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 .
This office action is in response to remarks filed on 12/10/2025.
Claims 1-9, 11-24, and 26-30 are pending and presented for examination. Claims 1, 11, 16, and 26 are amended. Claims 10 and 25 are canceled.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/10/2025 and 02/11/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendments
Claims 1, 11, 16, and 26 have been considered based on amendments.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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 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 non-obviousness.
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 1-2, 7-9, 16-17, and 22-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei et al (US20220294573A1) (hereinafter "Lei") in view of Li et al (US20210314102A1) (hereinafter "Li").
Regarding claim 1, Lei discloses a method of wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
converting a block of hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) bits from an original HARQ-ACK codebook into a partition, a plurality of partitions for a plurality of blocks corresponding to quantized HARQ-ACK bits ([0045] UE 101 may perform a HARQ-ACK bundling operation by means of logic AND operation for the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11 based on a bundle size to generate one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits.);
transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits into a two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.);
separately encoding the first part and the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload; and ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.)
transmitting, to a network node, the encoded first part and the encoded second part ([0094] UE 101 transmits the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 to BS 102 in the corresponding PUCCH via the uplink transmission U321. Subsequently, BS 102 receives the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 from UE 101. In some embodiments, the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first PDSCH group PG31 and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second PDSCH group PG32. In other words, the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 includes the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB31 and the second HARQ-ACK codebook CB32.).
Lei fails to disclose a method, comprising: a first part of the two part HARO-ACK payload indicating whether the quantized HARO-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments, and a size of a second part of the two part HARO-ACK payload is a function of the first part, the size of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
However, Li discloses a method, comprising: a first part (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: number of bits corresponding to the DCI format) of the two part HARQ-ACK payload indicating whether the quantized HARQ-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments (Col. 2, Ln. 40-47: … a corresponding acknowledgement (ACK) information or non-acknowledgement (NACK) information that is sequentially cascaded according to the PUSCH autonomous transmission, where the ACK information or the NACK information is carried by a downlink feedback information (DFI), and where the DCI is used to schedule re-transmission of the CBGs of the TB … ), and a size of a second part (number of bits of the DFI) of the two part HARQ-ACK payload is a function of the first part (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: When the number of bits of the DFI is smaller than the number of bits corresponding to the DCI format …), the size of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: When the number of bits of the DFI is smaller than the number of bits corresponding to the DCI format, the PDCCH size including the DFI and the corresponding DCI format size alignment are implemented by padding zero.).
Lei and Li are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques to feedback hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement codebook.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Li to create a method, comprising: a first part of the two part HARO-ACK payload indicating whether the quantized HARO-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments, and a size of a second part of the two part HARO-ACK payload is a function of the first part, the size of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to improve the feedback HARQ-ACK efficiency for downlink physical downlink shared channel transmission.
Regarding claim 2, Lei discloses the method, in which the converting comprises generating a sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits, each bundled HARQ-ACK bit of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits comprising a logical AND operation of bits of a different block of the HARQ-ACK codebook ([0045] UE 101 may perform a HARQ-ACK bundling operation by means of logic AND operation for the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11 based on a bundle size to generate one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits.); and the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits comprises transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.).
Regarding claim 7, Lei discloses the method, further comprising segmenting the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into a plurality of segments, in which:
the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits comprises transforming each segment of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into a separate two part HARQ-ACK payload, and ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.)
the separately encoding comprises:
encoding the first part of all segments together, and ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.)
separately encoding the second part of all segments together ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.).
Regarding claim 8, Lei discloses the method, in which each block of the original HARQ-ACK codebook maps to a group index corresponding to one of the partitions ([0024] for dynamic Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) codebook, Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) grouping is explicitly indicated by a group index in Downlink Control Information (DCI) scheduling the PDSCH [0046] The group index may be selected from one of {0, 1, 2, 3}. When BS 102 determines to request UE 101 to retransmit the HARQ-ACK feedback for the first PDSCH group PG11 and the group index G11 indicated to the first PDSCH group PG11 is “0”, BS 102 then selects the group index “0” same to the group index G11 and indicates this group index to the second. PDSCH group PG12.).
Regarding claim 9, Lei discloses the method, further comprising segmenting the quantized HARQ-ACK bits into a plurality of segments, in which:
the transforming comprises transforming each segment of the quantized HARQ-ACK bits into a separate two part HARQ-ACK payload, and ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.)
the separately encoding comprises:
encoding the first part of all segments together, and ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.)
separately encoding the second part of all segments together ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.).
