DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to the application 18/406,801 filed on January 8, 2024.
Claims 1-30 are pending.
Claims 1-6, 10, 15, 16, 22-25 and 28-30 are rejected.
Claims 7-9, 11-14, 17-21, 26 and 27 are 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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 22, 29 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2025/0184975, hereinafter Lu, in view of Rudolf et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2023/0328656, hereinafter Rudolf.
Regarding Claim 1, Lu discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories (Abstract; Figure 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8), configured to:
transmit an indication of a UE capability for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) channel estimation for a subband full duplex (SBFD) operation (Paragraph [0004] SBFD slot configuration method, a network device supporting SBFD broadcasts cell-level uplink-downlink slot configuration signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon) in a system information block 1 (system information block 1, SIB1), to indicate a terminal device to configure all symbols in a slot configuration periodicity as flexible symbols; Paragraph [0115-0118 and 0153] The terminal device sends second signaling to the network device, where the second signaling indicates that the terminal device supports the SBFD function. Correspondingly, the network device receives the second signaling from the terminal device).
and demodulate a PDSCH scheduled based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0097 and 0138-0140] the fifth signaling is downlink DCI, and the first uplink signal is a PDSCH or a CSI-RS; network device sends sixth signaling to the terminal device, where the sixth signaling indicates the terminal device to receive a first downlink signal. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the sixth signaling from the network device. The network device sends the first downlink signal to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first downlink signal from the network device based on the sixth signaling; Paragraph [0155] The network device sends third signaling to the terminal device, where the third signaling includes first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information, and the first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information is UE-level configuration information dedicated to a terminal device supporting the SBFD function).
Lu discloses transmitting an indication of a UE capability for subband full duplex operation but may not explicitly disclose demodulating a PDSCH scheduled at least in part of the UE capability.
However, Rudolf teaches demodulating a PDSCH scheduled at least in part of the UE capability (Paragraph [0088, 0122 and 0131-0133] Full-duplex communication is supported by the gNB and enabled in the 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd slot. In this example, full-duplex communication in the TDD cell uses frequency-orthogonal subbands, e.g., DL transmission from the gNB to a UE in an SBFD DL subband and UL reception from a UE by the gNB in an SBFD UL subband do not overlap in frequency domain; Paragraph [0173-0207] The UE then applies the determined DL power adjustment to its receiver, e.g., AGC and demodulates and decodes the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources in the slot i. A later PDSCH transmission to the UE in slot 2 may use a different DL power adjustment value PA.sub.2 is provided as PDSCH EPRE offset.sub.2. Accordingly, the UE adjusts the assumed DL power adjustment for PDSCH in slot 2. The UE uses the DL power adjustment in slot 2 to determine its receiver processing settings, e.g., AGC, including the OFDM symbols scheduled for the PDSCH reception in that slot for purpose of demodulation and decoding the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources; That is the UE indicates its capability for channel estimation of a SBFD operation and demodulates a PDSCH scheduled based on the indicated capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu with the teachings of Rudolf. The method enables providing beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveform to flexibly accommodate different services/applications with different requirements and new multiple access schemes to support massive connections, increasing spectral efficiency, improving capacity, and reducing latency in wireless networks (Rudolf Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008 and 0116-0126]).
Regarding Claim 22, Lu discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a network node, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories (Abstract; Figure 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8), configured to:
receive an indication of a user equipment (UE) capability for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) channel estimation for a subband full duplex (SBFD) operation (Paragraph [0004] SBFD slot configuration method, a network device supporting SBFD broadcasts cell-level uplink-downlink slot configuration signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon) in a system information block 1 (system information block 1, SIB1), to indicate a terminal device to configure all symbols in a slot configuration periodicity as flexible symbols; Paragraph [0115-0118 and 0153] The terminal device sends second signaling to the network device, where the second signaling indicates that the terminal device supports the SBFD function. Correspondingly, the network device receives the second signaling from the terminal device);
and schedule a PDSCH based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0097 and 0138-0140] the fifth signaling is downlink DCI, and the first uplink signal is a PDSCH or a CSI-RS; network device sends sixth signaling to the terminal device, where the sixth signaling indicates the terminal device to receive a first downlink signal. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the sixth signaling from the network device. The network device sends the first downlink signal to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first downlink signal from the network device based on the sixth signaling; Paragraph [0155] The network device sends third signaling to the terminal device, where the third signaling includes first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information, and the first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information is UE-level configuration information dedicated to a terminal device supporting the SBFD function).
