DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-13, 16-18, 20, 27, and 29-30 are presented for examination.
Claims 1, 11, and 27 are amended.
Claim 13 is cancelled.
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 filed October 15, 2025, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The reasons set forth below.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 27 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.
In response to applicant argument regarding claims 12, applicant argues that Bae fails to teach or suggest wherein the UE is not expected to transmit HARQ feedback corresponding to the PUCCH without the highest one of the first priority and the second priority, (Remarks, page 11). Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Examiner is interpreting claim 12 as “the UE is expected to transmit HARQ feedback for the higher priority PUCCH”. Bae discloses in paragraph [0197] Separate codebooks may be formed/generated for HARQ-ACK feedback for a plurality of DL data channels (e.g., a plurality of PDSCHs) having different…priorities. For example, a HARQ-ACK codebook for PDSCH(s) associated with a high priority and a HARQ-ACK codebook for PDSCH(s) associated with a low priority may be separately configured/formed. The UE may be configured to generate only one HARQ-ACK codebook or multiple HARQ-ACK codebooks. When the UE is indicated to generate one HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a PUCCH of priority index 0 (the highest priority PUCCH). When the UE is provided with pdsch-HARQ-ACK-CodebookList, the UE multiplexes only HARQ-ACK information associated with the same priority index with the same HARQ-ACK codebook. Since the UE is configured to only generate one HARQ-ACK codebook and the first and second PDSCHs have different priorities (based on claim 11), the HARQ-ACK codebook will only contain the HARQ feedback for the higher priority PUCCH. Thus, Bae teaches the UE is expected to transmit the HARQ feedback corresponding to the higher priority PUCCH). Therefore, Bae teaches wherein the UE is not expected to transmit HARQ feedback corresponding to the PUCCH without the highest one of the first priority and the second priority. Claim 12 is rejected under Liu in view of Bae.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 20 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.
In response to applicant argument regarding the remaining dependent claims, applicant has not made specific arguments pertaining to why the cited references do not teach the recited claims other than their dependency to independent claims 1 or 27. Therefore, for at least the reasons presented above for claim 1, the remaining dependent claims are rejected.
Regarding the objections to the specification, amendment addresses the issue raised by the previous office action. Objection to the specification is withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 18, 27, 29, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Liu (US 20220086883 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Liu teaches a method of operating a User Equipment, UE, in a communication network, the method comprising:
receiving a first physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, scheduling assignment including a first hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, process identifier and a second PDSCH scheduling assignment that includes the first HARQ process identifier, wherein the first PDSCH scheduling assignment comprises a multi-cast, PTM, wherein the second PDSCH scheduling assignment comprises a unicast, PTP ([0140] In response to determining that the wireless device is capable of receiving the schedule via both the GC PDCCH and the wireless device-specific PDCCH (i.e., determination block 510=“Both”), the processor may transmit to the wireless device an indication of whether multicast communications sent via a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) that is scheduled by the wireless device-specific PDCCH and multicast communications sent via a second PDSCH that is scheduled by the GC PDCCH use the same resources and configuration in block 516. In some embodiments, the processor may transmit to the wireless device a wireless device-specific PDCCH including a field to indicate whether the wireless device-specific PDCCH is associated with the GC PDCCH for multicast transmission. [0064] In some embodiments, the wireless device may determine an association between multicast communications and retransmitted multicast communications based on a HARQ process ID, which the base station may indicate in a PDCCH message. [0140] In some embodiments, the processor may transmit to the wireless device an indication that the wireless device-specific PDCCH includes a same Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) process ID and a same New Data Indicator (NDI) as an associated GC PDCCH for multicast transmission.); and
determining which of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment, the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, or both of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment to process ([0027] In some aspects, receiving from the base station an indication of whether to monitor the GC PDCCH, the wireless device-specific PDCCH, or both the GC PDCCH and the wireless device-specific PDCCH for multicast configuration information may include receiving from the base station a priority index, and determining based on the priority index and a priority associated with the GC PDCCH or the wireless device-specific PDCCH whether to monitor the GC PDCCH or the wireless device-specific PDCCH. [0166] In some embodiments, the wireless device may determine an association between multicast communications and retransmitted multicast communications based on a HARQ process ID (which the base station may indicate in a PDCCH message). In some embodiments, if the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH carry the same TB associated with a configured HARQ process ID pair, the wireless device may combine the multicast communications received via the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH.)
