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 .
Response to Amendment
This office action is in response to amendment filed on 11/21/25. Claims 1, 3-5, 7-9, 11, 13, 15-16, 18, and 28 are currently pending.
Allowable Subject Matter
The indicated allowability of previously presented claims 6 and 14 are withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to of XU (US 2022/0046754. Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow.
Claims 3, 5, 7-8, and 16 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 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 9, 18, and 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang (WO 2021/016778 see provided translation for citations) in view of XU (US 2022/0046754).
Regarding claim 1, Yang teaches a method for reducing a latency, applied to a terminal, comprising:
receiving downlink control information DCI; and activating/deactivating configured grant CG and packet data convergence protocol PDCP duplication (replication transmission) transmission based on the DCI (see “The network uses DCI or MAC CE or RRC to notify the identification of the transmission resource used in the replication transmission (for example, it may include at least one of the following: RLC entity, logical channel identification, carrier identification, and CG index); accordingly, the UE according to the information, To determine whether to perform copy transmission, and the CG resources used on the corresponding carrier when transmitting data and/or copying data” [p. 15, par 5] and “If it is necessary to modify the replication transmission status, send the first indication information to the UE through one of RRC, DCI or MAC CE;” [p. 16, par 9] and “Wherein, the first indication information carries at least one of the following information:… modify the replication transmission status to transmit data and/or Or the carrier identifier used for copying data, the CG identifier used for transmitting data and/or copying data after modifying the copy transmission status” [p. 16, par 10] which suggests that UE may receive a DCI from the network and activate or deactivate replication transmission and CG used to transmit the copied data);
wherein the DCI comprises one of the following:
first indication information for indicating carrier ID/carrier group ID (single CG or CG group) for which PDCP duplication transmission is to be activated (see “The default CG in the copy transmission configuration can be a single CG or a CG group, or it can be multiple CGs (here multiple CGs can be multiple CGs in different CG groups, or they can be in the same CG group. Multiple CGs, or multiple CGs without grouping)” [p. 16, par 8]);
second indication information for indicating carrier ID within a cell group (primary cell group) for which activation is to be performed (see “In addition, the primary cell can also be understood as a specific carrier configured by a CG or bearer. Specifically, the primary cell can be understood as the primary carrier” [par 13];
third indication information for indicating carrier ID/carrier group ID (single CG or CG group) for which PDCP duplication transmission is to be deactivated (see “The default CG in the copy transmission configuration can be a single CG or a CG group, or it can be multiple CGs (here multiple CGs can be multiple CGs in different CG groups, or they can be in the same CG group. Multiple CGs, or multiple CGs without grouping)” [p. 16, par 8]); or,
fourth indication information for indicating activation/deactivation of PDCP duplication transmission of a data radio bearer DRBm (see “Wherein, the first indication information carries at least one of the following information: the bearer identifier used to transmit the data and/or the copied data after modifying the copy transmission state…” [p. 16, par 10]).
Yang does not explicitly teach the method further comprising: receiving a first signaling, wherein the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier, or the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier group ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier group. In an analogous prior art reference, XU teaches receiving a first signaling, wherein the first signaling is used to configure a mapping (association) relationship between the carrier ID (identifier) indicated by the DCI and a carrier (see “Alternatively, if the network device sends the first signaling including the identifier to the terminal device, and the identifier is used to indicate the association relationship that is between a carrier and each of a remaining activated logical channel of the radio bearer and that is after the first logical channel is activated or deactivated…” [par 378; 362-364]), or the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier group ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier group. 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 Yang to allow receiving a first signaling, wherein the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier, or the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier group ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier group, as taught by XU, in order to set one or more identifiers for each logical channel of a radio bearer and reduce signaling overheads [par 369].
Regarding claim 4, Yang teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the cell group represents a master cell group MCG or a secondary cell group SCG (see “For example, when the primary cell corresponding to the aforementioned bearer is not configured, the primary cell of the primary cell group (MCG) can be regarded as the primary cell corresponding to the bearer, and/or the secondary cell group can be regarded as The primary cell of (SCG) is the primary cell corresponding to the bearer” [p. 15, par 11]).
