DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/5/2026 has been entered.
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) 1-4, 6-9, 11-14 and 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura [US 2022/0353046] in view of Lu [US 2022/0132496].
As claims 1, 6, 11 and 16, Matsumura [US 2022/0353046] discloses an user equipment (UE)/Base station [Fig 2], comprising: a receiver/transmitter configured to receive a first downlink control information (DCI) that indicates scheduling information of a first signal [Fig 2, Ref DCI for scheduling PDSCH], wherein the scheduling information of the first signal indicates a corresponding at least one of a time-domain resource, a frequency-domain resource, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), configuration information of a DeModulation Reference Signal (DMRS), a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process ID, a Redundancy Version (RV), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a transmission antenna port, or a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state [Par. 0088, time and frequency, DMRS port, TCI, HARQ timing, Par. 0062-0064]; receive the first signal on a Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) [Fig 2, PDSCH]; receive a second DCI that indicates an index and scheduling information of a second signal [Fig 2, Ref DCI which includes scheduling data and index such ID of group ID for TRP2, ID of TRP, ID of resource set, Par. 0062-0064, 0073, 0094, 0095], wherein the scheduling information of the second signal includes a corresponding at least one of a time-domain resource, a frequency-domain resource, a MCS, configuration information of a DMRS, a HARQ process ID, a RV, a NDI, a transmission antenna port, or a TCI state [Par. 0088, time and frequency, DMRS port, TCI, HARQ timing, Par. 0062-0064]; and receive the second signal on the PDSCH [Fig 2, PDSCH]; and a first transmitter/receiver configured to transmit, in an uplink slot, a plurality of bits on a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) [Fig 6, Ref HARQ2 is transmitted via resource of resources of PUCCH of DCI2], wherein the plurality of bits are transmitted in a PUCCH resource set [Fig 6, HARQ2 includes ACK bits of PDSCH1 and PDSCH2], and the plurality of bits include a first bit set of Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest-Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) data of the first signal [Fig 6, HARQ2 includes ACK bits of PDSCH1] and a second bit set of HARQ-ACK data of the second signal [Fig 6, HARQ2 includes ACK bits of PDSCH2], wherein the PUCCH resource set is based on the index of the second DCI and the PUCCH resource [Fig 6, Resource blocks based on index “resource indicator” or HARQ timing and resource set]. However, Matsumura [US 2022/0353046] fails to disclose a PUCCH resource is based on a size of the second bit set, wherein the first bit set and the second bit set are multiplexed in the uplink slot based on a first priority of the first bit set and a second priority of the second bit set. in the same field of endeavor, Lu [US 2022/0132496] discloses a first transmitter/receiver [Fig. 2] configured to transmit, in an uplink slot, a plurality of bits on a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) [Par. 0003, 0040, 0055, 0063 discloses plurality of bits transmitted in uplink slot such as PUCCH wherein bits includes number of bits of ack of URLLC and bits of ACK of eMBB], wherein the plurality of bits are transmitted in a PUCCH resource set [Par. 0053-0066 disclose PUCCH resource set used for sending the bits, Par. 0091, 0126] and the plurality of bits include a first bit set of Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest-Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) data of the first signal [Par. 0053-0066 discloses a first number of bits of ACK belong to the first downlink signal which scheduled by first DCI for URLLC/eMBB, Par. 0091, 0126] and a second bit set of HARQ-ACK data of the second signal [Par. 0053-0066 discloses the second number of bits of ACK belong to the second downlink signal which scheduled by second DCI for URLLC/eMBB, Par. 0091, 0126], wherein a PUCCH resource is based on a size of the second bit set [Par. 0053-0065, 0129 discloses PUCCH is selected based on the number bits of ACK of URLLC/eMBB] wherein the first bit set and the second bit set are multiplexed in the uplink slot based on a first priority of the first bit set and a second priority of the second bit set [Par. 0040 and 0126 discloses first and second ACK have different priority].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to apply a method and system comprising a PUCCH resource is based on a size of the second bit set, wherein the first bit set and the second bit set are multiplexed in the uplink slot based on a first priority of the first bit set and a second priority of the second bit set as disclosed by Lu [US 2022/0132496] into the teaching of Matsumura [US 2022/0353046]. The motivation would have been to The motivation would have been to improve throughput of network.
