DETAILED ACTION
Notice 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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 5-6 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. The amendments made to independent claim 1 for example change the scope of the claim. An example is in the limitation “a receiver configured to receive information indicating a communication direction for each of a plurality of time resources and a plurality of frequency resources from a base station, wherein the information indicating a communication direction includes at least one of a value that indicates that the communication direction is downlink, a value that indicates that the communication direction is uplink, and a value that indicates that the communication direction can be uplink or downlink, arranged in order of frequency first;” changes the scope of the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 1 and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2022/0417916) in view of Li et al. (US 2024/0031119) and further in view of Oh et al. (US 2022/0231808).
Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses a terminal comprising: a receiver ([0142], “The transceiver 1610 may transmit or receive signals to or from a BS.”) configured to receive information indicating a communication direction for each of a plurality of time resources and a plurality of frequency resources from a base station ([0103], “FIG. 10 illustrates UL and DL configurations of an XDD system, in which UL and DL resources are divided flexibly in the time and frequency domain. From the perspective of the BS, an entire XDD system UL-DL configuration 1000 may flexibly allocate a resource to each symbol or slot 1002 depending on UL and DL traffic portions in an entire frequency band 1001. In this case, a guard band 1004 may be allocated for a frequency band between a DL resource 1003 and a UL resource 1005. The guard band may be allocated as a way to reduce interference in receiving a UL channel or signal due to out-of-band emission occurring when the BS transmits a DL channel or signal on the DL resource 1003. In this case, for example, UE 1 1010 and UE 2 1020 generally having more UL traffic than DL traffic may be allocated DL and UL resources at a ratio of 4:1 in the time domain according to a configuration from the BS.”). Kim does not explicitly disclose the information indicating the communication direction being arranged by frequency first and the reference time. Li discloses wherein the information indicating a communication direction includes at least one of a value that indicates that the communication direction is downlink, a value that indicates that the communication direction is uplink, and a value that indicates that the communication direction can be uplink or downlink, arranged in order of frequency first ([0047], “FIG. 3 represents a first schematic configuration diagram of a transmission direction of a frequency domain unit according to an embodiment of this application”; [0144], “For the foregoing first item, a carrier X on a frequency f1, from a time unit S #0 to a time unit S #6, configuration and indication of transmission directions of four RB sets (RB set #0 to RB set #3) in each time unit are as shown in FIG. 3. Based on a transmission direction of a frequency domain unit having a minimum index, a transmission direction of a time unit S #3 is determined as D, a transmission direction of a time unit S #4 is determined as F, a transmission direction of a time unit S #5 is determined as F, and a transmission direction of a time unit S #6 is determined as U.” Examiner’s Note: Regarding the values being “arranged in order of frequency first,” Li teaches configuring the transmission directions of multiple frequency domain units (e.g., RB set #0 to RB set #3) “in each time unit” (Li [0144]). Under the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation, providing the transmission direction configurations for multiple frequency resource blocks grouped together for a single time unit inherently requires the configuration values to be arranged or sorted by frequency. To the extent the claim requires a specific sequential data string arrangement not explicitly detailed in Li, it would have been an obvious design choice for a POSITA mapping a 1-dimensional signaling array to a 2-dimensional time-frequency grid to arrange the values in order of frequency first (i.e., iterating through the frequency bands for a given time slot), as this is a mere selection from a finite number of predictable mapping solutions (frequency-first or time-first) that yields the predictable result of properly populating the resource grid.); and a processor ([0280], “Optionally, as shown in FIG. 8, an embodiment of this application further provide a communication device 800, including a processor 801, a memory 802, and a program or instructions stored in the memory 802 and runnable on the processor 801.”) configured to control a communication to be performed in the communication direction indicated by the information in a case where the information indicating the communication direction is received ([0085], “that the terminal determines a transmission direction corresponding to at least one frequency domain unit in the time unit based on the first indication signaling, where the transmission direction corresponding to the frequency domain unit includes an uplink transmission direction, a downlink transmission direction, or a flexible transmission direction”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the