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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 4-6, 8, 11-12, 14-18, 20-22, 26, and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wang, Hejun (WO 2022/205304 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a transmission mode switching method, performed by a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 9), comprising:
determining a first switching condition, the first switching condition comprising that a number of transmission failures of a specific hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process (Fig. 9, HARQ) of the UE is greater than or equal to a first threshold (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE detects the packet loss of uplink transmissions and counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures to obtain a statistical result and compares the statistical result reached or exceeded the first configured threshold); and
counting the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE (88th paragraph, UE counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures);
determining that the number of transmission failures satisfies the first switching condition (Fig. 9, if statistical result is higher than the configured threshold); and
switching a transmission mode of the UE from a first transmission mode to a second transmission mode (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE activates enhancement step including HARQ retransmission and fast feedback for subsequent uplink transmissions. Herein, a packet is retransmitted a number of times until HARQ retransmissions times reached the maximum number limited for HARQ retransmissions, Repetition Number. Herein, the first transmission mode is a mode without enhancement step and the second transmission mode is a mode with enhancement step);
wherein counting the number of transmission failures comprises at least one of: determining that a data retransmission indication of the specific HARQ process sent by a network side device is received, and increasing the number of transmission failures by 1; or determining that a data reception failure indication of the specific HARQ process sent by the network side device is received, and increasing the number of transmission failures by 1 (119th paragraph, upon receiving NACK or no feedback from the base station after a packet is transmitted to the base station in uplink transmission, counting the packet loss or consecutive uplink transmission failure. Herein, counter must increase by 1 for every NACK).
Regarding claim 2, Wang discloses that wherein the specific HARQ process comprises at least one of: a HARQ process specified by a network side device or agreed upon by a protocol (Fig. 9, HARQ agreed by network and UE); a HARQ process corresponding to at least one configured uplink grant configuration specified by a network side device or agreed upon by a protocol; or a HARQ process corresponding to data that corresponds to a specific identifier.
Regarding claim 4, Wang discloses that wherein counting the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE comprises at least one of: counting a number of transmission failures of each specific HARQ process of the UE, independently (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE detects the packet loss of uplink transmissions and counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures to obtain a statistical result); or counting a number of transmission failures of a plurality of specific HARQ processes of the UE, jointly.
Regarding claim 5, Wang discloses that wherein counting the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE comprises: counting the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE starting from a first transmission of the specific HARQ process (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE detects the packet loss of uplink transmissions and counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures to obtain a statistical result. Herein, all transmission failures started from first transmission must be accounted).
Regarding claim 6, Wang discloses that wherein the HARQ process comprises a HARQ process transmitted on at least one of a configured uplink grant configuration or a dynamically scheduled uplink grant configuration (45th and 106th paragraph, base station may configure radio resources for the UE, e.g., PRB resource configured for first transmission, previous transmission, and retransmission); and counting the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE comprises: counting the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE starting from a first transmission of the specific HARQ process on the configured grant configuration or on the dynamically scheduled uplink grant configuration (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE detects the packet loss of uplink transmissions and counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures to obtain a statistical result. Herein, all transmission failures started from first transmission must be accounted).
Regarding claim 8, Wang discloses that wherein switching the transmission mode of the UE from the first transmission mode to the second transmission mode comprises at least one of: activating a data replication function of a specific bearer (Fig. 8, UE activates enhancement step including activation of PDCP duplication in RLC entities. As illustrated in Fig. 5, RLC entities are associated with a DRB); changing a number of radio link control (RLC) entities in an activated state corresponding to a specific bearer (72nd – 74th paragraphs, activating 2, 3, or 4 RLC entities or all RLC entities); activating a designated first RLC entity (72nd – 74th paragraphs, activating 2, 3, or 4 RLC entities or all RLC entities); or changing a type of an available uplink grant configuration of a specific logical channel of a specific bearer (alternative).
Regarding claim 11, Wang discloses determining a second switching condition; and determining that the UE satisfies the second switching condition, and switching the transmission mode of the UE from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode (Fig. 6, block 610 and 102nd paragraph, deactivate the uplink transmission enhancement step if a packet is successfully transmitted to the base station in the subsequent uplink transmission).
