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 .
Summary
This action is in reply to Applicant’s Amendments and Remarks filed on 04/06/2026.
Claims 21-40 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments presented on 04/06/2026 with respect to claims 21-40 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding Claims 37-38, the Applicant presented argument that Qualcomm does not disclose the limitations of claim 37, discussing power control for UCI multiplexing (see Section 5.1.5) rather than generating a PHR specifically for PUCCH transmission, and none of the concepts-reference PUCCH, actual PUCCI-I for PHR purposes, or timing-based selection between them-appear anywhere in the Qualcomm document (REMARKS, Pages 9-10)
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Claim 37 is interpreted to require to generate a PHR for a PUCCH or a PUSCH or a reference PUCCH or a PUCCH based on actual PUCCH, and reporting the PHR to the serving cell using PUSCH.
Since a PUCCH or a PUSCH or a reference PUCCH are in alternate form, a PHR generation for any one of PUCCH or a PUSCH meets requirement.
Qualcomm discloses (Pages 3-4) Pages 3-4 Fig. 4:
In NR, power headroom report (PHR) is only defined for PUSCH and SRS transmission. Namely, Type 1 power headroom is defined to capture the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power for UL-SCH transmission per activated Serving Cell…
in NR Rel-17 with simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission and PUCCH cell switch, there is motivation to do PUCCH PHR report, because gNB need to decide schedule PUCCH on which CC, i.e., put PUCCH (especially dynamic HARQ-ACK feedback) on CC with positive/larger power headroom.
An example scenario is illustrated as in Fig. 4. Assuming simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmission is enabled, PHR is triggered to be reported in the PUSCH on PCC. Accordingly to RAN2 spec, UE should report PHR for both Pcell and Scell. In this PHR report, UE should report the legacy type 1 PHR for PCC. In addition, UE should report a new “type 4” PHR for PUCCH transmission on SCC.
From in the above Qualcomm explicit discloses generating type 1 PHR for PUSCH transmission for PCC and new type 4 PHR for PUCCH for SCC and reporting generated PHRs to serving cell using PUSCH on PCC, teaching all elements of Claim 37.
Regarding Claim 38, the Examiner presents that none of Claim 37 or Claim 38 characterize the reference PUCCH to distinguish over LP PUCCH or HP PUCCH, and further the claim limitations are in alternate form.
Therefore, Qualcomm (Page 2 Fig. 2 Scenario B1) first LP SPS PUCCH equivalent to a reference PUCCH previously assigned by a downlink command and overlapping with later dynamically granted multiplexed HP PUCCH/PUSCH which may carry PHR as disclosed by Qualcomm (Page 4) cited for Claim 37, giving a timing relationship between LP PUCCH and HP PUSCH and Fig. 2 Scenario B1 further discloses that later dynamically granted multiplexed HP PUCCH/PUSCH overrides LP SPS PUCCH, discloses multiplexed HP PUCCH/PUSCH is selected over LP SPS PUCCH or the reference PUCCH when overlapped, teaching the limitation
“the UE to select between the actual PUCCH and the reference PUCCH dependent on at least one of:
a timing relation between a downlink assignment for the PUCCH and an uplink grant for the PUSCH on the at least one serving cell carrying the PHR”.
Accordingly, claims 37-38 are rejected.
Regarding claim 21, the Applicant presented that neither reference Qualcomm or Jang, alone or in combination, teaches determining the multiplexing/dropping decision based on all three characteristics recited in claim 21 used together: priority, repetition, and value of SR.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees and presents that Jang teaches at least determine, in response to a determination that the second set of resources overlaps with the first resource, whether to multiplex uplink control information (UCI) from the first PUCCH in the first resource onto the PUSCH in the second set of resources, whether to drop the PUSCH, and whether to drop the first PUCCH or the second PUCCH in the second set of resources based on characteristics of the first PUCCH, the second PUCCH, and the PUSCH that include priority, repetition, and value of scheduling request (SR).
See Jang -
[0189] In the NR system, the UE may transmit uplink control information (UCI) to the base station through a PUCCH. The UCI may include at least one of HARQ-ACK indicating a success or failure of demodulation/decoding with respect to a transport block (TB) received by the UE through a PDSCH, a scheduling request (SR) by which the UE requests allocation of a resource from a PUSCH base station for uplink data transmission….
[0238] Option 1: selection of the PUCCH resource may vary according to an SR value of an SR PUCCH resource overlapping an HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource. That is, when the SR value is positive, a PUCCH resource for an SR may be selected, and when the SR value is negative, a PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK may be selected. HARQ-ACK information may be transmitted through the selected PUCCH resource.
