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 4/22/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
On page 2 of the Applicant’s Response, Applicant: “Paragraph [0163] of Papasakellariou merely describes the nomenclature and inherent properties of RNTIs in 3GPP standards. This paragraph states that DCI formats scrambled by a C-RNTI "will be referred to as first DCI formats, such as unicast DCI formats," and those scrambled by a G-RNTI "will be referred to as second DCI formats, such as multicast DCI formats." This is merely a definitional statement based on the inherent nature of the RNTI used. Because of these deficiencies, one skilled in the art would recognize that Papasakellariou completely fails to teach or suggest an active signaling mechanism i.e., the "third information" that explicitly configures the mapping between a specific type of DCI (first or second type) and its designated format (unicast or multicast). Unlike Papasakellariou's static definitions, the claimed invention provides flexibility by receiving "third information" to actively configure which DCI type corresponds to which format.“.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s argument. Papasakellariou discloses using different RNTIs in a DCI format to indicate whether the DCI is interpreted as unicast or multicast. For example, scrambling DCI format with C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, or CS-RNTI defines the DCI as type unicast while scrambling DCI format with G-RNTI or G-CS-RNTI defines the DCI as type multicast. Papasakellariou discloses using a field in the DCI to indicate unicast or multicast type (paragraph 88, 98, 163). The RNTI type or indicator field teaches the third information in claim 1.
In view of the above discussions the rejection of claims 1-3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 still stands.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2022/0361153) (“Liu”) in view of Papasakellariou (US 2022/0263603).
For claims 1, 9, and 11; Liu discloses: receiving, by a user equipment (UE), first information related to a plurality of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configurations from a base station (paragraph 143: As part of the one or more SPS configurations for MBS, the base station 105 may transmit SPS group-common PDSCHs via the multicast communications. For connected state UEs 115 (e.g., RRC_CONNECTED UEs), more than one SPS group-common PDSCH configuration for MBS may be configured per UE 115 subject to UE capability); receiving, by the UE, a first type of downlink control information (DCI) or a second type of DCI from the base station (paragraph 97: the base station may indicate which SPS configurations to activate or release based on a DCI format of the group-common PDCCH, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) process number (HPN) field in the DCI format of the group-common PDCCH, an activation state list, a common frequency resource, or a combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, the base station may configure a specific UE to activate or release one or more SPS configurations for group-common PDSCH signaling via UE-specific (e.g., unicast) PDCCH signaling. For example, the base station may indicate which SPS configurations to activate or deactivate based on an HPN field in a DCI format of the UE-specific PDCCH); and releasing, by the UE, at least one SPS configuration among the plurality of SPS configurations based on the first type of DCI or the second type of DCI (paragraph 97: the base station may indicate which SPS configurations to activate or release based on a DCI format of the group-common PDCCH, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) process number (HPN) field in the DCI format of the group-common PDCCH, an activation state list, a common frequency resource, or a combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, the base station may configure a specific UE to activate or release one or more SPS configurations for group-common PDSCH signaling via UE-specific (e.g., unicast) PDCCH signaling. For example, the base station may indicate which SPS configurations to activate or deactivate based on an HPN field in a DCI format of the UE-specific PDCCH), wherein an index of the at least one SPS configuration is mapped to a deactivation state value of a SPS configuration deactivation state list (paragraph 144, 157: the UEs 115 may support separate and joint release by using UE-specific PDCCHs for SPS group-common PDSCHs. For example, a deactivation state list (e.g., sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList) configured in a dedicated BWP may include one or more MBS SPS group-common PDSCH configurations. As such, if the UE 115 is provided the deactivation state list (e.g., sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList) including SPS PDSCH and/or SPS GC-PDSCH, a value of the HPN field in a DCI format of UE-specific PDCCH may indicate an entry for scheduling release of one or more SPS PDSCH and/or SPS group-common PDSCH configurations), wherein, based on a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number field related to the deactivation state value of a SPS configuration included in the first type of DCI being received from the base station, the at least one SPS configuration is released (paragraph 144, 157: a value of the HPN field in a DCI format of UE-specific PDCCH may indicate an entry for scheduling release of one or more SPS PDSCH and/or SPS group-common PDSCH configurations. Table 5 below shows an example of a mapping between state indexes (e.g., HPN field values) to corresponding SPS configuration indexes for group-common PDSCHs and other unicast PDSCHs), wherein, based on the HARQ process number field included in the second type of DCI being received from the base station, a first SPS configuration having same index as a value of the HARQ process number field is released (paragraph 152-153: if a UE 115 is not provided with a deactivation state index for MBS SPS group-common PDSCH, a value of the HPN field in a DCI format may indicate a release for a corresponding SPS group-common PDSCH configuration with a value mapping to the SPS configuration index for SPS group-common PDSCH); the at least one SPS configuration includes a unicast SPS configuration (paragraph 96, 144: an HPN bit field in a release DCI may be used to indicate which SPS index(es) is (are) released. For example, a table of states may be configured by a base station 105 (e.g., via sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList), where each state can be mapped to a single or multiple configured grant configuration indices to be released), and an index of the first SPS configuration is mapped to a multicast SPS configuration (paragraph 152, 157: in a group-common PDCCH may correspond to respective configuration indexes for the SPS configurations (e.g., maps to sps-ConfigIndex_MBS={0, 1, 2} for SPS group-common PDSCH) in the common frequency resource. Additionally or alternatively, base station 105-a may configure an activation state list (e.g., sps-ConfigActivationStateList) to the UEs 115 to jointly activate multiple SPS group-common PDSCH configurations in the common frequency resource…if the UE 115 is provided the deactivation state list (e.g., sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList) including SPS PDSCH and/or SPS GC-PDSCH, a value of the HPN field in a DCI format of UE-specific PDCCH may indicate an entry for scheduling release of one or more SPS PDSCH and/or SPS group-common PDSCH configurations. Table 5 below shows an example of a mapping between state indexes (e.g., HPN field values) to corresponding SPS configuration indexes for group-common PDSCHs and other unicast PDSCHs).
