DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to Application No. #18/514365 filed on November 20, 2023. Claims 1-30 are subject to examination.
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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 7, 11, 22, and 26 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 7, 11, 22, and 26, “MBS” is undefined within the claims. For purposes of examination, MBS in interpreted to stand for “multicast broadcast service”, per ¶ [0033] of 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 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.
Claims 1-4, 6, 8, 12-19, 21, 23, and 27-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshkholgh Dashtaki et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20240155643, hereinafter, “Khoshkholgh Dashtaki”) in view of Lin et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20210160879, hereinafter, “Lin”, further in view of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki (WIPO (PCT) Patent Application Publication, WO2025199029A1, hereinafter, “Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029”).
Regarding claim 1, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches:
An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0183] FIG. 15A shows example communications between a wireless device and a base station. A wireless device 1502 and a base station 1504 may be part of a communication network …):
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the UE to (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0189] The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518, respectively, to carry out one or more of the functionalities ... Fig. 15A):
receive downlink control information (DCI) that includes a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring adaptation field indicating to skip PDCCH monitoring for a duration on an active downlink bandwidth part (BWP) of a serving cell (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0283] As shown in FIG. 20, a wireless device may receive (e.g., from the base station on a DL (active) BWP of the serving cell) a DCI at time/occasion/interval T1 ... The DCI may indicate skipping PDCCH … e.g., within/during/for a time window/duration … on the DL BWP of the serving cell …The DCI may comprise a first [field] with a plurality of bits (e.g., with a bit-width of 0, 1, or 2 bits). The first field may be a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field) …);
transmit a negative acknowledgement (NACK), in accordance with a feedback mode, based at least in part on an incorrectly decoded physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0292] … The wireless device may transmit UCI comprising a negative HARQ acknowledgment (e.g., HARQ-NACK) corresponding/associated with the first TB/MAC PDU via the UL signal if the wireless device unsuccessfully decodes the first TB. The base station may schedule a transmission of the first TB (e.g., via a PDSCH or a PDSCH bundle) based on sending (e.g., transmitting) a first DCI to the wireless device …).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), Khoshkholgh Dashtaki does not explicitly teach:
wherein the feedback mode is a NACK-only feedback mode or an acknowledgement;
perform, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs; and
skip, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lin teaches:
wherein the feedback mode is a NACK-only feedback mode or an acknowledgement (ACK)-NACK feedback mode (Lin: [0136] In one alternative (1), a UE in the UE group uses a dedicated PUCCH resource to provide a HARQ ACK or NACK feedback, where … a NACK corresponds to … not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof … [0137] In one alternative (2), a UE in the UE group uses a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to … not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof …);
perform, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki to include the features as taught by Lin above in order to provide a group scheduling for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) overhead reduction. (Lin, ¶ [0002]).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), and that all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin does not explicitly teach:
skip, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 teaches:
skip, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0764] After the wireless device detects a [DCI] format (e.g. , the fourth DOI) providing the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field (e.g., the first field) indicating to the wireless device to skip PDCCH monitoring for the duration on the active DL BWP of a serving cell (e.g., the second indication), if the wireless device transmits PUSCH providing the second NACK value and when the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format that includes a DAI field for unicast PDSCH receptions …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin to include the features as taught by Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 above in order to reduce misalignment between the wireless device and the base station. (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, ¶ [0753]).
