RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR MULTIPLE COMPONENT CARRIER TRANSMISSIONS

DETAILED ACTION RCE A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/10/2026 has been entered. Response to Remark This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 05/29/26. a. Independent claims have been amended. 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. Claims 41, 42, 45-52, and 55-60 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 2023/0217456, “Yi”) in view of Harada et al. (US 2023/0020414, “Harada”) and further in view of Takeda et al. (US 2022/0124687, “Takeda”). Regarding claim 41, Yi discloses a user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a fifth-generation new radio (5G NR) network, the UE comprising: - processing circuitry; and memory, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to (See Fig.15): - decode a multi-cell downlink control information (MC-DCI) received from a generation Node B (gNB), the MC-DCI scheduling multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) in multiple cells (See Fig.14A and ¶.195, UE decodes a DCI; See ¶.193, the base station transmits DCI format 1_0 that used for scheduling of PDSCH in a cell; See Fig.26-27, PNG media_image1.png 134 574 media_image1.png Greyscale receiving a DCI and scheduling 1st cell and 2nd cell; See ¶.30, FIG. 24 illustrates an example DCI format for scheduling downlink data based on a multi-cell scheduling; See ¶.272, a multi-cell DCI format may comprise a list of {a first DCI field, a second DCI field}, where each of {the first DCI field, the second DCI field} may correspond to each cell of the plurality of scheduled cells); and - decode the multiple PDSCHs received in the multiple cells in accordance with the MC-DCI, wherein one of the multiple PDSCHs is scheduled to be received per cell (See ¶.143, decode PDSCH; See Fig.26-27, determining scheduling of 1st cell or determine scheduling of 2nd cell), - wherein the MC-DCI includes: a scheduled cells indicator indicating scheduled cells, a bandwidth part (BWP) indicator for the scheduled cells, and a time domain resource assignment (TDRA) field for the scheduled cells (See ¶.221, For example, a carrier indicator may be present when the DCI format 0_1 is used to schedule a cell based on cross-carrier scheduling. The carrier indicator may indicate a cell index of a scheduled cell by the cross-carrier scheduling; See ¶.222, A field of BWP index may indicate a bandwidth part indicator. The base station may transmit configuration parameters indicating one or more uplink BWPs for the scheduled cell; See Fig.18 and ¶.237, the DCI field includes carrier indicator indicating a cell index of a scheduled cell; BWP index; and Time domain RA (TDRA); See Fig.19 and ¶.242, PNG media_image2.png 235 785 media_image2.png Greyscale ). - wherein the TDRA field indicates a TDRA for each downlink BWP of each of the scheduled cells (See ¶.225, time domain RA indicate time domain resource of one or more slots of the scheduled cell). Yi discloses “BWP index” as shown Figs.24-25 and the size of the BWP index may be determined based on a total number of the one or more first downlink BWPs and the one or more second downlink BWPs (Yi, See Fig.24 and ¶.297, a BWP index field of the DCI format may indicate one or more first downlink BWPs of the first cell and/or one or more second downlink BWPs of the second cell. For example, a size of the BWP index may be determined based on a total number of the one or more first downlink BWPs and the one or more second downlink BWPs, when the first cell and the second cell are configured with a plurality of downlink BWPs. Otherwise, the size of BWP index may be determined based on a larger number between the one or more first downlink BWPs and the one or more second downlink BWPs), but does not explicitly disclose what Harada discloses, - wherein the BWP indicator indicates a maximum number of downlink BWPs configured across all of the scheduled cells (Harada, See ¶.49, the Bandwidth-part indicator field may be included in DCI format 1_1 and DCI format 0_1. The size of the Bandwidth-part indicator field is 0 bit, 1 bit, or 2 bits and the size of the Bandwidth-part indicator field is set based on a number of Bandwidth-parts configured by the higher layer. Since the maximum number of Bandwidth-parts (BWP) configured is 4; See ¶.57, the size of the BWP indication field may be set to a maximum number or a minimum number of a number of BWPs configured on the first CC and a number of BWPs configured on the second CC; See ¶.61, if the base station schedules multiple cells, the BWP indication field may be extended to X bits, for example. Here, X may be a maximum