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 filed 06/25/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants states (REMARKS, pg. 16) “the Applicant submits that the amended claims are patentable for at least the following reasons. The Office Action stated that "Claims 33 and 36 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre- AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action." (Non-Final Office Action, Pg. 20). Independent claims 1, 27, and 59 have been amended to incorporate the features previously recited in dependent claim 33 (now canceled). Accordingly, the Applicant submits that the amended claims are allowable for at least the reason identified by the Examiner.”
In response, the Examiner respectfully disagrees noting that the scope of the limitations “previously recited in dependent claim 33” is not same to the currently filed amended limitation in the independent claims. For instant, the limitations “previously recited in dependent claim 33” required “the at least one MAC CE activating the plurality of activated TCI states” which is different from the currently amended limitations of “the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states” or “a third MAC CE activating the plurality of TCI states corresponding to the uplink beam and the plurality of TCI states corresponding to the downlink beam” which is different from the currently amended limitations of “a third MAC CE configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission” or “a fourth MAC CE activating the plurality of TCI states corresponding to the uplink beam, and a fifth MAC CE activating the plurality of TCI states corresponding to the downlink beam” which is different from the currently amended limitations of “a fourth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission, and a fifth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission.”
Therefore, such amendment requires further search and consideration which has produced prior arts that reads onto the currently amended limitations as addressed in the detailed
rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 3-5, 13, 27-31, 34, 37-39, 57 and 59-63 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 10 and 11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 11. It is unclear if "the MAC CE" is referring to “a [[media]]medium access control control element (MAC CE)” recited in line 6 or "the MAC CE" in line 11 .
Claims 5 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 4. It is unclear if "the MAC CE" is referring to “a [[media]]medium access control control element (MAC CE)” recited in line 6 or "the MAC CE" in line 11 in claim 1.
Claim 27 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 12. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 27 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 13. It is unclear if "the MAC CE" is referring to “a [[media]]medium access control control element (MAC CE)” recited in line 3 or "the MAC CE" in line 12 .
Claims 31 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 4. It is unclear if "the MAC CE" is referring to “a [[media]]medium access control control element (MAC CE)” recited in line 3 or "the MAC CE" in line 12 in claim 27.
Claim 59 recites the limitation "the MAC CE" in line 10 and 11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 3-5, 13, 57, 60-63 and 28-31, 34, 37-39 are rejected for at least their dependency on claim 1 and 27, respectively.
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.
Claims 1, 3-5, 27-31, 34, 37-38, 57 and 59-63 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liou (US 20180368142 A1 previously cited) in view of Bai et al. (US 20220217725 A1 previously cited) further in view of ZHOU et al (US 20230291533 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Liou discloses;
A beam indication method, performed by a network device (Fig. 1, 2, 3: access network (AN) or base station (BS) 100), the method comprising:
determining an uplink and downlink beam indication mode (Para. [0342]-[0345], [0571]-[0577], [0741]: “same or different beams” can be determined/configured for “joint DL/UL beam management operation”/beam indication mode) based on a beam indication solution for a terminal (Para. [0573]-[0575]: “beam-related indication [beam indication solution] is provided”), wherein the beam indication solution indicates that a data channel and a control channel share same beam information (Para. [0573]-[0575]: “beam-related indication [beam indication solution] is provided” indicating “DL control and data channels share the same beam resource pool at least for beam-related indication”); and
transmitting, by at least one of a media access control control element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI) (Para. [0579], [583]: transmitting through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”), the beam indication information to the terminal (Para. [0579], [583]: “QCL [the beam indication information]” is transmitted through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”)…wherein the beam indication information indicates a beam configured for the terminal (Para. [0573]-[0576]: “beam-related indication” indicates at least a beam, in the “beam group indication via QCL”, configured for the UE).
