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 § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 5-7, 8-16, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xiong et al. (US Pub. No. 2023/0224880).
Regarding claims 1, Xiong discloses a method comprising:
sending, to a user equipment (UE), configuration information indicating that non- contiguous frequency segments (FSs) in a serving cell are configured for the UE, the FSs including a first FS and a second FS that are non-contiguous in a frequency domain, the first FS including first contiguous frequency resources, the second FS including second contiguous frequency resources (see figures 5a and 5b; paragraphs 98 and 139-141: for serving cell, UE is configured for NOSB-FD with a number of UL and DL subbands/frequency segments within a carrier. UL and DL subbands are non-contiguous. At least paragraph 139 discloses 2 DL subbands with PRB indexes 1-30 and 60-100);
signaling, to the UE, that at least a first subset of the first contiguous frequency resources and a second subset of the second contiguous frequency resources are to be used for communicating with a network (see figures 5a and 5b; paragraphs 159-160: UE is configured via DCI to transmit/receive a CSI-RS. The resources allocated for the CSI-RS are both DL subbands and using a subset of the DL resources/PRBs); and
performing a communication with the UE, the communication using the first subset and the second subset as an aggregated set of frequency resources of the serving cell (paragraphs 159-160: UE receives a CSI-RS on configured resources).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Xiong discloses a method an apparatus comprising: a receiver (figure 7 receive circuitry 720);
a transmitter (figure 7 transmit circuitry 718); and
processing circuitry (figure 7 processing circuitry 712/714) communicatively couple with the receiver and the transmitter and configured to:
process configuration information indicating that non-contiguous frequency segments (FSs) in a serving cell are configured for a user equipment (UE), the FSs including a first FS and a second FS that are non-contiguous in a frequency domain, the first FS including first contiguous frequency resources, the second FS including second contiguous frequency resources (see figures 5a and 5b; paragraphs 98 and 139-141: for serving cell, UE is configured for NOSB-FD with a number of UL and DL subbands/frequency segments within a carrier. UL and DL subbands are non-contiguous. At least paragraph 139 discloses 2 DL subbands with PRB indexes 1-30 and 60-100);
process signaling information indicating that at least a first subset of the first contiguous frequency resources and a second subset of the second contiguous frequency resources are to be used for communicating with a network (see figures 5a and 5b; paragraphs 159-160: UE is configured via DCI to transmit/receive a CSI-RS. The resources allocated for the CSI-RS are both DL subbands and using a subset of the DL resources/PRBs); and
perform a communication with the network, the communication using the first subset and the second subset as an aggregated set of frequency resources of the serving cell (paragraphs 159-160: UE receives a CSI-RS on configured resources).
Regarding claim 5, all limitations of claims 1 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches configuration information indicates a bandwidth that starts at the lowest frequency of the FSs and ends at the highest frequency of the FSs, wherein the configuration information further indicates a bitmap corresponding to the frequency resources of the bandwidth, wherein each bit of the bitmap corresponds to a frequency resource within the bandwidth, and wherein a set of consecutive bits having a same binary value indicates the first FS (paragraphs 139-140 and Table 1).
Regarding claim 6, all limitations of claims 1 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches wherein the configuration information indicates that one or more bandwidth parts (BWPs) are configured for the first FS, wherein each BWP includes contiguous frequency resources within the first FS, wherein the method further comprises:
signaling, to the UE, that at least a BWP of the one or more BWPs is active, wherein the first subset includes the BWP (paragraphs 133-141 and Table 1).
Regarding claim 7, all limitations of claims 1 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the configuration information indicates a bandwidth that includes the FSs, wherein the configuration information further indicates that one or more bandwidth parts (BWPs) are configured within the bandwidth, wherein the method further comprises:
signaling, to the UE, that at least a BWP of the one or more BWPs is active, wherein the first subset corresponds to an intersection of the BWP and the first FS (paragraphs 30, 33, 133-141 and Table 1).
Regarding claim 9, all limitations of claims 8 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the signaling information includes downlink control information (DCI), wherein the DCI separately indicates a first frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) for the first FS and a second FDRA for the second FS (paragraphs 133-141 especially 141).
Regarding claim 10, all limitations of claims 9 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the first FDRA indicates the first subset among configured frequency resources of the first FS (paragraphs 133-141 especially 141 and Table 1).
Regarding claim 11, all limitations of claims 9 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the first FDRA indicates the first subset among active frequency resources of the first FS (paragraphs 133-141 especially 141 and Table 1).
Regarding claim 12, all limitations of claims 8 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the configuration information indicates a bandwidth that includes the FSs, wherein the signaling information includes downlink control information (DCI) (paragraph 98), wherein the DCI indicates physical resource blocks (PRBs) within the bandwidth, and wherein the first subset is determined based on an intersection of the PRBs and configured frequency resources of the first FS or active resources of the first FS (paragraphs 133-141: CSI-RS intersects with subbands).
