Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
5. 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.
6. Claim(s) 9-14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng (WO 2021/088713 A1); hereinafter Cheng in view of Khoshnevisan (US 20210235455 A1); hereinafter Khoshnevisan.
7. Regarding claim 9, Cheng teaches a terminal comprising ([0068] A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications system may communicate with multiple serving cells (e.g., associated with one or more base stations): a receiver that receives a first higher layer parameter that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells ([0071] The UE may receive the indication as a serving cell index associated with a serving cell, for example in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message. The UE may select the SFN associated with the current serving cell. [0109] In some examples, a base station 305 may explicitly indicate which SFN the UE is to use in an RRC message, for example by including an associated serving cell index in one or both of a CellGroupConfig or a mac-CellGroupConfig field in the RRC message) but does not explicitly teach and a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme; and a processor that determines, based on the configuration configured by the second higher layer parameter, whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells.
8. Khoshnevisan, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme ([0037] The SFN receiver component 140 may include a configuration component 142 that receives a configuration message such as a radio resource control (RRC) message or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) that indicates differentiation of SFN transmissions); and a processor that determines, based on the configuration configured by the second higher layer parameter, whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells ([0033] Additionally, the DCI may be transmitted on a downlink control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where the PDCCH is transmitted as a SFN transmission. The PDCCH may use the same TCI states or different TCI states for the SFN transmission than the SFN transmission for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI).
9. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
to combine the teachings of Cheng and Khoshnevisan. Cheng teaches receiving a higher layer parameter such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells and the UE may select an SFN associated with a serving cell based on the confirmation and Khoshnevisan teaches configuring a single frequency network (SFN) via higher layer parameter including an RRC parameter to configure an SFN scheme for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Khoshnevisan PDCCH and PDSCH single frequency network (SFN) configuration with Cheng’s serving-cell based single frequency network (SFN) configuration to improve control and data channel coordination across multiple serving cells.
10. Regarding claim 10, Cheng teaches the terminal according to claim 9, but does not explicitly teach wherein the processor applies the same SFN scheme to the PDCCH and the PDSCH.
11. Khoshnevisan, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches wherein the processor applies the same SFN scheme to the PDCCH and the PDSCH ([0033] Additionally, the DCI may be transmitted on a downlink control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where the PDCCH is transmitted as a SFN transmission. The PDCCH may use the same TCI states or different TCI states for the SFN transmission than the SFN transmission for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI).
12. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
to combine the teachings of Cheng and Khoshnevisan. Cheng teaches receiving a higher layer parameter such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells and the UE may select an SFN associated with a serving cell based on the confirmation and Khoshnevisan teaches configuring a single frequency network (SFN) via higher layer parameter including an RRC parameter to configure the same SFN scheme for both a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Khoshnevisan PDCCH and PDSCH single frequency network (SFN) transmission configuration with Cheng’s serving-cell based single frequency network (SFN) configuration to improve control and data channel coordination across multiple serving cells.
13. Regarding claim 11, Cheng teaches the terminal according to claim 9 and each serving cell ( [0068]A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications system may communicate with multiple serving cells (e.g., associated with one or more base stations), but does not explicitly teach wherein the processor applies the same SFN scheme to all control resource sets (CORESETs) in the each serving cell.
14. Khoshnevisan, in the same field of wireless communication, teaches wherein the processor applies the same SFN scheme to all control resource sets (CORESETs) in the each serving cell ([Fig. 10] Receive a MAC - CE that activates two or more TCI states that apply to a PDCCH DMRS port and a transmission layer across all resource blocks and symbols of a CORESET on which the DCI is received. [0029] In other words, in a SFN transmission , a transmission configuration indicator ( TCI ) state applies to all demodulation reference signal ( DMRS ) ports or all transmission layers across all resource blocks and symbols for the downlink transmission).
15. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
to combine the teachings of Cheng and Khoshnevisan. Cheng teaches receiving a higher layer parameter such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells and the UE may select an SFN associated with a serving cell based on the confirmation and Khoshnevisan teaches configuring a single frequency network (SFN) via higher layer parameter including an RRC parameter to configure the same SFN scheme all control resource sets (CORESETs). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Khoshnevisan’s single frequency network (SFN) configuration to all CORESETs with Cheng’s serving-cell based single frequency network (SFN) configuration to improve control and data channel coordination across multiple serving cells.
16. Regarding claim 12, Cheng teaches A radio communication method for a terminal ([0005] The described techniques relate to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support signaling in asynchronous carrier aggregation. [0068] A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications system may communicate with multiple serving cells (e.g., associated with one or more base stations), comprising: receiving a first higher layer parameter that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells ([0071] The UE may receive the indication as a serving cell index associated with a serving cell, for example in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message. The UE may select the SFN associated with the current serving cell. [0109] In some examples, a base station 305 may explicitly indicate which SFN the UE is to use in an RRC message, for example by including an associated serving cell index in one or both of a CellGroupConfig or a mac-CellGroupConfig field in the RRC message) but does not explicitly teach and a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme; and determining, based on the configuration configured by the second higher layer parameter, whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells.
17. Khoshnevisan, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme ([0037] The SFN receiver component 140 may include a configuration component 142 that receives a configuration message such as a radio resource control (RRC) message or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) that indicates differentiation of SFN transmissions); and determining, based on the configuration configured by the second higher layer parameter, whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells ([0033] Additionally, the DCI may be transmitted on a downlink control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where the PDCCH is transmitted as a SFN transmission. The PDCCH may use the same TCI states or different TCI states for the SFN transmission than the SFN transmission for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI).
18. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
to combine the teachings of Cheng and Khoshnevisan. Cheng teaches receiving a higher layer parameter such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells and the UE may select an SFN associated with a serving cell based on the confirmation and Khoshnevisan teaches configuring a single frequency network (SFN) via higher layer parameter including an RRC parameter to configure an SFN scheme for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Khoshnevisan’s PDCCH and PDSCH single frequency network (SFN) configuration with Cheng’s serving-cell based single frequency network (SFN) configuration to improve control and data channel coordination across multiple serving cells.
19. Regarding claim 13, Cheng teaches a base station ([0068] A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications system may communicate with multiple serving cells (e.g., associated with one or more base stations) in a carrier aggregation (CA) configuration to increase available bandwidth and data rates for the UE. [0074] The wireless communications system 100 may include one or more base stations 105, one or more UEs 115, and a core network 130) comprising: a transmitter that transmits, to a terminal, a first higher layer parameter that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells ([0071] The UE may receive the indication as a serving cell index associated with a serving cell, for example in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message. The UE may select the SFN associated with the current serving cell. [0109] In some examples, a base station 305 may explicitly indicate which SFN the UE is to use in an RRC message, for example by including an associated serving cell index in one or both of a CellGroupConfig or a mac-CellGroupConfig field in the RRC message) but does not explicitly teach and a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme; and a processor that configures the second higher layer parameter so as to cause the terminal to perform a control to determine whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells.
20. Khoshnevisan, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme ([0037] The SFN receiver component 140 may include a configuration component 142 that receives a configuration message such as a radio resource control (RRC) message or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) that indicates differentiation of SFN transmissions); and a processor that configures the second higher layer parameter so as to cause the terminal to perform a control to determine whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells ([0033] Additionally, the DCI may be transmitted on a downlink control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where the PDCCH is transmitted as a SFN transmission. The PDCCH may use the same TCI states or different TCI states for the SFN transmission than the SFN transmission for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI).
21. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
to combine the teachings of Cheng and Khoshnevisan. Cheng teaches receiving a higher layer parameter such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells and the UE may select an SFN associated with a serving cell based on the confirmation and Khoshnevisan teaches configuring a single frequency network (SFN) via higher layer parameter including an RRC parameter to configure an SFN scheme for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Khoshnevisan’s PDCCH and PDSCH single frequency network (SFN) configuration with Cheng’s serving-cell based single frequency network (SFN) configuration to improve control and data channel coordination across multiple serving cells.
22. Regarding claim 14, Cheng teaches a system comprising a terminal and a base station (Fig. 2 & [0110] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system 200 that supports signaling in asynchronous carrier aggregation in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, the wireless communications system 200 may implement aspects of wireless communication system 100. For example, the wireless communications system 200 may include base stations 205 and a UE 215, which may be examples of the corresponding devices described with reference to FIG. 1.), wherein the terminal comprises: a receiver that receives a first higher layer parameter that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells; and the base station comprises: a transmitter that transmits the first higher layer parameter ([0071] The UE may receive the indication as a serving cell index associated with a serving cell, for example in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message. The UE may select the SFN associated with the current serving cell. [0109] In some examples, a base station 305 may explicitly indicate which SFN the UE is to use in an RRC message, for example by including an associated serving cell index in one or both of a CellGroupConfig or a mac-CellGroupConfig field in the RRC message) but does not explicitly teach and a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme; and a processor that determines, based on the configuration configured by the second higher layer parameter, whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells, and the base station comprises: a transmitter that transmits the second higher layer parameter; and a processor that configures the second higher layer parameter so as to cause the terminal to perform a control to determine whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of the PDCCH and the PDSCH in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells.
23. Khoshnevisan, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches a second higher layer parameter that configures a configuration of a single frequency network (SFN) scheme ([0037] The SFN receiver component 140 may include a configuration component 142 that receives a configuration message such as a radio resource control (RRC) message or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) that indicates differentiation of SFN transmissions); and a processor that determines, based on the configuration configured by the second higher layer parameter, whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells ([0033] Additionally, the DCI may be transmitted on a downlink control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where the PDCCH is transmitted as a SFN transmission. The PDCCH may use the same TCI states or different TCI states for the SFN transmission than the SFN transmission for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI), and the base station comprises: a transmitter that transmits the second higher layer parameter ([0037] The SFN receiver component 140 may include a configuration component 142 that receives a configuration message such as a radio resource control (RRC) message or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) that indicates differentiation of SFN transmissions); and a processor that configures the second higher layer parameter so as to cause the terminal to perform a control to determine whether to apply the SFN scheme, independently with respect to each of the PDCCH and the PDSCH in each serving cell of the plurality of serving cells ([0033] Additionally, the DCI may be transmitted on a downlink control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where the PDCCH is transmitted as a SFN transmission. The PDCCH may use the same TCI states or different TCI states for the SFN transmission than the SFN transmission for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI).
24. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
to combine the teachings of Cheng and Khoshnevisan. Cheng teaches receiving a higher layer parameter such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) that configures a list of a plurality of serving cells and the UE may select an SFN associated with a serving cell based on the confirmation and Khoshnevisan teaches configuring a single frequency network (SFN) via higher layer parameter including an RRC parameter to configure an SFN scheme for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Khoshnevisan PDCCH and PDSCH single frequency network (SFN) configuration with Cheng’s serving-cell based single frequency network (SFN) configuration to improve control and data channel coordination across multiple serving cells.
Conclusion
25. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LABIBAH I. ALI whose telephone number is (571)272-6738. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached at (571) 270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LABIBAH ILMA ALI/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465