DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to amendments filed on 12/17/2025.
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 Amendment
Claims 1-6 were pending for examination in previous Office Action mailed 9/17/2025.
Claims 1 and 5-6 have been amended with Claims 1 and 5-6 being independent.
Claims 1-6 remain pending for examination.
Acknowledgement is made of applicant’s amendments to the title received on 12/17/2025 in order to overcome objections in prior Office Action. These amendments are acceptable and objections listed in previous Office Action to the title have been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant’s remarks pg. 5-9, filed 12/17/2025, with respect to Claims 1-6 under 35 U.S.C 102(a)(2) have been fully considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on the references as applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the arguement. In view of amendments, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Chae et al. (US 2023/0422251 A1) and further in view of newly found prior art Su et al. (US 2021/0127396 A1; hereinafter Su). See rejection below.
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.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chae et al. (US 2023/0422251 A1; hereinafter Chae) and further in view of Su et al. (US 2021/0127396 A1; hereinafter Su).
Regarding Claim 1, Chae disclose(s):
A terminal comprising:
a receiving section that receives any one of a plurality of downlink signals, a first uplink signal from another terminal, and a sidelink signal from the other terminal [ (see Chae ¶141-148; Fig. 11-12; Fig. 17)
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation.
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a control section that reports a measurement result of the signal and controls reception of a downlink channel or transmission of an uplink channel by using a beam and a sequence based on the report [ (see Chae ¶141-157; Fig. 21)
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation. . [0147] The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more CSI-RS resource sets. A CSI-RS resource may be associated with a location in the time and frequency domains and a periodicity. The base station may selectively activate and/or deactivate a CSI-RS resource. The base station may indicate to the UE that a CSI-RS resource in the CSI-RS resource set is activated and/or deactivated.
[0148] The base station may configure the UE to report CSI measurements. The base station may configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UE may be configured with a timing and/or periodicity of a plurality of CSI reports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station may request a CSI report. For example, the base station may command the UE to measure a configured CSI-RS resource and provide a CSI report relating to the measurements. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station may configure the UE to transmit periodically, and selectively activate or deactivate the periodic reporting. The base station may configure the UE with a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reports using RRC signaling.
[0149] The CSI-RS configuration may comprise one or more parameters indicating, for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for a downlink CSI-RS and a control resource set (CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of the physical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks when the downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of PRBs configured for the SS/PBCH blocks.
[0150] Downlink DMRSs may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE for channel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS may be used for coherent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g., PDSCH). An NR network may support one or more variable and/or configurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlink DMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. A front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). A base station may semi-statically configure the UE with a number (e.g. a maximum number) of front-loaded DMRS symbols for PDSCH. A DMRS configuration may support one or more DMRS ports. For example, for single user-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. For multiuser-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to 4 orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. A radio network may support (e.g., at least for CP-OFDM) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequence may be the same or different. The base station may transmit a downlink DMRS and a corresponding PDSCH using the same precoding matrix. The UE may use the one or more downlink DMRSs for coherent demodulation/channel estimation of the PDSCH.
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a transmitting section configured to transmit target data through a first repetition of a first Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), [(see Chae ¶90-96; ¶209-212; Fig. 5B and 15)
[0090] The PHY may use physical channels to pass information between processing levels of the PHY. A physical channel may have an associated set of time-frequency resources for carrying the information of one or more transport channels. The PHY may generate control information to support the low-level operation of the PHY and provide the control information to the lower levels of the PHY via physical control channels, known as L1/L2 control channels. The set of physical channels and physical control channels defined by NR include, for example: [0091] a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) for carrying the MIB from the BCH; [0092] a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for carrying downlink data and signaling messages from the DL-SCH, as well as paging messages from the PCH; [0093] a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for carrying downlink control information (DCI), which may include downlink scheduling commands, uplink scheduling grants, and uplink power control commands; [0094] a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for carrying uplink data and signaling messages from the UL-SCH and in some instances uplink control information (UCI) as described below; [0095] a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for carrying UCI, which may include HARQ acknowledgments, channel quality indicators (CQI), pre-coding matrix indicators (PMI), rank indicators (RI), and scheduling requests (SR); and [0096] a physical random access channel (PRACH) for random access.
