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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a2) as being anticipated by 3GPP STG RAN WG1 (R1-2302599).
* Regarding to claims with the optional language “OR”; “at least one of”, only one limitation is rejected.
- With respect to claims 1, 26, 3GPP (599) discloses an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory comprising computer-executable instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to: obtain first signaling indicating at least one symbol is configured as a subband full duplex (SBFD) symbol with at least one downlink component carrier (CC) and at least one uplink CC (see par. 1 last paragraph discloses “Furthermore, the relationship/override rules with the current three time domain signalling should be decided. Since we had agreed that semi-static configuration of subband time location as baseline, this new semi-static signalling can indicate the position of SBFD operation with UL subband can be in DL and flexible symbols configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon and/or tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated if configured. One issue is the order among those three signalling. It is common understanding that tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon is the first configuration for slot format. So SBFD time location can be before or after tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated if any”); obtain second signaling indicating that directional collision handling is enabled for a set of one or more serving cells associated with the at least one downlink CC and the at least one uplink CC (e.g. par. 15 par. 3 discloses “For SBFD operation Alt 2: UE does not aware of any SBFD information on time and frequency domain. But new UE behaviours can be introduced for SBFD aware UE, such as allowing additional collision handling cases, new resources allocation etc”); and communicate with the one or more serving cells based on a symbol direction for the at least one SBFD symbol, wherein the symbol direction is based on one or more rules (page 17, par. 2 discloses Considering UL subband in legacy DL slots for SBFD, the UL reception SBFD gNB suffers inter/intra subband CLI from DL transmission of legacy gNB while legacy UE suffers inter/intra subband CLI from UEs transmitting UL signal in SBFD cells. Because the performance of legacy UEs could be seriously degraded by intra subband CLI caused by SBFD UEs, further study on intra subband CLI mitigation on SBFD UEs is needed”).
- With respect to claim 2, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein at least one of the one or more rules indicate the symbol direction for the SBFD symbol as uplink if the apparatus is configured, via higher layer signaling, to transmit an uplink signal on the SBFD symbol (e.g. page 1, last 2 lines, “slot format”; page 4, last 8 lines discloses “they still try to transmit UL which is configured by higher layer signalling in the UL subband. This unwanted UL will be serious interference for the UE which receive the DL. Similarly, the RBs outside UL subband used as UL would have the same interference issue for gNB. Clearly, the dynamic scheduling based DL-only or UL-only conversion cannot work for SBFD operation in flexible symbols. Second, such the CG-PUSCH and PDSCH in slot 2, UE can drop PDSCH reception due to it is collide with UL regions. However, if PDSCH scheduled by a DCI can be valid DL reception, whether CG-PUSCH should be dropped, even if it is within a legal UL region. There will be more ambiguous collisions need to handle, and we find it is hard to give a unified solution, since sometimes it gets the DL or UL direction based on the configuration”).
- With respect to claim 3, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein the uplink signal comprises at least one of: a sounding reference signal (SRS), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or physical random access channel (PRACH) (e.g. page 9 discloses SRS/CSI-RS/PUCCH).
- With respect to claim 4, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein at least one of the one or more rules determines the symbol direction for the at least one SBFD symbol as uplink if the apparatus is configured to transmit the uplink signal in the SBFD symbol via at least one of a reference cell or another cell configured for SBFD operation (e.g. page 1 discloses “Furthermore, the relationship/override rules with the current three time domain signalling should be decided. Since we had agreed that semi-static configuration of subband time location as baseline, this new semi-static signalling can indicate the position of SBFD operation with UL subband can be in DL and flexible symbols configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon and/or tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated if configured. One issue is the order among those three signalling. It is common understanding that tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon is the first configuration for slot format. So SBFD time location can be before or after tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated if any”).
- With respect to claims 5 and 7, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein at least one of the one or more rules determines the symbol direction for the at least one SBFD symbol as downlink if the apparatus is configured, via higher layer signaling, to receive a downlink signal on the SBFD symbol (see page 3, discloses “The following study point was agreed during the last meeting. We think it can be divided into two parts, the first is the configuration granularity of SBFD time domain, the second is final/actual SBFD symbols according to the rules, including legacy TDD DL/UL configuration, scheduling and dynamic SFI”).
- With respect to claim 6, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein the downlink signal comprises at least one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) (see page 19 proposal 12”; page 4 discloses PDSCH as CG-PDSCH).
- With respect to claims 8, 13, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein, according to the one or more rules, the apparatus ignores a configuration if: the symbol direction for the at least one SBFD symbol is to be downlink for at least a reference cell; and the apparatus is configured, via higher layer signaling, to transmit an uplink signal on the SBFD symbol associated with the reference cell or another cell (e.g. page 9 discloses in box 1 and table 2 with option).
