DETAILED ACTION
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on February 04, 2026 has been entered, wherein claim 20 is cancelled, claims 1-19, and 21 are pending and ready for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
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, 16, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cha et al. (Cha hereafter) (US 20210385039 A1) in view of Rosa et al. (Rosa hereafter) (US 20220295570 A1).
Regarding claim 1 Cha teaches, A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
one or more memories (Cha; Fig. 14 104); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories, the one or more processors (Cha; Fig. 14 102) configured to:
receive, from a network entity having a plurality of antenna panels, information identifying, for each antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels(Cha; [0365] First, the terminal receives, from a base station, control information including panel identification information related to identification of a plurality of antenna panels used for transmission of the reference signal (S1210).),
transmit a DMRS communication having one or more DMRS sequences ([0371] transmitting a plurality of reference signals, [0370]reference signal may be one of a physical uplink control channel dedicated demodulation reference signal (PUCCH DM-RS)), the one or more DMRS sequences being configured based at least in part on the quantity of DMRS sequences identified for each antenna panel of the network entity ([0371] each of the reference signal sequences may be initialized to a different initialization sequence value based on the panel identification information), wherein the one or more DMRS sequences are scrambled using a DMRS scrambling identifier (scrambling sequence identifier (ID) may be set to initialize each reference signal sequence) (Cha; [0370] Wherein, the reference signal may be one of a physical uplink control channel dedicated demodulation reference signal (PUCCH DM-RS), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) DM-RS [0371] transmitting a plurality of reference signals through the plurality of antenna panels, same scrambling sequence identifier (ID) may be set to initialize each reference signal sequence for the plurality of reference signals, and each of the reference signal sequences may be initialized to a different initialization sequence value based on the panel identification information.)
a quantity of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences (set of DMRS sequences) for a message type A (msgA) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of a two-step random access channel procedure
However, in the same field of endeavor Rosa teaches, a quantity of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences (set of DMRS sequences) for a message type A (msgA) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of a two-step random access channel procedure (Fig. 4) ([0051-0052], the at least one demodulation reference signal may be transmitted parallel in frequency, as illustrated in FIG. 9, and/or the UE may select the at least one demodulation reference signal sequence/port may be grouped by time and frequency, whereby the set of DMRS sequences and associated resources are selected by the UE. NE 620 may indicate a number of Tx beam refining configurations, N, for the transmission of the DMRS part of MsgA. [0057] the PUSCH part of MsgA may comprise at least one DMRS sequence.); and
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha to include the above recited limitations as taught by Rosa in order to assisting with channel estimation and decoding of the data part of the PUSCH transmission (Rosa; [0057]).
Regarding claim 16 Cha teaches, a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) comprising:
receiving from a network entity having a plurality of antenna panels, information identifying, for each antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels(Cha; [0365] First, the terminal receives, from a base station, control information including panel identification information related to identification of a plurality of antenna panels used for transmission of the reference signal (S1210).),
transmit a DMRS communication having one or more DMRS sequences ([0371] transmitting a plurality of reference signals, [0370]reference signal may be one of a physical uplink control channel dedicated demodulation reference signal (PUCCH DM-RS)), the one or more DMRS sequences being configured based at least in part on the quantity of DMRS sequences identified for each antenna panel of the network entity ([0371] each of the reference signal sequences may be initialized to a different initialization sequence value based on the panel identification information), wherein the one or more DMRS sequences are scrambled using a DMRS scrambling identifier (scrambling sequence identifier (ID) may be set to initialize each reference signal sequence) (Cha; [0370] Wherein, the reference signal may be one of a physical uplink control channel dedicated demodulation reference signal (PUCCH DM-RS), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) DM-RS [0371] transmitting a plurality of reference signals through the plurality of antenna panels, same scrambling sequence identifier (ID) may be set to initialize each reference signal sequence for the plurality of reference signals, and each of the reference signal sequences may be initialized to a different initialization sequence value based on the panel identification information.)
a quantity of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences (set of DMRS sequences) for a message type A (msgA) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of a two-step random access channel procedure
However, in the same field of endeavor Rosa teaches, a quantity of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences (set of DMRS sequences) for a message type A (msgA) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of a two-step random access channel procedure (Fig. 4) ([0051-0052], the at least one demodulation reference signal may be transmitted parallel in frequency, as illustrated in FIG. 9, and/or the UE may select the at least one demodulation reference signal sequence/port may be grouped by time and frequency, whereby the set of DMRS sequences and associated resources are selected by the UE. NE 620 may indicate a number of Tx beam refining configurations, N, for the transmission of the DMRS part of MsgA. [0057] the PUSCH part of MsgA may comprise at least one DMRS sequence.); and
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha to include the above recited limitations as taught by Rosa in order to assisting with channel estimation and decoding of the data part of the PUSCH transmission (Rosa; [0057]).
