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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 28-29, 30, 39, 42-43, 47 and 54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Abdelmonem (US 2018/0294932).
Regarding claim 28, method claim 28 has two conditional “When…” clauses. Assuming we can treat the “when clauses” as optional limitation under BRI (see MPEP 2111.04), claim 28 reduces:
A method for configuring uplink (UL) resources for a cell of a wireless network, the method comprising: configuring each of a plurality of UL resources for the cell as one of the following:
a static physical UL control channel (PUCCH) resource,
a static physical UL shared channel (PUSCH) resource, or
a dynamic resource, being initially configured as a PUSCH resource.
Abdelmonem discloses re-assign a certain resource block that was previously used for PUSCH to be used for PUCCH. Therefore, implicitly, Abdelmonem has:
a static physical UL control channel (PUCCH) resource (e.g., the original PUCCH resource assignment),
a static physical UL shared channel (PUSCH) resource (e.g., the original PUSCH resource assignment minus the resource block at was re-assigned), or
a dynamic resource, being initially configured as a PUSCH resource (e.g., the PUSCH resource block that was re-assigned to be used as PUCCH resource).
Regarding claim 29, Abdelmonem discloses the method of claim 28, wherein a first subset of the dynamic resources can have either the first PUCCH format or the second PUCCH format; and a second subset of the dynamic resources can have the second PUCCH format but not the first PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH).
Regarding claim 30, Abdelmonem discloses the method of claim 29, wherein the first subset is adjacent in frequency to static PUCCH resources (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
Regarding claim 39, Abdelmonem discloses the method of claim 28, wherein reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources as a PUCCH resource according to the second PUCCH format comprises: determining a last timeslot of scheduled PUSCH transmissions in the dynamic resource to be reconfigured; and determining an updated PUCCH resource indication (PRI) for transmission with DL resource grants after the last timeslot, wherein the updated PRI identifies the dynamic resources configured as PUCCH resources according to the second PUCCH format, including the dynamic resource to be reconfigured (see Abdelmonem, p. [0160], e.g., a resource block scheduler of the second base station may assign the resource blocks to the mobile communication device according to a time slot scheme that avoids the periodicity of the known interference).
Regarding claim 42, Abdelmonem discloses the method of claim 28, wherein: the first PUCCH format is PUCCH Format 1 (PF1) as specified by the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP); and the second PUCCH format is either PUCCH Format 3 (PF3) or PUCCH Format 4 (PF4), as specified by 3GPP (see Abdelmonem, p. [0057], e.g., the mobile units 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D communicate with the base stations 16 using a form of digital communications such as, for example, code-division multiple access (CDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), or other next generation wireless access technologies).
Regarding claim 43, Abdelmonem discloses the method of claim 28, wherein each of the plurality of UL resources for the cell is a physical resource block (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
Regarding claim 47, Abdelmonem discloses the method of claim 28, wherein the UL resources of the cell also include a plurality of static physical random access channel (PRACH) resources (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
Regarding claim 54, Abdelmonem discloses a non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node arranged to configure uplink (UL) resources for a cell of a wireless network, configure the network node to perform the method of claim 28 (see Abdelmonem, p. [0326]).
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 31-38, 40-41, 44-46 and 48-53 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abdelmonem in view of Yoo (US 2023/0123247).
Regarding claim 31, Abdelmonem discloses reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to the second PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
However, Abdelmonem does not expressly disclose when the number of UEs connected to the cell decreases below a third threshold.
Yoo discloses the above recited limitations (see Yoo, p. [0092], e.g., The radio resource status may include at least one of the number of UEs connected to a serving cell, a guaranteed bit-rate (GBR) by downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL), a non-GBR, a total physical resource block (PRB) usage, the number of heavy users (e.g., UEs requiring a load/speed equal to or more than a threshold value) by DL/UL, and a resource allocation failure rate (e.g., a PDCCH allocation failure rate, and p. [0093], e.g., the number of heavy users, etc. exceed a threshold value or more).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Yoo’s teachings into Abdelmonem. The suggestion/motivation would have been to provide the resource status request for sharing resource status information on other nodes or cells of the other nodes as suggested by Yoo.
