DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to applicant’s response filed under 37 C.F.R §1.111 in response to a non-final office action. Claim(s) 1, 3-4, 15, 17, 18, 21-24, and 25 have been amended; Claims 2, 10-14, and 16 have been canceled; Claim(s) 26 and 27 have been added. Claim(s) 1, 3-9, 15, and 17-27 are subject to examination.
Acknowledgement is made to the applicant’s amendment to claims 7 and 23 to obviate the previous 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection to claims 7 and 23. The previous 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection to claims 7 and 23 is/are hereby withdrawn.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments filed 06/29/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants’ Arguments
The applicant argues in substance that HUANG does not anticipate the amended claims, especially 1) configuration information for a codebook or non-codebook based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission; and 2) 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. Rather, HUANG describes a general scheduling information structure in which X groups of uplink scheduling information are contained in the DCI or RRC signaling. HUANG does not describe the claimed PUSCH mode field as a dedicated 2-bit DCI field with defined codepoints performing affirmative mode selection over exactly two named SRS resource sets.
Examiner’s Response:
The examiner respectfully disagrees. Regarding (1), all PUSCH can be described as non-codebook or codebook PUSCH, therefore this limitation amounts to nothing more as claiming any PUSCH, such as the PUSCH of HUANG (para 158).
Regarding (2), the claim limitations merely define the PUSCH mode field as a field related to PUSCH within DCI indicating if PUSCH uses a first SRS resources set, a second resource set, or both resource sets. This definition does not define or limit the number of bits the field has, does not define the mapping of codepoints, and does not limit the amount of SRS resource sets that can be configured. HUANG’s configuration/scheduling information is a field which indicates multiple SRS resource sets related to PUSCH (para 156-158). This information can be encoded in a field within DCI, wherein the UE decides the bit width of this field to obtain the information (para 247-249). The examiner recommends including limitations to clarify how the claimed invention is different from the matter taught in HUANG, such as defining the exact number of bits the field has, defining the mapping of codepoints, and limiting the amount of SRS resource sets that can be configured.
For the sake of prosecution, the arguments will be reformatted below.
Regarding all other arguments presented by the applicant, the arguments are substantially the same as those which have already been addressed above and in the interest of brevity; the examiner directs the applicant to those response above.
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.
Claims 1, 3-9, 15, and 17-27 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 15, and 24 recites the limitation "the DCI”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claims 3-9, 17-23, and 25-27 are rejected as being dependent on claims 1, 15, and 24.
Claims 3, 6, 17, and 20 recite the limitation "the second bit width". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 4 and 18 recites the limitation "the first SRI field”, “the first precoding information and number of layers field”, “the second SRI field”, and “the second precoding information and number of layers field”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claims 5, 19, and 26-27 are rejected as being dependent on claims 4 and 18.
Claims 7, 21, and 25 recites the limitation "the first bit width", “the second bit width”, and “the SRI field”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claim 8 is rejected as being dependent on claim 7.
Claim 26 and 27 recites the limitation "the number of transmission, K", “the first two PUSCH transmissions”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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 codebook or non-codebook based 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 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…”), 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.”), 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, from a dedicated indication/a PUSCH mode field in DCI).
Claim 3:
HUANG teaches the method of claim 1, 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 1, 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 and/or the first precoding information and number of layers field is associated with the first SRS resource set and the second SRI field and/or the second precoding information and number of layers 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 field).
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 17:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 15. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 3 above.
Claim 18:
HUANG teaches the UE of claim 15. 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 codebook or non-codebook based 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); transmit 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 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…”), 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.”), 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, from a dedicated indication/a PUSCH mode field in DCI transmitted from the base station)
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).
PNG
media_image1.png
869
583
media_image1.png
Greyscale
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified HUANG with NOKIA, the combination hereby referred to as HUANG-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 another 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 another 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 15. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 8 above.
Claim 25:
HUANG teaches the base station of claim 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.
Claim(s) 26-27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG in view of NOKIA, the combination hereby referred to as HUANG-NOKIA, and in further view of DAVYDOV.
Claim 26:
HUANG-NOKIA teaches the method of claim 5, the PUSCH mode field being "10" indicates that the first two PUSCH transmissions are based on SRS resource(s) in the first SRS resource set, which is followed by two PUSCH transmissions based on SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set, wherein this sequence is repeated until the K number of PUSCH transmissions are reached (NOKIA: pg 39 section 4 (“For PUSCH repetition Type B, the first and second nominal repetitions are expected to be the same as the first and second actual reptations, respectively (no segmentation)”) and pg 50 section 4 (“Note: For M-TRP PUSCH type B, the number of repetitions refers to ‘nominal’ repetitions”) wherein (see table below) 10 indicates the 1st TRP/SRS resource is used before the 2nd TRP/SRS resource); and the PUSCH mode field being "11" indicates that the first two PUSCH transmissions are based on the SRS resource(s) in the second SRS resource set, which is followed by two PUSCH transmissions based on the SRS resource(s) in the first SRS resource set, wherein this sequence is repeated until the K number of PUSCH transmissions are reached (NOKIA: pg 39 section 4 (“For PUSCH repetition Type B, the first and second nominal repetitions are expected to be the same as the first and second actual reptations, respectively (no segmentation)”) and pg 50 section 4 (“Note: For M-TRP PUSCH type B, the number of repetitions refers to ‘nominal’ repetitions”) wherein (see table below) 11 indicates the 2nd TRP/SRS resource is used before the 1st TRP/SRS resource).
PNG
media_image1.png
869
583
media_image1.png
Greyscale
However, HUANG-NOKIA does not explicitly disclose wherein when a PUSCH transmission pattern is sequential and the number of transmission, K, is more than 2.
DAVYDOV, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein when a PUSCH transmission pattern is sequential and the number of transmission, K, is more than 2 (DAVYDOV: FIG. 3A wherein K=4 and para 23 (“…for PUSCH repetition Type-B, the scheduled nominal repetitions are back-to-back…”), para 25 (“…with sequential beam mapping pattern…”), para 30 (“…two PUSCH repetitions towards two TRPs…”), and para 31 (“First, A-CSI/SP-CSI should be transmitted in the two PUSCH repetitions that are towards the two TRPs to increase reliability…”) wherein K=4 and the first two transmissions are for one TPR and the second two transmissions are for the other TRP in PUSCH Type-B scheduling).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified HUANG-NOKIA with DAVYDOV for the benefit of alleviating transmission bottleneck in multi-TRP transmissions (DAVYDOV: para 3).
Claim 27:
HUANG-NOKIA teaches the UE of claim 19. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 26 above.
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGELIE T NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-0180. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Thur: 8am - 5pm; 2nd Fri: 8am - 3pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached at (571) 270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/A.T.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416
Prosecution Insights