Regarding claim 16, Lei discloses an apparatus, comprising:
at least one memory; and ([0135] the apparatus 50 may include at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), a receiving circuitry 501, a transmitting circuitry 503, and a processor 505 coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), the receiving circuitry 501 and the transmitting circuitry 503. The apparatus 50 may be a base station or a user equipment.)
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured ([0135] the apparatus 50 may include at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), a receiving circuitry 501, a transmitting circuitry 503, and a processor 505 coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), the receiving circuitry 501 and the transmitting circuitry 503. The apparatus 50 may be a base station or a user equipment.):
to convert a block of hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) bits from an original HARQ-ACK codebook into a partition, a plurality of partitions for a plurality of blocks corresponding to quantized HARQ-ACK bits ([0045] UE 101 may perform a HARQ-ACK bundling operation by means of logic AND operation for the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11 based on a bundle size to generate one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits.);
to transform the quantized HARQ-ACK bits into a two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.);
to separately encode the first part and the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload; and ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.)
to transmit, to a network node, the encoded first part and the encoded second part ([0094] UE 101 transmits the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 to BS 102 in the corresponding PUCCH via the uplink transmission U321. Subsequently, BS 102 receives the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 from UE 101. In some embodiments, the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first PDSCH group PG31 and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second PDSCH group PG32. In other words, the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB33 includes the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB31 and the second HARQ-ACK codebook CB32.).
Lei fails to disclose an apparatus, comprising: a first part of the two part HARO-ACK payload indicating whether the quantized HARO-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments, and a size of a second part of the two part HARO-ACK payload is a function of the first part, the size of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
However, Li discloses an apparatus, comprising: a first part (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: number of bits corresponding to the DCI format) of the two part HARQ-ACK payload indicating whether the quantized HARQ-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments (Col. 2, Ln. 40-47: … a corresponding acknowledgement (ACK) information or non-acknowledgement (NACK) information that is sequentially cascaded according to the PUSCH autonomous transmission, where the ACK information or the NACK information is carried by a downlink feedback information (DFI), and where the DCI is used to schedule re-transmission of the CBGs of the TB … ), and a size of a second part (number of bits of the DFI) of the two part HARQ-ACK payload is a function of the first part (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: When the number of bits of the DFI is smaller than the number of bits corresponding to the DCI format …), the size of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: When the number of bits of the DFI is smaller than the number of bits corresponding to the DCI format, the PDCCH size including the DFI and the corresponding DCI format size alignment are implemented by padding zero.).
Lei and Li are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques to feedback hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement codebook.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Li to create an apparatus, comprising: a first part of the two part HARO-ACK payload indicating whether the quantized HARO-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments, and a size of a second part of the two part HARO-ACK payload is a function of the first part, the size of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to improve the feedback HARQ-ACK efficiency for downlink physical downlink shared channel transmission.
Regarding claim 17, Lei discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to generate a sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits, each bundled HARQ-ACK bit of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits comprising a logical AND operation of bits of a different block of the HARQ-ACK codebook ([0045] UE 101 may perform a HARQ-ACK bundling operation by means of logic AND operation for the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11 based on a bundle size to generate one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits.); and transform the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.).
Regarding claim 22, Lei discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured:
to segment the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into a plurality of segments ([0131] the BS receives, from the UE, a combined HARQ-ACK codebook in response to determining to request the UE to retransmit HARQ-ACK feedback for the first PDSCH group of PDSCHs. The combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first PDSCH group of PDSCHs and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second PDSCH group of PDSCHs.),
to transform each segment of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into a separate two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.),
to encode the first part of all segments together, and ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.)
to separately encode the second part of all segments together ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.).
Regarding claim 23, Lei discloses the apparatus, in which each block of the original HARQ-ACK codebook maps to a group index corresponding to one of the partitions ([0024] for dynamic Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) codebook, Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) grouping is explicitly indicated by a group index in Downlink Control Information (DCI) scheduling the PDSCH [0046] The group index may be selected from one of {0, 1, 2, 3}. When BS 102 determines to request UE 101 to retransmit the HARQ-ACK feedback for the first PDSCH group PG11 and the group index G11 indicated to the first PDSCH group PG11 is “0”, BS 102 then selects the group index “0” same to the group index G11 and indicates this group index to the second. PDSCH group PG12.).
