DETAILED ACTION
Response to Remark
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 01/12/26 .
Claims 10, 14, 27, and 31 have been amended.
Rejection to claim under 35 USC § 112 is withdrawn since the response is persuasive.
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 of this title, 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 1-4, 7-9, 16-21, 24-26, 33, and 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2011/0194511, “Chen”) and further in view of Guo (2020/0029318, “Guo”).
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses “a method for wireless communications performed by a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
- receiving a multi-user physical downlink shared channel communication (MUPC) comprising a plurality of payloads (Chen, See Fig.9A-B and ¶.75-78, a MAC payload carried on a PDSCH, wherein the MAC payload shows UE1 payload and UE2 payload, i.e. a muti-user PDSCH (MUPC)), each payload of the plurality of payloads corresponding to a respective UE of a plurality of UEs, the plurality of UEs including the first UE (See Fig.9A-B,
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- transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK) in response to decoding the MUPC (See 1256 & 1262 Fig.12, decoding PDSCH and sending ACK; See ¶.88, if the UE is scheduled as indicated in the bitmap, the UE may decode the MAC payload in the PDSCH and send a corresponding ACK/NACK in accordance with a success or failure of decoding the packet therein).
Chen does not explicitly disclose what Guo discloses,
- receiving a message requesting the first UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads received via the MUPC to one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs in accordance with the transmission of the ACK (Guo, See ¶.17, receiving, from a base station (BS), configuration information including resource allocation information for a sidelink and an uplink (UL) channel, wherein the sidelink is established between the UE and another UE; receiving, from the BS, downlink control information (DCI) including sidelink resource allocation information; identifying resources for a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) response of the sidelink based on the configuration information and the sidelink resource allocation information; See Fig.32,
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- transmitting the at least one payload in response to the message (Guo, ¶.331, the information can be included in the msg1 payload can be: the ID of transmitter V2X UE; the number of bytes of the packet that the UE-A needs to transmit on sidelink; the ID of the receiver UE or ID of receiver UE group of the packet of UE-A; the QoS requirement of the packet that the UE-A needs to transmit on sidelink, which can include the latency requirement, reliability, traffic priority, minimal transmission range; the number of PRBs that the UE-A requests; the number of transmission that the UE-A requests for sidelink; the maximal number of re-transmission that the UE-A requests; and/or whether HARQ feedback is requested or not; See 3213 & 3217 Fig.32, transmit and/or re-transmit PSSCH and PSCCH on allocated resource; See Fig.39, transmitter UE 3902 sends packets to receiver UE 3903; Examiner’s Note: the payload includes ID of UE-A as the first UE and ID of a receiver UE and when the transmitter UE sends packets to the receiver UE, the packet should include an ID of sender UE and an ID of receiver UE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “receiving a message requesting the first UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads received vis the MUPC to one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs in accordance with the transmission of the ACK and transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK) in response to decoding the MUPC” as taught by Guo into the system of Chen, so that it provides a way for a sidelink (SL) to convey signals from UE to other UEs (Guo, See ¶.13) by using sidelink resource allocation included in the DCI (Guo, See ¶.16).
Regarding claim 2, Chen discloses “the message comprises a group-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) downlink control information (DCI) comprising a field for triggering the transmission (See Fig.9A-B and ¶.68, a group of C-RNTI; See ¶.71, to identify which group the control message is directed to, in block 806, the process scrambles at least a portion of the control message with a group identifier such as the G-RNTI).”
Regarding claim 3, Chen discloses “the group-RNTI DCI is not associated with a data channel (See ¶.65, the control message carried on the PDCCH may include an identifier to identify a particular UE to which the control message is directed. For example, a unicast control message may utilize a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) corresponding to a particular UE to mask or scramble a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) included in the PDCCH; See ¶.68, the limited frequency/time resource dimensions available in the PDCCH may be addressed by utilizing a groupcast PDCCH rather than a unicast PDCCH. For example, rather than scrambling the CRC with a UE-specific C-RNTI, the CRC may be scrambled with a group C-RNTI (i.e., a G-RNTI)).”
