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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 8 and 11-14, 16-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Damnjanovic et al (US 2015/0271836, hereinafter Damnjanovic), in view of Voigt et al (US 2017/0019918, hereinafter Voigt) and in view of Park et al (US 2016/0037510, hereinafter Park).
Regarding claim 1, Damnjanovic discloses one or more processors of a user equipment (UE with processor, Fig. 2), the one or more processors configured to cause the UE to perform operations comprising: receiving an uplink grant from a base station (uplink resources granted from a first base station, Para [0050]); in response to the uplink grant, transmitting first data having a first priority to the base station (first data mapped to first uplink resources granted from a base station, Para [0009/83], grant of uplink resources from the BS, Para [0084], data from first bearer has higher priority than second bearer, Para [0008], transmit data mapped to UL resources, Para [0084]); wherein there is second data having a second priority, wherein the second priority is lower than the first priority (data from first bearer has higher priority than data from second bearer which is lower priority, Para [0008]); but does not explicitly disclose receiving an uplink grant associated with pre-scheduling from a base station. Voigt discloses uplink grant pre-scheduling reserves resources for the UE to transmit on, Para [0005] and network node sends pre-scheduling grant to the UE, Para [0007]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Voigt in the system of Damnjanovic in order to enable faster transmission of uplink packets without wasting too many resources; and does not explicitly disclose determining whether a size of the remaining uplink resource is greater than a data size of the second data; and in response to determining response to determining that the size of the remaining uplink resource is equal to or less than the data size of the second data, transmitting a portion of the second data to the base station, wherein a data size of the portion of the second data is equal to or less than the size of the remaining uplink resource. Damnjanovic discloses determining whether a remaining portion of uplink resources are available after mapping the first data, Para [0009], mapping second data from second bearer to UL resources based on remaining UL resources being available, Para [0009]. Park discloses UE can allocate resources in decreasing priority order, where UE allocates resources for all data that is available for transmission on the radio bearer before meeting the PBR of a lower priority bearer, if resources remain, the logical channels are served in decreasing priority order until either the data for that logical channel or the UL grant is exhausted, whichever comes first, Para [0080]. This means, first higher priority data is allocated resources first, then lower priority data is allocated the remaining resources until no remaining resource of the UL grant remain, this covers the case where the remaining UL resources is larger, second data runs out first or vice versa remaining UL resources is less, then only a portion of lower second priority data is transmitted and UL grant is exhausted first. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Park in the system of Damnjanovic in view of Voight in order efficiently utilize UL resources with prioritization of data.
Regarding claims 2, 14 and 18, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors/method/UE of claim 1/13/17, but not fully wherein the operations further comprising: in response to determining that there is no remaining uplink resource, receiving, from the base station, at least one subsequent uplink grant associated with the pre-scheduling; and in response to receiving the at least one subsequent uplink grant, transmitting the second data to the base station. Damnjanovic discloses determining if remaining portion of first uplink resources are available, if not, then transmitting the first data, Fig. 7. Voigt discloses the network node can send multiple pre-scheduling grants to the UE, providing the UE resources to transmit UL data transmission on, Para [0047], obvious to map data from second bearer to next pre-scheduled grant, if the first pre-scheduled grant for transmitting first data has no remaining resources.
Regarding claims 4, 16 and 20, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors/method/UE of claim 1/13/17, the operations further comprising: and in response to determining that the size of the remaining uplink resource is greater than the data size of the second data, transmitting the second data to the base station (remaining portion of uplink resources are still available and the second data can be mapped to for transmission, Para [0089], obvious to one of ordinary skill the size of the remaining resources have to be enough to map the second data).
Regarding claim 8, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors of claim 4, but not wherein the operations further comprising: in response to determining that the size of the remaining uplink resource is equal to or less than the data size of the second data, transmitting a scheduling request (SR) or a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the base station; in response to transmitting the SR or the BSR to the base station, receiving a second uplink grant; and in response to receiving the second uplink grant, transmitting the second data to the base station. Voigt discloses data packet arrives at the UE buffer for transmission where no pre-scheduling grant can be used (in this case size of the remaining resource is not enough), the UE can transmit a scheduling request, the network node transmits a grant and the UE transmits data, Para [0092]/Fig. 5.
