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 .
Response to Amendment
Examiner acknowledges receipt of Applicant's amendment filed 02/04/2026.
In the amendment, Applicant amended claims 1, 14, 16, 17, and 24
Claims 1-8, 10-11, 14-17, and 20-25 are pending
Response to Arguments
Examiner has fully considered Applicant's arguments, see page 9 -12, filed on 04/02/2026, with respect to amended part of claims 1 and 14 “determining to transmit an uplink (UL) transmission based on at least reception of the paging message including the indication information for DL SDT, and including an I-RNTI for the WTRU” but they are moot because the new ground of rejection relies on the newly-cited references for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Examiner has fully considered Applicant's arguments, see page 9, filed on 04/02/2026, with respect to part of claims 1 and 14 “transmitting the UL transmission, on one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources based on the determination to transmit the UL transmission” but they are not persuasive. Wei teaches these features, as shown, “…in one or more transport block (TB) transmitted on some other PUSCH resources granted by the gNB during the RA procedure, or in one or more TB transmitted on some other PUSCH resources granted by the gNB for subsequent transmission (e.g., UL data transmission after the MSGA or MSG3)..." [0211].
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.
In 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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-5, 7, 14-17, 20-22 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang et al. (US 20220039060 A1), hereinafter, Chang) in view of Wei (US 20210274525 A1, hereinafter, Wei) further in view of Laselva et al. (US 20230050355 A1, hereinafter, Laselva) further in view Xiong et al. (US 20210014011 A1, hereinafter, Xiong).
Regarding Claim 1, Chang discloses a method implemented by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for wireless communications, the method comprising:
receiving a paging message including indication information for downlink (DL) SDT ("Step 2: The UE receives a paging message from the base station. The paging message is used for informing the UE staying in an RRC idle state or inactive state that a downlink service transmission is available in a mobile terminated service transmission." [¶0056], see also, "...Preferably, an establishment cause for initiating the RRC connection establishment procedure or RRC connection resume procedure is mt-access. If the downlink EDT indication information transmitted by the base station in Step 1 exists, or if a value of the downlink EDT indication information is configured as 1 or TRUE, the UE performs a downlink EDT preparation work when the UE initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure or an RRC connection resume procedure...” [¶0057]), and including an I-radio network temporary identifier (I-RNTI) for the WTRU (" ...The UE receiving the paging message initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure or an RRC connection resume procedure to establish a connection with a network side if a UE identity (such as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a System Architecture Evolution Temporary Mobile Station Identifier (S-TMSI), or an Inactive Radio Network Temporary Identifier (I-RNTI)) of the UE is included in the paging message..." [¶0057], see also, "...In the present disclosure, small data (or small packet) may be equivalent to early data. For uplink early data transmission of R15, a UE indicates to a base station that it will perform EDT transmission by using an EDT-specific PRACH transmission resource or a random access preamble in a random access procedure." [0037], "...One of the objectives of this research item is to implement mobile-terminated downlink early small data transmission in an NB-IoT network. The “mobile terminated” means that the terminal terminating a service transmission is a user terminal, that is, a network-originated downlink service transmission is different from a mobile-originated uplink service transmission." [0003], see also, "The present disclosure mainly provides a method for implementing mobile-terminated downlink early small data transmission." [0004]); Early Data Transmission (EDT) is one of the specific mechanisms used for Small Data Transmission (SDT) in LTE. Both are designed to efficiently handle transmissions of small data bursts;
after transmitting the UL transmission, monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for reception of a DL assignment; receiving the DL assignment ("Step 1: The UE receives PDCCH signaling that is used for scheduling a downlink transmission of the Msg4. Optionally, the PDCCH signaling includes downlink EDT indication information. As described above, the downlink EDT indication information is used for indicating that the Msg4 described in Step 2 includes downlink EDT data." [0124]); and
receiving, based on the DL assignment, a DL data transmission using a DRB of the one or more DRBs supporting SDT ("Paging: a paging message is used for notifying the UE, which is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, that downlink data will arrive...if the identity of the UE receiving the paging message is included in the paging message, then the UE may recognize that the UE has been paged and will receive downlink data transmission..." [¶0029], see also, "...wherein the downlink EDT preparation operation comprises at least one of the following: restoring a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) state corresponding to at least one of a Data Radio Bearer (DRB)..." [Claim 5], see also, "...the downlink EDT preparation operation comprises at least one of the following operations: restoring a PDCP state corresponding to a DRB and/or a SRB; re-establishing a PDCP entity for the DRB and/or the SRB..." [¶0012]).
