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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-26 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 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.
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, 6, 11, 16, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0080387) in view of Ruan et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0055611) and Park et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0226833).
Regarding claim 11, Zhang et al. discloses a user equipment (UE) (see UE 200 in fig. 2) in a wireless communication system (see system 100 in fig. 1), the UE comprising:
Transceivers (see fig. 2, transceiver 210);
memory (see fig.2, memory 204) storing one or more computer programs; and
one or more processors (see fig.2, processor 202) communicatively coupled to the transceivers and the memory,
wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed collectively by the one or more processors, cause the UE to:
receive, from a base station, at least one configuration information associated with a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Zhang et al. see fig. 7, step 702; para. 0099, 0100; At step 702, the receiver 214 or 314 receives a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) configuration with a plurality of DMRS ports, the plurality of DMRS ports comprising a first port group with a first set of DMRS ports and a second port group with a second set of DMRS ports). The UE receives DMRS configuration information from gNB,
identify at least one of a code division multiplexing (CDM) group, a frequency domain (FD) orthogonal cover code (OCC), and a time domain (TD) OCC for the DMRS based on the at least one configuration information (Zhang et al. see fig. 4a, Port 0,1,4,5 corresponds to CDM group 1 and Port 2,3,6,7 corresponds to CDM group 2; fig. fig. 7, step 704; para. 0080, 0101; At step 704, the processor 202 or 302 determines a DMRS resource comprising a first part of the DMRS resource for the first port group and a second part of the DMRS resource for the second port group.). The UE identifies the CDM group, time domain OCC and/or frequency domain OCC based on the DMRS resource for port groups included in the DMRS configuration information, and
receive, from the base station, the DMRS based on the at least one of the CDM group, the FD OCC, and the TD OCC (Zhang et al. see fig. 7, step 706; para. 0102; At step 706, the receiver 214 or 314 receives a DMRS mapped to the first part and the second part of the DMRS resource.), The UE receives the DMRS mapped to the DMRS resources based on the CDM group, the time domain OCC and/or frequency domain OCC.
However, Zhang et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein a number of CDM groups is 4, wherein the FD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1), and wherein the TD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1), wherein a plurality of slots in downlink (DL)-part of downlink/uplink (DL/UL) period are aggregated into a slot bundle, and the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub- bundle which includes adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle; and wherein the DMRS sub-bundle is located in the symbols following symbols allocated for a DL control channel.
Ruan et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein a number of CDM groups is 4 (Ruan et al. see para. 0127; a CDM group 4), wherein the FD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1) (Ruan et al. see Table 11A; para. 0219; As shown in Table 11A, in the symbol 2, the existing port 0 corresponds to a frequency domain OCC {+1, +1, +1, +1} on a subcarrier 1, a subcarrier 3, a subcarrier 5, and a subcarrier 7 respectively), and wherein the TD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1) (Ruan et al. see Table 11A; para. 0220; The existing port 0 corresponds to a time domain OCC {+1, +1, +1, +1} on the symbol 2, the symbol 3, the symbol 10, and the symbol 11 respectively.).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Ruan et al. where the configured number of CDM group is 4 and the FD OCC includes {+1, +1, +1, +1} and TD OCC includes {+1, +1, +1, +1}.
The motivation would be to improve transmission efficiency.
Ruan et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein a plurality of slots in downlink (DL)-part of downlink/uplink (DL/UL) period are aggregated into a slot bundle, and the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub- bundle which includes adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle; and wherein the DMRS sub-bundle is located in the symbols following symbols allocated for a DL control channel.
Park et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein a plurality of slots in downlink (DL)-part of downlink/uplink (DL/UL) period are aggregated into a slot bundle (read as slot aggregation) (Park et al. see fig. 6, Downlink-Centric Slot Aggregation 610; para. 0094), and the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub- bundle which includes adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle (Park et al. see fig. 5, symbols for control channel 550 and symbols for DMRS 552; fig. 7, aggregated slots and carrier 706; para. 0089, 0098, 0099; allocated DMRS). In carrier 706, the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub-bundle (e.g., slot) with adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle; and
wherein the DMRS sub-bundle is located in the symbols following symbols allocated for a DL control channel (Park et al. see fig. 7, PDCCH and DMRS within a first slot; para. para. para. 0098, 0099). According to fig. 7, carrier 706 includes DMRS located in symbols following symbols allocated for PDCCH.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Park et al. wherein a plurality of slots in DL period are aggregated into a slot bundle in which DMRS is allocated in a sub-bundle with adjacent symbols in the slot bundle and wherein the DMRS is allocated in symbols following symbols allocated for DL channel.
The motivation would be to reduce transmission latency.
Claims 1, 21 are rejected similarly to claim 11.
