DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, anycorrection of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground ofrejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would bethe same under either status.
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 and 49-50 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang et al. teach a method at a user equipment (UE) for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) transmission, the method comprising (Figs. 1, 3 and 8, [0045], transmission components 300 illustrated in fig. 3 describe a subset of components involved with physical processing that may be employed by the UE 104 for uplink transmissions. The UE 104 may include a number of other components that perform other physical processing in conjunction with those shown),
Zhang et al. teach receiving, from a network node, a first message for scheduling UL or DL transmission with one or multiple codewords (Figs. 1 and 8,[0100-0101, 0103, 0132], receiving a UE capability indication. The capability indication may indicate that the UE is capable of supporting more than one codewords for an uplink transmission. Transmitting (by base station to the UE) configuration information to enable uplink transmissions with more than one codeword/MCS. The configuration information may be transmitted based on the capability indication received. The base station may also provide an indication of a codeword-to-layer mapping scheme to use to map the plurality of codewords to the at least two transmission layers. This may be provided in configuration information transmitted at 808 or in the scheduling information transmitted. Receiving configuration information from a next generation node B (gNB), The configuration information to indicate at least two codewords are enabled for uplink transmissions; receiving scheduling information to schedule an uplink transmission; mapping, based on the scheduling information and configuration information
Zhang et al. teach and performing, with the network node, the UL or DL transmission at least partially based on the first message (Fig. 1, [0033-0034, 0132], the UE 104 may perform a channel coding on user data to generate a codeword, which is then mapped to one or more transmission layers. In LTE, one or two codewords are supported for uplink transmission. Mapping, based on the scheduling information and configuration information, a first codeword to a first transmission layer and a second codeword to a second transmission layer; and transmitting the first codeword with the first transmission layer and the second codeword with the second transmission layer). In current NR networks, only one codeword is supported for uplink transmissions. The one codeword may be transmitted on up to four transmission layers).
Regarding claim 49, Zhang et al. teach a user equipment, comprising: a processor; a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to (Figs. 1 and 9), [0106, 0111], UE 900 may include processors 904, RF interface circuitry 908 and memory/storage 912. The memory/storage 912 may include one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media that includes instructions that may be executed by one or more of the processors 904 to cause the UE 900 to perform various operations described herein.
Zhang et al. teach receive, from a network node, a first message for scheduling UL or DL transmission with one or multiple codewords (Figs. 1 and 8,[0100-0101, 0103, 0132], receiving a UE capability indication. The capability indication may indicate that the UE is capable of supporting more than one codewords for an uplink transmission. Transmitting (by base station to the UE) configuration information to enable uplink transmissions with more than one codeword/MCS. The configuration information may be transmitted based on the capability indication received. The base station may also provide an indication of a codeword-to-layer mapping scheme to use to map the plurality of codewords to the at least two transmission layers. This may be provided in configuration information transmitted at 808 or in the scheduling information transmitted. Receiving configuration information from a next generation node B (gNB), The configuration information to indicate at least two codewords are enabled for uplink transmissions; receiving scheduling information to schedule an uplink transmission; mapping, based on the scheduling information and configuration information
Zhang et al. teach perform, with the network node, the UL or DL transmission at least partially based on the first message (Fig. 1, [0033-0034, 0132], the UE 104 may perform a channel coding on user data to generate a codeword, which is then mapped to one or more transmission layers. In LTE, one or two codewords are supported for uplink transmission. Mapping, based on the scheduling information and configuration information, a first codeword to a first transmission layer and a second codeword to a second transmission layer; and transmitting the first codeword with the first transmission layer and the second codeword with the second transmission layer). In current NR networks, only one codeword is supported for uplink transmissions. The one codeword may be transmitted on up to four transmission layers).
