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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/23/2026 has been entered.
Terms
Carrier aggregation configuration
[0117] For example, a base station 105 and a UE 115 may communicate according to a carrier aggregation configuration, such that a first CC of the carrier aggregation configuration is used to communicate with a PCell 405 and a second CC of the carrier aggregation configuration is used to communicate with an SCell 410.
Response to Arguments
35 USC § 103
Applicant's arguments filed 01/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the bitmap of Damnjanovic does not show “a first subfield comprising “a first subfield comprising a first bit value corresponding to a first downlink channel configuration for the first component carrier and a second subfield comprising a second bit value corresponding to a second downlink channel configuration for the second component carrier,” as stated in independent claim 1. The examiner respectfully disagrees.
Damnjanovic teaches the first and second subfield by virtue of teaching a bitmap which intrinsically contains fields and subfields. These fields then contain scheduling information for particular CCs to indicate which ones are scheduled, i.e. configured. The fact that there are a plurality of CCs scheduled by the bitmap inherently indicates a first and second CC being configured. The prior art is a clear one-to-one mapping of the claim language. The claims remain unpatentable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Independent Claims
Claim(s) 1, 18, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harada (WO-2021140675-A1) in view of Damnjanovic (US-20160227541).
As to claim 1, 18, 19: Harada teaches a method for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE), comprising: connecting to a network entity (enb / gnb) over a first component carrier and a second component carrier according to a carrier aggregation configuration (an upper limit on the size of a single DCI used when scheduling PDSCHs for multiple cells may be set. In the above example, it is assumed that PDSCH of a plurality of cells is scheduled with a single DCI, but the number of DCIs is not limited to this example and may be, for example, two or more. .. Further, scheduling to a plurality of cells means, for example, when CA including component carriers (CC) # 1, CC # 2, and CC # 3 is performed); … , and the second field comprising a rate matching indication for the first component carrier and the second component carrier (For example, in the example shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the DCI transmitted from the base station 20 via the PDCCH of CC # 1 schedules the transmission of PDSCHs of CC # 2 and CC # 3 to the terminal 10), wherein the rate matching indication comprises an indication of a rate matching resource group configured for the first component carrier of the carrier aggregation configuration and an indication that the second component carrier is not configured with a corresponding rate matching resource group (fig.3: rate match pattern group for various component carriers being on or off); determining a first rate matching resource for the first component carrier based at least in part on the rate matching indication (abstract and a control unit which, on the basis of rate matching configuration information included in the scheduling information, sets the rate matching configuration in the one or more second component carriers); and communicating with the network entity according to the carrier aggregation configuration based at least in part on the downlink control information comprising the rate matching indication (abstract terminal communicates according to the component carriers making up the carrier aggregation).
Harada may not explicitly teach receiving downlink control information comprising a first field and a second field, the first field comprising a first subfield comprising a first bit value corresponding to a first downlink channel configuration for the first component carrier, and a second subfield comprising a second bit value corresponding to a second downlink channel configuration for the second component carrier. However, Damnjanovic teaches receiving downlink control information comprising a first field and a second field, the first field comprising a first subfield comprising a first bit value corresponding to a first downlink channel configuration for the first component carrier, and a second subfield comprising a second bit value corresponding to a second downlink channel configuration for the second component carrier ([0049] CC configuration of the UE. A scheduling bitmap within the DCI may be employed to indicate which CCs of the configured CCs are scheduled—e.g., the number of bits in the bitmap may be equal to the number of configured CCs).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement DCI bitmap CC fields, taught by Damnjanovic, into the DCI, taught by Harada, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and enable cross carrier scheduling and carrier aggregation. In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Harada and Damnjanovic in a known manner to obtain predictable results as the combination would not change the essence, quiddity, or functionality of the prior art references.
Dependent Claims
Claim(s) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harada (WO-2021140675-A1), Damnjanovic (US-20160227541).
As to claim 2, 10: Harada teaches the UE of claim 1, 9, wherein the first rate matching resource is included in a plurality of common rate matching resources for the first component carrier based at least in part on the rate matching indication (fig.3, The DCI format 1_1, for example, Carrier indicator, Bandwidth-part indicator, Frequency-domain resource allocation, Time-domain resource allocation, VRB-to-PRB mapping, PRB bundling size indicator, Rate matching indicator, Zero-power CSI-RS trigger Etc. can be included as resource information).
As to claim 3, 11, 19: Harada teaches the UE of claim 2, 10, 18, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: receive, from the network entity, an indication of the plurality of common rate matching resources via radio resource control signaling (The notification of information is not limited to the mode / embodiment described in the present specification, and may be performed by other methods. For example, information notification includes physical layer signaling (for example, DCI (Broadcast Control Information), UCI (Uplink Control Information)), higher layer signaling (for example, RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling, MAC (Medium Access) Signaling). Broadcast information (MIB (Master Information Block), SIB (System Information Block)), other signals or a combination thereof may be used. RRC signaling may be referred to as an RRC message, for example, RRC. It may be a connection setup (RRC Signaling Setup) message, an RRC connection reconfiguration (RRC Signaling Configuration) message, or the like.).