Chang don’t explicitly disclose, receiving, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, configuration information for small data transmission (SDT), including one or more data radio bearers (DRBs) supporting SDT: transmitting the UL transmission, on one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources based on the determination to transmit the UL transmission;
determining to transmit an uplink (UL) transmission based on at least reception of the paging message including the indication information for DL SDT, and including an I-RNTI for the WTRU; determining that the WTRU is not UL time synchronized; transmitting a preamble transmission based on the determination that the WTRU is not uplink time synchronized;
Wei, in similar art relates, receiving, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, configuration information for small data transmission (SDT), including one or more data radio bearers (DRBs) supporting SDT ("...causes the processor to receive an RRC release message from a BS while in an RRC_CONNECTED state, the RRC release message including a small data transmission configuration, the small data transmission configuration indicating at least one radio bearer to be retained for supporting the small data transmission; suspend all established SRBs and DRBs except SRB0 and the indicated at least one radio bearer; transition from the RRC_CONNECTED state to one of an RRC_INACTIVE state and an RRC_IDLE state according to the RRC release message..." [¶0096]).
transmitting the UL transmission, on one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources based on the determination to transmit the UL transmission ("...In one implementation, data may be contained in the MSGA of a 2-step RA procedure, in the MSG3 of a 4-step RA procedure, in one or more transport block (TB) transmitted on some other PUSCH resources granted by the gNB during the RA procedure, or in one or more TB transmitted on some other PUSCH resources granted by the gNB for subsequent transmission (e.g., UL data transmission after the MSGA or MSG3)..." [0211]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang with the idea of a UE transmitting its uplink data on specific PUSCH resources as directed by the configuration and as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for using this process which enables efficient transmission of small amounts of data by skipping the need to establish a full data radio bearer, which can save signaling overhead.
Laselva in related art relates, determining to transmit an uplink (UL) transmission based on at least reception of the paging message including the indication information for DL SDT, and including an I-RNTI for the WTRU (Fig. 4, " In further embodiments, the PS-RNTI(s) are discarded by the UE 110 upon moving to the RRC Connected state 210, and instead are retained by the UE when the resume triggered by the “WUS for paging” does not lead to an RRC state change, i.e. the UE is moved back to the RRC Inactive state 220 after the DL data transfer that triggered the paging. The same applies to cases where upon resuming for small data transmission (SDT) in the uplink, the UE 110 is moved back to the RRC Inactive state 200 after the UL data transfer. In other words, the UE keeps the PS-RNTI(s) if the UE preformed an SDT." [¶0065], see also, "Relating to error scenarios, where the network has lost the UE when the UE was in an INACTIVE state (i.e., the UE has moved autonomously from the RRC Inactive state 220 to the RRC Idle state 230, e.g., due to out-of-coverage situations), the UE would not monitor for “WUS for paging” any longer and would instead be paged with the Core Network (CN)/idle mode identifier, i.e. NG-5G-S-TMSI (a Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity). Until the network detects that the UE moved to the RRC Idle state 230 (e.g., based on missing a periodic RNA update), the use of WUS for paging targeted to Inactive mode related IDs might be missed by the UE and lead to a paging failure similarly as if—in conventional techniques—the network would have sent a paging message addressed to the I-RNTI." [¶0066])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Chang and Wei with the idea that when the UE receives a paging message, which prompts the UE to initiate the SDT procedure as disclosed by Laselva.
The rationale for using the paging message as a trigger, the network can quickly prompt the UE to send a small amount of data, minimizing latency and signaling overhead.
Xiong in related art relates, determining that the WTRU is not UL time synchronized ("In the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the third search space may further be used to support the UE to perform reception of a control channel for downlink transmission in an RRC connected state. For example, when the UE is in the RRC connected state, the base station has downlink small data transmission, and the UE is out of synchronization, the base station may transmit a PDCCH in the third search space to trigger the UE to transit a PRACH, to establish uplink synchronization and transmit data in a subsequent downlink PDSCH..." [¶0400]);
transmitting a preamble transmission based on the determination that the WTRU is not uplink time synchronized ("...when sending a preamble sequence, the user does not need to randomly select a sequence, but will use the assigned preamble sequence. After detecting the allocated preamble sequence, the base station will send a corresponding random access response, including information such as timing advance and uplink resource allocation. After receiving the random access response, the user considers that uplink synchronization has been completed and waits for further scheduling by the base station. Therefore, the non-contention-based random access process only includes two steps: step one is to send a preamble sequence; step two is to send a random access response." [¶0583]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Chang, Wei and Laselva with the idea where UE checks its current status and determines that it does not have valid uplink time alignment with the base station as disclosed by Xiong. The rational for using this method which effectively leverages the standard random access (RA) procedure to gain the necessary UL synchronization for immediate small data transfer (SDT).
Regarding Claim 2, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 1.
