DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to Application #18293290 filed 01/29/2024. Claim(s) 1, 5, 7, 9, and 15 amended; Claim(s) 10-14 canceled; Claim(s) 16-25. Claim(s) 1-9 and 15-25 is/are subject to examination.
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 7, depending on claim 1; Claim 21, depending on claim 15; and Claim 25, depending on claim 24 recites the limitation “the other SRS resource set”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret “the other SRS resource set” as another SRS resource set.
Claim 23, depending on claim 22 and further depending on claim 1, recites the limitation "the bit width" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret the “the bit width” as a bit width.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6, 15-18, 20, and 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by HUANG et al. (EP 3840270 A1) (see IDS 01/29/2024), hereby referred to as HUANG.
Claim 1:
HUANG teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving configuration information of a first sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set and a second SRS resource set for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein each of the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set comprises at least one SRS resource (HUANG: para 156 (“…the UE receives the configuration information of M uplink SRS resources indicated by the base station, and uses N SRS resources among them…where the N SRS resources can be divided into multiple SRS resource groups, and a group of SRS resources is composed of one or more SRS resources…”) and para 158 (“…N SRS resource sets corresponding to the PUSCH for the user terminal…”) wherein at least a 1st and 2nd SRS resource set for PUSCH is configured to the UE); and determining a first bit width of a first SRS resource indicator (SRI) field and a second bit width of a second SRI field in downlink control information (DCI) (HUANG: para 52 (“…each group of uplink scheduling information includes: an SRS Resource Indicator…”), para 245 (“…base station determines the bit widths of the SRI, each corresponding to each SRS resource set, according to the maximum number of SRS resources included in all the SRS resources sets.”), para 247 (“…the UE determines the bit width of the SRI in the same way, and decodes…to obtain the SRI…”) and para 249 (“…scheduling information each of the X SRS resource sets may be independently encoded in the DCI or may be jointly encoded in the DCI…”) wherein UE determines each SRI, including first and second SRI, in a DCI), wherein the first bit width is determined based on a maximum number of SRS resource (s) configured in the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set, Nm, SRS (HUANG: para 245 (“…base station determines the bit widths of the SRI, each corresponding to each SRS resource set, according to the maximum number of SRS resources included in all the SRS resources sets.”) wherein each bit width, including the first bit width, is based on maximum number of SRS resources configured in the first and second SRS resource set).
Claim 2:
HUANG teaches the method of Claim 1, further comprising: receiving a PUSCH mode field in the DCI indicating whether the PUSCH transmission is transmitted according to the first SRS resource set, the second SRS resource set, or both the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set (HUANG: para 14-18 (“…the X groups of uplink scheduling information are contained in the DCI…at least one of the X groups of uplink scheduling information contains indication information indicating that the at least one group of uplink scheduling information is not used for the uplink signal transmission…”) and para 174 (“…if X<N, the DCI may also contain the information about the SRS resource groups corresponding to X groups of uplink scheduling information selected from N groups of SRS resources.”) wherein there is information in the DCI/PUSCH mode field which indicates only some of the SRS resource sets are used, such as: only using resource sets including the 1st SRS resource set or the 2nd resource set; or using resource sets including the 1st SRS resource set and the 2nd resource set, but not, for example, a 3rd SRS resource set).
Claim 3:
HUANG teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the second bit width is determined based on Nm, SRS (HUANG: para 245 (“…base station determines the bit widths of the SRI, each corresponding to each SRS resource set, according to the maximum number of SRS resources included in all the SRS resources sets.”) wherein each bit width, including the first bit width, is based on maximum number of SRS resources configured in the first and second SRS resource set).
Claim 4:
HUANG teaches the method of claim 2, wherein in the case that the PUSCH mode field indicates that the PUSCH transmission is transmitted according to both the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set, the first SRI field is associated with the first SRS resource set and the second SRI field is associated with the second SRS resource set (HUANG: para 64 (“….scheduling information of each of the X SRS resource sets is independently encoded in the DCI, the scheduling information of one of the X SRS resource sets includes the SRI….and the scheduling information of the remaining X-1 SRS resources sets includes the SRI of the each SRS resource set…”) wherein each SRS resource set, indicated to be used, has its own SRI).
