DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 7, 9-10, 12-13, 26, 28-29, and 31-32 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claims 7, 9-10, 12-13, 26, 28-29, and 31-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20250071761 A1) in view of Rastegardoost et al. (US 20240413934 A1).
Considering claim 7, Zhou teaches wireless communication method executable in a base station (BS), comprising:
configuring several fields with a varying size in downlink control information (DCI) for a plurality of transport blocks (TBs) (Fig.29, 33, 35, [0050] for example, wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics, a combination of the above, and/or the like, [0278], [0300], [0303] a DCI scheduling a plurality of TBs); and
transmitting the DCI to a user equipment (UE) ([0303] a wireless device may receive a DCI scheduling a plurality of TBs via a plurality of PDSCHs);
wherein the TBs are physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions (Fig.33, 35, [0300], [0303]), and the base station further configures a number of the TBs to the UE (Fig.29, 33, [0303] a wireless device may receive a DCI scheduling a plurality of TBs via a plurality of PDSCHs in a number of (consecutive) slots. A total number of the plurality of PDSCHs (or the total number of the slots used for the transmissions) may be 4, 8, 16, or 32, e.g… [0206]).
Zhou does not clearly teach the TBs are physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, and sizes of the TBs are the same, parameters for the TBs are the same.
Rastegardoost teaches the TBs are physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, and sizes of the TBs are the same, parameters for the TBs are the same ([0325] In an example, a TBS associated with the second PUSCH may be same as the TBS associated with the first PUSCH).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filling date of the application to provide above teaching of Rastegardoost to Zhou, in order to useful for wireless device power saving, improved coexistence, spatial reuse at least within the same operator network, serving cell transmission burst acquisition, etc. In an example, a radio access technology (e.g., LTE and/or NR) may employ a signal comprising at least SS/PBCH block burst set transmission.
Considering claim 26, Zhou teaches a base station (BS) (Fig.15), comprising:
a transceiver; and a processor connected with the transceiver (Fig.15) and configured to execute operations comprising:
configuring several fields with a varying size in downlink control information (DCI) for a plurality of transport blocks (TBs) (Fig.29, 33, 35, [0050] for example, wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics, a combination of the above, and/or the like, [0278], [0300], [0303] a DCI scheduling a plurality of TBs); and
transmitting the DCI to a user equipment (UE) ([0303] a wireless device may receive a DCI scheduling a plurality of TBs via a plurality of PDSCHs);
wherein the TBs are physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions (Fig.33, 35, [0300], [0303]), and the base station further configures a number of the TBs to the UE (Fig.29, 33, [0303] a wireless device may receive a DCI scheduling a plurality of TBs via a plurality of PDSCHs in a number of (consecutive) slots. A total number of the plurality of PDSCHs (or the total number of the slots used for the transmissions) may be 4, 8, 16, or 32, e.g… [0206] DCI format(s) for new functions may be defined in future releases. DCI formats may have different DCI sizes, or may share the same DCI size).
Zhou does not clearly teach the TBs are physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, and sizes of the TBs are the same, parameters for the TBs are the same.
Rastegardoost teaches the TBs are physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, and sizes of the TBs are the same, parameters for the TBs are the same ([0325] In an example, a TBS associated with the second PUSCH may be same as the TBS associated with the first PUSCH).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filling date of the application to provide above teaching of Rastegardoost to Zhou, in order to useful for wireless device power saving, improved coexistence, spatial reuse at least within the same operator network, serving cell transmission burst acquisition, etc. In an example, a radio access technology (e.g., LTE and/or NR) may employ a signal comprising at least SS/PBCH block burst set transmission.
Considering clams 9, 28, Zhou teaches wherein the number of the TBs is indicated by radio resource control (RRC) ([0294]-[0295]).
Considering clams 10, 29, Zhou teaches wherein the TBs are continuously mapped to available slots or mini-slots ([0127], [0172]), and the slots or mini- slots of TBs mapped are consecutive or non-consecutive ([0297]).
Considering clams 12, 31, Zhou teaches wherein the TBs are downlink transmissions, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for each TB transmission is determined based on DCI indication, and a HARQ feedback occasion is based on a value of PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing and an ending slot of each TB ([0293]-[0294]).
Considering clams 13, 32, Zhou teaches wherein resource of the HARQ feedback for each TB is the same within a slot ([0285]).
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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAI MINH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7923. The examiner can normally be reached 6-3.
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/KHAI M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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