Regarding claim 9, Yang teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein a carrier used by the terminal to receive the DCI is a main carrier for performing activation/deactivation of the PDCP duplication transmission;
a carrier corresponding to the carrier ID indicated by the DCI is a secondary carrier for performing activation/deactivation of the PDCP duplication transmission, or a carrier corresponding to the carrier group ID indicated by the DCI is a secondary carrier for performing activation/deactivation of the PDCP duplication transmission (see “The network uses DCI or MAC CE or RRC to notify the identification of the transmission resource used in the replication transmission (for example, it may include at least one of the following: RLC entity, logical channel identification, carrier identification, and CG index); accordingly, the UE according to the information, to determine whether to perform copy transmission, and the CG resources used on the corresponding carrier when transmitting data and/or copying data” [p.15, par 5] wherein the DCI is received by the UE on a “main carrier” and the carrier identification or CG index included in the replication transmission configuration for performing the replication transmission is the “secondary carrier”).
Claims 18 and 28 recite subject matter similar to claim 1 and are therefore rejected on the same basis.
Claim(s) 11, 13, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang (WO 2021/016778) in view of XU (US 2022/0046754), and further in view of Wang et al. (US 2022/0060283).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Yang and XU teaches a method for reducing a latency, applied to a network device, comprising: sending downlink control information DCI to a terminal, to cause the terminal to activate/deactivate configured grant CG and packet data convergence protocol PDCP duplication transmission based on the DCI- wherein the DCI comprises one of the following: first indication information for indicating carrier ID/carrier group ID for which PDCP duplication transmission is to be activated; second indication information for indicating carrier ID within a cell group for which activation is to be performed; third indication information for indicating carrier ID/carrier group ID for which PDCP duplication transmission is to be deactivated; or fourth indication information for indicating activation/deactivation of PDCP duplication transmission of a data radio bearer DRBm; the method further comprising: sending a first signaling to the terminal, wherein the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier, or the first signaling is used to configure a mapping relationship between the carrier group ID indicated by the DCI and a carrier group (see above rejection of claim 1), but does not explicitly teach that the DCI is sent based on reporting capability of the terminal. In an analogous prior art reference, Wang teaches activating packet duplication based on reporting capability of the terminal (see “That is, when a UE sends capability information (e.g., in an RRC Connection Setup Request) to the network, the capability information may indicate what types of data duplication the UE supports” [par 121]). 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 combination of Yang and XU to allow the DCI to be based on reporting capability of the terminal, as taught by Wang, in order to configure terminals capable of performing PDCP duplication thereby increasing network efficiency.
Regarding claim 13, Yang teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein the cell group represents a master cell group MCG or a secondary cell group SCG (see “For example, when the primary cell corresponding to the aforementioned bearer is not configured, the primary cell of the primary cell group (MCG) can be regarded as the primary cell corresponding to the bearer, and/or the secondary cell group can be regarded as The primary cell of (SCG) is the primary cell corresponding to the bearer” [p. 15, par 11]).
Regarding claim 15, Yang teaches the method according to claim 11, further comprising:
sending a second signaling to the terminal, wherein the second signaling is used to configure a data radio bearer for performing activation/deactivation of the PDCP duplication transmission (see “The network device sends the replication transmission configuration to the UE” [p. 15, par 7]).
Regarding claim 17, Yang teaches the method according to claim 11, wherein the DCI is fifth indication information for activating/deactivating the CG (see “modify the replication transmission status to transmit data and/or Or the carrier identifier used for copying data, the CG identifier used for transmitting data and/or copying data after modifying the copy transmission status” [p. 16, par 10] which suggests that the configured CG indicated in the DCI is activated for replication data transmission).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 4,9, 11, 13, 15, 18 and 28 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Nam T Huynh whose telephone number is (571)272-5970. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm.
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/NAM T HUYNH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647