DETAILED ACTION
Response to Remark
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 05/12/26.
a. Independent claims have been amended.
b. Claims 2, 3, 8, 12, and 14-15 have been canceled.
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.
Claims 1, 4-7, 9-11, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sridharan et al. (US 2022/0399971, “Sridharan”; Provisional application (63/202,435) shows the same Figs.1-10 and the related paragraphs of Sridharan) in view of Tran et al. (US 2024/0188075, “Tran”) and further in view of Xiong et al. (US 2024/0179689, “Xiong”; Provisional application (63/223,324), hereinafter “Prov’324”).
Regarding claim 1, Sridharan discloses a method performed by a terminal, the method comprising:
- receiving configuration information related to a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) bundling for an uplink channel (See 410 Fig.4, UE receives ‘TDW start time/offset/ duration’ from BS; See 420 Fig.4, indication of set of TDWs for DMRS bundling; See 430 Fig.4, identify set of TDWs for set of uplink transmissions; See 710 Fig.7, receive scheduling information for a set of uplink transmissions of the UE
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- transmitting the uplink channel in a first actual time domain window (TDW) and a second actual TDW within a TDW (See 450 Fig.4, UE transmits the set of uplink transmissions (DMRS bundling of uplink transmissions within TDWs, not across TDWs; See Fig.5 below;
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See 730 Fig.7, transmitting the set of uplink transmissions using a DMRS bundling configuration that is based at least in part on the set of time-domain windows for DMRS bundling; See ¶.99, identifying the set of time-domain windows further comprises identifying the set of time-domain windows based at least in part on an offset indicating a start time for a time-domain window of the set of time-domain windows and a duration identifying a length of the time-domain window; See ¶.135, receiving each uplink transmission that is within the particular time-domain window, of the set of time-domain windows, including bundled DMRSs, is based at least in part on a set of grants, for each uplink transmission that is within the particular time-domain window, arriving before a start of the particular time-domain window),
- wherein the first actual TDW ends before an event in which power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained across transmissions of a repetition of the uplink channel (See Fig.6, an event in slot 8 & 9 between TDW1 and TDW2, i.e. TDW1 ends before the event in slot 8 & 9;
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Examiner’s Note: Tran further discloses the limitations “an event in which power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained across transmissions of a repetition of the uplink channel).”
- wherein the second actual TDW is created in response to the event being a fist type event, subject to a capability of the terminal related to whether the terminal supports a restart of the DMR bundling (See 650 Fig.6 above, the second TDW2 is created; See ¶.78, TDWs may not be contiguous with each other. For example, there may be one or more slots (e.g., between two TDWs) that are not included in a TDW. As another example, a bundling duration of a TDW may be shorter than a number of slots between the start of each TDW. In some aspects, the offset may be based at least in part on a capability of the UE, which may be communicated via capability information transmitted by the UE. For example, a UE capable of maintaining DMRS bundling over a longer period of time may use a larger offset, whereas a UE that is not capable of maintaining DMRS bundling over a long period of time may use a shorter offset. A duration of the TDW (sometimes referred to herein as a bundling duration) may identify a length of a TDW. The UE may receive, be configured with, or determine an offset indicating a start time for a time-domain window of the set of time-domain windows and a duration identifying a length of the time-domain window; Examiner’s Note: Xiong discloses the limitation “a restart of the DMRS bundling”).
Sridharan discloses that “a single DCI can configure parameters that are incompatible with DMRS bundling, such as gaps that are too long to maintain phase continuity, changing power control leading to phase discontinuity, changing frequency domain resource allocations (FDRAs) leading to phase discontinuity, or the like. In such scenarios, the usage of DMRS bundling may be hampered or prevented, thereby leading to diminished uplink communication performance and decreased throughput (Sridharan, See ¶.72), but does not explicitly disclose the limitations “an event in which power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained across transmissions of a repetition of the uplink channel.”
However, Tran discloses “an event in which power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained across transmissions of a repetition of the uplink channel (Tran, See ¶.161, a UE might perform certain periodic or aperiodic events, such as frequency tracking, calibration, or other actions at a slot boundary such that it can impact phase continuity. Due to a change of pathloss measurements, a transmit power control of PUSCH at a UE side can be changed accordingly. An associated gNB might or might not be aware of some changes in such events. However, in order to guarantee performance of CE by using jointly DMRS symbols among PUSCH transmissions, a UE needs to maintain power consistency and phase continuity over a duration of time for these PUSCH transmissions. Furthermore, how to enable joint CE, as well as how to integrate joint CE and frequency hopping procedures, are not defined yet; See ¶.186, UE cannot maintain requirements of power consistency and phase continuity for enabling joint CE within the length of a time domain window, if the time domain window was to be configured by a gNB. It is possible that the time domain window is greater than a maximum duration that the UE is able to maintain power consistency and phase continuity subject to power consistency and phase continuity requirements. The maximum duration is subject to the UE capability. For example, the gNB might not be aware of changes in (periodic) events for the UE; See ¶.186, the UE can only maintain requirements of power consistency and phase continuity within a shorter/actual length of time domain window, e.g., M slots, where M≤T; See ¶.188, the one or more events can include (i) where and when to cancel a PUSCH transmission based on Release 15/16/17 collision rules for PUSCH, (ii) DL slot or DL reception/monitoring based on semi-static DL/UL configuration for unpaired spectrum, (iii) other UL transmission in between PUSCH transmissions, (iv) indications for changing transmission parameters for PUSCH by gNB (such as UL beam switching, transmit power control command, timing advance command), (v) a maximum duration that a UE is able to maintain the requirements of power consistency and phase continuity (UE capability), (vi) frequency hopping, (vii) precoder cycling, etc. These events could be categorized as semi-static events or dynamic events, wherein an event is categorized as a dynamic event if it is triggered by a DCI or MAC-CE, otherwise it is categorized as a semi-static event. Since these events are transparent to gNB, it can determine the actual length of time domain window of the UE).