[0255] When two PUCCHs configured with multi-slot repetition overlap each other, the UE does not expect that repetitive transmission of the two PUCCHs have the same priority order and the same start slot. When the repetitive transmission of the two PUCCHs have the same priority order, the UE may transmit the PUCCH which first started the repetitive transmission and may drop the remaining PUCCH. When the repetitive transmission of the two PUCCHs has a different priority order, the UE may perform repetitive transmission of a PUCCH having a high priority order.
[0257] When the UE transmits a PUCCH in the first slot and transmits a PUSCH in the second slot during repetitive transmission of N.sub.PUCCH.sup.repeat>1, and PUCCH transmission overlaps PUSCH transmission in one or more slots, and when UCIs in the PUSCH are multiplexed in the slots in which the PUCCH transmission and the PUSCH transmission overlap each other, the PUCCH may be transmitted, and the PUSCH may not be transmitted, in the slots in which the PUCCH transmission and the PUSCH transmission overlap each other……. PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUCCH single transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUSCH transmission….
A Sixth Embodiment: A Method of Determining a Priority Order when PUCCH Repetitive Transmission Taking into Account a Plurality of TRPs Overlaps Other Uplink Transmission
[0419] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the UE may determine a priority order with respect to which transmission is to be performed first, when PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a plurality of TRPs overlaps other uplink transmission. The other uplink transmission may include PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a plurality of TRPs, PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUCCH single transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUSCH transmission …..
[0420] …. available conditions may include the number of repeated times of PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs, the number of times of PUCCH repetitive transmission already transmitted, when the PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs overlaps the PUSCH transmission, and the like. When the UE takes the number of repeated times of PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs as a condition, the UE may set a predetermined value of the number of repeated times of the PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs as a reference value, and when the repetitive transmission has a higher value than the reference value, the UE may drop the PUSCH transmission, and when the repetitive transmission has a lower value than the reference value, the UE may drop the repetitive transmission.
See also [0421] priority among different overlapping repetitive PUCCH transmissions.
It is obvious from the [0238] that based on SR value positive or negative, HACK-ACK may or may not be multiplexed with SR when a first PUCCH resource for HACK-ACK and second PUCCH resource for SR overlaps.
It is also obvious from [0420] that when a first PUCCH resource for repetitive PUCCH transmission overlaps with PUSCH resource, PUCCH will have higher priority and be transmitted if number of repetition already transmitted is higher than a reference value, otherwise PUSCH will have higher priority and be transmitted.
Accordingly claim 21 is rejected by combination of Qualcomm and Jang.
Claims 22-36 and 39-40 are also rejected for the same reason as above.
NOTICE for all US Patent Applications filed on or after March 16, 2013
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 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless -
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 37-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Qualcomm Inc. (R1-2112211 “lntra-UE multiplexing and prioritization for IOT and URLLC”, of IDS, hereinafter ‘QUALCOMM_211’).
Regarding claim 37, QUALCOMM_211 teaches an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) the apparatus comprising memory and processing circuitry (Page 1: UE), the apparatus comprising: memory; and processing circuitry (Page 1: UE, implicit and well known) to configure the UE to:
generate a power headroom report (PHR) for at least one serving cell, the PHR for at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the PHR for the PUCCH based on an actual PUCCH or a reference PUCCH (
Pages 3-4 Fig. 4:
In NR, power headroom report (PHR) is only defined for PUSCH and SRS transmission. Namely, Type 1 power headroom is defined to capture the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power for UL-SCH transmission per activated Serving Cell…
in NR Rel-17 with simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission and PUCCH cell switch, there is motivation to do PUCCH PHR report, because gNB need to decide schedule PUCCH on which CC, i.e., put PUCCH (especially dynamic HARQ-ACK feedback) on CC with positive/larger power headroom.
An example scenario is illustrated as in Fig. 4. Assuming simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmission is enabled, PHR is triggered to be reported in the PUSCH on PCC. Accordingly to RAN2 spec, UE should report PHR for both Pcell and Scell. In this PHR report, UE should report the legacy type 1 PHR for PCC. In addition, UE should report a new “type 4” PHR for PUCCH transmission on SCC. ); and
select a PUSCH on one of the at least one serving cell on which to transmit the PHR (
Pages 3-4 Fig. 4:
PHR is triggered to be reported in the PUSCH on PCC); and
wherein the memory is configured to store the PHR (
Pages 3-4 Fig. 4:
Type 1 power headroom is defined to capture the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power for UL-SCH transmission per activated Serving Cell….
In this PHR report, UE should report the legacy type 1 PHR for PCC. In addition, UE should report a new “type 4” PHR for PUCCH transmission on SCC. Therefore, base station can derive the power headroom for both PCC and SCC and it can decide the next dynamic HARQ-ACK feedback should be scheduled on PCC or SCC.
(Construed that storing PHR in UE buffer/memory is implicit)).
