DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to claims filed on 20 July 2026. Claims 1-31 are pending examination.
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 Amendments
Claims 1-31 were previously pending the Non-Final Rejection of 20 April 2026.
Claims 1-31 remaining for examination.
Claim 3-4, 8-9, 21 and 25 are objected to.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 20 July 2026 have been fully considered but are not persuasive for the reasons discussed below.
(1) Applicant argues that Stoica’s calculation of an average number of packets per code block concerns receiver-side decoding thresholds and does not teach determining, based on DCI, a number of NC PDUs to be transmitted in an uplink transport block. The Examiner disagrees with Applicant’s characterization of Stoica as limited to receiver-side threshold calculations. Stoica discloses dynamically signaling an NC configuration through DCI, wherein the configuration includes an NC information-packet number and a network-coded repair-packet number (Stoica, [0096]-[0097]). Stoica further describes a transmitting network device determining the NC configuration, scheduling the network-coded ADU, and using the feedback to determine necessary retransmissions (Stoica, fig. 15, [0191]). These disclosures transmitter-side NC packet configuration and transmission scheduling and are not limited to the receiver-side calculation identified by Applicant.
(2) Applicant argues that Stoica does not teach or suggest the claimed new generation indication (NGI), and that Stoica’s disclosure regarding unsuccessful decoding does not disclose an indication identifying a new generation of NC PDUs. The Examiner disagrees with Applicant. Stoica teaches configuring and scheduling network-coded application data units (ADUs), wherein the NC configuration includes information and repair packets, and further teaches using NC-aware HARQ feedback to determine whether retransmission of the network-coded ADU is necessary (Stoica, fig. 15, [0191]-[0199]). Thus, Stoica distinguishes between transmission of network-coded information according to the configured NC operation and continued transmission/retransmission of the previously scheduled network-coded ADU. The Examiner views this signaling and retransmission determination as indicating whether the transmission concerns new or current network-coded information. Applicant further argues that Guo does not disclose network-coding generations or an NGI. However, the rejection does not rely upon Guo for the network-coding generation teachings discussed above; rather Stoica provides the network-coded transmission teaches, while Guo is relied upon for the HARQ/NDI teaches as set forth in the rejection.
(3) Applicant argues that Guo’s formula-based derivation of a HARQ process identifier does not teach the claimed interpretation rule associated with the NDI field of the DCI because the formula merely identifies a HARQ process and does not determine whether to transmit a redundant version of a previously transmitted transport block or a transport block carrying a new redundant NC PDU. The examiner disagrees. The rejection does not rely on Guo alone for the entirety of the claimed network-coded transmission. Stoica teaches the network-coded transmission and retransmission of network-coded transport blocks, while Guo is relied upon for the interpretation rule associated with the NDI field. Guo teaches that the UE and/or BS may determine HARQ process ID based on a predefined formula or rule using information associated with the uplink communication (Guo, fig. 5A-5E, [0095]). Guo further teaches transmission of TB repetitions using redundancy versions and HARQ process information (Guo, [0075]). The Examiner views Guo’s predefined rule or formula determining the HARQ process, when applied to Stoica’s network coded transmission teaches, as teaching the claimed interpretation rule associated with the NDI field. Thus, Applicant’s argument regarding what Guo teaches individually does not address the combined teachings of Stoica and Guo as relied upon in the rejection.
Thus, the examiner maintains the rejections under 35 U.S.C 103 of 1-2, 5-7,10-20, 22-24, and 26-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stoica et al. (US 2025/0184049 A1) (hereinafter Sto) in view of Guo et al. (US 20240314771 A1) (hereinafter Guo).
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 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.
Claims 1-2, 5-7,10-20, 22-24, and 26-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stoica et al. (US 2025/0184049 A1) (hereinafter Sto) in view of Guo et al. (US 20240314771 A1) (hereinafter Guo).
