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 .
Response to Amendment
Examiner acknowledges receipt of Applicant's amendment filed 3/4/2026.
No claims have been amended or canceled.
Claims 1, 3-13, and 15-20 are currently pending.
Response to Arguments/Remarks
Applicant’s arguments, on page 6-7, with respect to last portion of claims 1, 13, and 20 under 35 U.S.C. 103: “wherein the enhanced control information is indicated via an enhanced bit field in a case that a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number received from the network node is greater than a threshold value” have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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, 3-5, 13, 15-16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit et al. (US-20200295824 A1, hereinafter, Charbit) in view of Park et al. (US 20230145930 A1, hereinafter Park).
Regarding Claim 1, Charbit discloses, a method of wireless communication, comprising:
receiving, at a wireless device from a network node, an enhanced control information ("In some implementations, the DCI may be received at a slot n. In such cases, the DCI may indicate the scheduling delay in slots as n+K1′, with K1′ denoting the scheduling delay for HARQ ACK and NACK." ¶0043]), wherein the enhanced control information includes one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information ("FIG. 2 illustrates an example scenario 200 in accordance with a first proposed scheme of the present disclosure. Under the first proposed scheme, NTN scheduling offset indication in a system information block (SIB) may be added in downlink (DL) assignment and UL grant indicated via DCI..." [¶0028], see also " In some implementations, the NTN offset may be indicated in a SIB." [¶0049]); and
performing subsequent communication between the wireless device and the network node based on the enhanced control information ("At 520, process 500 may involve processor 412 performing, via transceiver 416, one or more UL transmissions to satellite 130 with the scheduling delay which accounts for the NTN offset." [¶0047], see also, "An apparatus, comprising: a communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with a network and a satellite; a processor coupled to the communication device and configured to perform operations comprising: receiving, via the communication device, from a network downlink control information (DCI) indicating a non-terrestrial networking (NTN) offset for a scheduling delay; and performing, via the communication device, an uplink (UL) transmission to a satellite with the scheduling delay which accounts for the NTN offset." [Claim 11]). Here “DCI” is used as enhanced control information and
“non-terrestrial networking (NTN) offset for a scheduling delay” is the timing information.
Charbit doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein the enhanced control information is indicated via an enhanced bit field in a case that a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number received from the network node is greater than a threshold value; and
Park, in analogous art discloses, wherein the enhanced control information is indicated via an enhanced bit field in a case that a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number received from the network node is greater than a threshold value (See Table 13-14 & 15 & Fig 13, see also, "K1 may be indicated by a K1 field of DCI. According to Proposal 4, an extended range of K1 values may be indicated by implicitly adding X bits (e.g., X=1 or 2) while maintaining the current number of bits (e.g., a maximum of 3 bits) without extension of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator (e.g., extension to 4 or 5 bits)..."[¶0237], see also, "C. In Case A, an implicitly obtained 1 bit may be finally located as the LSB when K1 is indicated. That is, Case A corresponds to the second case shown in FIG. 13. Similarly, a case in which an implicit 1 bit is located as the MSB may also be considered as shown in the first case of FIG. 13. In this case, K1 offset becomes 16. That is, when the slot index is from 0 to 15, K1 offset is 0, and when the slot index is from 16 to 31, K1_offset is 16. The aforementioned K1_offset value is an example of when there are 32 HARQ processes, and the K1_offset value may vary as the number of candidate K1 values increases or the number of HARQ processes increases. Alternatively, the K1_offset value may be a value configured by the BS or a value previously agreed between the BS and UE." [¶0241]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit with idea of using an enhanced bit field to indicate enhanced control information when a HARQ process number exceeds a threshold value as disclosed by Park. The rationale for having an "enhanced bit field" suggests that the network is using extra bits to provide more detailed instructions that the standard field cannot accommodate as well as "...in order for the network to fully utilize contiguous DL slots for PDSCH transmission to one or more UEs, that is, for network configuration/scheduling flexibility, it may be considered to extend the range of K1 values..." [¶0232];
Regarding Claim 3, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Charbit doesn’t explicitly teach, wherein the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number is indicated by the network node.