flexible duplexing (XDD) system of Kim to include the specific communication direction values (downlink, uplink, or flexible) and the processor controlling the communication based on these values, as taught by Li. The motivation to combine Kim and Li would have been to provide a concrete, efficient signaling mechanism for the base station to explicitly instruct the terminal on how to utilize the flexibly allocated time and frequency resources. By using Li’s method of indicating specific D, U, or F values, the terminal can accurately determine its transmission direction corresponding to the frequency domain units based on the indication signaling (as expressly taught by Li [0085] and [0144]), thereby ensuring the terminal transmits and receives on the correct resources, preventing resource collisions, and enabling the flexible XDD system of Kim to function properly. Kim in view of Li does not explicitly disclose the reference time as a capability of the UE and the configuration performed after the reference time. Oh discloses wherein the terminal is configured to transmit information indicating a reference time to the base station as information indicating a capability of the terminal, and the processor is configured to control the communication to be performed in the communication direction indicated by the information after an elapse of the reference time ([0068], “The requirement for the bandwidth part change delay time may support type 1 or type 2 according to the capability of the UE. The UE may report the supportable bandwidth part delay time type to the base station.”; [0070] “If the UE receives DCI ... indicating a bandwidth part change, the UE may not perform any transmission or reception during the time interval from the third symbol of the slot in which the PDCCH ... is received to the start point of the slot indicated by the slot offset.”) from a starting or ending symbol for receiving control information including the information indicating the communication direction ([0356], “FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a duplex operation method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, only the uplink may occur, only the downlink may occur, or both the uplink and the downlink may occur at a specific time. In the example of FIG. 12, it is illustrated that downlink is allocated at time T1 1201, both uplink and downlink are allocated at time T2 1202, and only uplink is allocated at time T3 1203.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the system of Kim in view of Li, and further in view of Oh, to configure the base station to receive information indicating a reference time from the terminal as information indicating a capability of the terminal, and to configure the base station processor to assume that the terminal performs the communication after an elapse of the reference time from a starting or ending symbol for receiving control information. The motivation to combine the teachings of Oh with Kim and Li would have been to allow the base station to properly schedule data channels in consideration of the terminal’s processing capabilities, thereby ensuring the terminal has sufficient time to reconfigure its resources to successfully perform the scheduled communication without unreasonableness (Oh [0067], [0069]).
Regarding claim 5, Kim discloses a base station comprising: a transmitter ([0142], “The transceiver 1610 may transmit or receive signals to or from a BS.”) configured to transmit information indicating a communication direction for each of a plurality of time resources and a plurality of frequency resources to a terminal ([0103], “FIG. 10 illustrates UL and DL configurations of an XDD system, in which UL and DL resources are divided flexibly in the time and frequency domain. From the perspective of the BS, an entire XDD system UL-DL configuration 1000 may flexibly allocate a resource to each symbol or slot 1002 depending on UL and DL traffic portions in an entire frequency band 1001. In this case, a guard band 1004 may be allocated for a frequency band between a DL resource 1003 and a UL resource 1005. The guard band may be allocated as a way to reduce interference in receiving a UL channel or signal due to out-of-band emission occurring when the BS transmits a DL channel or signal on the DL resource 1003. In this case, for example, UE 1 1010 and UE 2 1020 generally having more UL traffic than DL traffic may be allocated DL and UL resources at a ratio of 4:1 in the time domain according to a configuration from the BS.”). Kim does not explicitly disclose the information indicating the communication direction being arranged by frequency first and the reference time. Li discloses wherein the information indicating a communication direction includes at least one of a value that indicates that the communication direction is downlink, a value that indicates that the communication direction is uplink, and a value that indicates that the communication direction can be uplink or downlink, arranged in order of frequency first ([0047], “FIG. 3 represents a first schematic configuration diagram of a transmission direction of a frequency domain unit according to an embodiment of this application”; [0144], “For the foregoing first item, a carrier X on a frequency f1, from a time unit S #0 to a time unit S #6, configuration and indication of transmission directions of four RB sets (RB set #0 to RB set #3) in each time unit are as shown in FIG. 3. Based on a transmission direction of a frequency domain unit having a minimum index, a transmission