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 .
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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) 1-2 and 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu et al. (US 12,34,309 B2, hereinafter Zhu) In view of 3GPP (ETSI TS 138321 v 16.3.0 (2021-01, hereinafter 3GPP.)
Regarding claim 1, Zhu discloses a data transmission method, comprising: generating P first medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (PDUs) (figure 5, step S504), wherein K first data packets and Q second data packets that are comprised in the P first MAC PDUs are arranged according to a preset rule ( column 4, lines 20-23, “determining based on a PDU of a second protocol layer and with reference to a network coding parameter and/or a preset rule , a plurality of original data units ---included in a network coded block” ) wherein thesizes of other data packets other than a last data packet in each of the P first MAC PDUs are equal (column 4, lines 33-67) , M second data packets in the Q second data packets are generated by performing a network coding operation on the N pieces of original data (Figure 14 and 15, FIG.21, wherein the network packet #1 and network coded packet #2) , the second MAC PDU is a MAC PDU generated by using data transmitted from a radio link control layer to a medium access control layer (column 8, lines 50-67, figures 14-15), the preset rule indicates locations of an original data packet and a coded packet in the P first MAC PDUs, P, K, Q, N, and M each are a positive integer (FIGURE 21, column 8 ,lines 1-10 ) , K is greater than or equal to N, and Q is greater than or equal to M (FIGURE 21, column 4,lines 50-55), Q is greater than or equal to M which is the second data packet , first and second data packets (column 4, lines 20-30, original and includes the first data packet, figure 21, coded packet is greater than or equal to M) ; and
transmitting P transport blocks that carry the P first MAC PDUs, wherein one first MAC PDU is carried on one transport block (figure 21) ; and
the first data packets are original data packets, headers of the first data packets is are original data packet headers or coded packet headers, and the second data packets is are coded packets and comprises a coded packet headers (figure 21) .Zhu discloses K pieces of original data are obtained by performing a segmentation operation on P second MAC PDUs (column 4, lines 33-60, lines 51-67, wherein the RLC layer performs segmentation, figure 22 , wherein the NC data unit 2 is the second MAC PDU providing network coded data unit ).
Zhu does not disclose K first data packets are obtained by adding headers to K pieces of original data, the N first data packets in the K first data packets are obtained by separately adding headers to N pieces of original data in the K pieces of original data.
3GPP discloses constructing MAC PDUsby multiplexing the MAC SDUs and adding MAC subheaders (section 5.4.3.2 and section 6.1.2.) Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to incorporate the standard 3GPP MAC PDU construction procedure into the network coding system to arrive at the header addition to both the original data N and K to provide control and load balancing in the transmission.
Regarding claim 2, Zhu discloses, wherein K is equal to N, Q is equal
to M, and both N and M are determined based on a quantity of total data packets comprised in the
P first MAC PDUs and a code rate (column 3, lines 35-67).
Regarding claim 4, Zhu discloses wherein the preset rule comprises:
the last data packet comprised in each of the P first MAC PDUs is an original data packet (figure 14 wherein the original data packet is included in the coded packet figure 15).
Regarding claim 5, Claim 5 recites wherein the preset rule comprises:
when a size of the last data packet comprised in each of the P first MAC PDUs is less than a
preset data packet size, the last data packet is an original data packet; and
if a size of the last data packet comprised in the last first MAC PDU in the P first MAC PDUs
is equal to the preset data packet size, the last data packet is a coded packet or an original data
packet.
Zhu discloses a preset rule (column 5 ,lines 25-30).
And indicating the size of the packet determined by the MAC layer (column 13, lines 5-15) and determining the TB based on the PDU (column 13, lines 15-20).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to combine the preset rule and size determination to arrive at the first MAC pDU preset data packet size .
Regarding claim 6, Zhu discloses wherein the preset rule comprises:
arranging an original data packet before a coded packet in the other data packets other than
the last data packet comprised in each of the P first MAC PDU (column 4, lines 10-30, figure 14) .
Claims 7-8 , 15-18, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu et al. (US 12,34,309 B2, hereinafter Zhu) In view of 3GPP (ETSI TS 138321 v 16.3.0 (2021-01, hereinafter 3GPP) in view of Medard et al. (US 2014/0299503 A1, hereinafter Medard).