As to claim 4, 13: Harada teaches the UE of claim 1, 9, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: refrain from performing a rate matching procedure for the second component carrier based at least in part on the indication that the second component carrier is not configured with the corresponding rate matching resource group (fig.3: rate match pattern group for various component carriers being on or off).
As to claim 5, 14, 20: Harada teaches the UE of claim 1, 9, 18, wherein the downlink control information comprises a zero power reference signal indication for the first component carrier and the second component carrier (Note that the above-mentioned Proposal 1 to Proposal 6 may be applied to the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field of DCI format 1_1. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the DCI transmitted from the base station 20 via the PDCCH of CC # 1 schedules the transmission of PDSCHs of CC # 2 and CC # 3 to the terminal 10. To do. Further, for example, if only one ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is set in CC # 2, and two aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet are set for CC # 3. Suppose. In this case, in the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field of DCI, in addition to the 1 bit indicating whether or not to set the aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS in CC # 2, the aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS is set in CC # 3. A total of 3 bits, 2 bits indicating whether or not to do so, may be included. The terminal 10 that has received the DCI via the PDCCH of the CC # 1 indicates whether or not the aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS is set in the CC # 2 included in the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field included in the DCI. Based on the bit value, CC # 2 receives aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS, and aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS is set in CC # 3 included in the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field. Aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS may be received in CC # 3 based on a 2-bit value indicating whether or not. Further, for example, the Rate matching indicator field in Proposal 1-2, 1-3, and 2-1 may be replaced with the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field).
As to claim 6, 15: Harada teaches the UE of claim 5, 14, wherein a zero power reference signal configuration for the first component carrier and the second component carrier is based at least in part on the zero power reference signal indication (Note that the above-mentioned Proposal 1 to Proposal 6 may be applied to the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field of DCI format 1_1. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the DCI transmitted from the base station 20 via the PDCCH of CC # 1 schedules the transmission of PDSCHs of CC # 2 and CC # 3 to the terminal 10. To do. Further, for example, if only one ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is set in CC # 2, and two aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet are set for CC # 3. Suppose. In this case, in the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field of DCI, in addition to the 1 bit indicating whether or not to set the aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS in CC # 2, the aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS is set in CC # 3. A total of 3 bits, 2 bits indicating whether or not to do so, may be included. The terminal 10 that has received the DCI via the PDCCH of the CC # 1 indicates whether or not the aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS is set in the CC # 2 included in the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field included in the DCI. Based on the bit value, CC # 2 receives aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS, and aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS is set in CC # 3 included in the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field. Aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS may be received in CC # 3 based on a 2-bit value indicating whether or not. Further, for example, the Rate matching indicator field in Proposal 1-2, 1-3, and 2-1 may be replaced with the ZP-CSI-RS trigger field.).
As to claim 7, 16: Harada teaches the UE of claim 5, 14, wherein a resource set for the zero power reference signal indication is based at least in part on the zero power reference signal indication, wherein the resource set is used for the first component carrier and the second component carrier (Further, for example, if only one ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is set in CC # 2, and two aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet are set for CC # 3).
As to claim 8, 17: Harada teaches the UE of claim 5, 14, wherein a component carrier of the carrier aggregation configuration is not configured with a zero power reference signal resource set based at least in part on the zero power reference signal indication (fig.3, Further, for example, if only one ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is set in CC # 2, and two aperiodic ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet are set for CC # 3).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over in view of Harada (WO-2021140675-A1), Damnjanovic (US-20160227541) in view of Zhang (CN-110475261-A).
As to claim 12: Harada teaches the UE of claim 10.
Harada may not explicitly teach wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: receive, from the network entity, a trigger field for a dynamic rate matching of one of the plurality of common rate matching resources for the first component carrier via the downlink control information. However, Zhang teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: receive, from the network entity, a trigger field for a dynamic rate matching of one of the plurality of common rate matching resources for the first component carrier via the downlink control information (DCI dynamic rate matching).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement dynamic rate matching, taught by Zhang, into the communication system, taught by Harada, in order to implement a well-known feature of a pre-defined protocol and to allow network to efficiently allocate resources based on channel conditions. In addition, it would have been obvious to combine Zhang and Harada in a known manner to obtain predictable results as the combination would not change the essence, quiddity, or functionality of the prior art references.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW CHUNG SUK OH whose telephone number is (571)270-5273. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 12p-8p.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Faruk Hamza can be reached at 5712727969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW C OH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466