DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to 12/31/2025.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1-9 and 11-20 are rejected.
Claim 10 is objected to.
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
The amendment filed 12/31/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application. Applicant’s amendments have overcome all rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101 and all objections to Specification previously set forth in the most recent office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/31/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
With respect to the amended independent claim 1, Applicant argues Agiwal fails to disclose “that the UE receives both the association configuration information and the first reference signal configuration information, let alone that the UE selects the target downlink signal according to the first reference signal configuration information, and determines that target uplink transmission resource based on the association configuration information” (see Applicant’s Remarks Pg. 15). The examiner respectfully disagrees. Agiwal discloses association between SSBs and UL grants when describing the details of pre-configured uplink resources for small data transmission. Agiwal discloses that configuration signaling can include one or more configured grant configurations for an UL carrier, and a list of one or more SSB IDs associated with the grant configuration is signaled in the corresponding configuration (see at least [0125-0142] and Figs. 2-3). This interpretation is consistent with paragraphs [0071-0072] of the originally filed Specification reciting “the first reference signal configuration information indicates first reference signals that can be used for a configuration resource-based data transmission procedure … the network side indicates, by using a bitmap, synchronized signal block blocks (SSB) in a serving cell which can be used for small data transmission.” Therefore, Agiwal does read on the claimed feature. Similar reasoning is applied to independent claims 15 and 18, and the rejection under 35 U.S.C 102 is maintained.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-9 and 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by AGIWAL et al. US 20220022247 A1 (claiming foreign priority of a Korean patent application number 10-2020-0087541, filed on Jul. 15, 2020), hereinafter Agiwal.
Regarding Claim 1, Agiwal discloses a data transmission method (Agiwal [0010] a method performed by a terminal), comprising:
obtaining, by a terminal, configuration information for data transmission, wherein the configuration information carries association configuration information between downlink signal and uplink transmission resource and first reference signal configuration information, wherein the first reference signal configuration information is configured to indicate that downlink signal used for a small data transmission procedure (Agiwal [0098] discloses that the UE received pre-configured resources for SDT in dedicated signaling from gNB; [0126-0127] discloses that the association between SSBs and configured grants (resources) are required because in RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE can only measure the SSBs; further discloses that configuration signaling can include one or more configured grant configurations for an UL carrier, and a list of one or more SSB IDs associated with the grant configuration is signaled in the corresponding configuration, see at least [0125-0142] and Figs. 2-3);
selecting, by the terminal, a target downlink signal according to the first reference signal configuration information, and determining a target uplink transmission resource based on the association configuration information between downlink signal and uplink transmission resource (Agiwal at least Figs. 2 and 3, [0125-0142] discloses options for associating grants with SSBs); and
determining, by the terminal, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information corresponding to the target uplink transmission resource (Agiwal [0208] discloses network triggered (re)transmissions where the UE performs HARQ transmission … using preconfigured PUSCH resource. HARQ process used for SDT using preconfigured PUSCH resource can be signaling in SDT configuration or can be pre-defined) and/or estimating a downlink pathloss (Agiwal [0154-160] discloses conditions for performing SDT using the preconfigured PUSCH resource. Condition 6 discloses TA validation comparing SS-RSRP of pathloss reference (downlink signal) to a given threshold. Condition 7 discloses UL carrier selection involving pathloss), and transmitting uplink data based on the HARQ information and/or the estimated downlink pathloss.
Regarding Claim 2, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the terminal, downlink data based on the target downlink signal (Agiwal see at least Figs. 4 and 5: downlink data).
Regarding Claim 3, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the association configuration information between downlink signal and uplink transmission resource comprises at least one of the following:
association configuration information between downlink signal and uplink transmission occasion;
identifier of downlink signal;
first scrambling identifier information of uplink signal;
second scrambling identifier information of uplink signal;
code division multiple group information of uplink signal; or
antenna port information of uplink signal (Agiwal see at least Figs 2-3, [0128]: association between SSB and uplink grant (PUSCH occasion); list of one or more SSB Ids associated with grant configuration);
the configuration information further comprises at least one of the following:
the number of uplink transmission occasion that is frequency division multiplexed at one moment;
time domain resource allocation information of uplink transmission occasion;
frequency domain resource allocation information of uplink transmission occasion; configuration information of downlink signal;
duration information of a configured grant response timer;
measurement threshold for downlink signal selection;
first power ramping step parameter;
second power ramping step parameter;
maximum number of configured grant transmission;
desired receive power;
mask information of uplink transmission occasion;
configured grant periodicity;
duration information of a configured grant timer; or
maximum number of uplink skip (Agiwal see at least [0093] for LCH restrictions/configuration signaled by the gNB; [0118-0121] for associated BWPs; [0128] for associating grants with SSBs; [0154-160] discloses conditions for performing SDT using the preconfigured PUSCH resource; [0208] retransmission handling and power ramping step signaled by the gNB); wherein
the time domain resource allocation information of uplink transmission occasion comprises at least one of the following:
the number of slots in each configured grant period;
the number of uplink transmission occasion in each slot; or
the number of uplink transmission occasion in each configured grant period (Agiwal see at least Figs. 2-3 and [0128]); and
the frequency domain resource allocation information of uplink transmission occasion comprises at least one of the following:
bandwidth information; or
information about start location of uplink transmission occasion in frequency domain (Agiwal see at least [0118-0121] discloses configured BWPs and signaled frequency domain information).