Regarding claim 1 and 19, Sto-Guo teach a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
comprising circuitry, including any of a processor, memory, transmitter and receiver, the circuitry configured to (Sto, fig.3, [0054]-[0063]: [0054] Furthermore, the network unit 104 may include a processor 302, a memory 304, an input device 306, a display 308, a transmitter 310, and a receiver 312.):
receive configuration information indicating to apply network coding (NC) in an uplink transmission (Sto, fig. 12 and 14, [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091]: [0056] In certain embodiments, there may be a service-oriented design considering XR traffic characteristics (e.g., (a) variable packet arrival rate: packets coming at 30-120 frames/second with some jitter, (b) packets having variable and large packet size, (c) B/P-frames being dependent on I-frames, (d) presence of multiple traffic/data flows such as pose and video scene in uplink, (e) various degrees of importance between I/P/B-frames in contributing to the end-to-end quality of user experience) to enable more efficient (e.g., in terms of satisfying XR service requirements for a greater number of UEs, in terms of UE power saving, or in terms of XR traffic reliability and rendering robustness against wireless networks transmissions effects) XR service delivery.);
receive, from a network element, downlink control information (DCI) that includes a grant scheduling the uplink transmission, wherein the DCI comprises any of (1) information relating to an identifier associated with an NC generation, (2) a new generation indication (NGI) field, and (3) a new data indication (NDI) field (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0111]-[0113]: [0044] In various embodiments, a remote unit 102 may determine, at a receiving device, a NC configuration for transmission of a scheduled network-coded ADU. In some embodiments, the remote unit 102 may receive the scheduled network-coded ADU in at least one TB. [0080] b) PHY retransmissions are controlled by individual HARQ processes within a HARQ entity as part of the MAC and are scheduled accordingly by the latter given the HARQ feedback of a receiver indication non-acknowledgement (e.g., NACK) (or equivalently HARQ-NACK), c) PHY retransmission delays may vary between 2-10 ms based on the scheduling, SCS and MCS configurations. [0100] In another example, an NC-aware HARQ process monitoring the receiving of a network-coded TB applies the determined threshold of necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs to determine whether the TB information can be recovered at higher layers after NC decoding. The determination of correctly received CB data post FEC decoding is done by CRC. As such, in some examples, the data that failed a CRC within a CB is considered invalid and is marked accordingly for skipping processing at higher layers, e.g., to be discarded at MAC layer. In one example, as the MAC PDUs encapsulating the network-coded packets may not be aligned to the CB boundaries within a TB, the MAC layer identifies portions of incomplete (or corrupted) MAC PDUs based on the corrupted CBs and available NC configuration.);
determine, based on the DCI, first information comprising any of (1) a number of NC protocol data units (PDUs) to be transmitted via a transport block (TB) in the uplink transmission wherein the NC PDUs are generated using the NC generation associated with the identifier, (2) whether the DCI is scheduling a transmission for a new NC generation or a current NC generation, based on the new generation indication (NGI) field of the DCI, and (3) whether to transmit a redundant version (RV) of a transport block (TB) that has already been transmitted or transmit a TB that carries a new redundant NC protocol data unit (PDU), based on an interpretation rule associated with the NDI field of the DCI (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185]: [0071] The quality of service (“QoS”) associated with IP packets of the XR traffic is handled by the CN via QoS flows generated at the UPF within the established PDU session. [0191] In various embodiments, the method 1500 includes determining 1502, at a network device, a NC configuration for encoding an ADU for transmission over a plurality of transport blocks (TBs). In some embodiments, the method 1500 includes determining 1504 a plurality of CB thresholds, wherein each CB threshold of the plurality of CB thresholds corresponds to each TB of the plurality of TBs to meet for successful NC decoding and recovery of the ADU. In certain embodiments, the method 1500 includes signaling 1506 the NC configuration, the plurality of CB thresholds, or a combination thereof to a receiver device for a NC-aware HARQ feedback of the plurality of TBs. In various embodiments, the method 1500 includes scheduling 1508 the ADU for transmission to a receiver device. In some embodiments, the method 1500 includes receiving 1510 an NC-aware HARQ feedback from the receiver device for each TB of the plurality of TBs. In certain embodiments, the method 1500 includes applying 1512 the NC-aware HARQ feedback to determine necessary TB retransmissions of the ADU.); and