Regarding claim 7, Zhu discloses wherein headers of the first data packets are [[the]] original data packet headers, and a size of an original data packet header is equal to a size of a coded packet header (figure 21) . 3GPP discloses the original data packet header comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that a data packet in which the first indication information is located is an original data packet (section 6.1.2. wherein the LCID include the first indication information); and
Zhu and 3GPP do not disclose the coded packet header comprises second indication information and a coding factor field, the second indication information indicates that a data packet in which the second indication information is located is a coded packet, and the coding factor field indicates an index of a codebook.
Medard discloses the coded packet header comprises second indication information and a coding factor field, the second indication information indicates that a data packet in which the second indication information is located is a coded packet (¶[00097], TID, SID , BID , header and coding coefficient are included ), and the coding factor field indicates an index of a codebook (figure 7, ¶[0097], wherein the coding coefficient includes the coding factor field) .
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the coding factor field as disclosed by Medard along with the teachings of Zhu and 3GPP to identify how coded packets are generated and enable successful decoding at the receiver. Incorporating the header information would have predictably improved the interoperability and decoding of Huawei’s network -coded packets.
Regarding claim 8, Zhu discloses all subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the original data packet header and
the coded packet header each further comprise a block identifier field or an offset field, the offset
field indicates an offset value of a first MAC PDU, in which the offset field is located in the P first
MAC PDUs, relative to a start first MAC PDU, and the block identifier field indicates an identifier
of a network coding group in which a data packet comprising the block identifier field is located.
Medard discloses wherein the original data packet header and
the coded packet header each further comprise a block identifier field or an offset field, the offset
field indicates an offset value of a first MAC PDU, in which the offset field is located in the P first
MAC PDUs, relative to a start first MAC PDU, and the block identifier field indicates an identifier
of a network coding group in which a data packet comprising the block identifier field is located (figure 7, ¶[0097], wherein the BID includes the block identifier field).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to utilize the block identifier field as disclosed by Medard along with the teachings of Zhu and 3GPP to identify how coded packets are generated and enable successful decoding at the receiver. Incorporating the block identifier field would have predictably improved the interoperability and decoding of Huawei’s network -coded packets.
Regarding claim 15, Claim 15 recites wherein the headers of the first
data packets are the coded packet headers; and the coded packet headers comprise[[s]] a coding factor field, the coding factor field in the
coded packet headers of the first data packets indicates a unit vector, and a coding factor field in
the coded packet headers of the second data packets indicates an index of a codebook.
Medard teaches a coded packet header including coding coefficients used to generate the coded segment corresponding to the claimed coding factor field (¶[0097], figure 7). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate know n coding information into the header to enable decoding.
Regarding claim 16, Zhu and 3GPP discloses all subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the coded packet headers further comprise[[s]] a block identifier field; and
the block identifier field indicates an identifier of a network coding group in which a data
packet comprising the block identifier field is located.
Medard discloses wherein the coded packet headers further comprise[[s]] a block identifier field; and
the block identifier field indicates an identifier of a network coding group in which a data
packet comprising the block identifier field is located (¶[0097], figure 7). , it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate know n coding information into the header to enable decoding.
Regarding claim 17, Claim 17 discloses, wherein the sizes of the-other
data packets other than the last data packet comprised in each of the P first MAC PDUs are all
equal to a preset data packet size, and the size of the last data packet is less than or equal to
the preset data packet size.
Zhu disloses determining a MAC-layer reference size use to generate the PDU or transport block , corresponding to determining the preset packet size before generation (column 13,lines 15-30) . Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Zhu’s MAC layer packet size determination.
Regarding claim 18, Claim 18 recites “wherein a size ofa last data
packet comprised in an ith first MAC PDU in the P first MAC PDUs is determined based on
a size of the ith first MAC PDU, [[the]]a quantity of data packets comprised-in the ith first MAC
PDU, and [[the]]a preset data packet size; and the quantity of data packets comprised the ith first MAC PDU is determined based on the size of the ith first MAC PDU and the preset data packet size. “
Zhu discloses determining a size of the MAC layer that is used to generate the PDU or transport block which corresponds to determining a preset packet size (column 13, lines 10-14,wherein the total size of the K network packets includes the preset data size, column 13, lines 15-30). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to determine packet size before generation for predictable sizing.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6, 9,10-14, 19, and 20 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGEL T BROCKMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5664. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 6:00 AM-4:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang can be reached at 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANGEL T BROCKMAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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