Chang teaches, wherein the DRB of the one or more DRBs supporting SDT is associated with the DL data transmission ("Paging: a paging message is used for notifying the UE, which is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, that downlink data will arrive...if the identity of the UE receiving the paging message is included in the paging message, then the UE may recognize that the UE has been paged and will receive downlink data transmission..." [¶0029], see also, "...wherein the downlink EDT preparation operation comprises at least one of the following: restoring a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) state corresponding to at least one of a Data Radio Bearer (DRB)..." [Claim 5], see also, "...the downlink EDT preparation operation comprises at least one of the following operations: restoring a PDCP state corresponding to a DRB and/or a SRB; re-establishing a PDCP entity for the DRB and/or the SRB..." [¶0012]).
Chang doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein the configuration information indicates one or more UL configured grants (CGs) for SDT and one or more DL CGs for SDT, wherein the DL data transmission is received further using a DL CG of the one or more DL CGs; and further comprising:
transmitting, using a UL CG of the one or more UL CGs, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback associated with the DL data transmission, based on the DRB of the one or more DRBs supporting SDT,
Wei, in related art relates, wherein the configuration information indicates one or more UL configured grants (CGs) for SDT and one or more DL CGs for SDT (“In addition to the dynamic grant (DG) mentioned previously, the gNB may preconfigure periodic UL resource on a PUSCH to the UE, which may be referred to as configured grants (CG)” [¶0145]…see also “In action 1510, the UE receives, from the BS, a DL response message including a specific UL resource indication in response to the small data transmission via the RA procedure. The specific UL resource indication indicates a PUSCH associated with a configured grant. For example, the specific UL resource indication indicates a PUSCH scheduled by a configured grant…” [¶0422]; see also “…DCI 412B with CRC bits scrambled by a first C-RNTI includes a UL grant that schedules a PUSCH 414B. DCI 422B with CRC bits scrambled by a second C-RNTI includes a DL assignment that schedules a PDSCH 424B. The second C-RNTI may be the same as the first C-RNTI if both the DCI 412B and the DCI 422B schedule data transmission for the same UE…” [¶0196]). A "Configuration Grant" is transmitted via DCI (Downlink Control Information) by embedding the necessary resource allocation details, such as assigned resource blocks, modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and transmission power control information, within a specific DCI format on the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), allowing the User Equipment (UE) to readily access the configured uplink transmission parameters without needing prior explicit signaling. DCI (Downlink control information) includes scheduling information for both DL and UL including when to monitor PDCCH and slots to receive PDSCH, i.e., PDSCH configured grant,
wherein the DL data transmission is received further using a DL CG of the one or more DL CGs (“…If the second C-RNTI is the same as the C-RNTI used by the UE for PDCCH monitoring, the UE may successfully decode the DCI 422B and then receive the PDSCH 424B, which may include an RAR….” [¶0196]); Here PDSCH carries user DL data and paging information to the device (UE). "PDSCH" is the channel that carries the actual DL small data itself and DCI, used here, essentially acting as a "scheduler" for small data transmission; and further comprising:
transmitting, using a UL CG of the one or more UL CGs, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback associated with the DL data transmission, based on the DRB of the one or more DRBs supporting SDT (“…A BS (e.g., a gNB) may allocate UL resources for the initial HARQ transmissions to UEs. In NR, the gNB may dynamically allocate UL resources to UEs via UE specific RNTI (e.g., C-RNTI) on a PDCCH. A UE periodically monitors the PDCCH(s) in order to find possible grants for UL transmission. In addition to the dynamic grant (DG) mentioned previously, the gNB may preconfigure periodic UL resource on a PUSCH to the UE, which may be referred to as configured grants (CG). [¶0145]). In the context of downlink (DL) data transmission, HARQ feedback refers to the signal sent from the receiver (UE) to the transmitter (BS) indicating whether the received data was successfully decoded (ACK) or requires retransmission (NACK). See also, (“…it is beneficial to introduce some new mechanisms to the UE for performing small data transmission while in RRC_INACTIVE and/or RRC_IDLE without the RRC state transition. More specifically, the mechanism may also support small data transmission through the RA procedure and/or through the configured grant. The small data in the present disclosure may be the data from a logical channel associated with any of SRB and/or DRB...” [¶0210], also see Elements 1208 (DCI on PDCCH) and Element 1219 (RA response on PDSCH) of Fig. 12)., and
wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted using the UL CG further based on the HARQ feedback being an acknowledgement (ACK) for the DL data transmission (After a HARQ acknowledgment reception in response to the small data transmission on a PUSCH; [¶0344]). See also “The term “acknowledgment” in the present disclosure may have the same meaning as “HARQ-ACK” or “HARQ-ACK feedback” in the present disclosure.” [¶0438]). After scheduled data is received on PDSCH and decoded correctly, HARQ-ACK transmission occurs at a time scheduled in DCI as part of CG.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong with the idea that Data Radio Bearer (DRB) supports SDT as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for using DRB to support SDT data transmission is to optimize the transmission of small amounts of data, often by reducing signaling overhead and latency.