Regarding claim 3, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 wherein determining which of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment, the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, or both of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment to process comprises determining a priority that is based on a priority rule ([0069] In some embodiments, the base station may transmit to the wireless additional criteria based on priority index, to enable the wireless device to determine whether to enable or select a GC PDCCH or wireless device-specific PDCCH for multicast communications. For example, the base station may indicate a priority index by RRC signaling or DCI to the wireless device. In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a high priority (e.g., a priority index of 1). In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may not monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a low priority (e.g., priority index of 0). [0157] In some embodiments, the processor may receive a priority index from the base station and may use the priority index and a priority associated with the GC PDCCH or the wireless device-specific PDCCH to determine whether to monitor the GC PDCCH or the wireless device-specific PDCCH. If the UE determines not to monitor a PDCCH based on a priority rule, then it follows the UE will determine not to process that PDCCH based on a priority rule.).
Regarding claim 4, Liu teaches the method of claim 3, wherein the priority rule comprises a static rule that is predetermined ([0152] In some embodiments, the base station may configure the priority index by RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 5 Liu teaches the method of claim 3, wherein the priority rule comprises a semi-static rule that is configured based on a radio resource control, RRC, message ([0152] In some embodiments, the base station may configure the priority index by RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 6, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 wherein determining which of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment, the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, or both of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment to process comprises transmitting, to a network node, HARQ feedback for the first PDSCH scheduling assignment using a first physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, and/or a second PDSCH scheduling assignment using a second PUCCH that is different from the first PUCCH ([0166] In some embodiments, the wireless device may send the HARQ-ACK feedback using the uplink resource configuration indicated in the wireless device-specific PDCCH, or GC PDCCH, or the latest PDCCH received by the wireless device).
Regarding claim 9, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured to receive the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, wherein each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and second PDSCH scheduling assignment comprise a same HARQ process ([0141] In some embodiments, in the case that the wireless device is capable of receiving multicast scheduling information via both the GC PDCCH and the wireless device-specific PDCCH, the base station may schedule a PDSCH, such as based on a Group-RNTI (G-RNTI) by a wireless-device specific PDCCH. In some embodiments, the PDSCH scheduled by the wireless-device specific PDCCH may be same as that of the GC PDCCH (same HARQ process). This may indicate to the wireless device that the PDSCH uses, for example, the same resource allocation, modulation and coding scheme, and other similar characteristics. In some embodiments, the wireless device may use a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and/or transmit power control (TPC) indicated by the wireless device-specific PDCCH, which may override the PUCCH and/or TPC indicated by a group PUCCH and/or group TPC, if they are different. [0142] In some embodiments, the PDSCH (e.g., based on a G-RNTI or C-RNTI)) scheduled by the wireless-device specific PDCCH may be different from that of the GC PDCCH, but may be associated with the same transport block (TB) (same HARQ process). This may indicate to the wireless device that the PDSCH uses different resource allocation, redundancy version (RV). The wireless device may also be configured to associate a wireless device-specific PDCCH indicated by a Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) process ID with the group PDCCH. In such embodiments, the wireless device may combine a PDSCH scheduled by the GC PDCCH and a PDSCH scheduled by the wireless device-specific PDCCH.)
Regarding claim 27, Liu teaches a method of operating a radio access network node (the Macro BS 110a of Fig. 1), RAN, in a communication network, the method comprising: receiving, from a user equipment, UE, a hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, corresponding to a first physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, that is based on the UE processing a first physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, scheduling assignment including a first hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, process identifier and a second PDSCH scheduling assignment that includes the first HARQ process identifier, wherein the first PDSCH scheduling assignment comprises a multi-cast, PTM, wherein the second PDSCH scheduling assignment comprises a unicast, PTP ([0142] In some embodiments, the PDSCH (e.g., based on a G-RNTI or C-RNTI)) scheduled by the wireless-device specific PDCCH (second PDSCH scheduling assignment comprises a unicast, PTP ) may be different from that of the GC PDCCH (first PDSCH scheduling assignment comprises a multi-cast, PTM), but may be associated with the same transport block (TB) (same HARQ process identifier). This may indicate to the wireless device that the PDSCH uses different resource allocation, redundancy version (RV). The wireless device may also be configured to associate a wireless device-specific PDCCH indicated by a Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) process ID with the group PDCCH (same HARQ process identifier). In such embodiments, the wireless device may combine a PDSCH scheduled by the GC PDCCH and a PDSCH scheduled by the wireless device-specific PDCCH (UE processes both the first and second PDSCHs). [0143] In block 518, the processor (i.e., the base station) may receive feedback from the wireless device via an uplink resource indicated in the wireless device-specific PDCCH (receiving, from a UE, HARQ corresponding to a first physical uplink control channel, PUCCH). For example, the base station may receive from the wireless device Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) acknowledgements or feedback (e.g., a HARQ ACK).).