Lu discloses transmitting an indication of a UE capability for subband full duplex operation but may not explicitly disclose estimation and scheduling a PDSCH based at least in part on the UE capability.
However, Rudolf more specifically teaches estimation and scheduling a PDSCH based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0088, 0122 and 0131-0133] Full-duplex communication is supported by the gNB and enabled in the 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd slot. In this example, full-duplex communication in the TDD cell uses frequency-orthogonal subbands, e.g., DL transmission from the gNB to a UE in an SBFD DL subband and UL reception from a UE by the gNB in an SBFD UL subband do not overlap in frequency domain; Paragraph [0173-0207] The UE then applies the determined DL power adjustment to its receiver, e.g., AGC and demodulates and decodes the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources in the slot i. A later PDSCH transmission to the UE in slot 2 may use a different DL power adjustment value PA.sub.2 is provided as PDSCH EPRE offset.sub.2. Accordingly, the UE adjusts the assumed DL power adjustment for PDSCH in slot 2. The UE uses the DL power adjustment in slot 2 to determine its receiver processing settings, e.g., AGC, including the OFDM symbols scheduled for the PDSCH reception in that slot for purpose of demodulation and decoding the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources; That is the UE indicates its capability for channel estimation of a SBFD operation and demodulates a PDSCH scheduled based on the indicated capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu with the teachings of Rudolf. The method enables providing beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveform to flexibly accommodate different services/applications with different requirements and new multiple access schemes to support massive connections, increasing spectral efficiency, improving capacity, and reducing latency in wireless networks (Rudolf Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008 and 0116-0126]).
Regarding Claim 29, Lu discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (Abstract; Figure 1, 5, 7 and 8), comprising:
transmitting an indication of a UE capability for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) channel estimation for a subband full duplex (SBFD) operation (Paragraph [0004] SBFD slot configuration method, a network device supporting SBFD broadcasts cell-level uplink-downlink slot configuration signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon) in a system information block 1 (system information block 1, SIB1), to indicate a terminal device to configure all symbols in a slot configuration periodicity as flexible symbols; Paragraph [0115-0118 and 0153] The terminal device sends second signaling to the network device, where the second signaling indicates that the terminal device supports the SBFD function. Correspondingly, the network device receives the second signaling from the terminal device);
and demodulating a PDSCH scheduled based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0097 and 0138-0140] the fifth signaling is downlink DCI, and the first uplink signal is a PDSCH or a CSI-RS; network device sends sixth signaling to the terminal device, where the sixth signaling indicates the terminal device to receive a first downlink signal. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the sixth signaling from the network device. The network device sends the first downlink signal to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first downlink signal from the network device based on the sixth signaling; Paragraph [0155] The network device sends third signaling to the terminal device, where the third signaling includes first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information, and the first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information is UE-level configuration information dedicated to a terminal device supporting the SBFD function).
Lu discloses transmitting an indication of a UE capability for subband full duplex operation but may not explicitly disclose demodulating a PDSCH scheduled at least in part of the UE capability.
