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
Applicant’s submission filed on 07/28/2026 has been entered. Claim(s) 1, 5-10 and 12-13 are pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
The factual inquiries 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 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Varatharaajan et al. (US 2022/01237999 A1), hereinafter “VARATHARAAJAN” in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2023/0057080 A1), hereinafter “KHOSHNEVISAN” in view of Jang et al (US 2022/0132534 A1), hereinafter “JANG”.
Regarding claim 1, VARATHARAAJAN teaches, ‘A method comprising:’ (Paragraph [0035]: a method performed by a user equipment):
‘receiving, by a terminal, from a base station, configuration information related to a sounding reference signal (SRS), wherein the configuration information includes information on a plurality of SRS resource sets, and each of the plurality of SRS resource sets includes a plurality of SRS resources;’ (Paragraph [0035]: receiving a configuration from a network node, the configuration comprising: configuring at least two sounding reference signal (SRS) resource sets for the user equipment via a higher layer, wherein each SRS resource set comprises at least one SRS resource);
‘transmitting, by the terminal, to the base station, the SRS on the plurality of SRS resources in each of the plurality of SRS resource sets;’ (Paragraph [0019]: The UE sounds the UL channel with the s resources in the SRS resource set; Paragraph [0046]: Any SRS resource from the SRS resource set '100' can be transmitted simultaneously with any SRS resource from SRS resource set '101');
‘and transmitting, by the terminal, to the base station, the uplink transmission based on the downlink control information,’ (Paragraph [0035]: receiving from the user equipment a PUSCH that is transmitted using antenna ports associated with the indicated SRS resources… and operating according to said received configuration),
‘wherein a precoder and transmission rank of the uplink transmission are determined based on the one or more SRS resource indicator fields,’ (Paragraph [0028]: The gNB indicates the r SRS resources that the UE has to use for UL transmission in the SRI present in DCI used for scheduling PUSCH. The value r also corresponds to the rank of the transmission. The precoding of the r SRS resources is determined by associated-CSI-RS or SpatialRelationinfo),
‘and wherein based on the single SRS resource indicator field or the plurality of SRS resource indicator fields being configured, a single power control parameter set is applied for the uplink transmission.’ (Paragraph [0029]: In Rel. 15, there is only one SRS resource set configured for codebook and non-codebook UL transmissions and the power control parameters are set per SRS resource set, thereby controlling the power distribution among all the ports with one parameter).
VARATHARAAJAN does not explicitly teach but KHOSHNEVISAN teaches, ‘receiving, by the terminal, from the base station, downlink control information for scheduling an uplink transmission for non-codebook based transmission, wherein the downlink control information includes an SRS resource set indication field and one or more SRS resource indicator fields;’ (KHOSHNEVISAN – Paragraph [0014]: receiving a downlink control information message, where a first field of the downlink control information message includes the indication of the selected SRS resource set, and where a second field of the downlink control information message includes the indication of the one or more selected SRS resources; Paragraph [0005]: non-codebook based, as one non-limiting example);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of KHOSHNEVISAN with VARATHARAAJAN because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of KHOSHNEVISAN into VARATHARAAJAN is that KHOSHNEVISAN provides a signaling structure within a downlink control message (DCI) to indicate both a selected SRS resource set and selected SRS resources within that set to establish uplink transmission beams by dedicating a field or bits in DCI to identify the selected SRS resource set. This yields a DCI structure capable of flexibly indicating both the targeted SRS resource set and the specific SRS resources within that set for uplink transmission (See Paragraph [0005], [0014], [0128]-[0129], KHOSHNEVISAN).
VARATHARAAJAN and KHOSHNEVISAN do not explicitly teach but JANG teaches, ‘wherein based on a value of the SRS resource set indication field, (i) a single SRS resource indicator field has a first bit length and indicates one or more SRS resources within one of the plurality of SRS resource sets or (ii) each of a plurality of SRS resource indicator fields has a second bit length smaller than the first bit length and respectively indicates one or more SRS resources within each of the plurality of SRS resource sets,’ (JANG – Paragraph [0426]: Meanwhile, when multiple TPMIs are selected through method 2, the bit length of the second TPMI field may be smaller than that of the first TPMI field. This is because the second TPMI field indicates a value (index) of one of the TPMI index candidates identical to the layer indicated by the first TPMI field; Paragraph [0444]: When multiple SRIs are selected through method 2, the bit length of the second SRI field may be smaller than that of the first SRI field. This is because the second SRI is determined among SRI candidates for the same layer as the layer determined as the first SRI field among SRI candidates for all supportable layers),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of JANG with VARATHARAAJAN and KHOSHNEVISAN because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of JANG into VARATHARAAJAN and KHOSHNEVISAN is that JANG provides reducing DCI signaling payload when multiple indication fields (such as multiple TPMI or multiple SRI fields) are included in a single DCI for multi-TRP uplink transmission, where the bit length of the secondary field can be made smaller than that of the primary field. This is because the secondary field only needs to select an indication candidate corresponding to the layer already established by the first field, thereby restricting the candidate pool and reducing the required bit width. This yields a minimization of overall DCI bit overhead while successfully conveying the required SRS resource indications across multiple SRS sets (See Paragraph [0426], [0442], [0444], JANG).