Regarding claim 29, Liu teaches the method of claim 27 further comprising sending a radio resource control, RRC, message to the UE, the RRC comprising a configuration for determining a priority rule corresponding to which of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment, the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, or the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment are to be processed ([0152] Referring to FIG. 5F, in operations 500f following the performance of the operations of block 504 (FIG. 5A), the processor may transmit to the wireless device a priority index to enable the wireless device to determine whether to monitor the GC PDCCH or the wireless device-specific PDCCH in block 534. In some embodiments, the base station may indicate the priority index by RRC signaling or DCI to the wireless device. In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a high priority (e.g., a priority index of 1). In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may not monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a low priority (e.g., priority index of 0).).
Regarding claim 30, Liu teaches the method of claim 27 further comprising receiving, from the UE, HARQ feedback for the first PDSCH scheduling assignment using a first physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, and/or a second PDSCH scheduling assignment using a second PUCCH that is different from the first PUCCH ([0166] In some embodiments, the wireless device may send the HARQ-ACK feedback using the uplink resource configuration indicated in the wireless device-specific PDCCH, or GC PDCCH, or the latest PDCCH received by the wireless device).
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20220086883 A1) in view of Seo (US 20190013902 A1).
Regarding claim 17, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 but does not teach further comprising transmitting the HARQ on more than one PUCCH resources to the network that is monitoring all of the PUCCH resources that are configured for HARQ feedback responses and that expects at least one of the HARQ feedback responses to be received.
Seo, in the same field of endeavor of error recovery using multiple channels in a wireless communication system teaches further comprising transmitting the HARQ on more than one PUCCH resources to the network that is monitoring all of the PUCCH resources that are configured for HARQ feedback responses and that expects at least one of the HARQ feedback responses to be received ([0069] If a retransmission is performed in a MAC layer, a UE reports a success/failure in an initial transmission reception to a base station through HARQ-ACK. In this case, PUCCH is usable for HARQ-ACK feedback (first PUCCH resource), and a separate PUCCH resource (second PUCCH resource) is usable to be distinguished from HARQ-ACK for an initial transmission. Network is monitoring these PUCCH resources because it has scheduled them. [0039] the UE may receive a PDCCH/PDSCH (S307) and transmit a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)/physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (S308), as a general UL/DL signal transmission procedure. Especially, the UE receives downlink control information (DCI) through the PDCCH. The DCI includes control information such as resource allocation information for the UE and has different formats according to use purpose thereof.).
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 methods of error recovery of Seo with the Control Signaling For Multicast Communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to reduce a time taken to recover packet error or link failure occurring in the course of performing wireless communication and increase resource efficiency. (Seo; [0016]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim 2, 18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20220086883 A1) in view of MOON (US 20250240791 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 and teaches wherein the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and second PDSCH scheduling assignment are received in a same transport block ([0164] In block 612, the processor may receive from the base station an indication of whether multicast communications sent via the first PDSCH and multicast communications sent via the second PDSCH are transmitted in a same transport block (TB), wherein the multicast communications sent via the first PDSCH and the multicast communications sent via the second PDSCH have different redundancy versions (RVs)).
Liu does not explicitly teach wherein the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and second PDSCH scheduling assignment are received in a same PDSCH-to-HARQ cycle.
MOON, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communications teaches wherein the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and second PDSCH scheduling assignment are received in a same PDSCH-to-HARQ cycle ([0100] Referring to FIG. 6, as an embodiment of Method M100, a case in which a first DCI and a second DCI schedule the same PDSCH in an n-th slot and a terminal transmits an HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH in an (n+2)-th slot. Fig. 6 shows first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments are received in a same PDSCH-to-HARQ cycle, where examiner is interpreting PDSCH-to-HARQ cycle to mean the span of time between reception of the PDSCH and transmission of the HARQ for that PDSCH).
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 methods of transmitting and receiving DCI of Moon with the control signaling for multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to improve transmission reliability of the downlink control channel and reduce the burden of blind decoding on the downlink control channel at the terminal in multi-beam-based mobile communication systems. (Moon; [0027]).
Regarding claim 18, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 but does not explicitly teach further comprising combining both of the PDSCH associated with the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the PDSCH associated with the second PDSCH scheduling assignment before decoding.