However, Rudolf more specifically teaches demodulating a PDSCH scheduled at least in part of the UE capability (Paragraph [0088, 0122 and 0131-0133] Full-duplex communication is supported by the gNB and enabled in the 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd slot. In this example, full-duplex communication in the TDD cell uses frequency-orthogonal subbands, e.g., DL transmission from the gNB to a UE in an SBFD DL subband and UL reception from a UE by the gNB in an SBFD UL subband do not overlap in frequency domain; Paragraph [0173-0207] The UE then applies the determined DL power adjustment to its receiver, e.g., AGC and demodulates and decodes the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources in the slot i. A later PDSCH transmission to the UE in slot 2 may use a different DL power adjustment value PA.sub.2 is provided as PDSCH EPRE offset.sub.2. Accordingly, the UE adjusts the assumed DL power adjustment for PDSCH in slot 2. The UE uses the DL power adjustment in slot 2 to determine its receiver processing settings, e.g., AGC, including the OFDM symbols scheduled for the PDSCH reception in that slot for purpose of demodulation and decoding the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources; That is the UE indicates its capability for channel estimation of a SBFD operation and demodulates a PDSCH scheduled based on the indicated capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu with the teachings of Rudolf. The method enables providing beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveform to flexibly accommodate different services/applications with different requirements and new multiple access schemes to support massive connections, increasing spectral efficiency, improving capacity, and reducing latency in wireless networks (Rudolf Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008 and 0116-0126]).
Regarding Claim 30, Lu discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a network node (Abstract; Figure 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8), comprising:
receiving an indication of a user equipment (UE) capability for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) channel estimation for a subband full duplex (SBFD) operation (Figure 4 and 5; Paragraph [0004] SBFD slot configuration method, a network device supporting SBFD broadcasts cell-level uplink-downlink slot configuration signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon) in a system information block 1 (system information block 1, SIB1), to indicate a terminal device to configure all symbols in a slot configuration periodicity as flexible symbols; Paragraph [0115-0118 and 0153] The terminal device sends second signaling to the network device, where the second signaling indicates that the terminal device supports the SBFD function. Correspondingly, the network device receives the second signaling from the terminal device);
and scheduling a PDSCH based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0097 and 0138-0140] the fifth signaling is downlink DCI, and the first uplink signal is a PDSCH or a CSI-RS; network device sends sixth signaling to the terminal device, where the sixth signaling indicates the terminal device to receive a first downlink signal. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the sixth signaling from the network device. The network device sends the first downlink signal to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first downlink signal from the network device based on the sixth signaling; Paragraph [0155] The network device sends third signaling to the terminal device, where the third signaling includes first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information, and the first terminal device-level uplink-downlink slot configuration information is UE-level configuration information dedicated to a terminal device supporting the SBFD function).
Lu discloses transmitting an indication of a UE capability for subband full duplex operation but may not explicitly disclose estimation and scheduling a PDSCH based at least in part on the UE capability.
However, Rudolf more specifically teaches estimation and scheduling a PDSCH based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0088, 0122 and 0131-0133] Full-duplex communication is supported by the gNB and enabled in the 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd slot. In this example, full-duplex communication in the TDD cell uses frequency-orthogonal subbands, e.g., DL transmission from the gNB to a UE in an SBFD DL subband and UL reception from a UE by the gNB in an SBFD UL subband do not overlap in frequency domain; Paragraph [0173-0207] The UE then applies the determined DL power adjustment to its receiver, e.g., AGC and demodulates and decodes the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources in the slot i. A later PDSCH transmission to the UE in slot 2 may use a different DL power adjustment value PA.sub.2 is provided as PDSCH EPRE offset.sub.2. Accordingly, the UE adjusts the assumed DL power adjustment for PDSCH in slot 2. The UE uses the DL power adjustment in slot 2 to determine its receiver processing settings, e.g., AGC, including the OFDM symbols scheduled for the PDSCH reception in that slot for purpose of demodulation and decoding the PDSCH on the scheduled transmission resources; That is the UE indicates its capability for channel estimation of a SBFD operation and demodulates a PDSCH scheduled based on the indicated capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu with the teachings of Rudolf. The method enables providing beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveform to flexibly accommodate different services/applications with different requirements and new multiple access schemes to support massive connections, increasing spectral efficiency, improving capacity, and reducing latency in wireless networks (Rudolf Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008 and 0116-0126]).