Although Liou teaches (as above) transmitting “the beam indication information to the terminal”, Liou does not teach the transmission is:
“based on the uplink and downlink beam indication mode”
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (Abstract, Para. [0001]: “beam indications for multiple uplink or downlink channels and reference signals”) Bai et al. teaches (Abstract, Fig. 1-3, Para. [0003]) transmitting “a message including transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state information associated with beam information for uplink or downlink resources” (i.e. beam indication information) through “one or more QCL information fields…indicated within the first transmission configuration indicator state information”) based on:
“uplink and downlink beam indication mode” (Para. [0012], [0050]: “separate beam indications [modes]” and “common beam indications[modes]” “for uplink and downlink beams”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the transmitting the “QCL [the beam indication information]” in Liou’s invention can be based on separate and/or common beam indication’s/modes for “uplink and downlink beams” as taught by Bai et al., where doing so would (Bai et al., [Para. [0050]) “result in more efficient signaling of beam indications, likewise reducing network and signaling overhead or reduced latency, among other benefits.”
Although Liou in view of Bai et al. teaches (as above) transmitting “the beam indication information to the terminal”, they do not teach:
wherein the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and the MAC CE comprises:
a third MAC CE configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission; or
a fourth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission, and a fifth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission.
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (title, Abstract: “Beam Indication” to a wireless device using radio resource control messages ) ZHOU et al. teaches
wherein the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states (Abstract, Para. [0006]: “the MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states”), and the MAC CE comprises:
a third MAC CE (Para. [0006]: “The configuration may be received through at least one of… a MAC-CE [a third MAC CE]”) configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission (Para. [0006]: “the MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states, each activated joint DL and UL TCI state indicating a common beam for communication in DL and UL”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”); or
a fourth MAC CE (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied”. That is, the MAC-CE comprises at least a fourth MAC CE) configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied to activate …the UL TCI states”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”), and a fifth MAC CE (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied”. That is, the MAC-CE comprises at least a fifth MAC CE) configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied to activate the DL [downlink transmission] TCI states”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the MAC CE in Liou in view of Bai et al. may comprise multiple MAC CE including third, fourth and fifth MAC CE for activating the DL TCI states, the UL TCI states, and the joint DL/UL TCI states corresponding to beam used for uplink transmission and downlink transmission as taught by ZHOU et al. where doing so would (ZHOU et al., Para. [0067]) provide “Enhancement on signaling mechanisms for the above features to improve latency and efficiency with more usage of dynamic control signaling.”
Regarding Claim 3, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where Bai et al. further teaches;
transmitting solution indication information to the terminal (Para. [0091]: “TCI state information [solution indication information]”), wherein the solution indication information indicates the beam indication solution (Para. [0091]: “TCI state information [solution indication information]…may provide for common beam information for data and control transmission and reception between devices”).
Regarding Claim 4, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
transmitting, by at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI (Para. [0087]: “TCI state may be indicated via downlink control information (DCI)”), joint beam indication information to the terminal in accordance with that to the uplink and downlink beam indication mode is a joint uplink and downlink beam indication, wherein the joint beam indication information is used for indicating a beam, configured for the terminal, used for both an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission (Para. [0088]: “joint beam indications (e.g., TCI states indicating certain QCL information), where a common indication may be applicable to both uplink and downlink beams” That is, at least one beam is configured for uplink and downlink transmission); or
transmitting, by at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI (Para. [0087]: “TCI state may be indicated via downlink control information (DCI)”), separate beam indication information to the terminal in accordance with
Regarding Claim 5, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 4 above, where ZHOU et al. further teaches wherein:
transmitting, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI, joint beam indication information to the terminal comprises at least one of
transmitting the MAC CE to the terminal, wherein the MAC CE activates one transmission configuration indication (TCI) state which corresponds to the beam used for both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission (Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”);
transmitting the MAC CE and the DCI to the terminal, wherein the MAC CE activates a plurality of TCI states, and a first indication field of the DCI comprises a first field portion indicating one TCI state, corresponding to the beam used for both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission, in the plurality of TCI states (Para. [0079]: “In some aspects, the DCI and/or MAC-CE may activate subsets of configured joint DL/UL TCI states, where each joint DL/UL TCI state may indicate a common beam for DL reception/UL transmission”); or