]
wherein the terminal is configured to enable the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH [(see Chae ¶90-96; ¶118-123; ¶154-157; ¶209-212; ¶220-224; ¶255-260; Fig. 5B, 10B, 15, 17CD, 18 and 23-24)
[0120] For an uplink BWP in a set of configured uplink BWPs, a BS may configure a UE with one or more resource sets for one or more PUCCH transmissions. A UE may receive downlink receptions (e.g., PDCCH or PDSCH) in a downlink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix duration) for the downlink BWP. The UE may transmit uplink transmissions (e.g., PUCCH or PUSCH) in an uplink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix length for the uplink BWP).
[0121] One or more BWP indicator fields may be provided in Downlink Control Information (DCI). A value of a BWP indicator field may indicate which BWP in a set of configured BWPs is an active downlink BWP for one or more downlink receptions. The value of the one or more BWP indicator fields may indicate an active uplink BWP for one or more uplink transmissions.
[0154] The UE may transmit an uplink DMRS to a base station for channel estimation. For example, the base station may use the uplink DMRS for coherent demodulation of one or more uplink physical channels. For example, the UE may transmit an uplink DMRS with a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH. The uplink DM-RS may span a range of frequencies that is similar to a range of frequencies associated with the corresponding physical channel. The base station may configure the UE with one or more uplink DMRS configurations. At least one DMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. The front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). One or more uplink DMRSs may be configured to transmit at one or more symbols of a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with a number (e.g. maximum number) of front-loaded DMRS symbols for the PUSCH and/or the PUCCH, which the UE may use to schedule a single-symbol DMRS and/or a double-symbol DMRS. An NR network may support (e.g., for cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM)) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequence for the DMRS may be the same or different.
[0155] A PUSCH may comprise one or more layers, and the UE may transmit at least one symbol with DMRS present on a layer of the one or more layers of the PUSCH. In an example, a higher layer may configure up to three DMRSs for the PUSCH.
[0222] FIG. 18 shows an example of a UE A, a UE B and a radio resources used by the UE A and the UE B performing D2D communication. In FIG. 18A, a UE corresponds to a terminal or such a network device as a base station transmitting and receiving a signal according to a D2D communication scheme. A UE selects a resource unit corresponding to a specific resource from a resource pool corresponding to a set of resources and the UE transmits a D2D signal using the selected resource unit. The UE B corresponding to a reception UE receives a configuration of a resource pool in which the UE A is able to transmit a signal and the UE B is able to detect a signal of the UE A in the resource pool. In this case, if the UE A is located at the inside of network coverage of a base station, the base station may inform the UE A of the resource pool. If the UE A is located at the outside of network coverage of the base station, the resource pool may be informed by a different UE or may be determined by a preconfigured resource pool. In general, a resource pool includes a plurality of resource units. One resource unit may be comprised of a group of resource blocks and a duration in time (e.g., a slot/a subframe/K OFDM symbols). A UE selects one or more resource units from a plurality of the resource units and may be able to use the selected resource unit(s) for D2D signal transmission. FIG. 18B shows an example of configuring one or more resource units. Referring to FIG. 18B, the entire frequency resources are divided into the Nf number of resource units per a unit time resource (e.g. slot or a group of slots). In particular, a resource pool may be repeated with a period of k unit time resources and a resource pool may be configured within a bandwidth part for D2D or sidelink communication (e.g., a SL BWP). Specifically, one resource unit may periodically and repeatedly appear, or, an index of a physical resource unit to which a logical resource unit is mapped may change with a predetermined pattern according to time to obtain a diversity gain in time domain and/or frequency domain. In this resource unit structure, a resource pool may correspond to a set of resource units capable of being used by a UE intending to transmit or receive a D2D signal.
