DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/03/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 6, 10-17, 19, and 25-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abotabl et al. (US 2022/0294602 A1), hereinafter referred to as Abotabl, in view of Luo et al. (US 2020/0396599 A1), hereinafter referred to as Luo.
Regarding claim 1, Abotabl teaches a user equipment (UE) (Abotabl – Paragraph [0005], note user equipment (UE) for wireless communication), comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code (Abotabl – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0005], note UE includes a memory; Paragraph [0048], note memory 282 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions (e.g., code and/or program code) for wireless communication); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code (Abotabl – Paragraph [0005], note one or more processors coupled to the memory; Paragraph [0048], note the one or more instructions, when executed (e.g., directly, or after compiling, converting, and/or interpreting) by one or more processors of the UE may cause the one or more processors of the UE to perform or direct operations of, for example, process 800 of Fig. 8) to cause the UE to:
receive first control signaling comprising an indication of a time duration pattern for wireless communication with a network via a plurality of time intervals, the plurality of time intervals comprising a first set of downlink time intervals, a second set of uplink time intervals, a third set of flexible time intervals, or any combination thereof (Abotabl – Fig. 8; Paragraph [0154], note process 800 may include receiving, by the UE from a base station (e.g., base station 110 and/or apparatus 1100 of Fig. 11), an indication of at least two time domain patterns (which may each include a quantity of downlink slots, a quantity of flexible slots, and/or a quantity of uplink slots, see Paragraph [0067]));
receive second control signaling designating one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals for wireless communications by the UE associated with a full duplex mode (Abotabl – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0067], note in some aspects, the first time domain pattern 502 may include a slot format pattern associated with a full duplex mode; Paragraph [0068], note a base station may instruct (using a broadcast message, a message associated with the UE, and/or an SFI included in DCI, see Paragraph [0085]) a UE to switch from the first time domain pattern 502 to the second time domain pattern 508); and
simultaneously transmit uplink signaling and receiving downlink signaling via the one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals according to the indication (Abotabl – Fig. 8; Paragraphs [0155]-[0156], note process 800 may include the UE transmitting or receiving based at least in part on a first pattern and a second pattern of the at least two time domain patterns; transmitting and receiving may be performed simultaneously according to SBFD (sub-band full duplex) slots, see Paragraphs [0067] and [0069]).
Abotabl does not teach simultaneously transmitting uplink signaling and receiving downlink signaling via the one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals according to the full duplex mode supported by the UE.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches simultaneously transmitting uplink signaling and receiving downlink signaling via the one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals according to the full duplex mode supported by the UE (Luo – Paragraph [0030], note the UE may be configured to operate configuration component to transmit a capability indication message to a network entity, where the capability indication message includes a sidelink capability; Paragraph [0031], note the network entity may transmit a configuration message to the UE in response to the capability indication message, wherein the configuration message includes one or more configuration parameters based on the sidelink capability; Paragraphs [0073]-[0074], note transmitting the sidelink duplexing mode capability comprises transmitting one or any combination of: a transmit full-duplex mode capability, a receive full-duplex mode capability, a full duplex mode capability, etc.; Paragraph [0083], note wherein establishing the communication link further comprises transmitting, by the UE, to one or more network entities using one or more access link while concurrently being able to receive from one or multiple ones of secondary UEs using a respective sidelink or respective multiple sidelinks).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Abotabl in order for the base station to configure resources for a UE according to full-duplex mode capability indicated by the UE (Luo – Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Abotabl and Luo, specifically Abotabl teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive, via the second control signaling, an indication of at least one uplink subband for the uplink signaling and at least one downlink subband for the downlink signaling corresponding to the one or more time intervals according to the full duplex mode, wherein transmitting the uplink signaling via the one or more time intervals is based at least in part on the indication of the at least one uplink subband, and receiving the downlink signaling via the one or more time intervals is based at least in part on the indication of the at least one downlink subband (Abotabl – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0069], note the second time domain pattern 508 (indicated by an RRC message, a MAC-CE, and/or DCI including an index and/or another indicator, see Paragraph [0078]) includes two SBFD slots in place of what were downlink slots in the first time domain pattern 502, in example 500, each SBFD (sub-band full duplex) slot includes a partial slot (e.g., a portion or sub-band of a frequency allocated for use by the base station 110 and the UE 120) for downlink (e.g., partial slots 512a, 512b, 512c, and 512d, as shown in example 500) and a partial slot for uplink (e.g., partial slots 514a and 514b, as shown in example 500)).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Abotabl and Luo, specifically Abotabl teaches wherein the second control signaling designates one or more downlink time intervals of the first set of downlink time intervals for the wireless communications by the UE according to the full duplex mode, and wherein the uplink signaling is transmitted via the at least one uplink subband during the designated one or more downlink time intervals and the downlink signaling is received via the at least one downlink subband during the designated one or more uplink time intervals (Abotabl – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0069], note the second time domain pattern 508 includes two SBFD slots in place of what were downlink slots in the first time domain pattern 502, in example 500, each SBFD (sub-band full duplex) slot includes a partial slot (e.g., a portion or sub-band of a frequency allocated for use by the base station 110 and the UE 120) for downlink (e.g., partial slots 512a, 512b, 512c, and 512d, as shown in example 500) and a partial slot for uplink (e.g., partial slots 514a and 514b, as shown in example 500)).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Abotabl and Luo, specifically Abotabl teaches wherein the second control signaling designates one or more uplink time intervals of the second set of uplink time intervals for the wireless communications by the UE according to the full duplex mode, and wherein the uplink signaling is transmitted via the at least one uplink subband during the designated one or more uplink time intervals and the downlink signaling is received via the at least one downlink subband during the designated one or more downlink time intervals (Abotabl – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0069], note the second time domain pattern 508 includes two SBFD slots in place of what were downlink slots (interchangeable with uplink slots, see Paragraph [0070]) in the first time domain pattern 502, in example 500, each SBFD (sub-band full duplex) slot includes a partial slot (e.g., a portion or sub-band of a frequency allocated for use by the base station 110 and the UE 120) for downlink (e.g., partial slots 512a, 512b, 512c, and 512d, as shown in example 500) and a partial slot for uplink (e.g., partial slots 514a and 514b, as shown in example 500)).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Abotabl and Luo, specifically Abotabl teaches wherein the full duplex mode supported by the UE comprises a subband full duplex mode, or a partially overlapping full duplex mode, and wherein receiving the indication of the at least one uplink subband and the at least one downlink subband is based at least in part on the subband full duplex mode or the partially overlapping full duplex mode supported by the UE (Abotabl – Paragraph [0073], note UE using a time domain pattern, the time domain pattern may be associated with a sub-band full duplex mode, paired band full duplex mode).