transmit, to a network element, the TB in accordance with the determined first information (Sto, [0179]-[0219], [0225]: [0225] In one embodiment, determining the CB threshold comprises processing: a determination of an average number of network-coded packets per CB of a TB of the at least one transport block of nCB CBs; a determination of a necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs scalar threshold, nCB−nCB.sub.err,max.sup.consecutive, given the NC configuration for only consecutive CB errors, wherein the consecutive CB errors represent two or more sequential erroneous CBs; a determination of a necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs scalar threshold, nCB−nCB.sub.err,max.sup.nonconsecutive, given the NC configuration for only non-consecutive CB errors, wherein a non-consecutive erroneous CB is any CB that contains at least one correct CB received between itself and any adjacent erroneous CB; a determination of a necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs threshold as a tuple of two, (nCB−nCB.sub.err,max.sup.consecutive, nCB−nCB.sub.err,max.sup.nonconsecutive), formed of the necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs scalar threshold considering all erroneous CBs to be consecutive, and of the necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs scalar threshold considering all erroneous CBs to be non-consecutive; a compression of the necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs threshold as the tuple of two to a singular scalar of a necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs threshold as nCB.sub.correct.sup.necessary=max(nCB−nCB.sub.err,max.sup.consecutive, nCB−nCB.sub.err,max.sup.nonconsecutive); or some combination thereof.).
Thus, Sto does not explicitly teach interpretation rule associated with the NDI field of the DCI.
Similar to Sto, Guo teaches the UE and/or the BS may determine a HARQ process ID for each TB based on a predefined rule or formula, which can be seen as, interpretation rule associated with the NDI field of the DCI (Guo, [0047]-[0069], [0070]-[0095], [0126]-[0207]: [0075] In some aspects, the UE 215 may transmit the repetitions for the TB 230 using different redundancy versions and/or the same redundancy versions. In some instances, each repetition may use a different RVN. In some instances, all repetitions may use the same RVN. In some instances, at least two repetitions may use the same RVN. Similarly, the UE 215 may transmit the repetitions for the TB 232 using different redundancy versions and/or the same redundancy versions. In some aspects, the UE 215 may include a RVN and/or a HARQ ID for each transmission, for example, in uplink control information (UCI) 260. For instance, the RVN may indicate a RV0, a RV1, a RV2, a RV3, a RV4, and so on. [0095] In other aspects, a UE and/or a BS may be configured to determine a HARQ process ID based on a formula or rule. Accordingly, the UE may not indicate the HARQ process ID for each TB repetition, in some instances. Rather, the UE and/or the BS may apply the rule or formula based on information associated with the UL communication to determine a HARQ process ID for each TB and TB repetition in the UL communication. In this regard, FIGS. 5A-5E illustrate schemes 500 for determining the HARQ process IDs of a plurality of TBs in a multi-TB PUSCH repetition scenario using predefined rules and equations, according to some aspects of the present disclosure.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Sto with Guo to incorporate the redundancy version (RV) and HARQ signaling techniques of Guo into Sto’s network-coded transmission system to improve reliability and decoding performance of transmitted data, since both references are directed to handling transmission errors and improving successful decoding through retransmission (Guo, [0047]).