transmitting the DCI to the terminal, wherein the first indication field of the DCI comprises the first field portion indicating one TCI state, corresponding to the beam used for both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission, in the plurality of activated TCI states (Para. [0079]: “In some aspects, the DCI and/or MAC-CE may activate subsets of configured joint DL/UL TCI states, where each joint DL/UL TCI state may indicate a common beam for DL reception/UL transmission”); or where Bai et al. further teaches wherein:
transmitting, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI, the separate beam indication information to the terminal comprises at least one of
transmitting the at least one of the MAC CE to the terminal, wherein the at least one of the MAC CE comprises at least one of a first MAC CE or a second MAC CE, the first MAC CE activating one TCI state which corresponds to the uplink beam, the second MAC CE activating one TCI state which corresponds to the downlink (Para. [0091]: “the separate beam indications (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [first field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”); where ZHOU et al. further teaches wherein:
transmitting the at least one of the MAC CE to the terminal, wherein the at least one of the MAC CE activates at least one of one TCI state corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission or one TCI state corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission (ZHOU et al. Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE” the common beam used for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission); where Bai et al. further teaches wherein:
transmitting the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI to the terminal, wherein the at least one of the MAC CE activates a plurality of TCI states, and the first indication field of the DCI comprises the first field portion indicating at least one of the plurality of TCI states, corresponding to the uplink beam, or one TCI state, corresponding to the downlink beam, in the plurality of TCI states (Para. [0091]: “the separate beam indications (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [first field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”); or
transmitting the DCI to the terminal, wherein the first indication field of the DCI comprises the first field portion indicating at least one of the plurality of TCI states, corresponding to the uplink beam, or one TCI state, corresponding to the download beam, in the plurality of activated TCI states (Para. [0091]: “the separate beam indications (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [first field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”).
Regarding Claim 27, Liou discloses;
A beam determination method, performed by a terminal (Abstract, Fig. 1, 2, 3: “A method …of a User Equipment”), and the method comprises:
receiving, by at least one of a media access control control element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI (Para. [0579], [583]: receiving through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”)), beam indication information, (Para. [0579], [583]: “QCL [the beam indication information]” is transmitted through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”) wherein the beam indication information indicates a beam configured for the terminal (Para. [0573]-[0576]: “beam-related indication” indicates at least a beam, in the “beam group indication via QCL”, configured for the UE);
determining an uplink and downlink beam indication mode (Para. [0342]-[0345], [0571]-[0577], [0741]: “same or different beams” can be determined/configured for “joint DL/UL beam management operation”/beam indication mode) based on a beam indication solution for the terminal (Para. [0573]-[0575]: “beam-related indication [beam indication solution] is provided”), wherein the beam indication solution indicates that a data channel and a control channel share beam information (Para. [0573]-[0575]: “beam-related indication [beam indication solution] is provided” indicating “DL control and data channels share the same beam resource pool at least for beam-related indication”); and
determining the beam information (Para. [0573]-[0576]: “beam-related indication” indicates at least a beam, in the “beam group [beam information] indication via QCL”, configured for the UE)…and the beam indication information (Para. [0579], [583]: the User Equipment determines the “QCL [the beam indication information]” is received through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”).
Although Liou teaches (as above) determining “the beam information”, Liou does not teach the t determining is:
“based on the uplink and downlink beam indication mode”
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (Abstract, Para. [0001]: “beam indications for multiple uplink or downlink channels and reference signals”) Bai et al. teaches (Abstract, Fig. 1-3, Para. [0003]) transmitting “a message including transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state information associated with beam information for uplink or downlink resources” (i.e. beam indication information) through “one or more QCL information fields…indicated within the first transmission configuration indicator state information”) based on
“uplink and downlink beam indication mode” (Para. [0012], [0050]: “separate beam indications [modes]” and “common beam indications[modes]” “for uplink and downlink beams”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the transmitting the “QCL [the beam indication information]” in Liou’s invention can be based on separate and/or common beam indications/modes for “uplink and downlink beams” as taught by Bai et al., where doing so would (Bai et al., [Para. [0050]) “result in more efficient signaling of beam indications, likewise reducing network and signaling overhead or reduced latency, among other benefits.”
Although Liou in view of Bai et al. teaches (as above) transmitting “the beam indication information to the terminal”, they do not teach:
wherein the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and the MAC CE comprises:
a third MAC CE configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission; or
a fourth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission, and a fifth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission.