Claim 2, 10, 23 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Rudolf as applied to claim 1 and 22 above, and further in view of Nemeth et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2025/0203583, hereinafter Nemeth.
Regarding Claim 2, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 1. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the UE capability supports two spans of contiguous PDSCH physical resource blocks (PRBs) with a wideband precoding.
However, Nemeth more specifically teaches wherein the UE capability supports two spans of contiguous PDSCH physical resource blocks (PRBs) with a wideband precoding (Paragraph [0047-0049 and 0070-0086] the Precoder RB Group (PRG) size may be in the range of {2 PRBs, 4 PRBs, ‘wideband’}, in which ‘wideband” is used for only certain situations, such as when a base station (BS) optimize the precoder using on reciprocity-based channel estimation. Further, ‘wideband” PRG can only be selected with contiguous FDRA. The first technique is that a ‘wideband’ PRG may be configured semi-statically when the allocation of the PRG is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs. However, a UE may only interpolate within the DL-subband in such a case. A second technique is that conditional PRG sizes such as ‘n2-wideband’ may be resolved such that ‘wideband’ is selected when (1) the allocation is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs; or (2) the size of the allocation achieves or exceeds a predetermined threshold. For example, the predetermined threshold may be half the BWP BW, a sum of all RBs in the DL BWP, half of DL-subband bandwidth (assuming that the allocation is confined within a single subband), or bandwidth of a full DL-subband (not precluding that the transmission stretches over multiple subbands)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Nemeth. The method enables providing information on the particular RBG that partially overlaps with the UL-subband or the GB to a UE to direct the UE to use a non-overlapping fraction of the particular PRB that does not overlap with the BWP bandwidth for PDSCH FDRA Type-0 transmission of data (Nemeth Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0010]).
Regarding Claim 10, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 1. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the PDSCH is scheduled in one downlink subband of two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, and the PDSCH is scheduled along with a wideband precoding, based at least in part on the UE capability.
However, Nemeth more specifically teaches wherein the PDSCH is scheduled in one downlink subband of two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, and the PDSCH is scheduled along with a wideband precoding, based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0047-0049 and 0070-0086] the Precoder RB Group (PRG) size may be in the range of {2 PRBs, 4 PRBs, ‘wideband’}, in which ‘wideband” is used for only certain situations, such as when a base station (BS) optimize the precoder using on reciprocity-based channel estimation. Further, ‘wideband” PRG can only be selected with contiguous FDRA. The first technique is that a ‘wideband’ PRG may be configured semi-statically when the allocation of the PRG is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs. However, a UE may only interpolate within the DL-subband in such a case. A second technique is that conditional PRG sizes such as ‘n2-wideband’ may be resolved such that ‘wideband’ is selected when (1) the allocation is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs; or (2) the size of the allocation achieves or exceeds a predetermined threshold. For example, the predetermined threshold may be half the BWP BW, a sum of all RBs in the DL BWP, half of DL-subband bandwidth (assuming that the allocation is confined within a single subband), or bandwidth of a full DL-subband (not precluding that the transmission stretches over multiple subbands)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Nemeth. The method enables providing information on the particular RBG that partially overlaps with the UL-subband or the GB to a UE to direct the UE to use a non-overlapping fraction of the particular PRB that does not overlap with the BWP bandwidth for PDSCH FDRA Type-0 transmission of data (Nemeth Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0010]).
Regarding Claim 23, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 22. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the UE capability supports two spans of contiguous PDSCH physical resource blocks (PRBs) with a wideband precoding.
