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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 April 13, 2026 has been entered.
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 1-9, 11-18, and 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MolavianJazi et al. (Patent No : US 2021/0184812 A1), hereinafter, MolavianJazi in view of FAKOORIAN et al. (Patent No: US 2020/0221478 A1), hereinafter, FAKOORIAN, and further in view of Takeda et al. (Patent No: US 2022/0150003 A1), hereinafter, Takeda.
Regarding Claim 1, MolavianJazi teaches,
A method in a user equipment (UE), the method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving scheduling information of a physical channel, -Paragraph [0066] (UE receives scheduling information through DCI over physical shared control channel (PDSCH).[0066] recites, “A gNB transmits data information or DCI through respective physical DL shared channels (PDSCHs) or physical DL control channels (PDCCHs). A PDSCH or a PDCCH can be transmitted over a variable number of slot symbols including one slot symbol. For brevity, a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by a UE is referred to as a DL DCI format and a DCI format scheduling a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission from a UE is referred to as an UL DCI format.”)
where the scheduling information includes information having a value that defines a particular number of repetitions in a plurality of repetitions of a communication to be conveyed via the physical channel - Paragraph [0234-0235](DCI contains information including uplink scheduling (configured grant (CG) or Semi-persistent grant (SPS)) resource allocation, repetitions, transmit beams etc. among others. UE may send repetitions of Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) over different transmission beams. [0234-0235] recites, “…. In yet another example, if priority levels are associated with UL transmissions and/or DL receptions (either explicit priority configuration/indication in RRC or DCI and/or implicit priority assignment such as a predetermined priority list in the system specifications, e.g., prioritizations for transmission power reductions with respect to UL carrier aggregation power control and/or priority levels for UCI multiplexing and/or any predetermined/configured priority linkage with UE transmission settings such as the RNTI), then the UE is allowed to continue transmission with a previously UE-selected number of repetitions for an UL CG transmission occasion when a (potentially) overlapping/colliding UL transmission and/or DL reception has a lower (or same) priority level. In one example, when some repetition(s) of an UL CG transmission occasion, including e.g. any (extra) number of UL CG repetitions (as selected by the UE) compared to a configured minimum/typical number of UL CG repetitions, (potentially) overlap/collide with other UL transmissions, then in one option, the UE is expected to keep the same uplink transmission power for all repetitions of the UL CG transmission occasion…..”)
and information identifying a plurality of transmit beams to be used for transmitting the physical channel, where the physical channel includes the plurality of repetitions; -Fig. 6A, 6B; Paragraph [0093][0246] ([0093] recites, “In another example, UL CG PUSCH with multiple beam indication resources is provided to support a single UL CG configured with multiple beam indication RS resources so that each transmission occasion can follow a different beam indication RS resource (from the multiple resources) based on gNB indication or UE selection, such as based on UE measurements of the resources, or a combination thereof.” [0246] recites, “In one example, when a UE transmits repetitions of an UL CG transmission occasion with different beams (e.g., 2 or 4 beams), then in one option, the UE can transmit with each beam a same number of repetitions (e.g., [K_occ]/2 or [K_occ]/4 where a single [K_occ] is determined e.g., using one of the methods described earlier), or in another option, the UE can transmit with each beam a different number of repetitions (e.g., a first [K_occ] for a first transmit beam and a second [K_occ] for a second transmit beam, and so on, wherein each [K_occ] corresponds to one or multiple beam indication/measurement RS(s)), e.g., transmit a larger number of repetitions using a stronger beam and a fewer number of repetitions using a weaker beam.”
the particular repetition associated with a particular transmit beam of the plurality of transmit beams, wherein the relative time location is an order of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions, and wherein the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions includes the repetitions of the physical channel associated with the particular transmit beam; -Fig. 12; Paragraph [0226] (As shown in Fig. 12, based on the relative time location (Trans. Occ. #1, #2, #3 etc.) different number of repetitions are used and repetitions of physical channel (PUSCH) which is associated with the particular transmit beam are transmitted using a particular transmit beam from plurality of transmit beams. [0226] recites, “….. Each CG transmission occasion corresponds to a (same or different) beam/beam indication RS resource with a corresponding channel/beam quality measurement (e.g., L1-RSRP)…..” As shown in Fig. 12, same beam has different quality based on measurement at different time location, and based on the quality, different repetitions are used to transmit physical channel PUSCH in this case.)
and transmitting the particular repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the physical channel using the particular transmit beam based on the determined resource, -Fig. 12( As shown in Fig. 12, based on the relative time location (Trans. Occ. #1, #2, #3 etc.) different number of repetitions are used and repetitions of PUSCH are transmitted using a particular transmit beam from plurality of transmit beams.)
