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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-6, 8-26 and 28-30 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.
Regarding independent claims 1, 11, and 21 the newly added secondary reference Xu discloses up/downlink configuration through component carriers functionally similar to the described specification. Further in regards to claim 16, Park discloses in col 17 that the base station transmits cooperative UE uplink configuration information to each terminal.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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 1-3, 5, 6, 8-9, 11-14, 16-17, 19-22, 25, and 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 9031590 B2, hereinafter Park) in view of XU et al. (US 20130301570 A1, hereinafter Xu).
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 21 Park discloses:
receiving, from a base station, a target UE uplink configuration for a scheduled uplink transmission; (Col. 20 lines 4-17, “The resource allocation message transmitted by the cooperative terminal candidate may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation acceptance indicator ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, and Resource allocation information which may include one or more of allocation size, allocation location, MCS, MIMO information (MIMO scheme, PMI, rank indicator, etc.), transmit power information (transmit power, power ratio, etc.), and ACK/NACK transmission location.” And col. 18 Lines 48-53, “the cooperative terminal candidate, i.e. the second terminal 100b may transmit the resource allocation message between terminals in process S340 to the BS 200 and the BS 200 may transmit the received resource allocation message to the first terminal 100a.” The first UE receives uplink config of the coop UE through the base station.)
determining that the target UE uplink configuration includes an indication that a cooperative UE is configured to transmit the scheduled uplink transmission for the target UE based on a cooperative UE uplink configuration of the cooperative UE; (Col. 20 lines 4-17, “The resource allocation message transmitted by the cooperative terminal candidate may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation acceptance indicator ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, and Resource allocation information which may include one or more of allocation size, allocation location, MCS, MIMO information (MIMO scheme, PMI, rank indicator, etc.), transmit power information (transmit power, power ratio, etc.), and ACK/NACK transmission location.” And col. 18 Lines 48-53, “the cooperative terminal candidate, i.e. the second terminal 100b may transmit the resource allocation message between terminals in process S340 to the BS 200 and the BS 200 may transmit the received resource allocation message to the first terminal 100a.” This uplink config of the coop UE including a cooperation acceptance indicator.)
and transmitting, to the cooperative UE, information for transmitting the scheduled uplink transmission. (Fig. 9 and col 19 lines 52-67 and col 20 lines 1-3, “The resource allocation request message transmitted by the first terminal 100a in the resource allocation process S340 between terminals may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation request indicator, ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, Resource allocation request information for communication between terminals which may include the size of transmission data size, QoS of the transmission data, and data type (e.g. FID), and Resource allocation information for communication between terminals which may include one or more of transmission data size, transmission data location, a data transmission scheme (MIMO scheme, PMI, MCS, etc.), data transmit power (transmit power, power headroom, etc.), and ACK/NACK transmission location.” First transmit to coop UL transmission info.)
Specifically regarding claim 21 Park discloses:
one processor; a transceiver; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor and the transceiver, storing computer- executable code, which when executed by the at least one processor, (Col. 30 lines 4-7, “As shown in FIG. 13, the terminal 100 includes a storage means 101, a controller 102, and a transceiver 103. The BS 200 includes a storage means 201, a controller 202, and a transceiver 203” and col. 29 lines 57-58, “Software code may be stored in a memory unit and executed by a processor.”)
Park does not disclose:
receiving, from the base station in a first frequency, a downlink configuration, wherein the receiving the target UE uplink configuration comprises receiving the target UE uplink configuration in a second frequency range different than the first frequency range;
Xu discloses:
receiving, from the base station in a first frequency, a downlink configuration, wherein the receiving the target UE uplink configuration comprises receiving the target UE uplink configuration in a second frequency range different than the first frequency range; (paragraph [0117], “At another time, 3 component carriers may be allocated for downlink and 5 component carriers for uplink. The TDD adaptation applies to different downlink and uplink configuration changes in time, but the FDD adaptation applies to different component carriers for downlink and uplink transmissions. The TDD adaptation can also be applied on a per component carrier basis.” And paragraph [0119], “FIG. 18 illustrates a method 1800 for signaling in a carrier aggregation configuration. At block 1802, uplink or downlink transmission directions are adaptively assigned for component carriers.” The UE receives different configuration for up/downlink from the BS through different CCs.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the transmission of configuration in Park with the component carriers/carrier aggregation of Xu. One would have been motivated to do this “to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using OFDMA” ([0006], Xu).