Regarding claim 50, Zhang et al. teach a method at a network node for UL or DL transmission, the method comprising (Figs. 1, 3 and 8, [0045], transmission components 300 illustrated in fig. 3 describe a subset of components involved with physical processing that may be employed by the UE 104 for uplink transmissions. The UE 104 may include a number of other components that perform other physical processing in conjunction with those shown),
Zhang et al. teach transmitting, to a UE, a first message for scheduling UL or DL transmission with one or multiple codewords (Figs. 1 and 8,[0100-0101, 0103, 0132], receiving a UE capability indication. The capability indication may indicate that the UE is capable of supporting more than one codewords for an uplink transmission. Transmitting (by base station to the UE) configuration information to enable uplink transmissions with more than one codeword/MCS. The configuration information may be transmitted based on the capability indication received. The base station may also provide an indication of a codeword-to-layer mapping scheme to use to map the plurality of codewords to the at least two transmission layers. This may be provided in configuration information transmitted at 808 or in the scheduling information transmitted. Receiving configuration information from a next generation node B (gNB), The configuration information to indicate at least two codewords are enabled for uplink transmissions; receiving scheduling information to schedule an uplink transmission; mapping, based on the scheduling information and configuration information
Zhang et al. teach performing, with the UE (700), the UL or DL transmission at least partially based on the first message (Fig. 1, [0033-0034, 0132], the UE 104 may perform a channel coding on user data to generate a codeword, which is then mapped to one or more transmission layers. In LTE, one or two codewords are supported for uplink transmission. Mapping, based on the scheduling information and configuration information, a first codeword to a first transmission layer and a second codeword to a second transmission layer; and transmitting the first codeword with the first transmission layer and the second codeword with the second transmission layer). In current NR networks, only one codeword is supported for uplink transmissions. The one codeword may be transmitted on up to four transmission layers).
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 non-obviousness.
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) 2-3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Yang et al. (US 2022/0209924 A1).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 2, wherein the DL transmission is a first downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) transmission; regarding claim 3, wherein a first maximum number of the codewords that can be carried by the DL transmission is configured to the UE; regarding claim 4, wherein the first message is an RRC message for semi-persistently scheduling the DL transmission and indicating a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission, wherein the first number is less than or equal to the first maximum number.
Regarding claim 2, Yang et al. teach wherein the DL transmission is a first downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) transmission (Fig. 15, [0340], the figure illustrates DL SPS (semi-persistent scheduling) transmission. The SPS configuration information is provided by RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling, and the SPS configuration information may include an SPS PDSCH period/offset, etc. Here, SPS configuration information may include information on an SPS time resource, and the SPS time resource may include an SPS PDSCH period/offset, etc.).
Regarding claim 3, Yang et al. teach wherein a first maximum number of the codewords that can be carried by the DL transmission is configured to the UE (Fig. 15, [0340], the figure illustrates DL SPS (semi-persistent scheduling) transmission. A UE does not immediately receive an SPS PDSCH even if the UE is allocated SPS configuration information by RRC signaling, and SPS activation/release is performed through a PDCCH. When a UE receives a PDCCH for SPS activation (SPS activation PDCCH), the UE receives an SPS PDSCH in a slot allocated by RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 4, Yang et al. teach wherein the first message is an RRC message for semi-persistently scheduling the DL transmission and indicating a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission, wherein the first number is less than or equal to the first maximum number (Fig. 15, [0340], the figure illustrates DL SPS (semi-persistent scheduling) transmission. The SPS configuration information is provided by RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling, and the SPS configuration information may include an SPS PDSCH period/offset, etc. Here, SPS configuration information may include information on an SPS time resource, and the SPS time resource may include an SPS PDSCH period/offset, etc.).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Yang et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of transmitting a first downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) transmission; a first maximum number of the codewords that can be carried by the DL transmission is configured to the UE, and wherein the first message is an RRC message for semi-persistently scheduling the DL transmission and indicating a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission. The motivation is to support an improved method of transmitting and receiving a wireless signal in a wireless communication system (see [0002]).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Jiang et al. (US 2018/0102877 A1).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 5, wherein a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission is assumed by the UE to be equal to the first maximum number.
Regarding claim 5, Jiang et al. teach wherein a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission is assumed by the UE to be equal to the first maximum number (Figs. 8-9, [0087], base station MIMO manager 915 may identify, for a carrier supporting a set of service types, resources for a first MIMO transmission to a UE, identify a first service type associated with the first MIMO transmission, select a first number of codewords to be transmitted in the first MIMO transmission based on the first service type, and format information to be transmitted into one or more codewords corresponding to the selected first number of codewords).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Jiang et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of carrying a first number of the codewords are by the DL transmission is assumed by the UE. The motivation is to support an improved method of identifying, for a carrier supporting a plurality of service types, resources for a first MIMO transmission (see [0007]).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Davydov et al. (US 11,848,736 B2).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 6, wherein when the first number is greater than 1, the method further comprises: receiving, from the network node, a second message indicating at least one of the codewords is enabled or disabled.