Regarding claim 32, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 31, wherein: reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to the second PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]) is further based on the number of UEs connected to the cell that meet the at least one criteria being above a fourth threshold (see Yoo, p. [0092]); and the method further comprises, when the number of UEs connected to the cell that meet the at least one criteria is below the fourth threshold (see Yoo, p. [0092]), reducing the dynamic resources configured according to the first PUCCH format and increasing the dynamic resources configured as PUSCH resources (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
Regarding claim 33, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 32, wherein reducing the dynamic resources configured according to the first PUCCH format and increasing the dynamic resources configured as PUSCH resources comprises reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to a PUSCH resource (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH).
Regarding claim 34, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 32, wherein reducing the dynamic resources configured according to the first PUCCH format and increasing the dynamic resources configured as PUSCH resources comprises: reconfiguring a first one of the dynamic resources from the second PUCCH format to a PUSCH resource; and reconfiguring a second one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to the second PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH).
Regarding claim 35, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 34, wherein: the first one of the dynamic resources is adjacent in frequency to a static PUSCH resource, and the second one of the dynamic resources is not adjacent in frequency to any of the static PUSCH resources (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
Regarding claim 36, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 38, further comprising, when the number of users connected to the cell increases above a fifth threshold (see Yoo, p. [0092]), reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the second PUCCH format to the first PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]).
Regarding claim 37 the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 36, wherein the dynamic resource reconfigured from the second PUCCH format to the first PUCCH format is adjacent in frequency to a static PUCCH resource (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH).
Regarding claim 38, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 36, wherein reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the second PUCCH format to the first PUCCH format comprises: determining a last timeslot allocated for hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback in the dynamic resource to be reconfigured; determining a schedule for the HARQ feedback and scheduling requests (SR) to be carried by the dynamic resource after reconfiguration; and determining an updated PUCCH resource indication (PRI) for transmission with DL resource grants after the last timeslot according to the determined schedule, wherein the updated PRI identifies the dynamic resources configured as PUCCH resources according to the first PUCCH format, excluding the dynamic resource to be reconfigured (see Abdelmonem, p. [0160], e.g., a resource block scheduler of the second base station may assign the resource blocks to the mobile communication device according to a time slot scheme that avoids the periodicity of the known interference).
Regarding claim 40, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 28, further comprising, when the number of UEs connected to the cell that meet the at least one criteria decreases below a sixth threshold, reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the second PUCCH format to a PUSCH resource.41. (New) The method of claim 40, wherein reconfiguring one of the dynamic resources from the second PUCCH format to a PUSCH resource comprises: determining a last timeslot allocated for hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback in the dynamic resource to be reconfigured; and determining an updated PUCCH resource indication (PRI) for transmission with DL resource grants after the last timeslot, wherein the updated PRI identifies the dynamic resources configured as PUCCH resources according to one of the first PUCCH format and the second PUCCH format, excluding the dynamic resource to be reconfigured (see Abdelmonem, p. [0160], e.g., a resource block scheduler of the second base station may assign the resource blocks to the mobile communication device according to a time slot scheme that avoids the periodicity of the known interference).
Regarding claim 44, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 28, wherein the at least one criteria associated with DL data includes one or more of the following: operating in carrier aggregation (CA) with pending DL data; and receiving DL data over the same time resources and/or the same frequency resources via spatial multiplexing (see Yoo, p. [0092], e.g., The radio resource status may include at least one of the number of UEs connected to a serving cell, a guaranteed bit-rate (GBR) by downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL), a non-GBR, a total physical resource block (PRB) usage, the number of heavy users (e.g., UEs requiring a load/speed equal to or more than a threshold value) by DL/UL, and a resource allocation failure rate (e.g., a PDCCH allocation failure rate).
Regarding claim 45, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 28, further comprising transmitting one or more DL resource grants to UEs operating in the cell, wherein each DL resource grant includes a PUCCH resource indication (PRI) that identifies at least part of the static PUCCH resources and at least part of the dynamic resources configured as PUCCH resources (see Yoo, p. [0092], e.g., The radio resource status may include at least one of the number of UEs connected to a serving cell, a guaranteed bit-rate (GBR) by downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL), a non-GBR, a total physical resource block (PRB) usage, the number of heavy users (e.g., UEs requiring a load/speed equal to or more than a threshold value) by DL/UL, and a resource allocation failure rate (e.g., a PDCCH allocation failure rate).
Regarding claim 46, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the method of claim 45, wherein each PRI included in a DL resource grant identifies one of the following: portions of the static PUCCH resources and the dynamic resources that are configured according to the first PUCCH format (see Yoo, p. [0092], e.g., The radio resource status may include at least one of the number of UEs connected to a serving cell, a guaranteed bit-rate (GBR) by downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL), a non-GBR, a total physical resource block (PRB) usage, the number of heavy users (e.g., UEs requiring a load/speed equal to or more than a threshold value) by DL/UL, and a resource allocation failure rate (e.g., a PDCCH allocation failure rate); or portions of the static PUCCH resources and the dynamic resources that are configured according to the second PUCCH format.
