3Notice 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 ACTION
a. Claims 1-20 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA :
- claims 1, 13-15, and 19-20 are amended
b. This is a second non final action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 08/03/2026.
Response to Arguments
Regarding claim 2 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b), claim 2 has been amended according to the examiner's recommendation and thus the previous rejection has been withdrawn.
Regarding Independent claims 1, 15, and 20 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2), Applicant's arguments, see “Amended base claim 1 recites a "cellular signal including one or more control messages formed by a plurality of control channel elements." Control messages from this cellular signal are decoded to determine "network properties" and the cellular signal is "monitor[ed], using a transport layer of the computing device to determine packet statistics." These two sets of derived or decoded information, "network properties" and "packet statistics," are then combined to determine "network information." Neither Li or Liu or any combination of the aforementioned references discloses deriving these dual sets of information for a signal and subsequently combining them to create an accurate and fine-grained telemetry tool. The Office admits Liu fails to disclose any monitoring of the transport layer.” on pages 10-11, filed on 08/03/2026, with respect to Liu et al. US Pub 2020/0266925 (hereinafter “Liu”), have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the previous rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Jobs et al. US Pub 2014/0277850 (hereinafter “Jobs”), in combination with previously applied reference Liu. See section Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 below for complete details.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claim 19 recites the limitation “network information”. There is already antecedent basis established for this limitation in the parent claim 15. The Examiner suggests that this sentence be modified as such to overcome this 112(b) rejection: “the network information”. Appropriate correction is required.
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 of this title, 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.
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 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.
Claims 1-5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. US Pub 2020/0266925 (hereinafter “Liu”), and in view of Jobs et al. US Pub 2014/0277850 (hereinafter “Jobs”).
Regarding claim 1 (Currently Amended)
Liu discloses a computer-implemented method to identify network information (“A UE may determine the particular CCEs of candidate PDCCHs to attempt decoding DCI from using an appropriate RNTI assigned to the UE (e.g., calculating the starting CCE index using a formula based on RNTI, subframe number, number of CCEs, and the aggregation level).” [0005]), the method comprising:
receiving, at a computing device (i.e. “UE” [0005]), a cellular signal including one or more control messages (e.g. “DCI”) formed by a plurality of control channel elements (“In operation according to embodiments of USII decoder 311, the functions of blocks 605-613 are performed with respect to each of the CCE groups for obtaining RNTI and decoding DCI from any of the possible PDCCHs in the CCE groups.” [0037]), wherein each control message is formed of one or more of the plurality of control channel elements (i.e. “the particular CCEs of candidate PDCCHs” [0005]) and each control message is encoded using a function (“A UE may determine the particular CCEs of candidate PDCCHs to attempt decoding DCI from using an appropriate RNTI assigned to the UE (e.g., calculating the starting CCE index using a formula based on RNTI, subframe number, number of CCEs, and the aggregation level).” [0005]), a respective associated cyclic redundancy check (“decoding according to possible DCI formats may be performed with respect to extracted soft bit data to obtain DCI bits, cyclic redundancy check (CRC) performed on the obtained DCI bits” [0032]), and a respective unknown temporary identifier (“RNTI” [0034-0035]);
for each control message:
identifying the one or more of the plurality of control channel elements forming the control message (“The number of consecutive CCEs transmitting PDCCH is called the aggregation level (AL), wherein the various ALs (e.g., ALs of 1, 2, 4, and 8 CCEs per PDCCH) may he used to provide adequate bandwidth for carrying the information of a particular DCI, to provide redundancy for a noisy channel, etc.” [0003]);
deriving, based upon the identified one or more of the plurality of control channel elements, candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks (steps 607 and 608 in Fig. 6B and furthermore “In obtaining RNTIs with AL=N for redundancy reduction-based error checking operation according to the illustrated embodiment, at block 607 a first set of check bits (Check 1.sub.AL=N) is obtained directly from the information bits (Data B) previously obtained for AL=N of the CCE group. Thereafter, at block 608, a second set of check bits (Check 2.sub.AL=N) is computed based on the DCI from the information bits (Data B) previously obtained for AL=N of the CCE group.” [0040]);
deriving candidate temporary identifiers (“Thereafter, check bits are obtained from the convolutional decoded data and the unknown RNTI obtained from the check bits (i.e., exclusive or (XOR) operation with respect to two separately determined sets of check bits” [0007]) using the function (i.e. “(XOR) operation”), the candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks, and the respective associated cyclic redundancy check (step 609 in Fig. 6B and furthermore “The putative RNTI for AL=N (RNTI.sub.AL=N) is determined at block 609 by comparing the first and second sets of check bits. For example, XOR logic may be used to compare the first and second sets of cheek bits in obtaining the RNTI (e.g., Check 1.sub.AL=N⊕Check 2.sub.AL=N=RNTI.sub.AL=N).” [0040]);
determining the respective unknown temporary identifier from amongst the derived candidate temporary identifiers (step 605 in Fig. 6A and steps 610-613 in Fig. 6B; “; and “Having obtained RNTIs (e.g., RNTI.sub.AL=N and RNTI.sub.AL=N/2) from both data decoded from a CCE group comprising a candidate PDCCH (e.g., CCE group AL=N) that contains redundant data and a portion of that CCE group (e.g., CCE group AL=N/2) that contains redundancy reduced data, error checking is performed according to embodiments of the invention to determine if the decoded DCI and RNTI for the CCE group AL=N are correct.” [0044=0045]); and
decoding the control message using the function( “downlink control information (DCI) for controlling and coordinating communications between UEs and BSs” [0028]), the determined respective unknown temporary identifier (i.e. “RNTI”), and the respective associated cyclic redundancy check (see Fig. 6a; “Decoding is performed with all possible AL(s) for each CCE group to obtain decoded information bits at blocks 605 and 606. The decoding is preferably performed for each possible AL, starting with the maximum possible AL (N). In performing decoding according to embodiments, soft bit data (Data A) is extracted from each possible AL of a CCE group by performing channel equalization, demodulation, and descrambling to extract data based on each possible AL (block 605). Thereafter, rate de-matching and convolutional decoding may be performed on the soft bit data to obtain information bits (Data B) from each AL in the CCE group (block 606). In this PDCCH example, the information bits comprise putative DCI and check bits.” [0038]), wherein the decoded control message indicates network properties (“The PDCCH for a particular UE may be designated by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) assigned to the UE. Accordingly, a 4G cellular network base station (BS) (i.e. “network properties”) operates to transmit a PDCCH for a particular UE comprising a combination of DCI and corresponding RNTI information in a selected AL of CCEs, as shown in FIG. 4A.” [0028]);
Liu does not specifically teach monitoring, using a transport layer of the computing device, the received cellular signal including the one or more control messages formed by the plurality of control channel elements to determine packet statistics of the cellular signal; and combining the determined packet statistics and the network properties to determine network information.