Regarding Claim 4, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the determining hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information corresponding to the target uplink transmission resource comprises:
determining the HARQ information corresponding to the target uplink transmission resource based on at least one of the following:
a total number of available HARQ process;
index corresponding to the available HARQ process;
a total number of available HARQ process in each configured grant period;
index corresponding to the available HARQ process in each configured grant period; or
index corresponding to HARQ process that corresponds to uplink transmission resource in each configured grant period (Agiwal [0208] discloses network triggered (re)transmissions where the UE performs HARQ transmission … using preconfigured PUSCH resource. HARQ process used for SDT using preconfigured PUSCH resource can be signaling in SDT configuration or can be pre-defined).
Regarding Claim 5, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the estimating a downlink pathloss comprises:
estimating the downlink pathloss based on the target downlink signal (Agiwal [0154-160] discloses conditions for performing SDT using the preconfigured PUSCH resource. Condition 6 discloses TA validation comparing SS-RSRP of pathloss reference (downlink signal) to a given threshold. Condition 7 discloses UL carrier selection involving pathloss).
Regarding Claim 6, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the method further comprises at least one of the following:
in a case that no configuration resource–based data transmission procedure is triggered at any uplink transmission occasion in one configured grant period, incrementing a first counter by 1, wherein the first counter is used to count skip of data transmission; or
in a case that a value of the first counter is greater than or equal to a maximum number of uplink skip, or in a case that no configuration resource–based data transmission procedure is triggered at any uplink transmission occasion in N consecutive configured grant periodicities, performing at least one of the following terminal behaviors:
terminating the configuration resource–based data transmission procedure;
releasing the uplink transmission resource; or
discarding the configuration information
(Agiwal [0222-0223] discloses Option 2 of release of preconfigured PUSCH resource. Option 2: Release upon number of occurrences. The MAC entity shall discard the immediately Preconfigured PUSCH resource after ‘N’ number of consecutive association periods in which grant was not used. Association period is equal to periodicity of configured grant*X where X is number of SSBs associated with configured grant).
Regarding Claim 7, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the method further comprises: after a configuration resource–based data transmission procedure is triggered, performing at least one of the following terminal behaviors:
indicating, by a radio resource control (RRC) layer to a medium access control (MAC) layer, that the configuration resource–based data transmission procedure is triggered;
after the MAC layer is indicated by the RRC layer that the configuration resource–based data transmission procedure is triggered, storing the uplink transmission resources and corresponding HARQ information and/or initializing or reinitializing the uplink transmission resources;
in a case that no corresponding medium access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU) is generated at any uplink transmission occasion in one configured grant period, transmitting, by the MAC layer, an uplink skip indication to a higher layer;
in a case that the higher layer receives the uplink skip indication, incrementing a first counter by 1; or
in a case that a value of the first counter is greater than or equal to a maximum number of uplink skip, performing at least one of the following terminal behaviors:
terminating the data transmission procedure that based on configured resource;
instructing, by the RRC layer, the MAC layer to end the configuration resource–based data transmission procedure;
clearing the uplink transmission resources and/or corresponding HARQ information;
releasing the uplink transmission resource; or
discarding the configuration information
(Agiwal see at least [0208-0211, 0213-0215] transmission/retransmission of generated MAC PDU using preconfigured PUSCH resources a configurable number of times; [0222-0223] discloses Option 2 of release of preconfigured PUSCH resource. Option 2: Release upon number of occurrences. The MAC entity shall discard the immediately Preconfigured PUSCH resource after ‘N’ number of consecutive association periods in which grant was not used. Association period is equal to periodicity of configured grant*X where X is number of SSBs associated with configured grant).
Regarding Claim 8, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the method further comprises:
setting power ramping step parameter based on a second power ramping step parameter configured by a network-side device and at least one of a target access identity provided by a higher layer, a target access type provided by a higher layer, or first indication information transmitted by the network-side device, wherein the power ramping step parameter comprises a first power ramping step parameter and the second power ramping step parameter, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the terminal is to use the second power ramping step parameter (Agiwal [0212, 0217] during retransmission; ramped by a power ramping step. The power of the previous transmission may be ramped by a power ramping set. power ramping step is signaled by gNB).