Regarding claim 16, Zhang et al. discloses a base station (Network Equipment 300 in fig. 3) in a wireless communication system (see system 100 in fig. 1), the base station comprising:
transceivers (in fig. 3, see transceiver 310);
memory (in fig. 3, see memory 304) storing one or more computer programs; and
one or more processors (in fig. 3, see processor 302) communicatively coupled to the transceivers and the memory,
wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed collectively by the one or more processors, cause the base station to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), at least one configuration information associated with a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Zhang et al. see fig. 8, step 802; para. 0104; At step 802, the transmitter 212 or 312 transmits a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) configuration with a plurality of DMRS ports). The gNB transmits DMRS configuration information to the UE;
wherein the at least one configuration information indicates at least one of a code division multiplexing (CDM) group, a frequency domain (FD) orthogonal cover code (OCC), and a time domain (TD) OCC for the DMRS (Zhang et al. see fig. 4a, Port 0,1,4,5 corresponds to CDM group 1 and Port 2,3,6,7 corresponds to CDM group 2; fig. fig. 8, step 804; para. 0080, 0105; At step 804, the processor 202 or 302 determines a DMRS resource comprising a first part of the DMRS resource for the first port group and a second part of the DMRS resource for the second port group.). The DMRS resource indicates the CDM group, time domain OCC and/or frequency domain OCC,
map the DMRS to resource elements (REs) based on the at least one of the CDM group, the FD OCC, and the TD OCC, and transmit, to the UE, the DMRS (Zhang et al. see fig. 8, step 806; para. 0106; At step 806, the transmitter 212 or 312 transmits a DMRS mapped to the first part and the second part of the DMRS resource), The DMRS is mapped to the DMRS resources based on the CDM group, the time domain OCC and/or frequency domain OCC.
However, Zhang et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein a number of CDM groups is 4, wherein the FD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1), and wherein the TD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1), wherein a plurality of slots in downlink (DL)-part of downlink/uplink (DL/UL) period are aggregated into a slot bundle, and the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub- bundle which includes adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle; and wherein the DMRS sub-bundle is located in the symbols following symbols allocated for a DL control channel.
Ruan et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein a number of CDM groups is 4 (Ruan et al. see para. 0127; a CDM group 4), wherein the FD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1) (Ruan et al. see Table 11A; para. 0219; As shown in Table 11A, in the symbol 2, the existing port 0 corresponds to a frequency domain OCC {+1, +1, +1, +1} on a subcarrier 1, a subcarrier 3, a subcarrier 5, and a subcarrier 7 respectively), and wherein the TD OCC includes at least one of (+1,+1,+1,+1), (+1,−j,+1,+j), (+1,−1,+1,−1), and (+1,+j,−1,−1) (Ruan et al. see Table 11A; para. 0220; The existing port 0 corresponds to a time domain OCC {+1, +1, +1, +1} on the symbol 2, the symbol 3, the symbol 10, and the symbol 11 respectively.).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Ruan et al. where the configured number of CDM group is 4 and the FD OCC includes {+1, +1, +1, +1} and TD OCC includes {+1, +1, +1, +1}.
The motivation would be to improve transmission efficiency.
Ruan et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein a plurality of slots in downlink (DL)-part of downlink/uplink (DL/UL) period are aggregated into a slot bundle, and the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub- bundle which includes adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle; and wherein the DMRS sub-bundle is located in the symbols following symbols allocated for a DL control channel.
Park et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein a plurality of slots in downlink (DL)-part of downlink/uplink (DL/UL) period are aggregated into a slot bundle (read as slot aggregation) (Park et al. see fig. 6, Downlink-Centric Slot Aggregation 610; para. 0094), and the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub- bundle which includes adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle (Park et al. see fig. 5, symbols for control channel 550 and symbols for DMRS 552; fig. 7, aggregated slots and carrier 706; para. 0089, 0098, 0099; allocated DMRS). In carrier 706, the DMRS is allocated in a DMRS sub-bundle (e.g., slot) with adjacent symbols for the DMRS in the slot bundle; and
wherein the DMRS sub-bundle is located in the symbols following symbols allocated for a DL control channel (Park et al. see fig. 7, PDCCH and DMRS within a first slot; para. para. para. 0098, 0099). According to fig. 7, carrier 706 includes DMRS located in symbols following symbols allocated for PDCCH.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Park et al. wherein a plurality of slots in DL period are aggregated into a slot bundle in which DMRS is allocated in a sub-bundle with adjacent symbols in the slot bundle and wherein the DMRS is allocated in symbols following symbols allocated for DL channel.
The motivation would be to reduce transmission latency.
Claim 6 is rejected similarly to claim 16.
Claim(s) 2, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0080387) in view of Ruan et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0055611) and Park et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0226833) as applied to claim 1, 6, 11 or 16 above, and further in view of Yu et al. (Pub No.: 2023/0198808).
Regarding claims 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein a plurality of available FD OCC indexes are identified based on a modulo operation using a number of FD OCCs to be used and a total number of the FD OCCs, and wherein a plurality of available TD OCC indexes are identified based on a modulo operation using a number of TD OCCs to be used and a total number of the TD OCCs.