Regarding claim 12, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches:
An apparatus for wireless communication at a network node, comprising (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0183] FIG. 15A shows example communications between a wireless device and a base station. A wireless device 1502 and a base station 1504 may be part of a communication network …):
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the network node to (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0189] The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518, respectively, to carry out one or more of the functionalities ... Fig. 15A):
transmit downlink control information (DCI) that includes a PDCCH monitoring adaptation field indicating to skip PDCCH monitoring for a duration on an active downlink bandwidth part (BWP) of a serving cell (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0283] As shown in FIG. 20, a wireless device may receive (e.g., from the base station on a DL (active) BWP of the serving cell) a DCI at time/occasion/interval T1 ... The DCI may indicate skipping PDCCH … e.g., within/during/for a time window/duration … on the DL BWP of the serving cell …The DCI may comprise a first [field] with a plurality of bits (e.g., with a bit-width of 0, 1, or 2 bits). The first field may be a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field) …); and
receive a negative acknowledgement (NACK), in accordance with a feedback mode, based at least in part on an incorrectly decoded physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0292] … The wireless device may transmit UCI comprising a negative HARQ acknowledgment (e.g., HARQ-NACK) corresponding/associated with the first TB/MAC PDU via the UL signal if the wireless device unsuccessfully decodes the first TB. The base station may schedule a transmission of the first TB (e.g., via a PDSCH or a PDSCH bundle) based on sending (e.g., transmitting) a first DCI to the wireless device …).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), Khoshkholgh Dashtaki does not explicitly teach:
wherein PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs is performed;
PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs is skipped.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lin teaches:
wherein PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs is performed (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki to include the features as taught by Lin above in order to provide a group scheduling for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) overhead reduction. (Lin, ¶ [0002]).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), and that all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin does not explicitly teach:
PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs is skipped.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 teaches:
PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs is skipped (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0764] After the wireless device detects a [DCI] format (e.g. , the fourth DOI) providing the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field (e.g., the first field) indicating to the wireless device to skip PDCCH monitoring for the duration on the active DL BWP of a serving cell (e.g., the second indication), if the wireless device transmits PUSCH providing the second NACK value and when the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format that includes a DAI field for unicast PDSCH receptions …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin to include the features as taught by Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 above in order to reduce misalignment between the wireless device and the base station. (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, ¶ [0753]).
Regarding claim 16, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches:
A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0183] FIG. 15A shows example communications between a wireless device and a base station. A wireless device 1502 and a base station 1504 may be part of a communication network …):
receiving downlink control information (DCI) that includes a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring adaptation field indicating to skip PDCCH monitoring for a duration on an active downlink bandwidth part (BWP) of a serving cell (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0283] As shown in FIG. 20, a wireless device may receive (e.g., from the base station on a DL (active) BWP of the serving cell) a DCI at time/occasion/interval T1 ... The DCI may indicate skipping PDCCH … e.g., within/during/for a time window/duration … on the DL BWP of the serving cell …The DCI may comprise a first [field] with a plurality of bits (e.g., with a bit-width of 0, 1, or 2 bits). The first field may be a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field) …);
transmitting a NACK, in accordance with a feedback mode, based at least in part on an incorrectly decoded physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0292] … The wireless device may transmit UCI comprising a negative HARQ acknowledgment (e.g., HARQ-NACK) corresponding/associated with the first TB/MAC PDU via the UL signal if the wireless device unsuccessfully decodes the first TB. The base station may schedule a transmission of the first TB (e.g., via a PDSCH or a PDSCH bundle) based on sending (e.g., transmitting) a first DCI to the wireless device …).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), Khoshkholgh Dashtaki does not explicitly teach:
wherein the feedback mode is a NACK-only feedback mode or an acknowledgement (ACK)-NACK feedback mode; and
performing, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs;
skipping, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lin teaches:
wherein the feedback mode is a NACK-only feedback mode or an acknowledgement (ACK)-NACK feedback mode (Lin: [0136] In one alternative (1), a UE in the UE group uses a dedicated PUCCH resource to provide a HARQ ACK or NACK feedback, where … a NACK corresponds to … not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof … [0137] In one alternative (2), a UE in the UE group uses a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to … not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof …); and
performing, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki to include the features as taught by Lin above in order to provide a group scheduling for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) overhead reduction. (Lin, ¶ [0002]).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), and that all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin does not explicitly teach:
skipping, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 teaches:
skipping, based at least in part on the NACK, PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0764] After the wireless device detects a [DCI] format (e.g. , the fourth DOI) providing the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field (e.g., the first field) indicating to the wireless device to skip PDCCH monitoring for the duration on the active DL BWP of a serving cell (e.g., the second indication), if the wireless device transmits PUSCH providing the second NACK value and when the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format that includes a DAI field for unicast PDSCH receptions …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin to include the features as taught by Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 above in order to reduce misalignment between the wireless device and the base station. (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, ¶ [0753]).
