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 office action is in response to the application filed on 02/23/2024.
Claims 1-30 are currently pending.
Claims 1-30 are rejected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2, 7, 12, 18-19, 22, 25, 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matha Deghel et al (US 20240057112 A1) in view of Haewook Park et al (US 20240284451 A1).
Claims 1-30 of the instant application are directed to a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory, configured to: receive, from a network node, a downlink control information (DCI) message that schedules a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein the DCI message includes: a waveform selection field that indicates a waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission, and a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set indication field that indicates a multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) transmission mode or a single transmission reception point (sTRP) transmission mode associated with the PUSCH transmission; and decode the DCI message based on one or more zero padding types associated with one or more fields in the DCI message that depend on one or more of a value of the waveform selection field or a value of the SRS resource set indication field, the system shown in FIG. 6.
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The Deghel reference is concerned with a UE receiving a first indication in a downlink control information; determining whether to apply a multi-transmission reception point physical uplink shared channel scheme or a single-transmission reception point physical uplink shared channel scheme for transmitting a transport block based on the first indication; interpreting at least one downlink control information field differently depending on whether it is determined that the single-transmission reception point physical uplink shared channel scheme or the multi-transmission reception point physical uplink shared channel scheme is applicable, the system shown in FIG. 1.
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The Park reference, cures the deficiency in the Deghel reference by teaching receiving, from a network, configuration information for a first transmission configuration and a second transmission configuration for uplink transmission, wherein the first and second transmission configurations may be associated with a first type of waveform and a second type of waveform, respectively, the system shown in FIG. 10.
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For Claim 1, Deghel discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (Deghel teaches, in ¶ 0015, lines 2-5, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for enabling dynamic switching between multi-transmission reception point (multi-TRP) and single-transmission reception point (single-RP)), comprising:
receiving, from a network node, a downlink control information (DCI) message that schedules a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 110, the UE may receive DCI scheduling PUSCH(s)), wherein the DCI message includes: a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set indication field that indicates a multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) transmission mode or a single transmission reception point (sTRP) transmission mode associated with the PUSCH transmission (Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index); and decoding the DCI message based on one or more zero padding types associated with one or more fields in the DCI message that depend on one or more of a value of the waveform selection field or a value of the SRS resource set indication field (Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 130, that the UE may interpret at least one DCI field by considering one part/subfield of the field in case of single-TRP PUSCH scheme, and determining the parameter value based on this part/subfield).
Deghel fails to expressly disclose that the DCI message includes: a waveform selection field that indicates a waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission.
However, Park, in analogous art, discloses that the DCI message includes: a waveform selection field that indicates a waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission (Park teaches, in FIG. 7, step S710, that a terminal receive configuration information on first transmission configuration related to first type of waveform and second transmission configuration related to second type of waveform).
Park also teaches in ¶ 0178, that in DCI indicating a waveform change from CP-OFDM to DFT-s-OFDM, a TPMI and TRI field may have a 6-bit size based on a configuration for CP-OFDM. Based on a configuration for DFT-s-OFDM, only 4 bits of a TPMI and TRI field are meaningful. Accordingly, it may be assumed that uplink transmission is performed based on 4 bits among 6 bits of a TPMI and TRI field (a MSB or a LSB) and the remaining 2 bits are ignored or zero-padded.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the waveform indication information taught in Park. The motivation is so that a size of a SRI field and/or a size of a TPMI and TRI field has a fixed value regardless of an indicated waveform [Park: ¶ 0168, lines 6-7].
For Claim 2, Deghel discloses a method, wherein the SRS resource set indication field indicates whether the PUSCH transmission is associated with a single frequency network (SFN) mTRP transmission mode or the sTRP transmission mode (Deghel teaches, in ¶ 0032, lines 1-4, that the UE may be able to determine the mode of operation from the multi-TRP PUSCH scheme or the single-TRP PUSCH scheme based on a dedicated field in the DCI. For instance, the dedicated field in the DCI may be used to indicate whether to apply the single-TRP scheme or the multi-TRP scheme).