direction of a time unit S #3 is determined as D, a transmission direction of a time unit S #4 is determined as F, a transmission direction of a time unit S #5 is determined as F, and a transmission direction of a time unit S #6 is determined as U.” Examiner’s Note: Regarding the values being “arranged in order of frequency first,” Li teaches configuring the transmission directions of multiple frequency domain units (e.g., RB set #0 to RB set #3) “in each time unit” (Li [0144]). Under the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation, providing the transmission direction configurations for multiple frequency resource blocks grouped together for a single time unit inherently requires the configuration values to be arranged or sorted by frequency. To the extent the claim requires a specific sequential data string arrangement not explicitly detailed in Li, it would have been an obvious design choice for a POSITA mapping a 1-dimensional signaling array to a 2-dimensional time-frequency grid to arrange the values in order of frequency first (i.e., iterating through the frequency bands for a given time slot), as this is a mere selection from a finite number of predictable mapping solutions (frequency-first or time-first) that yields the predictable result of properly populating the resource grid.); and a processor ([0280], “Optionally, as shown in FIG. 8, an embodiment of this application further provide a communication device 800, including a processor 801, a memory 802, and a program or instructions stored in the memory 802 and runnable on the processor 801.”) configured to assume that the terminal performs a communication in the communication direction indicated by the information at a specified timing in a case where the terminal receives the information indicating the communication direction ([0085], “that the terminal determines a transmission direction corresponding to at least one frequency domain unit in the time unit based on the first indication signaling, where the transmission direction corresponding to the frequency domain unit includes an uplink transmission direction, a downlink transmission direction, or a flexible transmission direction”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the flexible duplexing (XDD) system of Kim to include the specific communication direction values (downlink, uplink, or flexible) and the processor controlling the communication based on these values, as taught by Li. The motivation to combine Kim and Li would have been to provide a concrete, efficient signaling mechanism for the base station to explicitly instruct the terminal on how to utilize the flexibly allocated time and frequency resources. By using Li’s method of indicating specific D, U, or F values, the terminal can accurately determine its transmission direction corresponding to the frequency domain units based on the indication signaling (as expressly taught by Li [0085] and [0144]), thereby ensuring the terminal transmits and receives on the correct resources, preventing resource collisions, and enabling the flexible XDD system of Kim to function properly. Kim in view of Li does not explicitly disclose the reference time as a capability of the UE and the configuration performed after the reference time. Oh discloses wherein the base station is configured to receive information indicating a reference time from the terminal as information indicating a capability of the terminal, and the processor is configured to assume that the terminal performs the communication in the communication direction indicated by the information after an elapse of the reference time ([0068], “The requirement for the bandwidth part change delay time may support type 1 or type 2 according to the capability of the UE. The UE may report the supportable bandwidth part delay time type to the base station.”; [0070] “If the UE receives DCI ... indicating a bandwidth part change, the UE may not perform any transmission or reception during the time interval from the third symbol of the slot in which the PDCCH ... is received to the start point of the slot indicated by the slot offset.”) from a starting or ending symbol for receiving control information including the information indicating the communication direction ([0356], “FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a duplex operation method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, only the uplink may occur, only the downlink may occur, or both the uplink and the downlink may occur at a specific time. In the example of FIG. 12, it is illustrated that downlink is allocated at time T1 1201, both uplink and downlink are allocated at time T2 1202, and only uplink is allocated at time T3 1203.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the system of Kim in view of Li, and further in view of Oh, to configure the base station to receive information indicating a reference time from the terminal as information indicating a capability of the terminal, and to configure the base station processor to assume that the terminal performs the communication after an elapse of the reference time from a starting or ending symbol for receiving control information. The motivation to combine the teachings of Oh with Kim and Li would have been to allow the base station to properly schedule data channels in consideration of the terminal’s processing capabilities, thereby ensuring the terminal has sufficient time to reconfigure its resources to successfully perform the scheduled communication without unreasonableness (Oh [0067], [0069]).