[0260] In an example, a base station may indicate whether to perform sidelink feedback reporting in PUSCH or PUCCH via a physical layer (e.g. a DCI) or higher layer signal (e.g. a MAC or an RRC). If a UE is configured to perform sidelink feedback reporting on PUSCH, PUSCH resource information for sidelink feedback reporting may be configured by the base station to the UE as a physical layer (e.g. DCI) or higher layer signal (e.g. RRC). For example, the base station may transmit/signal/indicate, to a wireless device, a PUSCH resource for sidelink feedback reporting to the UE as a physical layer or a higher layer signal. Sidelink feedback reporting resource in PUSCH may utilize configured grant resource configuration signaling.
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Chae does not explicitly disclose:
wherein the terminal is configured to enable the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH in a same time resource as that of a second or subsequent repetition of the first PUSCH.
However Su, analogous art also teaching PUSCH transmission, does disclose:
wherein the terminal is configured to enable the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH in a same time resource as that of a second or subsequent repetition of the first PUSCH. [(Su ¶337-351; ¶424-427; ¶521-531; Fig. 12-13;Fig. 18; Fig. 24)
[0344] The relationship description of the scheduling information of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH in embodiment 1 may also be used for the first PUSCH and the second PUSCH herein, for example, the first PUSCH and the second PUSCH use the same scheduling information; the first PUSCH and the second PUSCH use different scheduling information, and they may use completely different scheduling information, or they may share partial scheduling information.
[0424] In an example, the relay UE also forwards the downlink control/data information of the remote UE, in addition to forwarding the uplink control/data information of the remote UE, that is, the relay UE forwards the DCI of the remote UE in addition to forwarding the PUSCH of the remote UE, and the first transmission and the retransmission of the first/second PUSCH use the same DCI format, and both are scrambled by the RNTI of the remote UE, and the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH are scheduled with the same DCI, and after receiving the DCI, the relay UE needs to forward it to the remote UE, and the relay UE does not need to forward the DCI when the base station only schedules the retransmission of the second PUSCH between the relay UE and the base station; when the base station schedules the retransmission of the first PUSCH between the remote UE and the relay UE and the retransmission of the second PUSCH between the relay UE and the base station, the relay UE needs to forward the DCI. In order to distinguish the above two conditions, the DCI needs to include a field for indicating whether the relay UE needs to forward the DCI, this indication field may be a dedicated field, or may also reuse other fields that fail during retransmission scheduling.
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the communication system of Chae with that of Su to have included transmitting two PUSCHs in a same time resource for efficiency, as per Su (¶243), with reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding Claim 2, Chae disclose(s):
The terminal according to claim 1, wherein
the plurality of downlink signals are associated with a plurality of respective beams
the receiving section receives a configuration related to measurement of the plurality of downlink signals and receives the plurality of downlink signals, based on the configuration, and
the control section reports a plurality of measurement results corresponding to the plurality of respective downlink signals.
[ (see Chae ¶146-163; Fig. 11-12)
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation.
[0160] Channels that use beamforming require beam management. Beam management may comprise beam measurement, beam selection, and beam indication. A beam may be associated with one or more reference signals. For example, a beam may be identified by one or more beamformed reference signals. The UE may perform downlink beam measurement based on downlink reference signals (e.g., a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)) and generate a beam measurement report. The UE may perform the downlink beam measurement procedure after an RRC connection is set up with a base station.
[0161] FIG. 11B illustrates an example of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) that are mapped in the time and frequency domains. A square shown in FIG. 11B may span a resource block (RB) within a bandwidth of a cell. A base station may transmit one or more RRC messages comprising CSI-RS resource configuration parameters indicating one or more CSI-RSs. One or more of the following parameters may be configured by higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC and/or MAC signaling) for a CSI-RS resource configuration: a CSI-RS resource configuration identity, a number of CSI-RS ports, a CSI-RS configuration (e.g., symbol and resource element (RE) locations in a subframe), a CSI-RS subframe configuration (e.g., subframe location, offset, and periodicity in a radio frame), a CSI-RS power parameter, a CSI-RS sequence parameter, a code division multiplexing (CDM) type parameter, a frequency density, a transmission comb, quasi co-location (QCL) parameters (e.g., QCL-scramblingidentity, crs-portscount, mbsfn-subframeconfiglist, csi-rs-configZPid, qcl-csi-rs-configNZPid), and/or other radio resource parameters.
