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 (IDS)
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 17 November 2023 and 04 June 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Claims 1-4, 7-15, 17 and 19 are pending.
Figure 2 of the application illustrates the claimed invention.
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 8 recited the limitation “and are irrelative to a physical uplink control channel, are omitted”.
Claim 10, it is not clear what is meant by “TI-RNTI” and
“TimmingIndPerSPSPDSCH”.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ying et al. (US 2019/0254053 A1) in view of SHIN et al. (US 2010/0159938 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Ying et al. discloses a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback method, comprising: configuring, by a base station, a first timing parameter for a user equipment (UE), wherein the first timing parameter is configured to indicate a time interval between a first time unit for the UE receiving a downlink transmission and a second time unit for the UE transmitting a HARQ feedback signal of the downlink transmission to the base station (figure 3 shows the first timing parameter indicate a time interval n for PDSCH and n+K1 for HARQ-ACK);
determining, by the base station, that a confliction occurs in an attempt to transmit the HARQ feedback signal by the UE (figure 3 shows conflicts occurs in an attempt to transmit the HARQ feedback signal in n+K1); and transmitting, by the base station, downlink control information (DCI), which carries a second timing parameter, to the UE, wherein determining the second time unit based on the second timing parameter is different from the one based on the first timing parameter, and the second timing parameter is different from the one based on the first timing parameter, and the second timing parameter is configured to adjust the second time unit to avoid the confliction ([0076]: “In yet another design, the gNB 160 may indicate a dynamic change of K1. To avoid the HARQ-ACK conflict, the gNB 160 may indicate a new K1 by PDCCH (e.g., DCI, DL grant), or the gNB 160 may change the value of K1 through PDCCH (re)activation.”), ([0132]: “In another approach to handle HARQ-ACK conflict, the gNB 160 indicates a dynamic change of K1. To avoid the HARQ-ACK conflict, the gNB 160 may indicate a new K1 (e.g., the value of K1_1) by PDCCH (DCI, DL grant)”).
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Although Ying et al. fails to teach ‘report of the confliction to the base station’, it is well known to report confliction to the base station.
SHIN et al. in the same field of invention, teaches this feature. See figure 5.
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It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to report confliction occurs in an attempt to transmit the HARQ feedback signal to the base station so for adjusting the second timing to solve the confliction.
Regarding claims 2, 13 and 15, Ying et al. teaches wherein the configuring, by a base station, a first timing parameter for a user equipment (UE), comprises: transmitting, by the base station, a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration message or a SPS activation message to the UE, wherein the SPS configuration message or the SPS activation message comprises the first timing parameter.([0071]: “The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may be used to activate the DL SPS transmissions. The timing of the PDCCH (e.g., timing information in PDCCH) may indicate the start timing of DL SPS transmission (e.g., a value of K0). A gNB 160 may send the UE 102 a PDCCH scrambled by SPS C-RNTI at slot n-K0 to activate the DL SPS transmission.”).
Claims 3-4, 7, 9, 11-12, 16-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ying et al. (US 2019/0254053 A1) in view of SHIN et al. (US 2010/0159938 A1) further in view Yin et al. (US 2013/0242799 A1).
Regarding claims 3, 4 and 17, Ying et al. fails to explicitly teaches wherein the determining, by the UE, that a conflicting occurs in an attempt to transmit the HARQ feedback signal, comprises: determining: by the UE, that the confliction occurs between the attempt to transmit the HARQ feedback signal and the time division duplex (TDD) configuration.
Yin et al. in the same field of invention, teaches this feature.
Yin et al. teaches ([0064]: “Table (3) below lists potentially conflicting subframes with a PCell UL subframe allocation and an SCell DL subframe allocation for TDD PCell with 5 ms periodicity. Table (3) also lists the existing association and examples of selected UL-DL configuration (e.g., PDSCH HARQ-ACK associations). Table (4) lists the applicability of the conflicting subframe with different PCell configuration with 5 ms periodicity. Table (5) shows an example of a selected downlink association index for potentially conflicting subframes when a PCell configuration has a 5 ms periodicity.”)
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ying et al. with Yin et al. so for implement detecting confliction occurs during HARQ feedback and time division duplex (TDD) configuration, such teaching in Yin et al.
Regarding claims 7 and 19, Ying et al. teaches wherein the DCI, which carries the second timing parameter, is simplified downlink control information.
([0073]: “Upon detection of a DL SPS PDSCH in slot n, the UE `02 may transmit HARQ-ACK in slot n+K1. The value of K1 for DL SPS may be a fixed value (e.g., a default value, e.g., specifies by the specification), configured by RRC and/or indicated by PDCCH (DCI) for activation. In a case that K1 timing field is not present or the timing field is 0-bit in DCI for activation, a different DCI field (e.g., HARQ process number, modulation and coding scheme, redundancy version, downlink assignment index, and/or new data indicator, etc.) can be used to indicate K1 (e.g., RV field set as “11” indicates K=4).”).
Regarding claims 9 and 12, Ying et al. teaches wherein the DCI, which carries the second timing parameter, is in a new DCI format. (In a case that K1 timing field is not present or the timing field is 0-bit in DCI for activation, a different DCI field (e.g., HARQ process number, modulation and coding scheme, redundancy version, downlink assignment index, and/or new data indicator, etc.) can be used to indicate K1 (e.g., RV field set as “11” indicates K=4).
Regarding claim 11, Ying et al. teaches wherein the DCI, which carries the second timing parameter, comprises PDSCH scheduling information of the UE.
([0150]: “DCI formats for scheduling of PDSCH (e.g., DCI formats used for activation of DL SPS) are also described herein. Format 1_0 (e.g., fallback DCI) may be used for the scheduling of PDSCH in one DL cell.”).
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRENDA H PHAM whose telephone number is (571)272-3135. The examiner can normally be reached 571-272-3135.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang can be reached at 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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BRENDA H. PHAM
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2412
/BRENDA H PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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