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
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 102 rejection have been considered and are moot because they do not apply to the new references used in the current office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 4-7, 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ohseki (US 20180206220) in view of HE (EP 4271084).
Regarding claim 1, Ohseki discloses a terminal (fig. 1), comprising:
control circuitry (figs. 2-4, CPU), which, in operation, configures (fig. 5, 503), based on information on a configuration of a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a first type terminal ([0025-35], some terminal apparatuses do not support shortening of the RTT, and the RTTs of such terminal apparatuses are 4 ms, that is, a first type of apparatus, a base station apparatus notifies the terminal apparatus of the value of an index corresponding to the RTT used by the terminal apparatus; the terminal apparatus specifies an index h of a resource to be used to transmit an HARQ-ACK based on the index of the CCE assigned to the apparatus when the RTT is 4 ms), a second PUCCH resource different from the first PUCCH resource for a second type terminal (fig. 5, 502, 503, if the RTT used by the terminal apparatus is not 4 ms but x ms, that is, the second apparatus type, the terminal apparatus receives a notification of an index Npucch(x) corresponding to an RTT of x ms; transmits an HARO-ACK using a resource corresponding to an index Npucch(x)+h, here the second resource is the resource corresponding to an index Npucch(x)+h); and
transmission circuitry, which, in operation, transmits a signal in the second resource ([0025-35], fig. 5, 504, transmits an HARO-ACK using a resource corresponding to an index Npucch(x)+h).
Ohseki does not explicitly a second type terminal that is an user equipment (UE) with reduced capabilities (RedCap UE),
the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource being physical resource blocks (PRBs) in an uplink bandwidth part (UL BWP);
wherein the control circuitry, in operation, configures the second PUCCH resource based on the information on the configuration and information on an offset between the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource.
HE discloses a second type terminal that is an user equipment (UE) with reduced capabilities (RedCap UE) (HE, [0006-07], a terminal device with RedCap determines a second common PUCCH resource based on configuration information of a first common PUCCH resource and a bandwidth for the terminal device with RedCap),
the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource being physical resource blocks (PRBs) in an uplink bandwidth part (UL BWP) (HE, [0007], the first common PUCCH resource is a resource, for sending HARQ feedback information, corresponding to an initial uplink BWP, the second common PUCCH resource is a resource, for sending HARQ feedback information, within the bandwidth for the terminal device with RedCap; [0138], the second common PUCCH resource is determined based on the number of PRBs included in the bandwidth for the terminal device with RedCap and a PRB offset in the configuration information of the first common PUCCH resource);
wherein the control circuitry, in operation, configures the second PUCCH resource based on the information on the configuration and information on an offset between the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource (HE, [0015][0138], configured to determine a second common PUCCH resource based on a frequency domain position of a first common PUCCH resource and a frequency offset; the second common PUCCH resource is determined based on the number of PRBs included in the bandwidth for the terminal device with RedCap and a PRB offset in the configuration information of the first common PUCCH resource).
He also discloses transmission circuitry, which, in operation, transmits a signal in the second resource (HE, [0093], the terminal device with RedCap sends the HARQ feedback information through the second common PUCCH resource).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of allocation of resources as given by Ohseki with the teachings of consideration of RedCap UEs given by HE. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve coverage capability.
Claims 11-13 are rejected similarly as claim 1.
Regarding claim 4, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 2, wherein the second PUCCH resource includes a plurality of second PRBs configured based on the offset and each of a plurality of first PRBs included in the first PUCCH resource (HE, [0015][0138], the second common PUCCH resource is determined based on the number of PRBs included in the bandwidth for the terminal device with RedCap and a PRB offset in the configuration information of the first common PUCCH resource).
Regarding claim 5, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of second PRBs is configured in different slots from one another (Ohseki, [0004][0034-35] [0064], possible value ranges of the indices may be set for the lengths of the plurality of RTTs not to overlap each other; resources include ono-overlap or different time slot. HE, [0158]).
