DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the original application filed on 2/08/2024. Claims 1-18 are
pending in the application.
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 Objections
3. Claims 5, 10-11, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 5 in line 2-3, “a NACK” should be replaced by “the NACK”.
Claim 10 in line 2-3, “a NACK” should be replaced by “the NACK”.
Claim 11 in line 4, “performed comprising:” should be replaced by “comprising:”.
Claim 15 in line 3, “a NACK” should be replaced by “the NACK”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.— The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 10, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second
paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding Claims 5, 10, and 15, the limitations “the K consecutive time units” in line 1 of the claims 5 and 10, and in line 2 of claim 15 lack antecedent basis, which renders the claim indefinite. It is unclear as to whether this claim should depend from claims 2, 7, and 12 (rather than claims 5, 10, and 15) in order to have proper antecedent basis. For the purpose of examination, “the K consecutive time units" is interpreted as being “K consecutive time units".
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103
(or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rathonyi et al. (US
2020/0396790 Al, hereinafter “Rathonyi”) in view of SHAH et al. (US 2022/0264616 Al, hereinafter “Shah”).
Regarding claim 1, Rathonyi discloses:
A method comprising:
receiving first configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises a first duration, a second duration, and a first cycle, the first duration is less than the first cycle, the first duration starts at a start moment of the first cycle (UE can go into sleep mode and only needs to be awake periodically for a short amount of time every DRX cycle to monitor the DL control channel. UE receives UL grant 405 on DL control channel 410 while OnDuration Timer 410 is running. receiving a message including information about a duration of at least one of the second and third timers. the first timer may be an onDurationTimer of a discontinuous reception cycle. two main parameters are used: an "active time" that determines for how long a time the UE should be awake to monitor the DL control channel before going into DRX; and an "offset time" that determines when to start the "active time.". information about the values of the two parameters ("active time" and "offset time") is provided per transmission as part of the DLassignment/UL-grant message sent on the DL control channel, and may vary in-between every DL-assignment/ULgrant, Rathonyi: Fig. 1, [0011], [0027]-[0028], [0074]-[0078]), and
the second duration indicates an estimated minimum duration from a first moment at which a first communication apparatus reports acknowledgment information to a time at which the first communication apparatus receives retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (Synchronous HARQ provides the exact timing on when the HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK 435 and/or NACK 430) and the re-transmission is scheduled. the "offset time" is started relative to an UL transmission performed by UE 510 that was triggered by receiving an indication of a DL or UL transmission for UE 510 (e.g., a control message on the DL control channel uch as: a DL assigmnent for receiving DL data resulting in that the UL transmission is a HARQ feedback message; or an UL grant resulting in that said UL transmission is UL data), Rathonyi: Fig. 4, [0017]-[0018], [0074]-[0076]), or
when a time unit corresponding to an end of the first duration is not later than a time unit corresponding to an end of the second duration, and the acknowledgment information is a negative acknowledgment (NACK) (the UE receives a second message 940 that is either a second DCI-0 message or a NACK message on DL control channel 915 before the expiration of "active time". In scenarios in which second message 940 is a NACK message, it could be an UL grant with the new data indicator (NDI) not toggled in case adaptive HARQ retransmission is used (i.e., an implicit NACK is used), Rathonyi: [0105]),
Rathonyi does not explicitly disclose:
skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Shah teaches:
skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (When the DL data is received and cannot be decoded successfully, UE transmits NACK to gNB and starts the drx-HARQ-RTTTimerDL in order to account for the RTD. As long as drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL has not expired, the UE does not monitor PDCCH in order to reduce power consumption, Shah: Fig. 9, [0173]-[0176]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Rathonyi in view of Shah in order to further modify skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information from the teachings of Shah.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because a mechanism to minimize the time the UE spends monitoring the PDCCH is used, which is called the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality to reduce the battery consumption in the UE (Shah: [0126]).