[0163] CSI-RSs such as those illustrated in FIG. 11B (e.g., CSI-RS 1101, 1102, 1103) may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for one or more measurements. For example, the UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) of configured CSI-RS resources. The base station may configure the UE with a reporting configuration and the UE may report the RSRP measurements to a network (for example, via one or more base stations) based on the reporting configuration. In an example, the base station may determine, based on the reported measurement results, one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states comprising a number of reference signals. In an example, the base station may indicate one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., via RRC signaling, a MAC CE, and/or a DCI). The UE may receive a downlink transmission with a receive (Rx) beam determined based on the one or more TCI states. In an example, the UE may or may not have a capability of beam correspondence. If the UE has the capability of beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit (Tx) beam based on a spatial domain filter of the corresponding Rx beam. If the UE does not have the capability of beam correspondence, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the Tx beam. The UE may perform the uplink beam selection procedure based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources configured to the UE by the base station. The base station may select and indicate uplink beams for the UE based on measurements of the one or more SRS resources transmitted by the UE.
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Regarding Claim 3, Chae disclose(s):
The terminal according to claim 1, wherein
the receiving section receives information related to a resource for at least one of the first uplink signal and a second uplink signal transmitted from the terminal, and receives the first uplink signal, based on the information, and
the control section reports a measurement result corresponding to the first uplink signal.
[ (see Chae ¶163; ¶176; ¶181; ¶200; Fig. 11B; Fig. 13)
[0163] CSI-RSs such as those illustrated in FIG. 11B (e.g., CSI-RS 1101, 1102, 1103) may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for one or more measurements. For example, the UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) of configured CSI-RS resources. The base station may configure the UE with a reporting configuration and the UE may report the RSRP measurements to a network (for example, via one or more base stations) based on the reporting configuration. In an example, the base station may determine, based on the reported measurement results, one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states comprising a number of reference signals. In an example, the base station may indicate one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., via RRC signaling, a MAC CE, and/or a DCI). The UE may receive a downlink transmission with a receive (Rx) beam determined based on the one or more TCI states. In an example, the UE may or may not have a capability of beam correspondence. If the UE has the capability of beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit (Tx) beam based on a spatial domain filter of the corresponding Rx beam. If the UE does not have the capability of beam correspondence, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the Tx beam. The UE may perform the uplink beam selection procedure based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources configured to the UE by the base station. The base station may select and indicate uplink beams for the UE based on measurements of the one or more SRS resources transmitted by the UE.
[0176] The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is received following a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplink transmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select an initial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and/or a target received preamble power configured by the network. The UE may determine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmit power. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preamble retransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incremental increase in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may ramp up the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal (e.g., SSB and/or CSI-RS) that is the same as a previous preamble transmission. The UE may count a number of preamble transmissions and/or retransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER). The UE may determine that a random access procedure completed unsuccessfully, for example, if the number of preamble transmissions exceeds a threshold configured by the one or more RACH parameters (e.g., preambleTransMax).
[0181] The UE may be configured with a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and a normal uplink (NUL) carrier. An initial access (e.g., random access procedure) may be supported in an uplink carrier. For example, a base station may configure the UE with two separate RACH configurations: one for an SUL carrier and the other for an NUL carrier. For random access in a cell configured with an SUL carrier, the network may indicate which carrier to use (NUL or SUL). The UE may determine the SUL carrier, for example, if a measured quality of one or more reference signals is lower than a broadcast threshold. Uplink transmissions of the random access procedure (e.g., the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313) may remain on the selected carrier. The UE may switch an uplink carrier during the random access procedure (e.g., between the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313) in one or more cases. For example, the UE may determine and/or switch an uplink carrier for the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313 based on a channel clear assessment (e.g., a listen-before-talk).
