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 .
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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/30/2025 has been entered.
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.
Claims 7-9, 23-25, 64-66 and 70-72 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over R1-102187 “Discussion on RB Bundling for DM-RS” (hereinafter Samsung) in view of US 8108757 (hereinafter Ahn) and US 2010/0271999 (hereinafter Yu).
Regarding claims 7, 23, 64 and 70, Samsung teaches a method / apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive bundling indicators for a plurality of downlink transmissions (Section 3: details an indication from eNodeB to UE could be supported in LTE-A to turn on/off the feature of RB bundling); determine a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) bundling configuration based on the bundling indicators (Section 2: details RB bundling for DM-RS… DM-RS pattern); and process demodulation reference signals according to the DMRS bundling configuration (Sections 3-4: details perform same downlink precoding vector across bundled RB… RB bundling allows UEs to perform channel estimation and demodulation jointly across bundled RBs).
Samsung does not explicitly teach, via control signaling, wherein each bundling indicator comprises a respective bit corresponding to a respective downlink transmission of the plurality of downlink transmissions; receive, via the control signaling, corresponding downlink assignment indicators associated with the bundling indicators, wherein each corresponding downlink assignment indicator has a respective value corresponding to a respective downlink transmission of the plurality of downlink transmissions; and based on the corresponding downlink assignment indicators.
However, Ahn teaches receive, via control signaling, bundling indicators; receive, via control signaling, corresponding downlink assignment indicators associated with the bundling indicators, and based on the corresponding downlink assignment indicators (Claim 1: details each PDCCH carrying a downlink assignment used for each PDSCH transmission, the downlink assignment including a bundling indicator indicating an accumulative number of PDCCHs with the assigned PDSCH transmission up to a present subframe corresponding to the downlink assignment).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Samsung to incorporate the teachings of Ahn and these limitations of Ahn with Samsung. Doing so would allow for efficient use of limited resources (Ahn, at col. 1, ll. 57-60).
Moreover, Yu teaches wherein each bundling indicator comprises a respective bit corresponding to a respective downlink transmission of the plurality of downlink transmissions ([0076]; details: a one-bit indicator with each downlink transmission to the relay node); wherein each corresponding downlink assignment indicator has a respective value corresponding to a respective downlink transmission of the plurality of downlink transmissions ([0076]; details: one value for the indicator could indicate "do not transmit 4 ms later". That is, this value could indicate that the ACK/NACK for a downlink transmission in which the indicator is included should be held for aggregation with later ACK/NACKs. Another value for the indicator could indicate "transmit 4 ms later". That is, this value could indicate that the ACK/NACK for a downlink transmission in which the indicator is included and any other previous ACK/NACKs that have been aggregated should be transmitted 4 ms after the downlink transmission is received).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Samsung to incorporate the teachings of Yu and include wherein each bundling indicator comprises a respective bit corresponding to a respective downlink transmission of the plurality of downlink transmissions; wherein each corresponding downlink assignment indicator has a respective value corresponding to a respective downlink transmission of the plurality of downlink transmissions of Yu with Samsung. Doing so would prevent a relay node from missing a transmission from an access node (Yu, at abstract).
Regarding claims 8, 24, 65 and 71, Samsung teaches wherein, to determine the DMRS bundling configuration, the at least one processor is configured to determine that demodulation reference signals associated with consecutive bundling indicators having a same value are to be handled as bundled downlink transmissions (Section 3: details an indication from eNodeB to UE could be supported in LTE-A to turn on/off the feature of RB bundling).
Regarding claims 9, 25, 66 and 72, Samsung teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to apply a same precoding scheme to demodulation reference signals handled as bundled downlink transmissions (Sections 3-4: details perform same downlink precoding vector across bundled RB… RB bundling allows UEs to perform channel estimation and demodulation jointly across bundled RBs).
Claims 10, 12, 67 and 69 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Samsung in view of Ahn and Yu, further in view of US 2018/0323907 (hereinafter Takeda).
Regarding claims 10 and 67, Samsung does not explicitly teach wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify a discontinuity in the corresponding downlink assignment indicators.
However, Takeda teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify a discontinuity in the corresponding downlink assignment indicators (FIG. 7, [0102]: details configuring continuous values… discontinuous values… DAI values… determine whether the DAI values are discontinuous).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Samsung to incorporate the teachings of Takeda and include wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify a discontinuity in the corresponding downlink assignment indicators of Takeda with Samsung. Doing so would improve performance (Takeda, at paragraph [0102]).
Regarding claims 12 and 69, Samsung does not explicitly teach wherein to determine the DMRS bundling configuration, the at least one processor is configured to determine no discontinuity in the corresponding downlink assignment indicators.
However, Takeda teaches wherein to determine the DMRS bundling configuration, the at least one processor is configured to determine no discontinuity in the corresponding downlink assignment indicators (FIG. 7, [0102]: details configuring continuous values… discontinuous values… DAI values… determine whether the DAI values are discontinuous).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Samsung to incorporate the teachings of Takeda and include wherein to determine the DMRS bundling configuration, the at least one processor is configured to determine no discontinuity in the corresponding downlink assignment indicators of Takeda with Samsung. Doing so would improve performance (Takeda, at paragraph [0102]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11 and 68 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to pending claims 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jasper Kwoh whose telephone number is (408)918-7644. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm Pacific.
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, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270-1215. 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.
/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415