In an analogous art, Jobs discloses a method to identify network information (“The network health monitor 280 is configured to use the packet data obtained by the packet delivery module 270 to calculate one or more performance metrics, determine therefrom a network health score, and based on the network health score, permit or disable remote motion and other function control from the wireless mobile device 200.” [0029],
monitoring (“the network health monitor 280 is configured to use the packet data to calculate one or more performance metrics, determine therefrom a network health score, and based on the network health score, permit or disable remote motion and other function control from the wireless mobile device 200. In one implementation, the network health monitor 280 utilizes a sliding window to select packets whose packet data is used to calculate at least some of the one or more performance metrics.” [0035]), using a transport layer of the computing device (“The data-interchange format may be used to implement certain aspects of reliable ordered service, on top of an underlying connectionless transport protocol (e.g., UDP) used in the wireless network 180” [0030] and furthermore “FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example packet 300 structured according to a JSON data-interchange format. In this example, the packet 300 is a UDP packet.” [0031]), the received cellular signal including the one or more control messages formed by the plurality of control channel elements (“The electronic control system is coupled to, and receives information from, sensors that collect environmental information (e.g., wind speed, wind direction, water depth, etc.) and/or system status information (e.g., engine speed, transmission settings, etc.) for the vehicle (e.g., the vessel). The electronic control system is also coupled to, and provides control signals to, vehicle subsystems (e.g., marine subsystems, such as throttle controllers, transmission controllers, rudder actuators, etc.) that implement motion and other function control. In operation, environmental information and/or system status information is collected through the electronic control system, propagated to the interface (e.g., the server), and then sent over the wireless network to the wireless mobile device. Similarly, control input is sent over the wireless network to the interface (e.g., the server), which passes the information to the electronic control system, which in turn issues appropriate control signals to vehicle subsystems (e.g., marine subsystems) to control the motion of the vehicle (e.g., the vessel).” [0011]) to determine packet statistics of the cellular signal (“The packet delivery module is configured to exchanging packets with the interface to receive environmental information and/or system status information, and to pass thereto control input, when remote motion and other function control is engaged. The packet delivery module is further configured to implement an acknowledgment (ACK)/negative acknowledgment (NACK) mechanism, and to implement data collection functions to obtain packet data. The packet delivery module network health monitor is configured to use the packet data obtained by the to calculate one or more performance metrics, determine therefrom a network health score, and based on the network health score, permit or disable remote motion and other function control.” [0012]); and
combining the determined packet statistics (“the network health monitor 280 is configured to use the packet data to calculate one or more performance metrics, determine therefrom a network health score, and based on the network health score, permit or disable remote motion and other function control from the wireless mobile device 200. In one implementation, the network health monitor 280 utilizes a sliding window to select packets whose packet data is used to calculate at least some of the one or more performance metrics.” [0035]) and the network properties (“The one or more performance metrics calculated by the network health monitor 280 include an instantaneous jitter metric, a cumulative delay metric, an average jitter metric, a retransmission metric, and/or other metrics descriptive of network performance” [0036]) to determine network information (i.e. “network health”).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown, to include Jobs’s method for monitoring network health based on the combined collection of network properties and packet statistics, in order to determine a network health score (Jobs [0035]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Jobs’s method for monitoring network health based on the combined collection of network properties and packet statistics into Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2 (Currently Amended)
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein the computing device is a primary computing device (e.g. “UE 1”, “UE 2”) and the one or more control messages are transmitted by one or more secondary computing device (i.e. “BS”) distinct from the primary computing device (“In particular, FIG. 5 shows a portion of a 4G cellular network in which a BS is serving UE 1 and UE 2, wherein RNTI 1 is assigned to UE 1 for use with respect to its PDCCHs transmitted by the BS and RNTI 2 is assigned to UE 2 for use with respect to its PDCCHs transmitted by the BS.” [0031]; Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 3
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein each respective unknown temporary identifier is a 16-bit cell radio network temporary identifier (“RNTI”, “the length of check bits=16 bits” [0047]).
Regarding claim 4
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein the function is an exclusive or (XOR) function (“Thereafter, check bits are obtained from the convolutional decoded data and the unknown RNTI obtained from the check bits (i.e., exclusive or (XOR) operation with respect to two separately determined sets of check bits).” [0007]).
Regarding claim 5
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein the plurality of control channel elements are distributed within a control channel (e.g. PDCCH, PCFICH) comprising a section of the cellular signal (“FIG. 6A to identify individual CCEs for PDCCH carrying information bits since CCE is the resource unit of PDCCH… Accordingly, receiver 310 may decode the PCFICH channel to obtain the number of control OFDM symbols for use in determining the CCEs for PDCCH.” [0034]).