Regarding claims 12 and 13, the claims include features identical to the subject matter mentioned in the rejection to claim 1. The claims are mere reformulation of claim 1 in order to define the corresponding apparatus and base station counterpart, and the rejection to claim 1 are applied hereto.
For claim 12, VARATHARAAJAN teaches, ‘A terminal comprising: at least one transceiver for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal; and at least one processor for controlling the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor configured to:’ (Paragraph [0029]: where the UE may be equipped with multiple panels/Tx-Rx RF chains; Paragraph [0034]: There is also provided a user equipment comprising a processor and a memory, said memory containing instructions executable by said processor whereby said user equipment is operative to be configured by a network node):
For claim 13, VARATHARAAJAN teaches, ‘A base station comprising: at least one transceiver for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal; and at least one processor for controlling the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor configured to:’ (Paragraph [0033]: There is also provided a network node comprising a processor and a memory, said memory containing instructions
executable by said processor whereby said network node is operative to configure at least two sounding reference signal (SRS) resource sets for a user equipment via a higher layer):
Claims 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over VARATHARAAJAN in view of KHOSHNEVISAN in view of JANG in view of Guo et al (US 2024/0422690 A1), hereinafter “GUO”.
Regarding claim 5, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG teach, The method of claim 1, VARATHARAAJAN further teaches, ‘wherein based on the plurality of SRS resource indicator fields being respectively mapped one-to-one to the plurality of SRS resource sets,’ (Paragraph [0052]: In accordance with some exemplary embodiments, each SRS resource indicated in the SRI field of the PUSCH-scheduling-DCI for codebook or non-codebook-based PUSCH transmission is chosen from different SRS resource sets. For example, the SRI in the PUSCH-scheduling DCI indicates 3 SRS resources for PUSCH transmission. The first SRS resource indicated in the SRI belongs to the SRS resource set with SRS resource set ID '100'... The second SRS resource indicated in the SRI belongs to the SRS resource set having SRS resource set ID '101'... The third SRS resource indicated in the SRI belongs to the SRS resource set having SRS resource set ID '102'),
VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG do not explicitly teach but GUO teaches, ‘the single power control parameter set is configured only for one of the plurality of SRS resource sets.’ (GUO – Paragraph [0016]: a single SRS resource set indication field is applied to both the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions, and the single SRS resource set indication field is mapped to the first OLPC [Open Loop Power Control] parameter for the first set of transmission occasions and the second OLPC parameter for the second set of transmission occasions; Paragraph [0100]: In the example of FIG. 5, the first group of TBs 505 may be a higher priority group and communications associated with a first SRS resource set may experience interference from another UE, and OLPC parameters (e.g., P0) may be based on the OLPC parameter set indication field, as indicated at 525. In this example, the OLPC parameter set indication field is applied to only the first group of TBs 505… In this example, the OLPC parameter set indication field is applied only to the first group of TBs 505, and the second group of TBs 510 may use a default set of OLPC parameters, as indicated at 530).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of GUO with VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of GUO into VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG is that GUO provides a selective open-loop power control (OLPC) parameter set configuration by selectively applying a single open-loop power control parameter set to only one SRS resource set/group, leaving other sets at default power levels. Applying dedicated power control parameter fields selectively to only one resource set prevents the UE from expending excessive power on transmission links or SRS sets that do not require boosted transmit power. This yields a reduction in inter-cell interference and extending UE battery life (See Paragraph [0016], [0041], [0100], GUO).