Regarding claim 13, all limitations of claims 8 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the signaling information includes downlink control information (DCI) (paragraph 98), wherein the DCI indicates a set of physical resource blocks (PRBs) from among a plurality of PRBs, wherein the plurality of PRBs are numbered across the first FS and the second FS and exclude frequency resources between the first FS and the second FS (paragraphs 133-141: DL subbands excludes the one subband in between).
Regarding claim 14, all limitations of claims 8 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the signaling information includes downlink control information (DCI) (paragraph 98), wherein the DCI indicates a set of resource block groups (RBGs) corresponding to the FSs by using a bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA), wherein an active bandwidth of the first FS is extended to a nominal bandwidth that corresponds to a multiple integer of RBGs for a physical resource block (PRB) indexing purpose FS (paragraphs 133-141 and Table 1).
Regarding claim 15, all limitations of claims 8 are disclosed above. Xiong further teaches the signaling information includes downlink control information (DCI), wherein the DCI indicates a set of resource block groups (RBGs) corresponding to the FSs by using a bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA), wherein a size of an RBG is configured by the network (paragraphs 98 and 133-141; Table 1).
Regarding claim 19, all limitations of claims 16 are disclosed above. Xiong discloses the communication includes a reception of a reference signal, wherein the signaling information maps a sequence of the reference signal to physical resources of the serving cell and indicates a first configuration of the first FS and a second configuration of the second FS, and wherein each of the first configuration and the second configuration references a common resource block of the physical resources (paragraphs 139-141 and 159-160).
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.
Claim(s) 2-4, 7, 18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong et al. (US Pub. No. 2023/0224880) in view of Lei et al. (US Pub. No. 2025/0141642).
Regarding claim 2, all limitations of claims 1 are disclosed above. Xiong does not teach but Lei discloses the configuration information separately indicates a configuration of the first FS, wherein the configuration includes an offset with respect to a reference point and a bandwidth (paragraphs 119-122).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement in Xiong the configuration information separately indicates a configuration of the first FS, wherein the configuration includes an offset with respect to a reference point and a bandwidth.
The motivation would have been for bandwidth identification.
Regarding claim 3, all limitations of claims 1 are disclosed above. Xiong does not teach but Lei discloses the configuration information indicates a bandwidth that includes the FSs, starts at the lowest frequency of the FSs, and ends at the highest frequency of the FSs, and wherein the configuration information further indicates a starting offset with respect to a reference point (paragraphs 119-122).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement in Xiong the configuration information indicates a bandwidth that includes the FSs, starts at the lowest frequency of the FSs, and ends at the highest frequency of the FSs, and wherein the configuration information further indicates a starting offset with respect to a reference point.
The motivation would have been for bandwidth identification.
Regarding claim 4, all limitations of claims 1 are disclosed above. Xiong does not teach but Lei discloses the configuration information indicates a bandwidth that includes the FSs, starts at the lowest frequency of the FSs, and ends at the highest frequency of the FSs, and wherein the configuration information further a starting offset with respect to the lowest frequency (paragraphs 119-122).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement in Xiong the configuration information indicates a bandwidth that includes the FSs, starts at the lowest frequency of the FSs, and ends at the highest frequency of the FSs, and wherein the configuration information further a starting offset with respect to the lowest frequency.
The motivation would have been for bandwidth identification.
Regarding claim 17, all limitations of claims 16 are disclosed above. Xiong does not teach but Lei discloses the signaling information schedules resources that are limited to the first FS and form a control resource set on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or for a set of resources on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (paragraphs 124 and 125).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement in Xiong the signaling information schedules resources that are limited to the first FS and form a control resource set on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or for a set of resources on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).
The motivation would have been for control signaling.
Regarding claim 18, all limitations of claims 16 are disclosed above. Xiong does not teach but Lei discloses the signaling information schedules resources that form a control resource set on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), wherein the control resource set spans the first FS and the second FS (paragraphs 124 and 125).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement in Xiong the signaling information schedules resources that form a control resource set on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), wherein the control resource set spans the first FS and the second FS.
The motivation would have been for control signaling.
Regarding claim 20, all limitations of claims 16 are disclosed above. Xiong does not teach but Lei discloses the processing circuitry is further configured to generate UE capability information indicating at least one of the maximum number of FSs per serving cell, a maximum total number of FS in all serving cells in a frequency range or across frequency ranges, or a maximum bandwidth per serving cell, and wherein the configuration information is sent by the network based on the UE capability information (paragraphs 141 and 142).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement in Xiong the processing circuitry is further configured to generate UE capability information indicating at least one of the maximum number of FSs per serving cell, a maximum total number of FS in all serving cells in a frequency range or across frequency ranges, or a maximum bandwidth per serving cell, and wherein the configuration information is sent by the network based on the UE capability information.
The motivation would have been to provide pertinent configuration.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Rosa et al. (Us pub. No. 2023/0269714) discloses dynamic adaptation of frequency resources for uplink transmission with flexible frequency division duplexing.
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/TITO Q PHAM/ Examiner, Art Unit 2466
/FARUK HAMZA/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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