Regarding claim 7
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein identifying the one or more of the plurality of control channel elements forming the control message comprises:
measuring respective energy (i.e. power) of each of the plurality of control channel elements (“In operation according to the illustrated embodiment of flow 600, power detection is used at block 601 of FIG. 6A to identify individual CCEs for PDCCH carrying information bits since CCE is the resource unit of PDCCH. For example, logic of USII decoder 311 may analyze subframes in the control region of a received channel signal to detect individual CCEs using power detection techniques. In operation of a 4G cellular network system, as a specific example, all CCEs for PDCCH are within the first 1/2/3/4 orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols of every sub-frame, wherein the number of OFDM symbols containing PDCCH is carried in the physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH).” [0034]); and
determining that a control channel element of the plurality of control channel elements with a measured respective energy below a threshold does not form the control message (“Accordingly, receiver 310 may decode the PCFICH channel to obtain the number of control OFDM symbols for use in determining the CCEs for PDCCH. Irrespective of the particular way in which CCEs for PDCCH are determined, in operation according to embodiments, a CCE for PDCCH may be considered as carrying information bits if the CCE average power meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold value. As a specific example, logic of USII decoder 311 may compute the average power across all the CCEs for PDCCH and denote this as threshold power Th. In operation according to this example, a CCE is considered to carry information if the average power of the CCE under consideration (CCE.sub.AVG(i)) is greater than or equal to the average power across all the CCEs for PDCCH plus some difference factor Δ (i.e., CCE.sub.AVG(i)≥Th+Δ), wherein the difference factor Δ of embodiments is configurable to maximize system flexibility (e.g., the value of difference factor Δ may be determined using analysis of empirical results, simulation, etc.). As a non-limiting example, the value of difference factor Δ may be 0.1*Th in a typical 4G cellular network system configuration. Such operation to identify individual CCEs carrying information bits is illustrated in the upper graph shown in FIG. 7.” [0034]).
Regarding claim 9
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein deriving, based upon the identified one or more of the plurality of control channel elements, the candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks comprises:
decoding the control message using the identified one or more of the plurality of control channel elements (“In obtaining RNTIs with AL=N for redundancy reduction-based error checking operation according to the illustrated embodiment, at block 607 a first set of check bits (Check 1.sub.AL=N) is obtained directly from the information bits (Data B) previously obtained for AL=N of the CCE group. Thereafter, at block 608, a second set of check bits (Check 2.sub.AL=N) is computed based on the DCI from the information bits (Data B) previously obtained for AL=N of the CCE group. The putative RNTI for AL=N (RNTI.sub.AL=N) is determined at block 609 by comparing the first and second sets of check bits. For example, XOR logic may be used to compare the first and second sets of cheek bits in obtaining the RNTI (e.g., Check 1.sub.AL=N⊕Check 2.sub.AL=N=RNTI.sub.AL=N).” [0040]; Fig. 6B); and
calculating the cyclic redundancy checks using the control message decoded (“Having obtained RNTIs (e.g., RNTI.sub.AL=N and RNTI.sub.AL=N/2) from both data decoded from a CCE group comprising a candidate PDCCH (e.g., CCE group AL=N) that contains redundant data and a portion of that CCE group (e.g., CCE group AL=N/2) that contains redundancy reduced data, error checking is performed according to embodiments of the invention to determine if the decoded DCI and RNTI for the CCE group AL=N are correct. Accordingly, at block 611 of the illustrated embodiment of flow 600 the RNTIs are compared, such as to determine if RNTI.sub.AL=N exactly equals RNTI.sub.AL=N/2 (i.e., RNTI.sub.AL=N==RNTI.sub.AL=N/2).” [0042]).
Regarding claim 12
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein the cellular signal is a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) signal (“In operation of fourth generation (4G) LTE cellular network systems the PDCCH is a physical channel used to carry downlink control information (DCI) for controlling and coordinating communications between UEs and BSs.” [0028]).
