DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/589,210 filed on 2/27/2024. Claims 1-30 have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/2/2025 is being considered by the examiner.
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, 6-7, 12, 17, 22-23, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (hereinafter Hao)(US 2024/0089960) in view of Hapsari et al. (hereinafter Hapsari)(US 2020/0045671).
Regarding claims 1 and 23, Hao teaches as follows:
A user equipment (UE)(300 in figure 3), comprising:
one or more memories (322 in figure 3) storing processor-executable code; and
one or more processors (321 in figure 3) coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the UE to (the system circuitry 304 may include one or more processors 321 and memories 322. The memory 322 stores, for example, an operating system 324, instructions 326, and parameters 328. The processor 321 is configured to execute the instructions 326 to carry out desired functionality for the UE 300, see, ¶ [0048] and figure 3):
receive a control message (interpreted as the URLLC PDCCH 521 in figure 5A) indicating scheduling information for a downlink message that is scheduled for transmission via a first subband of a first radio frequency spectrum band (a URLLC PDCCH 521 in a high priority CORESET or SS may schedule/signal the URLLC PDSCH 525, see, ¶ [0066]) and via a second subband of a second radio frequency spectrum band that is different from the first radio frequency spectrum band, the second subband being non-contiguous with the first subband (wherein the UE1 is configured with two cells, i.e., cell1 (equivalent to applicant’s first subband) and cell2 (equivalent to applicant’s second subband) which are not overlapping with each other. FIG. 1C shows the cell1 and cell2 are contiguous in the frequency domain, but in some implementations, the cell1 and cell2 may be either contiguous or non-contiguous in a frequency band, see, ¶ [0040] and figure 1C)(a sub-band full duplex (SBFD) system may regard different ‘sub-band’ as different cells, i.e., carrier-aggregation (CA) based SBFD (CA-SBFD), see, ¶ [0037]);
monitor the first subband and the second subband for the downlink message from the virtual cell based at least in part on the scheduling information (high priority “dynamic D” in one cell may overlap with low priority “dynamic U” in another cell in the time domain. For example but not limited to, the high priority dynamic D may be a URLLC PDSCH 525 in a time slot (t2) in cell 1, and the low priority dynamic U may be an enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) PUSCH 535 in a time slot (t2) in cell 2. In some implementations, an eMBB PDCCH 531 may schedule/signal the eMBB PUSCH 535, and/or a URLLC PDCCH 521 in a high priority CORESET or SS may schedule/signal the URLLC PDSCH 525, see, ¶ [0066] and figure 5A); and
receive a preemption message indicating that at least a portion of the downlink message is preempted, the portion corresponding to the first subband and the second subband (RRC D may be canceled in response to receiving a DL signaling e.g., DL preemption indication (782, DL PI) or deactivation (e.g., for SPS). When the RRC D is canceled or deactivated in one cell, the dynamic U transmission may be allowed, see, ¶ [0089] and figure 7B),
Hao teaches all limitations as presented above except for the virtual cell.
Hapsari teaches as follows:
A virtual cell may be defined to include a resource of one or more sub-bands which can be synchronized with an SS described above with reference to FIG. 6 in addition to a resource of a shared band. In this embodiment, since user equipment UE in an RRC idle state does not recognize a sub-band, the user equipment UE recognizes a specific resource of the sub-band corresponding to a virtual cell after transitioning to an RRC connected state (see, ¶ [0086] and figure 6).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hao with Hapsari to include the virtual cell concept as taught by Hapsari in order to efficiently share resource in multiple sub-bands.
Regarding claim 6, Hao teaches as follows:
Receive an indication of whether the portion of the downlink message that is preempted occurs before or after reception of the preemption message and an indication of a time period corresponding to the portion of the downlink message that is preempted (the UE may prepare dynamic U after receiving scheduling signaling; the UE may perform UL transmission T ms after receiving DL PI/deactivation 782; and/or the UE may cancel or defer UL transmission if not receiving DL PI/deactivation, see, ¶ [0089] and figure 7B).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Hao teaches as follows:
Various level of priority may be assigned for different channels/signals, including, for example, high priority “RRC D”, high priority “RRC U”, low priority “RRC D”, low priority “RRC U”, high priority “dynamic D”, high priority “dynamic U”, low priority “dynamic D”, and/or low priority “dynamic U” (see, ¶ [0060]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hao in view of Hapsari to include assigning a priority level of the downlink messages in order to efficiently prioritize multiple messages based on the priority level.
Regarding claims 12 and 28, Hao in view of Hapsari teaches similar limitations as presented above in the rejection for claims 1 and 23.