Regarding claim 11, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors of claim 2, but not fully wherein the at least one subsequent uplink grant includes two or more subsequent uplink grants, transmitting the second data further comprising: splitting the second data into a plurality of portions; and transmitting each of the plurality of portions in response to a respective subsequent uplink grant. Damnjanovic discloses data can be split into portions, Para [0098], in this case the second data is split into first and second portions. Voigt discloses a sequence of pre-scheduling grant can be transmitted to the UE, so the UE can make uplink transmission, Para [0009].
Regarding claim 12, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors of claim 1, but not explicitly wherein the first data is audio data and/or video data, and the second data is background data (obvious variation to one of ordinary skill the data can be audio/video data and background data).
Regarding claim 13, Damnjanovic discloses a method, comprising: receiving an uplink grant from a base station (uplink resources granted from a first base station, Para [0050]); in response to the uplink grant, transmitting first data having a first priority to the base station (first data mapped to first uplink resources granted from a base station, Para [0009/83], grant of uplink resources from the BS, Para [0084], data from first bearer has higher priority than second bearer, Para [0008], transmit data mapped to UL resources, Para [0084]); wherein there is second data having a second priority, wherein the second priority is lower than the first priority (data from first bearer has higher priority than data from second bearer which is lower priority, Para [0008]); but does not explicitly disclose receiving an uplink grant associated with pre-scheduling from a base station. Voigt discloses uplink grant pre-scheduling reserves resources for the UE to transmit on, Para [0005] and network node sends pre-scheduling grant to the UE, Para [0007]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Voigt in the system of Damnjanovic in order to enable faster transmission of uplink packets without wasting too many resources; and does not explicitly disclose determining whether a size of the remaining uplink resource is greater than a data size of the second data; and in response to determining response to determining that the size of the remaining uplink resource is equal to or less than the data size of the second data, transmitting a portion of the second data to the base station, wherein a data size of the portion of the second data is equal to or less than the size of the remaining uplink resource. Damnjanovic discloses determining whether a remaining portion of uplink resources are available after mapping the first data, Para [0009], mapping second data from second bearer to UL resources based on remaining UL resources being available, Para [0009]. Park discloses UE can allocate resources in decreasing priority order, where UE allocates resources for all data that is available for transmission on the radio bearer before meeting the PBR of a lower priority bearer, if resources remain, the logical channels are served in decreasing priority order until either the data for that logical channel or the UL grant is exhausted, whichever comes first, Para [0080]. This means, first higher priority data is allocated resources first, then lower priority data is allocated the remaining resources until no remaining resource of the UL grant remain, this covers the case where the remaining UL resources is larger, second data runs out first or vice versa remaining UL resources is less, then only a portion of lower second priority data is transmitted and UL grant is exhausted first. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Park in the system of Damnjanovic in view of Voight in order efficiently utilize UL resources with prioritization of data.
