Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/555,044 in response to an original application filed on 11/30/2023.
Claims 1-4, 6, 14-17, 35 and 55-61 are pending and considered below
Claims 5, 7-13, 18-34 and 36-54 have been cancelled.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 10/12/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 14 is objected to because of the following informalities: Please include the acronym for DMRS “generating Demodulation Reference Signal DMRS”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-4, 6, 14-17, 35 and 55-61 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ly et al. (US 2024/0015707 A1) in view of Bhamri et al. (US 2024/0114490 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 55, a method for configuring a Demodulation Reference Signal DMRS pattern performed by a base station, [The base station 704 may provide a DMRS bundling configuration 708 to the UE 702, (Ly et al., Paragraph 90)], and comprising:
configuring, for a terminal, a maximum number of symbols allowed to be occupied by a DMRS within a preset time window, [the UE may determine a DMRS bundling window, including a start time corresponding to one of the repetitions (e.g. a first physical or available slot or symbol for an initial PUCCH repetition/transmission) and an end time corresponding to another one of the repetitions (e.g. a last physical or available slot or symbol for a last PUCCH repetition/transmission), (Ly et al., Paragraph 27)],
wherein the preset time window comprises a plurality of transmission occasions of a physical channel configured for DMRS bundling, [Ly et al. Figure 4A, wherein the shaded boxes represent transmission occasions “slot” for DMRS bundling, (Ly et al., Paragraph 69)],
Ly et al. fails to explicitly teach a number of symbol intervals between adjacent DMRS groups when the DMRS is generated within the preset time window,
Bhamri et al. teaches that DM-RS time-domain patterns with additional DM-RS within a slot may be semi-statically configurable with a transmission to a user equipment (“UE”), where an actual number of additional DM-RS symbols depends on an actual PUSCH transmission length within a slot. The separation between a front-loaded DM-RS and additional DM-RS symbols within a slot may depend upon the number of additional DM-RS symbols, (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 54),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Ly et al. by including that a number of symbol intervals between adjacent DMRS groups when the DMRS is generated within the preset time window, (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 54), in order to have sufficient support for high mobility, a number of time-domain patterns may be minimized and extrapolation on many symbols in time may be avoided or enhanced, (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 54).
Regarding claims 2 and 57, the method wherein, the configuring, for the terminal, the maximum number of symbols allowed to be occupied by the DMRS within the preset time window, comprises any of:
configuring, through a signaling for the terminal, a value corresponding to the maximum number of symbols, [Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration. For slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols, (Ly et al., Paragraph 48)], or configuring, through the target signaling for the terminal, an association parameter value for determining the value corresponding to the maximum number of symbols.
Regarding claims 3 and 58, the method further comprising:
configuring, for the terminal, an indication granularity corresponding to the maximum number of symbols, [PUCCH format 0 may include 1-2 symbols and may carry up to two UCI bits, PUCCH format 1 may include between 4-14 symbols and may carry up to two UCI bits, PUCCH format 2 may include 1-2 symbols and may carry more than two UCI bits, and PUCCH formats 3 and 4 may each include 4-14 symbols and may carry more than two UCI bits, (Ly et al., Paragraph 64)], and/or configuring, for the terminal, an indication granularity corresponding to the number of symbol intervals.
Regarding claims 4 and 59, the method further comprising: configuring, for the terminal, a number of consecutive DMRS symbols in each DMRS group within the preset time window, [Ly et al. Figures 4A and 4B].
Regarding claims 6 and 60, the method according to claim 1, wherein, the configuring, for the terminal, the number of symbol intervals between the adjacent DMRS groups when the DMRS is generated within the preset time window, comprises:
determining the number of symbol intervals based on a total number of symbols comprised in the preset time window, the maximum number of symbols allowed to be occupied by the DMRS within the preset time window, and a number of consecutive DMRS symbols in each DMRS group, [the DMRS bundling window may be defined in terms of a total number of symbols, slots, subframes, frames, milliseconds, or some other representation of time, (Ly et al., Paragraph 86)],
and sending the number of symbol intervals through a signaling, [The base station may indicate the configuration of the DMRS bundling window in system information (e.g., in a SIB), in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), in DCI, or in an RRC message, (Ly et al., Paragraph 88)].
