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 .
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-3, 8-11, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu (US 20230112049 A1) hereinafter Hu in view of Huang (WO 2022198633 A1, using US 20240088980 A1 as an English equivalent), hereinafter Huang.
Regarding to claim 1,
Hu teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a distributed unit (DU), comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the DU to (fig. 9 ):
receive an indication that a radio unit (RU) supports a control plane (C-Plane) section size reduction format; and (fig. 3, and [0042] O-RU logical function ... informing the O-DU of optional capabilities supported by the O-RU by capability reporting to the O-DU in the initialization phase... [0178] If an O-RU reports to the O-DU that ....satisfy the following capability conditions and trigger conditions, the O-DU may transmit a first control-plane message to the receiving endpoints of the O-RU whose first capability is “true” to setup, modify or delete first information)
transmit, based at least in part on receiving the indication, a C-Plane message that uses the C-Plane section size reduction format, the C-Plane message indicating a resource allocation ([0049] Operation 201 is downlink scheduling ... performed in the O-DU ... The scheduling result includes, but is not limited to, beam identifiers, and time-domain and frequency-domain resource allocation information [0050] The O-DU application creates, according to the scheduling result, a control-plane message for controlling how to transmit data via the downlink air interface, and transmits the control-plane message to the O-RU application.... [0079] O-DU transmits a first control-plane message (.... containing a .... section extension) to indicate to dynamically setup ... of the O-RU....)
Hu does not explicitly teach resource allocation for an interleaved physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) control resource set (CORESET) 0.
Huang teaches resource allocation for an interleaved physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) control resource set (CORESET) 0 ([0118] FIG. 5 shows a transmission resource mapping 500 .... BS may also transmit control signaling. In some scenarios, the BS may also transmit a PDCCH to a UE ... in the ... CORESET 504.... [0120] each CORESET configuration may indicate a number of resource blocks (e.g., 24, 48, or 96), a number of symbols (e.g., 1-3), as well as an offset (e.g., 0-38 RBs) that indicates a location in a frequency.... [0121] REG bundle sizes may include: 2, 3, or 6 for interleaved mapping).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Huang to the teaching of Hu. The motivation for such an addition would be to improve techniques for beam determination ([0005] Huang).
Regarding to claim 2,
Hu and Huang teach the apparatus of claim 1,
Hu further teaches wherein the one or more processors, to cause the DU to receive the indication, are configured to cause the DU to: receive the indication in a management plane (M-Plane) message ([0042] O-RU M-Plane 104-3: O-RU logical function, managed by the O-DU M-Plane, informing the O-DU of optional capabilities supported by the O-RU by capability reporting to the O-DU in the initialization phase).
Regarding to claim 3,
Hu and Huang teach the apparatus of claim 1,
Hu further teaches wherein the C-Plane message includes a section extension 6 ([219] the second control-plane message or the first information contains section extensions Type 6).
Regarding to claim 8,
Hu and Huang teach the apparatus of claim 1,
Hu further teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the DU to: generate the C-Plane message using the C-Plane section size reduction format based at least in part on using a section extension that is configured based at least in part on the C-Plane section size reduction format ([0008] distributed unit (O-DU), comprising:...determine... that a trigger condition for a first control-plane message is satisfied;...[0079] O-DU transmits a first control-plane message (.... containing a .... section extension) to indicate to dynamically setup ... of the O-RU....[0147] a section extension Type 6, 12, or 19 may be used to indicate the section extension of the priority of the section description).
Claim(s) [9-11, and 16] (apparatus at RU) , [17-19] (method at DU ) is/are rejected under the same reasoning as claim(s) [1-3, and 8] (apparatus at DU), where Hu teaches both apparatus and method applied at DU and RU ([0008-0009] and [0012-0013]).
Claim(s) 4-6, and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu and Huang and further in view of Ahmed (US 20210135722 A1), hereinafter Ahmed.
Regarding to claim 4,
Hu and Huang teach the apparatus of claim 3,
Hu further teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the DU to: generate the C-Plane message using the C-Plane section size reduction format based at least in part on verifying ([0008] distributed unit (O-DU), comprising:...determine... that a trigger condition for a first control-plane message is satisfied;...[0079] O-DU transmits a first control-plane message (.... containing a .... section extension) to indicate to dynamically setup ... of the O-RU....)
Hu and Huang do not explicitly teach a starting PRB is not the integer multiple of 6 and the starting resource block is not the integer multiple of the resource block group size.