Regarding claim 27, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches:
A method of wireless communication performed by a network node, comprising (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0183] FIG. 15A shows example communications between a wireless device and a base station. A wireless device 1502 and a base station 1504 may be part of a communication network …):
transmitting downlink control information (DCI) that includes a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring adaptation field indicating to skip PDCCH monitoring for a duration on an active downlink bandwidth part (BWP) of a serving cell (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0283] As shown in FIG. 20, a wireless device may receive (e.g., from the base station on a DL (active) BWP of the serving cell) a DCI at time/occasion/interval T1 ... The DCI may indicate skipping PDCCH … e.g., within/during/for a time window/duration … on the DL BWP of the serving cell …The DCI may comprise a first [field] with a plurality of bits (e.g., with a bit-width of 0, 1, or 2 bits). The first field may be a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field) …); and
receiving a NACK, in accordance with a feedback mode, based at least in part on an incorrectly decoded physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0292] … The wireless device may transmit UCI comprising a negative HARQ acknowledgment (e.g., HARQ-NACK) corresponding/associated with the first TB/MAC PDU via the UL signal if the wireless device unsuccessfully decodes the first TB. The base station may schedule a transmission of the first TB (e.g., via a PDSCH or a PDSCH bundle) based on sending (e.g., transmitting) a first DCI to the wireless device …).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), Khoshkholgh Dashtaki does not explicitly teach:
wherein PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs is performed;
PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs is skipped.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lin teaches:
wherein PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying groupcast scheduling DCIs is performed (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki to include the features as taught by Lin above in order to provide a group scheduling for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) overhead reduction. (Lin, ¶ [0002]).
Although Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin teaches a wireless device may receive a DCI that indicates skipping PDCCH within/during/for a time window/duration on the DL BWP of the serving cell, and the DCI may comprise a PDCCH skipping indication field (e.g., a ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field), and that all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin does not explicitly teach:
PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs is skipped.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 teaches:
PDCCH monitoring for PDCCH candidates carrying unicast scheduling DCIs is skipped (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0764] After the wireless device detects a [DCI] format (e.g. , the fourth DOI) providing the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field (e.g., the first field) indicating to the wireless device to skip PDCCH monitoring for the duration on the active DL BWP of a serving cell (e.g., the second indication), if the wireless device transmits PUSCH providing the second NACK value and when the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format that includes a DAI field for unicast PDSCH receptions …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki and Lin to include the features as taught by Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 above in order to reduce misalignment between the wireless device and the base station. (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, ¶ [0753]).
Regarding claims 2 and 17, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 16 as outlined above.
Lin further teaches:
transmit the NACK in the NACK-only feedback mode in a shared physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource due to an incorrect decoding of a group common PDSCH (GC-PDSCH) transmission scheduled by the DCI; and
perform PDCCH monitoring for a GC-PDCCH transmission (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Lin is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1 and 16.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 further teaches:
… and not for a unicast PDCCH (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0764] After the wireless device detects a [DCI] format (e.g. , the fourth DOI) providing the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field (e.g., the first field) indicating to the wireless device to skip PDCCH monitoring for the duration on the active DL BWP of a serving cell (e.g., the second indication), if the wireless device transmits PUSCH providing the second NACK value and when the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format that includes a DAI field for unicast PDSCH receptions …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1 and 16.
Regarding claims 3 and 18, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 16 as outlined above.
Lin further teaches:
transmit the NACK in the ACK-NACK feedback mode on a UE-specific physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource due to an incorrect decoding of a group common PDSCH (GC-PDSCH) transmission scheduled by the DCI or due to an incorrect decoding of a unicast PDSCH transmission (Lin: [0136] In one alternative (1), a UE in the UE group uses a dedicated PUCCH resource to provide a HARQ ACK or NACK feedback, where an ACK corresponds to a successful reception/decoding of the DL SPS PDSCH reception, while a NACK corresponds to one or both of not detecting a DL SPS PDSCH reception and not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof …); and
perform PDCCH monitoring for at least one of a CG-PDCCH transmission (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Lin is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1 and 16.
Regarding claims 4, 15, 19, and 30, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1, 12, 16, and 27 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 further teaches:
perform PDCCH monitoring based at least in part on a radio resource control (RRC) configuration (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0263] Corresponding to/according to the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring mode (e.g., when the wireless device monitors PDCCH on the serving cell according to combination (X.sub.s, K.sub.s)), the wireless device may monitor PDCCH for Typel -PDCCH CSS set provided by dedicated higher layer signaling (e.g., dedicated RRC signaling of the one or more messages), Type3-PDCCH CSS sets, and USS sets in any slot of the K.sub.s slots …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1, 12, 16, and 27.