Regarding claim 21 Cha teaches, A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for wireless communication, the set of instructions comprising: one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE (Cha; [390] Fig. 14 information, programs, code, instructions, and/or commands. The one or more memories 104
may be configured by Read-Only Memories (ROMs), Random Access Memories (RAMs), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memories (EPROMs), flash memories, hard drives, registers, cash memories, computer-readable storage media, and/or combinations thereof) to:
receive, from a network entity having a plurality of antenna panels, information identifying, for each antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels(Cha; [0365] First, the terminal receives, from a base station, control information including panel identification information related to identification of a plurality of antenna panels used for transmission of the reference signal (S1210).),
transmit a DMRS communication having one or more DMRS sequences ([0371] transmitting a plurality of reference signals, [0370]reference signal may be one of a physical uplink control channel dedicated demodulation reference signal (PUCCH DM-RS)), the one or more DMRS sequences being configured based at least in part on the quantity of DMRS sequences identified for each antenna panel of the network entity ([0371] each of the reference signal sequences may be initialized to a different initialization sequence value based on the panel identification information), wherein the one or more DMRS sequences are scrambled using a DMRS scrambling identifier (scrambling sequence identifier (ID) may be set to initialize each reference signal sequence) (Cha; [0370] Wherein, the reference signal may be one of a physical uplink control channel dedicated demodulation reference signal (PUCCH DM-RS), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) DM-RS [0371] transmitting a plurality of reference signals through the plurality of antenna panels, same scrambling sequence identifier (ID) may be set to initialize each reference signal sequence for the plurality of reference signals, and each of the reference signal sequences may be initialized to a different initialization sequence value based on the panel identification information.)
a quantity of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences (set of DMRS sequences) for a message type A (msgA) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of a two-step random access channel procedure
However, in the same field of endeavor Rosa teaches, a quantity of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences (set of DMRS sequences) for a message type A (msgA) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission of a two-step random access channel procedure (Fig. 4) ([0051-0052], the at least one demodulation reference signal may be transmitted parallel in frequency, as illustrated in FIG. 9, and/or the UE may select the at least one demodulation reference signal sequence/port may be grouped by time and frequency, whereby the set of DMRS sequences and associated resources are selected by the UE. NE 620 may indicate a number of Tx beam refining configurations, N, for the transmission of the DMRS part of MsgA. [0057] the PUSCH part of MsgA may comprise at least one DMRS sequence.); and
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha to include the above recited limitations as taught by Rosa in order to assisting with channel estimation and decoding of the data part of the PUSCH transmission (Rosa; [0057]).
Claims 2, 4-8, 12-15, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cha-Rosa as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, and further in view of NPL-"Discussion on Channel Structure for 2-Step RACH", R1-1910198 (NPL hereafter) (IDS provided).
Regarding Claims 2 and 17, Cha-Rosa teaches. The claim 1 and 16,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is based at least in part on a physical random access channel preamble.
However, in the same field of endeavor, NPL teaches, wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is based at least in part on a physical random access channel preamble (NPL; [1. Introduction] … 2-step RACH, including mapping between PRACH and PUSCH, configuration for msgA, validation rule for msgA PUSCH, scrambling for msgA PUSCH and DMRS sequence generation for msgA PUSCH. For 2-step RACH, UE needs to obtain the following DMRS scrambling ID for PUSCH transmission of msgA).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 4, Cha-Rosa-NPL teaches... The UE of claim 2,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the DMRS communication is associated with an uplink shared channel of a physical random access channel message associated with the physical random access channel preamble
NPL further teaches, wherein the DMRS communication is associated with an uplink shared channel of a physical random access channel message associated with the physical random access channel preamble (NPL; [2.3.2, 2nd para] For 2-step RACH, DMRS is transmitted together for channel estimation for PUSCH reception of msgA...).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 5 Cha-Rosa teaches, The UE of claim 1,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is based at least in part on a PUSCH scrambling identifier.