Regarding claim 24, Lei discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured:
to segment the quantized HARQ-ACK bits into a plurality of segments ([0131] the BS receives, from the UE, a combined HARQ-ACK codebook in response to determining to request the UE to retransmit HARQ-ACK feedback for the first PDSCH group of PDSCHs. The combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first PDSCH group of PDSCHs and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second PDSCH group of PDSCHs.),
to transform each segment of the quantized HARQ-ACK bits into a separate two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0004] wherein the combined HARQ-ACK codebook includes a first sub-codebook corresponding to the first group of downlink transmissions and a second sub-codebook corresponding to the second group of downlink transmissions [0045] The first sub-codebook includes the one or more bundled HARQ-ACK bits for the first PDSCH group PG11.),
to encode the first part of all segments together, and ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.)
to separately encode the second part of all segments together ([0045] the first sub-codebook and the second sub-codebook are encoded separately.).
Claims 11 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei in view of Li, Lee et al (US20210160732A1) (hereinafter "Lee"), and Huang et al (WO2021226498A1) (hereinafter "Huang").
Regarding claim 11, Lei discloses a method, comprising: decoding a first part of a two part hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) payload received from a user equipment (UE), the first part indicating whether quantized HARQ-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments ([0033] there may be at least one PDSCH group being transmitted between the transmission of the first PDSCH group PG11 and the transmission of the second PDSCH group PG12 and BS 102 may receive and decode first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11 successfully during the transmission of the at least one PDSCH group. [0049] In some embodiments, when BS 102 receives and decodes the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB13 successfully, BS 102 may indicate UE 101 to clear the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11, which is included in the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB13, from the buffer of UE 101.);
Lei fails to disclose a method, comprising: determining a length of a second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on the decoding of the first part; decoding the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with the determined length.
However, Lee discloses a method, comprising: determining a length of a second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on the decoding of the first part ([0174] a length EUCI of an output sequence of rate matching of coded bits in the payload by a terminal apparatus is given based on a first number OCRC of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits, the first number OCRC of CRC bits is given based on a size of the payload, and a size of second CRC bits added to the payload is given based on the size of the payload and the length EUCI of the output sequence of the rate matching. Here, the base station apparatus may decode the payload of the UCI based on the length EUCI of the output sequence.);
decoding the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with the determined length ([0174] A third aspect according to the present embodiment is a base station apparatus including a receiver configured to decode a payload of uplink control information (UCI) and receive the UCI, wherein the payload includes part or all of hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information).
Lei and Lee are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of bundling techniques for HARQ-ACK feedback.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Lee to create a method, comprising: determining a length of a second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on the decoding of the first part; decoding the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with the determined length.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to reduce the amount of HARQ-ACK bits that are transmitted to reduce network traffic and latency.
Lei fails to disclose a method, comprising: the length of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
However, Li discloses a method, comprising: the length of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: When the number of bits of the DFI is smaller than the number of bits corresponding to the DCI format, the PDCCH size including the DFI and the corresponding DCI format size alignment are implemented by padding zero.).
Lei and Li are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques to feedback hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement codebook.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Li to create a method, comprising: the length of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to improve the feedback HARQ-ACK efficiency for downlink physical downlink shared channel transmission.
Lei fails to disclose a method, comprising: reconstructing a first value for all bits of an original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the first value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook; and reconstructing a second value for each bit of the original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the second value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook.
However, Huang discloses a method, comprising: reconstructing a first value for all bits of an original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the first value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook; and ([0063] A scheduled entity 106 performs a HARQ integrity check on each received RB individually or in discrete groups, such as code blocks or transport blocks (TBs), and encodes the result of each check, e.g., in a single bit (an “A/N bit”) with a value indicating the integrity was either confirmed (ACK) or not confirmed (NACK). The HARQ feedback included in UCI 118 may include the resulting A/N bits. In an example from known telecommunications networks, the A/N bits are concatenated in a sequence, known as a HARQ-ACK codebook, which may be defined in DCI and allows the scheduling entity 108 to associate each A/N bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.)
reconstructing a second value for each bit of the original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the second value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook ([0063] A scheduled entity 106 performs a HARQ integrity check on each received RB individually or in discrete groups, such as code blocks or transport blocks (TBs), and encodes the result of each check, e.g., in a single bit (an “A/N bit”) with a value indicating the integrity was either confirmed (ACK) or not confirmed (NACK). The HARQ feedback included in UCI 118 may include the resulting A/N bits. In an example from known telecommunications networks, the A/N bits are concatenated in a sequence, known as a HARQ-ACK codebook, which may be defined in DCI and allows the scheduling entity 108 to associate each A/N bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.).
