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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to Application # 18556491 filed 10/20/2023. Claims 1-3, 5-7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22-25, 27, and 33 amended; claims 4, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 26, 28-32, and 34 canceled; Claim 35 added. Claims 1-3, 5-7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22-25, 27, 33, and 35 are subject to examination.
Claim Objections
Claim 23 and 35 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 23 and 35 recite “A method for transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), performed by a network device and comprising: sending a plurality of downlink semi-persistent scheduling physical downlink shared channel (SPS PDSCH) resources to user equipment (UE)”. Since network device is sending SPS PDSCH resources, it will be “receiving a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 3, 5-7, 9, 20, 22, 25, and 27 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 3 recites “the N is determined by the network device through an explicit indication” and claim 5 recites “wherein determining the N by the network device through the explicit indication comprises: receiving a candidate value set sent by the network device”. It is not clear to the examiner whether the UE is determining the N through explicit indication sent by the network device.
Claim 20 recites “the M times is obtained by the network device through explicit indication; or the M times is obtained by the network device through implicit indication”. It is not clear to the examiner whether the UE is determining the M through explicit indication or implicit indication.
Claim 25 and 27 recites similar limitation as claim 3 and 5. It is not clear to the examiner whether the network device is determining the N in an explicit/implicit indication by sending values to the UE.
Claim(s) 5-7, 9, and 22 are also rejected because they are dependent upon rejected claims 3 and 20 as set forth above and include limitations of the claims 3 and 20 respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 22 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23-25, 27, 33, and 35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (Yi hereafter) (US 20220346104 A1) in view of ZHANG et al. (ZHANG hereafter) (US 20220201724 A1).
Regarding claim 1 and claim 33, Yi teaches, A method for transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), performed by user equipment (UE) and comprising:
receiving a plurality of downlink semi-persistent scheduling physical downlink shared channel (SPS PDSCH) resources (Yi; The base station may transmit one or more RRC configuration (RRC configuration (SPS)) indicating a SPS configuration ... The wireless device may receive a DCI activating the SPS configuration at a slot n ... the DCI may indicate resources between [slot n+m, . . . , slot n+k], Par. 0596-0597); and
performing joint reporting from among the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources (Yi; The wireless device may determine s1 numbers of SPS PDSCHs mapped in a first periodicity/interval between [slot n+m, slot n+k], Par. 0600; The wireless device may determine a PUCCH resource for each periodicity based on a last SPS PDSCH of each periodicity, Par. 0605) by using N as granularity, wherein the N is a positive integer greater than 1 (Yi; a wireless device may receive one or more RRC messages comprising/indicating configuration parameters … The configuration parameters may indicate a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots scheduled by a DCI based on the multi-PDSCH scheduling … The configuration parameters may indicate/comprise a SPS configuration for the serving cell, Par. 0515-0516).
Although Yi teaches M number of PDSCHs/slots, but failed to explicitly teach its associated RRC parameter. However, in the same field of endeavor, ZHANG teaches in Par. 0088 that “the SPS PDSCH configuration i is configured with the number of PDSCH slot-based repetitions, pdsch-AggregationFactor, in SPS-Config”.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Yi to include the use of pdsch-AggregationFactor as taught by ZHANG in order to determine HARQ-ACK codebook (ZHANG; Par. 0067).
Specifically for claim 33, Yi teaches, A communication device, comprising: a transceiver; a memory; and a processor, communicatively connected with the transceiver and the memory respectively and configured to control wireless signal transceiving of the transceiver by executing a computer executable instruction on the memory and able to implement (Yi; The wireless device, Par. 0597).