Regarding claim 4, Chen discloses “determining a resource for the transmission based on a time domain resource assignment (TDRA) or a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) in the group-RNTI DCI (See ¶.68, frequency/time resource dimensions …the CRC may be scrambled with a group C-RNTI).”
Regarding claim 7, Chen does not explicitly disclose what Guo discloses “performing a plurality of transmissions of the at least one payload in response to receiving a plurality of message requesting the transmission (Guo, See ¶.17, receiving, from a base station (BS), configuration information including resource allocation information for a sidelink and an uplink (UL) channel, wherein the sidelink is established between the UE and another UE; receiving, from the BS, downlink control information (DCI) including sidelink resource allocation information; identifying resources for a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) response of the sidelink based on the configuration information and the sidelink resource allocation information).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, Chen does not explicitly disclose what Guo discloses “receiving a transmission of the plurality of payloads from one UE of the plurality of UEs; and refraining from transmitting an ACK or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) in response to receiving the transmission from the one UE (Guo, See ¶.170, the resource of PSFCH resource in one sidelink slot can be partitioned into one or more PSFCH subchannel and one UE can choose one PSFCH subchannel to transmit sidelink feedback information (for example ACK/NACK for adaptive HARQ, CSI feedback)).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, it is a method claim performed by a base station corresponding to the method claim 1 performed by a UE, except the limitations “receiving a negative acknowledgement (NACK) from a first UE of the plurality of UEs in response to the MUPC and transmitting, to the second UE in response to receiving the NACK from the first UE and the ACK from the second UE, a first message requesting the second UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads transmitted via the MUPC to at least the first UE.”
Chen discloses,
- receiving a negative acknowledgement (NACK) from a first UE of the plurality of UEs in response to the MUPC (Chen, See ¶.82, If successful, then in block 856, the UE decodes the PDSCH, and in block 858, checks a MAC packet in the PDSCH to locate a payload in the MAC packet for that UE. For example, the UE may search the MAC packet for a UE-specific identifier such as a C-RNTI. In block 860, if a C-RNTI and corresponding payload for that UE is found, the UE may send an acknowledgment signal (ACK); and if traffic for that UE is not found in the MAC packet, the UE may send a non-acknowledgment signal (NACK)),
but, does not explicitly disclose what Guo discloses,
- transmitting, to the second UE in response to receiving the NACK from the first UE and the ACK from the second UE, a first message requesting the second UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads transmitted via the MUPC to at least the first UE (Guo, See ¶.17, receiving, from a base station (BS), configuration information including resource allocation information for a sidelink and an uplink (UL) channel, wherein the sidelink is established between the UE and another UE; receiving, from the BS, downlink control information (DCI) including sidelink resource allocation information; identifying resources for a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) response of the sidelink based on the configuration information and the sidelink resource allocation information; See ¶.255, the association between PSCCH resource or a PSSCH (physical sidelink shared channel) transmission and PDSCH subchannel is useful for the receiver UE(s) to correctly identify the physical resource for feedback HARQ-NACK; See ¶.378, transmission of the same packet; See further ¶.466, for whether the PSSCH transmission is a new transmission for one TB or transmission for one TB; Examiner’s Note: As mentioned in claim 1, the payload includes ID of UE-A as the first UE and ID of a receiver UE and when the transmitter UE sends packets to the receiver UE, the packet should include an ID of sender UE and an ID of receiver UE).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “transmitting, to the second UE in response to receiving the NACK from the first UE and the ACK from the second UE, a first message requesting the second UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads transmitted via the MUPC to at least the first UE” as taught by Guo into the system of Chen, so that it provides a way of retransmitting the same packet over a sidelink channel (Guo, See ¶.119, Table#1).”