Park, in analogous art discloses, wherein the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number is indicated by the network node ("... each HARQ process ID may be identified based on the HARQ process number/ID field and the CCE/RB index of DCI. The CCE/RB may be related to DCI including the HARQ process ID. For example, the CCE/RB may be a CCE in which a PDCCH including the DCI is received or a specific RB of a PDSCH scheduled by the DCI." [¶0227], see also, " the number of HARQ processes may be set to 16 or more, and the 16 or more HARQ process IDs may be identified based on the HARQ process number field of the DCI and the index of a CCE/RB associated with the DCI." [0289]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit with idea of using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number which is indicated by the network node as disclosed by Park. The rationale for indicating a HARQ process number by the network node allows the UE to manage multiple parallel, independent stop-and-wait retransmission processes efficiently. This enables high-speed data transmission by allowing the receiver to properly combine new data with previously received erroneous data, ensuring low latency and increased throughput.
Regarding Claim 4, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Charbit doesn’t explicitly teaches, wherein the enhanced control information is indicated in a case that another hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number is indicated in a same enhanced control information as the HARQ process number that is greater than the threshold value, wherein the threshold value is pre-configured by a network before receiving the enhanced control information.
Park in analogous art teaches, wherein the enhanced control information is indicated in a case that another hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number is indicated in a same enhanced control information as the HARQ process number that is greater than the threshold value (See Table 13-14 & 15 & Fig 13, see also, "K1 may be indicated by a K1 field of DCI. According to Proposal 4, an extended range of K1 values may be indicated by implicitly adding X bits (e.g., X=1 or 2) while maintaining the current number of bits (e.g., a maximum of 3 bits) without extension of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator (e.g., extension to 4 or 5 bits)..."[¶0237], see also, "C. In Case A, an implicitly obtained 1 bit may be finally located as the LSB when K1 is indicated. That is, Case A corresponds to the second case shown in FIG. 13. Similarly, a case in which an implicit 1 bit is located as the MSB may also be considered as shown in the first case of FIG. 13. In this case, K1 offset becomes 16. That is, when the slot index is from 0 to 15, K1 offset is 0, and when the slot index is from 16 to 31, K1_offset is 16. The aforementioned K1_offset value is an example of when there are 32 HARQ processes, and the K1_offset value may vary as the number of candidate K1 values increases or the number of HARQ processes increases. Alternatively, the K1_offset value may be a value configured by the BS or a value previously agreed between the BS and UE." [¶0241]), wherein the threshold value is pre-configured by a network before receiving the enhanced control information ("The maximum number of HARQ processes has been agreed at the standardization meeting as shown in Table 13 below." [¶0231], see also, "...In Proposal 3, it is proposed to extend the HARQ process ID field based on an increase in the number of HARQ processes. Accordingly, extending the range of K1 values (e.g., from 0 to 31) may also be considered. Alternatively, in order for the network to fully utilize contiguous DL slots for PDSCH transmission to one or more UEs, that is, for network configuration/scheduling flexibility, it may be considered to extend the range of K1 values..."[¶0232], see also, "One source [73] provided system level simulations for LEO=1200 km with 20% resource utilization, 16 and 32 HARQ processes, 15 and 20 UEs per cell, proportional fair scheduling, and no frequency re-use. The spectral efficiency gain per user with 32 HARQ processes compared to 16 HARQ processes depends on the number of UEs. With 15 UEs per beam, an average spectral efficiency gain of 12% at 50% per centile is observed. With 20 UEs per cell there is no observable gain. The following options were considered with no convergence on which option to choose: Option A: Keep 16 HARQ process IDs and rely on RLC ARQ for HARQ processes with UL HARQ feedback disabled via RRC. Option B: Greater than 16 HARQ process IDs with UL HARQ feedback enabled via RRC with following consideration. In this case, in the case of 16 or more HARQ process IDs, maintenance of a 4-bit HARQ process ID field in UE capability and DCI may be considered. Alternatively, the following solutions may be considered for 16 or more HARQ processes keeping the 4-bit HARQ process ID field in DCI" [¶0167-¶0171]).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit with idea of having network pre-configures a threshold value for HARQ process numbers as disclosed by Park. The rationale for using the described technique, where the network pre-configures a threshold value for HARQ process numbers is to manage retransmission efficiency or control channel overhead, also allows the UE to interpret the control message correctly.