Regarding claim 38, QUALCOMM_211 teaches the apparatus of claim 37, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to select between the actual PUCCH and the reference PUCCH dependent on at least one of:
a timing relation between a downlink assignment for the PUCCH and an uplink grant for the PUSCH on the at least one serving cell carrying the PHR (
Page 2 Fig. 2 Scenario B1:
In scenario B 1, there is an overlapping between LP SPS HARQ-ACK and HP SPS HARQACK. Later, the UE receives an HP grant that indicate the UE to multiplex the LP and HP UCI on an HP PUCCH/PUSCH.
Page 13 Section 5.2:
High priority channels should be better protected to guarantee its reliability and latency via i) putting the multiplexed payload on the high priority PUCCH resources if possible ii) use the power control parameters related to the high priority channel to transmit the multiplexed payload.),
for a PUSCH based on a configured grant, a timing relation between a starting or ending symbol of the PUCCH and a first uplink symbol for the PUSCH on the at least one serving cell carrying the PHR, or
whether a scheduled parameter for PUCCH scheduling has been obtained by the downlink assignment for the PUCCH or a configured parameter for the PUCCH based on a configured grant.
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 of this title, 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 21, 35-36 and 39-40 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm Inc. (R1-2112211 “lntra-UE multiplexing and prioritization for IOT and URLLC”, of IDS, hereinafter ‘QUALCOMM_211’) in view of Jang et al. (US 20230087223 A1 with priority of PCT/KR2021/001884, hereinafter ‘JANG’).
Regarding claim 21, QUALCOMM_211 teaches an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) (
Page 1: UE), the apparatus comprising: memory; and processing circuitry (Page 1: UE, well known), to configure the UE to:
receive, from a 5th generation NodeB (gNB), a first resource for a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (
Pages 1-2 Section 2:
PNG
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435
556
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Fig 1: Scenario A for conflict indications dynamic and semi-static signalling (dynamic indication override semi-static indication from Rel-17 multiplexing to Rel-16 cancellation),
.... The UE receives configurations to multiplex an HP SPS HARQ-ACK and LP SPS HARQ-ACK based on semi-static signalling.
See also Page 15: HARQ-ACK with different priorities in PUCCH format 0, and
Page 21: HP HARQ-ACK and LP HARQ-ACK multiplexing on a PUCCH);
receive, from the gNB, a second set of resources for at least one of a second PUCCH or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (
Pages 1-2 Section 2:
..... after Tl, the gNB sends a HP grant which disables the intra-UE multiplexing. The UE may need to demultiplex the HP and LP HARQ-ACK, drop the LP HARQ-ACK, and then multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK on the HP PUSCH.
See Fig. 1, after T1, gNB sending HP grant for PUCCH/PUSCH);
determine that the second set of resources overlaps with the first resource (
Fig. 1, resources for HP SPS HARQ-ACK and LP SPS HARQ-ACK are overlapping with resources for PUCCH/PUSCH by HP grant after T1); and
determine, in response to a determination that the second set of resources overlaps with the first resource, whether to multiplex uplink control information (UCI) from the first PUCCH in the first resource onto the PUSCH in the second set of resources, whether to drop the PUSCH, and whether to drop the first PUCCH or the second PUCCH in the second set of resources based on characteristics of the first PUCCH, the second PUCCH, and the PUSCH that include priority, repetition, and value of scheduling request (SR) (
Pages 1-2 Section 2:
...... the UE need to rely on RRC signalling to determine whether to perform intra-UE multiplexing or intra-UE prioritization.
Pages 1-2 Section 2:
..... after Tl, the gNB sends a HP grant which disables the intra-UE multiplexing. The UE may need to demultiplex the HP and LP HARQ-ACK, drop the LP HARQ-ACK, and then multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK on the HP PUSCH.
Pages 5-7, Section 4:
For handling overlapping PUCCHs/PUSCHs with different priorities in Rl7
• Step 1: Resolve overlapping PUCCHs and/or PUSCHs with the same priority
• Step 2: Resolve overlapping PUCCHs and/or PUSCHs with different priorities
In order to simplify the procedure, one may let the UE select simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission for channels of a given priority, only if there're no other transmissions of different priorities that collide with the PUCCH/PUSCH of the given priority resulting from Step 1 in the working assumption. If there 're both high priority and low priority channels after resolving collisions between channels of the same priority, then the UE shall always multiplex together channels with the same priority in Step 1.
See Fig.7.
We describe the above procedure in the following proposal.