Regarding claims 14 and 56, a method for generating a DMRS, performed by a terminal, and comprising:
generating DMRSs within a preset time window based on a maximum number of symbols allowed to be occupied by the DMRS within the preset time window, [the UE may determine a DMRS bundling window, including a start time corresponding to one of the repetitions (e.g. a first physical or available slot or symbol for an initial PUCCH repetition/transmission) and an end time corresponding to another one of the repetitions (e.g. a last physical or available slot or symbol for a last PUCCH repetition/transmission), (Ly et al., Paragraph 27)], wherein the DMRSs are distributed at intervals according to a number of symbol intervals between adjacent DMRS groups within the preset time window and satisfy a number of consecutive DMRS symbols in each DMRS group, [the DMRS bundling window may be defined in terms of a total number of symbols, slots, subframes, frames, milliseconds, or some other representation of time, (Ly et al., Paragraph 86)],
wherein the number of symbol intervals between adjacent DMRS groups within the preset time window is determined based on, [the UE may determine a DMRS bundling window, including a start time corresponding to one of the repetitions (e.g. a first physical or available slot or symbol for an initial PUCCH repetition/transmission) and an end time corresponding to another one of the repetitions (e.g. a last physical or available slot or symbol for a last PUCCH repetition/transmission), (Ly et al., Paragraph 27)], a total number of symbols comprised in the preset time window, and the number of consecutive DMRS symbols in each DMRS group, or is configured by a base station for the terminal, [The base station 704 may provide a DMRS bundling configuration 708 to the UE 702, (Ly et al., Paragraph 90)],
and the preset time window comprises a plurality of transmission occasions of a physical channel configured for DMRS bundling, [Ly et al. Figure 4A, wherein the shaded boxes represent transmission occasions “slot” for DMRS bundling, (Ly et al., Paragraph 69)],
Ly et al. fails to explicitly teach based on the maximum number of symbols allowed to be occupied by the DMRS within the preset time window,
Bhamri et al. teaches that DM-RS time-domain patterns with additional DM-RS within a slot may be semi-statically configurable with a transmission to a user equipment (“UE”), where an actual number of additional DM-RS symbols depends on an actual PUSCH transmission length within a slot. The separation between a front-loaded DM-RS and additional DM-RS symbols within a slot may depend upon the number of additional DM-RS symbols, (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 54),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Ly et al. by including that based on the maximum number of symbols allowed to be occupied by the DMRS within the preset time window, (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 54), in order to have sufficient support for high mobility, a number of time-domain patterns may be minimized and extrapolation on many symbols in time may be avoided or enhanced, (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 54).
Regarding claim 15, the method according to claim 14, further comprising any of:
receiving the maximum number of symbols configured by the base station for the terminal, [Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration. For slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols, (Ly et al., Paragraph 48)],or determining the maximum number of symbols based on a protocol agreement.
Regarding claim 16, the method according to claim 4415, wherein, the receiving the maximum number of symbols configured by the base station for the terminal, comprises any of:
receiving a value corresponding to the maximum number of symbols configured by the base station for the terminal, [Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration. For slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols, (Ly et al., Paragraph 48)],or determining the value corresponding to the maximum number of symbols based on an association parameter value configured by the base station for the terminal.
Regarding claim 17, the method according to claim 14, further comprising any of:
receiving the number of consecutive DMRS symbols in each DMRS group configured by the base station for the terminal, [Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration. For slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols, (Ly et al., Paragraph 48)], or determining the number of consecutive DMRS symbols in each DMRS group to be 1.
Regarding claims 35 and 61, the method according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of: configuring, for the terminal, a first distribution pattern for generating the DMRS within the preset time window, wherein the first distribution pattern is at least used for indicating a distribution location of the DMRS within the preset time window, [configuring two sets of additional DM-RS configurations may have equally spaced DM-RS for all transmission occasions in the middle (e.g., DM-RS position near the beginning and middle of the transmission occasion) for better interpolation of channel estimates and to enable a separate pattern for a last transmission occasion such that the DM-RS position is adjusted (e.g., last DM-RS position in the last transmission occasion in near the end of the transmission occasion), (Bhamri et al., Paragraph 60)], and/or configuring, for the terminal, a second distribution pattern for generating within the preset time window a remaining DMRS symbol to be distributed.
Conclusion
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/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478