Regarding claim 16, Chen discloses “the ACK indicates the second UE decoded the plurality of payloads, and the NACK indicates the first UE failed to decode at least one of the plurality of payloads (See ¶.82, decodes the PDSCH and the UE many send an ACK or NACK).”
Regarding claim 17, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 2 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 18, it is a user equipment claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitation “a memory and at least one processor (See Fig.1, a processor and a memory)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 19-21, 24, and 25, they are claims corresponding to claims 2-4, 7, & 8, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Regarding claim 26, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 9 except the limitation “at least one memory and at least one processor (See Fig.1, a processor and a memory)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 33 and 34, they are claims corresponding to claims 16 & 17, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Claims 5 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Guo and further in view of Lin et al. (US 2022/0304075, “Lin”).
Regarding claim 5, Chen and Lin disclose “determining whether to perform a full transmission of the plurality of payloads or a partial transmission of a subset of the plurality of payloads (Chen, See ¶.10, at least a portion of the control message is scrambled with a group identifier for addressing the control message to a group of access terminals, the group comprising the plurality of access terminals, and decoding the control message to recover the allocation of channel resources) based on a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process ID and a new data indicator (NDI) of the group-RNTI DCI (Lin, See ¶.141, the gNB can transmit an UL grant on the PDCCH addressed to the RB-RNTI mapping to the received preamble, for example, with HARQ-ID=0 and the new data indicator (NDI) indicating transmission (which assumedly means that NDI=0)).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “determining transmission of the plurality of payloads based on a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process ID and a new data indicator (NDI) of the group-RNTI DCI” as taught by Lin into the system of Chen and Guo, so that it provides a way for gNB to use a DCI message to schedule PUSCH transmission of the UE (Lin, See ¶.141).
Regarding claim 22, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 5 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Claims 6, 15, 23, and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Guo and further in view of Lin et al. (US 2021/0160879, hereinafter “Lin’879”).
Regarding claim 6, Chen and Guo do not explicitly disclose what Lin’879 discloses “a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to a plurality of UEs; each one of the plurality of sub-headers comprises a UE identifier for identifying one of the plurality of UEs and a length field for indicating a length of a corresponding payload of the plurality of payloads; and each one of the plurality of payloads corresponding to a different UE of the plurality of UEs (Lin’879, See fig.7, a plurality of fields in PDSCH, wherein each of the sub-fields includes UE ID; See ¶.152, in case that PDSCH parts for different UEs are of different length, an SLIV-like method (with a larger range of SLIV value) is used to indicate the start and length of the PDSCH part/component intended for the UE; See further ¶.213).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to a plurality of UEs; each one of the plurality of sub-headers comprises a UE identifier for identifying one of the plurality of UEs and a length field for indicating a length of a corresponding payload of the plurality of payloads; and each one of the plurality of payloads corresponding to a different UE of the plurality of UEs” as taught by Lin’879 into the system of Chen and Guo, so that it provides a way of indicating the start and length of the PDSCH component intended for the UE (Lin’879, See ¶.152).
Regarding claim 15, Chen and Guo do not explicitly disclose what Lin’879 discloses “a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to a plurality of UEs; each one of the plurality of sub-headers comprises a UE identifier for identifying one of the plurality of UEs and a length field for indicating a length of a corresponding payload of the plurality of payloads; and each one of the plurality of payloads corresponding to a different UE of the plurality of UEs (Lin’879, See fig.7, a plurality of fields in PDSCH, wherein each of the sub-fields includes UE ID; See ¶.152, in case that PDSCH parts for different UEs are of different length, an SLIV-like method (with a larger range of SLIV value) is used to indicate the start and length of the PDSCH part/component intended for the UE; See further ¶.213).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to a plurality of UEs; each one of the plurality of sub-headers comprises a UE identifier for identifying one of the plurality of UEs and a length field for indicating a length of a corresponding payload of the plurality of payloads; and each one of the plurality of payloads corresponding to a different UE of the plurality of UEs” as taught by Lin’879 into the system of Chen and Guo, so that it provides a way of indicating the start and length of the PDSCH component intended for the UE (Lin’879, See ¶.152).