As shown in Fig.6 of Sridharan, TDW2 restarts, but Sridharan and Tran do not explicitly disclose the limitations “a restart of the DMRS bundling.” However, Xiong discloses “a restart of the DMRS bundling (Xiong, See ¶.134, the UE may restart the DMRS bundling to maintain the phase continuity and power consistency for next repetitions; Prov’324, pg.8,
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See pg.9,
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).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “an event in which power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained across transmissions of a repetition of the uplink channel” as taught by Tran and “a restart of the DMRS bundling” as taught by Tran into the system of Sridharan, so that it provides a way of maintaining the phase continuity and power consistency for repetitions with the time domain window (Xiong, See ¶.134).
Regarding claim 4, Sridharan does not explicitly disclose what Tran discloses “wherein: the second actual TDW is created in response to the event being a second type event (Tran, See ¶.185, a benefit of this implementation is to achieve reasonable measurement effort and power consumption for a UE because the actual length of time domain window is based on its capability or channel condition/profiling; See ¶.186, the maximum duration is subject to the UE capability. For example, the gNB might not be aware of changes in (periodic) events for the UE; See ¶.188, the UE determines the actual length of time domain window based on one or more events which are transparent to gNB; These events could be categorized as semi-static events or dynamic events, wherein an event is categorized as a dynamic event if it is triggered by a DCI or MAC-CE, otherwise it is categorized as a semi-static event. Since these events are transparent to gNB, it can determine the actual length of time domain window of the UE; Examiner’s Note: See the cited paragraphs for a plurality of events in the rejection of claim 1).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 5, Sridharan discloses “the second actual TDW is created in response to the event being a second type event regardless of the capability of the terminal (Sridharan, See Fig.5-6 and ¶.78, an offset for a TDW. The offset may indicate a start time of a next TDW. For example, in example 500, the offset may be “4,” indicating that a TDW starts each four slots The UE may receive, be configured with, or determine an offset indicating a start time for a time-domain window of the set of time-domain windows and a duration identifying a length of the time-domain window).”
Regarding claim 6, Sridharan discloses “the first type event includes an event triggered by downlink control information (DCI) other than frequency hopping or by a medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) (See ¶.72, scheduling of the multiple PUSCHs may occur via multiple grants, such as via DCI transmissions. If the UE is to maintain phase continuity across a set of bundled DMRSs, then the UE may need to have information indicating, before transmission of the set of bundled DMRSs, that the DMRSs are to be bundled; See ¶.75, each PUSCH transmission of the set of PUSCH transmissions (that is, all PUSCH transmissions of the set of PUSCH transmissions) may be scheduled via a single DCI message; See ¶.89, the UE may receive, signaling that activates or deactivates DMRS bundling. For example, the signaling may be MAC-CE signaling or DCI-based signaling. Thus, impact to power saving procedures may be mitigated by preserving power saving opportunities; See ¶.114, suspending inter-slot frequency hopping while the DMRS bundling configuration is active).”
Regarding claim 7, Sridharan does not explicitly disclose what Tran discloses “wherein: the second type event includes frequency hopping or an event not triggered by DCI or by a MAC-CE (Tran, See ¶.188, the UE determines the actual length of time domain window based on one or more events which include frequency hopping, (vii) precoder cycling, etc. These events could be categorized as semi-static events or dynamic events, wherein an event is categorized as a dynamic event if it is triggered by a DCI or MAC-CE, otherwise it is categorized as a semi-static event. Since these events are transparent to gNB, it can determine the actual length of time domain window of the UE).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, Sridharan and Tran disclose “wherein: the configuration information related to the DMRS bundling is provided through higher layer signaling (Sridharan, See ¶.179, the CU may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions can include RRC functions; Tran, See ¶.126, RRC is a higher layer signaling used for UE and gNB configuration; See ¶.180, the length of time domain window is indicated semi-statically by RRC).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 10, Sridharan discloses “wherein: the uplink channel includes at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUSCH) (See Fig.3, PUCCH and/or PUSCH; See ¶.77, independent TDWs can be used for DMRS bundling for PUSCHs or for PUCCHs).
Regarding claim 11, it is a terminal claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations “at least one transceiver, at least one processor (See Fig.2)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 13, it is a base station claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations “at least one transceiver, at least one processor (See Fig.2)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been considered. But, in view of the applicant’s amendment to the claims, examiner has clarified and totally remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims and a new prior art by Xiong for the newly added claim limitations. The previous 103 rejection over Sridharan in view of Trans has been replaced with a new 103 rejection over Sridharan in view of Tran and further in view of Xiong.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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