Regarding claim 6, Davydov et al. teach wherein when the first number is greater than 1, the method further comprises: receiving, from the network node, a second message indicating at least one of the codewords is enabled or disabled (Fig. 14, [claim 1], a base station, comprising: a transceiver configured to enable wireless communication with a user equipment (UE); and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver, and configured to: generate a message, wherein the message indicates a subset of antenna ports of the base station to be utilized by the UE for channel measurement; transmit, using the transceiver, the message to the UE; generate a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS); transmit, using the transceiver, the CSI-RS on the subset of antenna ports to the UE; receive, using the transceiver, channel state information (CSI) from the UE; store the CSI; determine a codeword based on the CSI by: determining a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) based on the CSI; and determining the codeword based on the PMI; and transmit, using the transceiver, a second message to the UE on the subset of antenna ports, wherein the second message is pre-coded by the codeword).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Davydov et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of receiving, from the network node, a second message indicating at least one of the codewords is enabled or disabled. The motivation is to support an improved method of identifying, for the measurement and reporting of channel state information within wireless network systems (see [col ln25-27]).
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Davydov et al. (US 11,848,736 B2) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zhou et al. (US 2020/0100179 A1).
Zhang et al. and Davydov et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraphs 4 and 10 above. Zhang et al. and Davydov et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 7, wherein the second message is a Downlink Control information (DCI) message; regarding claim 8, wherein the second message comprises one or more fields that have one or more specific values or a specific combination of specific values, the one or more specific values or the specific combination of specific values indicating that the at least one codeword is enabled or disabled.
Regarding claim 7, Zhou et al. teach wherein the second message is a Downlink Control information (DCI) message (Fig. 1, [0346], the second message may comprise at least one of a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or downlink control information (DCI)).
Regarding claim 8, Zhou et al. teach wherein the second message comprises one or more fields that have one or more specific values or a specific combination of specific values, the one or more specific values or the specific combination of specific values indicating that the at least one codeword is enabled or disabled (Fig. 1, [0346], the wireless device may also perform one or more additional operations or include additional elements in conjunction with the described method. The wireless device may receive a second message. The second message may comprise the first field that indicates the first power saving configuration of the plurality of power saving configurations, and a second field that indicates the cell).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. with Davydov et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Zhou et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of receiving second message that is DCI and comprises one or more fields that have one or more specific values. The motivation is to support an improved method of a wireless device may switch between an active state and power saving state (see [0005]).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Yi et al. (US 2023/0217456 A1).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 9, wherein a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission is assumed by the UE to be same as the first maximum number and no codeword is to be disabled..
Regarding claim 9, Yi et al. teach wherein a first number of the codewords to be carried by the DL transmission is assumed by the UE to be same as the first maximum number and no codeword is to be disabled (Fig. 26, [0308, 0230], configuration parameters may indicate/comprise a first number of code words/transport blocks schedulable by a DCI for the first cell. The configuration parameters may indicated/comprise a second number of code words/transport blocks schedulable by the DCI for the second cell. A wireless device may determine a DCI format for the multi-carrier/multi-cell scheduling based on the configuration parameters. The DCI format 1_1 may not include MCS, NDI and RV field for the second transport block, in response to the max number of codewords scheduled by DCI may be configured as one. Scheduling field may indicate enable or disable applying a configured minimum scheduling offset).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Yi et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of carrying by the DL transmission a first number of the codewords is assumed by the UE to be same as the first maximum number and no codeword is to be disabled. The motivation is to support an improved method for using a DCI format to support both single cell and multi-carrier/multi cell scheduling (see [0270]).
Claim(s) 11-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Yang et al. (US 2022/0209924 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Babaei (US 2022/0294581 A1).
Zhang et al. and Yang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraphs 4 and 8 above. Yang et al. and Davydov et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 11, wherein the first DL SPS transmission is configured with multiple codewords, wherein when the first DL SPS transmission is activated by a DCI message of a first format, one or more of the multiple codewords is enabled; regarding claim 12, wherein the first DL SPS transmission is configured with multiple codewords, wherein when the first DL SPS transmission is activated by a DCI message of a second format, only one of the multiple codewords is enabled.
