DETAILED ACTION
It is hereby acknowledged that 18/725230 the following papers have been received and placed of record in the file: Remark date 06/28/24
Oath/Declaration
2. The applicant’s oath/declaration has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Drawings
3. The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
Claim Objection
4. Claims 1-11 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1, 10 and 11 states…. wherein the information includes fields for each of the scheduled cells, and wherein a size of the information is determined based on an active bandwidth part (BWP) of cells in a combination maximizing the size of the information among combinations of co-scheduled cells. It is unclear what is meant by this limitation.
The term information is vague. Further it has one ordinary skill in the art questioning how the information is able to include fields for each of the scheduled cells, and a size of the information being determined based on an active bandwidth part (BWP) of cells in a combination maximizing the size of the information among combinations of co-scheduled cells.
It does not seem the specification provides further clarification of this limitation, and more specifically the combinations in the limitation (see paragraphs [0019],[0020], [0125],[0126].)
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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) A patent may not be obtained through the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
6. Claims 1, 3, 10, 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over NPL-3GPP TSG RAN WGI #111 R1-2211488 in view of NPL-3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #111 R1-2211585
Regarding claim 1, 3GPP teaches a method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling for multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) in multiple cells from a base station; (3GPP section 2.4 page 12 explains…If a UE is scheduled by a DCI format 1X to receive PDSCH over multiple cells, and if tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon, or tdd-UL-DI-ConfigurationDedicated indicates that, for a cell from the multiple cells, at least one symbol from a set of symbols where the UE is scheduled PDSCH reception in the cell is an uplink symbol, the UE does not receive the PDSCH in the cell.) .and receiving the PDSCHs based on the DCI, (3GPP sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.4 explains…If a UE is scheduled by a DCI format 1X to receive PDSCH over multiple cells, and if tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon, or tdd-UL-DI-ConfigurationDedicated indicates that, for a cell from the multiple cells, at least one symbol from a set of symbols where the UE is scheduled PDSCH reception in the cell is an uplink symbol, the UE does not receive the PDSCH in the cell.) wherein the DCI includes information for allocating a frequency domain resource of scheduled cells, (see 3GPP ….section 2.2.2.2 explains…. In legacy DCI format, the bit size of FDRA field is determined by the active BWP size and frequency domain resource allocation type. When DCI format 0_X/1_X is configured, the DCI could indicate frequency resource allocated for each scheduled cell…..) wherein the information includes fields for each of the scheduled cells, and wherein a size of the information is determined based on an active bandwidth part (BWP) of cells in a combination maximizing the size of the information among combinations of co-scheduled cells. (see 3GPP 2.2.2 explains…The size of FDRA field could be determined by the maximum required bit size or minimum required bit size among all scheduled cell….The FDRA filed in DCI format 0_X takes 13bits if the maximum required bit size is the bit size of FDRA in DCI format 0_X. When UE detects a DCI 0_X scheduling cells 1~4, the frequency resource allocation results for the four cell are respectively interpreted as the 11 least significant bits, all 13bits, the 10 least significant bits and the 7 least significant bits of FDRA field in DCI….Proposal 5: FDRA field is a shared DCI field (type-1 as agreed in RANI # 109/#110). The hit size of this single FDRA field is determined by the maximum size of FDRA indication required across all the potentially scheduled cells.)
3GPP does not explicitly disclose among a plurality of cells including a primary cell and at least one secondary cell
However 3GPP2nd section 2.1 explains…..Fourthly, even though the set of cells includes up to 4 cells, Option 1 can still achieve bit overhead reduction gain because RAN1 has agreed legacy DCI formats for single cell scheduling can be simultaneously monitored with DCI format 0_X/1_X. In that sense, not all the single cell scheduling cases should be configured in the RRC table. Furthermore, it is not necessary to configure all the possible cell combinations in the RRC table. In an extreme case, the set of cells includes only 2 cells, e.g., {PCell, SCell 1} is configured for multi-cell scheduling using DCI format 0_X/1_X and PCell is the scheduling cell, further explains…. and further explains…For DCI format 0_X/1_X which schedules multiple cells, it is impossible to use a single field for indicating the active BWPs for co-scheduled cells. Separate BWP indicator should be indicated for each co-scheduled cell. The number of BWP indicators in DCI format 0_X/1_X is equal to the maximum number of cells scheduled by the DCI format 0_X/1_X.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with the 3GPP2nd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improving communication with overhead reduction (See section 2.1)
Regarding claim 3, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 1, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches comprising receiving setting information associated with a bit number of each of the fields. (See 3GPP section 2.2.2 explains… For example, assuming there are 4 cells can be scheduled together, the required bit size of FDRA field for each cell is 11bits, 13bits, 10bits, 7bits…..)