Regarding Claim 3, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Chang doesn’t explicitly disclose, further comprising transmitting an RRC connection request based on: a transport block size (TBS) associated with the DL data transmission being greater than or equal to a configured TBS threshold for SDT, and the HARQ feedback associated with the DL data transmission being a negative acknowledgement (NACK).
Wei, in related art relates, further comprising transmitting an RRC connection request based on: a transport block size (TBS) associated with the DL data transmission being greater than or equal to a configured TBS threshold for SDT (“a BWP indicated by an RRC IE firstActiveDownlinkBWP-Id;” [¶0292], see also, “Introduce a new type of access attempt dedicated for the small data transmission in which the data (TB) to be transmitted satisfies a specific condition. The specific condition may be: The size of the TB is smaller than (or equal to) a specific threshold.” [¶0295-¶0296]), and the HARQ feedback associated with the DL data transmission being a negative acknowledgement (NACK) (“…HARQ-ACK may include a 1-bit indicator, where the HARQ-ACK may be a negative Acknowledgement (NACK) when the bit value of the indicator is set to a first value (e.g., “0”) ..." [¶0150]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong’s with the idea of using transport block size (TBS) associated with the DL data transmission of being greater than or equal to a configured TBS threshold for SDT as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for doing so is that, if the amount of data being transmitted exceeds a pre-defined threshold, the UE may initiate an RRC connection request to prompt the network to adjust the connection parameters, ensure the successful delivery of data, and potentially transition to a more suitable RRC state for the ongoing data exchange.
Regarding Claim 4, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 1.
Chang does not explicitly teach, further comprising: transmitting an RRC connection request based on the determination that, the WTRU is not UL time synchronized.
Xiong is analogous art teaches, further comprising: transmitting an RRC connection request based on the determination that, the WTRU is not UL time synchronized ("In the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the third search space may further be used to support the UE to perform reception of a control channel for downlink transmission in an RRC connected state. For example, when the UE is in the RRC connected state, the base station has downlink small data transmission, and the UE is out of synchronization, the base station may transmit a PDCCH in the third search space to trigger the UE to transit a PRACH, to establish uplink synchronization and transmit data in a subsequent downlink PDSCH..." [¶0400]).
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang, Wei, Laselva’s teaching by including Xiong’s idea of sending RRC signal request when the UL timing is not synchronized. The rational for doing this is to initiate a PRACH procedure when the UL is not time synchronized, and once time synchronization is completed, data could be transferred without any timing error.
Regarding Claims 15-17, “Apparatus”, is rejected under the same reasoning as claims 2-4 “Method”, where Chang and Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach Method/Apparatus respectively.
Regarding Claim 5, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Chang doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein each of the one or more UL CGs is associated with a PUSCH resource for UL SDT.
Wei, in related art discloses, wherein each of the one or more UL CGs is associated with a PUSCH resource for UL SDT (“...a DL response message including a specific uplink (UL) resource indication in response to the small data transmission, the specific UL resource indication indicating a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) associated with a configured grant…”[¶0095].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong’s with the idea of making each configured grant for uplink small data transmission (UL CG-SDT) tied to a PUSCH resource as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for the network to pre-allocates specific PUSCH resources to UEs intending to send small data bursts using Configured Grants, helps to make it efficient and low-latency uplink small data transmission in 5G NR.
Regarding Claim 7, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Chang doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein the configuration information for SDT is received in an Inactive mode or a Connected mode.
Wei, in related art relates, wherein the configuration information for SDT is received in an Inactive mode or a Connected mode (FIG. 6 illustrates a procedure 600 of small data transmission performed by a UE in RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_IDLE according to an example implementation of the present disclosure. In action 602, the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED. In action 604, the UE receives an RRCRelease message including an RRC state indicator and a small data transmission configuration from a gNB. [¶0213]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong with the idea of having configuration information for SDT in an Inactive mode as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for doing so is to allows for efficient data transfer without needing to fully transition to the RRC_CONNECTED state.
Regarding Claim 14, “Apparatus”, is rejected under the same reasoning as claim [1] “Method”, where Chong teaches Method/Apparatus.