Lei and Huang are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques to code a HARQ-ACK payload of uplink control information.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Huang to create a method, comprising: reconstructing a first value for all bits of an original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the first value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook; and reconstructing a second value for each bit of the original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the second value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook..
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to address scenarios where different downlink transmissions have varying priorities.
Regarding claim 26, Lei discloses an apparatus, comprising: at least one memory; and ([0135] the apparatus 50 may include at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), a receiving circuitry 501, a transmitting circuitry 503, and a processor 505 coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), the receiving circuitry 501 and the transmitting circuitry 503. The apparatus 50 may be a base station or a user equipment.)
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured ([0135] the apparatus 50 may include at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), a receiving circuitry 501, a transmitting circuitry 503, and a processor 505 coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium (not illustrated in FIG. 9), the receiving circuitry 501 and the transmitting circuitry 503. The apparatus 50 may be a base station or a user equipment.):
to decode a first part of a two part hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) payload received from a user equipment (UE), the first part indicating whether quantized HARQ-ACK bits indicate all positive acknowledgments ([0033] there may be at least one PDSCH group being transmitted between the transmission of the first PDSCH group PG11 and the transmission of the second PDSCH group PG12 and BS 102 may receive and decode first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11 successfully during the transmission of the at least one PDSCH group. [0049] In some embodiments, when BS 102 receives and decodes the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB13 successfully, BS 102 may indicate UE 101 to clear the first HARQ-ACK codebook CB11, which is included in the combined HARQ-ACK codebook CB13, from the buffer of UE 101.);
Lei fails to disclose an apparatus, configured: to determine a length of a second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on the decoding of the first part; to decode the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with the determined length.
However, Lee discloses an apparatus, configured: to determine a length of a second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on the decoding of the first part ([0174] a length EUCI of an output sequence of rate matching of coded bits in the payload by a terminal apparatus is given based on a first number OCRC of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits, the first number OCRC of CRC bits is given based on a size of the payload, and a size of second CRC bits added to the payload is given based on the size of the payload and the length EUCI of the output sequence of the rate matching. Here, the base station apparatus may decode the payload of the UCI based on the length EUCI of the output sequence.);
to decode the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with the determined length ([0174] A third aspect according to the present embodiment is a base station apparatus including a receiver configured to decode a payload of uplink control information (UCI) and receive the UCI, wherein the payload includes part or all of hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information);
Lei and Lee are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of bundling techniques for HARQ-ACK feedback.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Lee to create an apparatus, configured: to determine a length of a second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on the decoding of the first part; to decode the second part of the two part HARQ-ACK payload in accordance with the determined length.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to reduce the amount of HARQ-ACK bits that are transmitted to reduce network traffic and latency.
Lei fails to disclose an apparatus, comprising: the length of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
However, Li discloses an apparatus, comprising: the length of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements (Col. 11, Ln. 48-51: When the number of bits of the DFI is smaller than the number of bits corresponding to the DCI format, the PDCCH size including the DFI and the corresponding DCI format size alignment are implemented by padding zero.).
Lei and Li are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of techniques to feedback hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement codebook.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Li to create an apparatus, comprising: the length of the second part being zero when the first part indicates all positive acknowledgements.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to improve the feedback HARQ-ACK efficiency for downlink physical downlink shared channel transmission.
Lei fails to disclose an apparatus, configured: to reconstruct a first value for all bits of an original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the first value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook; and to reconstruct a second value for each bit of the original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the second value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook.