Regarding claim 10, Abotabl does not teach wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: receive, via the second control signaling, an indication that the full duplex mode applies to each of the one or more time intervals in a UE supported full duplex mode.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive, via the second control signaling, an indication that the full duplex mode applies to each of the one or more time intervals in a UE supported full duplex mode (Luo – Paragraph [0031], note the network entity may transmit a configuration message to the UE in response to the capability indication message (indicating full-duplex mode capability, see Paragraphs [0073]-[0074]), wherein the configuration message includes one or more configuration parameters based on the sidelink capability, the network entity may help the UE to establish a communication link based on the one or more configuration parameters).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Abotabl for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Abotabl and Luo, specifically Abotabl teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive a control message, wherein a first set of fields of the control message comprises the first control signaling and a second set of fields of the control message comprises the second control signaling (Abotabl – Paragraph [0085], note a message associated with the UE, such as TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated data structure that the base station used to instruct the UE to switch from the first time domain pattern 602 to the second time domain pattern 604; Paragraph [0129], note the base station may transmit, and the UE may receive, an indication of at least two time domain patterns, for example, the base station may transmit an RRC message, a MAC-CE, and/or DCI, as described above in connection with Figs. 6A-6C; an RRC message indicating at least two time domain patterns may also include an instruction for the UE to switch from the first time domain pattern to the second time domain pattern).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Abotabl and Luo, specifically Abotabl teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
receive a first control message comprising the first control signaling (Abotabl – Paragraph [0129], note the base station may transmit, and the UE may receive, an indication of at least two time domain patterns, for example, the base station may transmit an RRC message, a MAC-CE, and/or DCI, as described above in connection with Figs. 6A-6C); and
receive a second control message comprising the second control signaling (Abotabl – Paragraph [0085], note a broadcast message, such as TDD-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon data structure, a message associated with the UE, such as TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated data structure, and/or an SFI included in DCI format 2_0 that the base station used to instruct the UE to switch from the first time domain pattern to the second time domain pattern).
Regarding claim 13, Abotabl does not teach wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: transmit capability information comprising an indication that the UE supports the full duplex mode at the UE side, wherein receiving the second control signaling is based at least in part on the capability information.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to:
transmit capability information comprising an indication that the UE supports the full duplex mode at the UE side, wherein receiving the second control signaling is based at least in part on the capability information (Luo – Paragraph [0030], note the UE may be configured to operate configuration component to transmit a capability indication message to a network entity, where the capability indication message includes a sidelink capability; Paragraphs [0073]-[0074], note transmitting the sidelink duplexing mode capability comprises transmitting one or any combination of: a transmit full-duplex mode capability, a receive full-duplex mode capability, a full duplex mode capability, etc.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Abotabl for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 14, Abotabl teaches a network entity (Abotabl – Paragraph [0006], note a base station for wireless communication), comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code (Abotabl – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0006], note base station includes a memory; Paragraph [0048], note memory 242 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions (e.g., code and/or program code) for wireless communication); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code (Abotabl – Paragraph [0006], note one or more processors coupled to the memory; Paragraph [0048], note the one or more instructions, when executed (e.g., directly, or after compiling, converting, and/or interpreting) by one or more processors of the base station may cause the one or more processors of the base station to perform or direct operations of, for example, process 800 of Fig. 8) to cause the network entity to:
transmit first control signaling comprising an indication of a time duration pattern for wireless communication with a user equipment (UE) via a plurality of time intervals, the plurality of time intervals comprising a first set of downlink time intervals, a second set of uplink time intervals, a third set of flexible time intervals, or any combination thereof (Abotabl – Fig. 8; Paragraph [0154], note process 800 may include receiving, by the UE from a base station (e.g., base station 110 and/or apparatus 1100 of Fig. 11), an indication of at least two time domain patterns (which may each include a quantity of downlink slots, a quantity of flexible slots, and/or a quantity of uplink slots, see Paragraph [0067]));
transmit second control signaling designating one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals for wireless communications by the UE associated with a full duplex mode (Abotabl – Fig. 5; Paragraph [0067], note in some aspects, the first time domain pattern 502 may include a slot format pattern associated with a full duplex mode; Paragraph [0068], note a base station may instruct (using a broadcast message, a message associated with the UE, and/or an SFI included in DCI, see Paragraph [0085]) a UE to switch from the first time domain pattern 502 to the second time domain pattern 508); and
receive uplink signaling, or transmitting downlink signaling, or both simultaneously, via the one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals according to the indication (Abotabl – Fig. 8; Paragraphs [0155]-[0156], note process 800 may include the UE transmitting or receiving based at least in part on a first pattern and a second pattern of the at least two time domain patterns; transmitting and receiving may be performed simultaneously according to SBFD (sub-band full duplex) slots, see Paragraphs [0067] and [0069]).