- With respect to claim 9, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein, according to the one or more rules, the apparatus considers a configuration invalid if: the symbol direction for the at least one SBFD symbol is to be uplink for at least a reference cell; and the apparatus is configured, via higher layer signaling, to receive a downlink signal on the SBFD symbol associated with the reference cell or another cell (page 3 discloses “For the configuration granularity of SBFD time domain, there is no clear benefit to give symbol level SBFD. Symbol level SBFD operation can be with lower priority, especially considering the DL-UL switching and UL-DL switching. In addition, symbol level SBFD would be more signalling overhead. For the final/actual SBFD symbols in a slot, it is another story due to more impact factors”).
- With respect to claim 10, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein, according to the one or more rules, at least one of: the apparatus is not required to receive a scheduled downlink signal and not expected to transmit a scheduled uplink signal, if the symbol direction for the at least one SBFD symbol is to be uplink for a first cell and downlink for a second cell; the apparatus ignores a configuration if the at least one SBFD symbol is indicated as downlink for a reference cell, the configuration schedules the apparatus to transmit an uplink signal via downlink control information (DCI) via another cell, and the apparatus is scheduled to receive a downlink signal on the at least one SBFD symbol; or the apparatus is not required to receive a scheduled downlink signal via a reference cell, if the apparatus detects downlink control information (DCI) scheduling a transmission on the at least one SBFD symbol associated with another cell (e.g. collision handling in section 2.2.6).
- With respect to claims 11-12, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein the reference cell and the other cell operate in same/different frequency bands (see the Alt 1 and 8 in page 8).
- With respect to claims 14-16, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein, according to the one or more rules: the apparatus does not expect to be scheduled for reception on the at least one SBFD symbol via the other cell if the symbol direction of the at least one SBFD symbol is considered as uplink (e.g. section 2.1.2 for not slot and dynamic scheduling in page 4).
- With respect to claims 17, 25, 3GPP (599) discloses at least one transceiver configured to receive the first signaling, wherein the apparatus is configured as a user equipment (UE) (e.g. UE in Fig. 8).
- With respect to claims 18-19, 3GPP (599) discloses an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory comprising computer-executable instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to: output, for transmission to a network entity, first signaling indicating a capability of the apparatus to support subband full duplex (SBFD) operation in transmission time intervals (TTIs) with a transmission direction designated as downlink or flexible (see par. 1 last paragraph discloses “Furthermore, the relationship/override rules with the current three time domain signalling should be decided. Since we had agreed that semi-static configuration of subband time location as baseline, this new semi-static signalling can indicate the position of SBFD operation with UL subband can be in DL and flexible symbols configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon and/or tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated if configured. One issue is the order among those three signalling. It is common understanding that tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon is the first configuration for slot format. So SBFD time location can be before or after tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated if any” and the slot format as TTI); obtain second signaling, from the network entity, indicating a TTI for SBFD operation, wherein the TTI has a transmission direction designated as downlink or flexible (e.g. par. 15 par. 3 discloses “For SBFD operation Alt 2: UE does not aware of any SBFD information on time and frequency domain. But new UE behaviours can be introduced for SBFD aware UE, such as allowing additional collision handling cases, new resources allocation etc”); and communicate with the network entity in the TTI in accordance with the indicated capability (page 17, par. 2 discloses Considering UL subband in legacy DL slots for SBFD, the UL reception SBFD gNB suffers inter/intra subband CLI from DL transmission of legacy gNB while legacy UE suffers inter/intra subband CLI from UEs transmitting UL signal in SBFD cells. Because the performance of legacy UEs could be seriously degraded by intra subband CLI caused by SBFD UEs, further study on intra subband CLI mitigation on SBFD UEs is needed”).
- With respect to claims 20, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein the TTI is designated as a flexible symbol via a time division duplexed (TDD) uplink downlink configuration (see section 2.1.1).
- With respect to claims 21-24, 3GPP (599) discloses wherein the second signaling indicates at least one of: a first frequency location of an uplink subband configured for SBFD operation in the flexible symbol; or one or more second frequency locations of a downlink subband configured for SBFD operation in the flexible symbol and at least a third frequency location of an uplink subband configured for SBFD operation in the flexible symbol (e.g. Fig. 1-7 show frequency for uplink and downlink as flexible symbol).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
. Examiner's Note: Examiner has cited particular paragraphs or columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUC H TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3172. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 Flex.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy K. Kundu can be reached at 571-272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHUC H TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471