Regarding claim 12, Wang discloses that wherein the second switching condition comprises at least one of: receiving switching indication information from a network side device; or a number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE being greater than or equal to a second threshold (Fig. 6, block 610, deactivate uplink transmission enhancement step when uplink transmission failures are not detected and/or statistical result of uplink transmission neither reached nor exceeded the preconfigured threshold during subsequent uplink transmissions).
Regarding claim 14, Wang discloses counting the number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE in one of the following ways: counting a number of transmissions of each specific HARQ process of the UE, independently (Fig. 6, block 610 and 102nd paragraph, deactivate the uplink transmission enhancement step if a packet is successfully transmitted to the base station in the subsequent uplink transmission) or counting a number of transmissions of a plurality of specific HARQ processes of the UE, jointly.
Regarding claim 15, Wang discloses that wherein counting the number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE comprises: counting the number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE from a first transmission of the specific HARQ process (Fig. 6, block 610 and 102nd paragraph, deactivate the uplink transmission enhancement step if a packet is successfully transmitted to the base station in the subsequent uplink transmission. Herein, a packet is determined to be successfully transmitted must be counted from a first transmission in subsequent uplink transmissions).
Regarding claim 16, Wang discloses that wherein the HARQ process comprises a HARQ process transmitted on at least one of a configured uplink grant configuration or a dynamically scheduled uplink grant configuration (45th and 106th paragraph, base station may configure radio resources for the UE, e.g., PRB resource configured for first transmission, previous transmission, and retransmission); and counting the number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE comprises: counting the number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE starting from the first transmission of the specific HARQ process on the configured grant configuration or on the dynamically scheduled uplink grant configuration (Fig. 6, block 610 and 102nd paragraph, deactivate the uplink transmission enhancement step if a packet is successfully transmitted to the base station in the subsequent uplink transmission. Herein, a packet is determined to be successfully transmitted must be counted from a first transmission in subsequent uplink transmissions).
Regarding claim 17, Wang discloses that wherein counting the number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE comprises at least one of: determining that a data new-transmission indication of the specific HARQ process sent by a network side device is received, and increasing the number of successful transmissions by 1; determining that a data reception success indication of the specific HARQ process sent by the network side device is received, and increasing the number of successful transmissions by 1 (64th paragraph, ACK signal received by UE before timer expiry means that the packet is transmitted successfully. Herein, for every received ACK, the counting is increased by 1); or counting a number of consecutive successful transmissions of new data as the number of successful transmissions.
Regarding claim 18, Wang discloses that wherein switching the transmission mode of the UE from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode comprises at least one of: deactivating a data replication function of a specific bearer (82nd paragraph, once the uplink transmission success is detected the UE deactivates PDCP duplication immediately. As illustrated in Fig. 5, PDCP duplication is associated with a DRB); reducing a number of RLC entities in an activated state corresponding to a specific bearer (85th paragraph, number of activated RLC entities gradually reduced in the PDCP duplication deactivation); activating a specified second RLC entity; or changing a type of an available uplink grant configuration of a specific logical channel of a specific bearer; wherein changing the type of the available uplink grant configuration of the specific logical channel of the specific bearer comprises: changing the type of the available uplink grant configuration of the specific logical channel of the specific bearer to: a type of an uplink grant configuration specified by a network side device.
Regarding claim 20, Wang discloses a transmission mode switching method, performed by a network side device (Fig. 9), comprising:
configuring a first switching condition for a user equipment (UE), the first switching condition comprising that a number of transmission failures of a specific hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process (Fig. 9, HARQ) of the UE is greater than or equal to a first threshold (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE detects the packet loss of uplink transmissions and counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures to obtain a statistical result and compares the statistical result reached or exceeded the first configured threshold. Herein, the threshold is configured by the base station);
wherein counting the number of transmission failures is counted by at least one of: determining that a data retransmission indication of the specific HARQ process sent by the network side device is received by the UE, and increasing the number of transmission failures by 1; or determining that a data reception failure indication of the specific HARQ process sent by the network side device is received by the UE, and increasing the number of transmission failures by 1 (119th paragraph, upon receiving NACK or no feedback from the base station after a packet is transmitted to the base station in uplink transmission, counting the packet loss or consecutive uplink transmission failure. Herein, counter must increase by 1 for every NACK).
Regarding claim 21, Wang discloses configuring a second switching condition for the UE (Fig. 6, block 610).