Regarding claim 15
Liu discloses a computer based system to identify network information (“terminal equipment (TE) 300” in Fig. 3; [0024]), the system comprising:
a receiver (“receiver 310” in Fig. 3; [0024]) configured to receive, a cellular signal including one or more control messages formed by a plurality of control channel elements, wherein each control message is formed of one or more of the plurality of control channel elements and each control message is encoded using a function, a respective associated cyclic redundancy check, and a respective unknown temporary identifier;
a processor (“TE controller logic circuits” [0025]); and
a memory with computer code instructions stored thereon (“one or more memories (e.g., random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, magnetic memory, optical memory, and/or the like) suitable for storing one or more instruction sets (e.g., application software, firmware, operating system, applets, and/or the like), data (e.g., configuration parameters, operating parameters, collected data, processed data, and/or the like), etc.” [0025]), the processor and the memory, with the computer code instructions being configured to cause the system to:
for each control message:
identify the one or more of the plurality of control channel elements forming the control message;
derive, based upon the identified one or more of the plurality of control channel elements, candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks;
derive candidate temporary identifiers using the function, the candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks, and the respective associated cyclic redundancy check;
determine the respective unknown temporary identifier from amongst the derived candidate temporary identifiers; and
decode the control message using the function, the determined respective unknown temporary identifier, and the respective associated cyclic redundancy check, wherein the decoded control message indicates network properties,
monitor, using a transport layer, the received cellular signal including the one or more control messages formed by the plurality of control channel elements to determine packet statistics of the cellular signal; and
combine the determined packet statistics and the network properties to determine network information.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 15 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 1. Therefore apparatus claim 15 corresponds to method claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 18
The system of claim 15 wherein the cellular signal is a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) signal.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 18 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 12. Therefore apparatus claim 18 corresponds to method claim 12 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 12 rejection above.
Regarding claim 20 (Currently Amended)
A computer program product for identifying network information, the computer program product comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the program instructions, when loaded and executed by a processor, cause an apparatus associated
with the processor to:
receive a cellular signal including one or more control messages formed by a plurality of control channel elements, wherein each control message is formed of one or more of the plurality of control channel elements and each control message is
encoded using a function, a respective associated cyclic redundancy check, and a respective unknown temporary identifier; for each control message:
identify the one or more of the plurality of control channel elements forming the control message;
derive, based upon the identified one or more of the plurality of control channel elements, candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks;
derive candidate temporary identifiers using the function, the candidate calculated cyclic redundancy checks, and the respective associated cyclic redundancy check;
determine the respective unknown temporary identifier from amongst the derived candidate temporary identifiers; and
decode the control message using the function, the determined respective unknown temporary identifier, and the respective associated cyclic redundancy check, wherein the decoded control message indicates network properties;
monitor, using a transport layer, the received cellular signal including the one or more control messages formed by the plurality of control channel elements to determine packet statistics of the cellular signal; and combine the determined packet statistics and the network properties to determine network information.
The scope and subject matter of non-transitory computer readable medium claim 20 is drawn to the computer program product of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 1. Therefore computer program product claim 20 corresponds to method claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Claims 6, 11, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, in view of Jobs, and further in view of Tan et al. US Pub 2018/0035411 (hereinafter “Tan”).
Regarding claim 6
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 5
Liu and Jobs do not specifically teach wherein the plurality of control channel elements are two-dimensional subsections of the control channel defined by time and frequency.
In an analogous art, Tan discloses wherein the plurality of control channel elements are two-dimensional subsections of the control channel defined by time and frequency (“Because a plurality of PDCCHs can be contained in the transmission bandwidth of PDCCH, in order to effectively configure the time-frequency resources of PDCCH and other downlink control channels, LTE defines two dedicated control channel resource units: RE Group (REG) and Control Channel Element (CCE).” [0005]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown, as modified by Jobs, to include Tan’s blind detection method and system for a PDCCH, in order to properly decode DCI to obtain RNTI (Tan [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Tan’s blind detection method and system for a PDCCH into Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 11
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein the network properties include at least one of: allocated channel bandwidth (“The number of consecutive CCEs transmitting PDCCH is called the aggregation level (AL), wherein the various ALs (e.g., ALs of 1, 2, 4, and 8 CCEs per PDCCH) may he used to provide adequate bandwidth for carrying the information of a particular DCI, to provide redundancy for a noisy channel, etc.” [0003]).