Regarding claim 23, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 6 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 32, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 15 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Allowable Subject Matters
Claims 10, 14, 27, and 31 are allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
At pages 13-14, applicant argues that any combination of Chen and Guo fail to disclose “the combination of Chen and Guo does not disclose "receiving a message requesting the first UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads received via the MUPC to one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs in accordance with the transmission of the ACK" and "transmitting the at least one payload in response to the message," as recited in claim 1. Claim 18 recites similar elements.”
In reply, applicant’s invention is that “a method for wireless communication performed by a base station (BS) includes transmitting a MUPC including a number of payloads to a number of UEs. The method also includes receiving a negative acknowledgement (NACK) from a first UE of the number of UEs in response to the MUPC. The method also includes receiving an ACK from a second UE of the number of UEs in response to the MUPC. The method further includes transmitting, to the second UE in response to receiving the NACK from the first UE and the ACK from the second UE, a first message requesting the second UE to retransmit at least one payload of the number of payloads (See ¶.6, ¶.8, ¶.10, ¶.12, ¶.37, ¶.49, and ¶.106 of applicant’s specification).
In other words, according to the statement above, the Base Station (BS) sends a PDSCH containing a plurality of UE payloads. The first UE responds with a NACK, while the second UE responds with an ACK. Despite the second UE sending an ACK, it subsequently receives a message requesting a retransmission of at least one payload." (Examiner’s Note: But, claim 1 cites just “transmission” instead of “retransmission”).
In data networking, NACK (Negative Acknowledgement) is a signal sent by a receiver to a sender, notifying them that data packets were received corrupted, incomplete, or not received at all, indicating the need for retransmission. It enables faster error recovery than waiting for a timeout.
However, in this invention the second UE retransmits at least one of the payloads despite the second UE responded with an ACK to the PDSCH packet. Therefore, the examiner applied 112 issue in the previous Office action and now the examiner interprets that regardless of receiving of ACK or NACK, the base station selects the second UE to transmit the at least one of the payloads.
Base on the understanding of the invention above, the limitations “receiving a message requesting the first UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads received via the MUPC to one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs in accordance with the transmission of the ACK" and "transmitting the at least one payload in response to the message” read on:
[Fig.9A] and ¶.[0075] of Chen illustrates a MAC payload carried on a PDSCH comprising a plurality of UEs, i.e. a multi-user PDSCH (MUPC) cited in claim 1.
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¶.[0064] of Chen discloses “control messages provided on a control channel, e.g., the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may be utilized to support the transmission of downlink and uplink shared channels, e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and/or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). For example, the control messages may be utilized to configure the UE to successfully receive, demodulate, and decode the PDSCH. The PDCCH is typically mapped onto resource elements in up to the first three OFDM symbols in the first slot of a subframe, and may indicate a channel resource allocation for UEs.”
¶.[0065] of Chen discloses “the control message carried on the PDCCH may include an identifier to identify a particular UE to which the control message is directed. For example, a unicast control message may utilize a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) corresponding to a particular UE.”
¶.[0085] of Chen discloses “the control message may include a bitmap for informing a UE whether it is being scheduled. For example, FIG. 10 illustrates a simplified exemplary bitmap 1000 in accordance with this aspect of the disclosure. Here, a particular UE, e.g., UE3, may be informed of one or more bits 1002 within the bitmap corresponding to that particular UE.” [emphasis added].
¶.[0073] of Chen discloses “the selection of UEs for a particular group may be based on factors such as channel conditions, traffic characteristics, or any other suitable characteristic that may assist in the scheduling of channel resources.”
¶.[0079] of Chen discloses “the MAC payloads 900 and 913 include identifying information indicative of the UEs that are being scheduled and/or lengths of the payload sizes for the UEs being scheduled.” [emphasis added].
