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 .
DETAILED OFFICE ACTION
This action is responsive to the communication received February 6th, 2024. Claims 11, 13-14 have been canceled. Claims 1-10, 12 have been entered and are presented for examination.
Application 18/681,771 is a 371 of PCT/KR2022/011619 (08/05/2022) and claims benefit of Korean Application 10-2021-0104072 (08/06/2021).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on February 6th, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-4, 8-10, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (US 2022/0312318) in view of Lin et al. (US 2023/0216616).
Regarding claims 1, 10, 12, Babaei discloses a method for a user equipment (UE) to perform communication in a wireless communication system (paragraph 0004 [at least one of: whether to resume transmitting paused uplink feedback or to stop transmitting uplink feedback associated with MBS data and whether to switch a periodicity associated with the uplink feedback; and transmitting or stopping transmitting of the uplink feedback based on the determining. The uplink feedback may be one of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback]), the method comprising: based on the UE switching to a non-connected mode (paragraphs 0185-0187, 0204 [the UE may receive configuration parameters of a PUCCH configuration indicating a plurality of PUCCH resources. In response to a determination to switch the uplink feedback periodicity to the first periodicity or selecting/determining the first periodicity (e.g., autonomous determination at the UE or determination at the UE based on a command from the BS), the UE may select first PUCCH resources from the plurality of PUCCH resources. The selection of the first PUCCH resources from the plurality of PUCCH resources may be to achieve the determined first periodicity]), receiving, from a base station, configuration information related to a plurality of UE-common physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources for multicast (paragraphs 0176, 0185-0187, 0204 [the UE may receive configuration parameters of a PUCCH configuration indicating a plurality of PUCCH resources; common PUCCH resources]); based on a first group common physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) being received from the base station (paragraph 0138 [RRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE UEs, common frequency resource(s) for group-common PDCCH/PDSCH may be defined/configured]); and based on the UE switching from the non-connected mode to a connected mode (see Figure 7 [transitioning from inactive/idle to connected]), transmitting, to the base station, a second PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for a second group common PDSCH based on the configuration information (paragraph 0106, 0112, 0126, 0134, 0137- 0138 [for multicast of RRC-CONNECTED UEs, a common frequency resource for group-common PDCCH/PDSCH may be confined within the frequency resource of a dedicated unicast BWP to support simultaneous reception of unicast and multicast in the same slot; RRC_CONNECTED UEs receiving multicast, at least for PTM scheme 1 initial transmission, retransmission may be based on a group-common PDCCH scheduled group-common PDSCH, a UE-specific PDCCH scheduled PDSCH (e.g., UE-specific PDSCH or group-common PDSCH)]), wherein configuration information is received from the base station through a specific broadcast channel (paragraph 0162 [BCCH, MCCH]).
Babaei further discloses for RRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE UEs, common frequency resource(s) for group-common PDCCH/PDSCH may be defined/configured (paragraph 0138), but does not explicitly disclose transmitting, to the base station, a first PUCCH including multicast hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)-acknowledge (ACK) information for the first group common PDSCH based on the configuration information.
However, Lin et al. discloses transmitting, to the base station, a first PUCCH including multicast hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)-acknowledge (ACK) information for the first group common PDSCH based on the configuration information (paragraph 0042 [in the present disclosure of an inventive method for a user equipment (UE) in radio resource control (RRC) idle or inactive state (or even in connected state) to provide hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback to its camping or a base station (such as serving cell gNodeB (gNB)) in a 5th generation - new radio (5G-NR) network, the UE sends negative acknowledgement (NACK) reports only for incorrectly decoded transport blocks (TBs) carried in physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). For the proposed NACK-only based HARQ reporting scheme, the UE does not send back any other HARQ reports such as acknowledgement (ACK), the main purpose of NACK-only reporting from at least the RRC idle/inactive UE is to indicate to the gNB that it has failed to decode the last transmitted TB in the downlink (DL)]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize a UE in the RRC IDLE/INACTIVE could send back NACK-only based HARQ to indicate to the gNB that it has failed to decode the last transmitted TB in the downlink (DL).
