DETAILED ACTION
The instant application having Application No. 18/475861 filed on 09/27/2023 is presented for examination by the examiner.
Claims 1-16, 18-21 are pending. Claim 17 was cancelled.
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 . In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection.
Allowable Subject Matters
Claims 6, 8, 10 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. Claim 9, 11-12 are objected since they depend on claims 8 and 10 respectively.
Claim 18 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if (i) rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. And (ii) the claims objection is overcome.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informality:
In this case, claim 18 recites limitation for performing certain step(s) only if a specific condition is satisfied (Conditional Statement). Such limitations are considered as optional limitations since they are not performed until specific conditions are met. Applicant should change the word “if” to “responsive to determining that…..” in order to alter an optional limitation to a required limitation. For the purpose of examination, claimed limitations will be considered as optional limitations since they are not performed until specific conditions are met.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 7, 13, 15, 16, 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Falahati et al. (US 2024/0283579 A1).
As per claim 1, Falahati discloses “A wireless communication method, comprising: determining, by a user equipment, a plurality of shared channels that are valid for constructing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) codebook for a first time slot, wherein the plurality of shared channels are determined based on locations of the plurality of shared channels relative to one or more second time slots;” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2. Hence, each code-book would have three entries based on K.sub.1 values without overlapping between PDSCHs. (par. 0072), the number of X UL sub-slots and X sets of K.sub.1 values each corresponding to one UL sub-slot are indicated to the UE by higher layer configurations or by implicit rules, such as, all the possible K.sub.1 values are divided into X sets where each set includes a number of K.sub.1 values, for example, with consecutive K.sub.1 values in each set (the number of K.sub.1 values in a set is based on the rule, e.g., (almost) same number of K.sub.1 values in all sub-slots). Depending on the X, the first or last set can have a smaller size as compared to the other sets. An example is illustrated in FIG. 9, which illustrates K.sub.1 indication for two PUCCHs that carry the HARQ feedback of three DL slots with grouping of PDSCHs based on a K.sub.1 and sub-slot index..] “determining, by the user equipment, one or more groups of shared channels for the plurality of shared channels for the first time slot, wherein each group of shared channels comprises at least one shared channel from the plurality of shared channels;” [(par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2. Hence, each code-book would have three entries based on K.sub.1 values without overlapping between PDSCHs. (par. 0072), the number of X UL sub-slots and X sets of K.sub.1 values each corresponding to one UL sub-slot are indicated to the UE by higher layer configurations or by implicit rules, such as, all the possible K.sub.1 values are divided into X sets where each set includes a number of K.sub.1 values, for example, with consecutive K.sub.1 values in each set (the number of K.sub.1 values in a set is based on the rule, e.g., (almost) same number of K.sub.1 values in all sub-slots). Depending on the X, the first or last set can have a smaller size as compared to the other sets. An example is illustrated in FIG. 9, which illustrates K.sub.1 indication for two PUCCHs that carry the HARQ feedback of three DL slots with grouping of PDSCHs based on a K.sub.1 and sub-slot index.] “and transmitting, by the user equipment, the HARQ-ACK codebook” [(par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2. Hence, each code-book would have three entries based on K.sub.1 values without overlapping between PDSCHs. (par. 0072), the number of X UL sub-slots and X sets of K.sub.1 values each corresponding to one UL sub-slot are indicated to the UE by higher layer configurations or by implicit rules, such as, all the possible K.sub.1 values are divided into X sets where each set includes a number of K.sub.1 values, for example, with consecutive K.sub.1 values in each set (the number of K.sub.1 values in a set is based on the rule, e.g., (almost) same number of K.sub.1 values in all sub-slots). Depending on the X, the first or last set can have a smaller size as compared to the other sets. An example is illustrated in FIG. 9, which illustrates K.sub.1 indication for two PUCCHs that carry the HARQ feedback of three DL slots with grouping of PDSCHs based on a K.sub.1 and sub-slot index.]
As per claim 2, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein HARQ-ACK information in the HARQ-ACK codebook transmission indicates whether one or more shared channels received by the user equipment from the plurality of shared channels are successfully received within the first time slot” par. 0072), the number of X UL sub-slots and X sets of K.sub.1 values each corresponding to one UL sub-slot are indicated to the UE by higher layer configurations or by implicit rules, such as, all the possible K.sub.1 values are divided into X sets where each set includes a number of K.sub.1 values, for example, with consecutive K.sub.1 values in each set (the number of K.sub.1 values in a set is based on the rule, e.g., (almost) same number of K.sub.1 values in all sub-slots). Depending on the X, the first or last set can have a smaller size as compared to the other sets. An example is illustrated in FIG. 9, which illustrates K.sub.1 indication for two PUCCHs that carry the HARQ feedback of three DL slots with grouping of PDSCHs based on a K.sub.1 and sub-slot index.]