Chang further teaches, A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for wireless communications ("...user terminal (User Equipment, UE)..." [¶0002]), the WTRU comprising: a receiver configured to receive: a paging message including indication information for downlink (DL) SDT ("Step 2: The UE receives a paging message from the base station. The paging message is used for informing the UE staying in an RRC idle state or inactive state that a downlink service transmission is available in a mobile terminated service transmission." [¶0056], see also, "...Preferably, an establishment cause for initiating the RRC connection establishment procedure or RRC connection resume procedure is mt-access. If the downlink EDT indication information transmitted by the base station in Step 1 exists, or if a value of the downlink EDT indication information is configured as 1 or TRUE, the UE performs a downlink EDT preparation work when the UE initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure or an RRC connection resume procedure...” [¶0057]), and including an I-radio network temporary identifier (I-RNTI) for the WTRU (" ...The UE receiving the paging message initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure or an RRC connection resume procedure to establish a connection with a network side if a UE identity (such as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a System Architecture Evolution Temporary Mobile Station Identifier (S-TMSI), or an Inactive Radio Network Temporary Identifier (I-RNTI)) of the UE is included in the paging message..." [¶0057], see also, "...In the present disclosure, small data (or small packet) may be equivalent to early data. For uplink early data transmission of R15, a UE indicates to a base station that it will perform EDT transmission by using an EDT-specific PRACH transmission resource or a random access preamble in a random access procedure." [¶0037], "...One of the objectives of this research item is to implement mobile-terminated downlink early small data transmission in an NB-IoT network. The “mobile terminated” means that the terminal terminating a service transmission is a user terminal, that is, a network-originated downlink service transmission is different from a mobile-originated uplink service transmission." [0003], see also, "The present disclosure mainly provides a method for implementing mobile-terminated downlink early small data transmission." [¶0004]); Early Data Transmission (EDT) is one of the specific mechanisms used for Small Data Transmission (SDT) in LTE. Both are designed to efficiently handle transmissions of small data bursts,
the processor and the receiver configured to monitor, after the transmission of the UL transmission, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for reception of a DL assignment ("Step 1: The UE receives PDCCH signaling that is used for scheduling a downlink transmission of the Msg4. Optionally, the PDCCH signaling includes downlink EDT indication information. As described above, the downlink EDT indication information is used for indicating that the Msg4 described in Step 2 includes downlink EDT data." [¶0124]);
the receiver configured to receive: the DL assignment ("Step 3: If the UE determines that a current random access contention resolution is successful based on a contention resolution identity MAC control element included in the Msg4, and if the PDCCH information received in Step 1 includes the downlink EDT indication information, then the UE informs a higher layer of the downlink EDT indication information..." [¶0127]); and
based on the DL assignment, a DL data transmission using a DRB of the one or more DRBs supporting SDT ("Paging: a paging message is used for notifying the UE, which is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, that downlink data will arrive...if the identity of the UE receiving the paging message is included in the paging message, then the UE may recognize that the UE has been paged and will receive downlink data transmission..." [0029], see also, "...wherein the downlink EDT preparation operation comprises at least one of the following: restoring a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) state corresponding to at least one of a Data Radio Bearer (DRB)..." [Claim 5], see also, "...the downlink EDT preparation operation comprises at least one of the following operations: restoring a PDCP state corresponding to a DRB and/or a SRB; re-establishing a PDCP entity for the DRB and/or the SRB..." [¶0012]).
a transmitter, operatively coupled to the receiver and the processor ("A user equipment (UE) comprising: a processor; and a memory configured to store instructions; wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, perform a method comprising: receiving a paging message from a base station; and determining whether to perform a downlink early data transmission (EDT)…"[Claim 6]),
Chang don’t explicitly teach, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, configuration information for small data transmission (SDT), including one or more data radio bearers (DRBs) supporting SDT;
configured to transmit the UL transmission, on one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources, based on the determination to transmit the UL transmission;
a processor, operatively coupled to the receiver, configured to determine: to transmit an uplink (UL) transmission based on at least reception of the paging message including the indication information for DL SDT, and including an I-RNTI for the WTRU; that the WTRU is not UL time synchronized;
Wei, in similar art relates, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, configuration information for small data transmission (SDT), including one or more data radio bearers (DRBs) supporting SDT ("...causes the processor to receive an RRC release message from a BS while in an RRC_CONNECTED state, the RRC release message including a small data transmission configuration, the small data transmission configuration indicating at least one radio bearer to be retained for supporting the small data transmission; suspend all established SRBs and DRBs except SRB0 and the indicated at least one radio bearer; transition from the RRC_CONNECTED state to one of an RRC_INACTIVE state and an RRC_IDLE state according to the RRC release message..." [¶0096]):
configured to transmit the UL transmission, on one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources, based on the determination to transmit the UL transmission ("...In one implementation, data may be contained in the MSGA of a 2-step RA procedure, in the MSG3 of a 4-step RA procedure, in one or more transport block (TB) transmitted on some other PUSCH resources granted by the gNB during the RA procedure, or in one or more TB transmitted on some other PUSCH resources granted by the gNB for subsequent transmission (e.g., UL data transmission after the MSGA or MSG3)..." [¶0211]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang with the idea of a UE transmitting its uplink data on specific PUSCH resources as directed by the configuration and as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for using this process which enables efficient transmission of small amounts of data by skipping the need to establish a full data radio bearer, which can save signaling overhead.