Regarding claims 2, 12, 17 and 22 Park discloses:
wherein the indication includes a pointer to the cooperative UE uplink configuration, and wherein the method further comprising: transmitting, to the cooperative UE, the pointer; (Col. 20 lines 4-11, “The resource allocation message transmitted by the cooperative terminal candidate may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation acceptance indicator ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal…” The mobile station ID of the coop terminal plays a role functionally similar to the pointer.)
and receiving, from the cooperative UE via a radio resource control (RRC) message, a shared uplink configuration comprising the cooperative UE uplink configuration based on the pointer. (Col. 20 lines 4-17, “The resource allocation message transmitted by the cooperative terminal candidate may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation acceptance indicator ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, and Resource allocation information which may include one or more of allocation size, allocation location, MCS, MIMO information (MIMO scheme, PMI, rank indicator, etc.), transmit power information (transmit power, power ratio, etc.), and ACK/NACK transmission location.” As stated above the information travels to the base station then to the terminal (RRC) and comprises MCS and MIMO information (shared UL configs.))
Regarding claim 3 Park discloses:
wherein the target UE uplink configuration comprises the cooperative UE uplink configuration, wherein the cooperative UE uplink configuration indicates an uplink resource allocation for transmitting the scheduled uplink transmission at the cooperative UE. (col. 3 lines 5-6, “at a terminal, transmitting data to a base station in cooperation with an another terminal.” And Col. 20 lines 4-17, “The resource allocation message transmitted by the cooperative terminal candidate may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation acceptance indicator ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, and Resource allocation information which may include one or more of allocation size, allocation location, MCS, MIMO information (MIMO scheme, PMI, rank indicator, etc.), transmit power information (transmit power, power ratio, etc.), and ACK/NACK transmission location.”)
(Note: claims 6 is a combination of claims 4 and 5, claim 20 is a combination of claims 18 and 19, and claim 26 is a combination of claims 23-25. PUCCH and PUSCH are obviously needed for data transmission and management in cooperative UEs and as such will be disclosed alongside the respective claims.)
Regarding claims 5, 6, 19, 20, 25, and 26 Park discloses:
wherein the cooperative UE uplink configuration comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) configuration of the cooperative UE , wherein the scheduled uplink transmission comprises uplink data based on the PUSCH configuration. (Col. 20 lines 4-17, “The resource allocation message transmitted by the cooperative terminal candidate may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation acceptance indicator ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, and Resource allocation information which may include one or more of allocation size, allocation location, MCS, MIMO information (MIMO scheme, PMI, rank indicator, etc.), transmit power information (transmit power, power ratio, etc.), and ACK/NACK transmission location.” These are the PUSCH configuration of the coop UE.)
Regarding claims 8, 13 and 28 Park discloses:
wherein the receiving the target UE uplink configuration comprises receiving, from the base station, the target UE uplink configuration and the cooperative UE uplink configuration. (Col. 2 lines 55-56, “The method may further include allocating an uplink resource to the first terminal;” and col. 18 Lines 48-53, “the cooperative terminal candidate, i.e. the second terminal 100b may transmit the resource allocation message between terminals in process S340 to the BS 200 and the BS 200 may transmit the received resource allocation message to the first terminal 100a.” The first UE will always receive both its uplink config and the cooperative config. This is shown through the BS transmitting its config on its behalf as stated above and, in the case, where it needs help transmitting the cooperative config is again received from the BS.)
Regarding claim 9, 14 and 29 Park discloses:
receiving, from the base station, a downlink control signal indicating a selection between the target UE uplink configuration and the cooperative UE uplink configuration. (Col. 2 lines 38-42, “ at a base station, clustering cooperative terminal candidates for cooperative data transmission. The method may include identifying terminals which are capable of transmitting data of an another terminal;” and Col. 2 lines 55-56, “The method may further include allocating an uplink resource to the first terminal;” The selection of the first UE’s own resources or the cooperative UE’s config. Resources are dependent on the status of the first UE which is monitored by the Base station. In the present disclosure the usage of the cooperative UE’s configuration to help relay data from the first UE to the base station happens when “a terminal is in a poor channel state” See col. 3 lines 65-67. There must be a selection of which resource to use indicated by the BS as it manages this whole process of data transmission.)
