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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 7, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 21-24, and 27-32, and 35-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (Patent No: US 2023/0050298 A1), hereinafter, LI, in view of Chen et al. (Patent No.: US 10575285 B2), hereinafter Chen.
Regarding Claim 1, LI teaches,
A control signaling transmission method, comprising: sending, by a first communication node, control information to a second communication node, -Paragraph [0009-0011] (First communication node, Base station, sends PDSCH to second communication node, UE, scheduled by downlink control information (DCI). [0009-0011] recites, “ In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a resource indication method, performed by a network side device, including: generating downlink control information DCI carrying time domain resource indication information, where the time domain resource indication information supports scheduling of multiple carriers or bandwidth parts BWPs; and
sending the DCI to a user side device.”)
wherein the control information is used for scheduling physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) or physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs) located in at least two cells, -Paragraph [0047] ([0047] recites, “It is assumed that the DCI can schedule Cell 1 and Cell 2. [0073] recites, “…If the DCI schedules a non-reference carrier or BWP, the scheduling time domain resource is further determined according to the time domain position of scheduling the reference carrier or BWP, such as the first slot or the last slot overlapping the time domain position of scheduling the reference carrier or BWP, or all slots. A time position of scheduling a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) is a symbol position of a Start and length indicator value (SLIV) corresponding to a determined slot or multiple slots.”)
and the control information comprises at least one downlink control information (DCI) sub-field, and the at least one DCI sub-field is used for performing independent indication or shared indication for the at least two cells. -Paragraph [0040-0047] ([0047] recites, “In this way, after obtaining, according to the configuration information of each carrier or BWP in the candidate resource, the size of the second indicator field corresponding to each carrier or BWP, the sum of the sizes of all the second indicator fields can be used as the size of the first indicator field, that is, fields related to the time domain resource allocation of carriers or BWPs scheduled by DCI are independent. In this case, the subfields corresponding to carriers or BWPs in the first indicator field are arranged in the order of the first identifiers. A cell ID is used as an example. It is assumed that the DCI can schedule Cell 1 and Cell 2. It is obtained that a size of a field, that is, the second indicator field, related to the time domain resource allocation corresponding to Cell 1 is S.sub.1 according to the configuration on Cell 1 and Cell 2, and the size of the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 2 is S.sub.2. In this case, the size of the first indicator field in the DCI is S.sub.1+S.sub.2. In the first indicator field, the first S.sub.1 bits are the subfield (a field related to time domain allocation) corresponding to Cell 1, and the last S.sub.2 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 2.”)
Although implicit, LI does not explicitly mention,
determining, by a first communication node, a threshold value determining, by the first communication node, a bit size of control information according to the threshold value
and wherein the determining, by the first communication node, the threshold value comprises: determining, by the first communication node, the threshold value according to a pre-definition in a protocol: or determining, by the first communication node, a threshold value proportion according to a pre-definition in a protocol or radio resource control (RRC) signaling and calculating the threshold value according to a basic bit size of the control information and the threshold value proportion.
However, in an analogous invention Chen teaches,
determining, by a first communication node, a threshold value determining, by the first communication node, a bit size of control information according to the threshold value – Claim 16 (Recites, “…determining a first threshold number of bits for use by a user equipment (UE) in selecting a format from a plurality of formats for a first transmission of control information by the UE; sending first threshold information in a configuration for the UE; and receiving the first transmission from the UE, the first transmission using the format selected by the UE according to the first threshold number of bits and a size for the first transmission of the control information.”)
and wherein the determining, by the first communication node, the threshold value comprises: determining, by the first communication node, the threshold value according to a pre-definition in a protocol: or determining, by the first communication node, a threshold value proportion according to a pre-definition in a protocol or radio resource control (RRC) signaling and calculating the threshold value according to a basic bit size of the control information and the threshold value proportion. – Claim 23, 24 (Claim 23, 24 recites, “…receive the configuration from the base station in a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message….determine a first threshold number of bits for use by a user equipment (UE) in selecting a format from a plurality of formats for a first transmission of control information by the UE; send first threshold information in a configuration for the UE; and receive the first transmission from the UE, the first transmission using the first format selection by the UE according to the first threshold number of bits and a size for the first transmission of the control information.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the “RESOURCE DETERMINING METHOD, RESOURCE INDICATION METHOD, AND DEVICE” proposed by LI to include the concept of “determining, by a first communication node, a threshold value determining, by the first communication node, a bit size of control information according to the threshold value; and wherein the determining, by the first communication node, the threshold value comprises: determining, by the first communication node, the threshold value according to a pre-definition in a protocol: or determining, by the first communication node, a threshold value proportion according to a pre-definition in a protocol or radio resource control (RRC) signaling and calculating the threshold value according to a basic bit size of the control information and the threshold value proportion.” of Chen. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to improve PUCCH performance in the cell [col. 17, line 60-64].