Laselva in related art relates, a processor, operatively coupled to the receiver, configured to determine: to transmit an uplink (UL) transmission based on at least reception of the paging message including the indication information for DL SDT, and including an I-RNTI for the WTRU (Fig. 4, " In further embodiments, the PS-RNTI(s) are discarded by the UE 110 upon moving to the RRC Connected state 210, and instead are retained by the UE when the resume triggered by the “WUS for paging” does not lead to an RRC state change, i.e. the UE is moved back to the RRC Inactive state 220 after the DL data transfer that triggered the paging. The same applies to cases where upon resuming for small data transmission (SDT) in the uplink, the UE 110 is moved back to the RRC Inactive state 200 after the UL data transfer. In other words, the UE keeps the PS-RNTI(s) if the UE preformed an SDT." [¶0065], see also, "Relating to error scenarios, where the network has lost the UE when the UE was in an INACTIVE state (i.e., the UE has moved autonomously from the RRC Inactive state 220 to the RRC Idle state 230, e.g., due to out-of-coverage situations), the UE would not monitor for “WUS for paging” any longer and would instead be paged with the Core Network (CN)/idle mode identifier, i.e. NG-5G-S-TMSI (a Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity). Until the network detects that the UE moved to the RRC Idle state 230 (e.g., based on missing a periodic RNA update), the use of WUS for paging targeted to Inactive mode related IDs might be missed by the UE and lead to a paging failure similarly as if—in conventional techniques—the network would have sent a paging message addressed to the I-RNTI." [¶0066]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Chang and Wei with the idea that when the UE receives a paging message, which prompts the UE to initiate the SDT procedure as disclosed by Laselva.
The rationale for using the paging message as a trigger, the network can quickly prompt the UE to send a small amount of data, minimizing latency and signaling overhead.
Xiong in related art relates that the WTRU is not UL time synchronized ("In the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the third search space may further be used to support the UE to perform reception of a control channel for downlink transmission in an RRC connected state. For example, when the UE is in the RRC connected state, the base station has downlink small data transmission, and the UE is out of synchronization, the base station may transmit a PDCCH in the third search space to trigger the UE to transit a PRACH, to establish uplink synchronization and transmit data in a subsequent downlink PDSCH..." [¶0400]);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Chang, Wei and Laselva with the idea where UE checks its current status and determines that it does not have valid uplink time alignment with the base station as disclosed by Xiong. The rational for using this method which effectively leverages the standard random access (RA) procedure to gain the necessary UL synchronization for immediate small data transfer (SDT).
Regarding Claim 20, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the WTRU of claim 14.
Chang doesn’t explicitly teach, wherein the configuration information for SDT 1) is received in an Inactive mode or a Connected mode, and 2) indicates a radio network identifier (RNTI).
Wei, in analogous art teaches, wherein the configuration information for SDT 1) is received in an Inactive mode or a Connected mode (FIG. 6 illustrates a procedure 600 of small data transmission performed by a UE in RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_IDLE according to an example implementation of the present disclosure. In action 602, the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED. In action 604, the UE receives an RRCRelease message including an RRC state indicator and a small data transmission configuration from a gNB. [¶0213]), and
2) indicates a radio network identifier (RNTI) (“…A BS (e.g., a gNB) may allocate UL resources for the initial HARQ transmissions to UEs. In NR, the gNB may dynamically allocate UL resources to UEs via UE specific RNTI (e.g., C-RNTI) on a PDCCH. A UE periodically monitors the PDCCH(s) in order to find possible grants for UL transmission...” [¶0145]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong’s with the idea of including RNTI in configuration information as disclosed by Wei. The rationale the inclusion of an RNTI in configuration information ensures that a specific UE (or group of UEs) can properly identify and process the relevant control and data messages for the communication link being established or managed.
Regarding Claim 21, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Chang doesn’t explicitly teach, wherein the configuration information indicates a transport block size (TBS) threshold for SDT, and wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted using the UL CG further based on a TBS associated with the DL data transmission being less than the TBS threshold.
Wei in analogous art discloses, wherein the configuration information indicates a transport block size (TBS) threshold for SDT, and wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted using the UL CG further based on a TBS associated with the DL data transmission being less than the TBS threshold (An indicator indicating a maximum size of a TB/data that can be transmission on a BWP and/or cell via the RA procedure. In one implementation, the small data transmission configuration indicates a data volume threshold for the small data transmission to be performed via the RA procedure. [¶0256], and wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted using the UL CG further based on a TBS associated with the DL data transmission being less than the TBS threshold (Introduce a new type of access attempt dedicated for the small data transmission in which the data (TB) to be transmitted satisfies a specific condition. The specific condition may be: The size of the TB is smaller than (or equal to) a specific threshold” [¶0295-¶0296], also see “An indicator that indicates one or more HARQ process(es) to be applied by the MAC and/or PHY of the UE for the small data transmission via RA.” [¶0387]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong’s with the idea of transmitting HARQ feedback using the UL CG which is based on TBS associated with the DL data transmission being less than the TBS threshold as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for using TBS threshold to act as a trigger or condition is as follows: If the downlink data falls below this threshold, the network and device might switch to a more streamlined HARQ feedback process using UL CG to maintain efficiency during SDT procedures.
