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 .
Response to Arguments
Claims 1, 6, 9-10, 15, and 18-19 have been amended.
Claims 1, 6-10, and 15-24 are presently pending.
1. Amendment made to the claims filed on 07/22/2026 has been considered and accepted by the examiner. Therefore, the 112(b) rejection has been withdrawn.
2. Applicant's arguments with respect to the claim(s) have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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, 6-7, 10, 15-16, 19-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHIEN et al. (US 20240381366, hereinafter, “CHIEN”) in view of ZHANG et al. (US 20240291594, hereinafter, “ZHANG”).
Claim 1. CHIEN teaches: A feedback method, comprising: - See Fig. 4
when a first physical uplink control channel PUCCH cell group corresponding to a terminal comprises at least two PUCCH cells that can be used to transmit hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK, – See Fig. 7, ¶ [0319], (“The PUCCH resource used for SPS HARQ-ACK transmission should be configured for each of the PUCCH cells/carriers applicable for PUCCH cell/carrier switching within a PUCCH group.”) and semi-static switching can be performed among the PUCCH cells corresponding to the terminal based on a time domain pattern, – See Fig. 7, ¶ [0287], (“a UE capable of performing PUCCH cell/carrier switching based on a time pattern for semi-static PUCCH cell/carrier switching (referred to as a semi-static PUCCH cell/carrier switching pattern)”) determining, by the terminal, a target PUCCH cell corresponding to first HARQ-ACK, – in ¶ [0374], (“the PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK transmission on the target PUCCH cell/carrier determined according to the time pattern at corresponding slot/sub-slot…”) wherein the first HARQ-ACK is HARQ-ACK for semi-persistent scheduling SPS; - See Fig. 11, ¶ [0323], (“transmission of HARQ ACK/NACK of a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH.”); ¶ [0374 - 0375], (“…the UE may perform one of the following operations: The UE switches to the target PUCCH cell/carrier according to the time pattern and defers the SPS HARQ-ACK transmission…”) and
sending, by the terminal, the first HARQ-ACK based on the target PUCCH cell – in ¶ [0259], (“The UE transmits the Type 1 Codebook on the PUCCH resource associated the dynamically indicated PUCCH cell/carrier”); ¶ [0288], (“The UE multiplexes HARQ-ACK responding to dynamically scheduled PDSCH without dynamic PUCCH cell/carrier indication and HARQ-ACK of SPS PDSCH without corresponding DCI on the target cell/carrier according to the semi-static time pattern.”) wherein the target PUCCH cell is determined based on the time domain pattern, - in ¶ [0374], (“the PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK transmission on the target PUCCH cell/carrier determined according to the time pattern at corresponding slot/sub-slot…”) and a target time domain feedback offset corresponding to the first HARQ-ACK - See Fig. 3, ¶ [0218], (“the UE determines the slot/sub-slot location n based on the HARQ feedback timing offset K1 indicated in the first DCI…and a K1 set used for constructing the Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with the determined cell/carrier indicated…”) is determined based on a first time domain feedback offset index indicated by first downlink control information (DCI) and a first time domain feedback offset set, - See Fig. 3, ¶ [0218], (“the UE determines the slot/sub-slot location n based on the HARQ feedback timing offset K1 indicated in the first DCI…and a K1 set used for constructing the Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with the determined cell/carrier indicated…”)
wherein the first time domain feedback offset set is a time domain feedback offset set corresponding to second HARQ-ACK, and the second HARQ-ACK is HARQ-ACK corresponding to physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission scheduled by the first DCI. - in ¶ [0255], (“The UE receives a DCI with a dynamic PUCCH cell/carrier indication and K1 value indication for HARQ-ACK transmission of scheduled PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH-1 in PCell or PDSCH-2 in SCell-2).”)