[0200] The UE may transmit uplink control signaling (e.g., uplink control information (UCI)) to a base station. The uplink control signaling may comprise hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgements for received DL-SCH transport blocks. The UE may transmit the HARQ acknowledgements after receiving a DL-SCH transport block. Uplink control signaling may comprise channel state information (CSI) indicating channel quality of a physical downlink channel. The UE may transmit the CSI to the base station. The base station, based on the received CSI, may determine transmission format parameters (e.g., comprising multi-antenna and beamforming schemes) for a downlink transmission. Uplink control signaling may comprise scheduling requests (SR). The UE may transmit an SR indicating that uplink data is available for transmission to the base station. The UE may transmit a UCI (e.g., HARQ acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK), CSI report, SR, and the like) via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The UE may transmit the uplink control signaling via a PUCCH using one of several PUCCH formats.
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Regarding Claim 4, Chae disclose(s):
The terminal according to claim 1, wherein
the receiving section receives the sidelink signal [ (see Chae ¶219-222; Fig. 17)
[0219] D2D (device to device) communication may mean a direct communication between a first wireless device and a second wireless device with or without involving a base station. According to a D2D communication scheme or a UE-to-UE communication scheme, data may be exchanged between UEs without passing through a base station. A link directly established between devices may be referred to as a D2D link or a sidelink. The D2D communication may have merits in that latency is reduced compared to a legacy base station-centered communication scheme and a less radio resource is required, and the like.
[0221] A D2D transmission signal transmitted through a sidelink may be divided into a discovery use and a communication use. A discovery signal may correspond to a signal used by a UE to determine a plurality of UEs adjacent to the UE. As an example of a sidelink channel for transmitting and receiving a discovery signal, there is a sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH: Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel). A communication signal may correspond to a signal for transmitting general data (e.g., voice, image, video, safety information, etc.). As an example of a sidelink channel for transmitting and receiving a communication signal, there is a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and the like.
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the control section reports a measurement result corresponding to the sidelink signal [ (see Chae ¶236-249; Fig. 20-21)
[0236] In existing technologies, a sidelink HARQ feedback may not be supported where sidelink HARQ feedback means a sidelink receiver wireless device may report a HARQ ACK and/or a HARQ NACK to a sidelink transmitter wireless device. For example, a transmitter UE may confirm whether the packet was successfully received only in the RLC acknowledge mode of the upper layer or may implicitly estimate its link quality by channel reciprocity, but these methods may not be efficient in terms of feedback latency and reliability of estimating link quality. If a sidelink HARQ feedback between wireless devices is supported, an efficient transmission resource management may be performed by adjusting transmit parameters such as power or modulation and coding scheme (MCS) based on the feedback, and it may increase reliability of sidelink.
[0237] In sidelink Mode 1 (where a base station may determine sidelink transmission resource(s) in this mode), reporting sidelink feedback information (e.g. a sidelink HARQ ACK or NACK or a sidelink CSI) to a base station may be beneficial. If a sidelink transmitter wireless device reports sidelink feedback information received from a sidelink receiver wireless device to a base station, the base station may be able to determine the transmission resource of the mode 1 (i.e. sidelink transmitter) UE more effectively. For example, if HARQ ACK and/or NACK is reported from a sidelink transmitter wireless device to a base station, some reserved resource for the sidelink transmitter UE may be reused by the base station which may configure the released resource for other wireless devices. In addition to sidelink HARQ feedback information reporting to a cellular network, it may be helpful for Mode 1 resource management if the transmitter wireless device reports sidelink CSI feedback to the base station. For example, if CSI measurement is reported from a sidelink transmitter wireless device to a base station, the base station may adjust power control parameter and/or power control offset or a sidelink resource size based on the sidelink CSI measurement report.
[0239] In some embodiments, sidelink feedback may mean a sidelink Rx wireless device may report sidelink feedback information (e.g. a sidelink HARQ ACK or a sidelink NACK or sidelink CSI) to a sidelink Tx wireless device. Sidelink feedback reporting may mean a sidelink transmitter wireless device may report sidelink feedback reporting information to a base station. The sidelink transmitter wireless device may transmit a sidelink transport block to a sidelink receiver wireless device. The sidelink receiver device may report sidelink feedback information to the sidelink transmitter wireless device. The sidelink transmitter wireless device may transmit, based on the sidelink feedback information, to the base station, sidelink feedback reporting information. The sidelink feedback reporting information (in uplink) may be determined based on the sidelink feedback information (in sidelink).
