DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The instant Office Action is in response to communication filed on 12/29/2025.
Claims 3-5 are pending. Claims 3, 4 and 5 are the base independent claims.
Claims 3, 4 and 5 are amended.
Response to Arguments/Amendment
Regarding claim 3-4, Applicant files arguments with respect to the amendment in the Remark.
--In response, the arguments have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In light of the Specification (Applicant’s PG publication, [0283]-[0284]), Examiner clarifies that the interpretation of the claimed “nth instance of a PUSCH” is the position of information bits in a PUSCH transmission related to the circular buffer. In comparison, Ye (in par [0264] or par [0324]) discloses that the information bit encoded in a circular buffer is using LDPC which may be used for UL transmissions. Ye (in par [0218]) further discloses the position for each transmission in a circular buffer is corresponding to the RV indices. Therefore, Ye’s RV index reads on a position of information bits in an UL transmission related to the circular buffer.
Upon further consideration, however, new grounds of rejection are made by the combination of Ye and Kim based on the amended claim limitations. Ye still applies to a portion of the independent claims because the amendment does not change the scope of this portion. The rest of the arguments have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the new reference being used in the current rejection.
Regarding claims 4 and 5, because the patent scopes of the limitations in the independent claims are the same as in claim 3, therefore the claims are rejected based on the same reason given to claim 3 mutatis mutandis.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
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.
Claims 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye et al (US 2021/0384922) in view of Kim et al (US 2022/0256572).
Regarding claim 3, Ye discloses a terminal device (par 318; terminal) comprising:
encoding circuitry configured to generate coded bits by encoding a code block (par 117-120; e.g. code block segmentation…by encoding each segmented CB using mother LDPC code parity check matrix; also par 324 LDPC may also be used for eMBB UL, hence PUSCH); and
rate matching circuitry configured to write the coded bits into a circular buffer (par 121-122; rate matching may be performed based on the circular buffer), wherein the rate matching circuitry is configured to determine a first starting coded bit index for nth instance in the circular buffer (par 218-219; for each transmission, the transmitter may be able to select one of the RV indices to transmit…if the self-decodable RV starting positions are considered, then the RV order may be applied; also see par 192) based on a second starting coded bit index for (n-1)th instance (par 210; e.g. Sk is based on (k-1) in the equation
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) and the number of available bits for transmission of the code block (par 210; KbZ is the information bit length which reads on available bits).
Ye does not explicitly disclose:
determine an nth instance of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in a PUSCH transmission based on an (n-1)th instance of a PUSCH in the PUSCH transmission.
However, it is obvious in view of Kim, because Kim discloses:
In par 282, e.g. coded bits mapped to the PUSCH instance a may be determined only by an index of the RV from the circular buffer. For other PUSCH instances belonging to the same PUSCH instance subset, the start positions of the mapped coded bits may be derived according to the index of the RV and the numbers of coded bits mapped in the previous PUSCH instances, hence based on an (n-1)th instance.
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Kim with the electronic system of Ye. One is motivated as such to modify the technical specification for rate matching (Kim, par 270).
Regarding claim 4, Ye discloses a base station device (par 318; base station) comprising:
decoding circuitry configured to generate a code block by decoding coded bits (par 117-120; e.g. code block segmentation…by encoding each segmented CB using mother LDPC code parity check matrix; par 232, LDPC decoder, see also par 241, par 259); and
rate matching circuitry configured to read the coded bits from a circular buffer (par 121-122; rate matching may be performed based on the circular buffer; also see par 255, par 283), wherein the rate matching circuitry is configured to determine a starting coded bit index for nth instance in a PUSCH transmission in the circular buffer (par 218-219; for each transmission, the transmitter may be able to select one of the RV indices to transmit…if the self-decodable RV starting positions are considered, then the RV order may be applied; also see par 192; also par 324 LDPC may also be used for eMBB UL, hence PUSCH) based on a starting coded bit index for (n-1)th instance in the PUSCH transmission (par 210; e.g. Sk is based on (k-1) in the equation
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) and the number of available bits for transmission of the code block (par 210; KbZ is the information bit length which reads on available bits).
Ye does not explicitly disclose:
determine an nth instance of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in a PUSCH transmission based on an (n-1)th instance of a PUSCH in the PUSCH transmission.
However, it is obvious in view of Kim, because Kim discloses:
In par 282, e.g. coded bits mapped to the PUSCH instance a may be determined only by an index of the RV from the circular buffer. For other PUSCH instances belonging to the same PUSCH instance subset, the start positions of the mapped coded bits may be derived according to the index of the RV and the numbers of coded bits mapped in the previous PUSCH instances, hence based on an (n-1)th instance.
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Kim with the electronic system of Ye. One is motivated as such to modify the technical specification for rate matching (Kim, par 270).
Regarding claim 5, Ye discloses a communication method used for a terminal device (par 318; terminal), the communication method comprising:
generating coded bits by encoding a code block (par 117-120; e.g. code block segmentation…by encoding each segmented CB using mother LDPC code parity check matrix; also par 324 LDPC may also be used for eMBB UL, hence PUSCH); and
writing the coded bits into a circular buffer (par 121-122; rate matching may be performed based on the circular buffer); and determining a starting coded bit index for nth instance in a PUSCH transmission in the circular buffer (par 218-219; for each transmission, the transmitter may be able to select one of the RV indices to transmit…if the self-decodable RV starting positions are considered, then the RV order may be applied; also see par 192) based on a starting coded bit index for (n-1)th instance in the PUSCH transmission (par 210; e.g. Sk is based on (k-1) in the equation
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) and the number of available bits for transmission of the code block (par 210; KbZ is the information bit length which reads on available bits).
Ye does not explicitly disclose:
determine an nth instance of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in a PUSCH transmission based on an (n-1)th instance of a PUSCH in the PUSCH transmission.
However, it is obvious in view of Kim, because Kim discloses:
In par 282, e.g. coded bits mapped to the PUSCH instance a may be determined only by an index of the RV from the circular buffer. For other PUSCH instances belonging to the same PUSCH instance subset, the start positions of the mapped coded bits may be derived according to the index of the RV and the numbers of coded bits mapped in the previous PUSCH instances, hence based on an (n-1)th instance.
In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of Kim with the electronic system of Ye. One is motivated as such to modify the technical specification for rate matching (Kim, par 270).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOTANG WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4023. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00-18:00 ET (M, W, TH & alternate F).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, HADI ARMOUCHE can be reached at 571-270-3618. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YAOTANG WANG/SCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409