Regarding Claim 22, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Chang doesn’t explicitly teach, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted using the UL CG further based on UL transmission time for the WTRU being synchronized.
Wei in related art relates, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted using the UL CG further based on UL transmission time for the WTRU being synchronized (“…A PDCCH may be used to schedule DL transmissions on a PDSCH and UL transmissions on a PUSCH…The timer may be used for the maintenance of UL time alignment. The time alignment timer may be maintained per timing advance group. The timer may control how long the MAC entity considers the serving cells belonging to the associated TAG to be UL time aligned…” [¶0154-¶0155]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Chang, Laselva and Xiong’s with the idea of transmitting HARQ feedback using the UL CG and further based on UL transmission time for the WTRU being time synchronized as disclosed by Wei. The rationale for UE to transmits HARQ feedback on a specific uplink channel, and its uplink transmission timing needs to be precisely synchronized (based on instructions from the network) so that the feedback reaches the base station correctly and within the appropriate timeframe for the HARQ mechanism to function effectively.
Regarding Claim 25, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 1.
Chang also teaches, wherein the DL data transmission is received in an inactive mode ("Paging: a paging message is used for notifying the UE, which is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, that downlink data will arrive, or notifying the UE of the update of system information... Subsequently, in response to the received paging message, the UE may initiate an RRC connection establishment procedure or an RRC connection resume procedure to establish a connection with a network side so as to complete a downlink transmission." [¶0029]).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong further in view of El Hamss at al. (US 20230093477 A1, hereinafter, El Hamss).
Regarding Claim 6, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted as uplink control information (UCI) on a PUSCH or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).
El Hamss, in analogous art teaches, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted as uplink control information (UCI) on a PUSCH or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (“In various embodiments, UL control information (UCI) may include one or more of the following: CSI, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback for one or more HARQ processes, scheduling request (SR), link recovery request (LRR), CG-UCI, and/or other control information bits that may be transmitted on Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)” [¶0077]).
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang. Wei, Laselva and Xiong’s teaching by including El Hamss’s idea of transmitting HARQ feedback as UCI on PUSCH/ PUCCH, thereby, by utilizing a dedicated channel for small data transmissions, SDT can achieve faster response times compared to establishing a full data connection for every small data packet.
Claims 8, 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong in view of Chatterjee at al. (US 20210203449 A1, hereinafter, Chatterjee) and further in view of El Hamss.
Regarding Claim 8, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong don’t disclose, further comprising: monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for reception of one of the DL assignment and a control signaling after an UL SDT; triggering a DL small data transfer procedure upon receiving a trigger signal;
monitoring a subset of the one or more DL CGs for DL assignments based on any of: a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), a transport block size (TBS), or a UL time alignment;
initiating a random access (RA) to transition into a connected mode based on any of: a subsequent DL data reception, a small data reception comprising a negative acknowledgement (NACK), or the TBS being greater than or equal to a TBS threshold; and
initiating a PDCCH monitoring timer for retransmission after at least a small data reception comprising a NACK.
Chatterjee, in analogous art taches, further comprising: monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for reception of one of the DL assignment and a control signaling after an UL SDT (Fig.7, see also, “At 710, data is encoded, for transmission to an AN over a PUR based PUSCH. At 720, a timer is started once the data is transmitted. At 730, based on the timer, a PDCCH is monitored to obtain a response of the AN to the transmission of the data”. [¶0100-¶0102]);
triggering a DL small data transfer procedure upon receiving a trigger signal (“…encode data, for transmission to an access node (AN) via the RF interface over a pre-allocated uplink (UL) resource (PUR) based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); start a timer once the data is transmitted; and monitor, based on the timer, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to obtain a response of the AN to the transmission of the data”. [¶0193];
initiating a random access (RA) to transition into a connected mode based on any of: a subsequent DL data reception, a small data reception comprising a negative acknowledgement (NACK), or the TBS being greater than or equal to a TBS threshold (“FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method 400 for configuration of RA-SDT in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. The method 400 may include steps 410, 420 and 430. The method 400 may be performed by a UE. At 410, based on a first control resource set (CORESET) and search space (SS) set or a second CORESET and SS set, a PDCCH is monitored during a RACH based small data transmission (RA-SDT) procedure. At 420, control information of an AN for a UE is decoded from the PDCCH. At 430, communication with the AN is performed based on the control information.” [¶0055-¶0059]); and
initiating a PDCCH monitoring timer for retransmission after at least a small data reception comprising a NACK (Fig. 6, also see, “As shown in the procedure 600, after the UE transmits a PUR based PUSCH transmission, the UE starts a timer and monitors PDCCH in a search space. When the time expires, UE assumes that the PUSCH is correctly received by gNB...” [¶0073]). When a UE receives a negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a data packet, it starts the PDCCH monitoring timer, signifying that it should expect a retransmission from the network on the PDCCH.