[0245] In an example embodiment, a base station may provide a first resource for a sidelink transmission of a data (e.g., PSSCH) by a Tx UE, a second resource for a sidelink feedback (e.g., PSFCH) by a Rx UE, a third resource for the Tx UE to report a feedback (e.g., PUCCH for a HARQ-ACK and/or CSI). For example, FIG. 21 illustrates an example of a sidelink operation based on a base station assistance. For example, a base station (e.g., gNB) may indicate a first resource for a Tx UE via SL scheduling a DCI or a RRC (e.g., A SL scheduling DCI or RRC). The base station may indicate a second resource for a Rx UE via RRC or a DCI for a Rx UE. The Tx UE may indicate a second resource for the RX UE via a sidelink RRC or a sidelink MAC CE or sidelink control information. The base station may indicate a third resource for a Tx UE to transmit a PUCCH (e.g., via the SL scheduling DCI or based on RRC parameters). The Tx UE may receive the first resource and may transmit a SL data (e.g., B. SL data transmission). The Rx UE may send a feedback corresponding to the SL data at the second resource (e.g., C. SL feedback transmission). The Tx UE may send a feedback based on the feedback from the Rx UE at the third resource (e.g., D: SL feedback report).
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Regarding Claim 5, Chae disclose(s):
A radio communication method for a terminal comprising:
receiving any one of a plurality of downlink signals, a first uplink signal from another terminal, and a sidelink signal from the other terminal [ (see Chae ¶141-148; Fig. 11-12; Fig. 17)
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation.
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reporting a measurement result of the signal and controlling reception of a downlink channel or transmission of an uplink channel by using a beam and a sequence based on the report[ (see Chae ¶141-150; Fig. 21)
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation. . [0147] The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more CSI-RS resource sets. A CSI-RS resource may be associated with a location in the time and frequency domains and a periodicity. The base station may selectively activate and/or deactivate a CSI-RS resource. The base station may indicate to the UE that a CSI-RS resource in the CSI-RS resource set is activated and/or deactivated.
[0148] The base station may configure the UE to report CSI measurements. The base station may configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UE may be configured with a timing and/or periodicity of a plurality of CSI reports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station may request a CSI report. For example, the base station may command the UE to measure a configured CSI-RS resource and provide a CSI report relating to the measurements. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station may configure the UE to transmit periodically, and selectively activate or deactivate the periodic reporting. The base station may configure the UE with a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reports using RRC signaling.
[0149] The CSI-RS configuration may comprise one or more parameters indicating, for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for a downlink CSI-RS and a control resource set (CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of the physical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks when the downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of PRBs configured for the SS/PBCH blocks.
[0150] Downlink DMRSs may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE for channel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS may be used for coherent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g., PDSCH). An NR network may support one or more variable and/or configurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlink DMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. A front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). A base station may semi-statically configure the UE with a number (e.g. a maximum number) of front-loaded DMRS symbols for PDSCH. A DMRS configuration may support one or more DMRS ports. For example, for single user-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. For multiuser-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to 4 orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. A radio network may support (e.g., at least for CP-OFDM) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequence may be the same or different. The base station may transmit a downlink DMRS and a corresponding PDSCH using the same precoding matrix. The UE may use the one or more downlink DMRSs for coherent demodulation/channel estimation of the PDSCH.
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transmitting target data through a first repetition of a first Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH); and (see Chae ¶90-96; ¶209-212; Fig. 5B and 15)
enabling the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH [(see Chae ¶90-96; ¶118-123; ¶154-157; ¶209-212; ¶220-224; ¶255-260; Fig. 5B, 10B, 15, 17CD, 18 and 23-24)
Chae does not explicitly disclose:
enabling the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH in a same time resource as that of a second or subsequent repetition of the first PUSCH.