Regarding claim 22, Wang discloses that wherein the second switching condition comprises at least one of: sending switching indication information to the UE; or a number of successful transmissions of the specific HARQ process of the UE being greater than or equal to a second threshold (Fig. 6, block 610, deactivate uplink transmission enhancement step when uplink transmission failures are not detected and/or statistical result of uplink transmission neither reached nor exceeded the preconfigured threshold during subsequent uplink transmissions).
Regarding claim 26, Wang discloses a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 2, UE) comprising:
a processor (Fig. 2, processor 11a); and
a memory having a computer program stored (Fig. 2, memory 12a storing computer instructions) thereon that, when executed by the processor, the processor is configured to:
determine a first switching condition, the first switching condition comprising that a number of transmission failures of a specific hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process (Fig. 9, HARQ) of the UE is greater than or equal to a first threshold (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE detects the packet loss of uplink transmissions and counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures to obtain a statistical result and compares the statistical result reached or exceeded the first configured threshold); and
count the number of transmission failures of the specific HARQ process of the UE (88th paragraph, UE counts the consecutive uplink transmission failures), determining that the number of transmission failures satisfies the first switching condition (Fig. 9, if statistical result is higher than the configured threshold), and switching a transmission mode of the UE from a first transmission mode to a second transmission mode (88th paragraph and Fig. 9, UE activates enhancement step including HARQ retransmission and fast feedback for subsequent uplink transmissions. Herein, a packet is retransmitted a number of times until HARQ retransmissions times reached the maximum number limited for HARQ retransmissions, Repetition Number. Herein, the first transmission mode is a mode without enhancement step and the second transmission mode is a mode with enhancement step);
wherein the processor is configured to count the number of transmission failures by at least one of: determining that a data retransmission indication of the specific HARQ process sent by a network side device is received, and increasing the number of transmission failures by 1; or determining that a data reception failure indication of the specific HARQ process sent by the network side device is received, and increasing the number of transmission failures by 1 (119th paragraph, upon receiving NACK or no feedback from the base station after a packet is transmitted to the base station in uplink transmission, counting the packet loss or consecutive uplink transmission failure. Herein, counter must increase by 1 for every NACK).
Regarding claim 27, Wang discloses a network device (Fig. 2, first base station) comprising:
a processor (Fig. 2, processor 201a); and
a memory having a computer program stored thereon (Fig. 2, memory 202a storing computer instructions) that, when executed by the processor, the processor is configured to implement the method of claim 20 (see rejection of claim 20).
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.
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.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Jeon et al (US 2019/0075589 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Wang discloses activating enhancement step including PDCP duplication or HARQ retransmission when the transmission failures exceeded a configured threshold (Figs. 8 and 9). Wang does not disclose that wherein changing the type of the available uplink grant configuration of the specific logical channel of the specific bearer comprises at least one of: determining that a subcarrier spacing (SCS) of an uplink grant configuration available to the second transmission mode comprises all types of SCSs; determining that a SCS of an uplink grant configuration available to the second transmission mode comprises an SCS whose value is greater than an SCS value used by the first transmission mode; determining that a duration of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) corresponding to an uplink grant configuration available to the second transmission mode comprises all PUSCH durations; determining that the second transmission mode is capable of using an uplink grant configuration type-1; determining that the second transmission mode is capable of using uplink grant configurations of all cells; determining that the second transmission mode is capable of using an uplink grant configuration of a designated cell; determining that the second transmission mode is capable of using all resources of an uplink grant configuration type-2; or determining that the second transmission mode is capable of using uplink grant configurations of all physical priorities. Jeon discloses that uplink transmission failures of a wireless device may be reduced based on using optimized budling sizes for each grant type (220th paragraph). The optimized bundling size of a grant includes configured grant Type 1 (227th paragraph). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include type 1 grant configuration in Wang’s system, as suggested by Jeon, to reduce uplink transmission failures.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed August 4, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues in pages 11-13 that Wang discloses UE counts consecutive uplink transmission failures and does not count failures on a per HARQ process basis. Examiner respectfully disagrees. Wang discloses in Fig. 9 that the UE receiving HARQ configuration from the base station. UE transmits UL packets and counts the number of transmission failures. Herein, the number of transmission failures is part of a configured HARQ process. Claim 1 recites a HARQ process. Claim 1 does not recite a plurality of HARQ processes.
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 ANH VU H LY whose telephone number is (571)272-3175. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nick Jensen can be reached at 571-270-5443. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
ANH VU H. LY
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/ANH VU H LY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
Prosecution Insights