NPL further teaches,, wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is based at least in part on a PUSCH scrambling identifier (NPL; [2.3.2. DMRS sequence generation] …For 2-step RACH, UE needs to obtain the following DMRS scrambling ID for PUSCH transmission of msgA. Given that multiple 2-step RACH UEs may share the PUSCH occasion for msgA transmission, a distinguishable DMRS scrambling ID based on a prior information is preferred, … as scrambling for PUSCH of msgA can be adopted. DMRS scrambling parameters for PUSCH of msgA is determined based on preamble index, SSB index which are associated with the PUSCH transmission of msgA, or the index of PUSCH occasion).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 6 Cha-Rosa teaches, The UE of claim 1,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is based at least in part on a radio network temporary identifier
NPL further teaches, wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is based at least in part on a radio network temporary identifier (NPL; [2.3.1] The c_init for msgA PUSCH scrambling is at least derived based on a RNTI, preamble index, and/or n_ID …The remaining issue is to decide the details of c_init and the RNTI. For 2-step RACH, UE needs to obtain the following scrambling ID for PUSCH transmission of msgA).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 7 Cha-Rosa teaches... The UE of claim 1,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the DMRS communication, are configured to: transmit the DMRS communication based at least in part on configuring the one or more DMRS sequences for the DMRS communication
NPL further teaches, transmit the DMRS communication based at least in part on configuring the one or more DMRS sequences for the DMRS communication (NPL; [2.1.1] PUSCH resource unit for 2-step RACH is defined as a PUSCH occasion and both of DMRS port and DMRS sequence used for an msgA payload transmission.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 8, Cha-Rosa -NPL teaches the claim 7,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the one or more processors, to configure the one or more DMRS sequences, are configured to: generate a waveform for the DMRS communication, wherein the waveform for the DMRS communication is a cyclic-prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform.
NPL further teaches, wherein the one or more processors, to configure the one or more DMRS sequences, are configured to: generate a waveform for the DMRS communication, wherein the waveform for the DMRS communication is a cyclic-prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform (NPL; [2.3.2 DMRS sequence generation] DMRS for CP-OFDM As agreed in RAN1 #98 meeting, multiple DMRS sequences can be configured for msgA PUSCH for CP-OFDM waveform) or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 12 Cha-Rosa teaches. The UE of claim 1,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: map a random-access channel preamble to a PUSCH resource unit including the one or more DMRS sequences in connection with a mapping ratio within a mapping period between the random-access channel preamble and the PUSCH resource unit.
NPL further teaches, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: map a random-access channel preamble to a PUSCH resource unit including the one or more DMRS sequences in connection with a mapping ratio within a mapping period between the random-access channel preamble and the PUSCH resource unit. (NPL; [2.1 Mapping between PRACH and PUSCH 2.1.1PUSCH resource unit] PUSCH resource unit for 2-step RACH is defined as a PUSCH occasion and both of DMRS port and DMRS sequence used for an msgA payload transmission).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 13, Cha-Rosa-NPL teaches. The claim 12,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, further comprising: determining the mapping ratio based at least in part on at least one of: a received radio resource control transmission from the network entity
NPL further teaches, determining the mapping ratio based at least in part on at least one of: a received radio resource control transmission from the network entity (NPL; [2.1.3 Mapping between SSB and msgA PUSCH, proposal 4] Mapping ratio between SSBs and PUSCH occasions is configured by higher layer).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 14, Cha-Rosa-NPL teaches. The UE of claim 12,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the mapping ratio is defined for a PUSCH configuration, such that each PUSCH configuration, of a plurality of PUSCH configurations, in an initial or active bandwidth part is associated with a single mapping ratio.
NPL further teaches, wherein the mapping ratio is defined for a PUSCH configuration, such that each PUSCH configuration, of a plurality of PUSCH configurations, in an initial or active bandwidth part is associated with a single mapping ratio. (NPL; [2.1.3. Mapping between SSB and msgA PUSCH] Fig 2 and Fig3 PUSCH occasions get mapped).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 15, Cha-Rosa -NPL teaches. The UE of claim 12,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the mapping period is based at least in part on a synchronization signal block to random access channel occasion association pattern period
NPL further teaches, wherein the mapping period is based at least in part on a synchronization signal block to random access channel occasion association pattern period (NPL; Figure 2: Example of mapping between SSB, RO and preambles and PUSCH resource units).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Regarding Claim 19, Cha-Rosa teaches the claim 16,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the one or more processors, to configure the one or more DMRS sequences, are configured to: generate a waveform for the DMRS communication, wherein the waveform for the DMRS communication is a cyclic-prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform.