As claims 2, 7, 12 and 17, Matsumura/Lu discloses a size of the plurality of bits is equal to a sum of a size of the first bit set and the size of the second bit set [Matsumura, Fig 6, HARQ2 is sum of HARQ of PDSCH1 and PDSCH2, Lu discloses Par. 0063]
As claims 3, 8, 13 and 18, Matsumura discloses second DCI implicitly indicates the index [ID of the TRP, group ID, resource set ID, Par. 0063, 0073, 0094, 0095].
As claims 4, 9, 14 and 19, Matsumura discloses the resource block set is one of a plurality of resource block sets [Fig 6, Ref PUCCH resource sets reserved for TRP 1/2], and a plurality of resource blocks is one of the plurality of resource block sets [Fig 6, a resource set includes resource blocks], a resource block of the plurality of resource block sets is reserved for the PUCCH [Fig 6, resource reserved to PUCCH], and the index [Fig 6, Ref TRP ID is index for group of resource sets] and an index of the resource block set in the plurality of resource block sets are used for determining an index of the plurality of resource blocks in the plurality of resource block sets [Fig 6, resource set 2 determines ID of the resource blocks].
Claim(s) 5, 10, 15 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu [US 2022/0132496] and Matsumura [US 2022/0353046] as applied to claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 above, and further in view of Hu [US 2021/0218539].
As claims 5, 10, 15 and 20, Lu and Matsumura fail to disclose what Hu discloses plurality of resource block sets respectively correspond to a plurality of payload ranges [Fig 6, each resource set associated with payload range], a resource block of the plurality of resource block sets is reserved for a PUCCH [Fig 9, resource sets for PUCCH preconfigured], two payload ranges of the plurality of payload ranges being are orthogonal [Par. 0099, 0103, 0118 and Fig 6, the payload ranges are orthogonal because the carried on the orthogonal system such as OFDM]; the resource block set is one of the plurality of resource block sets that corresponds to a payload range including comprising the size of the second bit set [Fig 6 and Par. 0298, 0303, quantity of second HARQ bits within payload range]; a target payload range is one of the plurality of payload ranges that corresponds to the resource block set [Fig 6, one of range corresponding to resource set], and a size of the plurality of bits belongs to the target payload range [Fig 6, range 10-40 bits]; the first bit set, the second bit set and the target payload range are jointly used for determining the plurality of bits [Fig 1, HARQ bits of PDSCH 1, 2 and range of payload use to calculating sum of HARQ of PDSCH 1 and 2 to match with payload range]; and a relation between a sum of the size of the first bit set and the size of the second bit set and the target payload range is used for determining the size of the plurality of bits [Fig 1 and 6, the payload range and sum of HARQ of PDSCH 1 and 2 used to determining the size of plurality of bits for conveying to TRP via resource PUCCH].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to apply a method and system comprising a plurality of resource block sets respectively correspond to a plurality of payload ranges, a resource block of the plurality of resource block sets is reserved for the PUCCH, two payload ranges of the plurality of payload ranges are orthogonal; the resource block set is one of the plurality of resource block sets that corresponds to a payload range including the size of the second bit set; a target payload range is one of the plurality of payload ranges that corresponds to the resource block set, and a size of the plurality of bits belongs to the target payload range; the first bit set, the second bit set and the target payload range are jointly used for determining the plurality of bits; and a relation between a sum of the size of the first bit set and the size of the second bit set and the target payload range is used for determining the size of the plurality of bits as disclosed by Hu into the teaching of Matsumura [US 2022/0353046] and Lu [US 2022/0132496]. The motivation would have been to The motivation would have been to improve throughput of network.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Gou [US 20210307046] discloses a method and system for multiplexing first bits of ack and second bits of ack having priority.
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/STEVEN HIEU D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414