Proposal 5: when a UE is configured with simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission and Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing, take the following steps to resolve collision between overlapping of two or more uplink channels:
Step 1: Resolve overlapping PUCCH(s) and/or PUSCH(s) with the same priority
Step 1.1: Overlapping PUCCHs of same priority are first resolved to obtain one final PUCCH for a given priority
Step 1.2: Resolve overlapping between PUCCH and PUSCH(s) of the same priority:
If all overlapping channels are of the same priority
If the remaining PUCCH and PUSCH can be transmitted simultaneously, then
Step 1.2.1: transmit the PUCCH and PUSCH(s) simultaneously
Otherwise
Step 1.2.2: multiplex the UCI on a PUSCH of the same priority
Otherwise (i.e., if the remaining overlapping channels are with different priorities),
Step 1.2.2: multiplex the UCI on a PUSCH of the same priority
Step 2: Resolve overlapping PUCCH(s) and/or PUSCH(s) with different priorities
Step 2.1: resolving overlapping between HP PUCCH and LP PUCCH
Step 2.2: resolving overlapping between PUCCH and PUSCH(s) of different priorities
If the remaining PUCCH and PUSCH(s) can be transmitted simultaneously
Step 2.2.1: transmit PUCCH and PUSCH(s) simultaneously
Otherwise
Step 2.2.2: multiplex the UCI on a PUSCH with different priority
Page 13 Section 5.2:
Observation 2: Multiplexing HARQ-ACK and SR with different priorities shall take into account the following design principles:
Case 2: low priority (LP) HARQ-ACK on PF 0 collide with high priority (HP) SR on PF 1: in Rel-15, a HARQ-ACK on PF0 that collides with SR on PF 1 will be multiplexed on the HARQ-ACK resource. However, this may affect the reliability of the SR. Therefore, we would like to enhance the design in Rel-17 by performing an RB selection. More specifically, if the SR is negative, then HARQ-ACK is transmitted on the HARQ-ACK resource. However, if the SR is positive, the HARQ-ACK is transmitted on the SR resource to indicate the positive SR. This way, we protect the reliability of SR whenever SR is positive.
See also Page 17:
Proposal 14: In NR Rel-17, for the case of multiplexing 1 bit SR and up to 2 bits HARQ-ACK with different priorities in a PUCCH format 0, adopt the multiplexed payload to CS indices mapping as shown in Fig 14 and Fig 15.
(Construed that certain PUCCH resource segment is used for transmitting UCI including LP HARQ-ACK and HP SR based on SR value)); and
wherein the memory is configured to store the characteristics of the first PUCCH, the second PUCCH, and the PUSCH (
Pages 1-2 Section 2:
...... the UE need to rely on RRC signalling to determine whether to perform intra-UE multiplexing or intra-UE prioritization.
See also Page 7 Proposal 5, the UE take steps, indicating stored characteristics of the first PUCCH, the second PUCCH, and the PUSCH).
QUALCOMM_211 does not explicitly disclose determine whether to drop the first PUCCH or the second PUCCH in the second set of resources based on characteristics of the first PUCCH, the second PUCCH, and the PUSCH that include priority, repetition, and value of scheduling request (SR).
In an analogous art, JANG teaches determine, (in response to a determination that the second set of resources overlaps with the first resource, whether to multiplex uplink control information (UCI) from the first PUCCH in the first resource onto the PUSCH in the second set of resources, whether to drop the PUSCH, and) whether to drop the first PUCCH or the second PUCCH in the second set of resources based on characteristics of the first PUCCH, the second PUCCH, and the PUSCH that include priority, repetition, and value of scheduling request (SR) (
[0189] In the NR system, the UE may transmit uplink control information (UCI) to the base station through a PUCCH. The UCI may include at least one of HARQ-ACK indicating a success or failure of demodulation/decoding with respect to a transport block (TB) received by the UE through a PDSCH, a scheduling request (SR) by which the UE requests allocation of a resource from a PUSCH base station for uplink data transmission….
[0238] Option 1: selection of the PUCCH resource may vary according to an SR value of an SR PUCCH resource overlapping an HARQ-ACK PUCCH resource. That is, when the SR value is positive, a PUCCH resource for an SR may be selected, and when the SR value is negative, a PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK may be selected. HARQ-ACK information may be transmitted through the selected PUCCH resource.
[0255] When two PUCCHs configured with multi-slot repetition overlap each other, the UE does not expect that repetitive transmission of the two PUCCHs have the same priority order and the same start slot. When the repetitive transmission of the two PUCCHs have the same priority order, the UE may transmit the PUCCH which first started the repetitive transmission and may drop the remaining PUCCH. When the repetitive transmission of the two PUCCHs has a different priority order, the UE may perform repetitive transmission of a PUCCH having a high priority order.
[0257] When the UE transmits a PUCCH in the first slot and transmits a PUSCH in the second slot during repetitive transmission of N.sub.PUCCH.sup.repeat>1, and PUCCH transmission overlaps PUSCH transmission in one or more slots, and when UCIs in the PUSCH are multiplexed in the slots in which the PUCCH transmission and the PUSCH transmission overlap each other, the PUCCH may be transmitted, and the PUSCH may not be transmitted, in the slots in which the PUCCH transmission and the PUSCH transmission overlap each other……. PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUCCH single transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUSCH transmission….