Ahmed teaches a starting PRB is not the integer multiple of 6 and the starting resource block is not the integer multiple of the resource block group size ([0258] If the O-DU sets the startPrbc=1 and the numBundPRB=2 ..... The O-RU should align the mapping between the precoding/beamforming weights with 3GPP bundling concepts. In other words, the O-RU should apply the first set of beamforming weights to ONLY PRB1, then apply the second set of beamforming weights to PRBs 2 and 3, then apply the third set of beamforming weights to (4,5), etc.)).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Ahmed to the teaching of Hu and Huang. The motivation for such an addition would be to reduce the processing delay ([0068] Ahmed)
Regarding to claim 5,
Hu and Huang and Ahmed teach the apparatus of claim 4,
Hu further teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the DU to: verify ... wherein generating the C-Plane message using the C-Plane section size reduction format is based at least in part on verifying ([0008] distributed unit (O-DU), comprising: ... determine... that a trigger condition for a first control-plane message is satisfied… [0079] O-DU transmits a first control-plane message (.... containing a .... section extension) to indicate to dynamically setup ... of the O-RU....)
Hu does not explicitly teach a number of PRBs in the resource grid is a particular number, the particular number being 24, 48, or 96
Huang further teaches a number of PRBs in the resource grid is a particular number, the particular number being 24, 48, or 96 ( [0114] CORESET #0 may include one of 24, 48, or 96 RBs).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Huang to the teaching of Hu and Ahmed. The motivation for such an addition would be to improve techniques for beam determination ([0005] Huang).
Regarding to claim 6,
Hu and Huang and Ahmed teach the apparatus of claim 4,
Hu further teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the DU to: verify ... wherein generating the C-Plane message using the C-Plane section size reduction format is based at least in part on verifying ([0008] distributed unit (O-DU), comprising: ...determine... that a trigger condition for a first control-plane message is satisfied; ... [0079] O-DU transmits a first control-plane message (.... containing a .... section extension) to indicate to dynamically setup ... of the O-RU....)
Hu does not explicitly teach a duration of the resource allocation is a particular number of symbols, the particular number of symbols being 1 symbol, 2 symbols, or 3 symbols.
Huang teaches a duration of the resource allocation is a particular number of symbols, the particular number of symbols being 1 symbol, 2 symbols, or 3 symbols ([120] CORESET configuration may indicate a number of resource blocks (e.g., 24, 48, or 96), a number of symbols (e.g., 1-3), as well as an offset (e.g., 0-38 RBs) that indicates a location in a frequency).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Huang to the teaching of Hu. The motivation for such an addition would be to improve techniques for beam determination ([0005] Huang).
Claim(s) [12-14] (apparatus at RU) is/are rejected under the same reasoning as claim(s) [4-6] (apparatus at DU), where Hu teaches both apparatus and method applied at DU and RU ([0008-0009] and [0012-0013]).
Claim(s) 7, 15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu and Huang and Ahmed and further in view of Hwang (US 20200120680 A1) ,hereinafter Hwang.
Regarding to claim 7,
Hu and Huang and Ahmed teach the apparatus of claim 6,
Hu and Huang and Ahmed do not explicitly teach wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the DU to: configure each resource block group in the resource allocation to have a same number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) based at least in part on verifying that the starting PRB is not the integer multiple of 6 and the starting resource block is not the integer multiple of the resource block group size, verifying the number of PRBs is the particular number, and verifying the duration is the particular number of symbols; and configure a resource block group size field in the C-Plane message to indicate the same number.
Hwang teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the DU to: configure each resource block group in the resource allocation to have a same number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) based at least in part on verifying that the starting PRB is not the integer multiple of 6 and the starting resource block is not the integer multiple of the resource block group size, verifying the number of PRBs is the particular number, and verifying the duration is the particular number of symbols; and configure a resource block group size field in the C-Plane message to indicate the same number (fig. 9 and fig.10, and [0151] determines the number... resource block groups for a downlink band including a plurality ... resource blocks. ... [0155] bandwidth part is composed of 50 PRBs .... the RBG size is 5 ... four RBGs having a size of 5 PRB and ([0055] eNB that provides user plane and control plane protocol termination to a terminal. .... [0140] resource allocation field ... include an RBG size indicator).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hwang to the teaching of Hu and Huang and Ahmed. The motivation for such an addition would be to efficiently perform resource allocation (Hwang [0020]).
Claim(s) [15] (apparatus at RU), [20] (method at DU) is/are rejected under the same reasoning as claim(s) [7] (apparatus at DU), where Hu teaches both apparatus and method applied at DU and RU ([0008-0009] and [0012-0013]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VAN T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6178. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM (EST). Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman A Abaza can be reached at (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VAN TA NGUYEN/ Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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