Regarding claim 11, Babaei teach wherein the first DL SPS transmission is configured with multiple codewords, wherein when the first DL SPS transmission is activated by a DCI message of a first format, one or more of the multiple codewords is enabled (Fig. 49, [0093, 0386], at 4910, a wireless device may transmit, to a base station, one or more capability messages comprising one or more information elements indicating that the wireless device is capable of activation, via a first cell, and deactivation via a second cell of: a downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration; or an uplink configured grant configurations. At 4920, the wireless device may receive, via the first cell, a first downlink control information (DCI) indicating activation of a first downlink SPS configuration or a first uplink configured grant configuration. At 4930, the wireless device may receive, via the second cell, a second DCI indicating deactivation of the first downlink SPS configuration or the first uplink configured grant configuration. Code blocks may be concatenated to create one or more codewords. The contents of a codeword may be scrambled and modulated to generate a block of complex-valued modulation symbols. The modulation symbols may be mapped to a plurality of transmission layers (e.g., multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers) and the transmission layers may be subject to transform precoding and/or precoding).
Regarding claim 12, Babaei teach wherein the first DL SPS transmission is configured with multiple codewords, wherein when the first DL SPS transmission is activated by a DCI message of a second format, only one of the multiple codewords is enabled (Fig. 49, [0093, 0095, 0386], the wireless device may receive, via the first cell, a first downlink control information (DCI) indicating activation of a first downlink SPS configuration. The code blocks may be concatenated to create one or more codewords. In RRC_CONNECTED 706 state, the RRC context is established and both the UE and the RAN have necessary parameters to enable communications between the UE and the network).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. with Yang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Babaei et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of configuring the first DL SPS transmission with multiple codewords, wherein when the first DL SPS transmission is activated by a DCI message of a first format, one or more of the multiple codewords is enabled. The motivation is to support an improved method to enhance processes associated with scheduling of a primary cell from a scheduling secondary cell (see [0054]).
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Tiirola et al. (US 2019,0342040 A1).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 18, wherein a HARQ-ACK bit of 1 indicates a successfully decoded codeword while a HARQ-ACK bit of 0 indicates an unsuccessfully decoded codeword, wherein a bundled indicator acknowledges or negatively acknowledges two or more codewords by performing a logical AND operation on HARQ-ACK bits for the two or more codewords.
Regarding claim 18, Tiirola et al. teach wherein a HARQ-ACK bit of 1 indicates a successfully decoded codeword while a HARQ-ACK bit of 0 indicates an unsuccessfully decoded codeword, wherein a bundled indicator acknowledges or negatively acknowledges two or more codewords by performing a logical AND operation on HARQ-ACK bits for the two or more codewords (Figs. 9-10, [0036, 0057], UE can determine the size of a codebook for the HARQ-ACK FB window. For example, the size of the codebook, which can refer to the number of HARQ-ACK bits, can be adapted for the HARQ-ACK FB window as follows. In an embodiment called “embodiment A” for convenience only, the size of a codebook can be defined based on how many DL time slots the access node can schedule in the window at issue. By contrast, in an embodiment called “embodiment B” for convenience only, the size of a codebook can be defined based on how many DL time slots the access node actually schedules in the window at issue. Embodiment B may require a total DAI-field. The total DAI-field can also enable time domain HARQ-ACK bundling in the FB window. Time domain bundling can correspond to a logical-AND-operation of HARQ-ACK bits within HARQ-ACK FB window, compressing the HARQ-ACK feedback into single feedback bit per a codeword. In certain embodiments, the size of a codebook can be determined cell-wise based on the number of time slots, not based on the number of carriers. Similarly, the size of a codebook can be determined cell-wise for each cell or virtual cell of a plurality of cells or virtual cells. HARQ-ACK bit #1 corresponds to slot with DAI=0; HARQ-ACK bit #2 corresponds to slot with DAI=1; and NACK for remaining 2 bits in the codebook or generally speaking to all slots after the slot with DAI=1 for which DL assignment is not received by UE.).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Tiirola et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of indicating bit for successful or unsuccessful decoded codewords, wherein a bundled indicator acknowledges or negatively acknowledges two or more codewords by performing a logical AND operation on HARQ-ACK bits for the two or more codewords. The motivation is to support an improved method of a scalable feedback reporting in a scenario with dynamically varying acknowledgment timing (see [0001]).
Claim(s) 19 and 68 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Ly et al. (US 2022/0337368 A1).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 19, further comprising: receiving, from the network node (800), a configuration indicating whether the indicators in the third message shall be bundled indicators or not; regarding claim 68, further comprising transmitting, to the UE (700), a configuration indicating whether the indicators in the third message shall be bundled indicators or not.