Regarding claim 2 and 20, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the circuitry is configured to, based on a value of the NGI field, determine whether to transmit the TB including NC PDUs associated with the current NC generation or to transmit the TB including NC PDUs associated with the new NC generation (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0073]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: [0115] In an example, 1 CB is received with errors upon retransmission of the CBG #1 while the other 2 CBs are received correctly, as outlined in FIG. 12. As such the NC-aware HARQ process determines that enough correct data has been received to recover the original packets post NC decoding and acknowledges the latter with HARQ ACK feedback (e.g., ACK, ACK, ACK, ACK) across all CBGs. Therefore, despite receiving 2 CBs with errors, the CBG-based retransmissions with NC-aware HARQ recovers network-coded data efficiently by retransmission of only necessary CBG resources increasing spectral efficiency and decreasing latency of the HARQ retransmission procedure. [0180] In various embodiments, the method 1400 includes determining 1402, at a receiving device, a NC configuration for transmission of a scheduled network-coded ADU. In some embodiments, the method 1400 includes receiving 1404 the scheduled network-coded ADU in at least one TB. In certain embodiments, the method 1400 includes determining 1406, for each TB of the at least one TB, a CB threshold based at least on the NC configuration. In various embodiments, the method 1400 includes configuring 1408, for each TB of the at least one TB, a NC-aware HARQ process as a HARQ process with the CB threshold. In some embodiments, the method 1400 includes using 1410 the CB threshold to determine a NC-aware HARQ feedback report. In certain embodiments, the method 1400 includes feeding 1412 back the NC-aware HARQ feedback report to a transmitting device. ).
Regarding claim 5 and 22, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the information relating to the identifier associated with an NC generation comprises an explicit indication of the identifier associated with the NC generation (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0073]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: [0100] In another example, an NC-aware HARQ process monitoring the receiving of a network-coded TB applies the determined threshold of necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs to determine whether the TB information can be recovered at higher layers after NC decoding. The determination of correctly received CB data post FEC decoding is done by CRC. As such, in some examples, the data that failed a CRC within a CB is considered invalid and is marked accordingly for skipping processing at higher layers, e.g., to be discarded at MAC layer. In one example, as the MAC PDUs encapsulating the network-coded packets may not be aligned to the CB boundaries within a TB, the MAC layer identifies portions of incomplete (or corrupted) MAC PDUs based on the corrupted CBs and available NC configuration. Therefore, an incomplete MAC PDU is a PDU at the MAC level which contains a non-void partition of erroneously received bits. Thus, the MAC demultiplexes to the upper layer's logical channels just the detected valid MAC PDUs and skips the incomplete MAC PDUs. As a consequence, at the RLC layer only the valid (e.g., syntactically correct network-coded RLC PDUs), are processed. The latter are processed by the NC sublayer during decoding and given that the minimum number of required packets for reconstruction, N′≥K, have been received the original information is completely recovered.).
Regarding claim 6 and 23, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the information relating to the identifier associated with an NC generation comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier, and the circuitry is configured to determine the identifier associated with the NC generation based on an association between HARQ process identifiers and NC generation identifiers (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0073]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: [0180] In various embodiments, the method 1400 includes determining 1402, at a receiving device, a NC configuration for transmission of a scheduled network-coded ADU. In some embodiments, the method 1400 includes receiving 1404 the scheduled network-coded ADU in at least one TB. In certain embodiments, the method 1400 includes determining 1406, for each TB of the at least one TB, a CB threshold based at least on the NC configuration. In various embodiments, the method 1400 includes configuring 1408, for each TB of the at least one TB, a NC-aware HARQ process as a HARQ process with the CB threshold. In some embodiments, the method 1400 includes using 1410 the CB threshold to determine a NC-aware HARQ feedback report. In certain embodiments, the method 1400 includes feeding 1412 back the NC-aware HARQ feedback report to a transmitting device. [0187] In certain embodiments, the NC-aware HARQ process reports non-acknowledgement (NACK) as HARQ feedback for a TB of the at least one TB in response to: a number of correctly received CBs being less than the CB threshold as a necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs; a number of erroneously received CBs being greater than the CB threshold as a tolerated maximum number of CB errors; or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the method 1400 further comprises multiplexing the NC-aware HARQ feedback report with at least one HARQ feedback instance as: a semi-static type-1 HARQ codebook; or a dynamic type-2 HARQ codebook.).