Yu et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein a plurality of available FD OCC indexes are identified based on a modulo operation using a number of FD OCCs to be used and a total number of the FD OCCs, and wherein a plurality of available TD OCC indexes are identified based on a modulo operation using a number of TD OCCs to be used and a total number of the TD OCCs (Yu et al. Table 1; para. 0204, 0205, 0209-0215; t = mod(n, 2)=0; [0211] when k′ = 0 and l′ = 0, k = 4n + 2k′ + Δ= 0 and l = l + l′ = 2; it may be obtained by querying Table 1 that W.sub.f(k′ + 2t) = 1 and W.sub.t(l′) = 1, that is, a frequency-domain OCC and a time-domain OCC of the sequence of the DMRS port p8 on the RE (0, 2) are respectively (1, 1)). According to table 1, the FD-OCC W.sub.f(k′ + 2t) and TD-OCC W.sub.t(l′) indexes are identified based on modulo operation “t = mod(n, 2)=0” using a total number of FD OCCs and TD OCCs groups.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Yu et al. wherein FD OCCs and TD OCCs indexes are identified based on modulo operation using total number of FD OCCs and TD OCCs.
The motivation would be to improve transmission reliability.
Regarding claims 3, 8, 13, 18, Yu et al. discloses the feature wherein a spacing between resource elements (REs) for one CDM group of the DMRS is same in a frequency domain (Yu et al. see para. 0009; the frequency-domain resources corresponding to the first CDM group are non-contiguous and equally spaced).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Yu et al. wherein a spacing between frequency domain REs is equal in a CDM group.
The motivation would be to improve transmission reliability.
Claim(s) 4, 9, 14, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0080387) in view of Ruan et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0055611) and Park et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0226833) as applied to claim 1, 6, 11 or 16 above, and further in view of Gao et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0385038).
Regarding claims 4, 9, 14, 19, Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein sequences of the DMRS of a CDM group are based on an initialization using a plurality of initialization values included in a set, wherein a plurality of sets is configured, and wherein the set among the plurality of sets is indicated by control information associated with data corresponding to the DMRS.
Gao et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein sequences of the DMRS of a CDM group are based on an initialization using a plurality of initialization values included in a set, wherein a plurality of sets is configured, and wherein the set among the plurality of sets is indicated by control information associated with data corresponding to the DMRS (Gao et al. see para. 0078; the indicated value in the DMRS initialization field of the DCI can be used to indicate different configurations, different mapping order, different combinations, different scrambling identities and/or different values of quantity n.sub.SCID ∈{0,1} for the two DMRS sequences for CDM group 0 and CDM group 1.).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Gao et al. to configure initialization values to determine DMRS sequences for CDM groups.
The motivation would be to decrease transmission error rate.
Claim(s) 5, 10, 15, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0080387) in view of Ruan et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0055611) and Park et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0226833) as applied to claim 1, 6, 11 or 16 above, and further in view of Wu et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0144659).
Regarding claims 5, 10, 15, 20, Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein the DMRS is modulated as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols.
Wu et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein the DMRS is modulated as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols (Wu et al. see para. 0101; a DMRS sequence may be a PN sequence or a Gold sequence (e.g., 0's and 1's). The sequence may be modulated to symbols (e.g., quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols) as a DMRS signal.).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Wu et al. wherein the DMRS is modulated as QPSK symbols.
The motivation would be to improve transmission robustness.
Claim(s) 23-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0080387) in view of Ruan et al. (Pub No.: 2025/0055611) and Park et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0226833) as applied to claim 1, 6, 11 or 16 above, and further in view of Ly et al. (Pub No.: 2023/0421327).
Regarding claims 23-26, Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein a number of the symbols in the DMRS sub-bundle is configured by the base station.
Ly et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein a number of the symbols in the DMRS sub-bundle is configured by the base station (Ly et al. see fig. 8, step 808; para. 0090).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Zhang et al. in view of Ruan et al. and Park et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Ly et al. wherein a number of symbols in the DMRS sub-bundle is configured by a base station.
The motivation would be to improve transmission reliability.
Examiner's Note
The Applicant is welcome to request a telephonic interview if the Applicant has any questions or requires any additional information that would further or expedite the prosecution of the application.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kang et al. (Pub No.: 2020/0266964) discloses a communication method and system for converging a 5th-Generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4th-Generation (4G) system with a technology for Internet of Things (IoT). The present disclosure may be applied to intelligent services based on the 5G communication technology and the IoT-related technology, such as smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car, connected car, health care, digital education, smart retail, security and safety services. A method performed by a terminal in a communication system is provided. The method includes receiving, from a base station, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) configuration information using higher layer signaling; receiving, from the base station, downlink control information for transmitting uplink data, the downlink control information including information on DMRS and resource allocation information for the uplink data; identifying a number of at least one DMRS symbol and respective position of the at least one DMRS symbol based on the information on DMRS and resource allocation information; and transmitting, to the base station, the uplink data and the DMRS based on the identified respective position of the at least one DMRS symbol.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAN YUEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1413. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10:30am-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Ngo can be reached at 571-272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KAN YUEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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