A Sixth Embodiment: A Method of Determining a Priority Order when PUCCH Repetitive Transmission Taking into Account a Plurality of TRPs Overlaps Other Uplink Transmission
[0419] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the UE may determine a priority order with respect to which transmission is to be performed first, when PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a plurality of TRPs overlaps other uplink transmission. The other uplink transmission may include PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a plurality of TRPs, PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUCCH single transmission taking into account a single TRP, PUSCH transmission …..
[0420] …. available conditions may include the number of repeated times of PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs, the number of times of PUCCH repetitive transmission already transmitted, when the PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs overlaps the PUSCH transmission, and the like. When the UE takes the number of repeated times of PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs as a condition, the UE may set a predetermined value of the number of repeated times of the PUCCH repetitive transmission taking into account the plurality of TRPs as a reference value, and when the repetitive transmission has a higher value than the reference value, the UE may drop the PUSCH transmission, and when the repetitive transmission has a lower value than the reference value, the UE may drop the repetitive transmission.
See also [0421] priority among different overlapping repetitive PUCCH transmissions.
Fig. 28, [0426] Referring to FIG. 28, the UE may include a UE receiver 28-00, a UE processor 28-05, and a UE transmitter 28-10. Also, the UE may further include a memory (not shown)
(It is obvious from the [0238] that based on SR value, HACK-ACK may or may not be multiplexed when a first PUCCH resource for HACK-ACK and second PUCCH resource for SR overlaps.
Then when a first PUCCH resource for repetitive PUCCH transmission overlaps with PUSCH resource, PUCCH will have higher priority and be transmitted if number of repetition already transmitted is higher than a reference value, otherwise PUSCH will have higher priority and be transmitted)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of transmission of PUCCH and/or PUSCH when resources are overlapped considering prioritization, repetition and SR value of JANG to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 in order to take the advantage of method for seamlessly supporting a service related to repetitive transmission of uplink data of a terminal for uplink coverage improvement (JANG: [0007, 0207]).
Regarding claim 35, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to receive, from the gNB, an indication to multiplex uplink transmissions with different priorities (
Page 2 Fig. 2 Scenario B1:
In scenario B1, there is an overlapping between LP SPS HARQ-ACK and HP SPS HARQ-ACK. Later, the UE receives an HP grant that indicate the UE to multiplex the LP and HP UCI on an HP PUCCH/PUSCH).
Regarding claim 36, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to: resolve at least one of overlapping PUCCHs or PUSCHs with identical priorities;
after resolution of the at least one of overlapping PUCCHs or PUSCHs with identical priorities , resolve at least one of overlapping PUCCHs or PUSCHs with different priorities;
after resolution of the at least one of overlapping PUCCHs or PUSCHs with different priorities, resolve collisions between low priority PUCCHs and high priority PUCCHs; and
after resolution of the collisions between low priority PUCCHs and high priority PUCCHs, resolve collisions between PUCCHs and PUSCHs of different priorities (
Pages 5-7, Section 4:
For handling overlapping PUCCHs/PUSCHs with different priorities in Rl7
• Step 1: Resolve overlapping PUCCHs and/or PUSCHs with the same priority
• Step 2: Resolve overlapping PUCCHs and/or PUSCHs with different priorities
In order to simplify the procedure, one may let the UE select simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission for channels of a given priority, only if there're no other transmissions of different priorities that collide with the PUCCH/PUSCH of the given priority resulting from Step 1 in the working assumption. If there 're both high priority and low priority channels after resolving collisions between channels of the same priority, then the UE shall always multiplex together channels with the same priority in Step 1.
See Fig.7.
We describe the above procedure in the following proposal.
Proposal 5: when a UE is configured with simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission and Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing, take the following steps to resolve collision between overlapping of two or more uplink channels:
Step 1: Resolve overlapping PUCCH(s) and/or PUSCH(s) with the same priority
Step 1.1: Overlapping PUCCHs of same priority are first resolved to obtain one final PUCCH for a given priority
Step 2: Resolve overlapping PUCCH(s) and/or PUSCH(s) with different priorities
Step 2.1: resolving overlapping between HP PUCCH and LP PUCCH
Step 2.2: resolving overlapping between PUCCH and PUSCH(s) of different priorities
If the remaining PUCCH and PUSCH(s) can be transmitted simultaneously
Step 2.2.1: transmit PUCCH and PUSCH(s) simultaneously
Otherwise
Step 2.2.2: multiplex the UCI on a PUSCH with different priority).
Regarding claim 39, the claim is interpreted mutatis mutandis of claim 21 and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 21.
Regarding claim 40, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 36.