Regarding claim 19, Ly et al. teach further comprising: receiving, from the network node (800), a configuration indicating whether the indicators in the third message shall be bundled indicators or not (Figs. 1 and 9B, [0036, 0057], support of Msg3 PUSCH repetition and, further, the use of joint channel estimation across Msg3 PUSCH repetitions will be dependent on the capability of the UE capability, especially since the UE is required to maintain phase continuity across transmissions. Accordingly, affording a UE the ability to indicate the capability of the UE to support repetition counting of available slots and, accordingly, joint channel estimation/DMRS bundling across Msg3 PUSCH repetition would be desirable. In light of foregoing, the present disclosure provides various configurations of a UE to be able to send an indication to the network (e.g., gNB) of the capability for supporting Msg3 PUSCH repetition including the capability for counting available UL slots and joint channel estimation or DMRS bundling).
Regarding claim 68, Ly et al. teach further comprising transmitting, to the UE (700), a configuration indicating whether the indicators in the third message shall be bundled indicators or not (Figs. 1 and 9B, [0036, 0057], support of Msg3 PUSCH repetition and, further, the use of joint channel estimation across Msg3 PUSCH repetitions will be dependent on the capability of the UE capability, especially since the UE is required to maintain phase continuity across transmissions. Accordingly, affording a UE the ability to indicate the capability of the UE to support repetition counting of available slots and, accordingly, joint channel estimation/DMRS bundling across Msg3 PUSCH repetition would be desirable. In light of foregoing, the present disclosure provides various configurations of a UE to be able to send an indication to the network (e.g., gNB) of the capability for supporting Msg3 PUSCH repetition including the capability for counting available UL slots and joint channel estimation or DMRS bundling).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Ly et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of comprising transmitting, to the UE (700), a configuration indicating whether the indicators in the third message shall be bundled indicators or not. The motivation is to support an improved method for indication by a UE of capabilities for repetition of PUSCH messages (see [0002]).
Claim(s) 41 and 90 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0035992 A1) in view of Kim et al. (US 2019/0141515 A1).
Zhang et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 4 above. Zhang et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 41, further comprising: transmitting, to the network node, a fifth message indicating whether DL transmission with multiple codewords and/or with more than 4 layers is supported by the UE or not; regarding claim 90, further comprising: receiving, from the UE, a fifth message indicating whether DL transmission with multiple codewords and/or with more than 4 layers is supported by the UE or not.
Regarding claim 41, Kim et al. teach further comprising: transmitting, to the network node, a fifth message indicating whether DL transmission with multiple codewords and/or with more than 4 layers is supported by the UE or not (Figs. 7 and 11, [0032, 0250, ], the AS layer of the CIoT device 100 transmits a fifth message of the random access procedure (i.e., MSG5) to the base station 200. The resume complete message may include the NAS message. Several layers are presented in the second layer. First, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer functions to map various logical channels to various transport channels and also plays a role of logical channel multiplexing for mapping multiple logical channels to one transport channel. The MAC layer is connected to a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, that is, a higher layer, through a logical channel. The logical channel is basically divided into a control channel through which information of the control plane is transmitted and a traffic channel through which information of the user plane is transmitted depending on the type of transmitted information).
Regarding claim 90, Kim et al. teach further comprising: receiving, from the UE, a fifth message indicating whether DL transmission with multiple codewords and/or with more than 4 layers is supported by the UE or not (Figs. 7 and 11, [0032, 0250, ], the AS layer of the CIoT device 100 transmits a fifth message of the random access procedure (i.e., MSG5) to the base station 200. The resume complete message may include the NAS message. Several layers are presented in the second layer. First, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer functions to map various logical channels to various transport channels and also plays a role of logical channel multiplexing for mapping multiple logical channels to one transport channel. The MAC layer is connected to a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, that is, a higher layer, through a logical channel. The logical channel is basically divided into a control channel through which information of the control plane is transmitted and a traffic channel through which information of the user plane is transmitted depending on the type of transmitted information).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhang et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Kim et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of transmitting, to the network node, a fifth message indicating whether DL transmission with multiple codewords and/or with more than 4 layers is supported by the UE or not. The motivation is to support an improved method for optimization for data transmission and reception of CIoT devices (see [00164]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 and 14-15 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SYED M BOKHARI whose telephone number is (571)270-3115. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday.
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/SYED M BOKHARI/ Examiner, Art Unit 2473
4/23/2026
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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