However, Nemeth more specifically teaches wherein the UE capability supports two spans of contiguous PDSCH physical resource blocks (PRBs) with a wideband precoding (Paragraph [0047-0049 and 0070-0086] the Precoder RB Group (PRG) size may be in the range of {2 PRBs, 4 PRBs, ‘wideband’}, in which ‘wideband” is used for only certain situations, such as when a base station (BS) optimize the precoder using on reciprocity-based channel estimation. Further, ‘wideband” PRG can only be selected with contiguous FDRA. The first technique is that a ‘wideband’ PRG may be configured semi-statically when the allocation of the PRG is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs. However, a UE may only interpolate within the DL-subband in such a case. A second technique is that conditional PRG sizes such as ‘n2-wideband’ may be resolved such that ‘wideband’ is selected when (1) the allocation is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs; or (2) the size of the allocation achieves or exceeds a predetermined threshold. For example, the predetermined threshold may be half the BWP BW, a sum of all RBs in the DL BWP, half of DL-subband bandwidth (assuming that the allocation is confined within a single subband), or bandwidth of a full DL-subband (not precluding that the transmission stretches over multiple subbands)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Nemeth. The method enables providing information on the particular RBG that partially overlaps with the UL-subband or the GB to a UE to direct the UE to use a non-overlapping fraction of the particular PRB that does not overlap with the BWP bandwidth for PDSCH FDRA Type-0 transmission of data (Nemeth Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0010]).
Regarding Claim 25, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 22. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the PDSCH is scheduled in one downlink subband of two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, and the PDSCH is scheduled along with a wideband precoding, based at least in part on the UE capability.
However, Nemeth more specifically teaches wherein the PDSCH is scheduled in one downlink subband of two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, and the PDSCH is scheduled along with a wideband precoding, based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0047-0049 and 0070-0086] the Precoder RB Group (PRG) size may be in the range of {2 PRBs, 4 PRBs, ‘wideband’}, in which ‘wideband” is used for only certain situations, such as when a base station (BS) optimize the precoder using on reciprocity-based channel estimation. Further, ‘wideband” PRG can only be selected with contiguous FDRA. The first technique is that a ‘wideband’ PRG may be configured semi-statically when the allocation of the PRG is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs. However, a UE may only interpolate within the DL-subband in such a case. A second technique is that conditional PRG sizes such as ‘n2-wideband’ may be resolved such that ‘wideband’ is selected when (1) the allocation is contiguous over the concatenated sequence of DL-subband RBs; or (2) the size of the allocation achieves or exceeds a predetermined threshold. For example, the predetermined threshold may be half the BWP BW, a sum of all RBs in the DL BWP, half of DL-subband bandwidth (assuming that the allocation is confined within a single subband), or bandwidth of a full DL-subband (not precluding that the transmission stretches over multiple subbands)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Nemeth. The method enables providing information on the particular RBG that partially overlaps with the UL-subband or the GB to a UE to direct the UE to use a non-overlapping fraction of the particular PRB that does not overlap with the BWP bandwidth for PDSCH FDRA Type-0 transmission of data (Nemeth Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0010]).
Claims 3 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Rudolf as applied to claim 1 and 22 above, and further in view of Rudolf et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2024/0039655, hereinafter Rudolf’655.
Regarding Claim 3, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 1. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the PDSCH is scheduled to span two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, based at least in part on the UE capability.
However, Rudolf’655 more specifically teaches wherein the PDSCH is scheduled to span two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0005-0007 and 0109-0116] At least one of the first frequency-domain subband and the second frequency-domain subband is one of a first SBFD DL subband, a second SBFD DL subband, an SBFD flexible subband, or an SBFD UL subband; When a UE receives signals/channels from a gNB in a full-duplex slot, the receptions may be scheduled in a DL subband of the full-duplex slot. When full-duplex operation at the gNB uses DL slots for scheduling transmissions from the UE using full-duplex transmission and reception at the gNB, there may be one or multiple, such as two, DL subbands in the full-duplex slot).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Rudolf’655. The method enables facilitating downlink and uplink transmissions in the full-duplex systems in an efficient manner (Rudolf’655 Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008 and 0097-0106]).