Abotabl does not teach receiving uplink signaling, or transmitting downlink signaling, or both simultaneously, via the one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals according to the full duplex mode supported by the UE.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches receiving uplink signaling, or transmitting downlink signaling, or both simultaneously, via the one or more time intervals of the plurality of time intervals according to the full duplex mode supported by the UE (Luo – Paragraph [0030], note the UE may be configured to operate configuration component to transmit a capability indication message to a network entity, where the capability indication message includes a sidelink capability; Paragraph [0031], note the network entity may transmit a configuration message to the UE in response to the capability indication message, wherein the configuration message includes one or more configuration parameters based on the sidelink capability; Paragraphs [0073]-[0074], note transmitting the sidelink duplexing mode capability comprises transmitting one or any combination of: a transmit full-duplex mode capability, a receive full-duplex mode capability, a full duplex mode capability, etc.; Paragraph [0083], note wherein establishing the communication link further comprises transmitting, by the UE, to one or more network entities using one or more access link while concurrently being able to receive from one or multiple ones of secondary UEs using a respective sidelink or respective multiple sidelinks).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Luo into Abotabl in order for the base station to configure resources for a UE according to full-duplex mode capability indicated by the UE (Luo – Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 2 above.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 3 above.
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 4 above.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 25, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 10 above.
Regarding claim 26, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 11 above.
Regarding claim 27, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 12 above.
Regarding claim 28, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 13 above.
Regarding claim 29, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above, except the claim is written in a method format.
Regarding claim 30, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 14 above, except the claim is written in a method format.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7-9, 18, and 20-24 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Applicant’s dependent claims recite:
wherein the second control signaling designates one or more flexible time intervals of the third set of flexible time intervals for the wireless communications by the UE according to the full duplex mode, and wherein the uplink signaling is transmitted via the at least one uplink subband during the designated one or more flexible time intervals and the downlink signaling is received via the at least one downlink subband during the designated one or more flexible time intervals;
receive, via the first control signaling, a first portion of the time duration pattern corresponding to a first cell or a first transmission reception point and a second portion of the time duration pattern corresponding to a second cell or a second transmission reception point; and receive, via the second control signaling, an indication of at least one uplink subband for the uplink signaling and at least one downlink subband for the downlink signaling corresponding to the one or more time intervals according to the full duplex mode; and
transmit, via a communication link, a message to a second network entity indicating at least one time interval of the one or more time intervals, a directionality of the one or more time intervals, a first set of one or more frequency resources for the full duplex operation, or a combination thereof, per cell of a plurality of cells, per component carrier of a plurality of component carriers, per distributed unit of a plurality of distributed units, per central unit of a plurality of central units, or any combination thereof; receive, via the communication link from the second network entity, a second message indicating at least a second time interval, a second directionality of the at least second time interval, a second set of one or more frequency resources for the full duplex operation, or a combination thereof, per cell of the plurality of cells, per component carrier of the plurality of component carriers, per distributed unit of the plurality of distributed units, per central unit of the plurality of central units, or any combination thereof; and transmit, via the second control signaling, an indication that the one or more time intervals correspond to the uplink signaling or the downlink signaling based at least in part on the message, the second message, or both, which are neither taught nor suggested by the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lin et al. (US 2012/0327821 A1) discloses first TDD configuration for a first cell and second TDD configuration for a second cell, and UE full duplex operation.
Abedini et al. (US 2022/0182130 A1) discloses TDD pattern for a repeater that can operate in full-duplex mode.
Abotabl et al. (US 2022/0271909 A1) discloses a base station converting one or more slots in a TDD pattern, and indicating full-duplex slots/symbols via TDD pattern or SFI.
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/BAILOR C HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461