Regarding claim 6, Rathonyi discloses:
An apparatus comprising (operations of the systems and apparatuses may be performed, Rathonyi: [0180]):
a memory, configured to store computer instructions (memory 1330 stores the instructions executed by processing circuitry, Rathonyi: [0126]); and
a processor, configured to execute the computer instructions stored in memory, so that the processor is configured to (Processing circuitry may include any suitable combination of hardware and software implemented in one or more modules to execute instructions and manipulate data. module may be implemented using one or more processors, such as processing circuitry, Rathonyi: [0132], [0149]):
receive first configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises a first duration, a second duration, and a first cycle, the first duration is less than the first cycle, the first duration starts at a start moment of the first cycle (UE can go into sleep mode and only needs to be awake periodically for a short amount of time every DRX cycle to monitor the DL control channel. UE receives UL grant 405 on DL control channel 410 while OnDuration Timer 410 is running. receiving a message including information about a duration of at least one of the second and third timers. the first timer may be an onDurationTimer of a discontinuous reception cycle. two main parameters are used: an "active time" that determines for how long a time the UE should be awake to monitor the DL control channel before going into DRX; and an "offset time" that determines when to start the "active time.". information about the values of the two parameters ("active time" and "offset time") is provided per transmission as part of the DLassignment/UL-grant message sent on the DL control channel, and may vary in-between every DL-assignment/ULgrant, Rathonyi: Fig. 1, [0011], [0027]-[0028], [0074]-[0078]), and
the second duration indicates an estimated minimum duration from a first moment at which a first communication apparatus reports acknowledgment information to a time at which the first communication apparatus receives retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (Synchronous HARQ provides the exact timing on when the HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK 435 and/or NACK 430) and the re-transmission is scheduled. the "offset time" is started relative to an UL transmission performed by UE 510 that was triggered by receiving an indication of a DL or UL transmission for UE 510 (e.g., a control message on the DL control channel uch as: a DL assigmnent for receiving DL data resulting in that the UL transmission is a HARQ feedback message; or an UL grant resulting in that said UL transmission is UL data), Rathonyi: Fig. 4, [0017]-[0018], [0074]-[0076]), or
when a time unit corresponding to an end of the first duration is not later than a time unit corresponding to an end of the second duration, and the acknowledgment information is a negative acknowledgment (NACK) (the UE receives a second message 940 that is either a second DCI-0 message or a NACK message on DL control channel 915 before the expiration of "active time". In scenarios in which second message 940 is a NACK message, it could be an UL grant with the new data indicator (NDI) not toggled in case adaptive HARQ retransmission is used (i.e., an implicit NACK is used), Rathonyi: [0105]),
Rathonyi does not explicitly disclose:
skip monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Shah teaches:
skip monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (When the DL data is received and cannot be decoded successfully, UE transmits NACK to gNB and starts the drx-HARQ-RTTTimerDL in order to account for the RTD. As long as drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL has not expired, the UE does not monitor PDCCH in order to reduce power consumption, Shah: Fig. 9, [0173]-[0176]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Rathonyi in view of Shah in order to further modify skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information from the teachings of Shah.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because a mechanism to minimize the time the UE spends monitoring the PDCCH is used, which is called the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality to reduce the battery consumption in the UE (Shah: [0126]).