As per claim 3, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein the user equipment performs the HARQ-ACK codebook transmission by constructing a type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook based on HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the one or more groups” [(par. 0128), The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein for Type I HARQ codebooks, the difference between possible maximum and minimum K.sub.1 values for PDSCHs in each group is used to determine the size of the codebook for a PUCCH transmission in a corresponding UL sub-slot.]
As per claim 4, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 3,” as [see rejection of claim 3.] “wherein the user equipment determines that the first time slot is associated with the type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook in response to determining that: (1) a slot length of the first time slot is same as that of a second time slot, and (2) the first time slot overlaps with the second time slot” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2.]
As per claim 5, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein the one or more second time slots are determined based on: (1) a time slot where the HARQ-ACK codebook transmission is performed, and (2) a set of one or more feedback timing related values” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2.]
As per claim 7, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein the plurality of shared channels include only shared channels that have last symbols in time domain that overlap with the one or more second time slots” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2.]
As per claim 13, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein the plurality of shared channels include a plurality of physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs)” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2.]
As per claim 15, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein a number of symbols in a second time slot is same as a number of symbols in a sub-slot in the second time slot in response to the sub-slot being configured for the user equipment” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2.]
As per claim 18, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein a shared channel of the plurality of shared channels is valid for constructing the HARQ-ACK codebook if an end symbol of the shared channel overlaps with a determined uplink (UL) sub-slot, and wherein the shared channel is invalid for constructing the HARQ-ACK codebook if an end symbol of the shared channel does not overlap with a determined UL sub-slot” [(par. 0070), As shown here, the three DL slots are divided into two parts; for example, with the same durations, each 1.5 DL slots long. The group of PDSCHs in three DL slots is divided into two groups, PDSCH group 1 and PDSCH group 2. (par. 0070), The PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback indications (which are in units of sub-slots) in this case are spilt based on the boundary of the PDSCH grouping. In other words, with two PUCCHs and the corresponding division of the PDSCHs into two groups, the K.sub.1 values for the first PDSCH group are 6, 5, 4; and K.sub.1 values for the second PDSCH group are 4, 3, and 2.]
As per claim 19, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein each group of the one or more groups of shared channels generates a corresponding HARQ-ACK to construct a type1 HARQ-ACK codebook” [(par. 0017), [0017] As Illustrated in FIG. 4 for the semi-static HARQ codebook (or Type I HARQ codebook), the possible K.sub.1 values (that is in units of sub-slot) corresponding to PUCCH1 and PUCCH2 for PDSCH1 to PDSCH6 would be {6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1} and {7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2}, respectively.]
As per claim 20, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.] “wherein in response to an end symbol of a shared channel of the plurality of shared channels being received in slot n−k1, a HARQ-ACK corresponding to the shared channel is transmitted in slot n” as [(fig. 9.)]
As per claim 16, as [see rejection of claim 1.]
As per claim 21, as [see rejection of claim 1.]
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Falahati et al. (US 2024/0283579 A1) in view of Rastegardoost et al. (US 2023/0023656 A1).
As per claim 14, Falahati discloses “The method of claim 1,” as [see rejection of claim 1.]
Falahati does not explicitly disclose “wherein the one or more groups of shared channels include one or more start and length indicator value (SLIV) groups”.
However, Rastegardoost discloses “wherein the one or more groups of shared channels include one or more start and length indicator value (SLIV) groups” as [(par. 0298), he wireless device may receive a first DCI scheduling one or more downlink assignments via one or more PDSCHs. The first DCI may be a DL DCI. The first DCI may comprise the following fields: time domain resource assignment (TDRA) indicating a slot offset (K0) from the first DCI to the PDSCH(s) and/or a starting symbol and/or an allocation length (e.g. start and length indicator (SLIV), or S and L) and/or a mapping type of the PDSCH(s); a HARQ process number associated with the PDSCH(s); a downlink assignment index (DAI) for determining a HARQ-ACK codebook associated with the HARQ-ACK of the PDSCH(s); a PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) for transmission of the HARQ-ACK of the PDSCH(s); a HARQ feedback timing value (e.g. PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator (K1)), indicating a slot offset from a reception of the PDSCH to a slot where the PUCCH comprising the HARQ-ACK is to be transmitted; a one-shot HARQ-ACK request; a PDSCH group index; a new feedback indicator (NFI); and/or a number of requested PDSCH groups.]
Falahati et al. (US 2024/0283579 A1) and Rastegardoost et al. (US 2023/0023656 A1) are analogous art because they are the same field of endeavor of network communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Rastegardoost’s teaching into Falahati’s teaching. The motivation for making the above modification would be to allow the UE to identify the timing for receiving the PDSCH transmission.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANG HANG YEUNG whose telephone number is (571)270-7319. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached on (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MANG HANG YEUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463