Regarding claim 16 Park discloses:
A method of wireless communication at a cooperative user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a base station and prior to the scheduled uplink transmission, a cooperative UE uplink configuration indicating an uplink resource allocation for transmitting a scheduled uplink transmission for a target UE; (Col. 17 lines 42-54, “Meanwhile, if the first terminal 100a receives the resource allocation message from the BS 200 through the first initial transmission process S302, the BS 200 may previously allocate an uplink resource for cooperative transmission to one or more of the first terminal 100a and the second terminal 100b. The BS 200 may transmit an uplink resource message including information about the uplink resource allocated for cooperative transmission to the first terminal 100a when transmitting the resource allocation message in the initial data transmission process S320 or separately from transmission of the resource allocation message. The BS 200 may transmit the uplink resource message to the second terminal 100b through an additional message.” And col 19 lines 35-37, “the BS 200 may transmit the cooperation request message to the second terminal 100b on behalf of the first terminal 100a” The second/coop terminal receives configuration for cooperation to help transmit data of first terminal. )
receiving, from the target UE, information for transmitting the scheduled uplink transmission; (Col. 19 Lines 52-64, “The resource allocation request message transmitted by the first terminal 100a in the resource allocation process S340 between terminals may include at least one of the following information: A cooperation request indicator, ID information of a cooperative transmission terminal which may include one or more of an MSID (or STID) of the cooperative transmission terminal and a temporary ID of the cooperative transmission terminal, Resource allocation request information for communication between terminals which may include the size of transmission data size, QoS of the transmission data, and data type (e.g. FID)…”)
and transmitting, to the base station, the scheduled uplink transmission for the target UE. (Col. 17 lines 12-13, “only the second terminal 100b may transmit data of the first terminal 100a to the BS 200.”)
Claims 4, 6, 10, 15, 18, 20, 23, 24, 26, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park in view of SU et al. (WO 2019156505 A1, hereinafter Su).
(Note: claims 6 is a combination of claims 4 and 5, claim 20 is a combination of claims 18 and 19, and claim 26 is a combination of claims 23-25. PUCCH and PUSCH are obviously needed for data transmission and management in cooperative UEs and as such will be disclosed alongside the respective claims.)
Regarding claims 4, 6, 18, 20, 23, 24 and 26 Park does not fully disclose:
wherein the cooperative UE uplink configuration comprises a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration of the cooperative UE, wherein the scheduled uplink transmission comprises uplink control information (UCI) based on the PUCCH configuration.
Su discloses:
wherein the cooperative UE uplink configuration comprises a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration of the cooperative UE, wherein the scheduled uplink transmission comprises uplink control information (UCI) based on the PUCCH configuration. (paragraph [277], “in order to accomplish the forwarding function of the uplink control information (UCI) of the remote UE by the relay UE, the base station needs to configure at least one or more of the following information for the relay UE by using an RRC message:” and paragraph [278], “information of physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration for the remote UE; information of PUCCH configuration for the relay UE itself. The information of PUCCH configuration herein includes the transmission format of the PUCCH, the repetition number of the PUCCH, the physical resource configuration of the PUCCH, and other necessary parameters of the PUCCH.”)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the teaching of Park in view of Su to incorporate the PUCCH configuration information in the uplink configuration. One would be motivated to do this to allow better cooperation between the two UE.
Regarding claims 10, 15 and 30 Park does not fully disclose:
wherein the transmitting the information for transmitting the scheduled uplink transmission comprises transmitting, to the cooperative UE, at least a portion of the downlink control signal that includes downlink control information associated with the target UE when the downlink control signal indicates the selection of the cooperative UE uplink configuration.
Su discloses:
wherein the transmitting the information for transmitting the scheduled uplink transmission comprises transmitting, to the cooperative UE, at least a portion of the downlink control signal that includes downlink control information associated with the target UE when the downlink control signal indicates the selection of the cooperative UE uplink configuration. (Paragraph [275], “in order to accomplish the forwarding function of the downlink control information (DCI) of the remote UE by the relay UE, the base station needs to configure at least one of the following information for the relay UE by using an RRC message:” and paragraph [276], “identity of the remote UE, such as UE ID; the wireless network temporary identifier (RNTI) of the remote UE, such as C-RNTI, SPS-C-RNTI, etc.; information of PDCCH configuration for the remote UE; information of PDCCH configuration for the relay UE itself. The information of PDCCH configuration herein includes the search space configuration of the PDCCH, the maximum repetition number of the PDCCH, the physical resource configuration of the PDCCH, and other necessary parameters of the PDCCH.” So when the channel gets poor and the remote UE needs to rely on the relay to transmit data, the dci gets forwarded through the help of the base station.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the teachings of Park in view of Su to incorporate DCI forwarding. One would be motivated to do this so the relaying UE is enabled to send the remote UE’s data.
(NOTE: While Park does not directly mention DCI, Col. 19 lines 52-67 and Col. 20 lines 1-3 discloses resource allocation of the first terminal being sent to the second terminal, including all the same information required to enable the relay of data using the second terminal.)
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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/NAM P. CAO/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479