCH-2, PDSCH-3 and PDSCH-4”; ¶0026, “The UE may be indicated by DCI using a sequence of TCI states representing different PDSCH beams to be applied for the different repetitions”; ¶0028, “In FIG. 3, PDSCH-2 to PDSCH-5 are received with DCI indicated beams with target code-rate 2R and PDSCH duration L/2”).
As to claim 12, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the DCI comprises a group-common DCI (¶0003, “a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”; ¶0006, “a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”).
As to claim 13, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: determine, based on the indication of the first channel configuration, whether transmission of at least one other data channel uses another TB on multiple segments of at least one other data unit or the other data channel is to be repeated on multiple other TBs with each TB of the multiple other TBs being on a respective one of the multiple segments of the other data unit; and communicate the other data channel in accordance with the determination (Fig. 3; ¶0003, “obtain a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”; ¶0006, “determine a first PDSCH target code-rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of the transport block (TB) and a second PDSCH target code-rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB)”; ¶0007; ¶0028, “wherein a TB is repeated 5 times with PDSCH-1, PDSCH-2, PDSCH-3, PDSCH-4 and PDSCH-5. PDSCH-1 is received with default PDSCH beam due to beam/panel switch delay with target code-rate R and PDSCH duration L. In FIG. 3, PDSCH-2 to PDSCH-5 are received with DCI indicated beams with target code-rate 2R and PDSCH duration L/2”; ¶0125, “The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey control information (e.g., DCI), and a set of CCEs may be referred to a “control region.” Control channels are formed by aggregation of one or more CCEs, where different code rates for the control channels are realized by aggregating different numbers of CCEs”)”; ¶0287-¶0288).
As to claim 14, Bishwarup discloses the apparatus of claim 13, wherein the other data channel is configured using one of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) or a configured grant (CG), and wherein the determination is further based on a configuration associated with the SPS or the CG (¶0127, “In addition to scheduling, the PDCCH can be used to for activation and deactivation of configured PUSCH transmission(s) with configured grant; activation and deactivation of PDSCH semi-persistent transmission”).
As to claims 15 and 31, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth in claim 1 above. In addition, Bishwarup discloses an apparatus for wireless communication by a base station (BS), comprising: one or more memories comprising instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions (Fig. 8; ¶0168, “The infrastructure equipment 800 (or “system 800”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node such as the RAN nodes 511 and/or AP 506”; ¶0169-¶0176).
As to claims 16-28, they are rejected for the reasons set forth in claims 2-14 above, respectively.
Applicant's arguments filed on 01/08/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts on page 10 of the Remarks that “While these paragraphs of Bishwarup
disclose repetition-based transmissions, beam switching, and changes in code-rate and duration, Bishwarup does not disclose or suggest transmitting a single transport block across multiple segments of a data unit in a distinct channel configuration.”
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Bishwarup discloses a TB is transmitted using multiple sets of configurations (e.g., different beam, code-rate, and duration), which constitutes transmitting a single TB across multiple segments (or repetitions) of a data unit in distinct channel configurations at paragraphs [0023] and [0287].
[0023] According to various embodiments, a UE (e.g., UE 501a and/or UE 501b of FIG. 5) receives one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) with default physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) receive (Rx) beam, and subsequently switches the PDSCH beam based on downlink control information (DCI) indicated transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to further receive one or more repetition of the same TB. The embodiments herein allow UEs to receive one or more repetition(s) of the same TB from different TRPs (e.g., RAN nodes 511 of FIG. 5) with a relatively small latency.
[0287] In some examples the UE may be configured to receive one or more repetitions of the transport block (TB) using the second physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam. In some examples the processor may determine a first PDSCH target code-rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of the transport block (TB) and a second PDSCH target code-rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB). In some examples the process or may determine, based on a received downlink control information (DCI), a sequence of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states states representative of downlink (DL) beam repetitions, wherein one or more individual TCI states of the sequence of TCI states are representative of corresponding downlink (DL) beams and configure the UE to receive one or more DL transmissions (Tx) over one or more DL channels according to the sequence of TCI states.
Bishwarup discloses receiving one or more repetitions of the transport block (TB) or the same TB (i.e., single TB) using the second physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam describes a multi-beam repetition scheme where a single Transport Block (TB) is transmitted multiple times using multiple sets of configurations (e.g., different beam, code-rate, and duration).
In addition, KARMOOSE discloses Transport Block over Multiple Slots (TBOMS) that allows a single data unit (Transport Block) to be mapped and transmitted across several consecutive time slots (Fig. 5B, 539; Fig. 6, 602-605; Figs. 10-13; ¶0162, “a Mapping Across Slots (MAS) processing technique for transport blocks that may be used by transmitters (UE or gNB) in a wireless network, such as a 5G wireless network. MAS processing maps a TB of size B across the resources of K slots”; ¶0167, “MAS selects code blocks CB1-CB4 that are mapped into a single transport block 1301 across three consecutive slots 1302-1304”; ¶0229, “A TBoMS (also referred to as MAS herein) scheduling a TB for transmission may result in a corresponding TBS based on the TBS determination rule”; ¶0265, “X may be computed as the value of the TBS corresponding to the legacy (Rel-16) counterpart of the scheduled TBoMS”).
KARMOOSE explicitly discloses transmitting a single transport block across multiple segments of a data unit in a distinct channel configuration (i.e., data rate, configuration parameter) (¶0229, “Yet another upper limit X may be based on the corresponding data rate in which the attained data rate for the TBoMS should not exceed the corresponding attained data rate for the legacy PDSCH/PUSCH for the same configuration parameters. The configuration parameters may be the scheduled parameters for the TBoMS”; ¶0261; ¶0266, “X may be equivalent to the number of available coded bits in legacy PDSCH/PUSCH scheduling using the same scheduled/configured parameters for the TBoMS”).
Applicant asserts on page 10 of the Remarks that “Bishwarup does not disclose
switching between distinct channel configurations that differ in transmission architecture (i.e., one configuration for segmented TB transmissions and another for repeated TB transmissions)”.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Bishwarup discloses claimed “switch to a first channel configuration of multiple channel configurations to support a first code rate from a second channel configuration of the multiple channel configurations supporting a second code rate that is different from the first code rate” (Fig. 3; Abstract, “configure the UE to receive, one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) using a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam, obtain a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”; ¶0003, “obtain a downlink control information (DCI) comprising one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam, different from the first PDSCH beam, based at least in part on the one or more TCI states”; ¶0006, “determine a first PDSCH target code-rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of the transport block (TB) and a second PDSCH target code-rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB)”; ¶0023, “receives one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) with default physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) receive (Rx) beam, and subsequently switches the PDSCH beam based on downlink control information (DCI) indicated transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to further receive one or more repetition of the same TB”; ¶0284-¶0286).
Applicant asserts on page 10 of the Remarks that “Karmoose does not disclose a UE
maintaining multiple channel configurations in which one configuration inherently uses segmented transport blocks and another uses multi-TB repetition, nor does it disclose dynamically selecting between such configurations in response to a base-station indication. Karmoose similarly does not disclose associating code-rate selection with selecting between segmented TB transmission and repeated TB transmission.
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., a UE maintaining multiple channel configurations in which one configuration inherently uses segmented transport blocks and another uses multi-TB repetition; dynamically selecting between such configurations in response to a base-station indication; associating code-rate selection with selecting between segmented TB transmission and repeated TB transmission) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 JUNGWON CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3960. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5:30PM.
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, GLENTON BURGESS can be reached on (571)272-3949. 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.
/JUNGWON CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454 April 4, 2026