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (title, Abstract: “Beam Indication” to a wireless device using radio resource control messages ) ZHOU et al. teaches
wherein the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states (Abstract, Para. [0006]: “the MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states”), and the MAC CE comprises:
a third MAC CE (Para. [0006]: “The configuration may be received through at least one of… a MAC-CE [a third MAC CE]”) configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission (Para. [0006]: “the MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states, each activated joint DL and UL TCI state indicating a common beam for communication in DL and UL”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”); or
a fourth MAC CE (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied”. That is, the MAC-CE comprises at least a fourth MAC CE) configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied to activate …the UL TCI states”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”), and a fifth MAC CE (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied”. That is, the MAC-CE comprises at least a fifth MAC CE) configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied to activate the DL [downlink transmission] TCI states”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the MAC CE in Liou in view of Bai et al. may comprise multiple MAC CE including third, fourth and fifth MAC CE for activating the DL TCI states, the UL TCI states, and the joint DL/UL TCI states corresponding to beam used for uplink transmission and downlink transmission as taught by ZHOU et al. where doing so would (ZHOU et al., Para. [0067]) provide “Enhancement on signaling mechanisms for the above features to improve latency and efficiency with more usage of dynamic control signaling.”
Regarding Claim 28, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where ZHOU et al. further teaches
wherein the beam indication solution is a unified
Regarding Claim 29, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where Bai et al. further teaches
receiving solution indication information (Para. [0091]: “TCI state information [solution indication information]”), wherein the solution indication information indicates the beam indication solution (Para. [0091]: “TCI state information [solution indication information]…may provide for common beam information for data and control transmission and reception between devices”).
Regarding Claim 30, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 27 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
wherein receiving, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI, the beam indication information comprises:
receiving, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI (Para. [0087]: “TCI state may be indicated via downlink control information (DCI)”), joint beam indication information, wherein the joint beam indication information is used for indicating a beam, configured for the terminal, [[used]] for both [[an]] the uplink transmission and [[a]] the downlink transmission (Para. [0088]: “joint beam indications (e.g., TCI states indicating certain QCL information), where a common indication may be applicable to both uplink and downlink beams” That is, at least one beam is configured for uplink and downlink transmission),wherein the uplink and downlink beam indication mode is a joint uplink and downlink beam indication (Para. [0088]: “joint beam indications (e.g., TCI states indicating certain QCL information), where a common indication [the uplink and downlink beam indication mode] may be applicable to both uplink and downlink beams [joint uplink and downlink beam indication]”); or
receiving, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI (Para. [0087]: “TCI state may be indicated via downlink control information (DCI)”), separate beam indication information, wherein the separate beam indication information is used for indicating at least one of an uplink beam, configured for the terminal, used for the uplink transmission or a downlink beam, configured for the terminal, used for the downlink transmission (Para. [0088]: “a separate beam indication may be used, where a first beam indication may be used for multiple uplink beams and a second, different beam indication may be used for multiple downlink beams”. That is, at least a first beam is configured for uplink transmission and at least a second/different beam is configured for downlink transmission),wherein the uplink and downlink beam indication mode is at least one of a separate uplink bean indication or a separate downlink beam indication (Para. [0088]: “a separate beam indication [the uplink and downlink beam indication mode] may be used, where a first beam indication may be used for multiple uplink beams and a second, different beam indication may be used for multiple downlink beams”. That is, separate uplink bean indication or a separate downlink beam indication are indicated using separate beam indication [the uplink and downlink beam indication mode]).