Regarding Claim 5, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Charbit further teaches, wherein an indicator indicates a number of time slots after a communication time slot corresponding to a time resource for a HARQ feedback message ("In some implementations, the DCI may be transmitted at a slot n. In such cases, the DCI may indicate a plurality of PUCCH resources corresponding to a plurality of UL HARQ ACK and NACK of a plurality of transport blocks (TBs) at a slot n+K1′, with K1′ denoting the scheduling delay. In some implementations, K1′=K1+K1_ntnOffset. Here K1 may denote a parameter of scheduling offset for HARQ ACK and NACK, and K1_ntnOffset may denote the NTN offset indicated in the DCI. In some implementations, K1 may be indicated in a PDSCH-to-HARQ-timing indicator field in the DCI." [¶0059]).
Regarding Claim 13, Charbit discloses, a method of wireless communication, comprising:
configuring, at a network node, an enhanced control information ("An apparatus, comprising: a communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with a network and a satellite; a processor coupled to the communication device and configured to perform operations comprising: receiving, via the communication device, from a network downlink control information (DCI) indicating a non-terrestrial networking (NTN) offset for a scheduling delay…" [Claim 11]), wherein the enhanced control information includes one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information ("FIG. 2 illustrates an example scenario 200 in accordance with a first proposed scheme of the present disclosure. Under the first proposed scheme, NTN scheduling offset indication in a system information block (SIB) may be added in downlink (DL) assignment and UL grant indicated via DCI..." [¶0028], see also " In some implementations, the NTN offset may be indicated in a SIB." [¶0049]), and
performing communication between the network node and a wireless device based on the enhanced control information ("At 520, process 500 may involve processor 412 performing, via transceiver 416, one or more UL transmissions to satellite 130 with the scheduling delay which accounts for the NTN offset." [¶0047]). Here “DCI” is used as enhanced control information and “non-terrestrial networking (NTN) offset for a scheduling delay” is the timing information.
Charbit doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein the indication is done via an enhanced bit field if a supported hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number by the network node is greater than a threshold value; and
Park in related art discloses, wherein the indication is done via an enhanced bit field if a supported hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number by the network node is greater than a threshold value (See Table 13-14 & 15 & Fig 13, see also, "K1 may be indicated by a K1 field of DCI. According to Proposal 4, an extended range of K1 values may be indicated by implicitly adding X bits (e.g., X=1 or 2) while maintaining the current number of bits (e.g., a maximum of 3 bits) without extension of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator (e.g., extension to 4 or 5 bits)..."[¶0237], see also, "C. In Case A, an implicitly obtained 1 bit may be finally located as the LSB when K1 is indicated. That is, Case A corresponds to the second case shown in FIG. 13. Similarly, a case in which an implicit 1 bit is located as the MSB may also be considered as shown in the first case of FIG. 13. In this case, K1 offset becomes 16. That is, when the slot index is from 0 to 15, K1 offset is 0, and when the slot index is from 16 to 31, K1_offset is 16. The aforementioned K1_offset value is an example of when there are 32 HARQ processes, and the K1_offset value may vary as the number of candidate K1 values increases or the number of HARQ processes increases. Alternatively, the K1_offset value may be a value configured by the BS or a value previously agreed between the BS and UE." [¶0241]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit with idea of using an enhanced bit field to indicate enhanced control information when a HARQ process number exceeds a threshold value as disclosed by Park. The rationale for having an "enhanced bit field" suggests that the network is using extra bits to provide more detailed instructions that the standard field cannot accommodate as well as "...in order for the network to fully utilize contiguous DL slots for PDSCH transmission to one or more UEs, that is, for network configuration/scheduling flexibility, it may be considered to extend the range of K1 values..." [¶0232];
Regarding Claim 15, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 13.
Charbit doesn’t explicitly teach, where supported hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number is signaled by network node.