Regarding claim 23 and claim 35, Yi teaches, A method for transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), performed by a network device and comprising:
sending a plurality of downlink semi-persistent scheduling physical downlink shared channel (SPS PDSCH) resources to user equipment (UE) (Yi; The base station may transmit one or more RRC configuration (RRC configuration (SPS)) indicating a SPS configuration ... The wireless device may receive a DCI activating the SPS configuration at a slot n ... the DCI may indicate resources between [slot n+m, . . . , slot n+k], Par. 0596-0597); and
obtaining feedback information of performing joint reporting from among the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources (Yi; The wireless device may determine s1 numbers of SPS PDSCHs mapped in a first periodicity/interval between [slot n+m, slot n+k], Par. 0600; The wireless device may determine a PUCCH resource for each periodicity based on a last SPS PDSCH of each periodicity, Par. 0605) by using N as granularity, wherein the N is a positive integer greater than 1 (Yi; a wireless device may receive one or more RRC messages comprising/indicating configuration parameters … The configuration parameters may indicate a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots scheduled by a DCI based on the multi-PDSCH scheduling … The configuration parameters may indicate/comprise a SPS configuration for the serving cell, Par. 0515-0516).
Although Yi teaches M number of PDSCHs/slots, but failed to explicitly teach its associated RRC parameter. However, in the same field of endeavor, ZHANG teaches in Par. 0088 that “the SPS PDSCH configuration i is configured with the number of PDSCH slot-based repetitions, pdsch-AggregationFactor, in SPS-Config”.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Yi to include the use of pdsch-AggregationFactor as taught by ZHANG in order to determine HARQ-ACK codebook (ZHANG; Par. 0067).
Specifically for claim 35, Yi teaches, A communication device, comprising: a transceiver; a memory; and a processor communicatively connected with the transceiver and the memory respectively, and configured to control wireless signal transceiving of the transceiver by executing a computer executable instruction on the memory to implement the method for transmitting the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) according to claim 23 (See claim 23).
Regarding claim 2, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 1, wherein grouping binding is performed on the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources by a network device (Yi; The configuration parameters may indicate a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots, Par. 0515 & ZHANG; pdsch-AggregationFactor, Par. 0088).
The rational and motivation for adding this teaching of ZHANG is the same as for Claim 1.
Regarding claim 3, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 1, wherein the N is determined in one of the following ways:
the N is stipulated by a protocol and there are one or more candidate values;
the N is determined by the network device through an explicit indication (Yi; The configuration parameters may indicate a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots, Par. 0515 & ZHANG; pdsch-AggregationFactor, Par. 0088); or
the N is determined through an implicit indication.
The rational and motivation for adding this teaching of ZHANG is the same as for Claim 1.
Regarding claim 5, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the N by the network device through the explicit indication comprises:
receiving a candidate value set sent by the network device, wherein the candidate value set comprises a plurality of candidate values (Yi; The configuration parameters may indicate a TDRA table comprising one or more TDRA entries, Par. 0515 & ZHANG; pdsch-AggregationFactor in SPS-Config may be configured as 1, 2, 4 or 8, Par. 0088); and
receiving first configuration signaling sent by the network device, and selecting the N from the plurality of candidate values according to the first configuration signaling (Yi; The multi-PDSCH DCI format may indicate a TDRA entry of a TDRA table, Par. 0521 & ZHANG; The number of PDSCH slot-based repetitions, pdsch-AggregationFactor, configured in SPS-Config for different SPS PDSCH configurations may be the same or different. When a SPS PDSCH configuration i is activated by a DCI format, Par. 0088).
Regarding claim 6, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 3, wherein the N has various types of indication granularity (Yi; a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots, Par. 0515; A (SPS) PDSCH reception may refer to a time domain resource (in a slot or in a sub-slot), Par. 0309 & ZHANG; The time unit may be one or more slots, one or more sub-slots, one or more OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) symbols, Par. 0055).
Regarding claim 7, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 5, wherein the first configuration signaling is configured to indicate one or more UEs, wherein the one or more UEs comprises at least one of the following:
a single SPS PDSCH configuration of a single UE (Yi; The multi-PDSCH DCI format may indicate a TDRA entry of a TDRA table, Par. 0521 & ZHANG; a SPS PDSCH configuration i is activated by a DCI format, Par. 0088);
the single UE;
a plurality of UEs in one group; or
a plurality of UEs in a cell.