Regarding Claim 9, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the method further comprises at least one of the following:
selecting the target downlink signal based on a measurement threshold for downlink signal selection;
generating an uplink signal based on the selected target downlink signal and/or the association configuration information between downlink signal and uplink transmission resource;
determining a latest available uplink transmission occasion based on the selected target downlink signal;
determining an uplink grant and corresponding HARQ information based on the selected uplink transmission occasion; or
delivering the uplink grant and corresponding HARQ information to a HARQ entity (Agiwal see Fig. 1; at least [0106] discloses that the UE selects an SSB with SS-RSRP above the RSRPthresholdSSB-SDT among the SSBs associated with pre-configured PUSCH resources for SDT. [0107] discloses the UE selects the earliest available UL grant corresponding to selected SSB from the pre-configured PUSCH resources of selected UL carrier. [0208] discloses network triggered (re)transmissions where the UE performs HARQ transmission … using preconfigured PUSCH resource).
Regarding Claim 11, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the process of transmitting uplink data further comprises at least one of the following:
incrementing a third counter by 1 based on a second counter, an indication of suspending a power ramping counter, a listen before talk (LBT) failure indication, an uplink skip indication, and the selected target downlink signal; or
determining a data transmission power based on the third counter, a power ramping step parameter, the estimated downlink pathloss, and a desired receive power (Agiwal see at least [0154-160] preconfigured PUSCH resource and comparing SS-RSRP of pathloss reference (downlink signal) to a given threshold; [0208] retransmission handling; [0212] power ramping during retransmission).
Regarding Claim 12, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 2 and further discloses wherein the receiving downlink data comprises:
after transmission of a MAC PDU at an uplink transmission occasion, performing at least one of following:
starting or restarting a configured grant response time;
starting or restarting a configured grant timer (Agiwal at least [0207] discloses a timer (configured by network) for monitoring response); or
monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), wherein
a demodulation reference signal antenna port of the PDCCH and the target downlink signal have same quasi co-location properties (Agiwal [0045] discloses PDCCH monitoring. One of the TCI states in the TCI state list is activated and indicated to UE by gNB. TCI state indicates the DL TX beam (DL TX beam is quasi-collocated (QCLed) with SSB/CSI RS of TCI state) used by GNB for transmission of PDCCH in the PDCCH monitoring occasions of a search space).
Regarding Claim 13, Agiwal discloses the method of claim 12 and further discloses wherein during running of the configured grant response timer, the terminal performing at least one of following:
in a case that an indication for confirming correct data transmission has been received, stopping the configured grant response timer and/or the configured grant timer;
in a case that an indication for confirming correct data transmission has been received, restarting a T319 timer;
in a case that an indication for confirming correct data transmission has been received, setting a value of a first counter to 0;
in a case that a PDCCH for scheduling uplink retransmission has been received, stopping the configured grant response timer and/or restarting the configured grant timer;
in a case that a PDCCH for scheduling new uplink transmission has been received, stopping the configured grant response timer and/or the configured grant timer;
in a case that a PDCCH for scheduling downlink transmission has been received and that a corresponding scheduled MAC PDU has not been successfully decoded, reporting a hybrid automatic repeat request negative acknowledgment (HARQ-NACK) indication; or
in a case that a PDCCH for scheduling downlink transmission has been received and that a corresponding scheduled MAC PDU has been successfully decoded, performing at least one of the following:
stopping the configured grant response timer and/or the configured grant timer;
disassembling and/or demultiplexing the MAC PDU; or
reporting a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) indication
(Agiwal at least [0207] discloses a timer (configured by network) for monitoring response. If the UE receives PDCCH addressed to C-RNTI and TB is successfully decoded, the timer is stopped. See also [0208] for retransmission handling).
Regarding Claim 14, Agiwal discloses the method according to claim 12 and further discloses wherein after the configured grant response timer expires, a terminal behavior comprises at least one of the following:
incrementing a second counter by 1; or
in a case that a value of the second counter is equal to a threshold of maximum number of configured grant transmission plus 1, performing at least one of the following terminal behaviors:
reporting a failure or fallback indication to a higher layer;
terminating a configuration resource–based data transmission procedure;
releasing the uplink transmission resource;
discarding the configuration information; or
clearing the uplink transmission resources and corresponding HARQ information
(Agiwal [0207, 0208, 0210] discloses a timer for monitoring response and a timer based retransmission where the UE retransmits the generated MAC PDU a configurable number of times. If the UE has transmitted the MAC PDU the configurable number of times, the SDT is considered to have failed).
Claim 15-17 is rejected under the same reasons set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 2, and 12, respectively. Claims 15-17 recite similar features as in claims 1, 2, and 12, respectively, for a method from the perspective of a network-side device.
Claim 18 is rejected under the same reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 18 recites similar features as in claim 1 from the perspective of a terminal device.
Regarding Claim 19, Agiwal discloses the method according to claim 15 and further discloses a network-side device, comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, wherein when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the data transmission method according to claim 15 are implemented (Agiwal Fig. 9, [0288]).
Regarding Claim 20, Agiwal discloses a method according to claim 1 and further discloses a non-transient readable storage medium, wherein the readable storage medium stores a program or instructions, and when the program or instructions are executed by a processor, the steps of the data transmission method according to claim 1 are implemented (Agiwal Fig. 8, [0283]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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 YEWON KIM whose telephone number is (571)272-6524. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM.
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, GARY MUI can be reached at (571)270-1420. 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.
/Y.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465