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 16 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki further teaches:
transmit a scheduling request associated with exiting a low power PDCCH skipping mode and perform PDCCH monitoring (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0247] … the wireless device may resume PDCCH monitoring [i.e., exiting skipping PDDCH monitoring mode] … if the wireless device sends (e.g., transmits) a PUCCH providing/carrying a (positive) SR after the wireless device receives the DCI (e.g., comprising the ‘PDCCH monitoring adaptation indication’ field for skipping PDCCH monitoring for the time duration) … Hence, improvements for monitoring (or skipping monitoring) PDCCH in an NTN scenario with a long propagation delay may be required to prevent an unnecessarily increase of the consumed power of the wireless device.).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 6 and 21 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki further teaches:
monitor fallback DCIs (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki: [0173] A base station may send/transmit DCI messages with one or more DCI formats, for example, depending on the purpose and/or content of the DCI messages. DCI format 0_0 may be used for scheduling of a PUSCH in a cell. DCI format 0_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 0_1 may be used for scheduling of a PUSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 0_0). DCI format 1_0 may be used for scheduling of a PDSCH in a cell. DCI format [1_0] may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 1_1 may be used for scheduling of a PDSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 1_0). DCI format 2_0 may be used for providing a slot format indication to a group of wireless devices … [0212] ... The wireless device may monitor the one or more PDCCH candidates for DCI format 0_0 and DCI format 1_0 … ).
Regarding claims 13 and 28, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 12 and 27 as outlined above.
Lin further teaches:
wherein the feedback mode is a NACK-only feedback mode, and the PDCCH monitoring is for a group common PDSCH (GC-PDCCH) transmission (Lin: [0190] In alternative (c), all UEs in the UE group use a shared PUCCH resource to provide a NACK only feedback, where the NACK corresponds to a detection of the (group-common) DCI format an unsuccessful/failed decoding of the corresponding PDSCH; so that if no HARQ feedback is received/detected by the gNB from a UE in the UE group, either the UE has detected the (group-common) DCI format and successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH (so, an implicit ACK—no need for retransmission of the DL SPS/UL CG activation command) or UE has not detected the (group-common) DCI format at all (in which case, the gNB needs to re-schedule and retransmit the DL SPS/UL CG activation command)—the gNB is still able to distinguish these two very different cases …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Lin is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 12 and 27.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 further teaches:
… and not for a unicast PDCCH transmission (Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029: [0764] After the wireless device detects a [DCI] format (e.g. , the fourth DOI) providing the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field (e.g., the first field) indicating to the wireless device to skip PDCCH monitoring for the duration on the active DL BWP of a serving cell (e.g., the second indication), if the wireless device transmits PUSCH providing the second NACK value and when the PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format that includes a DAI field for unicast PDSCH receptions …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 12 and 27.
Regarding claims 14 and 29, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 12 and 27 as outlined above.
Lin further teaches:
wherein the feedback mode is an acknowledgement (ACK)-NACK feedback mode, and the PDCCH monitoring is for at least one of a group common PDSCH (GC-PDCCH) transmission or unicast DCIs (Lin: [0136] In one alternative (1), a UE in the UE group uses a dedicated PUCCH resource to provide a HARQ ACK or NACK feedback, where an ACK corresponds to a successful reception/decoding of the DL SPS PDSCH reception, while a NACK corresponds to one or both of not detecting a DL SPS PDSCH reception and not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Lin is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 12 and 27.
Claims 5, 7, 20, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, in view of Wu et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20260025883, hereinafter, “Wu”).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 16 as outlined above.
Lin further teaches:
transmit the NACK on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource due to an incorrect decoding of a unicast PDSCH transmission scheduled by the DCI (Lin: [0136] In one alternative (1), a UE in the UE group uses a dedicated PUCCH resource to provide a HARQ ACK or NACK feedback, where an ACK corresponds to a successful reception/decoding of the DL SPS PDSCH reception, while a NACK corresponds to one or both of not detecting a DL SPS PDSCH reception and not successfully decoding a DL SPS PDSCH after a detection thereof …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Lin is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1 and 16.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 does not explicitly teach:
perform PDCCH monitoring for a unicast PDCCH transmission and not a multicast PDCCH transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wu teaches:
perform PDCCH monitoring for a unicast PDCCH transmission and not a multicast PDCCH transmission (Wu: [0072] While the UE 102 operates in the connected state, the UE 102 monitors a PDCCH with a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) to communicate unicast data with the DU 174 … In further implementations, the unicast data excludes multicast MBS data (e.g., at event 536) …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 to include the features as taught by Wu above in order to communicate unicast data with the distributed unit. (Wu, ¶ [0072]).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 6 and 21 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 does not explicitly teach:
monitor unicast DCIs and not multicast downlink DCIs based at least in part on one or more of: radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) for unicast and MBS, common search spaces or UE-specific search spaces for unicast and MBS, or DCI formats for unicast and MBS.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wu teaches:
monitor unicast DCIs and not multicast downlink DCIs based at least in part on one or more of: radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) for unicast and MBS (Wu: [0072] While the UE 102 operates in the connected state, the UE 102 monitors a PDCCH with a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) to communicate unicast data with the DU 174 … In further implementations, the unicast data excludes multicast MBS data (e.g., at event 536). In some implementations, when the UE 102 receives a DCI and a scrambled CRC on a PDCCH, the UE 102 uses the C-RNTI and DCI to verify the CRC …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 to include the features as taught by Wu above in order to communicate unicast data with the distributed unit. (Wu, ¶ [0072]).