Regarding claim 11, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 1, wherein performing joint reporting from among the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources by using the N as the granularity comprises at least one of the following actions:
performing joint reporting for a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) feedback corresponding to a non-skipped SPS PDSCH resource among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources (Yi; a number of HARQ-ACK bits needed for one or more SPS PDSCH receptions mapping to a same PUCCH resource based on the SPS configuration, Par. 0590; the wireless device may determine a ACK in response to the wireless device receiving data successfully via the three SPS PDSCH receptions. The wireless device may determine a NACK otherwise, Par. 0695);
performing joint reporting for feedbacks of the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources in a bitmap mode;
reporting a location index of the NACK feedback in response to the NACK feedback of the non-skipped SPS PDSCH occurring one time among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources; and performing reporting according to a preset format in response to the NACK feedback of the non-skipped SPS PDSCH occurring many times among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources; or
obtaining M times, wherein the M times is a number of times of actual transmission of the non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources; and reporting a location index of the NACK feedback in response to the NACK feedback occurring one time among the M times; and performing reporting according to a preset format in response to the NACK feedback occurring many times among the M times.
Regarding claim 14, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 11, wherein
among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources, each SPS PDSCH corresponds to one bit in the bitmap, a location at the non-skipped SPS PDSCH and corresponding to the NACK feedback corresponds to a first mark, and other locations correspond to a second mark, wherein the first mark is different from the second mark (Yi; Fig. 43; the wireless device may determine a HARQ-ACK bit for a valid SPS PDSCH, Par. 1011 [Note that Fig. 43 shows bit order]; a value 0 may indicate an ACK. A value 1 may indicate an NACK, Par. 0418).
Regarding claim 17, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 11,
wherein performing joint reporting for the feedbacks of the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources in a bitmap mode comprises:
obtaining the number M of times of actual transmission of the non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N SPS PDSCH resources (Yi; The wireless device may determine whether a PDSCH or a PUSCH is skipped or not based on a first field and a second field, Par. 0393); and
generating a bitmap with M bits, wherein in the bitmap with the M bits, a location at the non-skipped SPS PDSCH and corresponding to the NACK feedback corresponds to a first mark, and other locations of the bitmap correspond to a second mark (Yi; Fig. 43; the wireless device may determine a HARQ-ACK bit for a valid SPS PDSCH, Par. 1011 [Note that Fig. 43 shows bit order]; a value 0 may indicate an ACK. A value 1 may indicate an NACK, Par. 0418).
Regarding claim 20, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 11, wherein the M times is determined in one of the following ways:
the M times is obtained by the network device through explicit indication (Yi; The wireless device may determine whether a PDSCH or a PUSCH is skipped or not based on a first field and a second field, Par. 0393); or
the M times is obtained by the network device through implicit indication.
Regarding claim 24, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 23, comprising:
performing grouping binding on the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources (Yi; The configuration parameters may indicate a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots, Par. 0515 & ZHANG; pdsch-AggregationFactor, Par. 0088).
The rational and motivation for adding this teaching of ZHANG is the same as for Claim 23.
Regarding claim 25, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 23, wherein the N is determined in one of the following ways:
the N is stipulated by a protocol and there are one or more candidate values;
determining the N in an explicit indication mode (Yi; The configuration parameters may indicate a maximum number (e.g., M) of PDSCHs/slots, Par. 0515 & ZHANG; pdsch-AggregationFactor, Par. 0088); or
the N is determined through an implicit indication.
The rational and motivation for adding this teaching of ZHANG is the same as for Claim 23.