Liu does not expressly disclose, but Papasakellariou from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein third information for configuring the first type of DCI to one of a unicast DCI format and a multicast DCI format, and configuring the second type of DCI to the other one of the unicast DCI format or the multicast DCI format is received from the base station (paragraph 88, 97, 163: a UE (such as the UE 116) is configured by higher layers a first set of RNTIs, such as a C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, or CS-RNTI, for scrambling a CRC of a DCI format scheduling PDSCH receptions and a second set of RNTIs, such as a number of G-RNTIs or G-CS-RNTIs, for scrambling a CRC of a DCI format scheduling PDSCH receptions. DCI formats with CRC scrambled by an RNTI from the first set of RNTIs and are associated with HARQ-ACK information from the UE will be referred to as first DCI formats, such as unicast DCI formats. DCI formats with CRC scrambled by an RNTI from the second set of RNTIs and are associated with HARQ-ACK information from the UE will be referred to as second DCI formats, such as multicast DCI formats). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Papasakellariou in the SPS signaling as described by Liu. The motivation is to improve signaling overhead.
For claim 2; Liu discloses: the first type of DCI is a unicast DCI format, and the second type of DCI is a multicast DCI format (paragraph 151-158: wireless communications system 200 may support activation and release for SPS group-common (e.g., multicast) PDSCH signaling by group-common PDCCH or UE-specific PDCCH…a DCI format of a group-common PDCCH may indicate an activation for an SPS group-common PDSCH configuration…a DCI format of the UE-specific PDCCH may indicate an activation for an SPS group-common PDSCH configuration).
For claim 3; Liu discloses the subject matter in claim 1 as described above in the office action.
Liu does not expressly disclose, but Papasakellariou from similar fields of endeavor teaches: the first type of DCI is cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a configured scheduling (CS)-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), and the second type of DCI is CRC scrambled by G(group)-CS-RNTI (paragraph 97, 163: paragraph 163: a UE (such as the UE 116) is configured by higher layers a first set of RNTIs, such as a C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, or CS-RNTI, for scrambling a CRC of a DCI format scheduling PDSCH receptions and a second set of RNTIs, such as a number of G-RNTIs or G-CS-RNTIs, for scrambling a CRC of a DCI format scheduling PDSCH receptions. DCI formats with CRC scrambled by an RNTI from the first set of RNTIs and are associated with HARQ-ACK information from the UE will be referred to as first DCI formats, such as unicast DCI formats. DCI formats with CRC scrambled by an RNTI from the second set of RNTIs and are associated with HARQ-ACK information from the UE will be referred to as second DCI formats, such as multicast DCI formats). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Papasakellariou in the SPS signaling as described by Liu. The motivation is to improve signaling overhead.
For claims 5; Liu discloses: second information related to an SPS configuration deactivation state list including the specific deactivation state value of the SPS configuration is received from the base station (paragraph 155-157: deactivation state list (e.g., sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList) configured in a dedicated BWP may include one or more MBS SPS group-common PDSCH configurations. As such, if the UE 115 is provided the deactivation state list (e.g., sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList) including SPS PDSCH and/or SPS GC-PDSCH, a value of the HPN field in a DCI format of UE-specific PDCCH may indicate an entry for scheduling release of one or more SPS PDSCH and/or SPS group-common PDSCH configurations).
For claims 7; Liu discloses: each of the plurality of SPS configurations is mapped to a different SPS configuration index value (paragraph 146, 153: if the UE is not provided with the respective state lists (e.g., ConfiguredGrantConfigType2DeactivationStateList or sps-ConfigDeactivationStateList), a value of the HPN field in a DCI format may indicate a release for a corresponding uplink grant PUSCH or for an SPS PDSCH configuration with a same value as provided by configuration indexes for either type of transmission (e.g., ConfiguredGrantConfigIndex or by sps-ConfigIndex, respectively)… if a UE 115 is not provided with a deactivation state index for MBS SPS group-common PDSCH, a value of the HPN field in a DCI format may indicate a release for a corresponding SPS group-common PDSCH configuration with a value mapping to the SPS configuration index for SPS group-common PDSCH).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0080929); Matsumura discloses a case that spatial relation information (spatialRelationInfo) for a SP or AP-SRS resource configured by a SRS resource information element (higher layer parameter SRS-Resource) is activated/updated for one set of CCs/BWPs by the MAC CE, then, the applicable list of CC is indicated by a simultaneous spatial update list.
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/JOHN D BLANTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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