Regarding Claim 24, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 22. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the PDSCH is scheduled to span two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, based at least in part on the UE capability.
However, Rudolf’655 more specifically teaches wherein the PDSCH is scheduled to span two downlink subbands associated with the SBFD operation, based at least in part on the UE capability (Paragraph [0005-0007 and 0109-0116] At least one of the first frequency-domain subband and the second frequency-domain subband is one of a first SBFD DL subband, a second SBFD DL subband, an SBFD flexible subband, or an SBFD UL subband; When a UE receives signals/channels from a gNB in a full-duplex slot, the receptions may be scheduled in a DL subband of the full-duplex slot. When full-duplex operation at the gNB uses DL slots for scheduling transmissions from the UE using full-duplex transmission and reception at the gNB, there may be one or multiple, such as two, DL subbands in the full-duplex slot).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Rudolf’655. The method enables facilitating downlink and uplink transmissions in the full-duplex systems in an efficient manner (Rudolf’655 Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0008 and 0097-0106]).
Claims 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Na et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2019/0132100, hereinafter Na.
Regarding Claim 4, Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 disclose the apparatus of Claim 3. Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 fail to explicitly disclose wherein a demodulation reference signal is contiguous across the two downlink subbands.
However, Na more specifically teaches wherein a demodulation reference signal is contiguous across the two downlink subbands (Figure 3; Paragraph [0071, 0119 and 0140] the first reference signal transmitter 110 intermittently allocates two consecutive frequency blocks in the frequency domain of symbol 2, and transmits a DM-RS in the allocated frequency blocks. , the first reference signal transmitter 110 is configured to intermittently allocate two consecutive frequency blocks in a frequency domain of symbols (i.e., symbol 2+symbol 1 or 3) including a first symbol (symbol 2) of a data channel, and a previous symbol 1 adjacent to symbol 2 or a following symbol 3 adjacent thereto, and transmits a DM-RS in the allocated frequency blocks; That is the demodulation reference signal is transmitted across two downlink contiguous subbands).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 with the teachings of Na. The device ensures current reference signal transmission mode suitable for a mobile radio communication network environment for supporting communication with high speed low-delay, thus supporting high speed low-delay performance in the mobile radio communication network environment (Na Abstract; Paragraph [0012-0030]).
Regarding Claim 5, Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 disclose the apparatus of Claim 3. Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 fail to explicitly disclose wherein a demodulation reference signal is scheduled to span the two downlink subbands.
However, Na more specifically teaches wherein a demodulation reference signal is scheduled to span the two downlink subbands (Figure 3; Paragraph [0071, 0119 and 0140] the first reference signal transmitter 110 intermittently allocates two consecutive frequency blocks in the frequency domain of symbol 2, and transmits a DM-RS in the allocated frequency blocks. , the first reference signal transmitter 110 is configured to intermittently allocate two consecutive frequency blocks in a frequency domain of symbols (i.e., symbol 2+symbol 1 or 3) including a first symbol (symbol 2) of a data channel, and a previous symbol 1 adjacent to symbol 2 or a following symbol 3 adjacent thereto, and transmits a DM-RS in the allocated frequency blocks; That is the demodulation reference signal is transmitted across two downlink contiguous subbands).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 with the teachings of Na. The device ensures current reference signal transmission mode suitable for a mobile radio communication network environment for supporting communication with high speed low-delay, thus supporting high speed low-delay performance in the mobile radio communication network environment (Na Abstract; Paragraph [0012-0030]).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Lei U.S. Patent Application Publication 2025/0097918, hereinafter Lei.
Regarding Claim 6, Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 disclose the apparatus of Claim 3. Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 fail to explicitly disclose wherein a resource block group (RBG) bitmap indicates a frequency domain resource allocation for RBGs in the two downlink subbands, based at least in part on a first type of resource allocation.