Regarding claim 10, 3GPP teaches a terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to: receive downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling for multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) in multiple cells from a base station, (3GPP section 2.4 page 12 explains…If a UE is scheduled by a DCI format 1X to receive PDSCH over multiple cells, and if tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon, or tdd-UL-DI-ConfigurationDedicated indicates that, for a cell from the multiple cells, at least one symbol from a set of symbols where the UE is scheduled PDSCH reception in the cell is an uplink symbol, the UE does not receive the PDSCH in the cell.) and receive data by using resources indicated by the DCI, (3GPP sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.4 explains…If a UE is scheduled by a DCI format 1X to receive PDSCH over multiple cells, and if tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon, or tdd-UL-DI-ConfigurationDedicated indicates that, for a cell from the multiple cells, at least one symbol from a set of symbols where the UE is scheduled PDSCH reception in the cell is an uplink symbol, the UE does not receive the PDSCH in the cell.) wherein the DCI includes information for allocating a frequency domain resource of scheduled cells (see 3GPP ….section 2.2.2.2 explains…. In legacy DCI format, the bit size of FDRA field is determined by the active BWP size and frequency domain resource allocation type. When DCI format 0_X/1_X is configured, the DCI could indicate frequency resource allocated for each scheduled cell…..) wherein the information includes fields for each of the scheduled cells, and wherein a size of the information is determined based on an active bandwidth part (BWP) of cells in a combination maximizing the size of the information among combinations of co-scheduled cells. (see 3GPP 2.2.2 explains…The size of FDRA field could be determined by the maximum required bit size or minimum required bit size among all scheduled cell….The FDRA filed in DCI format 0_X takes 13bits if the maximum required bit size is the bit size of FDRA in DCI format 0_X. When UE detects a DCI 0_X scheduling cells 1~4, the frequency resource allocation results for the four cell are respectively interpreted as the 11 least significant bits, all 13bits, the 10 least significant bits and the 7 least significant bits of FDRA field in DCI….Proposal 5: FDRA field is a shared DCI field (type-1 as agreed in RANI # 109/#110). The hit size of this single FDRA field is determined by the maximum size of FDRA indication required across all the potentially scheduled cells.)
3GPP does not explicitly disclose among a plurality of cells including a primary cell and at least one secondary cell
However 3GPP2nd section 2.1 explains…..Fourthly, even though the set of cells includes up to 4 cells, Option 1 can still achieve bit overhead reduction gain because RAN1 has agreed legacy DCI formats for single cell scheduling can be simultaneously monitored with DCI format 0_X/1_X. In that sense, not all the single cell scheduling cases should be configured in the RRC table. Furthermore, it is not necessary to configure all the possible cell combinations in the RRC table. In an extreme case, the set of cells includes only 2 cells, e.g., {PCell, SCell 1} is configured for multi-cell scheduling using DCI format 0_X/1_X and PCell is the scheduling cell, further explains….further explains…For DCI format 0_X/1_X which schedules multiple cells, it is impossible to use a single field for indicating the active BWPs for co-scheduled cells. Separate BWP indicator should be indicated for each co-scheduled cell. The number of BWP indicators in DCI format 0_X/1_X is equal to the maximum number of cells scheduled by the DCI format 0_X/1_X.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with the 3GPP2nd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improving communication with overhead reduction (See section 2.1)
Regarding claim 11, 3GPP teaches a communication device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one computer memory coupled with the at least one processor and storing an instruction that instructs operations when executed by the at least one processor, wherein the operations comprises: receiving downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling for multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) in multiple cells from a base station; (3GPP section 2.4 page 12 explains…If a UE is scheduled by a DCI format 1X to receive PDSCH over multiple cells, and if tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon, or tdd-UL-DI-ConfigurationDedicated indicates that, for a cell from the multiple cells, at least one symbol from a set of symbols where the UE is