Regarding claim 6, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG teach, The method of claim 1, VARATHARAAJAN further teaches, ‘wherein based on the plurality of SRS resource indicator fields being respectively mapped one-to-one to the plurality of SRS resource sets,’ (Paragraph [0052]: In accordance with some exemplary embodiments, each SRS resource indicated in the SRI field of the PUSCH-scheduling-DCI for codebook or non-codebook-based PUSCH transmission is chosen from different SRS resource sets. For example, the SRI in the PUSCH-scheduling DCI indicates 3 SRS resources for PUSCH transmission. The first SRS resource indicated in the SRI belongs to the SRS resource set with SRS resource set ID '100'... The second SRS resource indicated in the SRI belongs to the SRS resource set having SRS resource set ID '101'... The third SRS resource indicated in the SRI belongs to the SRS resource set having SRS resource set ID '102'),
VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG do not explicitly teach but GUO teaches, ‘even though power control parameter sets are configured for each of the plurality of SRS resource sets,’ (GUO – Paragraphs [0081]-[0082]: In some cases, the UEs 115 may be configured with multiple sets of open loop power control parameters, such as multiple sets of PO and alpha values for open loop power control (e.g., p0-AlphaSets)… Additionally, the UEs 115 may be configured with a list of pathloss reference signals (PLRSs)… Further, the UEs 115 may be configured with a list of SRI-PUSCH mapping, where each member of the list has an identification (e.g., sri-PUSCH-PowerControlld: 0, ... , 15)… the SRI field may indicate a first value (e.g., 0) that maps to sri-PUSCH-PowerControlld, which may indicate a first power control parameter set with PO (and other uplink power control parameters)… and the SRI field may indicate a second value (e.g., 1)… which may indicate a second power control parameter set with PO and other parameters),
‘only the single power control parameter set for any one of the plurality of SRS resource sets is applied for the uplink transmission.’ (GUO – Paragraph [0016]: a single SRS resource set indication field is applied to both the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions, and the single SRS resource set indication field is mapped to the first OLPC [Open Loop Power Control] parameter for the first set of transmission occasions and the second OLPC parameter for the second set of transmission occasions; Paragraph [0098]: FIG. 5 illustrates an example of TB groups associated with different SRS resource sets that have different OLPC parameters 500 that support power-boosting techniques for multiple uplink shared channel communications in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The TB groups associated with different SRS resource sets that have different OLPC parameters 500 may include a first group of TBs 505 and a second group of TBs 510; Paragraph [0100]: In the example of FIG. 5, the first group of TBs 505 may be a higher priority group and communications associated with a first SRS resource set may experience interference from another UE, and OLPC parameters (e.g., P0) may be based on the OLPC parameter set indication field, as indicated at 525. In this example, the OLPC parameter set indication field is applied to only the first group of TBs 505… In this example, the OLPC parameter set indication field is applied only to the first group of TBs 505, and the second group of TBs 510 may use a default set of OLPC parameters, as indicated at 530).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of GUO with VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of GUO into VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG is that GUO provides a selective open-loop power control (OLPC) parameter set configuration by selectively applying a single open-loop power control parameter set to only one SRS resource set/group, leaving other sets at default power levels. Applying dedicated power control parameter fields selectively to only one resource set prevents the UE from expending excessive power on transmission links or SRS sets that do not require boosted transmit power. This yields a reduction in inter-cell interference and extending UE battery life (See Paragraph [0016], [0041], [0100], GUO).
Regarding claim 7, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG teach, The method of claim 1, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG do not explicitly teach but GUO teaches, ‘wherein the single power control parameter set for the uplink transmission is mapped to only one of the plurality of SRS resource indicator fields.’ (GUO – Paragraph [0015]: the first control information includes a separate SRS resource set indication field for each of the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions, and where a first value of the SRS resource set indication field indicates that the first and/or second OLPC parameter for the first set of transmission occasions of the
first group of TBs and/or the second group of TBs is selected from the second set of configured OLPC parameters; Paragraph [0082]: the SRI field may indicate a first value (e.g., 0) that maps to sri-PUSCH-PowerControlld, which may indicate a first power control parameter set with PO (and other uplink power control parameters) that do not provide power boosting… and the SRI field may indicate a second value (e.g., 1) that maps to p0-PUSCH-Setld-rl6, which may indicate a second power control parameter set).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of GUO with VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of GUO into VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG is that GUO provides a selective open-loop power control (OLPC) parameter set configuration by selectively applying a single open-loop power control parameter set to only one SRS resource set/group, leaving other sets at default power levels. Applying dedicated power control parameter fields selectively to only one resource set prevents the UE from expending excessive power on transmission links or SRS sets that do not require boosted transmit power. This yields a reduction in inter-cell interference and extending UE battery life (See Paragraph [0016], [0041], [0100], GUO).
