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 103 rejection have been carefully considered and they are moot because they do not apply to the new ground of rejection using the new references 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.
Claim(s) 21, 24-30, 33-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MolavianJazi (US 20220408464) in view of Kwak (US 11456782).
Regarding claim 21, MolavianJazi discloses a method of a base station, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a terminal, a higher layer message including a first field configured to a first table for combinations of co-scheduled cells ([0306][0403-05], fig. 6, UE can be provided parameters configured to a table for co-scheduled calls by a higher layer message; for a cell from the set of co-scheduled cells, a UE (such as the UE 116) can be provided a common operation level for different scheduling parameters, such as a same column index in different tables),
transmitting, to the terminal, downlink control information (DCI) including a first indicator indicating a combination of co-scheduled cells in the first table (fig. 6, [0232][0401], the UE receives a DCI format that includes a field with a value that provides an indication for a set from the number of configured sets of co-scheduled cells);
transmitting, to the terminal, data through the co-scheduled cells indicated by the first indicator (fig. 6, [0232], the UE receives the multiple PDSCHs on the indicated set of co-scheduled cells based on the received values for the scheduling parameters); and
receiving, from the terminal, a response message for the data transmitted through the co-scheduled cells based on the DCI (fig. 6, [0232], the UE transmits the multiple PUSCHs on the indicated set of co-scheduled cells based on the received values for the scheduling parameters. [0078], the UE may use a same physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource to transmit hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)—acknowledgement (ACK) feedback corresponding to the multiple PDSCHs),
wherein the higher layer message further includes a second field configured to set first information, the first information includes values of a physical resource block (PRB) bundling size to be applied to the co-scheduled cells ([0383], some resource allocation fields, such as PRB bundling, can be provided by higher layer signaling).
Even though MolavianJazi discloses the UE receives a DCI format that includes a field with a value that provides an indication for a set from the number of configured sets of co-scheduled cells, MolavianJazi does not explicitly disclose a PRB bundling size indicator included in the DCI indicates one of a value of the PRB bundling size included in the first information.
Kwak discloses a PRB bundling size indicator included in the DCI indicates one of a value of the PRB bundling size included in the first information (Kwak, claims 1, 4, receiving, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including a PRB bundling size indicator; in case that the PRB bundling size indicator indicates ‘0’, setting a PRB bundling size by using one value configured based on the received configuration information; in case that the PRB bundling size indicator indicates ‘1’: determining one of two values configured based on the received configuration information. The indicator taught by Kwak can be included in the DCI format taught by MolavianJazi),
Kwak also discloses the higher layer message further includes a second field configured to set first information, the first information includes values of a physical resource block (PRB) bundling size to be applied to the co-scheduled cells (Kwak, claim 1, transmitting, to a terminal, configuration information on dynamic precoding resource block (PRB) bundling through higher layer signaling).
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 exchanging co-scheduled cells information as given by MolavianJazi with the teachings of specifying the DCI fields given by Kwak. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method so that the service can be smoothly supported in a wireless communication system (Kwak, col. 2).
Claims 30 and 39 are rejected similarly as claim 21 noting that MolavianJazi discloses a processor ([0006-7]).
Regarding claim 24, MolavianJazi discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the higher layer message further includes at least one of a third field configured with a second table, or a fourth field configured with a third table, and wherein the second table includes entries associated with joint rate matching for cells, and the third table includes entries associated with zero power channel state information - reference signal (ZP CSI-RS) trigger ([0365][0401-404], other scheduling parameters related to resource allocation, such as, rate matching, and ZP CSI-RS trigger, can follow higher layer configuration; can be separately provided operation levels for different scheduling parameters, such as different column indexes in different tables, corresponding to different DCI fields with multi-cell mapping. Here, the parameters or entries can be arranged in a table ). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Claim 33 is rejected similarly with claims 24.
Regarding claim 25, MolavianJazi discloses the method according to claim 24, wherein the DCI further includes rate matching indicator indicating an entry in the second table (MolavianJazi, [0312]).
Claim 34 is rejected similarly with claims 25.
Regarding claim 26, MolavianJazi discloses the method according to claim 24, wherein the DCI further includes ZP CSI-RS trigger indicating an entry in the third table (MolavianJazi, [0312]).
Claim 35 is rejected similarly with claims 26.
Regarding claim 27, MolavianJazi discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the higher layer message further includes a sixth field configured with a fourth table, the fourth table including entries associated with joint time domain resource allocations (TDRA) ([0266], [0415], a gNB (such as the BS 102) can configure a mapping/table or an adjusting parameter for reinterpretation of a DCI field with multi-cell mapping for multi-cell scheduling, the gNB can configure or indicate same or similar values for various scheduling parameters such as for an FDRA, TDRA).
Claim 36 is rejected similarly with claims 27.
Regarding claim 28, MolavianJazi discloses the method according to claim 27, wherein the DCI further includes a second indicator indicating an entry in the fourth table ([0401-04], can be separately provided operation levels for different scheduling parameters, such as different column indexes in different tables, corresponding to different DCI fields with multi-cell mapping).
Claim 37 is rejected similarly with claims 28.
Regarding claim 29, MolavianJazi discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the DCI and the response message are transmitted via a reference cell among the combination of co-scheduled cells indicated by the first indicator, and wherein the response message includes codebooks consisting of HARQ information corresponding to each co-scheduled cells ([0385], the UE determines to transmit HARQ feedback information corresponding to the multiple PDSCH of the multiple co-scheduled cells in a same PUCCH resource as indicated by the common PRI, or with a same K1 timeline as indicated by the K1 parameter, as indicated in the cell-common fields of the concatenated DCI format. Here, K1 parameter is related to the reference or selected cell).
Claim 38 is rejected similarly with claims 29.
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