However, Lei more specifically teaches wherein a resource block group (RBG) bitmap indicates a frequency domain resource allocation for RBGs in the two downlink subbands, based at least in part on a first type of resource allocation (Paragraph [0026-0039 and 0069] Sub-band full-duplex divides an entire BWP into three sub-bands. An uplink sub-band (shown as an oblique shaded part in FIG. 2) is in the middle of the BWP, and two downlink sub-bands (shown as a vertical shaded part in FIG. 2) are at both ends of the entire BWP, and boundaries of the uplink and downlink sub-bands are not aligned with an RBG. If a network device wants to allocate two frequency domain resource blocks for downlink transmission to a same terminal device, the network device can only use the type0 frequency domain resource allocation manner to set the 9-bit bitmap to 111000111 in the DCI to allocate RBG0-RBG2 and RBG6-RBG8 to the terminal device. When the frequency domain resources are allocated in the type manner, the first configuration information of the 9-bit bitmap is set to 111101111 in DCI1_1. That is, when an RBG includes both downlink available resources and unavailable resources, a corresponding bit of the RBG in the bitmap is 1, that is, the RBG is also indicated to the terminal device through DCI; Exemplarily, ‘resourceAllocation’ in ‘PDSCH-Config’ in RRC signaling is configured as resourceAllocationType0, i.e., type0 frequency domain resource allocation. Through a 9-bit bitmap “000111000” in a Frequency domain resource assignment field in DCI0_1, it is determined that the candidate frequency domain resources allocated to the terminal device are RBG3 to RBG5. As the uplink frequency domain resources are allocated in DCI0_1, the allocated resources are effective merely in the uplink sub-bands).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf and Rudolf’655 with the teachings of Lei. The method enables accurately determining the resource for data transmission so as to avoid resource waste in an efficient manner. The method allows a sub-band full duplex to ensure the uplink and downlink transmission at the same time, thus reducing the interference by using the frequency division, reducing the complexity of the base station and realizing an easier to realize (Lei Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0009]).
Claims 15 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Rudolf as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Bae et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0111845, hereinafter Bae.
Regarding Claim 15, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 1. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly discloses wherein the UE capability specifies a quantity of time domain demodulation reference signal (DMRS) patterns for a reception of the PDSCH.
However, Bae more specifically teaches wherein the UE capability specifies a quantity of time domain demodulation reference signal (DMRS) patterns for a reception of the PDSCH (Paragraph [0042] A total number of rate matching patterns that can incur partial DMRS transmission is limited, and such special rate matching patterns may be indicated by a network to a UE. Further, applicability of rate matching patterns, which can incur partial DMRS transmission, depends on certain conditions such as a type of a rate matching pattern, an RRC state of a UE, or a characteristic of a PDSCH such as the type, processing time, DMRS mapping type, etc. Additionally, support of an RM pattern incurring partial DMRS transmission is explicitly indicated by a UE as a capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Bae. The UE operation is simplified before or without a RRC connection. The granularity is pre-encrypted, that is, certain numbers of successive resource blocks (RBs) use the same pre-encryption for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, which improves the channel estimation (CE) quality of a UE (Bae Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0014 and 0041-0042]).
Regarding Claim 28, Lu in view of Rudolf disclose the apparatus of Claim 22. Lu in view of Rudolf fail to explicitly disclose wherein the UE capability specifies a quantity of time domain demodulation reference signal (DMRS) patterns for a reception of the PDSCH.
However, Bae more specifically teaches wherein the UE capability specifies a quantity of time domain demodulation reference signal (DMRS) patterns for a reception of the PDSCH (Paragraph [0042] A total number of rate matching patterns that can incur partial DMRS transmission is limited, and such special rate matching patterns may be indicated by a network to a UE. Further, applicability of rate matching patterns, which can incur partial DMRS transmission, depends on certain conditions such as a type of a rate matching pattern, an RRC state of a UE, or a characteristic of a PDSCH such as the type, processing time, DMRS mapping type, etc. Additionally, support of an RM pattern incurring partial DMRS transmission is explicitly indicated by a UE as a capability).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf with the teachings of Bae. The UE operation is simplified before or without a RRC connection. The granularity is pre-encrypted, that is, certain numbers of successive resource blocks (RBs) use the same pre-encryption for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, which improves the channel estimation (CE) quality of a UE (Bae Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0014 and 0041-0042]).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Rudolf and Bae as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view of Karmoose et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2022/0045789, hereinafter Karmoose.
