Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/552,640

TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSMITTING A SCHEDULING REQUEST FOR PENDING HYBRID AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST BITS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Sep 26, 2023
Examiner
TRAN, THINH D
Art Unit
2466
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
62%
Grant Probability
Moderate
1-2
OA Rounds
4y 5m
To Grant
82%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 62% of resolved cases
62%
Career Allow Rate
330 granted / 532 resolved
+4.0% vs TC avg
Strong +20% interview lift
Without
With
+20.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
4y 5m
Avg Prosecution
39 currently pending
Career history
571
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.8%
-34.2% vs TC avg
§103
55.9%
+15.9% vs TC avg
§102
18.9%
-21.1% vs TC avg
§112
11.5%
-28.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 532 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. Claim(s) 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tdoc R2-074048 (“Scheduling request triggering criterions for LTE”, Ericsson available on 10/12/2007) in view of OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459 with foreign app. 2020-133695 filed on 08/06/2020). Regarding claims 1, 28, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (section 4: UE), comprising: at least one processor (section 4: UE); and memory coupled with the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE (section 4: UE) to: store, at the UE, one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) bits of the UE (section 4: '"the changes in buffer status that trigger a SR are typically configured through RRC" and "UE2 receives an HARQ ACK" therefore UE2 uses HARQ for transmitting data to the eNB therefore the data 1n the buffer of UE2 disclose the HARQ bits of claim 1); transmit a scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3) based at least in part on a quantity of the one or more HARQ bits (section 4: "The buffer status is considered to have changeµ if any of the following conditions are met: higher prioritized data has arrived in buffer, total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A, time since previous transmission of SR exceeds Threshold B"); receive, responsive to the scheduling request, control signaling indicating an uplink resource allocation for a transmission of the one or more HARQ bits (Figure 3: UL Grant in response to SR); and transmit the one or more HARQ bits over the uplink resource allocation (Figure 3: uplink data transmitted to eNodeB). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not explicitly teach HARQ bits associated with one or more HARQ process identifiers. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches HARQ bits associated with one or more HARQ process identifiers (par. 217, 403, 411, 412, 417, a HARQ-ACK codebook for the HARQ process related to one or multiple HARQ process IDs (HPIDs)). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to associate the HARQ with HPID. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claims 2, 29, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: trigger the scheduling request as a result of the quantity of the one or more HARQ bits stored at the UE satisfying a triggering condition (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3, "total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A"), wherein the scheduling request is transmitted based at least in part on the triggering (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3, "total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A"). Regarding claim 3, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the triggering condition comprises a threshold quantity of HARQ bits stored at the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3, "total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A"). Regarding claim 5, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions to transmit the one or more HARQ bits over the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: include the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits in uplink control information in accordance with a priority of scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (section 4: “sets SR to “1” when higher prioritized data arrives”, the SR has a priority corresponding ta the priority of data). Regarding claim 8, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions to transmit the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3) to: transmit uplink control information comprising one or more bits indicating the scheduling request (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3), the one or more bits for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not explicitly teach the one or more bits having a location in the uplink control information that is dedicated for scheduling requests. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches transmit uplink control information comprising one or more bits indicating the scheduling request, the one or more bits having a location in the uplink control information that is dedicated for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (par. 79, 80, The multiplexed PUCCH may be transmitted. In other words, multiple HARQ-ACKs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple pieces of CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple SRs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, or the PUCCH may be multiplexed with another type of UCI). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex SR on PUCCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 9, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 8, wherein the scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not explicitly teach wherein the location in the uplink control information comprises a field dedicated for the scheduling requests. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the location in the uplink control information comprises a field dedicated for the scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (par. 79, 80, The multiplexed PUCCH may be transmitted. In other words, multiple HARQ-ACKs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple pieces of CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple SRs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, or the PUCCH may be multiplexed with another type of UCI). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex SR on PUCCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 11, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink control channel, and wherein the instructions to receive the control signaling indicating the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: receive an indication of a physical uplink control channel format associated with the physical uplink control channel, wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is transmitted using the physical uplink control channel format. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink control channel (par. 79, 96-103, The frequency resource allocation of PUCCH formats 0, 1, and 4 may be 1 PRB regardless of the number of UCI information bits transmitted on the PUCCH), and wherein the instructions to receive the control signaling indicating the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE (par. 79, 96-103) to: receive an indication of a physical uplink control channel format associated with the physical uplink control channel (par. 96-102, The PUCCH supports one or multiple PUCCH formats (PUCCH format 0 to PUCCH format 4)), wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is transmitted using the physical uplink control channel format (par. 96-102, PUCCH format 0 is used for transmission in one or two symbols and in a case that the number of HARQ-ACK information bits (HARQ-ACK/SR bit(s)) with the positive or negative SR is one or two). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex SR on PUCCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 12, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink shared channel, and the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: multiplex the one or more HARQ bits with a data transmission over the physical uplink shared channel, wherein transmitting the one or more HARQ bits over the physical uplink shared channel is based at least in part on the multiplexing. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink shared channel (par. 192, PUSCH), and the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE (par. 192) to: multiplex the one or more HARQ bits with a data transmission over the physical uplink shared channel (par. 192), wherein transmitting the one or more HARQ bits over the physical uplink shared channel is based at least in part on the multiplexing (par. 192, The PUSCH is at least used for transmitting the TB (the MAC PDU, the UL-SCH). The PUSCH may be used for at least transmitting a part or all of the TB, the HARQ-ACK information, the CSI, and the SR). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex HARQ-ACK on PUSCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claims 16, 30, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a network device (section 4: eNB), comprising: at least one processor (section 4: eNB); and memory coupled with the at least one processor (section 4: eNB), the memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device (section 4: eNB) to: receive a scheduling request associated with one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) bits for a user equipment (UE) (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3) based at least in part on a quantity of the one or more HARQ bits (section 4: "The buffer status is considered to have changeµ if any of the following conditions are met: higher prioritized data has arrived in buffer, total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A, time since previous transmission of SR exceeds Threshold B"), the one or more HARQ bits being associated with the UE (section 4: '"the changes in buffer status that trigger a SR are typically configured through RRC" and "UE2 receives an HARQ ACK" therefore UE2 uses HARQ for transmitting data to the eNB therefore the data 1n the buffer of UE2 disclose the HARQ bits of claim 1); transmit, responsive to the scheduling request, control signaling indicating an uplink resource allocation for a transmission of the one or more HARQ bits (Figure 3: UL Grant in response to SR); and receive the one or more HARQ bits over the uplink resource allocation (Figure 3: uplink data transmitted to eNodeB). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not explicitly teach HARQ bits associated with one or more HARQ process identifiers. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches HARQ bits associated with one or more HARQ process identifiers (par. 217, 403, 411, 412, 417, a HARQ-ACK codebook for the HARQ process related to one or multiple HARQ process IDs (HPIDs)). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to associate the HARQ with HPID. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 17, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions to receive the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits are executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device to: receive uplink control information comprising the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits in accordance with a priority of scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (section 4: “sets SR to “1” when higher prioritized data arrives”, the SR has a priority corresponding ta the priority of data). Regarding claim 20, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions to receive the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits are executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3) to: receive uplink control information comprising one or more bits indicating the scheduling request (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3), the one or more bits for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not explicitly teach the one or more bits having a location in the uplink control information that is dedicated for scheduling requests. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches transmit uplink control information comprising one or more bits indicating the scheduling request, the one or more bits having a location in the uplink control information that is dedicated for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (par. 79, 80, The multiplexed PUCCH may be transmitted. In other words, multiple HARQ-ACKs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple pieces of CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple SRs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, or the PUCCH may be multiplexed with another type of UCI). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex SR on PUCCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 21, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 20, wherein the scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not explicitly teach wherein the location in the uplink control information comprises a field dedicated for the scheduling requests. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the location in the uplink control information comprises a field dedicated for the scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE (par. 79, 80, The multiplexed PUCCH may be transmitted. In other words, multiple HARQ-ACKs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple pieces of CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, multiple SRs may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the CSI may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH, or the PUCCH may be multiplexed with another type of UCI). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex SR on PUCCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 23, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is received based at least in part on the quantity of the one or more HARQ bits satisfying a threshold quantity of HARQ bits stored at the UE (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3, "total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A"). Regarding claim 25, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink control channel, and wherein the instructions to transmit the control signaling indicating the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device to: transmit an indication of a physical uplink control channel format associated with the physical uplink control channel, wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is received in accordance with the physical uplink control channel format. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink control channel (par. 79, 96-103, The frequency resource allocation of PUCCH formats 0, 1, and 4 may be 1 PRB regardless of the number of UCI information bits transmitted on the PUCCH), and wherein the instructions to transmit the control signaling indicating the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device (par. 79, 96-103) to: transmit an indication of a physical uplink control channel format associated with the physical uplink control channel (par. 96-102, The PUCCH supports one or multiple PUCCH formats (PUCCH format 0 to PUCCH format 4)), wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is received in accordance with the physical uplink control channel format (par. 96-102, PUCCH format 0 is used for transmission in one or two symbols and in a case that the number of HARQ-ACK information bits (HARQ-ACK/SR bit(s)) with the positive or negative SR is one or two). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to multiplex SR on PUCCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Regarding claim 26, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink shared channel, and wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device to: demultiplex the one or more HARQ bits from a data transmission over the physical uplink shared channel, wherein receiving the one or more HARQ bits over the physical uplink shared channel is based at least in part on the demultiplexing. But, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the uplink resource allocation comprises a physical uplink shared channel (par. 192, PUSCH), and wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device (par. 192) to: demultiplex the one or more HARQ bits from a data transmission over the physical uplink shared channel (par. 192, The PUSCH is at least used for transmitting the TB (the MAC PDU, the UL-SCH). The PUSCH may be used for at least transmitting a part or all of the TB, the HARQ-ACK information, the CSI, and the SR), wherein receiving the one or more HARQ bits over the physical uplink shared channel is based at least in part on the demultiplexing (par. 192, The PUSCH is at least used for transmitting the TB (the MAC PDU, the UL-SCH). The PUSCH may be used for at least transmitting a part or all of the TB, the HARQ-ACK information, the CSI, and the SR). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by OUCHI in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 to demultiplex HARQ-ACK on PUSCH. The motivation would have been to provide the flexibility to process the HARQ with different modes. Claim(s) 4, 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tdoc R2-074048 (“Scheduling request triggering criterions for LTE”, Ericsson available on 10/12/2007) and OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459 with foreign app. 2020-133695 filed on 08/06/2020) as applied to claims 1, 16 above, and further in view of HOANG et al. (US 20220303952). Regarding claim 4, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach the apparatus of claim 2, wherein: the one or more HARQ bits comprise at least one bit that is associated with negative acknowledgement feedback; and the one or more HARQ bits satisfying the triggering condition is based at least in part on the one or more HARQ bits comprising the at least one bit that is associated with the negative acknowledgement feedback. But, HOANG et al. (US 20220303952) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches the one or more HARQ bits comprise at least one bit that is associated with negative acknowledgement feedback (par. 291, The WTRU may further trigger an SR and/or a BSR only when the WTRU reports a certain value of ACK or NACK); and the one or more HARQ bits satisfying the triggering condition is based at least in part on the one or more HARQ bits comprising the at least one bit that is associated with the negative acknowledgement feedback (par. 291, The WTRU may further trigger an SR and/or a BSR only when the WTRU reports a certain value of ACK or NACK). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by HOANG in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to trigger SR for negative ACK. The motivation would have been to prioritize NACK to guarantee of service. Regarding claim 24, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein: the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is received based at least in part on the one or more HARQ bits satisfying the triggering condition (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3, "total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A"). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach the one or more HARQ bits comprise at least one bit that is associated with negative acknowledgement feedback; the one or more HARQ bits satisfy a triggering condition based at least in part on the one or more HARQ bits comprising the at least one bit that is associated with the negative acknowledgement feedback. But, HOANG et al. (US 20220303952) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein: the one or more HARQ bits comprise at least one bit that is associated with negative acknowledgement feedback (par. 291, The WTRU may further trigger an SR and/or a BSR only when the WTRU reports a certain value of ACK or NACK); the one or more HARQ bits satisfy a triggering condition based at least in part on the one or more HARQ bits comprising the at least one bit that is associated with the negative acknowledgement feedback (par. 291, The WTRU may further trigger an SR and/or a BSR only when the WTRU reports a certain value of ACK or NACK); Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by HOANG in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to trigger SR for negative ACK. The motivation would have been to prioritize NACK to guarantee of service. Claim(s) 6, 7, 10, 18, 19, 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tdoc R2-074048 (“Scheduling request triggering criterions for LTE”, Ericsson available on 10/12/2007) and OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459 with foreign app. 2020-133695 filed on 08/06/2020) as applied to claim 1, 16 above, and further in view of KIM (US 20210105851). Regarding claim 6, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: transmit a scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3) based at least in part on a quantity of the one or more HARQ bits (section 4: "The buffer status is considered to have changeµ if any of the following conditions are met: higher prioritized data has arrived in buffer, total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A, time since previous transmission of SR exceeds Threshold B"); However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach transmit, to a network device, a random access message associated with a random access procedure based at least in part on the quantity of bits and the UE being in an unconnected state; and establish a connection with the network device as a result of the random access procedure, wherein transmitting the scheduling request associated with the bits is based at least in part on establishing the connection with the network device. But, KIM (US 20210105851) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches transmit, to a network device, a random access message associated with a random access procedure based at least in part on the quantity of the one or more HARQ bits and the UE being in an unconnected state (par. 147; par. 168-179, The terminal (e.g., the terminal operating in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state) may transmit small data and/or a small signaling message using the 4-step random access procedure shown in FIG. 6… the terminal may transmit the RA MSG3 including the following information element(s)… Information informing a transmission request of an uplink small packet (or, small data and/or small signaling message), Information indicating an uplink data or the size of the uplink data (e.g., length indicator (LI)). The information indicating the size of the uplink data may indicate the size of MAC PDU or the number of MAC PDUs, Information indicating an uplink signaling message (e.g., uplink bearer message) and/or the size of the uplink signaling message (e.g., LI). The information indicating the size of the uplink signaling message may indicate the size of RRC message or the number of RRC messages… Uplink buffer size information (e.g., BSR), Information indicating whether the size of the small packet meets a preconfigured condition); and establish a connection with the network device as a result of the random access procedure, wherein transmitting the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is based at least in part on establishing the connection with the network device (par. 145, 147; par. 168-179). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to use random access procedure for setup connection. The motivation would have been to optimize power or energy usage and to provide quick performed. Regarding claim 7, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions to receive the control signaling indicating the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE (Figure 3: UL Grant in response to SR) to: receive an indication for which feedback is requested (Figure 3: UL Grant in response to SR), wherein transmitting the one or more HARQ bits based at least in part on the indication for which feedback is requested (Figure 3: uplink data transmitted to eNodeB). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach receive an indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested, wherein transmitting the one or more HARQ bits associated with the one or more HARQ process identifiers is based at least in part on the indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested. But, KIM (US 20210105851) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches receive an indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested (par. 268, 276, 283), wherein transmitting the one or more HARQ bits associated with the one or more HARQ process identifiers is based at least in part on the indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested (par. 268, 276, 283, The control information transmitted through the PDCCH and/or PDSCH for transmission of the downlink small packet may include one or more information elements among the following information elements… HARQ related information… The HARQ related information may be configuration information for transmitting a HARQ response for the small packet received in the paging procedure or the PDR. The HARQ related information may include one or more among a HARQ process identifier, resource configuration information of a PUCCH and/or PUSCH for transmission of the HARQ response, resource configuration information of a PUCCH and/or PUSCH for HARQ retransmission, and HARQ retransmission timing information). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to use random access procedure for setup connection. The motivation would have been to optimize power or energy usage and to provide quick performed. Regarding claim 10, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is transmitted over the resources (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach receive signaling indicating a configuration of resources for the scheduling request, wherein the resources are exclusively for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE in accordance with the configuration. But, KIM (US 20210105851) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches receive signaling indicating a configuration of resources for the scheduling request (par. 109, 145, 223, The PUCCH configuration information may be allocation information of a transmission resource of an SR. Alternatively, the PUCCH configuration information may be information indicating activation or deactivation of a transmission resource of an SR), wherein the resources are exclusively for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE in accordance with the configuration (par. 109, 145, 223, The PUCCH configuration information may be allocation information of a scheduling request (SR) resource), and wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is transmitted over the resources (par. 109, 145, 223, 283). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to use random access procedure for setup connection. The motivation would have been to optimize power or energy usage and to provide quick performed. Regarding claim 18, Tdoc R2-074048 the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device to: receive a scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3) based at least in part on a quantity of the one or more HARQ bits (section 4: "The buffer status is considered to have changeµ if any of the following conditions are met: higher prioritized data has arrived in buffer, total buffer size increase exceeds Threshold A, time since previous transmission of SR exceeds Threshold B"); However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach receive a random access message associated with a random access procedure based at least in part on the quantity of bits for the UE and the UE being in an unconnected state; and establish a connection with the UE as a result of the random access procedure, wherein receiving the scheduling request associated with the bits is based at least in part on establishing the connection with the UE. But, KIM (US 20210105851) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches a random access message associated with a random access procedure based at least in part on the quantity of bits for the UE and the UE being in an unconnected state (par. 147; par. 168-179, The terminal (e.g., the terminal operating in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state) may transmit small data and/or a small signaling message using the 4-step random access procedure shown in FIG. 6… the terminal may transmit the RA MSG3 including the following information element(s)… Information informing a transmission request of an uplink small packet (or, small data and/or small signaling message), Information indicating an uplink data or the size of the uplink data (e.g., length indicator (LI)). The information indicating the size of the uplink data may indicate the size of MAC PDU or the number of MAC PDUs, Information indicating an uplink signaling message (e.g., uplink bearer message) and/or the size of the uplink signaling message (e.g., LI). The information indicating the size of the uplink signaling message may indicate the size of RRC message or the number of RRC messages… Uplink buffer size information (e.g., BSR), Information indicating whether the size of the small packet meets a preconfigured condition); and establish a connection with the UE as a result of the random access procedure, wherein receiving the scheduling request associated with the bits is based at least in part on establishing the connection with the UE (par. 145, 147; par. 168-179). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to use random access procedure for setup connection. The motivation would have been to optimize power or energy usage and to provide quick performed. Regarding claim 19, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions to transmit the control signaling indicating the uplink resource allocation are executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device (Figure 3: UL Grant in response to SR) to: transmit an indication for which feedback is requested (Figure 3: UL Grant in response to SR), wherein receiving the one or more HARQ bits is based at least in part on the indication for which feedback is requested (Figure 3: uplink data transmitted to eNodeB). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach transmit an indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested, wherein receiving the one or more HARQ bits associated with the one or more HARQ process identifiers is based at least in part on the indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested. But, KIM (US 20210105851) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches transmit an indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested (par. 268, 276, 283), wherein receiving the one or more HARQ bits associated with the one or more HARQ process identifiers is based at least in part on the indication of the one or more HARQ process identifiers for which feedback is requested (par. 268, 276, 283, The control information transmitted through the PDCCH and/or PDSCH for transmission of the downlink small packet may include one or more information elements among the following information elements… HARQ related information… The HARQ related information may be configuration information for transmitting a HARQ response for the small packet received in the paging procedure or the PDR. The HARQ related information may include one or more among a HARQ process identifier, resource configuration information of a PUCCH and/or PUSCH for transmission of the HARQ response, resource configuration information of a PUCCH and/or PUSCH for HARQ retransmission, and HARQ retransmission timing information). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to use random access procedure for setup connection. The motivation would have been to optimize power or energy usage and to provide quick performed. Regarding claim 22, Tdoc R2-074048 teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device to: wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is received over the resources (sector 4: triggering criteria for SR, Figure 3). However, Tdoc R2-074048 does not teach transmit signaling indicating a configuration of resources for the scheduling request, wherein the resources are exclusively for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE in accordance with the configuration. But, KIM (US 20210105851) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches transmit signaling indicating a configuration of resources for the scheduling request (par. 109, 145, 223, The PUCCH configuration information may be allocation information of a transmission resource of an SR. Alternatively, the PUCCH configuration information may be information indicating activation or deactivation of a transmission resource of an SR), wherein the resources are exclusively for scheduling requests associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE in accordance with the configuration (par. 109, 145, 223, The PUCCH configuration information may be allocation information of a scheduling request (SR) resource), and wherein the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is received over the resources (par. 109, 145, 223, 283). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KIM in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to use random access procedure for setup connection. The motivation would have been to optimize power or energy usage and to provide quick performed. Claim(s) 13, 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tdoc R2-074048 (“Scheduling request triggering criterions for LTE”, Ericsson available on 10/12/2007) and OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459 with foreign app. 2020-133695 filed on 08/06/2020) as applied to claims 1, 16 above, and further in view of BAE et al. (US 20230309090 with foreign app. DR 10-2020-0098852 filed on 08/06/2020). Regarding claim 13, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: multiplex the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits with one or more other feedback bits over a physical uplink control channel (par. 80, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH), wherein transmitting the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is based at least in part on the multiplexing (par. 80, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH). However, Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI do not teach based at least in part on applying an identifier-specific phase shift. But, BAE et al. (US 20230309090) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches based at least in part on applying an identifier-specific phase shift (par. 107, modulation such as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by BAE in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to modulate signal. The motivation would have been to increase throughput and reduce interference. Regarding claim 27, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) teaches the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the network device to: demultiplex the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits from one or more other feedback bits over a physical uplink control channel (par. 80, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH), wherein receiving the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits is based at least in part on the demultiplexing (par. 80, the HARQ-ACK and the SR may be multiplexed on the PUCCH). However, Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI do not teach based at least in part on an identifier-specific phase shift. But, BAE et al. (US 20230309090) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches based at least in part on an identifier-specific phase shift (par. 107, modulation such as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by BAE in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to modulate signal. The motivation would have been to increase throughput and reduce interference. Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tdoc R2-074048 (“Scheduling request triggering criterions for LTE”, Ericsson available on 10/12/2007) and OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459 with foreign app. 2020-133695 filed on 08/06/2020) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of LEE et al. (US 20230112798). Regarding claim 14, Tdoc R2-07404 does not teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: start a timer as a result of transmitting the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits; and refrain from transmitting another scheduling request associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE for a duration of the timer. But, LEE et al. (US 20230112798) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches start a timer as a result of transmitting the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits (par. 372, 374, upon transmitting the SR on the PUCCH, the sidelink DRX HARQ RTT timer for the SR may be started and a sidelink DRX retransmission timer for the SR may be stopped); and refrain from transmitting another scheduling request associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE for a duration of the timer (par. 372, 374, The sidelink DRX retransmission timer for the SR may start upon expiry of the sidelink DRX HARQ RTT timer for the SR). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LEE in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to control SR transmission. The motivation would have been to guarantee SR transmission. Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tdoc R2-074048 (“Scheduling request triggering criterions for LTE”, Ericsson available on 10/12/2007) and OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459 with foreign app. 2020-133695 filed on 08/06/2020) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of RASTEGARDOOST et al. (US 20230023656 with continuation of PCT/US2021/026349 filed on 04/08/2021). Regarding claim 15, OUCHI et al. (US 20230276459) does not teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: fail to transmit the one or more HARQ bits via previous uplink control information signaling based at least in part on one or more of a slot format change, an insufficiency of resources, or a cancellation indication; and defer the one or more HARQ bits for later uplink control information signaling, wherein storing the one or more HARQ bits at the UE is based at least in part on the deferring. But, RASTEGARDOOST et al. (US 20230023656) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches fail to transmit the one or more HARQ bits via previous uplink control information signaling based at least in part on one or more of a slot format change, an insufficiency of resources, or a cancellation indication (par. 288, the wireless device may drop/cancel a low-priority HARQ-ACK transmission due to overlapping high-priority UL channel(s) (intra-UE prioritization). For example, the wireless device may drop/cancel a HARQ-ACK transmission on a PUSCH due to UL cancelation indication received in a DCI format (e.g., DCI format 2_4 for inter-UE prioritization)); and defer the one or more HARQ bits for later uplink control information signaling, wherein storing the one or more HARQ bits at the UE is based at least in part on the deferring (par. 302, the wireless device may have dropped/cancelled a HARQ-ACK transmission due LBT failure and/or collision of low-priority HARQ-ACK/PUCCH with high-priority UL channel(s). Second DCI may trigger/request retransmission of the dropped/cancelled HARQ-ACK). Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by RASTEGARDOOST in the system of Tdoc R2-074048 and OUCHI to schedule HARQ transmission. The motivation would have been to provide reliable transmission. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. DIMOU et al. (US 20240154730) teaches fail to transmit the one or more HARQ bits via previous uplink control information signaling based at least in part on one or more of a slot format change, an insufficiency of resources, or a cancellation indication (par. 74, The determination of whether to delay the transmission of the HARQ feedback to the first available PUCCH occasion may be based on the indication, received at 506 from the base station 504, to cancel or delay the transmission of the HARQ feedback ); and defer the one or more HARQ bits for later uplink control information signaling, wherein storing the one or more HARQ bits at the UE is based at least in part on the deferring (par. 74, The determination of whether to delay the transmission of the HARQ feedback to the first available PUCCH occasion may be based on the indication, received at 506 from the base station 504, to cancel or delay the transmission of the HARQ feedback). TSAI et al. (US 20210410180) teaches start a timer as a result of transmitting the scheduling request associated with the one or more HARQ bits (par. 244, 246, 256, 267, While the specific timer 310 is running, the UE 302 may or may not initiate, perform, and/or trigger a procedure (e.g., SR procedure, BSR procedure, RA procedure …The specific timer 310 may be stopped when the UE 302 initiates, performs, and/or triggers a specific procedure, e.g., SR procedure, BSR procedure, RA procedure,); and refrain from transmitting another scheduling request associated with HARQ bits stored at the UE for a duration of the timer (par. 244, 256, While the specific timer 310 is running, the UE 302 may or may not initiate, perform, and/or trigger a procedure (e.g., SR procedure, BSR procedure, RA procedure,). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THINH D TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3934. The examiner can normally be reached mon-fri 9-6. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. 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. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /THINH D TRAN/for /Thinh Tran/, Patent Examiner of Art Unit 2466 03/08/2026
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Prosecution Timeline

Sep 26, 2023
Application Filed
Mar 08, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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82%
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4y 5m
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