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 § 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by He et al (2023/0361938).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, He discloses a terminal and a method for transmitting uplink feedback information, comprising: determining, by a terminal (see UE in figure 1), a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource in a first time-domain unit (slot) (see an PUCCH transmission slot associated with the HARQ-ACK window in paragraph 0028), the first PUCCH resource being configured for carrying multiple semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) hybrid automatic repeat reQuest acknowledgments (HARQ-ACKs), the multiple SPS HARQ-ACKs comprising at least one SPS HARQ-ACK in a first SPS HARQ-ACK set and at least one SPS HARQ-ACK in a second SPS HARQ-ACK set (see figure 3A; Example 300 includes DL transmission slots 310, 315, 320, and UL transmission slot 325. The offset value 350 is k=3 slots and the HARQ-ACK window 345 has a length l=2 slots. UL transmission slot n, 325 includes PUCCH transmission 340. UE 110 can determine start slot 305 of HARQ-ACK window 345 by determining n−k. Based on the HARQ-ACK window length, l, and offset value 350, UE 110 can determine that SPS PDSCH transmission 330a in DL transmission slot 310 and SPS PDSCH transmission 330b in DL transmission slot 315 are within the HARQ-ACK window 345 and are associated with PUCCH transmission 340 of UL transmission slot n, 325. UE 110 can generate a first HARQ-ACK information bit corresponding to SPS PDSCH transmission 330a and a second HARQ-ACK information bit corresponding to SPS PDSCH transmission 330b in paragraph 0030); and determining, by the terminal in response to the first PUCCH resource being unavailable, whether the first time-domain unit is a time-domain unit for transmitting the first SPS HARQ-ACK set (see A corresponding valid Uplink (UL) transmission slot may not be available for all HARQ-ACK feedback corresponding to DL SPS signals as well as SPS release signals in paragraph 0004; a DCI format may provide a request for a Type-4 HARQ-ACK information for a dropped HARQ-ACK information bit due to unavailable UL resources for PUCCH transmission in paragraphs 0043-0044).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, He discloses dropping, by the terminal in response to the first time-domain unit being not the time-domain unit for transmitting the first SPS HARQ-ACK set, the first SPS HARQ-ACK set (see the original HARQ-ACK information bits were dropped (e.g., due to unavailable UL resources based on the TDD UL/DL configuration.) in paragraph 0044).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, He discloses deferring, by the terminal, transmission of the second SPS HARQ-ACK set (see the Total DAI field can indicate a number of deferred HARQ-ACK information bits (e.g., retransmitted HARQ-ACK information bits) for SPS PDSCH transmissions or PDCCH transmissions for SPS PDSCH release. UE 110 can use the PUCCH transmission occasion to carry based on the PDSCH processing timeline in paragraph 0057 and figure 10).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, He discloses wherein determining, by the terminal, the first PUCCH resource in the first time-domain unit comprises: determining, by the terminal, the first PUCCH resource based on the multiple SPS HARQ-ACKs (see UE 110 can transmit the first and second HARQ-ACK information bits illustrated by 335a and 335b in PUCCH transmission 340 of UL transmission slot, n, 325 in paragraphs 0030 and figure 3A).
Regarding claims 5 and 13, He discloses determining, by the terminal in response to the first PUCCH resource being available, that the first time-domain unit is a time-domain unit for transmitting the multiple SPS HARQ-ACKs (see the first available UL slot with a valid PUCCH resource after a SPS PDSCH(s) transmission can be used for HARQ-ACK feedback of the SPS PDSCH(s) transmission in paragraph 0035).
Regarding claim 6, He discloses wherein an SPS HARQ-ACK of the at least one SPS HARQ-ACK in the first SPS HARQ-ACK set and in the second SPS HARQ-ACK set is determined according to at least one of: whether SPS HARQ-ACK deferral is configured for the SPS HARQ-ACK; whether the terminal supports the SPS HARQ-ACK deferral; or whether a deferral duration of the SPS HARQ-ACK reaches an upper limit (see the Total DAI field can indicate a number of deferred HARQ-ACK codebooks (e.g., retransmitted HARQ-ACK codebooks) for SPS PDSCH transmissions in paragraph 0057; Example 1000 illustrates an accumulative HARQ-ACK codebook construction to accommodate two deferred HARQ-ACK information bits 1025 and 1055 (e.g., retransmitted HARQ-ACK information bits) for SPS PDSCH transmissions 1010, 1020, and 1030 in paragraph 0058).
Regarding claim 7, He discloses wherein the at least one SPS HARQ-ACK in the first SPS HARQ-ACK set comprises at least one of an SPS HARQ-ACK without SPS HARQ-ACK deferral, or an SPS HARQ-ACK with a deferral duration reaching an upper limit (see Example 1000 illustrates an accumulative HARQ-ACK codebook construction to accommodate two deferred HARQ-ACK information bits 1025 and 1055 (e.g., retransmitted HARQ-ACK information bits) for SPS PDSCH transmissions 1010, 1020, and 1030 in paragraph 0058); and the at least one SPS HARQ-ACK in the second SPS HARQ-ACK set comprises an SPS HARQ-ACK configured with SPS HARQ-ACK deferral and having a deferral duration not reaching the upper limit (see a Total DAI field can denote the accumulated number of HARQ-ACK codebooks to be retransmitted. For example, the Total DAI field can indicate a number of deferred HARQ-ACK codebooks (e.g., retransmitted HARQ-ACK codebooks) for SPS PDSCH transmissions in paragraph 0057; a Total DAI field (e.g., Total DAI field 920, Total DAI #2 field 960, and/or Total DAI #1 field 965) may be set to a value of ‘3’ representing three HARQ-ACK bits for SPS PDSCH transmissions 1010, 1020, and 1030. When option 2 is selected, gNB 120 transmits example 900 or 950 to UE 110 where a Total DAI field (e.g., Total DAI field 920, Total DAI #2 field 960, and/or Total DAI #1 field 965) may be set to a value of ‘2’ representing two cancelled PUCCH occasions 1040 and 1050 or 2 SPS HARQ-ACK codebooks in paragraph 0060).
Regarding claims 8 and 14, He discloses wherein a PUCCH resource is determined to be unavailable in response to at least one of: at least one symbol corresponding to the PUCCH resource comprising a semi-static downlink symbol; the at least one symbol corresponding to the PUCCH resource comprising a symbol carrying a synchronization signal block (SSB); or the at least one symbol corresponding to the PUCCH resource comprising a symbol carrying control resource set (CORESET) 0, wherein the PUCCH resource comprises at least one of the first PUCCH resource, a second PUCCH resource, or a third PUCCH resource (see a dropped HARQ-ACK information bit(s) due to unavailable UL resources for PUCCH transmission in paragraph 0005; a corresponding valid UL transmission slot may not be available for all HARQ-ACK feedback corresponding to DL SPS signals as well as SPS release signals, (e.g., UL resource for PUCCH transmission) and consequently, one or more HARQ-ACK information bits may be dropped in paragraph 0048).
Regarding claims 15-20, claims 15-20 claimed a network device (see gNB in figure 1) that is in communication with the terminal device (see UE in figure 1) described in claims 1-3 and 5-7 for exchanging the uplink feedback information. Claims 15-20 are, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN D NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3084. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 - 4:30.
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/BRIAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475