Park in analogous art teaches, where supported hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number is signaled by network node ("... each HARQ process ID may be identified based on the HARQ process number/ID field and the CCE/RB index of DCI. The CCE/RB may be related to DCI including the HARQ process ID. For example, the CCE/RB may be a CCE in which a PDCCH including the DCI is received or a specific RB of a PDSCH scheduled by the DCI." [¶0227], see also, "Option B: Greater than 16 HARQ process IDs with UL HARQ feedback enabled via RRC with following consideration. In this case, in the case of 16 or more HARQ process IDs, maintenance of a 4-bit HARQ process ID field in UE capability and DCI may be considered. Alternatively, the following solutions may be considered for 16 or more HARQ processes keeping the 4-bit HARQ process ID field in DCI" [¶0170-¶0171])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit with idea of using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number which is indicated by the network node as disclosed by Park. The rationale for indicating a HARQ process number by the network node allows the UE to manage multiple parallel, independent stop-and-wait retransmission processes efficiently. This enables high-speed data transmission by allowing the receiver to properly combine new data with previously received erroneous data, ensuring low latency and increased throughput.
Regarding Claim 16, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 13.
Charbit further teaches, wherein the threshold value is pre-configured by a network before receiving the enhanced control information ("With respect to the maximum number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes in NTN, RTT satellite propagation delay reduces the maximum data rates (assuming maximum sixteen HARQ processes)..." [¶0026], see also, "FIG. 2 illustrates an example scenario 200 in accordance with a first proposed scheme of the present disclosure. Under the first proposed scheme, NTN scheduling offset indication in a system information block (SIB) may be added in downlink (DL) assignment and UL grant indicated via DCI. Referring to part (A) of FIG. 2, under the first proposed scheme and to address aforementioned Issue 1, UL scheduling delay for UL HARQ ACK and NACK in PUCCH may be indicated in DCI format 1_0 or 1_1. For instance, network node 120 may adjust scheduling delay in slots by n+K1′, where K1′=PDSCH-to-HARQ-timing-indicator field+K1_ntnOffset."[¶0028]).
Regarding Claim 20, Charbit discloses, an apparatus comprising a processor (Fig. 4, Element 412 & 422) configured to perform a method comprising:
receive, at a wireless device from a network node, an enhanced control information (“…a processor coupled to the communication device and configured to perform operations comprising: receiving, via the communication device, from a network downlink control information (DCI) indicating a non-terrestrial networking (NTN) offset for a scheduling delay…" [Claim 11], wherein the enhanced control information includes one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information ("FIG. 2 illustrates an example scenario 200 in accordance with a first proposed scheme of the present disclosure. Under the first proposed scheme, NTN scheduling offset indication in a system information block (SIB) may be added in downlink (DL) assignment and UL grant indicated via DCI..." [¶0028], see also " In some implementations, the NTN offset may be indicated in a SIB." [¶0049]), and
perform subsequent communication between the wireless device and the network node based on the enhanced control information ("At 520, process 500 may involve processor 412 performing, via transceiver 416, one or more UL transmissions to satellite 130 with the scheduling delay which accounts for the NTN offset." [¶0047]). Here “DCI” is used as enhanced control information and
“non-terrestrial networking (NTN) offset for a scheduling delay” is the timing information.
Charbit doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein the enhanced control information is indicated via an enhanced bit field in a case that a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number received from the network node is greater than a threshold value;
Park in related art discloses, wherein the enhanced control information is indicated via an enhanced bit field in a case that a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number received from the network node is greater than a threshold value (See Table 13-14 & 15 & Fig 13, see also, "K1 may be indicated by a K1 field of DCI. According to Proposal 4, an extended range of K1 values may be indicated by implicitly adding X bits (e.g., X=1 or 2) while maintaining the current number of bits (e.g., a maximum of 3 bits) without extension of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator (e.g., extension to 4 or 5 bits)..."[¶0237], see also, "C. In Case A, an implicitly obtained 1 bit may be finally located as the LSB when K1 is indicated. That is, Case A corresponds to the second case shown in FIG. 13. Similarly, a case in which an implicit 1 bit is located as the MSB may also be considered as shown in the first case of FIG. 13. In this case, K1 offset becomes 16. That is, when the slot index is from 0 to 15, K1 offset is 0, and when the slot index is from 16 to 31, K1_offset is 16. The aforementioned K1_offset value is an example of when there are 32 HARQ processes, and the K1_offset value may vary as the number of candidate K1 values increases or the number of HARQ processes increases. Alternatively, the K1_offset value may be a value configured by the BS or a value previously agreed between the BS and UE." [¶0241]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit with idea of using an enhanced bit field to indicate enhanced control information when a HARQ process number exceeds a threshold value as disclosed by Park. The rationale for having an "enhanced bit field" suggests that the network is using extra bits to provide more detailed instructions that the standard field cannot accommodate as well as "...in order for the network to fully utilize contiguous DL slots for PDSCH transmission to one or more UEs, that is, for network configuration/scheduling flexibility, it may be considered to extend the range of K1 values..." [¶0232];
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit and Park in view of Al-Imari et al. (US-20200099477, hereinafter Al-Imari).