NPL further teaches, wherein the one or more processors, to configure the one or more DMRS sequences, are configured to: generate a waveform for the DMRS communication, wherein the waveform for the DMRS communication is a cyclic-prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform (NPL; [2.3.2 DMRS sequence generation] DMRS for CP-OFDM As agreed in RAN1 #98 meeting, multiple DMRS sequences can be configured for msgA PUSCH for CP-OFDM waveform) or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by NPL in order to configured for msgA PUSCH (NPL; [2.3.2]).
Claims 3 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cha-Rosa-NPL as applied to claims 2 and 17 above, and further in view of view of Laddu et al. (Laddu hereafter) (US 20220360412 A1).
Regarding Claims 3 and 18, Cha-Rosa-NPL teaches. The claims 2 and 17,
Cha-Rosa-NPL fails to explicitly teach wherein the one or more processors are further configured to utilize a scrambling sequence based at least in part on the physical random access channel preamble to scramble bits of a payload and cyclic redundancy check
However, in the same field of endeavor Laddu teaches, utilize a scrambling sequence based at least in part on the physical random access channel preamble to scramble bits of a payload and cyclic redundancy check (Laddu; [0208-0219] This may not be a problem as the terminal may keep track of previous scrambling sequences and may check these previous scrambling sequences without going through a separate decoding process. In other words, CRC check with previous
scrambling sequences may be possible).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa-NPL to include the above recited limitations as taught by Laddu in order to provide CRC check using scrambling sequence (Laddu; [0219]).
Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cha-Rosa as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, and further in view of Gao et al. (Gao hereafter) (US 20240259078 A1).
Regarding Claim 9 Cha-Rosa teaches, the UE of claim 1,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the quantity of DMRS sequences supported per antenna panel is 4 or 8
However, in the same field of endeavor Gao teaches, wherein the quantity of DMRS sequences supported per antenna panel is 4 or 8 (Gao; [0040] … DMRS type 1 can include up to 8 DMRS ports)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by Gao in order to avoid any overhead for additional indication (Gao; [0058]).
Regarding Claim 10, Cha-Rosa teaches the claims 1 and 16,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein a DMRS pattern of the one or more DMRS sequences is a Type-I DMRS pattern or a Type-II DMRS pattern.
Gao further teaches, wherein a DMRS pattern of the one or more DMRS sequences is a Type-I DMRS pattern or a Type-II DMRS pattern. (Gao; [0034] …for the transmission and/or specify which DMRS sequence is to be transmitted. A set of DMRS resources associated with a number of DMRS ports may also be specified. A DMRS port may be referred to as a specific mapping of part or all of a DMRS sequence to one or more resource elements (REs) of a resource region allocated for RS transmission in time, frequency, and/or code domains [0040] the type of DMRS may be the DMRS configuration pattern in time and/or frequency domain. There are up to two types of DMRS that can be configured to the terminal device 120 (for example, DMRS type 1 and/or DMRS type 2)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by Gao in order to avoid any overhead for additional indication (Gao; [0058]).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cha-Rosa as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Seo et al. (Seo hereafter) (US 20130242853 A1).
Regarding claim 11 Cha-Rosa teaches, The UE of claim 1,
Cha-Rosa fails to explicitly teach, wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is configured on a per antenna port basis via a system information or radio resource control transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor Seo teaches,wherein the DMRS scrambling identifier is configured on a per antenna port basis via a system information or radio resource control transmission (Seo; [0184] FIG. 14 is a flowchart indicating a method for a base station to configure a scramble ID and/or an antenna port to a user equipment according to one embodiment of the present invention.[0185] Referring to FIG. 14, the base station transmits the antenna port information and the scramble ID to a user equipment).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Cha-Rosa to include the above recited limitations as taught by Seo in order to configure a scramble ID and an antenna port to transmit the PDSCH (Seo; [0188]).
Conclusion
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/W. T/Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416