Regarding claim 6, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 2, wherein the second PUCCH resource includes one or a plurality of second slots configured based on the offset and a first slot included in the first PUCCH resource (Ohseki, [0004][0034-35], the base station apparatus may notify the terminal apparatus of, for example, a difference value Npucch_offset23=Npucch(2)−Npucch(3) between Npucch(2) corresponding to an RTT of 2 ms and Npucch(3) corresponding to an RTT of 3 ms and a difference value Npucch_offset34=Npucch(3)−Npucch(4) between Npucch(3) and Npucch(4) corresponding to an RTT of 4 ms; resources include time slots. HE, [0158]).
.
Regarding claim 7, Ohseki discloses the terminal according to claim 6, wherein the transmission circuitry, in operation, repeatedly transmits the signal by using the plurality of second slots ([0003], the signal at the time of retransmission may be the same as the signal transmitted before retransmission. It is a common practice that the device may transmit repeatedly the same signal using the available resources to increase robustness. Note, claim 6 uses selective language, if claim 6 selects the first option, that is, the second resource includes only one slot, there is no need to exam this claim).
Regarding claim 14, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 1, wherein the first PUCCH resource and the second PUCCH resource are cell-specific PUCCH resources (HE, [0056], a cell supports the access of the terminal device with RedCap).
Regarding claim 15, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry, in operation, configures the second PUCCH resource at one of a lower edge or an upper edge of the UL BWP based on a higher layer parameter that takes two values corresponding to the lower edge and the upper edge (HE, fig. 10, resource for RedCap UE is at the lower edge of the UL BWP).
Claim(s) 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ohseki in view of HE further in view of Qiao (US 20240380531).
Regarding claim 8, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 1,
Ohseki does not explicitly disclose a size of at least one of a time domain and/or a frequency domain for each slot in the second PUCCH resource is different from a size of a hop in a slot in the first PUCCH resource (Qiao, [0130], the number of time-domain symbols within the slot or the size of the slots is divided by the number of hops to obtain the time-domain length of the hop. Here, if the number of hops is greater than or equal to 2, the size of the slot and the size of the hop in a slot is different).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of allocation of resources as given by Ohseki with the teachings given by Qiao. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve coverage capability (Qiao, [0043]).
Claim(s) 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ohseki in view of HE further in view of Yang (US 20210100004).
Regarding claim 9, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 1,
Ohseki does not explicitly disclose a value of a cyclic shift corresponding to the second PUCCH resource is a value obtained by adding a second offset to a value of a cyclic shift configured in the first PUCCH resource.
Yang discloses a value of a cyclic shift corresponding to the second PUCCH resource is a value obtained by adding a second offset to a value of a cyclic shift configured in the first PUCCH resource (Yang, claim 15, identifying at least one second cyclic shift to apply to a second repetition of the PUCCH transmission using an index (or offset) subsequent to the first index in the set of cyclic shift indexes).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of allocation of resources as given by Ohseki with the teachings given by Yang. The motivation for doing so would have been to increase coverage and reliability (Yang, [0030]).
Regarding claim 10, Ohseki and HE disclose the terminal according to claim 1,
Ohseki does not explicitly disclose wherein a candidate for a combination of parameters and information identifying the candidate are associated with each other, the parameters including both the information on the configuration and information on the second PUCCH resource.
Yang discloses wherein a candidate for a combination of parameters and information identifying the candidate are associated with each other, the parameters including both the information on the configuration and information on the second PUCCH resource (Yang, [0081], Table 1, the index provided by the base station 105-a may correspond to a particular row in a table, where the UE 115 can obtain the necessary information for identifying a set of PUCCH resources that could be used for transmitting the HARQ-ACK message. Here, the resources can include the first and second resources).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of allocation of resources as given by Ohseki with the teachings given by Yang. The motivation for doing so would have been to increase coverage and reliability (Yang, [0030]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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