Regarding Claim 6, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein in case that the one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information are capable of representing a range of values.
However, Al-Imari in related art relates, wherein in case that the one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information are capable of representing a range of values ("In addition to the HARQ process ID and the UL-SCH indicator, some specific fields or other DCI fields may be set to pre-defined values to indicate to UE that the DCI is for HARQ feedback. For example, these DCI fields may comprise the time-domain resource assignment (RA), or frequency-domain RA, or both time-domain RA and frequency RA fields together..." [¶0032], see also, "In some implementations, processor 322 may set some specific fields or other DCI fields to pre-defined values to indicate to communication apparatus 310 that the DCI is for HARQ feedback. For example, processor 322 may use the DCI fields such as the time-domain RA, or frequency-domain RA, or both time-domain RA and frequency RA fields together." [¶0050].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea of using DCI bit fields as indicative of timing information which can represent a range of values as disclosed by Al-Imari. The rationale for doing so is that whenever timing information conveyed through DCI needs to be dynamic, adaptable, or selectable from a set of potential values, bit fields can be employed to represent a range of timing-related parameters, allowing for flexible and efficient system operation.
Claims 7, 12, 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit and Park in view of "Enhancements on HARQ for NTN" from CMCC, R1-2006212, hereinafter CMCC.
Regarding Claim 7, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein a value range indicated by a time offset indicator is from 1 to 32 or from 0 to 31.
CMCC teaches, wherein a value range indicated by a time offset indicator is from 1 to 32 or from 0 to 31 (Based on above discussion, in order to avoid reduction in peak data rates in NTN and ATG network, one solution is to increase the number of HARQ processes to match the larger satellite RTT delay to avoid stop-and-wait in HARQ procedure. If greater than 16 HARQ process IDs with UL HARQ feedback enabled via RRC, in order to control the DCI overhead, the size of HARQ process number field can be remained to be 4-bit in DCI, or just increase a little, e.g., 5-bit. The detailed solutions for greater than 16 HARQ process ID indication are described in next section. Proposal 1: Support greater than 16 HARQ process number in NTN and keep 4-bit HARQ process number field in DCI or just increase to be 5-bit [Section 2.1, Paragraph 4-5]). It is a design choice and not a feature. Rejection of Claim 1 describes how communication between the wireless device and network node happens based on the enhanced control information which includes time offset indicator. It is easily understandable to an ordinary person with the skill in the art that the value range of the time offset indicator is a design choice and based on the requirement and resolution a number of bits may be allocated. In this particular case 5 bits are allocated making the range from 1 to 32 or from 0 to 31.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea that a Downlink Control Information (DCI) bit field indicates a time offset, and the specific range of values as disclosed by CMCC. The rationale for having DCI bit field functioning as a time offset indicator which provides information to the User Equipment (UE) about the timing of various actions or resource allocations, where the exact range (1 to 32 or 0 to 31) can vary based on the specific context and standard being referenced.
Regarding Claim 12, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the enhanced control information includes a bit field indicative of a timing offset in addition to a predetermined reference value.