Regarding claim 7 and 24, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the circuitry is configured to, based on the HARQ process identifier and a value of the NGI field, determine whether to transmit the TB including NC PDUs associated with the current NC generation or to transmit the TB including NC PDUs associated with the new NC generation (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0073]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: See above for paragraph [0180].).
Regarding claim 10 and 26, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the circuitry is configured to, based on the interpretation rule associated with the NDI field, determine whether to transmit the TB including NC PDUs associated with the current NC generation or to transmit the TB including NC PDUs associated with the new NC generation (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0070]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: [0070] FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a communication system 500 architecture. The communication system 500 includes a first XR-capable UE 502, a first transmission reception point (“TRP”) 504, a RAN 506, a second XR-capable UE 508, a second TRP 510, a core mobile network 512, and an application (“app”) server 514. FIG. 5 includes the source application server 514 connected (e.g., possibly at the edge) to the core mobile network 512 which is connected to the RAN 506 serving subscribed and connected user equipment. As illustrated in FIG. 5 Error! Reference source not found., the protocol data units (“PDUs”) associated with an XR application session of an application server connected to a core network (“CN”) is transferred via the CN user plane function (“UPF”) over the internet protocol (“IP”) to the mobile RAN. The multimedia traffic may be further supported by a real-time multimedia transport protocol such as a real-time transport protocol (“RTP”) or alike to handle jitter, packet loss, and out-of-order deliveries that may occur within a typical IP network setup.).
Regarding claim 11, 12 and 27, Sto-Guo teach a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the interpretation rule comprises that on condition that the NDI field indicates a first value, the transmitted TB comprises one or more new NC PDUs associated with the current NC generation (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0070]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: [0074] In some embodiments, concretely, given a set of K information packets (e.g., or symbols) {S.sub.1, S.sub.2, . . . , S.sub.K} of the same size, a linear network-coded packet is obtained by the combination R.sub.j=Σ.sub.i=1.sup.K g.sub.ij.Math.S.sub.i, whereby the encoding coefficients vector g.sub.j=[g.sub.1j, g.sub.2j, . . . , g.sub.Kj].sup.T is formed by values from a Galois field F, e.g., F.sub.2, F.sub.8, F.sub.256, and so forth. By optimization and selection of a proper distribution of the vectors g∈F.sup.K, an infinite number of redundant network coded packets may be thus coded. Considering a fix number N of packets to be generated by a generator coefficient matrix G=[g.sub.1, g.sub.2, . . . , g.sub.N]∈F.sup.K×N, selected such that any K columns of G are linearly independent, whereby the latter condition is exactly fulfilled if G is the generator matrix of a maximum distance separable (“MDS”) code, e.g., Reed-Solomon code, or is asymptotically fulfilled if G is randomly generated over a sufficiently large field size. Probabilistic constructions of the latter randomization strategy for determining G may minimize the field size and increase encoding efficiency of asymptotic and numeric constructions by means of optimization of the degree distribution of each encoded repair packet (or symbol), e.g., as for Luby transform (“LT”) and derivatives Raptor, and RaptorQ codes thereof.); and
wherein the interpretation rule comprises that on condition that the NDI field indicates a second value, the transmitted TB is the redundant version (RV) of a TB that has already been transmitted (Sto, fig.6, [0067]-[0069], [0070]-[0112], [0113]-[0189]: See above for paragraph [0074]).
Thus, Sto does not explicitly teach interpretation rule.