CHIEN does not explicitly teach:
wherein the first time domain feedback offset set is a time domain feedback offset set corresponding to second HARQ-ACK,
However, ZHANG teaches:
wherein the first time domain feedback offset set is a time domain feedback offset set corresponding to second HARQ-ACK, - See Fig. 5B, ¶ [0090], (“a HARQ-ACK codebook 510 is generated for the DG HARQ-ACK for PDSCH 502 and PDSCH 507, and a HARQ-ACK codebook 520 is generated for the SPS HARQ-ACK for SPS PDSCH 504.”, The claimed “second HARQ-ACK” is equated to the DG HARQ-ACK. The claimed “first time domain feedback offset set” is the K1 set associated with the PUCCH transmission carrying that DG HARQ-ACK.); ¶ [0092], (“assuming that the k1 set of PUCCH CC #0 is {1, 2} and the k1 set of PUCCH CC #1 is {3, 5, 7}. It can be seen that the offset k1′=3 for SPS PDSCH is in the k1 set of PUCCH CC #1”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CHIEN with ZHANG to include the first time domain feedback offset set is a time domain feedback offset set corresponding to second HARQ-ACK, as taught by ZHANG. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to reduce latency, as suggested by ZHANG, in order to reduce a latency of HARQ feedback for downlink (DL) heavy configurations in unpaired spectrum, PUCCH carrier switching for HARQ feedback is proposed. - ¶ [0003]
Claim 6. Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG teaches The method according to claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
CHIEN teaches:
further comprising: determining a target PUCCH resource corresponding to the target PUCCH cell, – in ¶ [0318], (“The PUCCH resource selected for SPS HARQ-ACKs transmission is configured in RRC signaling (e.g., sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 or n1PUCCH-AN) of the corresponding target PUCCH cell/carrier…”) wherein when a first SPS configuration indicates a PUCCH cell resource list, - in ¶ [0318], (“The PUCCH resource selected for SPS HARQ-ACKs transmission is configured in RRC signaling (e.g., sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 or n1PUCCH-AN) of the corresponding target PUCCH cell/carrier.”) and a target PUCCH resource allocation record corresponding to the target PUCCH cell exists in the PUCCH cell resource list, - in ¶ [0319], (“The PUCCH resource used for SPS HARQ-ACK transmission should be configured for each of the PUCCH cells/carriers applicable for PUCCH cell/carrier switching within a PUCCH group.”) the target PUCCH resource is determined based on the target PUCCH resource allocation record; - in ¶ [0318], (“The PUCCH resource selected for SPS HARQ-ACKs transmission is configured in RRC signaling (e.g., sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 or n1PUCCH-AN) of the corresponding target PUCCH cell/carrier.”) wherein the first SPS configuration corresponds to the first HARQ-ACK. - in ¶ [0318], (“The PUCCH resource selected for SPS HARQ-ACKs transmission is configured in RRC signaling (e.g., sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 or n1PUCCH-AN) of the corresponding target PUCCH cell/carrier.”)
Claim 7. Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG teaches The method according to claim 6, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
CHIEN teaches:
wherein the PUCCH cell resource list - in ¶ [0318], (“The PUCCH resource…is configured in RRC signaling (e.g., sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 or n1PUCCH-AN)”) comprises a PUCCH resource allocation record corresponding to each PUCCH cell in a first PUCCH cell group. - in ¶ [0319], (“The PUCCH resource used for SPS HARQ-ACK transmission should be configured for each of the PUCCH cells/carriers applicable for PUCCH cell/carrier switching within a PUCCH group.”)
Claim 21. Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG teaches The method according to claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
CHIEN teaches:
wherein the target time domain feedback offset corresponding to the first HARQ-ACK is not in a time domain feedback offset set corresponding to the target PUCCH cell. – in ¶ [0250], (“For the K1 value(s) not included in the K1 set of a dynamically indicated PUCCH target cell/carrier, the corresponding HARQ-ACK bits can be skipped or appended to the Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook generated based on the K1 set of a dynamically indicated PUCCH cell/carrier.”)
Claim 10 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 1 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 15-16 are rejected under the same rationale as Claims 6-7 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claim 19 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim of Claim 1 and is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 1 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claim 20 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim of Claim 10 and is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 10 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claim 22 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 21 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 8, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHIEN et al. (US 20240381366, hereinafter, “CHIEN”) in view of ZHANG et al. (US 20240291594, hereinafter, “ZHANG”), and further in view of HUGL et al. (US 20220240244, hereinafter, “HUGL”).