¶.[0083] of Chen discloses “the sending of the ACK/NACK indication may be accomplished in various ways in accordance with the present disclosure. In one aspect, on-off keying may be utilized. For example, if the UE fails to locate its C-RNTI in the MAC packet, the UE may send a NACK signal; otherwise, if the UE locates its C-RNTI and a corresponding payload in the MAC packet, the UE may indicate an acknowledgment (ACK) by implementing discontinuous transmission (DTX): i.e., by transmitting no symbol. In this manner, if any UE fails to decode a multi-user PDSCH, the eNB may determine to re-transmit the PDSCH in accordance with one or more received NACK transmissions. (Examiner’s Note: claim 1 cites “decoding the MUPC, but does not clearly mention that if the first UE fails or not).¶.[0086] of Chen discloses “the determination of whether the UE is being scheduled may be made in accordance with one or more of the bit location(s) in the bitmap, and the bit value(s). If the UE determines that it is being scheduled, the derivation of the resource allocation for a particular UE may be made as above, i.e., utilizing an identification of each scheduled UE in the MAC payload, or in another aspect of the disclosure, it may further utilize the information in the bitmap to determine the resource allocation. [emphasis added].
¶.[0090] of Chen discloses “the determination of whether the UE is being scheduled may be made in accordance with one or more of the bit location(s) in the bitmap, and the bit value(s). If the UE determines that it is being scheduled, the derivation of the resource allocation for a particular UE may be made as above, i.e., utilizing an identification of each scheduled UE in the MAC payload, or in another aspect of the disclosure, it may further utilize the information in the bitmap to determine the resource allocation.” [emphasis added].
Further, Guo discloses the method of transmitting data information through a PDSCH in the communication system, disclosing in ¶.[0098], “DL signals can include data signals conveying information content, control signals conveying DL control information (DCI), and reference signals (RS) that are also known as pilot signals. A NodeB transmits data information through a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH). A NodeB transmits DCI through a physical DL control channel (PDCCH) or an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH). Messages are transmitted on the PDCCH using a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) to identify the intended UE. The C-RNTI is the RNTI to be used by a given UE while the UE is in a particular cell after the UE and a NodeB establish an RRC connection.”
[Fig.30B] of Guo discloses that the transmitter UE detects NACK/NACK and then decides that the transmitter UE can start a new transmission when the feedback is not NACK, i.e. ACK, and the transmitter can re-transmit the packet if the feedback is NACK.
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As shown in the rejection of claim 1, [S3212 Fig.32] of Guo discloses the method of transmitting downlink signal to allocate resource for transmitter UE, which is similar method of Chen determining the resource allocation for a specific UE.
As conclusion, Chen discloses that if any UE fails to decode a multi-user PDSCH, the eNB may determine to re-transmit the PDSCH in accordance with one or more received NACK transmissions. Further, the control message, as another downlink receiving message, being sent through PDCCH include a bitmap for informing a UE whether it is being scheduled. That is, a particular UE may be informed of one or more bits within the bitmap corresponding to that particular UE.
Therefore, Chen meets the claim limitations “receiving a message requesting the first UE to transmit at least one payload of the plurality of payloads received via the MUPC to one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs” and "transmitting the at least one payload in response to the message”, but only silent on the limitation of “in accordance with the transmission of the ACK."
Based on applicant’s specification, the first UE responds with a NACK while the second UE responds with an ACK. That is, despite the second UE sending an ACK (in claim 1, the second UE in the specification is the first UE in the claim), it subsequently receives a message requesting a retransmission of at least one payload. Therefore, the examiner provides a secondary prior art by Guo which discloses the method for the transmitter UE to start a new transmission (Examiner’s Note: the method claim does not claim “retransmission”) after the feedback is NOT NACK, i.e. as cited claim 1. Therefore, the examiner respectfully disagrees.
Conclusion
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 extension fee 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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUNG H PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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