MolavianJazi does not explicitly teach,
determining a resource for use with a particular repetition of the plurality of repetitions in a frequency hopping pattern and a redundancy version of the particular repetition based on a relative time location of the particular repetition within a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions, wherein the relative time location is an order of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions,
wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern.
However, FAKOORIAN teaches
determining a resource for use with a particular repetition of the plurality of repetitions in a frequency hopping pattern and a redundancy version of the particular repetition based on a relative time location of the particular repetition within a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions, wherein the relative time location is an order of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions, -Fig. 6B, 8; Paragraph [0111-0112][0122][0125] ([0125] recites, “At 820, the UE identifies resources allocated for the multiple contiguous nominal uplink repetitions based on the uplink grant, wherein the identified resources include first resources for a first actual repetition of uplink data and second resources for a second actual repetition of uplink data.” [0111-0112] recites, “ In a first option for defining a frequency hopping pattern, inter-slot frequency hopping is performed. An example is shown in FIG. 6A. In FIG. 6A, the first repetition is transmitted in slot n at the first frequency in the frequency hopping pattern. Then, the second repetition is transmitted in slot n+1 at the second frequency in the frequency hopping pattern. In a second option for defining a frequency hopping pattern, intra-slot frequency hopping is performed. An example is shown in FIG. 6B. in FIG. 6B, a first portion of the first repetition is transmitted in slot n at the first frequency in the frequency hopping pattern and a second portion of the first repetition is transmitted at the second frequency in the frequency hopping pattern. Then, a first portion of the second repetition is transmitted in slot n+1 at the first frequency in the frequency hopping pattern and a second portion of the second repetition is transmitted at the second frequency in the frequency hopping pattern.” [0122] recites, “ In some implementations, each actual repetition may have the same redundancy version. In other implementations, the redundancy versions of each actual repetition may be selected dynamically.”)From the above description, it is clear that repetitions of frequency hopping patterns and redundancy version are based on a relative time location (e.g., slot n and n+1) of the particular repetition from within the subset of plurality of repetitions.)
wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a -Paragraph [0084] ( [0084] recites, “..an uplink grant provided in a single downlink control information (DCI) transmission may indicate a resource allocation corresponding to multiple repetitions in multiple slots. The uplink grant must indicate which resources have been allocated for the multiple repetitions. For example, a first repetition may be allocated particular timing resources, frequency resources, transport block size, and frequency hopping pattern, and subsequent repetitions may have allocations that are the same or different..” It is easily understandable to an ordinary person with the skill in the art that time/frequency allocation means the starting RB and duration within the bandwidth part (DL/UL))
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme of MolavianJazi” to include the concept of including “determining a resource for use with a particular repetition of the plurality of repetitions in a frequency hopping pattern based on a relative time location of the particular repetition within a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions, wherein the relative time location is an order of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions” of FAKOORIAN. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to effectively reduce the latency of 5G system [0005].
Although implicit, MolavianJazi and FAKOORIAN combination does not explicitly mention,
wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions.
However, in an analogous invention Takeda teaches,
wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern, -Fig. 3A; Paragraph [0067-0069] ([0067-0069] recites, “As shown in FIG. 3A, the inter-slot frequency hopping is applied to the repeated transmission, and the frequency hopping may be controlled for each slot. A start RB of each hop may be determined based on at least one of an index RB.sub.start of the start RB of a frequency domain resource allocated to the PUSCH, an offset RB.sub.offset given by at least one of the higher layer parameter and the given field value in the DCI, and the size (number of RBs) N.sub.BWP in a given band (for example, a BWP). For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an even number may be RB.sub.start, and the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an odd number may be calculated by using RB.sub.start, RB.sub.offset, and N.sub.BWP (for example, according to the following Expression (3)). (RB.sub.start+RB.sub.offset)mod N.sub.BWP Expression (3)
The UE may determine the frequency domain resource (for example, a resource block or a physical resource block (PRB)) allocated to each slot (repetition, transmission occasion) that is determined based on a value of a given field (for example, a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field) in the DCI. The UE may determine RB.sub.start, based on the value of the FDRA field.” As shown in Fig. 3A and as explained above, starting RB of a particular repetition is given by start RB of the UL BWP and a frequency offset between the hops.)
and wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions. -Fig. 3A; Paragraph [0068] ([0068] recites, “For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an even number may be RB.sub.start, and the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an odd number may be calculated by using RB.sub.start, RB.sub.offset, and N.sub.BWP (for example, according to the following Expression (3)).