scheduled PDSCH reception in the cell is an uplink symbol, the UE does not receive the PDSCH in the cell.) and receiving data by using resources indicated by the DCI, (3GPP sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.4 explains…If a UE is scheduled by a DCI format 1X to receive PDSCH over multiple cells, and if tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon, or tdd-UL-DI-ConfigurationDedicated indicates that, for a cell from the multiple cells, at least one symbol from a set of symbols where the UE is scheduled PDSCH reception in the cell is an uplink symbol, the UE does not receive the PDSCH in the cell.) where the DCI includes information for allocating a frequency domain resource of scheduled cells(see 3GPP ….section 2.2.2.2 explains…. In legacy DCI format, the bit size of FDRA field is determined by the active BWP size and frequency domain resource allocation type. When DCI format 0_X/1_X is configured, the DCI could indicate frequency resource allocated for each scheduled cell…..) where the information includes fields for each of the scheduled cells, and wherein a size of the information is determined based on an active bandwidth part (BWP) of cells in a combination maximizing the size of the information among combinations of co-scheduled cells. (see 3GPP 2.2.2 explains…The size of FDRA field could be determined by the maximum required bit size or minimum required bit size among all scheduled cell….The FDRA filed in DCI format 0_X takes 13bits if the maximum required bit size is the bit size of FDRA in DCI format 0_X. When UE detects a DCI 0_X scheduling cells 1~4, the frequency resource allocation results for the four cell are respectively interpreted as the 11 least significant bits, all 13bits, the 10 least significant bits and the 7 least significant bits of FDRA field in DCI….Proposal 5: FDRA field is a shared DCI field (type-1 as agreed in RANI # 109/#110). The hit size of this single FDRA field is determined by the maximum size of FDRA indication required across all the potentially scheduled cells.)
3GPP does not explicitly disclose among a plurality of cells including a primary cell and at least one secondary cell
However 3GPP2nd section 2.1 explains…..Fourthly, even though the set of cells includes up to 4 cells, Option 1 can still achieve bit overhead reduction gain because RAN1 has agreed legacy DCI formats for single cell scheduling can be simultaneously monitored with DCI format 0_X/1_X. In that sense, not all the single cell scheduling cases should be configured in the RRC table. Furthermore, it is not necessary to configure all the possible cell combinations in the RRC table. In an extreme case, the set of cells includes only 2 cells, e.g., {PCell, SCell 1} is configured for multi-cell scheduling using DCI format 0_X/1_X and PCell is the scheduling cell, further explains….further explains…For DCI format 0_X/1_X which schedules multiple cells, it is impossible to use a single field for indicating the active BWPs for co-scheduled cells. Separate BWP indicator should be indicated for each co-scheduled cell. The number of BWP indicators in DCI format 0_X/1_X is equal to the maximum number of cells scheduled by the DCI format 0_X/1_X.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with the 3GPP2nd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improving communication with overhead reduction (See section 2.1)
12. (canceled)
7. Claims 2, 4-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over NPL-3GPP TSG RAN WGI #111 R1-2211488 in view of NPL-3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #111 R1-2211585 in further view of NPL-3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #111 R1-2211695
Regarding claim 2, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 1, as described above. The modified 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however further combined with 3GPP3rd teaches wherein at least one field of the fields includes more bits than the number of unit resources that are to be indicated in a corresponding cell, and wherein among the bits included in the at least one field at least one bit not corresponding to the unit resources is set to 0. (See 3GPP3rd explains….Considering the FDRA field in DCI format 0_X/1_X, the co-scheduled cells may have different BWP configuration, thus all BWPs need to be considered, and the FDRA field size can be determined by the minimum BWP size among scheduled cells. Furthermore, the scaling factor K can be calculated based on the ratio of each scheduled cell's BWP size to the minimum BWP size and applied to each scheduled cell, which is similar to the scheme of DCI size alignment for Rel- 15/16 fallback DCI that DCI format 1_0 in USS is derived from the size of DCI format 1_0 in CSS but applied to an active BWP.