However, Huang discloses an apparatus, configured: to reconstruct a first value for all bits of an original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the first value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook; and ([0063] A scheduled entity 106 performs a HARQ integrity check on each received RB individually or in discrete groups, such as code blocks or transport blocks (TBs), and encodes the result of each check, e.g., in a single bit (an “A/N bit”) with a value indicating the integrity was either confirmed (ACK) or not confirmed (NACK). The HARQ feedback included in UCI 118 may include the resulting A/N bits. In an example from known telecommunications networks, the A/N bits are concatenated in a sequence, known as a HARQ-ACK codebook, which may be defined in DCI and allows the scheduling entity 108 to associate each A/N bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.)
to reconstruct a second value for each bit of the original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the second value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook ([0063] A scheduled entity 106 performs a HARQ integrity check on each received RB individually or in discrete groups, such as code blocks or transport blocks (TBs), and encodes the result of each check, e.g., in a single bit (an “A/N bit”) with a value indicating the integrity was either confirmed (ACK) or not confirmed (NACK). The HARQ feedback included in UCI 118 may include the resulting A/N bits. In an example from known telecommunications networks, the A/N bits are concatenated in a sequence, known as a HARQ-ACK codebook, which may be defined in DCI and allows the scheduling entity 108 to associate each A/N bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.).
Lei and Huang are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor to code a HARQ-ACK payload of uplink control information.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei with Huang to create an apparatus, configured: to reconstruct a first value for all bits of an original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the first value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook; and to reconstruct a second value for each bit of the original HARQ-ACK codebook in response to detecting the second value in a bit of the second part corresponding to the original HARQ-ACK codebook.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to address scenarios where different downlink transmissions have varying priorities.
Claims 3, 12, 18, and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei in view of Li, Lee, and Huang as applied to claims 1, 11, 16, or 26 above, and further in view of Jiang et al (US20250055648A1) (hereinafter "Jiang").
Regarding claim 3, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, further comprising transmitting a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
However, Jiang discloses the method, further comprising transmitting a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0333] generating and transmitting an HARQ-ACK codebook by the terminal equipment, the codebook including HARQ-ACK information to which the candidate PDSCH reception occasion set corresponds. [0339] receiving, by a network device, capability indication information transmitted by a terminal equipment, the capability indication information being used to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Jiang are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK retransmission.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Jiang to create the method, further comprising transmitting a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot.
Regarding claim 12, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, further comprising receiving a UE capability signal indicating UE support for generating a sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
However, Jiang discloses the method, further comprising receiving a UE capability signal indicating UE support for generating a sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload ([0333] generating and transmitting an HARQ-ACK codebook by the terminal equipment, the codebook including HARQ-ACK information to which the candidate PDSCH reception occasion set corresponds. [0339] receiving, by a network device, capability indication information transmitted by a terminal equipment, the capability indication information being used to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Jiang are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK retransmission.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Jiang to create the method, further comprising receiving a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot.
Regarding claim 18, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
However, Jiang discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload. ([0333] generating and transmitting an HARQ-ACK codebook by the terminal equipment, the codebook including HARQ-ACK information to which the candidate PDSCH reception occasion set corresponds. [0339] receiving, by a network device, capability indication information transmitted by a terminal equipment, the capability indication information being used to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Jiang are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK retransmission.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Jiang to create the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot.
Regarding claim 27, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to receive a UE capability signal indicating UE support for generating a sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
However, Jiang discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to receive a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload. ([0333] generating and transmitting an HARQ-ACK codebook by the terminal equipment, the codebook including HARQ-ACK information to which the candidate PDSCH reception occasion set corresponds. [0339] receiving, by a network device, capability indication information transmitted by a terminal equipment, the capability indication information being used to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Jiang are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK retransmission.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Jiang to create the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to receive a UE capability signal indicating UE support of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits concatenated with the transforming the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of receiving more than one PDSCH per slot.
Claims 4, 13, 19, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei in view of Li, Lee, and Huang as applied to claims 1, 11, 16, or 26 above, and further in view of He et al (US20220311555A1) (hereinafter "He").
Regarding claim 4, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, further comprising receiving a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
However, He discloses the method, further comprising receiving a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0057] the gNB 120A may configure the UE 110 to perform the UCI multiplexing, including both HARQ-ACK bundling operation in FIG. 3/4/5/6 as well as the HARQ-ACK concatenation operation described in FIG. 7, in the PUCCH and/or the PUSCH. This configuration may be signaled to the UE 110 through higher layers (e.g., RRC signaling or a MAC CE) or through PDCCH signaling.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and He are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of uplink control information reporting.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with He to create the method, further comprising receiving a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to correctly receive the scheduled feedback corresponding HARQ-ACK information, thereby avoiding unnecessary retransmission.