In an analogous art, Tan discloses wherein the network properties include at least one of: channel quality (“The UE Identity useable for scrambling is Random Access Radio Network Temporary (RNTI). After being checked by CRC, Tail Biting convolutional encoding and rate matching are performed to each PDCCH. ENodeB can perform rate matching according to the Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reported by UE.” [0009]), total used bandwidth (“Because a plurality of PDCCHs can be contained in the transmission bandwidth of PDCCH, in order to effectively configure the time-frequency resources of PDCCH and other downlink control channels, LTE defines two dedicated control channel resource units: RE Group (REG) and Control Channel Element (CCE).” [0005])
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown, as modified by Jobs, to include Tan’s blind detection method and system for a PDCCH, in order to properly decode DCI to obtain RNTI (Tan [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Tan’s blind detection method and system for a PDCCH into Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 17
The system of claim 15 wherein the network properties include at least one of: channel quality, allocated channel bandwidth, number of active mobile users, total used bandwidth, and idle bandwidth.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 17 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 11. Therefore apparatus claim 17 corresponds to method claim 11 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 11 rejection above.
Claims 8, 10, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, in view of Jobs, and further in view of Wang US Pub 2014/0314040 (hereinafter “Wang”).
Regarding claim 8
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein identifying the one or more of the plurality of control channel elements forming the control message comprises:
Liu and Jobs do not specifically teach organizing the plurality of control channel elements into a binary tree hierarchy; and determining that one or more control channel elements represented by a child node, of a parent node in the binary tree hierarchy, do not form the control message if one or more control channel elements represented by the parent node do not form the control message.
In an analogous art, Wang discloses organizing the plurality of control channel elements into a binary tree hierarchy (“Tree node: Internal node of binary tree used to search for the affected entities.” [0135-0136]); and
determining that one or more control channel elements represented by a child node, of a parent node in the binary tree hierarchy, do not form the control message if one or more control channel elements represented by the parent node do not form the
control message (“Parent: pointing to parent node. Left child: pointing to left child node. Right child: pointing to right child node [0140] External: pointing to external candidate list. Best candidate: pointing to current chosen best CCE candidate. CCE position: CCE start position referred by current node. Aggr level: aggregation level (CCE-1 to CCE-8) referred by current node” [0137-0143]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown, as modified by Jobs, to include Wang’s scheme for allocating control channel elements (CCE) to user equipments (UE), in order to perform CCE allocation (Wang [0007]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Wang’s scheme for allocating control channel elements (CCE) to user equipments (UE) into Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 10
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu further discloses wherein determining the respective unknown temporary identifier from amongst the derived candidate temporary identifiers comprises:
performing at least one of: verifying re-encoded errors (“Redundancy reduction-based error checking implemented according to embodiments of the invention performs error checking between information derived from data decoded from a candidate control channel data block containing redundant data and information derived from data decoded from a portion of that candidate control channel data block containing redundancy reduced data. For example, redundancy reduction-based error checking may operate to perform error checking between station identifier information derived from soft bit data decoded from a number of consecutive CCEs of a first AL (e.g., 8 CCEs of AL=8, 4 CCEs of AL-4, or 2 CCEs of AL=2) comprising a candidate PDCCH and station identifier information derived from soft bit data decoded from one or more consecutive CCEs (e.g., 4 CCEs, 2 CCEs, or 1 CCE) forming a redundancy reduced portion of the candidate PDCCH (e.g., error checking RNTI obtained from AL=N consecutive CCEs and AL=N/2 consecutive CCEs). In operation according to embodiments, the data used in redundancy reduction-based error checking comprises putative radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs), wherein a putative RNTI obtained from a candidate control channel data block and a putative RNTI obtained from a redundancy reduced portion of the candidate control channel data block are compared to determine if the candidate PDCCH is correctly decoded.” [0010]).