CMCC discloses, wherein the enhanced control information includes a bit field indicative of a timing offset in addition to a predetermined reference value (If greater than 16 HARQ process IDs with UL HARQ feedback enabled via RRC, in order to control the DCI overhead, the size of HARQ process number field can be remained to be 4-bit in DCI, or just increase a little, e.g., 5-bit. The detailed solutions for greater than 16 HARQ process ID indication are described in next section. See also,
Proposal 1: Support greater than 16 HARQ process number in NTN and keep 4-bit HARQ process number field in DCI or just increase to be 5-bit” [Section 2.1, Paragraph 4-5]). Here the bit field will define the timing offset along with other combination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea that DCI doesn't specify the entire timing value, but it provides an offset that's applied relative to a pre-established or referenced timing value as disclosed by CMCC. The rationale for doing this is that it allows for flexible and efficient adaptation of timing parameters, essential for meeting the stringent latency and performance requirements of advanced cellular technologies.
Regarding Claim 17, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 13.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information are capable of representing a range of values.
CMCC teaches, wherein the one or more bit fields indicative of a timing information are capable of representing a range of values (Proposal 1: Support greater than 16 HARQ process number in NTN and keep 4-bit HARQ process number field in DCI or just increase to be 5-bit [Section 2.1, Paragraph 5]). Here, 4-bits will give and range of values from 0-15 (or 1-16) and 5-bits will give and range of values from 0-31 (or 1-32).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea how a Downlink Control Information (DCI) uses bit fields to convey various control information, including timing-related information as disclosed by CMCC. The rationale for using bit-field to represent timing-related information so that it can be used for the necessary timing adjustments or information.
Regarding Claim 18, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 13.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the enhanced control information includes a bit field indicative of a timing offset in addition to a predetermined reference value.
CMCC teaches, wherein the enhanced control information includes a bit field indicative of a timing offset in addition to a predetermined reference value (If greater than 16 HARQ process IDs with UL HARQ feedback enabled via RRC, in order to control the DCI overhead, the size of HARQ process number field can be remained to be 4-bit in DCI, or just increase a little, e.g., 5-bit. The detailed solutions for greater than 16 HARQ process ID indication are described in next section. See also,
Proposal 1: Support greater than 16 HARQ process number in NTN and keep 4-bit HARQ process number field in DCI or just increase to be 5-bit” [Section 2.1, Paragraph 4-5]). Here the bit field will define the timing offset along with other combination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea that DCI doesn't specify the entire timing value, but it provides an offset that's applied relative to a pre-established or referenced timing value as disclosed by CMCC. The rationale for doing this is, it allows for flexible and efficient adaptation of timing parameters, essential for meeting the stringent latency and performance requirements of advanced cellular technologies.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit and Park in view of Maleki et al. (US-20220086761 A1, hereinafter Maleki).
Regarding Claim 8, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein in case that the one or more than one bit fields indicate the timing information, at least one bit field includes at least one of:
a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) bit field, or
redundancy version (RV) bit field.
Maleki, in related art relates, wherein in case that the one or more than one bit fields indicate the timing information, at least one bit field includes at least one of:
a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) bit field, or
redundancy version (RV) bit field ("...According to one or more embodiments of this aspect, the bit field is a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, indication field where the at least one bit is one of: a bit pattern that fails to map to a valid scheduling configuration, and a plurality of bits that map to an invalid index." [¶0045]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea of inclusion of a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) bit field or a Redundancy Version (RV) bit field as disclosed by Maleki. The rationale for doing so helps to optimizing data transmission and ensuring accurate synchronization.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit and Park in view of Akkarakaran et al. (US 20180310333 A1, hereinafter Akkarakaran).
Regarding Claim 9, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 1.
Combination of Charbit and Park don’t explicitly disclose, wherein after receiving the enhanced control information the wireless device does not receive a second control information for a number of time slots.
Akkarakaran, in related art relates, wherein after receiving the enhanced control information the wireless device does not receive a second control information for a number of time slots (Fig. 18 , see also, "...at block 1812, the scheduling entity may transmit a second control channel (e.g., PDCCH) including second control information (e.g., DCI) that includes at least the grant modification information to the scheduled entity in a slot that occurs later in time that the slot containing the first packet..." [¶0157]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea that UE receives enhanced control information (DCI) but then does not receive a subsequent control information for a defined number of time slots as disclosed by Akkarakaran. The rationale for having a deliberate PDCCH/DCI skipping is to ensure that resource assignment and scheduling are optimized and synchronized.