Claim 6:
HUANG teaches the method of Claim 4, wherein the second bit width is determined based on a number of SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set N2, SRS (HUANG: para 245 (“…bit width of the SRI corresponding to one SRS resource set, according to the number of SRS resource included in the SRS resource set…bit widths of the SRI, each corresponding to each SRS resource set, according to the maximum number of SRS resources including in all the SRS resource sets; or…corresponding to the number of SRS resource included in each of the X SRS resource sets, according to the number of SRS resources included in the each of the X SRS resource sets…”) wherein “based on a number of SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set” can mean 1) only depending on the resources in the second SRS resource set or 2) based in part on the number of SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set).
Claim 15:
HUANG teaches a user equipment (UE) comprising: at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored therein (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 402 (“Memory”)); at least one receiving circuitry (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 403 (“Communication Interface”)); at least one transmitting circuitry (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 403 (“Communication Interface”)); and at least one processor coupled to the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium, the at least one receiving circuitry, and the at least one transmitting circuitry (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 401 (“Processor”)).
For further limitations, see rejection for claim 1 above.
Claim 16:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 15. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 2 above.
Claim 17:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 16. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 3 above.
Claim 18:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 16. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 4 above.
Claim 20:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 18. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 6 above.
Claim 24:
HUANG teaches a base station comprising: at least one receiving circuitry (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 403 (“Communication Interface”)); at least one transmitting circuitry (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 403 (“Communication Interface”)); at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored therein (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 402 (“Memory”)); and at least one processor coupled to the at least one receiving circuitry, the at least one transmitting circuitry, and the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium (HUANG: FIG. 8 item 401 (“Processor”)), wherein the computer executable instructions configure the at least one processor to: transmit configuration information of a first sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set and a second SRS resource set for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein each of the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set comprises at least one SRS resource (HUANG: para 156 (“…the UE receives the configuration information of M uplink SRS resources indicated by the base station, and uses N SRS resources among them…where the N SRS resources can be divided into multiple SRS resource groups, and a group of SRS resources is composed of one or more SRS resources…”) and para 158 (“…N SRS resource sets corresponding to the PUSCH for the user terminal…”) wherein at least a 1st and 2nd SRS resource set for PUSCH is configured to the UE from the base station); and determine a first bit width of a first SRS resource indicator (SRI) field and a second bit width of a second SRI field in downlink control information (DCI) (HUANG: para 52 (“…each group of uplink scheduling information includes: an SRS Resource Indicator…”) and para 249 (“…scheduling information each of the X SRS resource sets may be independently encoded in the DCI or may be jointly encoded in the DCI…”) wherein base station determines bit width of SRI to include in DCI), wherein the first bit width is determined based on a maximum number of SRS resource(s) configured in the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set, Nm, SRS (HUANG: para 245 (“…base station determines the bit widths of the SRI, each corresponding to each SRS resource set, according to the maximum number of SRS resources included in all the SRS resources sets.”) wherein each bit width, including the first bit width, is based on maximum number of SRS resources configured in the first and second SRS resource set).
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.
Claim(s) 5 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG in view of NOKIA et al. “Summary #2 of Multi-TRP PUCCH and PUSCH Enhancements” 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #105-e R1-2106074, Vol. No. 27, May 2021 (2021-05-27) (see IDS 01/29/2024), hereby referred to as NOKIA.
Claim 5:
HUANG teaches the method of claim 4, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the PUSCH mode field value being "10" indicates that the PUSCH transmission is first based on the SRS resource(s) in the first SRS resource set and then based on the SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set, and the PUSCH mode field value being "11" indicates that the PUSCH transmission is first based on the SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set and then based on the SRS resource(s) in the first SRS resource set.