Claim 22 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm Inc. (R1-2112211 “lntra-UE multiplexing and prioritization for IOT and URLLC”, of IDS, hereinafter ‘QUALCOMM_211’) in view of Jang et al. (US 20230087223 A1 with priority of PCT/KR2021/001884, hereinafter ‘JANG’) and with further in view of Jung et al. (US 20240089970 A1 with priority of us-provisional-application US 63138380, hereinafter ‘JUNG’).
Regarding claim 22, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine that the first PUCCH is a high priority (HP) PUCCH that has a HP Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), the PUSCH is a first low priority (LP) PUSCH, and the first LP PUSCH overlaps a HP PUCCH, and
multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK onto the first LP PUSCH (
Page 18:
Proposal 16: For multiplexing a high-priority (HP) HARQ-ACK and a low-priority (LP) HARQ-ACK into a PUSCH in R17, if HP HARQ-ACKand LP HARQ-ACKwould be transmitted on HP/LP PUSCH without CSI).
QUALCOMM_211 and JANG do not explicitly disclose the first LP PUSCH overlaps a HP PUCCH that has a negative SR.
JUNG teaches the first LP PUSCH overlaps a HP PUCCH that has a negative SR (
[0123] ….. the UE determines a PUCCH resource set to be: 1) a first set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId=0 of the second PUCCH-Config if O.sub.UCI≤2 including 1 or 2 LP and/or HP HARQ-ACK information bits and a positive or negative HP SR on one HP SR transmission occasion (e.g., if simultaneous transmission of HP SR and LP and/or HP HARQ-ACK occur).
[0133] If a UE is provided with a higher layer parameter mixedUCI-OnLowPUSCH including a beta offset parameter and a scaling parameter, the UE is enabled to multiplex UCI of different priorities into a PUSCH of a low priority index.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of multiplexing uplink control information of different priorities of JUNG to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 and JANG in order to take the advantage of method for low latency operation (JUNG: [0125]).
Claims 26-28 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm Inc. (R1-2112211 “lntra-UE multiplexing and prioritization for IOT and URLLC”, of IDS, hereinafter ‘QUALCOMM_211’) in view of Jang et al. (US 20230087223 A1 with priority of PCT/KR2021/001884, hereinafter ‘JANG’) and with further in view of Yin et al. (US 20240373428 A1 with priority of us-provisional-application US 63217247, hereinafter ‘YIN’).
Regarding claim 26, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21.
QUALCOMM_211 and JANG do not explicitly disclose wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine that the first PUCCH is a high priority (HP) PUCCH that has a HP Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), the PUSCH is a first low priority (LP) PUSCH, and the first LP PUSCH does not overlap a HP PUCCH that has a positive SR, and
multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK onto the first LP PUSCH.
In an analogous art, YIN teaches determine that the first PUCCH is a high priority (HP) PUCCH that has a HP Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), the PUSCH is a first low priority (LP) PUSCH, and the first LP PUSCH does not overlap a HP PUCCH that has a positive SR, and
multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK onto the first LP PUSCH (
[0097] In some approaches for channel dropping enhancement when a PUCCH with a positive HP SR overlaps with a LP PUSCH, if HP UCI is multiplexed on the LP PUSCH, the HP SR may be dropped.
See Fig. 9 Condition 906 and step 908,
Fig. 13 steps 1302 [Wingdings font/0xE0] 1304, and Fig. 14B.
It is obvious that HP UCI (HARK-ACK) without positive SR gets multiplexed with LP PUSCH for transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of channel dropping between scheduling request (SR) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of YIN to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 and JANG in order to take the advantage of method for improve communication flexibility and/or efficiency (YIN: [0005]).
Regarding claim 27, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG and YIN, teaches the apparatus of claim 26.
QUALCOMM_211 and JANG do not explicitly disclose wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to drop a LP PUSCH that overlaps the HP PUCCH that has a positive SR’
YIN teaches wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to drop a LP PUSCH that overlaps the HP PUCCH that has a positive SR (
[0046] For overlapping between a low priority (LP) PUSCH and a PUCCH with a positive high priority (HP) SR, the PUCCH with the positive HP SR is transmitted, and the LP PUSCH is dropped.
See also Fig. 9 step 904.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of channel dropping between scheduling request (SR) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of YIN to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 and JANG in order to take the advantage of method for improve communication flexibility and/or efficiency (YIN: [0005]).
Regarding claim 28, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21.
QUALCOMM_211 and JANG do not explicitly disclose wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine a first set that includes low priority (LP) PUSCHs that overlap with a high priority (HP) PUCCH that has a HP Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) and do not overlap with a HP PUCCH resource with a positive SR,
determine a second set that includes LP PUSCHs that overlap with the HP PUCCH with HP HARQ-ACK,
under conditions in which the first set is empty and the second set is not empty, drop LP PUSCHs in the second set, transmit the HP PUCCH with HP HARQ-ACK and the HP PUCCH resource with the positive SR, and
under conditions in which the first set is not empty, select one LP PUSCH from the LP PUSCHs in the first set to multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK onto.
