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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/2/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jang et al. (US Pub. 2022/0353698 B1).
In regards to claim 1, Jang et al. (US Pub. 2022/0353698 B1) teaches, a method for wireless communication performed by a wireless node, comprising: receiving downlink control information (DCI) indicating a repetition configuration, wherein the repetition configuration indicates a having a plurality of bits that each corresponds to a respective slot of a transmission period, wherein a value, of each bit of the plurality of bits (see figure 6 and paragraph 137; when the UE is configured to use only a resource allocation type 0 through higher layer signaling (600), some downlink control information (DCI) for allocating a PDSCH to the UE has a bitmap configured with the NRBG number of bits. In this case, NRBG means the number of resource block groups (RBGs) determined as illustrated in Table 11 according to a BWP size allocated by a BWP indicator and an upper layer parameter rbg-Size, and data is transmitted to the RBG displayed as 1 by the bitmap ), indicates whether the respective slot is configured for a repetition transmission of broadcast information via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); identifying, based at least in part on the bitmap, a quantity of slots as being configured to carry broadcast information via(see paragraph 264; time domain resource allocation information in DCI indicates a start point and repetition length of all repeated transmissions); and receiving the broadcast information via the quantity of slots via the PDSCH (see paragraph 87; DCI scheduling a PDSCH for system information (SI) may be scrambled with SI-RNTI. DCI scheduling a PDSCH for a random access response (RAR) message may be scrambled with RA-RNTI. DCI scheduling a PDSCH for a paging message may be scrambled with P-RNTI; see paragraph 107; the UE may receive PDSCH scheduling allocation information for transmission of an SIB).
In regards to claim 2, Jang teaches, wherein the quantity of slots is based at least in part on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) or a group of wireless nodes including the wireless node (see page 11, table 10; 2_0 Notifying a group of UEs of the slot format).
In regards to claim 3, Jang teaches, wherein the bitmap identifies the quantity of slots as being within [[a]]the transmission period of a first system information block (SIB 1) (see paragraph 71; the UE to receive system information (which may correspond to remaining system information (RMSI) or system information block 1 (SIB1))).
In regards to claim 4, Jang teaches, receiving the SIB 1 in one or more of the quantity of slots within the transmission period (see paragraph 107; the UE may receive PDSCH scheduling allocation information for transmission of an SIB; implies the receiving of the SIB).
In regards to claim 7, Jang teaches, wherein only a subset of slots of the quantity of slots are used for repetition transmissions (see paragraph 264; time domain resource allocation information in DCI indicates a start point and repetition length of all repeated transmissions; the specific length and the starting point imply a subset and not all of the timeslots).
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.
Claim(s) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jang as stated above further in view of Li et al. (US Pub. 2019/0159172 A9).
In regards to claim 6, Jang teaches all the limitations of the parent claims as stated above.
However, Jang fails to teach the bitmap being replicated to identify one or more additional quantities of slots.
Li et al. (US Pub. 2019/0159172 A9) however teaches, bitmap being replicated to identify one or more additional quantities of slots (see paragraph 210; A CE-PBCH repetition pattern or a repetitions pattern for a PDSCH conveying the CE-SIB can include a bitmap indicating frames with CE-PBCH transmission (or quadruples of frames as a CE-PBCH can be transmitted in four self-decodable segments over respective frames); the quadrupling reads on the replication/duplication).
Li and Jang both relate to uplink/downlink communication in a cellular/wireless environment.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application to combine the duplication of the bitmap as taught by Li into the teachings of Jang. The motivation to do so would be to allow for predictable resource locations for broadcast information in a shared downlink channel where a mobile station changes location rapidly.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-14, 16-17, 19-21, 23-24 and 26-32 are allowed.
The reasons for allowance have previously been indicated.
Prior art Li et al. (KR 2016/0058804 A; which relates to the Li reference mentioned above) teaches, The UE connected to the eNB may receive the CE-PBCH repetition pattern or if the PDSCH is not dynamically scheduled by the upper layer signaling such as eNB , Radio Resource Control (RRC) , ENB may be informed of a repetitive pattern for the PDSCH that delivers the resources allocated for duplication with the resources used to receive the DL channel and to transmit the CE-PBCH iterations or PDSCH iterations, If it is, it can be punctured.
Lee et al. (US Patent 12362898 B2) teaches patterns may cover single PRBs (or set of PRBs) and/or the DL assignment may indicate what pattern to use, apply and/or assume for the PRBs (e.g., every PRB and/or a set of PRBs) of the DL assignment, (e.g., via or by a bitmap). The RNTI, used for the DL assignment DCI, may be used to determine the set of power offsets and/or patterns of REs/PRBs/symbols (see column 43, lines 56-63).
Prior art Ratasuk et al. (US Publication 2021/0314851 A1) teaches, On a time-frequency region without SIB-NR or on an enhanced wake-up signal or enhanced PSS/SSS, the MPDCCH, PDSCH, or SIB will be extended to occupy the first N OFDM symbols, preferably duplicate symbols with the same CRS pattern as first N OFDM symbols. With regard to MPDCCH, the MPDCCH symbols carried in the first N symbols are the repetition of the N symbols MPDCCH in data region of the subframe, such N symbols in the data region being repeated according to predefined rules. With regard to PDSCH and Rel-16 UE, the data symbols are mapped onto all symbols of the subframe (see paragraph 100). Broadcasting, by an eNB in eMTC, a System Information Block (SIB1-BR) indicating availability for use by a Rel-16 UE of unused symbols and PRBs, which can be used for SIB-NR, enhanced wake-up signal, enhanced synchronization signals, or MPDCCH/PDSCH extension. A bitmap can be used to broadcast which subframes/symbols/PRBs are reserved for which purpose (see paragraph 106).
Prior art Sengupta et al. (US Publication 2019/0306812 A1) teaches, with respect to figure 2, the UE 115-a may receive the RSS 215 for resynchronizing with the cell. In the example of FIG. 2, the UE 115-a may subsequently receive a first instance of an RSS 215-a and a second instance of an RSS 215-b, according to a second periodicity. According to some aspects, the UE 115-a may use the RSS 215 to re-acquire synchronization. As previously described, the UE 115-a may receive a SIB indicating at least one of a presence of the RSS 215, the second periodicity, a length of the RSS 215, a frequency offset and/or a frequency location for the RSS 215, a transmit power for the RSS 215, a bandwidth of the RSS 215, a hopping pattern for the RSS 215, a multiplicative factor for the second periodicity, or an overhead percentage (see paragraph 91).
Conclusion
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/JAY P PATEL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466