Similar to Sto, Guo teaches the UE and/or the BS may determine a HARQ process ID for each TB based on a predefined rule or formula, which can be seen as, interpretation rule (Guo, [0047]-[0069], [0070]-[0095], [0126]-[0207]: [0075] In some aspects, the UE 215 may transmit the repetitions for the TB 230 using different redundancy versions and/or the same redundancy versions. In some instances, each repetition may use a different RVN. In some instances, all repetitions may use the same RVN. In some instances, at least two repetitions may use the same RVN. Similarly, the UE 215 may transmit the repetitions for the TB 232 using different redundancy versions and/or the same redundancy versions. In some aspects, the UE 215 may include a RVN and/or a HARQ ID for each transmission, for example, in uplink control information (UCI) 260. For instance, the RVN may indicate a RV0, a RV1, a RV2, a RV3, a RV4, and so on. [0095] In other aspects, a UE and/or a BS may be configured to determine a HARQ process ID based on a formula or rule. Accordingly, the UE may not indicate the HARQ process ID for each TB repetition, in some instances. Rather, the UE and/or the BS may apply the rule or formula based on information associated with the UL communication to determine a HARQ process ID for each TB and TB repetition in the UL communication. In this regard, FIGS. 5A-5E illustrate schemes 500 for determining the HARQ process IDs of a plurality of TBs in a multi-TB PUSCH repetition scenario using predefined rules and equations, according to some aspects of the present disclosure.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Sto with Guo to incorporate the redundancy version (RV) and HARQ signaling techniques of Guo into Sto’s network-coded transmission system to improve reliability and decoding performance of transmitted data, since both references are directed to handling transmission errors and improving successful decoding through retransmission (Guo, [0047]).
Regarding claim 13 and 28, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the circuitry is configured to determine to transmit new NC PDUs associated with the current NC generation in the TB, based on any of (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185]:
(1) a redundant version (RV) field of the DCI (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185]: [0071] The quality of service (“QoS”) associated with IP packets of the XR traffic is handled by the CN via QoS flows generated at the UPF within the established PDU session. [0191] In various embodiments, the method 1500 includes determining 1502, at a network device, a NC configuration for encoding an ADU for transmission over a plurality of transport blocks (TBs). In some embodiments, the method 1500 includes determining 1504 a plurality of CB thresholds, wherein each CB threshold of the plurality of CB thresholds corresponds to each TB of the plurality of TBs to meet for successful NC decoding and recovery of the ADU. In certain embodiments, the method 1500 includes signaling 1506 the NC configuration, the plurality of CB thresholds, or a combination thereof to a receiver device for a NC-aware HARQ feedback of the plurality of TBs. In various embodiments, the method 1500 includes scheduling 1508 the ADU for transmission to a receiver device. In some embodiments, the method 1500 includes receiving 1510 an NC-aware HARQ feedback from the receiver device for each TB of the plurality of TBs. In certain embodiments, the method 1500 includes applying 1512 the NC-aware HARQ feedback to determine necessary TB retransmissions of the ADU.),
(2) a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier indicated in the DCI,
(3) a number of non-acknowledged (NACK) transmissions associated with the current NC generation,
(4) an NC configuration associated with the current NC generation,
(5) an accumulated number of NC PDUs associated with the current NC generation that have been transmitted, and
(6) types of previously transmitted NC PDUs.
Regarding claim 14 and 29, Sto teaches the (WTRU) of claim 1 (Sto, see fig. 4):
wherein the DCI further comprises information indicating a type of the NC PDUs that can be carried in the TB, wherein the type of the NC PDUs comprises any of (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185]):
systematic NC PDUs,
coded NC PDUs (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185]: [0182] In one embodiment, a correctness of a CB is determined based on a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) comparison with a correctly received CB validating the CRC and with an erroneously received CB not validating the CRC. In certain embodiments, any medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) partly or fully contained within an erroneous CB of the TB of the at least one TB is discarded by higher layers from further processing. In some embodiments, determining the CB threshold comprises the receiver processing: a total number of network-coded information carrying packets; a total number of network-coded information carrying symbols; a number of source data packets to undergo NC; a number of source symbols to undergo NC; a number of network-coded systematic information carrying packets; an NC redundancy level; an available RRC and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) configuration information; or some combination thereof.),
importance of NC PDUs, and
innovativeness of NC PDUs.