Deghel fails to expressly disclose that the waveform selection field indicates whether the waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission is a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform.
However, Park, in analogous art, discloses that the waveform selection field indicates whether the waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission is a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform (Park teaches, in ¶ 0176, that If waveform switching from DFT-s-OFDM to CP-OFDM is indicated, but a waveform change is not completed yet, a size of DCI scheduling uplink transmission may be determined based on a configuration for a source waveform before switching (e.g., DFT-s-OFDM)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the waveform indication information taught in Park. The motivation is so that a size of a SRI field and/or a size of a TPMI and TRI field has a fixed value regardless of an indicated waveform [Park: ¶ 0168, lines 6-7].
For Claim 7, Deghel discloses a method, wherein: the SRS resource set indication field indicates whether the PUSCH transmission is associated with a spatial division multiplexing (SDM) mTRP transmission mode or the sTRP transmission mode (Deghel teaches, in ¶ 0032, lines 1-4, that the UE may be able to determine the mode of operation from the multi-TRP PUSCH scheme or the single-TRP PUSCH scheme based on a dedicated field in the DCI. For instance, the dedicated field in the DCI may be used to indicate whether to apply the single-TRP scheme or the multi-TRP scheme).
Deghel fails to expressly disclose that the waveform selection field indicates: that the waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission is a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform based on the SRS resource set indication field indicating that the PUSCH transmission is associated with the SDM mTRP transmission mode, or whether the waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission is the CP-OFDM waveform or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform based on the SRS resource set indication field indicating that the PUSCH transmission is associated with the sTRP transmission mode.
However, Park, in analogous art, discloses that the waveform selection field (Park teaches, in ¶ 0163, that a waveform identifier may be included in an uplink transmission-related configuration information element, and parameters in a corresponding information element may be configured to be applied to a waveform corresponding to a waveform identifier) indicates: that the waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission is a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform based on the SRS resource set indication field indicating that the PUSCH transmission is associated with the SDM mTRP transmission mode, or whether the waveform type associated with the PUSCH transmission is the CP-OFDM waveform or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform based on the SRS resource set indication field indicating that the PUSCH transmission is associated with the sTRP transmission mode (Park teaches, in ¶ 0176, that If waveform switching from DFT-s-OFDM to CP-OFDM is indicated, but a waveform change is not completed yet, a size of DCI scheduling uplink transmission may be determined based on a configuration for a source waveform before switching (e.g., DFT-s-OFDM)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the waveform indication information taught in Park. The motivation is so that a size of a SRI field and/or a size of a TPMI and TRI field has a fixed value regardless of an indicated waveform [Park: ¶ 0168, lines 6-7].
For Claim 12, Deghel discloses a method, wherein the SRS resource set indication field indicates whether the PUSCH transmission is associated with the mTRP transmission mode or the sTRP transmission mode (Deghel teaches, in ¶ 0032, lines 1-4, that the UE may be able to determine the mode of operation from the multi-TRP PUSCH scheme or the single-TRP PUSCH scheme based on a dedicated field in the DCI. For instance, the dedicated field in the DCI may be used to indicate whether to apply the single-TRP scheme or the multi-TRP scheme).
Deghel fails to expressly disclose that the DCI message includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) or a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI).
However, Park, in analogous art, discloses that the DCI message includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) or a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) (Park teaches, in ¶ 0101, that Information included in DCI format 0_0 is CRC (cyclic redundancy check) scrambled by a C-RNTI (Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier) or a CS-RNTI (Configured Scheduling RNTI) or a MCS-C-RNTI (Modulation Coding Scheme Cell RNTI) and transmitted).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the waveform indication information taught in Park. The motivation is so that a size of a SRI field and/or a size of a TPMI and TRI field has a fixed value regardless of an indicated waveform [Park: ¶ 0168, lines 6-7].