Regarding Claim 31, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 30 above, where ZHOU et al. further teaches wherein:
wherein receiving, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI, the joint beam indication information comprises at least one of
receiving the MAC CE, wherein the MAC CE activates one TCI state which corresponds to the beam used for both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission (Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”);
receiving the MAC CE and the DCI, wherein the MAC CE activates a plurality of TCI states, and a first indication field of the DCI comprises a first field portion indicating one TCI state, corresponding to the beam used for both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission, in the plurality of TCI states (Para. [0079]: “In some aspects, the DCI and/or MAC-CE may activate subsets of configured joint DL/UL TCI states, where each joint DL/UL TCI state may indicate a common beam for DL reception/UL transmission”); or
receiving the DCI, wherein the first indication field of the DCI comprises the first field portion indicating one TCI state, corresponding to the beam used for both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission, in the plurality of TCI states (Para. [0079]: “In some aspects, the DCI and/or MAC-CE may activate subsets of configured joint DL/UL TCI states, where each joint DL/UL TCI state may indicate a common beam for DL reception/UL transmission”); or
receiving, by the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI, the separate beam indication information comprises at least one of
receiving the at least one MAC CE, wherein the at least one MAC CE comprises at least one of a first MAC CE or a second MAC CE, the first MAC CE activating one TCI state which corresponds to the uplink beam, the second MAC CE activating one TCI state which corresponds to the for the downlink transmission (Para. [0091]: “the separate beam indications (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [first field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”); where ZHOU et al. further teaches wherein:
receiving the at least one MAC CE, wherein the at least one MAC CE activates at least one of one TCI state corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission or one TCI state corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission (ZHOU et al. Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE” the common beam used for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission); where Bai et al. further teaches wherein:
receiving the at least one MAC CE or the DCI, wherein the at least one MAC CE activates a plurality of TCI states, and the first indication field of the DCI comprises the first field portion indicating at least one of the plurality of TCI states, corresponding to the uplink beam, or one TCI state, corresponding to the downlink beam, in the plurality of TCI states (Para. [0091]: “the separate beam indications (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [first field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”); or
receiving the DCI, wherein the first indication field of the DCI comprises the first field portion indicating at least one of the plurality of TCI states, corresponding to the uplink beam, or one TCI state, corresponding to the downlink beam, in the plurality of activated TCI states (Para. [0091]: “the separate beam indications (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [first field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”).
Regarding Claim 34, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 31 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
wherein the first indication field further comprises:
a second field portion indicating the uplink and downlink beam indication mode, wherein the uplink and downlink beam indication mode is one of the joint uplink and downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication and a separate downlink beam indication (Para. [0091]: (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [a second field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”).
Regarding Claim 37, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 29 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
wherein the solution indication information further comprises:
information used for identifying a control resource set CORESET adapting to the beam indication solution (Para. [0087]: “a particular TCI state may be indicated via downlink control information (DCI) (e.g., within a CORESET)”; Para. [0106]: “For example, if a TCI state is applicable to a PDSCH and a PDCCH, then if the TCI state is selected for the PDSCH then it may also be selected for a PDCCH CORESET (e.g., automatically or implicitly)”).
Regarding Claim 38, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 31 above, where Liou further teaches:
transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat-
Regarding Claim 57, Liou in view of Bai et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where Liou further teaches:
A communication device (Fig. 3, Para. [0038]: “the communication device 300 in a wireless communication system can be utilized for realizing …the base station (or AN) 100 in FIG. 1”), comprising: a transceiver (Fig. 3: 314); a memory (Fig. 3: 310) that stores computer executable instructions; and [[a]] one or more processor (Fig. 3: 308), wherein the computer executable instructions when collectively executed by the one or more processors cause the communication device to act as the network device (Para. [0038]: “The communication device 300 may include an input device 302, an output device 304, a control circuit 306, a central processing unit (CPU) 308, a memory 310, a program code 312, and a transceiver 314. The control circuit 306 executes the program code 312 in the memory 310 through the CPU 308, thereby controlling an operation of the communications device 300”), and perform the method according to claim 1 (Abstract: for implementation of “the method”).