Liu and Jobs do not specifically teach child-ancestor matching.
In an analogous art, Wang discloses child-ancestor matching (“If it hasn't reached the input RNTI list end (S1107: No), the next RNTI is got (S1111). If current B+ tree node is not NULL (S1113: Yes), it is judged whether current RNTI is compared with the current B+ node key (S1115), otherwise (S1113: No) the routine is ended with return of its parent B+ node for later insertion operation (S1117). If current RNTI is compared with the current B+ node key (S1115: Yes), then continue to move to its child node (S1123); otherwise (S1115: No), the routine continues to check its brother along the sibling list (S1119, 81121, S1115). [0242] If current RNTI is matched in sibling list (S1115: Yes), then the routine still continues to move to its child node under the brother node (S1123). Until no brother node is found (S1119: No), the routine returns with a previous B+ tree node used for insertion of best CCE pattern returned from the retrospective allocation method later. The above steps are repeated until the entity list end is reached and then the Allocation Pattern structure from the leaf node is returned (S1109).” [0239-0243]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown, as modified by Jobs, to include Wang’s scheme for allocating control channel elements (CCE) to user equipments (UE), in order to perform CCE allocation (Wang [0007]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Wang’s scheme for allocating control channel elements (CCE) to user equipments (UE) into Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 16
The system of claim 15 wherein, in determining the respective unknown temporary identifier from amongst the derived candidate temporary identifiers, the processor and the memory, with the computer code instructions, are further configured to cause the system to:
perform at least one of: child-ancestor matching, temporal user tracking, search space matching, and verifying re-encoded errors.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 16 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 10. Therefore apparatus claim 16 corresponds to method claim 10 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 10 rejection above.
Claims 13, 14, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, in view of Li, and further in view of Nguyen et al. US Pub 2021/0100046 (hereinafter “Nguyen”).
Regarding claim 13 (Currently Amended)
Liu, as modified by Jobs, previously discloses the method of claim 1
Liu and Jobs do not specifically teach wherein the network information includes congestion of the network.
In an analogous art, Nguyen discloses wherein the network information includes congestion of the network (“Wireless communications system 100 may support efficient techniques for collecting a network congestion index (e.g., a sidelink channel congestion indicator) and reporting the network congestion index to an application layer, where the application layer decides to throttle a bit rate and/or reduce a QoS expectation.” [0103]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown, as modified by Jobs, to include Nguyen’s method for reporting a congestion index, in order to efficiently adjust operational parameters based on the reported congestion report (Nguyen [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Nguyen’s method for reporting a congestion index into Liu’s method for accurate decoding of a received channel signal when station identifier information is unknown since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 14 (Currently Amended)
Liu, as modified by Jobs and Nguyen, previously discloses the method of claim 13 further comprising:
Nguyen further discloses reporting the determined network information to an application layer of the computing device (“Wireless communications system 100 may support efficient techniques for collecting a network congestion index (e.g., a sidelink channel congestion indicator) and reporting the network congestion index to an application layer” [0103]); and
controlling, by the application layer, use of the network by the computing device based on the reported determined network information (“where the application layer decides to throttle a bit rate and/or reduce a QoS expectation.” [0103] and furthermore “application layer may then adjust one or more sidelink transmission operation parameters (e.g., sidelink operation parameters) based on the aggregated congestion index reports (e.g., increase or decrease a feedback distance/range to decrease or increase a number of retransmission attempts for negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback messages). For example, the transmitter UEs 115 and/or application layer may adjust threshold values (e.g., Thresh.sub.FB, or adjust a different sidelink transmission operation parameter) to lessen how much feedback is transmitted by the receiver UEs 115 and a number of retransmissions, thereby lessening congestion in the system.” [0103]).
Regarding claim 19 (Currently Amended)
The system of claim 15 wherein network information includes congestion of the network.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 19 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 13. Therefore apparatus claim 19 corresponds to method claim 13 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 13 rejection above.
Conclusion
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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