Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/506,371 in response to an original application filed on 11/10/2023.
Claims 1-30 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Claims 1, 19, 27 and 29 are independent claims.
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, 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.
Claims 1-4, 8, 9, 14-16, 19-23 and 27-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shim et al. (US 2025/0267667 A1) in view of Wang et al. (EP 4637064 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 27, a user equipment (UE), [Figure 22, Paragraph 324], comprising: one or more memories storing processor-executable code, [Figure 22, Ref # 2205, 2200 and 2210 showing a processor and a transceiver, (Paragraph 324)], and one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories, [Figure 22, Ref # 2205, (Paragraph 324)], wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to cause the UE to:
transmit capability signaling indicating whether the UE supports more than one downlink subband within one or more carriers associated with a subband full duplex operation, [When it is determined that the cell supports SBFD, the SBFD UE may inform the base station that the UE attempting access is the SBFD UE by transmitting UE capability information to the base station, the UE capability information including at least one piece of information such as whether the UE supports SBFD, whether the UE supports full-duplex communication or half-duplex communication, and the number of transmission or reception antennas that the UE has (or supports), (Shim et al., Paragraph 286)],
receive signaling indicating a subband full duplex configuration based at least in part on the capability signaling associated with the UE, [In operation 2110, the base station may transmit, to the SBFD-support UE, configuration information indicating that some downlink resources are configured as uplink resources. This configuration information may be transmitted via higher layer signaling, L1 signaling (DCI), (Shim et al., Paragraph 321)],
and communicate one or more messages according to the subband full duplex configuration, [In operation 2020, the UE transmits the PUCCH on the determined PUCCH resource, (Shim et al., Paragraph 317)],
Shim et al. fails to explicitly teach that the subband full duplex configuration configures a first set of resources of the one or more carriers with a first downlink subband and a first uplink subband, or a second set of resources of the one or more carriers with a second downlink subband and a third downlink subband separated by at least a second uplink subband, or both,
Wang et al. teaches that if both the network device and the terminal may perform full-duplex communication, the terminal may perform downlink communication in the downlink subband in the uplink time domain unit, If both the network device and the terminal may perform full-duplex communication, the terminal may perform uplink communication in the uplink subband in the downlink time domain unit, and perform downlink communication on a frequency domain resource outside the uplink subband, (Wang et al., Paragraphs 19 and 20),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Shim et al. by including that the subband full duplex configuration configures a first set of resources of the one or more carriers with a first downlink subband and a first uplink subband, or a second set of resources of the one or more carriers with a second downlink subband and a third downlink subband separated by at least a second uplink subband, or both, (Wang et al., Paragraphs 19 and 20), in order to realize full-duplex communication of a terminal, (Wang et al., Paragraph 2).
Regarding claim 2, the UE of claim 1, wherein the first downlink subband and the first uplink subband are separated by a first guard band, the second downlink subband and the second uplink subband are separated by a second guard band and the second uplink subband and the third downlink subband are separated by a third guard band, or both, according to the subband full duplex configuration, [Shin et al., Figures 14-20 and Table 11].
Regarding claim 3 and 28, the UE wherein the capability signaling indicates that the UE supports more than one downlink subband within the one or more carriers associated with the subband full duplex operation, [Shin et al., Figure 14].
Regarding claim 4, the UE of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to cause the UE to communicate by being individually or collectively configured to cause the UE to: transmit a first message of the one or more messages using a first resource of the second set of resources; or receive a second message of the one or more messages using a second resource of the second set of resources, [In operation 2020, the UE transmits the PUCCH on the determined PUCCH resource, (Shin et al., Paragraph 317)].
Regarding claim 8, the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further configured to cause the UE to: receive second signaling indicating a first channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource associated with the second downlink subband and a second CSI-RS resource associated with the third downlink subband, wherein the first CSI-RS resource and the second CSI-RS resource are linked, [The base station transmits one NZP-CSI-RS connected to the SRS resource set to the UE, (Shim et al., Paragraph 174)].
Regarding claim 9, the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further configured to cause the UE to: receive second signaling indicating a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource that comprises non-contiguous resources within the second downlink subband and the third downlink subband, [The base station transmits one NZP-CSI-RS connected to the SRS resource set to the UE, (Shim et al., Paragraph 174)].
Regarding claim 14, the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to cause the UE to receive the subband full duplex configuration by being individually or collectively to cause the UE: receive the subband full duplex configuration in radio resource control signaling, [The base station may transfer the configuration information to the UE through higher layer signaling, for example, radio resource control (RRC) signaling, (Shim et al., Paragraph 61)].