Regarding claim 15 and 30, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the circuitry is configured to:
receive configuration information indicating an association between hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifiers and types of NC PDUs (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185], [0186]-[0216]: [0188] In various embodiments, the method 1400 further comprises dynamically enabling the NC-aware HARQ feedback report, disabling the NC-aware HARQ feedback report, or a combination thereof by: a semi-static RRC signaling; a dynamic indication by a DCI scheduling at least one PDSCH transmission; a dynamic indication by a DCI scheduling at least one group of PDSCH transmissions; or some combination thereof. In one embodiment, the method 1400 further comprises configuring code block group (CBG)-based retransmissions, wherein the NC-aware HARQ feedback report is multiplexed as a CBG-based HARQ codebook.); and
determine the type of the NC PDUs to be carried in the transmitted TB based on a HARQ process identifier indicated in the DCI and the association between the HARQ process identifiers and the types of NC PDUs (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185], [0186]-[0216]: [0217] In one embodiment, a method of a receiving device comprises: determining a NC configuration for transmission of a scheduled network-coded ADU; receiving the scheduled network-coded ADU in at least one TB; determining, for each TB of the at least one TB, a CB threshold based at least on the NC configuration; configuring, for each TB of the at least one TB, a NC-aware HARQ process as a HARQ process with the CB threshold; using the CB threshold to determine a NC-aware HARQ feedback report; and feeding back the NC-aware HARQ feedback report to a transmitting device.).
Regarding claim 16 and 31, Sto teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Sto, see fig. 4) / a method (Sto, see fig. 14-15):
wherein the circuitry is configured to transmit, to the network element, uplink control information (UCI) indicating second information, wherein the second information comprises any of (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0096]-[0110], [0111]-[0113], [0127]-[0185]):
(1) an identifier associated with a selected NC generation (Sto, fig. 7, fig. 12 and 14, [0026]-[0053], [0054]-[0069], [0070]-[0091], [0111]-[0113]: [0044] In various embodiments, a remote unit 102 may determine, at a receiving device, a NC configuration for transmission of a scheduled network-coded ADU. In some embodiments, the remote unit 102 may receive the scheduled network-coded ADU in at least one TB. [0080] b) PHY retransmissions are controlled by individual HARQ processes within a HARQ entity as part of the MAC and are scheduled accordingly by the latter given the HARQ feedback of a receiver indication non-acknowledgement (e.g., NACK) (or equivalently HARQ-NACK), c) PHY retransmission delays may vary between 2-10 ms based on the scheduling, SCS and MCS configurations. [0100] In another example, an NC-aware HARQ process monitoring the receiving of a network-coded TB applies the determined threshold of necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs to determine whether the TB information can be recovered at higher layers after NC decoding. The determination of correctly received CB data post FEC decoding is done by CRC. As such, in some examples, the data that failed a CRC within a CB is considered invalid and is marked accordingly for skipping processing at higher layers, e.g., to be discarded at MAC layer. In one example, as the MAC PDUs encapsulating the network-coded packets may not be aligned to the CB boundaries within a TB, the MAC layer identifies portions of incomplete (or corrupted) MAC PDUs based on the corrupted CBs and available NC configuration.),
(2) an indication of a number of NC PDUs to be transmitted in the uplink transmission,
(3) an indication of a minimum number of NC PDUs required to recover the NC service data units (SDUs) of an NC generation,
(4) an indication of NC SDU or NC PDU size, and
(5) an indication of a type of the NC PDUs carried in the uplink transmission.