(RB.sub.start+RB.sub.offset)mod N.sub.BWP Expression (3)” As explained above and as shown in Fig. 3A, for inter-slot hopping which is applied to the repetitions and repetitions happen e.g., for this case at different slot and offset is applied at that relative time location (relative slot location, even or odd))
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme of MolavianJazi” to include the concept of including “starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions.” of Takeda. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to efficiently control the transmission/reception of the signal/channel to be transmitted by the multi-segment transmission [0012].
Regarding Claim 2, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a plurality of subsets of the plurality of repetitions of the physical channel, where each subset of the plurality of repetitions is associated with a respective one of the plurality of transmit beams. -Fig. 10, 11, 13, 15; Paragraph[0228] (Fig. 13 shows identification on the number of repetitions of the physical channel (PUSCH) from the possible assigned values of repetitions based on beam measurements (unit 1320, 1330, 1340, 1350) and transmit in one or more transmit beams based on beam indication RS resources.). [0228] recites, “The UE receives configuration and activation (e.g., via DCI or MAC-CE or RRC) for CG PUSCH (Type-1 or Type-2) including beam indication RS resource(s), 1310. The UE receives an indication (e.g., RRC or DCI signaling) for a set/range of allowed values for number of CG PUSCH repetitions, 1320. Then, the UE makes measurements of the beam indication RS resource(s), 1330. Next, the UE determines a number of repetitions for a CG PUSCH transmission occasion based on the UE measurements, 1340. Accordingly, the UE transmits on the CG PUSCH transmission occasion with the determined number of repetitions, 1350. The UE checks whether the UE has received a release command for CG PUSCH (e.g., DCI or MAC-CE or RRC), 1360. If not, the UE moves to the next CG PUSCH transmission occasion and repeats the same behavior starting from 1330. If the UE has received a CG PUSCH release command, then the UE stops PUSCH transmission attempts on the CG PUSCH resources and provides HARQ-ACK for CG PUSCH release, 1370.” UE can also suggest alternate beams to gNB. Fig. 10-11 show beam determination based on measurement and feeding back to gNB regarding alternate beam)
Regarding Claim 3, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information is received via at least one of semi-static signaling and dynamic signaling. -Paragraph [0082] [0233] (Scheduling information is received through DCI format and it can be semi-static (semi-persistent). Also, the scheduling can be dynamic as well. [0082] recites,” This disclosure also pertains any UE that benefits from reduced overhead for transmissions and decreased receiver complexity, such as transmission with reduced control information, reduced PDCCH monitoring requirements, transmissions with configured grant (CG), or transmissions with semi-persistent scheduling (SPS).”) [0233] recites, “In one example, any UE-selected increase/decrease in the number of repetitions of an UL CG transmission occasion compared to the gNB-indicated maximum/minimum/typical number of UL CG repetitions is not expected to collide with dynamically scheduled and/or configured UL transmissions and/or DL receptions for the same UE on the same serving cell/carrier/BWP and/or different serving cell/carrier/BWP. For example, the UE is not expected to select a number of repetitions for an UL CG transmission occasion that would cause a collision to another UL CG transmission and/or DL SPS reception.”)
Regarding Claim 4, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN, and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions are contiguous repetitions. -Paragraph [0140] ([0140] recites, “For both Type 1 and Type 2 PUSCH transmissions with a configured grant, when K>1, the UE may repeat the TB across the K consecutive slots applying the same symbol allocation in each slot. A Type 1 or Type 2 PUSCH transmission with a configured grant in a slot is omitted according to semi-statically configured and/or dynamically indicated SFI for uplink and downlink symbols/slots.”)
Regarding Claim 5, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions are non-contiguous repetitions. -Paragraph [0236] ([0236] recites, “In one example, repetitions of an UL CG transmission occasion occur in (valid) UL slots/symbols either consecutively in time or with predetermined or configured gaps in time domain. The UL CG repetitions can be slot based (a.k.a., repetition Type-A) or can be with shorter durations/periodicities (a.k.a., repetition Type-B) e.g., only a number of symbols in part of a slot, e.g., in the form of “mini-slots,” “multi-segments” and/or across slot boundary.”)