Regarding claim 2, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Babaei further discloses wherein: based on a PUCCH resource indicated by downlink control information among the plurality of UE-common PUCCH resources for multicast, at least one of the first PUCCH or the second PUCCH is transmitted to the base station (see Figure 18 and paragraphs 0179, 0184-0187, 0189, 0204 [the UE may receive configuration parameters of a PUCCH configuration indicating a plurality of PUCCH resources. In response to a determination to switch the uplink feedback periodicity to the first periodicity or selecting/determining the first periodicity (e.g., autonomous determination at the UE or determination at the UE based on a command from the BS), the UE may select first PUCCH resources from the plurality of PUCCH resources. The selection of the first PUCCH resources from the plurality of PUCCH resources may be to achieve the determined first periodicity; the determination to transition from the RRC connected state to the RRC inactive state may be made at the UE, for example based on an indication/command from the BS. The UE may receive the indication/command via downlink control signaling (e.g., via one or more RRC messages, a MAC CE, DCI, etc.), DCI switches periodicity and indicates which PUCCH resources should be used]).
Regarding claim 3, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Babaei further discloses wherein: the multicast HARQ-ACK information includes NACK only-based HARQ-ACK information (paragraph 0126 [for NACK-only based HARQ-ACK feedback for multicast, from per UE perspective, UE may only feedback NACK. From UEs within the group perspective, PUCCH resource configuration may be for NACK only feedback]).
Regarding claim 4, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Babaei further discloses wherein: the specific broadcast channel includes at least one of a multicast control channel (MCCH) or a broadcast control channel (BCCH) (paragraph 0162 [BCCH and MCCH]).
Regarding claim 8, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Babaei further discloses wherein: based on an RRC release message being received from the base station, the UE switches to the non-connected mode (see Figure 7 [Connection Release]).
Regarding claim 9, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Babaei further wherein: the non-connected mode includes RRC inactive mode or RRC idle mode (see Figure 7 [RRC Inactive, RRC Idle]).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (US 2022/0312318) in view of Lin et al. (US 2023/0216616) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Liu et al. (US 2021/0021321).
Regarding claim 5, the references as combined above disclose all the recites subject matter in claim 1, but do not explicitly disclose wherein: based on a beam failure recovery procedure being performed, a third PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for the third group common PDSCH is transmitted to the base station based on the configuration information.
However, Liu et al. suggests wherein: based on a beam failure recovery procedure being performed, a third PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for the third group common PDSCH is transmitted to the base station based on the configuration information (paragraph 0035 [receiving a downlink data over a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH); transmitting a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) Acknowledgement (ACK) or Non-Acknowledgement (NACK) over PUCCH in response to the downlink data; and determining, when an ACK is transmitted, that the BFR has succeeded when no further Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) is received for scheduling retransmission of the downlink data, or determining, when a NACK is transmitted]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize sending a NACK or HARQ-ACK using a PUCCH resource to indicate the status of the BFR.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (US 2022/0312318) in view of Lin et al. (US 2023/0216616) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yi et al. (US 2021/0050968).
Regarding claim 6, the references as combined above disclose all the recites subject matter in claim 1, but do not explicitly disclose wherein: based on a radio link failure being detected and an RRC reconfiguration procedure being performed, a fourth PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for a fourth group common PDSCH is transmitted to the base station based on the configuration information.
However, Yi et al. suggests wherein: based on a radio link failure being detected and an RRC reconfiguration procedure being performed, a fourth PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for a fourth group common PDSCH is transmitted to the base station based on the configuration information (paragraph 0274 [When an RLF of the second RLM occurs, the wireless device, until reconfiguration is received, may transmit one or more HARQ-ACK feedbacks/SRs/UCIs through the primary cell]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize based on an RLF and reconfiguration, a UE can transmit one or more HARQ-ACK feedbacks to indicate the status of the recovery.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (US 2022/0312318) in view of Lin et al. (US 2023/0216616) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Raghavan et al. (US 2023/0180204).
Regarding claim 7, the references as combined above disclose all the recites subject matter in claim 1, but do not explicitly disclose wherein: based on a handover command being received from the base station, a fifth PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for a fifth group common PDSCH is transmitted to the base station based on the configuration information in a target cell.
However, Raghavan et al. suggests wherein: based on a handover command being received from the base station, a fifth PUCCH including multicast HARQ-ACK information for a fifth group common PDSCH is transmitted to the base station based on the configuration information in a target cell (paragraphs 0006, 0017 [the UE receives an RRC over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) containing a BWP switch command; transmitting a command to the UE to perform a BWP switch and monitoring a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK)]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize a switch command could be sent via the PDSCH wherein the NACK could be sent via PUCCH to indicate unsuccessful handover.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE whose telephone number is (571)270-3937. The examiner can normally be reached 4pm-11:30pm.
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/CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465