Claims 9 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, in view of Kim et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20140036889, hereinafter, “Kim”).
Regarding claims 9 and 24, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 16 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 does not explicitly teach:
monitor fallback DCI and non-fallback DCI, wherein the incorrectly decoded PDSCH transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled by the fallback DCI.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Kim teaches:
monitor fallback DCI and non-fallback DCI, wherein the incorrectly decoded PDSCH transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled by the fallback DCI (Kim: [0232] The UE may trigger ACK/NACK report due to the following reason. When the UE fails in the PDSCH decoding due to insufficient time for decoding, NACK may be transmitted. ... Thus, in order to provide time for transmission of ACK/NACK after decoding, the UE may transmit the dummy PDCCH. The UE that receives the dummy PDCCH feeds back ACK/NACK information regarding a HARQ process indicated by the corresponding PDCCH. This method may be applied to both TM dependent DCI and fallback mode format such as DCI format 1A. For example, when the DCI format 1A is used, a field configuration is shown in Table 8 below …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 to include the features as taught by Kim above in order to transmit reception acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information,. (Kim, ¶ [0003]).
Claims 10 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, and Kim, in view of Gao et.al. (Chinese Patent Application Publication, CN117858252A, hereinafter, “Gao”.
Regarding claims 10 and 25, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, and Kim discloses on the features with respect to claims 9 and 24 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, and Kim does not explicitly teach:
monitor downlink DCIs and not uplink DCIs;
monitor downlink DCI for fallback and non-fallback, and fallback uplink DCIs; or
search for downlink DCIs based at least in part on an alpha factor.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Gao teaches:
monitor downlink DCI for fallback and non-fallback, and fallback uplink DCIs (Gao: [n0154] … For example, the fallback DCI format is used to schedule uplink DCI format0_0 and downlink DCI format1_0, the non-fallback DCI format is used to schedule uplink DCI format0_1 and downlink DCI format1_1 …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, and Kim to include the features as taught by Gao above in order to reduce the occurrence of situations where access network equipment (e.g., base stations) cannot schedule multiple cells through single DCI. (Gao, ¶ [n0008]).
Claims 11 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029, in view of Zhou et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20230063082, hereinafter, “Zhou”).
Regarding claims 11 and 26, Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 16 as outlined above.
Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 does not explicitly teach:
wherein the UE is configured with a search space set group (SSSG) specific to unicast and an SSSG specific to MBS, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to:
switch to the SSSG specific to unicast based at least in part on scheduling request transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhou teaches:
wherein the UE is configured with a search space set group (SSSG) specific to unicast and an SSSG specific to MBS, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to:
switch to the SSSG specific to unicast based at least in part on scheduling request transmission (Zhou: [0401] In an example embodiment, T1 may be different from or same as T3. The base station may determine whether to transmit the 2nd DCI at T1 or to transmit the 3rd DCI at T3. The base station may determine a unicast retransmission (by the 2nd DCI) or a multicast retransmission (by the 3rd DCI) of the MBS TB based on multicast channel loading condition, unicast channel loading condition, number of wireless devices having unsuccessful decoding of the MBS TB, whether the base station identifies which wireless device(s) transmits the HARQ NACK for the MBS TB. The wireless device, to ensure receive at least one DCI, may monitor PDCCH(s) for both DCIs on one or more SSs/CORESETs.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Khoshkholgh Dashtaki, Lin, and Khoshkholgh Dashtaki ‘029 to include the features as taught by Zhou above in order to receive at least one DCI. (Zhou, ¶ [0401]).
Conclusion
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/LIEM H. NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416