Regarding Claim 6, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the particular repetition is a nominal repetition, where the nominal repetition comprises one or more actual repetitions. -Paragraph [0141] ([0141] recites, “ For PUSCH transmissions of PUSCH repetition type B with a Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant, the higher layer configured parameters repK-RV defines the redundancy version pattern to be applied to the repetitions. If the parameter repK-RV is not provided in the configuredGrantConfig, the redundancy version for each actual repetition with a configured grant may be set to 0. Otherwise, for the nth transmission occasion among all the actual repetitions (including the actual repetitions that are omitted) of the K nominal repetitions, it is associated with (mod(n−1,4)+1).sup.th value in the configured RV sequence……” )
Regarding Claim 7, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the particular repetition is an actual repetition. -Paragraph[0141] (Without the repK-RV parameter provided, it is set to 0 and repetitions are actual repetition. [0141] recites, “ For PUSCH transmissions of PUSCH repetition type B with a Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant, the higher layer configured parameters repK-RV defines the redundancy version pattern to be applied to the repetitions. If the parameter repK-RV is not provided in the configuredGrantConfig, the redundancy version for each actual repetition with a configured grant may be set to 0”)
Regarding Claim 8, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the plurality of transmit beams include at least one of a plurality of spatial relation information values, a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, a plurality of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) TCJ states, -Paragraph [0112][0152] (Plurality of TCI states can be configured for Downlink (DL) and Uplink (UL) shared channel. [0112] recites, “A UE can be configured with a list of up to M TCI-State configurations within the higher layer parameter PDSCH-Config to decode PDSCH according to a detected PDCCH with DCI intended for the UE and the given serving cell, where M depends on the UE capability maxNumberConfiguredTCIstatesPerCC. Each TCI-State contains parameters for configuring a QCL relationship between one or two downlink reference signals and the DMRS ports of the PDSCH, the DMRS port of PDCCH or the CSI-RS port(s) of a CSI-RS resource.”). [0152] recites,”…. A “beam indication resource” is defined as a DL/UL RS resource or a set/group of DL/UL resources that are used to indicate a spatial transmission/reception filter for a signal/channel transmission, or a (DL or UL) TCI state(s) or QCL assumption(s), or an UL TCI state for UL beam indication, or SRS resource(s) or SRS resource set(s), or associated CSI-RS resource(s) such as for non-codebook-based PUSCH……”
or a plurality of TCJ states configured for a plurality of control resource sets (CORESETs). -Paragraph[0168](Plurality of TCI states can be configured for plurality of CORESETs. [0168] recites, “In one example, if DCI format 0_0, or DCI format 0_2 with zero bits for SRI field, is used to activate a CG PUSCH Type-2 transmission, the UE needs to use a default beam (spatial filter) for the PUSCH transmission, such as a beam used for PUCCH transmissions or PDCCH receptions in a predetermined or configured CORESET, while considering timing aspects for the default CG PUCCH beam similar to the above solutions for the case when the CG PUSCH beam follows an SRS beam or a beam corresponding to a DL RS or TCI state.”)
Regarding Claim 9, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is associated with a redundancy version. -Paragraph [0105] ([0105] recites, “ The DCI format can indicate parameters related to resource allocation, power control, and scheduling and HARQ such as: time domain resource allocation (TDRA), frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA), virtual to physical resource mapping (for the case of interleaving), modulation and coding scheme (MCS), UL frequency hopping parameters, HARQ process number (HPN), new data indicator (NDI), redundancy version (RV), and (for PUSCH) TPC for PUSCH or (for PDSCH) PUCCH resource index, TPC for PUCCH, PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing, and downlink assignment index (DAI).”)
Regarding Claim 11, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN, and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi does not explicitly teach,
The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is an entry in a frequency hopping pattern corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of associated hopping frequencies.