Liu does not explicitly teach combining both of the PDSCH associated with the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the PDSCH associated with the second PDSCH scheduling assignment before decoding.
Moon, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communications teaches combining both of the PDSCH associated with the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the PDSCH associated with the second PDSCH scheduling assignment before decoding ([0114] the terminal may receive a plurality of DCIs in advance before PDSCH decoding, so that when decoding fails with only one PDSCH, a plurality of PDSCHs may be soft-combined at a channel decoding end, thereby improving reception performance).
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 methods for transmitting or receiving downlink control channel of Moon with the control signaling for multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to improve transmission reliability of the downlink control channel and reduce the burden of blind decoding on the downlink control channel at the terminal in multi-beam-based mobile communication systems. (Moon; [0027]).
Regarding claim 20, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 and teaches further comprising: decoding each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment before decoding and transmitting HARQ feedback corresponding to PUCCH resources corresponding to each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment ([0064] In some embodiments, if the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH carry the same TB associated with a configured HARQ process ID pair, the wireless device may combine the multicast communications received via the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH, and may determine the HARQ ACK feedback using the uplink resource configuration indicated in the wireless device-specific PDCCH, or GC PDCCH, or the latest PDCCH received by wireless device. In order to combine the multicast communications received via the first and second PDCCHs, the first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments must have been received and successfully decoded first).
Liu does not explicitly teach transmitting HARQ feedback corresponding to PUCCH resources corresponding to each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment after decoding each of the first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments and decoding.
Moon, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communications teaches decoding each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment before decoding and transmitting HARQ feedback corresponding to PUCCH resources corresponding to each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment ([0114] the terminal may receive a plurality of DCIs in advance before PDSCH decoding, so that when decoding fails with only one PDSCH, a plurality of PDSCHs may be soft-combined at a channel decoding end, thereby improving reception performance. Being able to soft combine a first and second PDSCH means both first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments were received and successfully decoded first. [0104] In Method M110, a plurality of PDSCHs include the same TB or TBs for the same HARQ process, so that the terminal may transmit an HARQ-ACK for the plurality of PDSCHs only once. This HARQ-ACK is associated with both first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments, since the corresponding PDSCHs are for the same HARQ process. Since each of the first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments are received and successfully decoded in advance before PDSCH decoding, and the transmitted HARQ-ACK is associated with both first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments, it follows that Moon discloses decoding each of the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment before decoding and transmitting HARQ feedback corresponding to each of the first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments).
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 methods for transmitting or receiving downlink control channel of Moon with the control signaling for multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to improve transmission reliability of the downlink control channel and reduce the burden of blind decoding on the downlink control channel at the terminal in multi-beam-based mobile communication systems. (Moon; [0027]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 7, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20220086883 A1) in view of CHIEN (US 20200053765 A1).
Regarding claim 7 Liu teaches the method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting that the UE is configured to receive multiple PDSCH scheduling assignments with a same HARQ process within a given time span ([0069] As noted above, based on the capability reported by the wireless device, the base station may determine whether the wireless device is capable of receiving the schedule via the GC PDCCH, the wireless device-specific PDCCH, or both the GC PDCCH and the wireless device-specific PDCCH. In some embodiments, based on the capability reported by the wireless device, the base station may determine whether the wireless device is capable of receiving multicast communications via the GC PDCCH or the wireless device-specific PDCCH in a same slot or overlapping in time. In some embodiments, the base station may transmit to the wireless device an indication that the wireless device-specific PDCCH includes a same Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) process ID and a same New Data Indicator (NDI) as an associated GC PDCCH for multicast transmission. [0128] Processor(s) 428, 432 may be configured to provide information processing capabilities in the base station 402 and the wireless device 404. [0133] In block 504, the processor may determine a schedule for transmitting multicast communications to the wireless device based on a capability reported by the wireless device).
Liu does not explicitly teach transmitting that the UE is configured to process multiple PDSCH scheduling assignments with a same HARQ process within a given time span.