YIN teaches wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine a first set that includes low priority (LP) PUSCHs that overlap with a high priority (HP) PUCCH that has a HP Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) and do not overlap with a HP PUCCH resource with a positive SR,
determine a second set that includes LP PUSCHs that overlap with the HP PUCCH with HP HARQ-ACK,
under conditions in which the first set is empty and the second set is not empty, drop LP PUSCHs in the second set, transmit the HP PUCCH with HP HARQ-ACK and the HP PUCCH resource with the positive SR (
Fig. 14C, [0207] FIG. 14C is a diagram illustrating a third example of puncturing in accordance with some of the techniques described herein. For instance, the puncturing is performed from the first overlapping symbol between the LP PUSCH and the PUCCH for HP SR, and the LP PUSCH transmission may not be resumed, as shown in FIG. 14C.
Fig. 14D, [0208] the puncturing may happen immediately after the last PUSCH symbol carrying the multiplexed UCI (e.g., the HARQ-ACK), as shown in FIG. 14D.), and
under conditions in which the first set is not empty, select one LP PUSCH from the LP PUSCHs in the first set to multiplex the HP HARQ-ACK onto (
Fig. 14A, [0205] FIG. 14A is a diagram illustrating a first example of puncturing in accordance with some of the techniques described herein. In some examples, only the overlapping symbols between the LP PUSCH and the PUCCH for HP SR may be punctured. Thus, if there are remaining symbols after the overlapping region, the PUSCH transmission may be resumed, as illustrated in FIG. 14A.
See also Fig. 14B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of channel dropping between scheduling request (SR) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of YIN to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 and JANG in order to take the advantage of method for improve communication flexibility and/or efficiency (YIN: [0005]).
Claims 29 and 34 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm Inc. (R1-2112211 “lntra-UE multiplexing and prioritization for IOT and URLLC”, of IDS, hereinafter ‘QUALCOMM_211’) in view of Jang et al. (US 20230087223 A1 with priority of PCT/KR2021/001884, hereinafter ‘JANG’) and with further in view of Yang et al. (US 20230292320 A1 with priority of PCT/CN2021/085708, hereinafter ‘YANG’).
Regarding claim 29, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21.
QUALCOMM_211 and JANG do not explicitly disclose wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
after having resolved collisions between low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs, determine whether overlap exists between a LP PUSCH and a HP PUCCH with repetition, and
in response to a determination that overlap exists between the LP PUSCH and the HP PUCCH with repetition:
exclude the LP PUSCH from a set of LP PUSCHs from which a particular LP PUSCH is to be selected to multiplex HP UCI, and
drop the LP PUSCH.
In an analogous art, YANG teaches wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
after having resolved collisions between low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs, determine whether overlap exists between a LP PUSCH and a HP PUCCH with repetition (
Fig. 1, Step 1 and Step 2,
[0024] In Step 1 shown in FIG. 1, for LP and HP, the PHY performs UCI multiplexing over PUCCH(s) from a set Q of PUCCH resources to a PUCCH resource Z. As shown, LP channels 114 prior to UCI multiplexing and HP channels 116 prior to UCI multiplexing may respectively include overlapping PUCCH resources. The PHY performs a process 118 for PUCCH UCI multiplexing among the overlapping PUCCHs of the LP channels 114 to generate an LP PUCCH resource Z 120 from a set Q of PUCCH resources. Similarly, the PHY performs a process 122 for PUCCH UCI multiplexing among the overlapping PUCCHs of the HP channels 116 to generate an HP PUCCH resource Z 124 from the set Q of PUCCH resources. The process 118 and the process 122 for PUCCH UCI multiplexing is described, for example, in section 9.2.5 of 3GPP TS 38.213.
[0025] In Step 2 shown in FIG. 1, when conditions are met, the PHY performs a process 130 for LP PUSCH selection for UCI multiplexing among the LP PUCCH resource Z 120 and other LP PUSCH(s) 126. The PHY also performs a process 132 for HP PUSCH selection for UCI multiplexing among the HP PUCCH resource Z 124 and other HP PUSCH(s) 128.), and
in response to a determination that overlap exists between the LP PUSCH and the HP PUCCH with repetition:
exclude the LP PUSCH from a set of LP PUSCHs from which a particular LP PUSCH is to be selected to multiplex HP UCI, and
drop the LP PUSCH (
[0025] In Step 2 shown in FIG. 1, when conditions are met, the PHY performs a process 130 for LP PUSCH selection for UCI multiplexing among the LP PUCCH resource Z 120 and other LP PUSCH(s) 126. The PHY also performs a process 132 for HP PUSCH selection for UCI multiplexing among the HP PUCCH resource Z 124 and other HP PUSCH(s) 128.