number of the downlink BWPs configured on each scheduled cell+(1 or 2); See ¶.66, the specific scheduled cell may be a cell provided with a maximum number of configured downlink BWPs among a plurality of scheduled cell). Harada discloses that “when the DCI is the DCI format 1_1, downlink BWPs may be activated on each CC (Harada, See ¶.55),” but Yi and Harada do not explicitly disclose what Takeda discloses, - wherein the processing circuitry is configured to activate a downlink BWP corresponding to a value indicated by the BWP indicator in each of the scheduled cells that are configured with the downlink BWP (Takeda, ¶.7, receiving, from a base station (BS), first downlink control information (DCI) indicating whether resources are allocated for at least one data channel on multiple carriers, the first DCI configuring at least one BWP configuration to be activated on the multiple carriers, interpreting the first DCI based on the at least one BWP configuration to be activated, and communicating with the BS in accordance with the first DCI as interpreted based on the at least one BWP configuration; See ¶.38, generate downlink control information (DCI) indicating whether resources are allocated for at least one data channel on multiple carriers, the DCI configuring at least one BWP configuration to be activated on the multiple carriers, wherein the DCI is to be generated based on the at least one BWP configuration to be activated and transmitting the DCI to the UE; See ¶.29, a downlink control information (DCI) in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may be designed to schedule multiple cells for a UE. According to certain aspects described herein, the DCI may also configure the UE with one or multiple BWP configurations to perform BWP operations (e.g., BWP switching) for multi-cell scheduling; See ¶.65, a downlink control information (DCI) format may be designed to schedule multiple cells (also referred to herein as “carriers” or “component carriers (CCs)”). In some aspects, one DCI format in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a cell may schedule two PDSCHs on two scheduled cells. In some aspects, one DCI format in a PDCCH of a cell may schedule one PDSCH over two scheduled cells; See ¶.61, The DCI may have a DCI format that is based on the currently active BWP configuration; See ¶.66, To perform BWP operations (e.g., BWP switching) in multi-cell scheduling, the BWP may be configured per cell or the BWP may be configured for a set of cells. In some examples, where the BWP is configured per cell, a separate BWP indication field may be included in a DCI format for each cell; See ¶.75, where the BWP is configured per cell, a joint BWP indication field may be included in a DCI format for the set of cells. For example, one BWP indication field may be included when the UE is configured for multi-cell scheduling of two cells. The single BWP indication field may indicate BWP switching for a pair of (e.g., a BWP for a first CC (CC1) and a BWP for a second CC (CC2)) jointly. For example, the BWP indication field may jointly indicate the BWP configuration to be activated for the first cell and the BWP configuration to be activated for the second cell; See further ¶.84 for DCI format based on the activated BWP configuration for scheduling PDSCH, i.e. downlink BWP).” Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “activating a downlink BWP corresponding to a value indicated by the BWP indicator in each of the scheduled cells that are configured with the downlink BWP” as taught Takeda and the method of “when the DCI is the DCI format 1_1, downlink BWPs may be activated on each CC” as taught by Harada into the system of Yi, so that it provides a way of configuring at least one BWP configuration to be activated (Takeda, See ¶.7). Regarding claim 42, Yi discloses “the scheduled cells indicator comprises a bitmap that indicates the scheduled cells (See ¶.133, a MAC CE may use a bitmap (e.g., one bit per SCell) to indicate which SCells (e.g., in a subset of configured SCells) for the UE are activated; See further ¶.234 for bitmap indicated in DCI field).” Regarding claim 45, Yi discloses “for each of the scheduled cells, the processing circuitry is configured to decode one of the multiple PDSCHs in each scheduled cell in accordance with the TDRA for each BWP for each scheduled cell (See ¶.143, decode PDSCH; See Fig.26-27, determining scheduling of 1st cell or determine scheduling of 2nd cell; See ¶.121, 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; See ¶.225, A DCI field of time domain resource allocation (time domain RA shown in FIG. 18) may indicate time domain resource of one or more slots of the scheduled