Claim 21 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 1 that has been rejected above. Applicant’s attention is directed to the rejection of claim 1. Claim 21 is rejected under the same rational as claim 1.
LI further teaches,
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the control signaling transmission method of Claim 1 -Paragraph [0018] ([0018] recites,”In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication device, including a processor, a memory, and a computer program that is stored in the memory and that can be run on the processor, and when the computer program is executed by the processor, the steps of the foregoing resource determining method or resource indication method are implemented.”)
Regarding Claim 22, LI and Chen teach the limitations of Claim 1.
LI further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein, in the case of the independent indication, a data size of the at least one DCI sub-field is equal to a sum of sizes required to independently indicate each cell of the at least two cells. -Paragraph [0047] ([0047] recites, “In this way, after obtaining, according to the configuration information of each carrier or BWP in the candidate resource, the size of the second indicator field corresponding to each carrier or BWP, the sum of the sizes of all the second indicator fields can be used as the size of the first indicator field, that is, fields related to the time domain resource allocation of carriers or BWPs scheduled by DCI are independent. In this case, the subfields corresponding to carriers or BWPs in the first indicator field are arranged in the order of the first identifiers. A cell ID is used as an example. It is assumed that the DCI can schedule Cell 1 and Cell 2. It is obtained that a size of a field, that is, the second indicator field, related to the time domain resource allocation corresponding to Cell 1 is S.sub.1 according to the configuration on Cell 1 and Cell 2, and the size of the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 2 is S.sub.2. In this case, the size of the first indicator field in the DCI is S.sub.1+S.sub.2. In the first indicator field, the first S.sub.1 bits are the subfield (a field related to time domain allocation) corresponding to Cell 1, and the last S.sub.2 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 2.”)
Regarding Claim 23, LI and Chen teach the limitations of Claim 1.
LI further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein, in the case of the shared indication, a data size of the at least one DCI sub-field is equal to a maximum among sizes required to independently indicate each cell of the at least two cells. -Paragraph [0048] ([0048] recites, “In addition, the size of the largest second indicator field among all the second indicator fields can also be used as the size of the first indicator field, that is, a field related to the time domain resource allocation of carriers or BWPs scheduled by the DCI is shared among carriers or BWPs. In this case, the subfields corresponding to carriers or BWPs in the first indicator field are allocated with high or low bits for respective time domain resource indications. A cell ID is used as an example. It is assumed that the DCI can schedule Cell 1 and Cell 2. It is obtained that the size of the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 1 is S.sub.1 according to the configuration on Cell 1 and Cell 2, and the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 2 is S.sub.2. In this case, the size of the first indicator field in the DCI is max(S.sub.1, S.sub.2).”)
Regarding Claim 24, LI and Chen teach the limitations of Claim 23.
LI further teaches,
The method of claim 23, wherein the data size of the at least one DCI sub-field, which is the maximum among the sizes required to independently indicate each cell of the at least two cells, is determined by the first communication node according to a pre-definition in a protocol. -Paragraph [0048][0038] ([0048] recites, “It is assumed that the DCI can schedule Cell 1 and Cell 2. It is obtained that the size of the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 1 is S.sub.1 according to the configuration on Cell 1 and Cell 2, and the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 2 is S.sub.2. In this case, the size of the first indicator field in the DCI is max(S.sub.1, S.sub.2). In the first indicator field, the subfield corresponding to Cell 1 is allocated with high (or low) S.sub.1 bits for time domain resource indication, and the subfield corresponding to Cell 2 is allocated with a related field of high (or low) S.sub.2 bits for time domain resource indication. Therefore, assuming that S.sub.1>S.sub.2, the subfield corresponding to Cell 1 is allocated with high S.sub.1 bits for time domain resource indication, and the subfield corresponding to Cell 2 is allocated with a related field of low S.sub.2 bits for time domain resource indication. When DCI schedules Cell 1, the size of the first indicator field of the DCI is S.sub.1 bits, and the high S.sub.1 bits of the first indicator field is the time domain resource indication of Cell 1. When DCI schedules Cell 2, the size of the first indicator field of DCI is S.sub.1 bits, and the low S.sub.2 bits of the S.sub.1 bits are the time domain resource indication of Cell 2. In some embodiments, the subfields corresponding to carriers or BWPs in the first indicator field may all be allocated with high bits or low bits for respective time domain resource indications.”[0038] recites, “ the configuration information of the candidate resource scheduled by the DCI can be obtained through configuration (such as configuration through high-layer signaling) or pre-defined, and the user side device first determines, according to the configuration information, the first indicator field corresponding to the time domain resource indication information in the DCI, and then obtains the time domain resource indication information from the first indicator field.”)
Regarding Claim 27, LI and Chen teach the limitations of Claim 1.