[0026] The PHY may then perform a process 134 for cancelation of LP PUCCH/PUSCH by HP PUCCH/PUSCH. See, e.g., pages 50-53 of 3GPP TS 38.213 V16.4.0.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of uplink control information (UCI) multiplexing with physical layer (PHY) priority and logical channel (LCH) based prioritization of YANG to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 and JANG in order to take the advantage of method for avoiding the uncertainty created by overlapping PUCCH resources for HARQ-ACK/SR at PUCCH format 1, reducing or removing the uncertainty so the complicated processing leads to something useful to some entity (e.g., the gNB) (YANG: [0061]).
Regarding claim 34, QUALCOMM_211, in view of JANG, teaches the apparatus of claim 21.
QUALCOMM_211 and JANG do not explicitly disclose wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to: determine a set that includes a set of resources for low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs in a single slot or sub-slot,
form a modified set by removal of at least one LP PUCCH resource, and
determine whether to transmit a particular PUCCH dependent on whether the particular PUCCH collides with another PUCCH or PUSCH with a different priority.
YANG teaches wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to: determine a set that includes a set of resources for low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs in a single slot or sub-slot,
form a modified set by removal of at least one LP PUCCH resource, and
determine whether to transmit a particular PUCCH dependent on whether the particular PUCCH collides with another PUCCH or PUSCH with a different priority (
See Fig. 1 and [0024-0026] cited above for claim 29.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to take the technique of uplink control information (UCI) multiplexing with physical layer (PHY) priority and logical channel (LCH) based prioritization of YANG to the system of PUCCH/UCI and PUSCH prioritization and/or multiplexing of QUALCOMM_211 and JANG in order to take the advantage of method for avoiding the uncertainty created by overlapping PUCCH resources for HARQ-ACK/SR at PUCCH format 1, reducing or removing the uncertainty so the complicated processing leads to something useful to some entity (e.g., the gNB) (YANG: [0061]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23-25 and 30-33 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and in intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 23, QUALCOMM_211, JANG, JUNG, YIN or any other prior arts of record either alone or in combination fails to teach the apparatus of claim 22, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine that multiple LP PUSCHs are to be transmitted using the second set of resources, and
select, from the multiple LP PUSCHs, a LP PUSCH having a lowest serving cell index as the first LP PUSCH.
Regarding claim 24, QUALCOMM_211, JANG, JUNG, YIN or any other prior arts of record either alone or in combination fails to teach the apparatus of claim 22, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine that multiple LP PUSCHs are to be transmitted using the second set of resources, and
select, from the multiple LP PUSCHs, a LP PUSCH as the first LP PUSCH based on a set of priorities that include Channel State Information (CSI) and timing.
Regarding claim 25, the claim being dependent on claim 24, is also interpreted same as claim 24.
Regarding claim 30, QUALCOMM_211, JANG, JUNG, YIN or any other prior arts of record either alone or in combination fails to teach the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine a set that includes a set of resources for low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs in a single slot or sub-slot,
determine whether each LP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot is with repetition,
for each LP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot with repetition, determine whether the LP PUCCH resource overlaps with at least one HP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot, independent of whether the at least one HP PUCCH resource has repetition,
form a modified set by removal of each LP PUCCH resource determined to overlap with the at least one HP PUCCH resource from the set, and
resolve overlapping LP PUCCHs and HP PUCCHs within the modified set.
Regarding claim 31, QUALCOMM_211, JANG, JUNG, YIN or any other prior arts of record either alone or in combination fails to teach the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine a set that includes a set of resources for low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs in a single slot or sub-slot,
determine whether each LP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot is without repetition,
for each LP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot without repetition, determine whether the LP PUCCH resource overlaps with at least one HP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot with repetition,
form a modified set by removal of each LP PUCCH resource determined to overlap with the at least one HP PUCCH resource from the set, and
resolve overlapping LP PUCCHs and HP PUCCHs within the modified set.
Regarding claim 32, QUALCOMM_211, JANG, JUNG, YIN or any other prior arts of record either alone or in combination fails to teach the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the UE to:
determine a set that includes a set of resources for low priority (LP) PUCCHs and high priority (HP) PUCCHs in a single slot or sub-slot,
determine whether each LP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot is with repetition, form a modified set by removal of each LP PUCCH resource in the single slot or associated with the single slot with repetition, and
resolve overlapping LP PUCCHs and HP PUCCHs within the modified set.
Regarding claim 33, the claim being dependent on claim 32, is also interpreted same as claim 32.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Yin et al. (US 20250089085 A1), describing USER EQUIPMENT, BASE STATION, AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD
Wang; Hai-Han (US 2024030615 A1), describing USER EQUIPMENT AND METHOD FOR MULTIPLEXING UPLINK CONTROL INFORMATION
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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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/SHAH M RAHMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413