Regarding claim 13, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, further comprising transmitting a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
However, He discloses the method, further comprising transmitting a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0057] the gNB 120A may configure the UE 110 to perform the UCI multiplexing, including both HARQ-ACK bundling operation in FIG. 3/4/5/6 as well as the HARQ-ACK concatenation operation described in FIG. 7, in the PUCCH and/or the PUSCH. This configuration may be signaled to the UE 110 through higher layers (e.g., RRC signaling or a MAC CE) or through PDCCH signaling.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and He are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of uplink control information reporting.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with He to create the method, further comprising transmitting a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to correctly receive the scheduled feedback corresponding HARQ-ACK information, thereby avoiding unnecessary retransmission.
Regarding claim 19, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to receive a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
However, He discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to receive a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0057] the gNB 120A may configure the UE 110 to perform the UCI multiplexing, including both HARQ-ACK bundling operation in FIG. 3/4/5/6 as well as the HARQ-ACK concatenation operation described in FIG. 7, in the PUCCH and/or the PUSCH. This configuration may be signaled to the UE 110 through higher layers (e.g., RRC signaling or a MAC CE) or through PDCCH signaling.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and He are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of uplink control information reporting.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, with He to create the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to receive a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to correctly receive the scheduled feedback corresponding HARQ-ACK information, thereby avoiding unnecessary retransmission.
Regarding claim 28, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
However, He discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling ([0057] the gNB 120A may configure the UE 110 to perform the UCI multiplexing, including both HARQ-ACK bundling operation in FIG. 3/4/5/6 as well as the HARQ-ACK concatenation operation described in FIG. 7, in the PUCCH and/or the PUSCH. This configuration may be signaled to the UE 110 through higher layers (e.g., RRC signaling or a MAC CE) or through PDCCH signaling.).
Lei, as modified by Li, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of uplink control information reporting.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with He to create the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a configuration for concatenating the generating of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the configuration comprising downlink control information (DCI) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to correctly receive the scheduled feedback corresponding HARQ-ACK information, thereby avoiding unnecessary retransmission.
Claims 5, 14, 20, and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei in view of Li, Lee, and Huang as applied to claims 1, 11, 16, or 26 above, and further in view of Ye et al (US20230345482A1) (hereinafter "Ye").
Regarding claim 5, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the converting, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the bundling and the converting.
However, Ye discloses the method, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the converting, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the bundling and the converting ([0006] The operations include transmitting at least a first downlink control information (DCI) to a user equipment (UE), the first DCI scheduling multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) across multiple cells of the UE, receiving a Type 2 hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based at least in part on a number of DCI received scheduling PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK codebook, wherein the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook is further based on whether HARQ-ACK bundling across cells is enabled for the UE and processing the physical uplink channel according to the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook construction to determine HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Ye are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK codebook and DCI scheduling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, with Ye to create the method, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the converting, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the bundling and the converting.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to provide support in the bundling of HARQ-ACK information.
Regarding claim 14, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the generating, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the generating and the transforming.
However, Ye discloses the method, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the generating, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the generating and the transforming ([0006] The operations include transmitting at least a first downlink control information (DCI) to a user equipment (UE), the first DCI scheduling multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) across multiple cells of the UE, receiving a Type 2 hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based at least in part on a number of DCI received scheduling PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK codebook, wherein the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook is further based on whether HARQ-ACK bundling across cells is enabled for the UE and processing the physical uplink channel according to the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook construction to determine HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Ye are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK codebook and DCI scheduling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Ye to create the method, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the generating, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the generating and the transforming.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to provide support in the bundling of HARQ-ACK information.
Regarding claim 20, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the converting, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the bundling and the converting.
However, Ye discloses the apparatus, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the converting, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the bundling and the converting ([0006] The operations include transmitting at least a first downlink control information (DCI) to a user equipment (UE), the first DCI scheduling multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) across multiple cells of the UE, receiving a Type 2 hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based at least in part on a number of DCI received scheduling PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK codebook, wherein the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook is further based on whether HARQ-ACK bundling across cells is enabled for the UE and processing the physical uplink channel according to the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook construction to determine HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Ye are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK codebook and DCI scheduling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Ye to create the apparatus, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the converting, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the bundling and the converting.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to provide support in the bundling of HARQ-ACK information.