Regarding claim 48, Abdelmonem discloses re-assign a certain resource block that was previously used for PUSCH to be used for PUCCH. Therefore, implicitly, Abdelmonem has:
Abdelmonem discloses the network node (e.g., communication device 200) arranged to configure uplink (UL) resources for a cell of a wireless network, the network node comprising: processing circuitry operably coupled to communication circuitry arranged to transmit downlink (DL) transmissions and to receive uplink (UL) transmissions in the cell (see Abdelmonem, p. [0316]), wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: configure each of a plurality of UL resources for the cell as one of the following:
a static physical UL control channel (PUCCH) resource (e.g., the original PUCCH resource assignment),
a static physical UL shared channel (PUSCH) resource (e.g., the original PUSCH resource assignment minus the resource block at was re-assigned), and
a dynamic resource, being initially configured as a PUSCH resource (e.g., the PUSCH resource block that was re-assigned to be used as PUCCH resource);
reconfigure one of the dynamic resources as a PUCCH resource according to a first PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH); and
reconfigure one of the dynamic resources as a PUCCH resource according to a second PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH).
However, Abdelmonem does not expressly disclose when a number of user equipment (UEs) that are connected to the cell increases above a first threshold, and when a number of UEs connected to the cell that meet at least one criteria associated with downlink (DL) data increases above a second threshold.
Yoo discloses the above recited limitations (see Yoo, p. [0092], e.g., The radio resource status may include at least one of the number of UEs connected to a serving cell, a guaranteed bit-rate (GBR) by downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL), a non-GBR, a total physical resource block (PRB) usage, the number of heavy users (e.g., UEs requiring a load/speed equal to or more than a threshold value) by DL/UL, and a resource allocation failure rate (e.g., a PDCCH allocation failure rate).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Yoo’s teachings into Abdelmonem. The suggestion/motivation would have been to provide the resource status request for sharing resource status information on other nodes or cells of the other nodes as suggested by Yoo.
Regarding claim 49, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the network node of claim 48, further comprising the communication circuitry (see Abdelmonem, p. [0316]).
Regarding claim 50, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the network node of claim 48, wherein: a first subset of the dynamic resources can have either the first PUCCH format or the second PUCCH format; and a second subset of the dynamic resources can have the second PUCCH format but not the first PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283], e.g., at step 1508, with generating (responsive to the first measurement not meeting the signal quality threshold) instructions to direct the communication device (wherein the instructions reassign the transport of control information in the first resource block to a second resource block that meets the signal quality threshold, wherein the second resource block was previously used for transport of data as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and wherein the second resource block is now used by the communication device for the transport of control information as the PUCCH).
Regarding claim 51, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the network node of claim 48, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to reconfigure one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to the second PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]), when the number of UEs connected to the cell decreases below a third threshold (see Yoo, p. [0092]).
Regarding claim 52, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the network node of claim 51, wherein: the processing circuitry is configured to reconfigure one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to the second PUCCH format (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]), further based on the number of UEs connected to the cell that meet the at least one criteria being above a fourth threshold (see Yoo, p. [0092]).
; and the processing circuitry is further configured to reduce the dynamic resources configured according to the first PUCCH format and increase the dynamic resources configured as PUSCH resources (see Abdelmonem, p. [0283]),, when the number of UEs connected to the cell that meet the at least one criteria is below the fourth threshold (see Yoo, p. [0092]).
Regarding claim 53, the combined teaching of Abdelmonem and Yoo disclose the network node of claim 48, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to reconfigure one of the dynamic resources from the first PUCCH format to the second PUCCH format based on: determining a last timeslot of scheduled PUSCH transmissions in the dynamic resource to be reconfigured; and determining an updated PUCCH resource indication (PRI) for transmission with DL resource grants after the last timeslot, wherein the updated PRI identifies the dynamic resources configured as PUCCH resources according to the second PUCCH format, including the dynamic resource to be reconfigured (see Abdelmonem, p. [0160], e.g., a resource block scheduler of the second base station may assign the resource blocks to the mobile communication device according to a time slot scheme that avoids the periodicity of the known interference).
Conclusion
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/MINH TRANG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477