Regarding claim 8, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG teach, The method of claim 1, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG do not explicitly teach but GUO teaches, ‘wherein even though a plurality of power control parameter sets are respectively mapped to each of the plurality of SRS resource indicator fields,’ (GUO – Paragraph [0015]: the first control information includes a separate SRS resource set indication field for each of the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions, and where a first value of the SRS resource set indication field indicates that the first and/or second OLPC parameter for the first set of transmission occasions of the
first group of TBs and/or the second group of TBs is selected from the second set of configured OLPC parameters, and a second value of the SRS resource set indication field indicates that the first and/or second OLPC parameter for the second set of transmission occasions of the first group of TBs and/or the second group of TBs is selected from the third set of configured OLPC parameters; Paragraph [0084]: In cases where multiple TRPs are used for communications, per-TRP open loop power control may be indicated in DCI 215. In some cases, two SRI fields may be present in DCI 215, and the two SRI fields and the OLPC parameter set field may be used to indicate the power control parameter set… If value of the open loop power control parameter set field is one, the power control parameter set (e.g., the value of PO) is determined from a first value in PO-PUSCH-Set with a p0-PUSCH-Setld value mapped to the SRI field value corresponding to each TRP (e.g., each SRI field is mapped to a separate set of OLPC parameters)),
‘only one of the plurality of power control parameter sets is applied for the uplink transmission.’ (GUO – Paragraph [0013]: and where an OLPC parameter set indication field indicates a first set of configured OLPC parameters are to be applied to both the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions of the first group of TBs, or both the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions of the second group of TBs, or both the first set of transmission occasions and the second set of transmission occasions of both the first group of TBs and the second group of TBs based at least in part on the OLPC parameter set indication field having a first value: Paragraph [0090]: In this example, two repetitions of each TB are associated with a single SRS resource set, and the OLPC parameter set indication field is applied only to the first group of TBs 305, and the second group of TBs 310 may use a default set of OLPC parameters, as indicated at 330… In this example, the first group of TBs 305, depending on a value of the OLPC parameter set indication field, may use the default set of OLPC parameters as indicated at 335 when a first parameter set is indicated by the OLPC parameter set indication field, or use different power control parameters as indicated at 340 (e.g., a different or additional P0 value such as indicated in P0-PUSCHSet-r16) when a second parameter set is indicated).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of GUO with VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of GUO into VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG is that GUO provides a selective open-loop power control (OLPC) parameter set configuration by selectively applying a single open-loop power control parameter set to only one SRS resource set/group, leaving other sets at default power levels. Applying dedicated power control parameter fields selectively to only one resource set prevents the UE from expending excessive power on transmission links or SRS sets that do not require boosted transmit power. This yields a reduction in inter-cell interference and extending UE battery life (See Paragraph [0016], [0041], [0100], GUO).
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over VARATHARAAJAN in view of KHOSHNEVISAN in view of JANG in view of Chen (WO 2022/183347 A1) translated document attached, hereinafter “CHEN”.
Regarding claim 9, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG teach, The method of claim 1, VARATHARAAJAN further teaches, ‘wherein the plurality of SRS resource indicator fields are a first SRS resource indicator field and a second SRS resource indicator field,’ (Paragraph [0068]: In accordance with embodiments, for codebook-based PUSCH transmission, for a DCI indicating NSRSres,ind (CB) SRS resources in the SRI, NSRSres,ind (CB) associated transmitted precoding matrix indicators (TPMIs) are indicated by the DCI, such that the k-th precoding matrix indicated by the k-th TPMI is used to precode the antenna ports (used for PUSCH transmission) associated with the k-th SRS resource indicated by the SRI (k=1, ... , NSRSres,ind (CB)); Paragraph [0032]: The method further comprises: scheduling at least one PUSCH transmission for said UE via a downlink control information, DCI, wherein at least two SRS
resources are indicated via a sounding reference signal resource indicator (SRI) field of the DCI, wherein each SRS resource is associated with a different SRS resource set),
VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG do not explicitly teach but CHEN teaches, ‘wherein the second SRS resource indicator field is applied only when the first SRS resource indicator field indicates 4 SRS resources,’ (CHEN – Paragraph [00121]: The second implementation manner: at least two SRI fields exist in two SRI fields to indicate different numbers of SRS resources. For example, the three SRI fields are SRI field 1, SRI field 2, and SRI field 3. SRI field 1 indicates one SRS resource, SRI field 3 indicates one SRS resource, and SRI field 2 indicates four SRS resources; Paragraph [00108]: If the at least two SRI fields indicate non-specific values, the at least two SRI fields indicate that the terminal device uses the at least two SRI fields for different PUSCH repeated transmissions scheduled by DCI respectively [Note: SRI field 2 indicates four SRS resources and if the at least two SRI fields both indicate the same number of SRS resources, the terminal device uses the at least two SRI fields for repeated transmission]),
‘and wherein the second SRS resource indicator field is ignored when the first SRS resource indicator field indicates less than 4 SRS resources.’ (CHEN – Paragraph [00114]: If there are at least two SRI fields in the at least two SRI fields that indicate different numbers of SRS resources, the terminal device uses the first SRI field for repeated transmission of all PUSCHs scheduled by the DCI; Paragraph [0120]: For example, the two SRI fields are respectively SRI field 1 and SRI field 2, SRI field 1 indicates 1 SRS resource, and SRI field 2 indicates 4 SRS resources; Paragraph [00150]: if the information in the first SRI field is used for repeated transmission of all PUSCHs scheduled by the DCI, the information in the second SRI field is not used for any PUSCH transmission, and the second SRI field is at least two SRI fields except the first SRI field [Note: SRI field 1 indicates 1 SRS resource [less than 4] and if there are at least two SRI fields in the at least two SRI fields indicating different numbers of SRS resources, the information in the second SRI field is not used for any PUSCH transmission [ignored]]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of CHEN with VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of CHEN into VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN and JANG is that CHEN provides dynamically adjusting DCI interpretation for multi-TRP vs. single-TRP PUSCH repetitions, specifically evaluating the number of SRS resources indicated in a first SRI field (e.g., 4 vs. less than 4) or evaluating resource matching between SRI fields, and ignoring/not using the second SRI field when the first field controls the repetition scheme to conserve power and signaling resources without adding additional DCI bits or changing DCI field lengths. This yields a reduction in the UE’s blind decoding complexity while conserving battery life (See Paragraph [00108], [00120]-[00121], [00114], [00150], CHEN).
Regarding claim 10, VARATHARAAJAN, KHOSHNEVISAN, JANG and CHEN teach, The method of claim 9, VARATHARAAJAN and KHOSHNEVISAN do not explicitly teach but JANG teaches, ‘wherein a size of the first SRS resource indicator field is 4 bits,’ (JANG – Paragraph [0446]: In order to describe a dynamic switching method that can be supported through codepoints indicating reserved values of multiple SRI fields as a specific example, it is assumed that the maximum number of PUSCH antenna ports is 4 and the number of SRS resources in each SRS resource set is 4. In addition, it is assumed that the first SRI field is configured by 4 bits and is indicated in the same method as in NR Release 15/16),
‘and a size of the second SRS resource indicator field is determined according to a number of layers for transmission of the uplink transmission.’ (JANG – Paragraph [0424]: [Method 2] The first TPMI field may indicate the TPMI index and layer information for the SRS resource indicated by the first SRI field in the same method as in NR Release 15/16. In contrast, since the second TPMI field selects the TPMI index for the same layer as the layer indicated by the first TPMI field, layer information may not be indicated, and TPMI index information for the SRS resource indicated by the second SRI field may be indicated; Paragraph [0442]: [Method 2] The first SRI field may indicate SRS resource(s) for PUSCH transmission in the first SRS resource set in the same method as in NR Release 15/16. The second SRI field may indicate SRS resource(s) for PUSCH transmission in the second SRS resource set for the same layer as the layer indicated by the first SRI field; Paragraph [0444]: When multiple SRIs are selected through method 2, the bit length of the second SRI field may be smaller than that of the first SRI field. This is because the second SRI is determined among SRI candidates for the same layer as the layer determined as the first SRI field among SRI candidates for all supportable layers).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have known to combine the teachings of JANG with VARATHARAAJAN and KHOSHNEVISAN because both are in the same/similar field of endeavor. The advantage of incorporating the above limitation(s) of JANG into VARATHARAAJAN and KHOSHNEVISAN is that JANG provides reducing DCI signaling payload when multiple indication fields (such as multiple TPMI or multiple SRI fields) are included in a single DCI for multi-TRP uplink transmission, where the bit length of the secondary field can be made smaller than that of the primary field. This is because the secondary field only needs to select an indication candidate corresponding to the layer already established by the first field, thereby restricting the candidate pool and reducing the required bit width. This yields a minimization of overall DCI bit overhead while successfully conveying the required SRS resource indications across multiple SRS sets (See Paragraph [0426], [0442], [0444], JANG).
Conclusion
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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/HAESHIL JESSICA CHOI/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
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