Regarding claim 29, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the generating, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the generating and the transforming.
However, Ye discloses the apparatus, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the generating, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the generating and the transforming ([0006] The operations include transmitting at least a first downlink control information (DCI) to a user equipment (UE), the first DCI scheduling multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) across multiple cells of the UE, receiving a Type 2 hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based at least in part on a number of DCI received scheduling PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK codebook, wherein the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook is further based on whether HARQ-ACK bundling across cells is enabled for the UE and processing the physical uplink channel according to the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook construction to determine HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH.).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Ye are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK codebook and DCI scheduling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Ye to create the apparatus, in which the DCI dynamically enables or disables the concatenating by at least one of: enabling the concatenating, disabling the concatenating and performing the generating, disabling the concatenating and performing the transforming the quantized HARQ-ACK bits, or disabling both the generating and the transforming.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to provide support in the bundling of HARQ-ACK information.
Claims 6, 15, 21, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei in view of Li, Lee, and Huang as applied to claims 1, 11, 16, or 26 above, and further in view of Noh et al (US20120314671A1) (hereinafter "Noh").
Regarding claim 6, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, further comprising enabling concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the enabling being based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of the block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
However, Noh discloses the method, further comprising enabling concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the enabling being based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of the block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits ([0120] In the case of the TDD HARQ-ACK bundling mode, a bit sequence q0ACK, . . . , q QACK-1ACK may be obtained by concatenating a plurality of encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. Here, QACK is the total number of encoded bits within all the encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. The concatenation of the last HARQ-ACK block may be partially performed in order to match the total length of the bit sequence with QACK).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Noh are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK signaling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Noh to create the method, further comprising enabling concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the enabling being based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of the block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to associate each bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.
Regarding claim 15, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the method, in which enabling concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload is based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of a block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
However, Noh discloses the method, in which enabling concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload is based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of a block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits ([0120] In the case of the TDD HARQ-ACK bundling mode, a bit sequence q0ACK, . . . , q QACK-1ACK may be obtained by concatenating a plurality of encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. Here, QACK is the total number of encoded bits within all the encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. The concatenation of the last HARQ-ACK block may be partially performed in order to match the total length of the bit sequence with QACK).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Noh are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK signaling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Noh to create the method, in which enabling concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload is based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of a block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to associate each bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.
Regarding claim 21, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to enable concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the at least one processor enables based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of the block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
However, Noh discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to enable concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the at least one processor enables based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of the block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits ([0120] In the case of the TDD HARQ-ACK bundling mode, a bit sequence q0ACK, . . . , q QACK-1ACK may be obtained by concatenating a plurality of encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. Here, QACK is the total number of encoded bits within all the encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. The concatenation of the last HARQ-ACK block may be partially performed in order to match the total length of the bit sequence with QACK).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Noh are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK signaling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Noh to create the apparatus, in which the at least one processor is further configured to enable concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload, the at least one processor enables based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of the block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to associate each bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.
Regarding claim 30, Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, fails to disclose the apparatus, in which the at least one processor enables concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of a block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
However, Noh discloses the apparatus, in which the at least one processor enables concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of a block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits ([0120] In the case of the TDD HARQ-ACK bundling mode, a bit sequence q0ACK, . . . , q QACK-1ACK may be obtained by concatenating a plurality of encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. Here, QACK is the total number of encoded bits within all the encoded HARQ-ACK blocks. The concatenation of the last HARQ-ACK block may be partially performed in order to match the total length of the bit sequence with QACK).
Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, and Noh are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because both are in the same endeavor of HARQ-ACK signaling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a motivation to combine the teachings of Lei, as modified by Li, Lee, and Huang, with Noh to create the apparatus, in which the at least one processor enables concatenating of the generating the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits with the transforming of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits into the two part HARQ-ACK payload based on at least one or more of a length of the original HARQ-ACK codebook, a length of a block of HARQ-ACK bits, or a length of the sequence of bundled HARQ-ACK bits.
The motivation to combine both references would come from the need to associate each bit with a corresponding transport block and to determine which DL transmissions produced a NACK and are to be retransmitted.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 11, 16, and 26, and associated dependent claims have been considered, but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
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/D LITTLE/ Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419