Regarding claim 11, Rathonyi discloses:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a communication apparatus, the method is performed comprising (Memory is generally operable to store instructions, such as a computer program, software, an application including one or more oflogic, rules, algorithms, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by a processing circuitry. non-volatile, non-transitory computer-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry, Rathonyi: [0128]):
receiving first configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises a first duration, a second duration, and a first cycle, the first duration is less than the first cycle, the first duration starts at a start moment of the first cycle (UE can go into sleep mode and only needs to be awake periodically for a short amount of time every DRX cycle to monitor the DL control channel. UE receives UL grant 405 on DL control channel 410 while OnDuration Timer 410 is running. receiving a message including information about a duration of at least one of the second and third timers. the first timer may be an onDurationTimer of a discontinuous reception cycle. two main parameters are used: an "active time" that determines for how long a time the UE should be awake to monitor the DL control channel before going into DRX; and an "offset time" that determines when to start the "active time.". information about the values of the two parameters ("active time" and "offset time") is provided per transmission as part of the DLassignment/UL-grant message sent on the DL control channel, and may vary in-between every DL-assignment/ULgrant, Rathonyi: Fig. 1, [0011], [0027]-[0028], [0074]-[0078]), and
the second duration indicates an estimated minimum duration from a first moment at which a first communication apparatus reports acknowledgment information to a time at which the first communication apparatus receives retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (Synchronous HARQ provides the exact timing on when the HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK 435 and/or NACK 430) and the re-transmission is scheduled. the "offset time" is started relative to an UL transmission performed by UE 510 that was triggered by receiving an indication of a DL or UL transmission for UE 510 (e.g., a control message on the DL control channel uch as: a DL assigmnent for receiving DL data resulting in that the UL transmission is a HARQ feedback message; or an UL grant resulting in that said UL transmission is UL data), Rathonyi: Fig. 4, [0017]-[0018], [0074]-[0076]), or
when a time unit corresponding to an end of the first duration is not later than a time unit corresponding to an end of the second duration, and the acknowledgment information is a negative acknowledgment (NACK) (the UE receives a second message 940 that is either a second DCI-0 message or a NACK message on DL control channel 915 before the expiration of "active time". In scenarios in which second message 940 is a NACK message, it could be an UL grant with the new data indicator (NDI) not toggled in case adaptive HARQ retransmission is used (i.e., an implicit NACK is used), Rathonyi: [0105]),
Rathonyi does not explicitly disclose:
skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Shah teaches:
skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (When the DL data is received and cannot be decoded successfully, UE transmits NACK to gNB and starts the drx-HARQ-RTTTimerDL in order to account for the RTD. As long as drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL has not expired, the UE does not monitor PDCCH in order to reduce power consumption, Shah: Fig. 9, [0173]-[0176]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Rathonyi in view of Shah in order to further modify skipping monitoring, in a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information from the teachings of Shah.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because a mechanism to minimize the time the UE spends monitoring the PDCCH is used, which is called the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality to reduce the battery consumption in the UE (Shah: [0126]).
Regarding claims 2, 7 and 12, Rathonyi in view of Shah teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 6 and 11 above.
Rathonyi further discloses:
monitoring, in K consecutive time units that are before a time unit corresponding to an end of the first cycle and that are adjacent to the time unit corresponding to the end of the first cycle, the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (UE can go into sleep mode and only needs to be awake periodically for a short amount of time every DRX cycle to monitor the DL control channel. Synchronous HARQ provides the exact timing on when the HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK 435 and/or NACK 430) and the re-transmission is scheduled. the second instance of SRB/DRB data 855 on NB-PDSCH 820 is received and the HARQ feedback is sent (ACK 850 in the example of FIG. SA). second DCI-1 message 845 is a second indication of a DL transmission 855 for the UE (i.e., a HARQ re-transmission of the DL transmission 835), and the UE performs the UL transmission 850 associated with the indicated DL HARQ re-transmission (namely, the sending of ACK message 850), Rathonyi: Fig. 4, [0017]-[0018], [0098]).
Regarding claims 3, 8 and 13, Rathonyi in view of Shah teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 2, 7 and 12 above.
Rathonyi further discloses:
wherein when the time unit corresponding to the end of the first duration is not later than the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration, and the acknowledgment information is the NACK, the method further comprises (the UE receives a second message 940 that is either a second DCI-0 message or a NACK message on DL control channel 915 before the expiration of "active time". In scenarios in which second message 940 is a NACK message, it could be an UL grant with the new data indicator (NDI) not toggled in case adaptive HARQ retransmission is used (i.e., an implicit NACK is used), Rathonyi: [0105]):
prolonging the second duration from an end location in the first cycle to a start moment of the K consecutive time units before and adjacent to the time unit corresponding to the end of the first cycle (an "active time" that determines how long the UE should be awake to monitor the DL control channel before going into DRX; and an "offset time" that determines when to start the "active time." In some cases, the "offset time" is set relative to an UL transmission that was triggered by receiving a control message on the DL control channel, Rathonyi: [0058], [0072]-[0076]).