Chien, in the same field of endeavor of mobile communication systems teaches further comprising transmitting that the UE is configured to process multiple PDSCH scheduling assignments with a same HARQ process within a given time span ([0057] In the present invention, the UE 1 will report its UE capability to the BS 2. The UE capability includes a parallel processing capability and a PDSCH processing capability on each of a plurality of component carriers (CC). [0058] Further speaking, when having the parallel processing capability, the UE 1 may have a processor with multiple cores, and so is able to demodulate and decode the first and second data downlink signals at the same time through the processing capability of the multiple cores. [0059] Furthermore, the first and second downlink data signals are transmitted on the same component carrier, the UE 1 is still able to demodulate and decode the first and second downlink data signals at the same time based on its PDSCH processing capability on each component carrier as long as the UE 1 has the parallel processing capability. Since the UE is capable of decoding the first and second downlink data signals at the same time, it is capable of processing both first and second PDSCH scheduling assignments with the same harq process within a given time span. The given time span is T2 in Fig. 6A, the time between the end of the second PDSCH DDR2 and the second PUCCH UCR2. [0046] In FIG. 6A, if the time interval T2 between the second PDSCH resource DDR2 and the second PUCCH resource UCR2 is longer than the sum of the processing time N1 of the first downlink data signal and the processing time N2 of the second downlink data signal, it means that the UE 1 still has enough time to completely decode the first downlink data signal after decoding the second downlink data signal so that the UE 1 decides to continue processing the first downlink data signal and generates the first HARQ-ACK message according to the whole processing result of the first downlink data signal.).
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 UE and base station of Chien with the control signaling for multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to schedule the uplink radio resources in response to the need of instantaneous transmission for urgency and make the BS and the UE able to deal with such instantaneous transmission for urgency (Chien; [0006]).
Regarding claim 8, Liu and Chien teach the method of claim 7, but Liu does not explicitly teach wherein the given time span comprises a time between receiving a PDSCH scheduling assignment and transmitting a HARQ feedback.
Chien, in the same field of endeavor of mobile communication systems, teaches wherein the given time span comprises a time between receiving a PDSCH scheduling assignment and transmitting a HARQ feedback (As shown in Fig. 6A, the given time span is T2, the time between the end of the second PDSCH and the first PUCCH).
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 UE and base station of Chien with the control signaling for multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to schedule the uplink radio resources in response to the need of instantaneous transmission for urgency and make the BS and the UE able to deal with such instantaneous transmission for urgency (Chien; [0006]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 10, 11, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20220086883 A1) in view of BAE (US 20220231798 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Liu teaches the method of claim 1, but does not teach wherein the UE is configured to receive the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, wherein the UE is further configured to include semi-persistent scheduling, wherein a HARQ process for the first PDSCH scheduling assignment received vis SPS is the same as the second PDSCH scheduling assignment in the PDSCH-to-HARQ time span.
Bae, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communications systems, teaches wherein the UE is configured to receive the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and the second PDSCH scheduling assignment, wherein the UE is further configured to include semi-persistent scheduling, wherein a HARQ process for the first PDSCH scheduling assignment received vis SPS is the same as the second PDSCH scheduling assignment in the PDSCH-to-HARQ time span ([0019] In each aspect of the present disclosure, the first downlink channel may be a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) based physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). [0018] In each aspect of the present disclosure, based on the first HARQ-ACK being subject to the HARQ deferral and the first transmission time being determined by the HARQ deferral from the second transmission time, the second downlink channel may start before an end of the first transmission time. [0011] In an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of receiving a downlink channel by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system. The method may include: determining a first transmission time for a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)-acknowledgement (ACK) (HARQ-ACK) for a first downlink channel associated with a first HARQ process; and receiving a second downlink channel associated with the first HARQ process. Receiving the second downlink channel for the first HARQ process may include: receiving the second downlink channel after the first transmission time based on the first HARQ-ACK being not subject to HARQ deferral; and receiving the second downlink channel after a second transmission time based on the first HARQ-ACK being subject to the HARQ deferral and the first transmission time being determined by the HARQ deferral from the second transmission time earlier than the first transmission time. Fig. 13 shows first and second PDSCHs are received in the same PDSCH-to-HARQ timespan).
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 methods for receiving downlink channel of Bae with the control signaling of multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to reduce delay/latency generated during radio communication between communication devices. (Bae; [0026]).
Regarding claim 11, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the UE is configured to include a HARQ feedback priority list that defines a first priority for the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and a second priority for the second PDSCH scheduling assignment ([0069] In some embodiments, the base station may transmit to the wireless additional criteria based on priority index, to enable the wireless device to determine whether to enable or select a GC PDCCH or wireless device-specific PDCCH for multicast communications. For example, the base station may indicate a priority index by RRC signaling or DCI to the wireless device. In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a high priority (e.g., a priority index of 1). In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may not monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a low priority (e.g., priority index of 0).)