However, Takeda teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is an entry in a frequency hopping pattern corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of associated hopping frequencies. -Paragraph [0064-0065, 0140] (frequency hopping can be applied to PUSCH and the hopping frequency (offset), pattern etc., are part of the resource allocation to the UE. [0064-0065] recites, “In NR, frequency hopping (FH) may be applied to the signal/channel. Will be described. For example, inter-slot frequency hopping or intra-slot frequency hopping may be applied to the PUSCH.The intra-slot frequency hopping may be applied to both of the PUSCH that is transmitted with repetition and the PUSCH that is transmitted without repetition (a single time). The inter-slot frequency hopping may be applied to the PUSCH that is transmitted with repetition.” [0140] recites,” In FIG. 8, patterns of the frequency hopping between the transmission occasions are the same, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the patterns of the frequency hopping may be different between the transmission occasions. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, the index of the start RB of the first segment and the index of the start RB of the second segment may be interchanged with each other between adjacent transmission occasions (the j-th transmission occasion and the (j+1)-th transmission occasion)”).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme” of MolavianJazi to include the concept of including the resource is an entry in a frequency hopping pattern corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of associated hopping frequencies of Takeda. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to appropriately controlling transmission or reception of a signal/channel using the time domain resource that is allocated over one or more slots in a given transmission occasion [0075].
Regarding Claim 12, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is an ultra-reliable low latency communication. -Paragraph[0293][0319] (The invention is applicable for ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). [0293] recites, “In one embodiment for an enhanced UL CG repetitions for high priority traffic, when a UE is configured for UL CG repetition, and when a UE has (high priority such as URLLC) traffic to transmit, the UE is allowed to start the (high priority) traffic in a symbol/slot that corresponds to a repetition of an UL CG transmission occasion which is different from the first repletion of the UL CG transmission occasion……” [0319] recites,” The present disclosure can be applicable to Rel-17 NR specifications for NR-Light/NR-mMTC, URLLC and V2X enhancements, low overhead transmissions, and generally any area that pertains DL SPS PDSCH and/or UL CG PUSCH”)
Regarding Claim 13, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi does not explicitly teach,
The method of claim 1, wherein the repetitions of a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions include intra-slot repetitions.
However, Takeda teaches
The method of claim 1, wherein the repetitions of a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions include intra-slot repetitions. -Fig. 3B; Paragraph [0065, 0071](Intra-slot repetition is supported by the disclosure. [0065] recites, “The intra-slot frequency hopping may be applied to both of the PUSCH that is transmitted with repetition and the PUSCH that is transmitted without repetition (a single time)…..” [0071] recites,”…. although not shown, the intra-slot frequency hopping may be applied in each slot (transmission occasion) of the repeated transmission….”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme” of MolavianJazi to include the concept of including intra-slot repetition of Takeda. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to appropriately controlling transmission or reception of a signal/channel using the time domain resource that is allocated over one or more slots in a given transmission occasion [0075].
Regarding Claim 14, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi does not teach,
The method of claim 1, wherein the repetitions of a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions include inter-slot repetitions.
However, Takeda teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the repetitions of a particular subset of the plurality of repetitions include inter-slot repetitions. -Fig. 7A, 7B; Paragraph [0060-0061](Fig. 7A, 7B show multi-segment transmission where repeated transmissions span over multiple slots, i.e., inter-slot repetition. [0060-0061] recites, “The repeated transmission may be referred to as slot-aggregation transmission, multi-slot transmission, or the like. The number N of times of repetition (number of aggregations, aggregation factor) may be specified for the UE by using at least one of the higher layer parameter (for example, “pusch-AggregationFactor” or “pdsch-AggregationFactor” of the RRC IEs) and the DCI. The same symbol allocation may be applied among the N consecutive slots. The same symbol allocation among slots may be determined as described in the time domain resource allocation…)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme” of MolavianJazi to include the concept of including inter-slot repetition of Takeda. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to appropriately controlling transmission or reception of a signal/channel using the time domain resource that is allocated over one or more slots in a given transmission occasion [0075].
Regarding Claim 15, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of repetitions of the communication corresponds to a plurality of repetitions of a particular transport block. -Paragraph [0136] ([0136] states, “ For PUSCH transmissions with a Type 1 or Type 2 configured grant, the number of (nominal) repetitions K to be applied to the transmitted transport block is provided by the indexed row in the time domain resource allocation table if numberofrepetitions is present in the table; otherwise K is provided by the higher layer configured parameters repK.”)
Claim 16 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 1 that has been rejected above. Applicant attention is directed to the rejection of claim 1. Claim 16 is rejected under the same rational as claim 1.
MolavianJazi further teaches,
A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; andat least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and operable to cause the UE to: -Fig. 2 (Block diagram of equipment with transceiver, controller/processor and, memory)
Claim 17 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 2 that has been rejected above. Applicant attention is directed to the rejection of claim 2. Claim 17 is rejected under the same rational as claim 2.