Claims 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran further in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (US 20210258107 A1, hereinafter Khoshnevisan).
Regarding Claim 10, combination of Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 9.
Combination of Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the number of time slots is a sum of a value indicated in a bit field indicative of a timing information and a fixed value.
Khoshnevisan, in related art relates, wherein the number of time slots is a sum of a value indicated in a bit field indicative of a timing information and a fixed value ("In some aspects, the DCI may include a K1 field (also referred to as a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator field). The K1 field may indicate a time (e.g., a number of slots or sub-slots) that the UE is to wait after receiving a scheduled PDSCH communication before transmitting HARQ feedback." [¶0074], see also, "…the time to transmit the Type 3 HARQ-ACK is based at least in part on a slot or sub-slot during which the UE receives the DCI message and the PDSCH to HARQ feedback timing indicator of the DCI message. For example, the time to transmit the Type 3 HARQ-ACK may use the slot or sub-slot during which the UE receives the DCI message as a reference time and may transmit the Type 3 HARQ-ACK after an amount of time (e.g., a number of slots and/or sub-slots) as indicated by the PDSCH to HARQ feedback timing indicator of the DCI message." [¶0153]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran with the idea of using the concept of timing information and its relationship to the number of time slots is relevant in various aspects of scheduling and resource allocation as disclosed by Khoshnevisan. The rationale for having a value indicated in a bit field within the DCI, possibly referencing a pre-configured set of values, is to help to determine the timing of the HARQ-ACK transmission on the PUCCH.
Regarding Claim 11, combination of Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 9.
Combination of Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the number of time slots is a value determined from a time duration between a transmitting time slot and a scheduling slot indicated by the enhanced control information.
Khoshnevisan, in related art relates, wherein the number of time slots is a value determined from a time duration between a transmitting time slot and a scheduling slot indicated by the enhanced control information ("In a third aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects, the PDSCH to HARQ feedback timing indicator of the DCI message indicates the amount of time based at least in part on a number of slots or sub-slots." [¶0146], see also, "In some aspects, the DCI may include a K1 field (also referred to as a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator field). The K1 field may indicate a time (e.g., a number of slots or sub-slots) that the UE is to wait after receiving a scheduled PDSCH communication before transmitting HARQ feedback” [¶0074]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit, Park and Akkarakaran with the idea of that when DCI schedules a PDSCH transmission, it includes information about the timing relation to the HARQ-ACK feedback as disclosed by Khoshnevisan. The rationale for having this is to provide flexibility in defining and communicating timing information, which allows for dynamic adaptation to various deployment scenarios and traffic conditions.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charbit and Park in view of Li et al. (US 20200221429 A1, hereinafter Li).
Regarding Claim 19, combination of Charbit and Park disclose the method of wireless communication of claim 13.
Combination of Charbit and Park doesn’t explicitly teach, wherein the enhanced control information includes a bit field indicative of a time domain resource allocation based on a default time domain resource allocation table, and wherein the table is determined based on a slot format indication (SFI) configuration.
Li in related art relates, wherein the enhanced control information includes a bit field indicative of a time domain resource allocation based on a default time domain resource allocation table, and wherein the table is determined based on a slot format indication (SFI) configuration (Table 13, see also, "...For example, DCI fields may be added or enhanced to include information regarding time resource allocation, frequency resource allocation, mini-slot allocation, and/or Code Block Group (CBG) transmission..."[¶0003]) and wherein the table is determined based on a slot format indication (SFI) configuration ("TABLE-US-00008 TABLE 8A Example of a DCI for UL Group Common PDCCH DCI Sub-fields Bits Comment Slot Format n.sub.SFIindex Index of a lookup table containing all Indication the possible configurations of a slot in (SFI) terms of DL symbols, UL symbols, gap, and reserved, and/or unknown symbols. Reserved bits n.sub.reserved Bits reserved for forward compatibility." [Table 8A]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Charbit and Park with the idea of including a bit field dedicated to time domain resource allocation as disclosed by Li. The rationale for using the bit field acts as a pointer, which allows the base station to quickly and efficiently communicate the desired time domain resource allocation to the UE by referencing a previously established or default table of possible allocations.
Conclusion
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/MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA/Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/MOHAMMED S CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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