LI further teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, by the first communication node, the bit size of the control information according to the threshold value comprises: determining, by the first communication node, a sum of data sizes of all DCI sub-fields in the control information; and determining, by the first communication node, that the sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub-fields in the control information is not greater than the threshold value. -Paragraph [0054-0059] ([0054] recites, “obtaining the size L of the first indicator field according to a formula L=S.sub.MAX*N, where S.sub.MAX is a size of the largest single carrier or BWP indicator field in the multiple carrier groups or BWP groups, and N is the maximum number of carriers or BWPs of the multiple carrier groups or BWP groups in the candidate resource; or using a size of the largest single carrier or BWP indicator field in the multiple carrier groups or BWP groups as the size of the first indicator field.” [0056] recites, “…In this case, the size of the first indicator field is 10 bits. Therefore, if the subfields corresponding to carriers or BWPs in the first indicator field are arranged in the order of the first identifiers, for carrier group 1, the first 2 bits of the first indicator field are the subfield corresponding to Cell 1, and the last 3 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 2. For carrier group 2, the first 4 bits of the first indicator field are the subfield corresponding to Cell 3, and the last 6 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 4. In this way, when DCI schedules Cell 1 and Cell 2, in the 10 bits of the first indicator field of DCI, the first 2 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 1 (used for scheduling of Cell 1), the next 3 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 2, and the last 5 bits can be set to all zeros”From the above description, it is clear that sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub-fields in the control information is not greater than the threshold value (S.sub.MAX*N))
Regarding Claim 28, LI and Chen teach the limitations of Claim 27.
LI further teaches,
The method of claim 27, wherein determining, by the first communication node, the sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub-fields in the control information comprises: determining, by the first communication node, states of all the DCI sub-fields to be independent indications according to a pre-definition in a protocol and determining the sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub-fields; -Paragraph [0044-0047][0038] ([0044-0045] recites, “In some embodiments, the determining the size of the first indicator field according to the second indicator field includes: using a sum of sizes of all second indicator fields as the size of the first indicator field;” [0047] recites, “In this way, after obtaining, according to the configuration information of each carrier or BWP in the candidate resource, the size of the second indicator field corresponding to each carrier or BWP, the sum of the sizes of all the second indicator fields can be used as the size of the first indicator field, that is, fields related to the time domain resource allocation of carriers or BWPs scheduled by DCI are independent. In this case, the subfields corresponding to carriers or BWPs in the first indicator field are arranged in the order of the first identifiers. A cell ID is used as an example. It is assumed that the DCI can schedule Cell 1 and Cell 2. It is obtained that a size of a field, that is, the second indicator field, related to the time domain resource allocation corresponding to Cell 1 is S.sub.1 according to the configuration on Cell 1 and Cell 2, and the size of the second indicator field corresponding to Cell 2 is S.sub.2. In this case, the size of the first indicator field in the DCI is S.sub.1+S.sub.2. In the first indicator field, the first S.sub.1 bits are the subfield (a field related to time domain allocation) corresponding to Cell 1, and the last S.sub.2 bits are the subfield corresponding to Cell 2.”[0038] recites, “ the configuration information of the candidate resource scheduled by the DCI can be obtained through configuration (such as configuration through high-layer signaling) or pre-defined”)
or determining, by the first communication node, states of all the DCI sub-fields to be shared indications according to a pre-definition in a protocol and determining the sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub-fields;
or determining, by the first communication node, a state of at least one of all the DCI sub-fields to be an independent indication and states of remaining DCI sub-fields to be the shared indications according to a pre-definition in a protocol and determining the sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub-fields;
or determining, by the first communication node, a state of at least one of all the DCI sub-fields to be the independent indication and states of remaining DCI sub-fields to be the shared indications according to higher layer signaling and determining the sum of the data sizes of all the DCI sub- fields.
Claim 29 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method Claim 1, which is rejected above. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards the rejection of Claim 1 above. Claim 29 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 1.
LI further teaches,
A device, comprising: a processor; wherein the processor is configured to send control information, -Paragraph {0018] ([0018] recites, “ an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication device, including a processor, a memory, and a computer program that is stored in the memory and that can be run on the processor, and when the computer program is executed by the processor, the steps of the foregoing resource determining method or resource indication method are implemented.”)
Claim 30 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method Claim 22, which is rejected above. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards the rejection of Claim 22 above. Claim 30 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 22.
Claim 31 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method Claim 23, which is rejected above. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards the rejection of Claim 23 above. Claim 31 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 23.
Claim 32 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method Claim 24, which is rejected above. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards the rejection of Claim 24 above. Claim 32 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 24.
Claim 35 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method Claim 27, which is rejected above. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards the rejection of Claim 27 above. Claim 35 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 27.
Claim 36 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method Claim 28, which is rejected above. The Applicant’s attention is drawn towards the rejection of Claim 28 above. Claim 36 is rejected under the same rational as Claim 28.
Response to Argument(s)
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Conclusion
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/AHMED SAIFUDDIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475