For Claim 18, Deghel discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a network node, comprising: generating a downlink control information (DCI) message (Deghel teaches, in ¶ 0039, lines 5-7, the DCI scheduling PUSCH may be received from the network (e.g., gNB)), that includes:
a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set indication field that indicates a multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) transmission mode or a single transmission reception point (sTRP) transmission mode associated with the PUSCH transmission (Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index); and transmitting the DCI message to a user equipment (UE) (Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 110, the UE may receive DCI scheduling PUSCH(s)), wherein one or more fields in the DCI message are associated with a value of the SRS resource set indication field (Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 130, that the UE may interpret at least one DCI field by considering one part/subfield of the field in case of single-TRP PUSCH scheme, and determining the parameter value based on this part/subfield).
Deghel fails to expressly disclose that the DCI message includes: a waveform selection field that indicates a waveform type associated with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.
However, Park, in analogous art, discloses that the DCI message includes: a waveform selection field that indicates a waveform type associated with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (Park teaches, in FIG. 7, step S710, that a terminal receive configuration information on first transmission configuration related to first type of waveform and second transmission configuration related to second type of waveform).
Park also teaches in ¶ 0178, that in DCI indicating a waveform change from CP-OFDM to DFT-s-OFDM, a TPMI and TRI field may have a 6-bit size based on a configuration for CP-OFDM. Based on a configuration for DFT-s-OFDM, only 4 bits of a TPMI and TRI field are meaningful. Accordingly, it may be assumed that uplink transmission is performed based on 4 bits among 6 bits of a TPMI and TRI field (a MSB or a LSB) and the remaining 2 bits are ignored or zero-padded.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the waveform indication information taught in Park. The motivation is so that a size of a SRI field and/or a size of a TPMI and TRI field has a fixed value regardless of an indicated waveform [Park: ¶ 0168, lines 6-7].
For Claim 19, please refer to the rejection of Claim 2, Kumar above.
For Claim 22, please refer to the rejection of Claim 7, Kumar above.
For Claim 25, please refer to the rejection of Claim 12, Kumar above.
For Claim 29, please refer to the rejection of Claim 1, Kumar above.
For Claim 30, please refer to the rejection of Claim 18, Kumar above.
Claims 3-6, 8-11, 13-14, 20-21, 23-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matha Deghel et al (US 20240057112 A1) in view of Haewook Park et al (US 20240284451 A1) as applied to claim 1 or 18 above, and further in view of Abdellatif Salah et al (US 20200328840 A1).
For Claims 3-6, Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index.
Park teaches, in FIG. 7, step S710, that a terminal receive configuration information on first transmission configuration related to first type of waveform and second transmission configuration related to second type of waveform.
Deghel & Park fail to expressly disclose a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types].
However, Salah, in analogous art, discloses a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types] (Salah teaches, in ¶ 0030, that when performing the DCI size alignment … the network node may be configured to add a number of zero padding bits to the first DCI format until the first payload size of the first DCI format is equal to the second payload size of the second DCI format. For example, in an event that the number of information bits in a DCI format is less than 12 bits, zeros shall be appended to the DCI format until the payload size is equal to 12 bits. Then, the network node may be configured to transmit the first DCI format with the zero padding bits).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the DCI size alignment taught in Salah. The motivation is so that the complexity of UE monitoring and blind decoding could be reduced [Salah: ¶ 0025, lines 22-24].
For Claims 8-11, Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index.
Park teaches, in FIG. 7, step S710, that a terminal receive configuration information on first transmission configuration related to first type of waveform and second transmission configuration related to second type of waveform.
Deghel & Park fail to expressly disclose a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types].
However, Salah, in analogous art, discloses a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types] (Salah teaches, in ¶ 0030, that when performing the DCI size alignment … the network node may be configured to add a number of zero padding bits to the first DCI format until the first payload size of the first DCI format is equal to the second payload size of the second DCI format. For example, in an event that the number of information bits in a DCI format is less than 12 bits, zeros shall be appended to the DCI format until the payload size is equal to 12 bits. Then, the network node may be configured to transmit the first DCI format with the zero padding bits).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the DCI size alignment taught in Salah. The motivation is so that the complexity of UE monitoring and blind decoding could be reduced [Salah: ¶ 0025, lines 22-24].
For Claims 13-14, Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index.