Regarding Claim 16, Lu in view of Rudolf and Bae disclose the apparatus of Claim 15. Lu in view of Rudolf and Bae fail to explicitly disclose wherein the quantity of time domain DMRS patterns is equal to one or two, depending on the UE capability.
However, Karmoose more specifically teaches wherein the quantity of time domain DMRS patterns is equal to one or two, depending on the UE capability (Paragraph [0161-0162] Table providing a list of UE Capabilities where the UE supports DMRS pattern equal to one or 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lu in view of Rudolf and Bae with the teachings of Karmoose. Karmoose provides a solution for efficient control signaling designed for improved resource utilization (Karmoose Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0006, 0070 and 0089]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9, 11-14, 17-21, 26 and 27 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 7, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein a resource indicator vector (RIV) indicates physical resource blocks (PRBs) that span the two downlink subbands, two guard bands, and an uplink subband associated with the SBFD operation, based at least in part on a second type of resource allocation.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Claim 8 and 9 would also be allowable since they depend upon indicated allowable base claim.
Regarding Claim 11, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein the UE capability specifies a maximum quantity of partial precoding resource block groups (PRGs) with a narrowband precoding for the SBFD operation.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Claim 12 would also be allowable since they depend upon indicated allowable base claim.
Regarding Claim 13, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein the UE capability specifies a maximum quantity of partial resource block groups (RBGs) with an active bandwidth part associated with the SBFD operation.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Claim 14 would also be allowable since they depend upon indicated allowable base claim.
Regarding Claim 17, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein an allowed PDSCH allocation and DMRS pattern is based at least in part on the quantity of time domain DMRS patterns being equal to one, and wherein a time domain resource allocation is based at least in part on non-SBFD symbols and SBFD symbols, and no DMRS is associated with the SBFD symbols.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Regarding Claim 18, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein an allowed PDSCH allocation and DMRS pattern is based at least in part on the quantity of time domain DMRS patterns being equal to one, and wherein a time domain resource allocation is based at least in part on non-SBFD-only symbols or SBFD-only symbols.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Regarding Claim 19, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein an allowed PDSCH allocation and DMRS pattern is based at least in part on the quantity of time domain DMRS patterns being equal to one, and wherein a resource allocation is based at least in part on non-SBFD symbols, SBFD symbols, and a downlink-subband-only frequency domain resource allocation.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Regarding Claim 20, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein an allowed PDSCH allocation and DMRS pattern is based at least in part on the quantity of time domain DMRS patterns being equal to two, and wherein a time domain resource allocation is based at least in part on non-SBFD symbols and SBFD symbols, and DMRS symbols are associated with the non-SBFD symbols and the SBFD symbols.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Claim 21 would also be allowable since they depend upon indicated allowable base claim.
Regarding Claim 26, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein the UE capability specifies a maximum quantity of partial precoding resource block groups (PRGs) with a narrowband precoding for the SBFD operation.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Regarding Claim 27, the prior art of record fail to disclose, alone or in any reasonable combination, as required by the dependent claim, “wherein the UE capability specifies a maximum quantity of partial resource block groups (RBGs) with an active bandwidth part associated with the SBFD operation.”
The Examiner notes the above limitation(s) are not taken alone but in view of the entirety of the claim language including any preceding claim limitations, any proceeding claim limitations, and any intervening claim limitations.
Conclusion
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IVAN O. LATORRE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2409
/IVAN O LATORRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409