Liu does not teach the method further comprising selecting a PUCCH resource with a highest one of the first priority and the second priority.
Bae, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communications systems, teaches wherein the UE is configured to include a HARQ feedback priority list that defines a first priority for the first PSDSCH scheduling assignment and a second priority for the second PDSCH scheduling assignment ([0197] Separate codebooks may be formed/generated for HARQ-ACK feedback for a plurality of DL data channels (e.g., a plurality of PDSCHs) having different service types, quality of service (QoS), latency requirements, reliability requirements, and/or priorities. For example, a HARQ-ACK codebook for PDSCH(s) associated with a high priority (second priority) and a HARQ-ACK codebook for PDSCH(s) associated with a low priority (first priority) may be separately configured/formed. For HARQ-ACK feedback for PDSCHs with different priorities, different parameters and resource configurations may be considered for PUCCH transmissions with different priorities (see information element (IE) pucch-ConfigurationList of 3GPP TS 38.331). For example, if the UE is provided with pdsch-HARQ-ACK-CodebookList (HARQ Feedback priority list) through RRC signaling, the UE may be indicated by pdsch-HARQ-ACK-CodebookList to generate one or multiple HARQ-ACK codebooks), the method further comprising selecting a PUCCH resource with a highest one of the first priority and the second priority (When the UE is indicated to generate one HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a PUCCH of priority index 0 (high priority). When the UE is indicated to generate two HARQ-ACK codebooks, the first HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a PUCCH of priority index 0 (high priority), and the second HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a PUCCH of priority index 1 (low priority)).
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 methods for receiving downlink channel of Bae with the control signaling of multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to reduce delay/latency generated during radio communication between communication devices. (Bae; [0026]).
Regarding claim 12, Liu and Bae teach the method of claim 11, and Liu teaches wherein the UE is not expected to transmit HARQ feedback corresponding to the PUCCH without the highest one of the first priority and the second priority ([0069] In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a high priority (e.g., a priority index of 1). In some embodiments, based on the priority index, the wireless device may not monitor a GC PDCCH or device-specific PDCCH associated with a low priority (e.g., priority index of 0). If the device does not monitor the PDCCH with a low priority index, it will it is not expected to transmit HARQ feedback corresponding to the PUCCH without the highest one of the first priority and the second priority).
Bae, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communications systems, also teaches the method of claim 11, wherein the UE is not expected to transmit HARQ feedback corresponding to the PUCCH without the highest one of the first priority and the second priority (the low priority PUCCH) ([0197] When the UE is indicated to generate one HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a PUCCH of priority index 0 (the highest priority PUCCH. Since only one PUCCH is sent, the UE is not expected to transmit the HARQ feedback corresponding to the low priority PUCCH).
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 methods for receiving downlink channel of Bae with the control signaling of multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to reduce delay/latency generated during radio communication between communication devices. (Bae; [0026]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20220086883 A1) in view of KHOSHNEVISAN (US 20200196346 A1).
Regarding claim 16, Liu teaches the method of claim 1 but does not teach further comprising transmitting the HARQ on more than one PUCCH resources for the network to determine channel quality for PDSCHs associated with the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and PDSCHs associated with the second PDSCH scheduling assignment.
KHOSHNEVISAN, in the same field of endeavor of techniques for processing transmissions scheduled with repeated downlink control information transmissions (DCIs), teaches transmitting the HARQ on more than one PUCCH resources for the network to determine channel quality for PDSCHs associated with the first PDSCH scheduling assignment and PDSCHs associated with the second PDSCH scheduling assignment ([0095] the UE may send PUCCH (transmitting the HARQ) on both PUCCH resources (more than one PUCCH resources) (determined according to each DCI). [0098] the feedback received can be used as a mechanism to select parameters for future scheduled transmissions (e.g., choose a better beam on PUCCH depending on which beam is better for DCI). In other words, the resources selected for feedback may indicate which DCI is successfully decoded and/or has larger DMRS SINR (channel quality). A gNB may then know (infer) which DCIs were detected successfully (based on which PUCCH parameters were used)).
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 techniques for utilizing and processing repeated DCI transmissions that schedule common uplink or downlink transmissions of KHOSHNEVISAN with the control signaling for multicast communications of Liu. The motivation to do so would have been to improve reliability through diversity, by using resources and/or different transmission parameters (different precoders/beams/TCI states/TRPs/Panels). (KHOSHNEVISAN; [0069]).
Conclusion
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/NANCY SIXTO/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465