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong’s teaching by including Chatterjee’s ideas mentioned above, thereby, minimizing unnecessary signaling overhead, SDT could help to optimize network capacity for a large number of low-power devices etc.
Chatterjee does not explicitly teach, monitoring a subset of the one or more DL CGs for DL assignments based on any of: a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), a transport block size (TBS), or a UL time alignment;
El Hamss, in analogous art teaches, monitoring a subset of the one or more DL CGs for DL assignments based on any of: a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), a transport block size (TBS), or a UL time alignment (“NR supports DL semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) resources (or DL configured grants (CGs)), including those on which the WTRU may receive DL data on active DL CGs with no scheduling necessary for each DL transport block (TB).” [¶0074]);
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang, Wei and Chatterjee’s teaching by including El Hamss’s ideas mentioned above, thereby, making SDT system consume low power, have fast response time, etc.
Regarding Claim 10, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong, Chatterjee and El Hamss disclose the method of claim 8.
Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong, and El Hamss don’t explicitly teach, wherein the PDCCH is monitored based on a prior UL small data transmission.
Chatterjee, in analogous art discloses, wherein the PDCCH is monitored based on a prior UL small data transmission (At 410, based on a first control resource set (CORESET) and search space (SS) set or a second CORESET and SS set, a PDCCH is monitored during a RACH based small data transmission (RA-SDT) procedure. The first CORESET and SS set may be dedicated for PDCCH monitoring during the RA-SDT procedure, and the second CORESET and SS set may be used for detecting DCI format with Cyclic Redundancy Error (CRC) scrambled with random access-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (RA-RNTI) or Type1-PDCCH common search space (CSS) set. [¶0057]).
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang, Laselva, Wei, Xiong and El Hamss’s teaching by including Chatterjee’s idea of monitoring PDCCH based on a prior UL small data transmission (SDT), thereby, provide very low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, etc.
Regarding Claim 11, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong, Chatterjee and El Hamss disclse the method of claim 8.
Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong, and El Hamss don’t explicitly teach, wherein the PDCCH is monitored based on any of: a physical random-access channel (PRACH) resource, a PUSCH resource, or a UL small data protocol data unit (PDU) content.
Chatterjee, in analogous art teaches, wherein the PDCCH is monitored based on any of: a physical random-access channel (PRACH) resource, a PUSCH resource, or a UL small data protocol data unit (PDU) content (“...monitor, based on a first control resource set (CORESET) and search space (SS) set or a second CORESET and SS set, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) during a random access channel (RACH) based small data transmission (RA-SDT) procedure, wherein the first CORESET and SS set is dedicated for PDCCH monitoring during the RA-SDT procedure, and the second CORESET and SS set is used for detecting downlink control information (DCI) format with Cyclic Redundancy Error (CRC) scrambled with random access...” [¶0208]).
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang, Wei, Laselva, Xiong and El Hamss’s teaching by including Chatterjee’s idea of monitoring PDCCH based on physical random-access channel (PRACH) resource, thereby, providing SDT capable of quick data transmission with low latency, ideal for situations requiring near-instantaneous updates.
Claim 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang, Laselva and Xiong and Wei in view of Lin at al. (US 20230013851 A1, hereinafter, Lin).
Regarding Claim 24, Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong teach the method of claim 2.
Combination of Chang, Wei, Laselva and Xiong doesn’t explicitly teach, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted in a current RRC mode.
Lin, in analogous art teaches, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted in a current an RRC mode (“In some implementations, the gNB may send the Acknowledgement (ACK) indicator to the UE to inform the UE that the data transmitted in the RRC_INACTIVE state is decoded/received successfully. In some implementations, when the UE receives the ACK indicator associated with the small data transmitted in the RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE may consider that the (small) data transmission is successful and no re-transmission of the (small) data may be required.” [¶0062]).
It therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chang, and Wei, Laselva and Xiong’s teaching by including Lin’s idea of transmitting HARQ feedback in the current/ same RRC mode, thereby, by utilizing the existing RRC mode for low latency data transmission, ideal for situations requiring near-instantaneous updates.
Conclusion
References cited but not used: Xiong et al. (US 20220368468 A1 can be used for independent claims 1 and 14 in addition to the one used.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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.
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/MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA/Examiner, Art Unit 4126
/MOHAMMED S CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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