Hao further teaches as follows:
Receive a control message indicating scheduling information for an uplink message (an eMBB PDCCH 731 (equivalent to applicant’s control message) may schedule/signal the eMBB PUSCH/PUCCH 735, see, ¶ [0084] and figure 7A);
receive a cancellation message indicating that at least a portion of the uplink message is canceled based at least in part on the scheduling information; and cancel transmission of at least the portion of the uplink message based at least in part on the cancellation message (canceling/dropping/delaying/postponing/deferring dynamic U may be performance in response to receiving an UL cancellation indication (732 UL CI). When dynamic U is canceled by UL CI 732, the UE may receive RRC D, see, ¶ [0086] and figure 7A).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claim 22, Hao teaches as follows:
Wherein the uplink message is at least one of an uplink control message (interpreted as the PUCCH)(an eMBB PDCCH 731 may schedule/signal the eMBB PUSCH/PUCCH 735, see, ¶ [0084] and figure 7A).
Claims 2-3, 13-14, 24-25, and 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (hereinafter Hao)(US 2024/0089960) in view of Hapsari et al. (hereinafter Hapsari)(US 2020/0045671), and further in view of Nogami et al. (hereinafter Nogami)(US 2024/0251422).
Regarding claims 2-3, 13-14, 24-25, and 29-30, Hao in view of Hapsari teaches all limitations as presented above except for the search space nor scrambling based on UE identifier.
Nogami teaches as follows:
A search-space-set is defined as a set of PDCCH candidates. A search-space-set may be a Common Search Space (CSS) set or a UE-specific Search Space (USS) set (see, ¶ [0215]);
the type-0 PDCCH common search-space-set may be at least used for a DCI format with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) sequence scrambled by an SI-RNTI (System Information-Radio Network Temporary Identifier)(see, ¶ [0227]); and
the UE-specific search-space-set may be used at least for a DCI format with a CRC sequence scrambled by a C-RNTI, CS-RNTI (Configured Scheduling-Radio Network Temporary Identifier), MCS-C-RNTI (Modulation and Coding Scheme-Radio Network Temporary Identifier) or SP-CSI-RNTI (Semi Persistent-Channel State Information-Radio Network Temporary Identifier)(see, ¶ [0232]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hao in view of Hapsari with Nogami to include the search-space-set of CCS and USS as taught by Nogami in order to efficiently schedule resources.
Claims 4-5, 15-16, and 26-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (hereinafter Hao)(US 2024/0089960) in view of Hapsari et al. (hereinafter Hapsari)(US 2020/0045671), and further in view of Deng (US 2015/0071198).
Regarding claims 4-5, 15-16, and 26-27, Hao in view of Hapsari teaches all limitations as presented above except for a primary cell and secondary cells associated with a same timing advance group.
Deng teaches as follows:
The other cells comprise: the primary cell; and/or other secondary cells belong to the same timing advance groups with the primary cell; and/or other cells belong to different timing advance groups with the secondary cell (see, ¶ [0064]-[0067]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hao in view of Hapsari with Deng to include assigning same timing advance group for primary and secondary cells as taught by Deng in order to support random access in a multi-TA carrier aggregation.
Claims 8-11 and 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (hereinafter Hao)(US 2024/0089960) in view of Hapsari et al. (hereinafter Hapsari)(US 2020/0045671), and further in view of Chen et al. (hereinafter Chen)(US 2024/0121768).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Hao in view of Hapsari teaches all limitations as presented above except for the start and length indicator value (SLIV) nor the resource indicator value (RIV).
Chen teaches as follows:
The combination of the (start+duration), (start+end) or the (end+duration) may be indicated by an indicator, such as SLIV (Start and Length Indicator Value), or RIV (Resource Indication Value), or any other indicator which identifies time or frequency resources (see, ¶ [0203]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hao in view of Hapsari with Chen to include the SLIV or RIV indicator as taught by Chen in order to efficiently identify resources.
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Hao in view of Hapsari teaches all limitations as presented above except for the indication of a bitmap indicating a set of time-frequency resources.
Chen teaches as follows:
A first bit map may be used to indicate the location of the pre-empted resource information in time domain… a second bit map may be used to indicate the location of the pre-empted resource information in frequency domain (see, ¶ [0198]-[0199]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hao in view of Hapsari with Chen to include the bitmap indicator as taught by Chen in order to efficiently identify resources.
Regarding claims 10-11 and 20-21, Hao in view of Hapsari and Chen teaches similar limitations as presented above.
Chen further teaches as follows:
The location information in time and/or frequency domain of the pre-empted resource may be determined by a bit map. The update message may carry the bit map. For example, a first plurality of bits (M bits) of the bit map indicate the pre-empted resource in time domain… a second plurality bits (N bits) of the bit map indicate the pre-empted resource in frequency domain (see, ¶ [0194]-[0196]).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
June 5, 2026
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