In case of resource allocation type 0, the FDRA in the DCI format =X/0-X can use 3 bitmap to indicate the RBG allocation to the UE, and the UE interprets the bitmap and RBG size based on the scaling factor K for each scheduled cell with different BWP configuration. )
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with the 3GPP3rd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improving spectral/power efficiency on scheduling data over multiple cells (See section 2.1)
Regarding claim 4, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 1, as described above. The modified 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however further combined with 3GPP3rd teaches wherein each of the fields includes information associated with the frequency domain resource that is generated according to resource allocation (RA) type 0 or type 1. (see 3GPP3rd section 2.3……. For resource allocation type 0, the common indication for bitmap and RBG size is used for all co-scheduled cells, and UE interprets the indication respectively to each scheduled cell with the scaling factor K.)….)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with the 3GPP3rd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improving spectral/power efficiency on scheduling data over multiple cells (See section 2.1)
Regarding claim 5, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 4, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the information includes information associated with a RA type that is commonly applied to the fields. (see 3GPP3rd section 2.3……. For resource allocation type 0, the common indication for bitmap and RBG size is used for all co-scheduled cells, and UE interprets the indication respectively to each scheduled cell with the scaling factor K.)….)
Regarding claim 6, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 1, as described above. The modified 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitations however further combined with 3GPP3rd teaches wherein each of the fields includes a bitmap including bits including information regarding whether or not each of resource block groups (RBGs) of a corresponding cell is allocated. (3GPP3rd explains….section 2.3. In case of resource allocation type 0, the FDRA in the DCI format =X/0-X can use 3 bitmap to indicate the RBG allocation to the UE, and the UE interprets the bitmap and RBG size based on the scaling factor K for each scheduled cell with different BWP configuration……For resource allocation type 0, the common indication for bitmap and RBG size is used for all co-scheduled cells, and UE interprets the indication respectively to each scheduled cell with the scaling factor K)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with the 3GPP3rd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improving spectral/power efficiency on scheduling data over multiple cells (See section 2.1)
Regarding claim 7, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 6, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein a size of the RBG is determined by multiplying a RBG size included in a RB-sized table corresponding to a predefined BWP by a scale value. (3GPP3rd explains…..In case of resource allocation type 0, the FDRA in the DCI format =X/0-X can use 3 bitmap to indicate the RBG allocation to the UE, and the UE interprets the bitmap and RBG size based on the scaling factor K for each scheduled cell with different BWP configuration…..For resource allocation type 0, the common indication for bitmap and RBG size is used for all co-scheduled cells, and UE interprets the indication respectively to each scheduled cell with scaling factor K.)
Regarding claim 8, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 7, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the scale value is differently set according to each cell. (3GPP3rd explains…..In case of resource allocation type 0, the FDRA in the DCI format =X/0-X can use 3 bitmap to indicate the RBG allocation to the UE, and the UE interprets the bitmap and RBG size based on the scaling factor K for each scheduled cell with different BWP configuration…..For resource allocation type 0, the common indication for bitmap and RBG size is used for all co-scheduled cells, and UE interprets the indication respectively to each scheduled cell with scaling factor K.)
Regarding claim 9, the modified 3GPP taught the method of claim 6, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein a first bit of the bitmap includes information regarding whether or not a first RBG and a second RBG are allocated, based on the first RBG of RBGs of the corresponding cell including only one resource block (RB). (3GPP3rd explains….section 2.3. In case of resource allocation type 0, the FDRA in the DCI format =X/0-X can use 3 bitmap to indicate the RBG allocation to the UE, and the UE interprets the bitmap and RBG size based on the scaling factor K for each scheduled cell with different BWP configuration……For resource allocation type 0, the common indication for bitmap and RBG size is used for all co-scheduled cells, and UE interprets the indication respectively to each scheduled cell with the scaling factor K)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Gerald Smarth whose telephone number is (571) 270-1923. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 6am-4:30pm ET. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Avellino can be reached on 571-272-7784. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GERALD A SMARTH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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