Deghel & Park fail to expressly disclose a per DCI field alignment [wherein a size of each field in the DCI message that depends on whether the CRC of the DCI message is scrambled by the C-RNTI or the CS-RNTI].
However, Salah, in analogous art, discloses a per DCI field alignment (Salah teaches, in ¶ 0030, that when performing the DCI size alignment … zeros shall be appended to the DCI format until the payload size is equal to 12 bits. Then, the network node may be configured to transmit the first DCI format with the zero padding bits) [wherein a size of each field in the DCI message that depends on whether the CRC of the DCI message is scrambled by the C-RNTI or the CS-RNTI] (Salah teaches, in ¶ 0029, lines 16-19, that After such alignment, the DCI sizes that the UE should monitor can be reduced to 3 DCI sizes scrambled by C-RNTI and 1 DCI size scrambled by SFI-RNTI, which is within the DCI sizes budget).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the DCI size alignment taught in Salah. The motivation is so that the complexity of UE monitoring and blind decoding could be reduced [Salah: ¶ 0025, lines 22-24].
For Claims 20-21, 23-24, Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index.
Park teaches, in FIG. 7, step S710, that a terminal receive configuration information on first transmission configuration related to first type of waveform and second transmission configuration related to second type of waveform.
Deghel & Park fail to expressly disclose a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types].
However, Salah, in analogous art, discloses a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types] (Salah teaches, in ¶ 0030, that when performing the DCI size alignment … the network node may be configured to add a number of zero padding bits to the first DCI format until the first payload size of the first DCI format is equal to the second payload size of the second DCI format. For example, in an event that the number of information bits in a DCI format is less than 12 bits, zeros shall be appended to the DCI format until the payload size is equal to 12 bits. Then, the network node may be configured to transmit the first DCI format with the zero padding bits).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel with the DCI size alignment taught in Salah. The motivation is so that the complexity of UE monitoring and blind decoding could be reduced [Salah: ¶ 0025, lines 22-24].
Claims 15-17, 26-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matha Deghel et al (US 20240057112 A1) in view of Haewook Park et al (US 20240284451 A1) as applied to claim 1 or 18 above, and further in view of Kai Wu et al (US 20250227697 A1).
For Claims 15-17, Deghel teaches, in FIG. 1, at 105, that the UE may receive an indication (via MAC CE or DCI) indicating an SRS resource set index.
Park teaches, in ¶ 0192, that a terminal may transmit its capability information to a base station. For example, UE capability information may include a waveform switching time gap.
Deghel & Park fail to expressly disclose transmitting a capability to support one or more of dynamic waveform switching or dynamic switching between the mTRP transmission mode and the sTRP transmission mode.
However, Wu, in analogous art, discloses a per DCI field alignment [using one or more zero padding types] (Wu teaches, in ¶ 0057, lines 1-7, that When dynamic waveform switching capability of a terminal is enabled, the terminal can dynamically switch between a cyclic prefix-orthogonal frequency division multiplex (CP-OFDM) waveform and a discrete Fourier transform-s-orthogonal frequency division multiplex (DFT-s-OFDM) waveform).
Wu also teaches, in ¶ 0114, that The overall size of the DCI is determined by the largest DCI size under different waveforms. As an example, to align the DCI sizes, for waveforms with smaller DCI sizes, zero padding can be used to reach the maximum DCI size.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Deghel & Park with the dynamic waveform switching capability taught in Wu. The motivation is so that the terminal can select an appropriate waveform for transmission under a corresponding channel state condition to improve transmission performance [Wu: ¶ 0057, lines 9-11].
For Claims 26-28, please refer to the rejection of Claims 15-17 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: SUN (US 20240048320 A1) is pertinent to a UE receives a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set configuration including a first resource set corresponding to a first transmission and reception point (TRP) and a second resource set corresponding to a second TRP, receives a downlink control information (DCI) transmission including an SRS resource indicator (SRI) indicating (i) which resource from the first resource set should be selected for a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission to a first TRP.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMED A KAMARA whose telephone number is (571)270-5629. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, CHARLES JIANG can be reached at 5712707191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMED A KAMARA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412