Claim 8. Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG teaches The method according to claim 7, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG does not explicitly teach:
wherein the PUCCH resource allocation record comprises a first index corresponding to the PUCCH cell, and the first index is an index of the PUCCH cell in a cell set in which transmission of a PUCCH is allowed, where the index is numbered starting from 0.
However, HUGL teaches:
wherein the PUCCH resource allocation record comprises a first index corresponding to the PUCCH cell, - in ¶ [0035], (“The configuration may contain, for each time-domain indication, an index of the cell used for PUCCH transmission.”) and the first index is an index of the PUCCH cell in a cell set in which transmission of a PUCCH is allowed, - in ¶ [0036], (“for two cells available for PUCCH transmission, a single bit (0 or 1) would indicate the applicable PUCCH cell for the given time instant.”) where the index is numbered starting from 0. - in ¶ [0035], (“The configuration may contain, for each time-domain indication, an index of the cell used for PUCCH transmission. The index of the PUCCH cell may be given by RRC configuration (i.e., specific PUCCH cell index, 0 . . . K) or may be implicitly given by the serving cell index.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CHIEN and ZHANG with HUGL to include the PUCCH resource allocation record comprises a first index of the PUCCH cell in a cell set in which transmission of a PUCCH is allowed and is numbered starting from 0, as taught by HUGL. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to simplify cell selection, as suggested by HUGL, This will reduce the ambiguity and especially simplify the cell selection and will enable the gNB to keep better control of the potential needed UL resources for PUCCH on different serving cells. - ¶ [0030]
Claim 17 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 8 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 9, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHIEN et al. (US 20240381366, hereinafter, “CHIEN”) in view of ZHANG et al. (US 20240291594, hereinafter, “ZHANG”), and further in view of Jung et al. (US 20240031070, hereinafter, “Jung”).
Claim 9. Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG teaches The method according to claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
CHIEN teaches:
further comprising: when a first condition is met, executing, by the terminal, a first behavior related to the first HARQ-ACK, - See Fig. 11, ¶ [0374 - 0375], (“the UE has been configured with a time pattern for semi-static PUCCH cell/carrier switching…the UE may perform one of the following operations: The UE switches to the target PUCCH cell/carrier according to the time pattern and defers the SPS HARQ-ACK transmission…to the earliest slot/sub-slot with valid PUCCH resource”) wherein the first behavior comprises one of the following: discarding the first HARQ-ACK; deferring a time of sending the first HARQ-ACK; and discarding current transmission of the first HARQ-ACK. - See Fig. 11, ¶ [0374 - 0375], (“…the UE may perform one of the following operations: The UE switches to the target PUCCH cell/carrier according to the time pattern and defers the SPS HARQ-ACK transmission…”)
Combination of CHIEN and ZHANG does not explicitly teach:
wherein the first condition comprises at least one of the following: a first SPS configuration indicates a PUCCH cell resource list, and a target PUCCH resource allocation record corresponding to the target PUCCH cell does not exist in the PUCCH cell resource list; and the first SPS configuration indicates a target PUCCH resource identifier, and a PUCCH cell corresponding to the target PUCCH resource identifier does not comprise the target PUCCH cell, wherein the first SPS configuration corresponds to the first HARQ-ACK;
However, Jung teaches:
wherein the first condition comprises at least one of the following: a first SPS configuration indicates a PUCCH cell resource list, - in ¶ [0068], (“the UE determines a PUCCH resource to be: 1) a PUCCH resource provided by sps-PUCCH-AN-ResourceID obtained from the first entry in sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 if O.sub.UCI≤2; 2) a PUCCH resource provided by sps-PUCCH-AN-ResourceID obtained from the second entry in sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16, if provided, if 2<O.sub.UCI≤N.sub.1,SPS where N.sub.1,SPS is either provided by maxPayloadSize obtained from the second entry in sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16”) and a target PUCCH resource allocation record corresponding to the target PUCCH cell does not exist in the PUCCH cell resource list; - in ¶ [0078], (“If a UE is not provided SPS-PUCCH-AN-List and transmits HARQ-ACK information corresponding only to a PDSCH reception without a corresponding PDCCH, a PUCCH resource for corresponding PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information is provided by n1PUCCH-AN.”) and