Regarding claim 17, Damnjanovic discloses a user equipment (UE, Fig. 2), comprising baseband circuitry and one or more storage devices (circuits, Para [0103], memory, Fig. 2) on which are stored instructions that are operable, when executed by the baseband circuitry, to cause the baseband circuitry to perform operations comprising: receiving an uplink grant from a base station (uplink resources granted from a first base station, Para [0050]); in response to the uplink grant, transmitting first data having a first priority to the base station; (first data mapped to first uplink resources granted from a base station, Para [0009/83], grant of uplink resources from the BS, Para [0084], data from first bearer has higher priority than second bearer, Para [0008], transmit data mapped to UL resources, Para [0084]); wherein there is second data having a second priority, wherein the second priority is lower than the first priority (data from first bearer has higher priority than data from second bearer which is lower priority, Para [0008]); but does not explicitly disclose receiving an uplink grant associated with pre-scheduling from a base station. Voigt discloses uplink grant pre-scheduling reserves resources for the UE to transmit on, Para [0005] and network node sends pre-scheduling grant to the UE, Para [0007]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Voigt in the system of Damnjanovic in order to enable faster transmission of uplink packets without wasting too many resources; and does not explicitly disclose determining whether a size of the remaining uplink resource is greater than a data size of the second data; and in response to determining response to determining that the size of the remaining uplink resource is equal to or less than the data size of the second data, transmitting a portion of the second data to the base station, wherein a data size of the portion of the second data is equal to or less than the size of the remaining uplink resource. Damnjanovic discloses determining whether a remaining portion of uplink resources are available after mapping the first data, Para [0009], mapping second data from second bearer to UL resources based on remaining UL resources being available, Para [0009]. Park discloses UE can allocate resources in decreasing priority order, where UE allocates resources for all data that is available for transmission on the radio bearer before meeting the PBR of a lower priority bearer, if resources remain, the logical channels are served in decreasing priority order until either the data for that logical channel or the UL grant is exhausted, whichever comes first, Para [0080]. This means, first higher priority data is allocated resources first, then lower priority data is allocated the remaining resources until no remaining resource of the UL grant remain, this covers the case where the remaining UL resources is larger, second data runs out first or vice versa remaining UL resources is less, then only a portion of lower second priority data is transmitted and UL grant is exhausted first. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Park in the system of Damnjanovic in view of Voight in order efficiently utilize UL resources with prioritization of data.
Claims 3, 15 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Damnjanovic, in view of Voigt, in view of Park and in view of Liu et al (US 2018/0279359, hereinafter Liu).
Regarding claims 3, 15 and 19, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors/method/UE of claim 1/13/17, but not wherein the operations further comprising: in response to determining that there is no remaining uplink resource, transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the base station; in response to transmitting the BSR to the base station, receiving a second uplink grant; and in response to receiving the second uplink grant, transmitting the second data to the base station. Liu discloses UE determines if has UL data to transmit, transmits a BSR to the BS to obtain UL resources and receives a second grant from the BS and the UE transmits data with second grant, Para [0059]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Liu in the system of Damnjanovic in view of Voigt and Park in order to inform the BS the UE has uplink data to transmit without using unnecessary overhead for signaling.
Claims 6 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Damnjanovic, in view of Voigt, in view of Park and in view of Freda et al (US 2023/0063472, hereinafter Freda).
Regarding claims 6 and 9, Damnjanovic discloses the one or more processors of claim 5/8, transmitting the portion of the second data but not further comprising: determining remaining delay budget cycles for the second data; determining that the remaining delay budget cycles are greater than a predetermined number of Connected-Mode Discontinuous Reception (CDRX) cycles; in response to determining that the remaining delay budget cycles are greater than the predetermined number of CDRX cycles, transmitting the portion of the second data to the base station. Freda discloses determining if remaining PBD associated with a pending transmission is larger than some value, the value being a function of the DRX cycle, Para [1086], where in order to determine if remaining PBD is larger than a value, remaining PBD has to be determined, and portion of second data can be transmitted. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the techniques taught by Freda in the system of Damnjanovic in view of Voigt and Park in order to lower battery consumption of the UE when there is no uplink or downlink data to process by the UE.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 10 are 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/20/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The Applicant amends the limitations and argues the references do not disclose the amended limitations. Applicant argues first and second data are transmitted to the same base station. Applicant argues high priority data is split in Damnjanovic while second lower priority is sent completely. Applicant amends the limitations of the dependent claims and argues the references do not disclose those limitations either. In response, Damnjanovic discloses mapping second data from the second type bearer to at least a portion of the remaining portion of first uplink resources, which are resources from the MenodeB, Para [0089]. This means the second data is being transmitted to using UL grant from the first/same base station. Applicant has amended the limitations and arguments are partially moot in view of a new reference being used in the current office action. Examiner took official notice and said that the feature of using the remaining resource to transmit second portion of data is obvious to one of ordinary skill. It is a straight forward efficient utilization of leftover resources remaining from the UL grant. A new reference has been used to discloses the amended limitations, added only corresponding evidence to support prior common knowledge.
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 KEVIN CUNNINGHAM whose telephone number is (571) 272-1765. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday 7:30-18:00 (EST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Huy Vu can be reached on (571) 272-3155. The fax number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KEVIN M CUNNINGHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461