Regarding claim 27, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 25, wherein determining the N in the explicit indication mode comprises:
sending a candidate value set to the UE, wherein the candidate value set comprises a plurality of candidate values (Yi; The configuration parameters may indicate a TDRA table comprising one or more TDRA entries, Par. 0515 & ZHANG; pdsch-AggregationFactor in SPS-Config may be configured as 1, 2, 4 or 8, Par. 0088); and
sending first configuration signaling to the UE, wherein the first configuration signaling is used for selecting N from the plurality of candidate values (Yi; The multi-PDSCH DCI format may indicate a TDRA entry of a TDRA table, Par. 0521 & ZHANG; The number of PDSCH slot-based repetitions, pdsch-AggregationFactor, configured in SPS-Config for different SPS PDSCH configurations may be the same or different. When a SPS PDSCH configuration i is activated by a DCI format, Par. 0088).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi- ZHANG in view of HE et al. (HE hereafter) (US 20230361938 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 3.
Yi- ZHANG failed to explicitly teach,
wherein determining the N through the implicit indication comprises:
obtaining a cycle of the SPS PDSCH resources; and
determining the N according to the cycle of the SPS PDSCH resources; or obtaining a location of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource; and indicating the N according to the location of the PUCCH resource.
However, in the same field of endeavor, HE teaches,
wherein determining the N through the implicit indication comprises:
obtaining a cycle of the SPS PDSCH resources; and determining the N according to the cycle of the SPS PDSCH resources; or
obtaining a location of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource; and indicating the N according to the location of the PUCCH resource (HE; the starting slot can be determined by n−k, as with example 300, but the length, l, of a HARQ-ACK window is implicitly determined based on an UL transmission preparation time, A, Par. 0032).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Yi- ZHANG to include the use of implicit manner as taught by HE in order to determine window length (HE; Par. 0032).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi- ZHANG in view of El Hamss et al. (El Hamss hereafter) (US 20230093477 A1).
Regarding claim 12, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 11,
wherein reporting is skipped for a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) feedback corresponding to a skipped SPS PDSCH resource (Yi; Fig. 43; the wireless device may determine a HARQ-ACK bit for a valid SPS PDSCH, Par. 1011).
Yi- ZHANG failed to explicitly teach,
wherein reporting is skipped for an acknowledgement (ACK) feedback corresponding to the non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources.
However, in the same field of endeavor, El Hamss teaches,
wherein reporting is skipped for a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) feedback corresponding to a skipped SPS PDSCH resource and an acknowledgement (ACK) feedback corresponding to the non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources. (El Hamss; a WTRU may determine whether to report HARQ-ACK feedback for one or more (skipped or un-skipped) SPS PDSCH transmission occasions ... for only NACK SPS PDSCH TBs, Par. 0157-0158).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Yi- ZHANG to include the use of various feedback mode as taught by El Hamss in order to determine HARQ feedback (El Hamss; Par. 0158).
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi- ZHANG in view of DIMOU et al. (DIMOU hereafter) (US 20230179344 A1).
Regarding claim 18, Yi- ZHANG teaches, The method according to claim 11.
Yi- ZHANG failed to explicitly teach,
wherein obtaining the M times comprises:
obtaining transmission power of each non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources; and
judging that an actual transmission is performed once in response to the transmission power of each non-skipped SPS PDSCH being greater than a preset threshold.; or
obtaining a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of each non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources; and obtaining the M times of an actual transmission according to the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of each non- skipped SPS PDSCH.
However, in the same field of endeavor, DIMOU teaches,
obtaining a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of each non-skipped SPS PDSCH among the N of the plurality of SPS PDSCH resources; and obtaining the M times of an actual transmission according to the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of each non- skipped SPS PDSCH (DIMOU; the UE 704 may determine that the base station 702 has skipped SPS PDSCH 710B based on no SPS PDSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) detection, Par. 0083).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Yi- ZHANG to include the use of DMRS as taught by DIMOU in order to determine absence of PDSCH (DIMOU; Par. 0083).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Reference US 20220094484 A1 teaches in Par. 0266 that “in FIG. 29, a wireless device may determine that a SPS PDSCH is skipped and may differentiate between a skipped SPS PDSCH and SPS PDSCH that is wrongly decoded. For example, the wireless device may differentiate between a skipped SPS PDSCH and SPS PDSCH that is wrongly decoded based on detecting or not detecting DMRS sequences associated with a PDSCH".
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/SHARMIN CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416