the first SPS configuration indicates a target PUCCH resource identifier, - in ¶ [0068], (“the UE determines a PUCCH resource to be: 1) a PUCCH resource provided by sps-PUCCH-AN-ResourceID obtained from the first entry in sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16 if O.sub.UCI≤2; 2) a PUCCH resource provided by sps-PUCCH-AN-ResourceID obtained from the second entry in sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16…”) and a PUCCH cell corresponding to the target PUCCH resource identifier does not comprise the target PUCCH cell, - in ¶ [0068], (“the UE determines a PUCCH resource to be: 1) a PUCCH resource provided by sps-PUCCH-AN-ResourceID obtained from the first entry in sps-PUCCH-AN-List-r16”); ¶ [0078], (“If a UE is not provided SPS-PUCCH-AN-List and transmits HARQ-ACK information corresponding only to a PDSCH reception without a corresponding PDCCH, a PUCCH resource for corresponding PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information is provided by n1PUCCH-AN.”) wherein the first SPS configuration corresponds to the first HARQ-ACK; - in ¶ [0107], (“Deferred HARQ-ACK information (associated with the previous PUCCH occasion) for SPS PDSCH receptions without a corresponding PDCCH is appended”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CHIEN and ZHANG with Jung to include the first condition, as taught by Jung. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve HARQ-ACK handling, as suggested by Jung, disclosed herein relates generally to wireless communications and more particularly relates to HARQ-ACK codebook construction. - ¶ [0002]
Claim 18 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 9 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 23, 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHIEN et al. (US 20240381366, hereinafter, “CHIEN”) in view of ZHANG et al. (US 20240291594, hereinafter, “ZHANG”), and further in view of Jung et al. (US 20240031070, hereinafter, “Jung”) and MolavianJazi et al. (US 20220053522, hereinafter, “MolavianJazi”).
Claim 23. Combination of CHIEN, ZHANG, and Jung teaches The method according to claim 9, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Combination of CHIEN, ZHANG, and Jung does not explicitly teach:
wherein each PUCCH resource allocation record in the PUCCH cell resource list comprises: a first index corresponding to a PUCCH cell; and a PUCCH resource identifier of a PUCCH resource corresponding to the PUCCH cell, wherein the first index is either of the following:a PUCCH cell index of the PUCCH cell; or a list index.
However, MolavianJazi teaches:
wherein each PUCCH resource allocation record in the PUCCH cell resource list comprises: - in ¶ [0645], (“The RRC information element below shows an example of configuration of multiple lists of PUCCH resources for HARQ-ACK information transmission corresponding to a SPS PDSC configuration, wherein each list is associated with one PUCCH cell. For example, an information element “SPS-PUCCH-AN-List-Cells” can provide up to e.g. 2 lists”)
a first index corresponding to a PUCCH cell; - See Table 15, (“SPS-PUCCH-AN-List-Cell ::= SEQUENCE { PUCCH-cell ServCellIndex, PUCCH-resource-SPS SEQUENCE…”) and a PUCCH resource identifier of a PUCCH resource corresponding to the PUCCH cell, - See Table 15, (“SPS-PUCCH-AN-List-Cell ::= SEQUENCE { PUCCH-cell ServCellIndex, PUCCH-resource-SPS SEQUENCE…SPS-PUCCH-AN-r16 ::= SEQUENCE { sps-PUCCH-AN-ResourceID-r16 PUCCH-ResourceId”)
wherein the first index is either of the following: a PUCCH cell index of the PUCCH cell; or a list index. - See Table 15, (“SPS-PUCCH-AN-List-Cell ::= SEQUENCE { PUCCH-cell ServCellIndex, PUCCH-resource-SPS SEQUENCE…”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CHIEN, ZHANG, and Jung with MolavianJazi to include a first index and a PUCCH resource identifier of a PUCCH resource corresponding to the PUCCH cell, as taught by MolavianJazi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to reduce latency, as suggested by MolavianJazi, an activation time for switching of the active scheduling cell(s) can involve RF switching delay/latency. - ¶ [0350]
Claim 24 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 23 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
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 Shima Wasel whose telephone number is (703)756-4725. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/SHIMA WASEL/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
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