Claim 18 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 8 that has been rejected above. Applicant attention is directed to the rejection of claim 8. Claim 18 is rejected under the same rational as claim 8.
Claim 20 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 11 that has been rejected above. Applicant attention is directed to the rejection of claim 11. Claim 20 is rejected under the same rational as claim 11.
Claim 21 is essentially same as Claim 16 except for in Claim 21 it refers to “A processor for wireless communication” while in Claim 16 it refers to “A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication”. Claim 16 has been rejected above. Applicant’s attention is directed to the rejection of claim 16. Claim 21 is rejected under the same rational as claim 16.
Regarding Claim 22, MolavianJazi, FAKOORIAN and Takeda combination teach the limitations of Claim 16.
MolavianJazi does not explicitly teach,
The UE of claim 16, wherein the resource is associated with a redundancy version.
However, in an analogous invention, FAKOORIAN teaches
The UE of claim 16, wherein the resource is associated with a redundancy version. -Paragraph [0122] ([0122] recites, “In some implementations, each actual repetition may have the same redundancy version. In other implementations, the redundancy versions of each actual repetition may be selected dynamically” From the above description, it is clear that each repetition (resources) is associated with a redundancy version, it might be the same or might be selected dynamically)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme of MolavianJazi” to include the concept of including “the resource is associated with a redundancy version” of FAKOORIAN. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to effectively reduce the latency of 5G system [0005]
Response to Argument(s)
Applicant's argument(s) filed on March 31, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Therefore, the Examiner regretfully maintains the rejection.
The Applicant Argues,
The used prior-arts do not address the amended part of, “wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern and, wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions." Page [9-11]
In response, the Examiner used the prior-art Takeda and shows with recitation and explanation (in the claim 1 above and also in the following for convenience) that the amended part and the concerned part is addressed by Takeda.
Although implicit, MolavianJazi and FAKOORIAN combination does not explicitly mention,
wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions.
However, in an analogous invention Takeda teaches,
wherein a starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern, -Fig. 3A; Paragraph [0067-0069] ([0067-0069] recites, “As shown in FIG. 3A, the inter-slot frequency hopping is applied to the repeated transmission, and the frequency hopping may be controlled for each slot. A start RB of each hop may be determined based on at least one of an index RB.sub.start of the start RB of a frequency domain resource allocated to the PUSCH, an offset RB.sub.offset given by at least one of the higher layer parameter and the given field value in the DCI, and the size (number of RBs) N.sub.BWP in a given band (for example, a BWP). For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an even number may be RB.sub.start, and the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an odd number may be calculated by using RB.sub.start, RB.sub.offset, and N.sub.BWP (for example, according to the following Expression (3)). (RB.sub.start+RB.sub.offset)mod N.sub.BWP Expression (3)
The UE may determine the frequency domain resource (for example, a resource block or a physical resource block (PRB)) allocated to each slot (repetition, transmission occasion) that is determined based on a value of a given field (for example, a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field) in the DCI. The UE may determine RB.sub.start, based on the value of the FDRA field.” As shown in Fig. 3A and as explained above, starting RB of a particular repetition is given by start RB of the UL BWP and a frequency offset between the hops.)
and wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions. -Fig. 3A; Paragraph [0068] ([0068] recites, “For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an even number may be RB.sub.start, and the index of the start RB of the slot whose slot number is an odd number may be calculated by using RB.sub.start, RB.sub.offset, and N.sub.BWP (for example, according to the following Expression (3)).
(RB.sub.start+RB.sub.offset)mod N.sub.BWP Expression (3)” As explained above and as shown in Fig. 3A, for inter-slot hopping which is applied to the repetitions and repetitions happen e.g., for this case at different slot and offset is applied at that relative time location (relative slot location, even or odd))
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “Beam Management and Coverage Enhancement scheme of MolavianJazi” to include the concept of including “starting resource block (RB) of the particular repetition is based on a starting RB of an uplink bandwidth part and a frequency offset in RBs between two frequency hops according to the frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the frequency offset is applied based on the relative time location of the particular repetition within the particular subset of the plurality of repetitions.” of Takeda. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to efficiently control the transmission/reception of the signal/channel to be transmitted by the multi-segment transmission [0012].
The Examiner, therefore, regretfully maintains the rejection status.
The dependent Claims are similarly maintained with rejection status because of the fact the independent claims from which they are derived are not allowable in judgement of the examiner.
Conclusion
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/AHMED SAIFUDDIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
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