However Su, analogous art also teaching PUSCH transmission, does disclose:
enabling the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH in a same time resource as that of a second or subsequent repetition of the first PUSCH. [(Su ¶337-351; ¶424-427; ¶521-531; Fig. 12-13;Fig. 18; Fig. 24) ]
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the communication system of Chae with that of Su to have included transmitting two PUSCHs in a same time resource for efficiency, as per Su (¶243), with reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding Claim 6, Chae disclose(s):
A base station comprising:
a receiving section that receives a measurement result of any one of a plurality of downlink signals, a first uplink signal from another terminal, and a sidelink signal from the other terminal [ (see Chae ¶141-148; Fig. 11-12; Fig. 17)
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation.
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a control section that controls transmission of a downlink shared channel or reception of an uplink channel by using a beam and a sequence based on the report[ (see Chae ¶120-123; ¶141-150; Fig. 5; Fig. 12; Fig. 21)
[0120] For an uplink BWP in a set of configured uplink BWPs, a BS may configure a UE with one or more resource sets for one or more PUCCH transmissions. A UE may receive downlink receptions (e.g., PDCCH or PDSCH) in a downlink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix duration) for the downlink BWP. The UE may transmit uplink transmissions (e.g., PUCCH or PUSCH) in an uplink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix length for the uplink BWP).
[0121] One or more BWP indicator fields may be provided in Downlink Control Information (DCI). A value of a BWP indicator field may indicate which BWP in a set of configured BWPs is an active downlink BWP for one or more downlink receptions. The value of the one or more BWP indicator fields may indicate an active uplink BWP for one or more uplink transmissions.
[0146] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation. . [0147] The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more CSI-RS resource sets. A CSI-RS resource may be associated with a location in the time and frequency domains and a periodicity. The base station may selectively activate and/or deactivate a CSI-RS resource. The base station may indicate to the UE that a CSI-RS resource in the CSI-RS resource set is activated and/or deactivated.
[0148] The base station may configure the UE to report CSI measurements. The base station may configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UE may be configured with a timing and/or periodicity of a plurality of CSI reports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station may request a CSI report. For example, the base station may command the UE to measure a configured CSI-RS resource and provide a CSI report relating to the measurements. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station may configure the UE to transmit periodically, and selectively activate or deactivate the periodic reporting. The base station may configure the UE with a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reports using RRC signaling.
[0149] The CSI-RS configuration may comprise one or more parameters indicating, for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for a downlink CSI-RS and a control resource set (CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of the physical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks when the downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of PRBs configured for the SS/PBCH blocks.
[0150] Downlink DMRSs may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE for channel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS may be used for coherent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g., PDSCH). An NR network may support one or more variable and/or configurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlink DMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. A front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). A base station may semi-statically configure the UE with a number (e.g. a maximum number) of front-loaded DMRS symbols for PDSCH. A DMRS configuration may support one or more DMRS ports. For example, for single user-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. For multiuser-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to 4 orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. A radio network may support (e.g., at least for CP-OFDM) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequence may be the same or different. The base station may transmit a downlink DMRS and a corresponding PDSCH using the same precoding matrix. The UE may use the one or more downlink DMRSs for coherent demodulation/channel estimation of the PDSCH.
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a transmitting section configured to transmit target data through a first repetition of a first Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), [(see Chae ¶90-96; ¶209-212; Fig. 5B and 15)]
wherein the base station is configured to enable the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH [(see Chae ¶90-96; ¶118-123; ¶154-157; ¶209-212; ¶220-224; ¶255-260; Fig. 5B, 10B, 15, 17CD, 18 and 23-24)
Chae does not explicitly disclose:
wherein the base station is configured to enable the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH in a same time resource as that of a second or subsequent repetition of the first PUSCH.
However Su, analogous art also teaching PUSCH transmission, does disclose:
wherein the base station is configured to enable the another terminal to receive the target data and to transmit the target data to a base station in a second PUSCH in a same time resource as that of a second or subsequent repetition of the first PUSCH. [(Su ¶337-351; ¶424-427; ¶521-531; Fig. 12-13;Fig. 18; Fig. 24) ]
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the communication system of Chae with that of Su to have included transmitting two PUSCHs in a same time resource for efficiency, as per Su (¶243), with reasonable expectation of success.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/RKF/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2468
/MARCUS SMITH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2468
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