Regarding claim 15, the UE of claim 1, wherein the first uplink subband is associated with a first carrier of the one or more carriers and the first downlink subband is associated with a second carrier of the one or more carriers, [Shim et el., Figures 14 and 15].
Regarding claim 16, the UE of claim 1, wherein the second downlink subband is associated with a first carrier of the one or more carriers, the second uplink subband is associated with a second carrier of the one or more carriers, and the third downlink subband is associated with a third carrier of the one or more carriers, [Shim et al., Figures 14 and 15].
Regarding claim 19 and 29, a network node, [Shin et al., Figure 23], comprising: one or more memories storing processor-executable code, [Referring to FIG. 23, the base station may include a transceiver, which refers to a base station receiver 2300 and a base station transmitter 2310 as a whole, a memory (not illustrated), and a base station processor 2305 (or base station controller or processor), (Shin et al., Paragraph 330)], and one or more processors, [Shin et al., Figure 23, Ref # 2305], coupled with the one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to cause the network node to:
obtain capability signaling indicating whether a user equipment (UE) supports more than one downlink subband within one or more carriers associated with a subband full duplex operation, [When it is determined that the cell supports SBFD, the SBFD UE may inform the base station that the UE attempting access is the SBFD UE by transmitting UE capability information to the base station, the UE capability information including at least one piece of information such as whether the UE supports SBFD, whether the UE supports full-duplex communication or half-duplex communication, and the number of transmission or reception antennas that the UE has (or supports), (Shin et al., Paragraph 286)],
output signaling indicating a subband full duplex configuration based at least in part on the capability signaling associated with the UE, [In operation 2110, the base station may transmit, to the SBFD-support UE, configuration information indicating that some downlink resources are configured as uplink resources. This configuration information may be transmitted via higher layer signaling, L1 signaling (DCI), (Shim et al., Paragraph 321)],
and communicate one or more messages according to the subband full duplex configuration, [In operation 2020, the UE transmits the PUCCH on the determined PUCCH resource, (Shin et al., Paragraph 317)],
Shin et al. fails to explicitly teach that the subband full duplex configuration configures a first set of resources of the one or more carriers with a first downlink subband and a first uplink subband, or a second set of resources of the one or more carriers with a second downlink subband and a third downlink subband separated by at least a second uplink subband, or both,
Wang et al. teaches that if both the network device and the terminal may perform full-duplex communication, the terminal may perform downlink communication in the downlink subband in the uplink time domain unit, If both the network device and the terminal may perform full-duplex communication, the terminal may perform uplink communication in the uplink subband in the downlink time domain unit, and perform downlink communication on a frequency domain resource outside the uplink subband, (Wang et al., Paragraphs 19 and 20),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Shim et al. by including that the subband full duplex configuration configures a first set of resources of the one or more carriers with a first downlink subband and a first uplink subband, or a second set of resources of the one or more carriers with a second downlink subband and a third downlink subband separated by at least a second uplink subband, or both, (Wang et al., Paragraphs 19 and 20), in order to realize full-duplex communication of a terminal, (Wang et al., Paragraph 2).
Regarding claim 20, the network node of claim 19, wherein the first downlink subband and the first uplink subband are separated by a first guard band, the second downlink subband and the second uplink subband are separated by a second guard band and the second uplink subband and the third downlink subband are separated by a third guard band, or both, according to the subband full duplex configuration, [Shin et al., Figures 14-20 and Table 11].
Regarding claims 21 and 30, the network node wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further configured to cause the network node to: transmit, using a first time resource, a first message of the one or more messages to the UE on the first downlink subband, the second downlink subband, or the third downlink subband, wherein the UE is a first half duplex UE, [In operation 2020, the UE transmits the PUCCH on the determined PUCCH resource, (Shim et al., Paragraph 317)],
and receive, using the first time resource, a second message of the one or more messages from a second UE on the first uplink subband or the second uplink subband, wherein the second UE is a second half duplex UE, [In operation 2020, the UE transmits the PUCCH on the determined PUCCH resource, (Shim et al., Paragraph 317)].
Regarding claim 22, the network node of claim 19, wherein the capability signaling indicates that the UE supports more than one downlink subband within the one or more carriers associated with the subband full duplex operation, [Shin et al., Figure 14].
Regarding claim 23, the network node of claim 22, wherein, the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to cause the network node to communicate by being individually or collectively configured to cause the network node to: transmit a first message of the one or more messages using a first resource of the second set of resources; or receive a second message of the one or more messages using a second resource of the second set of resources, [In operation 2020, the UE transmits the PUCCH on the determined PUCCH resource, (Shim et al., Paragraph 317)].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 10-13, 17, 18 and 24-26 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Shukri Taha whose telephone number is 571-270-1921. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Avellino can be reached on 571-272-3905.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR.
Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478