cell).” Regarding claim 46, Yi discloses “the MC-DCI further includes a scheduling offset indicator field for use in determining a scheduling offset for the downlink BWPs configured across the scheduled cells (See ¶.229, scheduling offset indicator).” Regarding claim 47, Yi discloses “the MC-DCI further includes a supplementary uplink (SUL) indicator for the scheduled cells (See Fig.18 and ¶.232, UL/SUL indicator).” Regarding claim 48, Yi discloses “prior to receipt of the MC-DCI, the processing circuitry is configured to decode radio resource control (RRC) information to configure the scheduled cells to be indicated by the MC-DCI (See Fig.21-22, decoding after receiving RRC config and then receiving DCI to determine scheduled cell).” Regarding claim 49, Yi discloses “decode a second MC-DCI received from the gNB (See ¶.268, when the multi-cell scheduling is configured/enabled, the base station may need to schedule a second DCI that may indicate resource(s) of a single cell. For example, the base station may not have data to be scheduled via the plurality of cells. For example, the base station may need to perform retransmission only for a single cell of the plurality of carriers/cells. For example, the base station may have resources available only for a cell of the plurality of carriers/cells; See ¶.269, the base station may transmit a second DCI of a single cell scheduling via a second search space of the first cell), the second MC-DCI scheduling multiple physical uplink shard channels (PUSCHs) in multiple cells (See ¶.193, the base station may transmit the DCIs with one or more DCI formats. For example, DCI format 0_0 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell. DCI format 0_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 0_1 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 0_0). DCI format 1_0 may be used for scheduling of PDSCH in a cell.); and encode the multiple PUSCHs for transmission in multiple cells in accordance with the second MC-DCI, wherein one of the multiple PUSCHs is to be transmitted per cell (See ¶.227, scheduled PUSCH; See ¶.302, the DCI format may have a single first DAI field. The first DAI field may be applied to a first PUSCH via the first cell or a second PUSCH via the second cell).” Regarding claim 50, Yi discloses “the second MC-DCI includes wherein the MC-DCI includes: a scheduled cells indicator indicating scheduled cells, a bandwidth part (BWP) indicator for the scheduled cells, and a time domain resource assignment (TDRA) field for the scheduled cells (See ¶.272, a multi-carrier/multi-cell DCI format may comprise a list of {a first DCI field, a second DCI field}, where each of {the first DCI field, the second DCI field} may correspond to each cell of the plurality of scheduled cells. A base station may set, to disable scheduling of a transport block for a cell, the first DCI field, corresponding to the cell, to a first predefined value and a second DCI field, corresponding to the cell, to a second predefined value. The base station may set, to enable scheduling of a transport block for a second cell, the first DCI field, corresponding to the second cell, to a first value different from the first predefined value and/or set the second DCI field, corresponding to the second cell, to a second value different from the second predefined value; See Fig.19, carrier indicator as scheduled index, BWP index and time domain RA (TDRA)). Regarding claim 51, it is a non-transitory computer readable medium claim corresponding to the method claim 41 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claim 52, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 42 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claims 55-58, they are claims corresponding to claims 45-48, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims. Regarding claim 59, it is an apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 41 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claim 60, it is a claim corresponding to claim 42 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Response to Arguments Applicant's arguments filed have been considered. But, in view of the applicant’s amendment to the claims, examiner has clarified and totally remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims. Harada and Takeda disclose and/or suggest the newly added claim limitations as rejected in claim 1, which is equivalent to the response to the arguments for amended claim limitations. 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 date of this final action. Contact Information Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /JUNG H PARK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411