Regarding claim 6, Kim discloses a communication method performed by a terminal, the communication method comprising: … receiving information indicating a communication direction for each of a plurality of time resources and a plurality of frequency resources from a base station ([0103], “FIG. 10 illustrates UL and DL configurations of an XDD system, in which UL and DL resources are divided flexibly in the time and frequency domain. From the perspective of the BS, an entire XDD system UL-DL configuration 1000 may flexibly allocate a resource to each symbol or slot 1002 depending on UL and DL traffic portions in an entire frequency band 1001. In this case, a guard band 1004 may be allocated for a frequency band between a DL resource 1003 and a UL resource 1005. The guard band may be allocated as a way to reduce interference in receiving a UL channel or signal due to out-of-band emission occurring when the BS transmits a DL channel or signal on the DL resource 1003. In this case, for example, UE 1 1010 and UE 2 1020 generally having more UL traffic than DL traffic may be allocated DL and UL resources at a ratio of 4:1 in the time domain according to a configuration from the BS.”). Kim does not explicitly disclose the information indicating the communication direction being arranged by frequency first and the reference time. Li discloses wherein the information indicating a communication direction includes at least one of a value that indicates that the communication direction is downlink, a value that indicates that the communication direction is uplink, and a value that indicates that the communication direction can be uplink or downlink, arranged in order of frequency first ([0047], “FIG. 3 represents a first schematic configuration diagram of a transmission direction of a frequency domain unit according to an embodiment of this application”; [0144], “For the foregoing first item, a carrier X on a frequency f1, from a time unit S #0 to a time unit S #6, configuration and indication of transmission directions of four RB sets (RB set #0 to RB set #3) in each time unit are as shown in FIG. 3. Based on a transmission direction of a frequency domain unit having a minimum index, a transmission direction of a time unit S #3 is determined as D, a transmission direction of a time unit S #4 is determined as F, a transmission direction of a time unit S #5 is determined as F, and a transmission direction of a time unit S #6 is determined as U.” Examiner’s Note: Regarding the values being “arranged in order of frequency first,” Li teaches configuring the transmission directions of multiple frequency domain units (e.g., RB set #0 to RB set #3) “in each time unit” (Li [0144]). Under the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation, providing the transmission direction configurations for multiple frequency resource blocks grouped together for a single time unit inherently requires the configuration values to be arranged or sorted by frequency. To the extent the claim requires a specific sequential data string arrangement not explicitly detailed in Li, it would have been an obvious design choice for a POSITA mapping a 1-dimensional signaling array to a 2-dimensional time-frequency grid to arrange the values in order of frequency first (i.e., iterating through the frequency bands for a given time slot), as this is a mere selection from a finite number of predictable mapping solutions (frequency-first or time-first) that yields the predictable result of properly populating the resource grid.); and controlling a communication to be performed in the communication direction indicated by the information in a case where the information indicating the communication direction is received ([0085], “that the terminal determines a transmission direction corresponding to at least one frequency domain unit in the time unit based on the first indication signaling, where the transmission direction corresponding to the frequency domain unit includes an uplink transmission direction, a downlink transmission direction, or a flexible transmission direction”). Kim in view of Li does not explicitly disclose the reference time as a capability of the UE and the configuration performed after the reference time. Oh discloses … transmitting information indicating a reference time to the base station as information indicating a capability of the terminal … wherein the communication is controlled to be performed in the communication direction indicated by the information after an elapse of the reference time ([0068], “The requirement for the bandwidth part change delay time may support type 1 or type 2 according to the capability of the UE. The UE may report the supportable bandwidth part delay time type to the base station.”; [0070] “If the UE receives DCI ... indicating a bandwidth part change, the UE may not perform any transmission or reception during the time interval from the third symbol of the slot in which the PDCCH ... is received to the start point of the slot indicated by the slot offset.”) from a starting or ending symbol for receiving control information including the information indicating the communication direction ([0356], “FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a duplex operation method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, only the uplink may occur, only the downlink may occur, or both the uplink and the downlink may occur at a specific time. In the example of FIG. 12, it is illustrated that downlink is allocated at time T1 1201, both uplink and downlink are allocated at time T2 1202, and only uplink is allocated at time T3 1203.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the system of Kim in view of Li, and further in view of Oh, to configure the base station to receive information indicating a reference time from the terminal as information indicating a capability of the terminal, and to configure the base station processor to assume that the terminal performs the communication after an elapse of the reference time from a starting or ending symbol for receiving control information. The motivation to combine the teachings of Oh with Kim and Li would have been to allow the base station to properly schedule data channels in consideration of the terminal’s processing capabilities, thereby ensuring the terminal has sufficient time to reconfigure its resources to successfully perform the scheduled communication without unreasonableness (Oh [0067], [0069]).
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 Nick A Sundara whose telephone number is (571)272-6749. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 7:30-5:30 EST.
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/NICK ANON SUNDARA/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
Prosecution Insights