Regarding claim 17, Sto teaches the WTRU of claim 16, (Sto, see fig. 4):
wherein: the circuitry is configured to perform joint channel coding of bits of the second information in the UCI, or the circuitry is configured to perform separate channel coding for one or more bits of the second information in the UCI(Sto, [0070]-[0092], [0093]-[0113], [0114]-[0178]: [0084] In some embodiments, a behavior of NC without HARQ feedback versus baseline 5G HARQ non-NC transmissions could be implemented under fixed MCS assumptions, and different NC redundancy levels. As such, no dynamic outer loop control for the joint NC redundancy level and MCS configuration can be considered or explicitly described, which will negatively impact the potential of higher spectral efficiency for NC-based transmissions. In fact, NC has greater potential of spectral efficiency by means of adaptive redundancy configuration and MCS selection which considers both the link signal-to-interference-noise ratio (“SINR”) as well as the link-diversity (e.g., spatial layers, time resources, propagation paths (e.g., dual connectivity, multi-hop relaying, carrier aggregation, etc.)). Since this dynamic adaptation is not possible without explicit feedback, HARQ disablement may require additional signaling to acquire necessary channel quality indicator (“CQI”), channel state information (“CSI”), or similar information to aid for adaptation of NC redundancy and MCS to link SINR conditions. [0116] The second value determines the necessary minimum number of correctly received CBs threshold for the existing NC, MCS, and TBS configuration assuming that the CB errors are spread across a series of non-consecutive CBs (e.g., worst-case scenario). [0117] This fact determines the average number of network-coded packets per CB as shown in Equation 3, where the CBS denotes the CB size in bits and NCS denotes the network-coded packets size in bits. [0173] In various embodiments, HARQ ACK/NACK reporting for DL transmissions may be multiplexed over UCI and transported over physical uplink control channel (“PUCCH”) or PUSCH. The encoding of HARQ ACK/NACK may be organized in codebooks, such as: 1) Type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., Semi-static)-a semi-static codebook determined by the RRC configuration of HARQ timing offset, CBG-based HARQ, CCs or simultaneous TBs in transit and dynamic scheduling decisions—the number of bits to send in an ACK/NACK report is thus fixed and could be potentially large-if many component carriers are configured for instance but only a few are scheduled, this is inefficient; 2) Type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., Dynamic)—a dynamic codebook or enhanced dynamic codebook, optimized to reduce multiplexed feedback size since the UE sends feedback only for the scheduled carriers—as in low SINR channel conditions, UE may wrongly infer the number of carriers that were scheduled, downlink assignment index as a tuple of a counter DAI (“cDAI”) and a total DAI (“tDAI”) (e.g., cDAI, tDAI) is used as part of DCI scheduling to aid the UE determine and form the dynamic HARQ feedback codebook; 3) Type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., OneShotReporting)—the UE sends ACK/NACK report for all HARQ processes and all CCs configured in the PUCCH group in a semi-static manner given RRC configuration and parameters; and/or 4) for CBG-based HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., CBG-level reporting), whereby the reporting is done on a per CBG level as part of the TB given an RRC configured HARQ-ACK CBG-based feedback.).
Regarding claim 18, Sto teaches the WTRU of claim 1, (Sto, see fig. 4):
wherein the uplink transmission comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission (Sto, fig. 7, [0070]-[0092]: [0087] 702, 704, and 706 (e.g., 16.67 ms). Further, the timing 700 includes a periodicity 708 and 710 between periodic PUSCH pose updates (e.g., 4 ms). In various embodiments, the NC architecture outlined in FIG. 6 is enabled for DL and applied at a ADU level (e.g., for each ADU burst of PDCP PDUs), whereas the prior art baselines may consist of: 1) complete HARQ disablement for network-coded transmissions; and/or 2) 5G NR RAN HARQ.).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 8-9, 21 and 25 are 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.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/F.L.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2468
/MARCUS SMITH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2468
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