Regarding Claim 59, Liou discloses;
A communication device (Fig. 2, 3, Para. [0038]: “the communication device 300 in a wireless communication system can be utilized for realizing the UEs (or ATs) 116 and 122 in FIG. 1”), comprising:
a transceiver (Fig. 3: 314);
a memory (Fig. 3: 310) that stores computer executable instructions; and
[[a]] one or more processor (Fig. 3: 308), that are communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory respectively,
wherein the computer executable instructions when collectively executed by the one or more processors cause the communication device to 308, thereby controlling an operation of the communications device 300”), :
receive, by at least one of a media access control control element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI (Para. [0579], [583]: receiving through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”)), beam indication information, (Para. [0579], [583]: “QCL [the beam indication information]” is transmitted through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”) wherein the beam indication information indicates a beam configured for the terminal (Para. [0573]-[0576]: “beam-related indication” indicates at least a beam, in the “beam group indication via QCL”, configured for the UE);
determine an uplink and downlink beam indication mode (Para. [0342]-[0345], [0571]-[0577], [0741]: “same or different beams” can be determined/configured for “joint DL/UL beam management operation”/beam indication mode) based on a beam indication solution for the terminal (Para. [0573]-[0575]: “beam-related indication [beam indication solution] is provided”), wherein the beam indication solution indicates that a data channel and a control channel share beam information (Para. [0573]-[0575]: “beam-related indication [beam indication solution] is provided” indicating “DL control and data channels share the same beam resource pool at least for beam-related indication”); and
determine the beam information (Para. [0573]-[0576]: “beam-related indication” indicates at least a beam, in the “beam group [beam information] indication via QCL”, configured for the UE)…and the beam indication information (Para. [0579], [583]: the User Equipment determines the “QCL [the beam indication information]” is received through “indication signaling (e.g. DCI, MAC CE, RRC, etc.)”).
Although Liou teaches (as above) determining “the beam information”, Liou does not teach the determining is:
“based on the uplink and downlink beam indication mode”
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (Abstract, Para. [0001]: “beam indications for multiple uplink or downlink channels and reference signals”) Bai et al. teaches (Abstract, Fig. 1-3, Para. [0003]) transmitting “a message including transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state information associated with beam information for uplink or downlink resources” (i.e. beam indication information) through “one or more QCL information fields…indicated within the first transmission configuration indicator state information”) based on
“uplink and downlink beam indication mode” (Para. [0012], [0050]: “separate beam indications [modes]” and “common beam indications[modes]” “for uplink and downlink beams”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the transmitting the “QCL [the beam indication information]” in Liou’s invention can be based on separate and/or common beam indications/modes for “uplink and downlink beams” as taught by Bai et al., where doing so would (Bai et al., [Para. [0050]) “result in more efficient signaling of beam indications, likewise reducing network and signaling overhead or reduced latency, among other benefits.”
Although Liou in view of Bai et al. teaches (as above) transmitting “the beam indication information to the terminal”, they do not teach:
wherein the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and the MAC CE comprises:
a third MAC CE configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission; or
a fourth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission, and a fifth MAC CE configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission.
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (title, Abstract: “Beam Indication” to a wireless device using radio resource control messages ) ZHOU et al. teaches;
wherein the MAC CE is configured to activate one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states (Abstract, Para. [0006]: “the MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states”), and the MAC CE comprises:
a third MAC CE (Para. [0006]: “The configuration may be received through at least one of… a MAC-CE [a third MAC CE]”) configured to activate one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for an uplink transmission and one or more TCI states corresponding to a beam for a downlink transmission (Para. [0006]: “the MAC-CE activating a subset of configured joint DL and UL TCI states, each activated joint DL and UL TCI state indicating a common beam for communication in DL and UL”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”); or
a fourth MAC CE (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied”. That is, the MAC-CE comprises at least a fourth MAC CE) configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the uplink transmission (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied to activate …the UL TCI states”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”), and a fifth MAC CE (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied”. That is, the MAC-CE comprises at least a fifth MAC CE) configured to activate the one or more TCI states corresponding to the beam for the downlink transmission (Para. [0091]: “For the activation MAC-CE, separate MAC-CEs may be applied to activate the DL [downlink transmission] TCI states”; Para. [0093]: “The base station 504 may signal a common beam indication to the UE 502 via a joint DL/UL TCI state, and activate the joint DL/UL TCI state using a MAC-CE”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the MAC CE in Liou in view of Bai et al. may comprise multiple MAC CE including third, fourth and fifth MAC CE for activating the DL TCI states, the UL TCI states, and the joint DL/UL TCI states corresponding to beam used for uplink transmission and downlink transmission as taught by ZHOU et al. where doing so would (ZHOU et al., Para. [0067]) provide “Enhancement on signaling mechanisms for the above features to improve latency and efficiency with more usage of dynamic control signaling.”