NOKIA, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the PUSCH mode field value being "10" indicates that the PUSCH transmission is first based on the SRS resource(s) in the first SRS resource set and then based on the SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set, and the PUSCH mode field value being "11" indicates that the PUSCH transmission is first based on the SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set and then based on the SRS resource(s) in the first SRS resource set (NOKIA: pg 35-36 wherein DCI includes a new field for dynamic switching in PUSCH for multi-TRP. see below).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified HUANG with NOKIA for the benefit for indication of dynamic switching in M-TRP PUSCH repetition (NOKIA: pg 35 Proposal 3.6).
Claim 19:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 18. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 5 above.
Claim(s) 7-8, 21-22, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG in view of SUN et al. (US 20240031941 A1), hereby referred to as SUN.
Claim 7:
HUANG teaches the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose further comprising: determining that the first bit width of the SRI field associated with one SRS resource set of the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set is no less than 1 bit, and the second bit width of the SRI field associated with the other SRS resource set of the first SRS resource set and the second resource set is 0 bit; and determining a bit width of each open loop power control (OLPC) field of at least one OLPC field in the DCI when a first p0-PUSCH-SetList associated with the one SRS resource set and a second p0-PUSCH-SetList associated with the other SRS resource set are configured to the UE.
SUN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches determining that the first bit width of the SRI field associated with one SRS resource set of the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set is no less than 1 bit, and the second bit width of the SRI field associated with the other SRS resource set of the first SRS resource set and the second resource set is 0 bit (SUN: para 100 (“…in a case that the downlink control information includes one SRI field, if the SRI field is associated with a first SRS resource set…or if the SRI field is associated with a second SRS resource set…”) wherein the SRI field of one SRS resource is at least 1 bit and the SRI field of the other SRS resource is absent/0 bits); and determining a bit width of each open loop power control (OLPC) field of at least one OLPC field in the DCI (SUN: para 49 (“…the power control parameter indicator field may also be understood as an open-loop power control parameter set indicator field…”) and para 51-52 (“…one power control parameter indicator field can indicate…for different TRPS…two power control parameter indicator fields in the DCI may be used to indicate…”) where there is at least one OLPC that is determined, wherein for the UE to determine the OLPC field, the bit width must be determined) when a first p0-PUSCH-SetList associated with the one SRS resource set and a second p0-PUSCH-SetList associated with the other SRS resource set are configured to the UE (SUN: para 57 (“…at least one first power control parameter indicated by the power control parameter indicator field belongs to a predefined or preconfigured candidate parameter set. Correspondingly, the DCI does not include any SRI field or includes only one SRI field.”), para 58-61 (“…the candidate parameter set includes at least…a first set list…a second set list…”), and para 65 (“…the first set list and the second set list are respectively associated with SRS resource sets.”)) wherein the p0 pusch set lists are pre-configured to the EU for two SRS resource sets).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified HUANG with SUN for the benefit of performing power control in a multi-TRP transmission scenario (SUN: para 3-4).
Claim 8:
HUANG-SUN teaches the method of claim 7, wherein the DCI includes only one OLPC field (SUN: para 51 (“…one power control parameter indicator field can indicate…for different TRPS…”)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified HUANG with SUN for the benefit of performing power control in a multi-TRP transmission scenario (SUN: para 3-4).
Claim 21:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 15. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 7 above.
Claim 22:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 1. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 8 above.
Claim 25:
HUANG teaches the base station of claims 24. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 7 above.
Claim(s) 9 and 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG in view of SUN, and in further view of DAVYDOV et al. (US 20240178939 A1), hereby referred to as DAVYDOV.
Claim 9:
HUANG-SUN teaches the method of claim 8, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the bit width of the OLPC field is one of 1 bit and 2 bits.
DAVYDOV, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the bit width of the OLPC field is one of 1 bit and 2 bits (DAVYDOV: para 30 (“…For signal-DCI based multi-TRP PUSCH…2 bits for the field of OLPC parameter set indication may be used for multi-TRP…”)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified HUANG-SUN with DAVYDOV for the benefit of alleviating transmission bottleneck in multi-TRP transmissions (DAVYDOV: para 3).
Claim 23:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 22. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 9 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
LI et al. (US 20240314704 A1).
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/A.T.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416