Regarding claims 4, 9 and 14, Rathonyi in view of Shah teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 6 and 11 above.
Rathonyi further discloses:
wherein the first configuration information is further used to configure a third duration, and the third duration indicates a maximum duration from a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration to the time at which the first communication apparatus receives the retransmission scheduling control information corresponding to the acknowledgment information (when the second timer expires, start a third timer, wherein the UE monitors the downlink control channel for the duration of the third timer. the UE may receive a message including information about a duration of at least one of the second and third timers. When second timer expires, the UE starts third timer corresponding to the "active time" described above. In certain embodiments, third timer may be one of a drx-InactivityTimer and a DRX retransmission timer. During "active time" (e.g., during the duration of third timer), the UE monitors DL control channel, Rathonyi: [0029], [0060], [0089]-[0090], [0097]).
Regarding claims 5, 10, and 15, Rathonyi in view of Shah teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 6 and 11 above.
Rathonyi further discloses:
wherein the K consecutive time units are determined based on a quantity of HARQ processes whose acknowledgment information is a NACK and for which the time unit corresponding to the end of the first duration is not later than the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration (UE can go into sleep mode and only needs to be awake periodically for a short amount of time every DRX cycle to monitor the DL control channel. Synchronous HARQ provides the exact timing on when the HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK 435 and/or NACK 430) and the re-transmission is scheduled. the second instance of SRB/DRB data 855 on NB-PDSCH 820 is received and the HARQ feedback is sent (ACK 850 in the example of FIG. SA). second DCI-1 message 845 is a second indication of a DL transmission 855 for the UE (i.e., a HARQ re-transmission of the DL transmission 835), and the UE performs the UL transmission 850 associated with the indicated DL HARQ re-transmission (namely, the sending of ACK message 850), Rathonyi: Fig. 4, [0017]-[0018], [0098]); and/or
determined based on a decoding capability of the first communication apparatus (This feedback message is typically either a "binary" decoding result or a scheduling grant/assignment message. In cases where the feedback is a "binary" decoding result, the feedback may be in the form of an acknowledgement (ACK) indicating that data block decoding was successful, or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) indicating that data block decoding was unsuccessful, Rathonyi: [0007]); and/or
Regarding claims 16, 17, and 18, Rathonyi in view of Shah teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 6 and 11 above.
Rathonyi further discloses:
wherein the first configuration information is further used to configure a third duration, and the third duration indicates a maximum duration from a next time unit of the time unit corresponding to the end of the second duration to a time at which the first communication apparatus receives a scheduling grant of the uplink/sidelink data (when the second timer expires, start a third timer, wherein the UE monitors the downlink control channel for the duration of the third timer. the UE may receive a message including information about a duration of at least one of the second and third timers. When second timer expires, the UE starts third timer corresponding to the "active time" described above. In certain embodiments, third timer may be one of a drx-InactivityTimer and a DRX retransmission timer. During "active time" (e.g., during the duration of third timer), the UE monitors DL control channel. the size (e.g., duration) of "offset time" and "active time" (or the duration of second timer and parameters may change between each scheduled transmission (e.g., DL assignment or UL grant), allowing the parameters to be dynamically changed for every transmission, Rathonyi: [0029], [0060], [0082]-[0084], [0089]-[0090], [0097]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
References considered relevant to this application are listed in the attached “Notice of References Cited” (PTO-892).
Wang et al. (US 2018/0198572 Al); See Fig. 6, [0118] -[0125].
ZHANG et al. (US 2020/0245395 Al); See Fig. 2 & 26, [0003]-[0006], [0359]-[0360].
Zhang et al. (US 2018/0288746 Al); See Fig. 2, [0061]-[0076].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be
directed to SANG C LEE whose telephone number is (703)756-1461. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, HASSAN PHILLIPS can be reached on (571)272-3940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/S.C.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/Robert C Scheibel/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467 March 4, 2026