Regarding Claim 60, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where ZHOU et al. further teaches:
wherein the beam indication solution is a unified TCI framework (Para. [0067]: “A common beam for data and control transmission/reception for DL and UL, especially for intra-band carrier aggregation (CA), may be specified in order to provide a unified TCI framework for DL and UL beam indication”. That is, beam indication solution is based on TCI framework).
Regarding Claim 61, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 5 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
wherein the first indication field further comprises:
a second field portion indicating the uplink and downlink beam indication mode, wherein the uplink and downlink beam indication mode is one of the joint uplink and downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication and a separate downlink beam indication (Para. [0091]: (e.g., the TCI state information) may further include an indication of TCI state IDs, which may be indicated using one or more information fields [a second field portion] for indicating common beam(s), a common (e.g., shared) field for both uplink and downlink beam indications, a separate downlink beam indication, a separate uplink beam indication, or any combination thereof”).
Regarding Claim 62, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 3 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
wherein the solution indication information further comprises:
information used for identifying a control resource set (CORESET) adapting to the beam indication solution (Para. [0087]: “a particular TCI state may be indicated via downlink control information (DCI) (e.g., within a CORESET)”; Para. [0106]: “For example, if a TCI state is applicable to a PDSCH and a PDCCH, then if the TCI state is selected for the PDSCH then it may also be selected for a PDCCH CORESET (e.g., automatically or implicitly)”).
Regarding Claim 63, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where Liou further teaches:
wherein the network device is a communication device in a serving cell of the terminal (Fig. 1, Para. [0038]: “the communication device 300 in a wireless communication system can be utilized for realizing…the base station (or AN) 100 in FIG. 1” in a serving cell of the terminal 116/124) or in an adjacent cell of the serving cell.
Claims 13 and 39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liou (US 20180368142 A1 previously cited) in view of Bai et al. (US 20220217725 A1 previously cited) further in view of ZHOU et al (US 20230291533 A1) still further in view of Liu et al. (US 20230239823 A1)
Regarding Claim 13, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
the method further comprising:
transmitting radio resource control (RRC) configuration signaling (Fig. 2-3, Para. [0049]: base stations 105 transmitting “signaling (e.g., radio resource control (RRC) signaling)”), a serving cell ID, a BWP ID, or both [identifier]…”. That is, TCI state information included a serving cell ID/identifier distinguishing a serving cell of the terminal (e.g. Fig. 1, 2: serving cell 110/110-a) to any adjacent cell of the terminal (e.g. Fig. 1: adjacent cell 110)).
However, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. does not teach that the identifier/serving cell ID:
“comprises a physical cell identifier (PCI)”
On the other hand, in the same field of endeavor (Para. [0002]: “a system and method for uplink and downlink in multi-point communications” ) Liu et al. teaches (Para. [0012]) a serving cell is identified based on or using:
“a physical cell identifier (PCI)” (Para. [0012]: “a first physical cell identifier (PCI) of the serving cell”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the serving cell in Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al.’ invention can be, alternatively or additional, identified using a physical cell identifier (PCI) as taught by Lui et al. where doing so would (Liu et al., Para. [0003], [0031]) provide “efficient and robust methods for UEs communicating with multiple transmit-receive points (TRPs)” and improve “signaling synchronization and reliability in multi-TRP (M-TRP) communications, especially inter-cell M-TRP and intra-cell M-TRP with larger separation, non-ideal backhaul, or imperfect synchronization.”
Regarding Claim 39, Liou in view of Bai et al. further in view of ZHOU et al. discloses all as applied to claim 31 above, where Bai et al. further teaches:
receiving radio resource control (RRC) configuration signaling (Fig. 2-3, Para. [0049]: “A UE may receive signaling (e.g., radio resource control (RRC) signaling)”) a serving cell ID, a BWP ID, or both…”. That is, TCI state information included a serving cell ID/identifier distinguishing a serving cell of the terminal (e.g. Fig. 2: serving cell 110/110-a) to any adjacent cell of the terminal (e.g. Fig. 1: adjacent cell 110)); and
configuring beam-related information based on the RRC configuration signaling (Para. [0003]: “a message including transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state information ass