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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/29/2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 9, and 12-16 are now pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
Claims 1, 9, and 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by El Hamss et al. (US 2022/0078768 A1) hereinafter “El Hamss”.
Regarding claim 1:
El Hamss discloses a method for communication by an electronic device in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving information indicating to enable multiplexing of uplink control information (UCI) with different priorities on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (e.g., [0191], “the WTRU 102 may multiplex certain (e.g., only certain) combinations of UCI and/or data on a selected resource according to pre-defined or configured rules, or according to a dynamic indication,” [0193], “The WTRU 102 may reduce the number of information bits for UCI of a priority level (e.g. the eMBB) … in case HARQ-ACK of a first, higher priority level (e.g., for URLLC) is combined with HARQ-ACK of a second, lower priority level (e.g., for eMBB) on a PUCCH and/or a PUSCH, the number of HARQ-ACK bits of the second priority level may be reduced; (2) if it would not be possible to multiplex the UCI (together with other UCI or data of higher priority) due to a payload or maximum code rate restriction.” [0194], “the WTRU 102 may include a UCI multiplexing indicator in the resource to facilitate decoding of different UCI (e.g., possible UCI) combinations at a network side. The UCI multiplexing indicator may consist of a field of N bits, where value (e.g., each possible value) may indicate a combination (e.g., a specific combination) of UCI of different types and/or priority levels.”, [0210], “a suitability condition may be that the transmission power (e.g., required transmission power) may be or is to be below a threshold .. for example if the difference between the transmission power (e.g., the required transmission power) for the resource with multiplexing and the transmission power (e.g., the required transmission power) for the first resource with the HARQ-ACK of the first priority level (e.g., only HARQ-ACK of the first priority level) may be or is to be less than a threshold.” (Because a WTRU must determine the pre-defined rules and conditions are met before multiplexing on the PUSCH, the pre-defined rules/conditions or the pre-defined rules/condition being met can be considered information indicating to enable the multiplexing.));
transmitting, based on the information, a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) associated with a first priority and a HARQ-ACK associated with a second priority on the PUSCH associated with the first priority which is higher than the second priority (e.g., [0238], “the subset of candidate PUSCH transmissions may be different for each UCI and/or each UCI may be multiplexed on a different PUSCH…multiplexing of the UCI may be allowed in a single PUSCH only, the subset of candidate PUSCH may be determined as the one applicable to a highest priority UCI.”)
Regarding claim 9:
El Hamss further discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: determining information related to a first number of resources on PUSCH occupied by the HARQ-ACK associated with the first priority; and after determining the information related to the first number of resource, determining information related to a second number of resource on the PUSCH occupied by the HARQ-ACK associated with the second priority (e.g., [0187], [0192], [0193], [0198], [0212], [0213], [0224], [0249], [0254]).
Regarding claim 14:
El Hamss further discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the information is a higher-layer signaling or a physical layer signaling (e.g., [0172], [0176], [0191], [0210], [0228]).
Regarding claim 15:
El Hamss discloses an electronic device (e.g., Fig. 1B, 102) in a wireless communication system, the electronic device including: a transceiver (Fig. 1B, 120); a processor (Fig. 1B, 118) operably coupled to the transceiver; and memory (Fig. 1B, 130/132) storing instructions which are executable by the processor ([0351]-[0352]) to cause the electronic device to: receive information indicating to enable multiplexing of uplink control information (UCI) with different priorities on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and transmit, based on the information, a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) associated with a first priority and a HARQ-ACK associated with a second priority on the PUSCH associated with the first priority which is higher than the second priority. (See similar limitations in rejection of claim 1.)
Regarding claim 16:
See rejection of claim 9 regarding similar features.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hamss in view of LIN et al. (US 2022/0124703 A1) hereinafter “LIN”.
Regarding claim 12:
El Hamss does not disclose wherein a maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by each of the UCIs is configured as a preset value.
LIN teaches a maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by each of the UCIs is configured as a preset value (e.g., [0028], [0030]-[0035], [0039]-[0040], maximum coding rate corresponding to each of the multiple UCI).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of El Hamss in view of the teaching by LIN to include the feature a maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by each of the UCIs is configured as a preset value, because it would improve efficiency and reliability in multiplexing transmission of information with different service requirement levels.
Regarding claim 13:
El Hamss does not disclose wherein the preset maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by UCI includes at least one of: a total maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by all UCIs; and a maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by each UCI.
LIN teaches the preset maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by UCI includes at least one of: a total maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by all UCIs; and a maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by each UCI (e.g., [0028], [0030]-[0035], [0039]-[0040], maximum coding rate corresponding to each of the multiple UCI).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of El Hamss in view of the teaching by LIN to include the feature the preset maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by UCI includes at least one of: a total maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by all UCIs; and a maximum number of resources on the PUSCH occupied by each UCI, because it would improve efficiency and reliability in multiplexing transmission of information with different service requirement levels.
Response to Arguments
Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102 over El Hamss
Applicant’s arguments with respect to independent claims 1 and 15 as amended have been considered but are moot in view of a new ground of rejection necessitated by the amendment to the claims.
Conclusion
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/BO HUI A ZHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465