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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Independent Claim
Claim(s) 1, 8, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan (US-20210258998) in view of Sengupta (US-20200145964).
As to claim 1, 8, 14: Khoshnevisan teaches a first node for wireless communications, comprising: a first receiver, receiving first DCI ([0206-207] UE receives DCI messages) … ; and a first transmitter, transmitting a first signal, the first signal carrying a firsts HARQ-ACK bit sequence ([0212, 158] UE configured to provide HARQ feedback); wherein the first DCI comprises a first field; for the first DCI, the first field comprised is used for indicating a total number of cell(s) scheduled by first-type DCI(s) other than cell(s) scheduled by third-type DCI(s) up to a current time interval in a first resource pool, time-domain resources occupied by the first DCI belonging to the current time interval ([0156] value of a counter DAI field for a DCI format 1_0 or a DCI format 1_1 may define a number (e.g. serving cells and PDCCH occasions pairs); [0160] value of each counter DAI field may define a number (e.g. of DCI messages and PDCCH occasion pairs)); a said first-type DCI is used for scheduling multiple PDSCH receptions based on Transport Blocks (TBs), and a total number of TBs carried by the multiple TB-based PDSCH receptions scheduled by the said first- type DCI is greater than one ([0161, 193, 201-203] number of TBs that the UE 115-a receives in a PDSCH scheduled by a DCI message 210),
Khoshnevisan may not explicitly teach and at least one third-type DCI … a third-type DCI is used for scheduling a PDSCH reception based on TBs, and a number of TB(s) carried by the TB-based PDSCH reception scheduled by the third-type DCI is no greater than one. However, Sengupta teaches and at least one third-type DCI … a third-type DCI is used for scheduling a PDSCH reception based on TBs, and a number of TB(s) carried by the TB-based PDSCH reception scheduled by the third-type DCI is no greater than one ([0005, 54, 97, 99] single DCI transmission may schedule a single transport block).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement a DCI scheduling a single TB, taught by Sengupta, into the communication system, taught by Khoshnevisan, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and reduced complexity in decoding . In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Sengupta and Khoshnevisan 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) 2-7, 9-13, 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshnevisan (US-20210258998) in view of Sengupta (US-20200145964).
As to claim 2, 9, 15: Khoshnevisan teaches the first node according to claim 1, wherein the first DCI belongs to the first-type DCI; the total number of the cell(s) scheduled by the first-type DCI(s) up to the current time interval in the first resource pool is: a total number of {serving cell, time interval}-pair(s) associated with first-type DCI(s) up to the current time interval ([0156] a value of a counter DAI field for a DCI format 1_0 or a DCI format 1_1 may define a number (e.g., serving cells and PDCCH occasions pairs) in which PDSCH reception(s) or semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH release associated with the DCI format 1_0 or the DCI format 1_1, or both, is present. The number may be up to a current serving cell and a current PDCCH occasion).
As to claim 3, 10, 16: Khoshnevisan teaches the first node according to claim 2, comprising: the first receiver, receiving on M PDSCHs; wherein the first DCI comprises configuration information for the M PDSCHs ([0203]); the first DCI schedules TB-based M PDSCH receptions ([0203]), and a total number of TBs carried by the M TB-based PDSCHs scheduled by the first DCI is greater than K ([0201-203] NTB,max is max number of DL TBs associated with corresponding DCI message, this value may be four, two, or one); M is a positive integer greater than 1 ([0203] NSPS,c may be the number of SPS PDSCH receptions by the UE 115-a on a serving cell c for which the UE 115-a transmits corresponding feedback (e.g., HARQ-ACK information) in the same PUCCH as the UE 115-a uses for feedback corresponding to PDSCH receptions or SPS PDSCH release scheduled by the DCI message 210 (e.g., DCI format 1_0) within the M PDCCH monitoring occasions.).
As to claim 4, 17: Khoshnevisan teaches the first node according to claim 2,
wherein the first HARQ-ACK bit sequence comprises HARQ-ACK information bit(s) associated with the first DCI ([0151, 158] HARQ feedback).
As to claim 5, 11, 18: Khoshnevisan teaches the first node according to claim 2,
wherein K is equal to 1 ([0193, 201-203] NTB,max is max number of DL TBs associated with corresponding DCI message, this value may be four, two, or one); the first HARQ-ACK bit sequence comprises HARQ-ACK information bit(s) associated with the first DCT ([0151, 158] HARQ feedback).
As to claim 6, 12, 19: Khoshnevisan teaches the first node according to claim 5, wherein the first HARQ-ACK bit sequence comprises a second HARQ-ACK sub-codebook, the second HARQ-ACK sub-codebook being a sub-codebook used for bearing HARQ-ACK information bit(s) for TB-based PDSCH reception(s) scheduled by the first-type DCI(s) ([0193, 194] TB-based and codeblock group-based are two sub-codebooks with separate counting).
As to claim 7, 13, 20: Khoshnevisan teaches the first node according to claim 5, wherein the first signal is transmitted in a first time unit, each said first-type DCI indicates a HARQ-ACK information transmission in the first time unit ([0148, 158] in addition to scheduling the PDSCH 315-a associated with the component carrier 305-a and the PDSCH 315-b associated with the component carrier 305-b, the DCI message 310 may schedule a PUCCH 320).
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Faruk Hamza can be reached at 5712727969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW C OH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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