DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 12/17/2025 and 2/02/2026 have been entered and considered by the examiner.
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 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 1-5, 8, 17-20, 23, and 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Manolakos et al (US2018/0083736 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant.
Regarding claims 1 and 29, Manolakos teaches an apparatus/method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Abstract), comprising:
one or more memories; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors individually or collectively configured to (Para. 0409):
receive a set of messages from a network (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034 and 0050-0062; if there are a plurality of codewords, each one may be mapped to a different layer and then use independent interleaving process for each OFDM symbol that determines the level of interleaving based on the performance and processing goals of the transmitting device, and the decoding capabilities of the receiving device; i.e. Fig. 3A shows a codeword so the plurality of codewords would read on the set of messages); and
decode the set of messages comprising a plurality of code block (CB) bundles, wherein each CB bundle, in the plurality of CB bundles, comprises a plurality of CBs, within a codeword, that are interleaved (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034 and 0050-0062; a codeword 202 comprising a plurality of code blocks (e.g., 305, 310, 315) may be encoded by the transmitting device 205 described with reference to FIG. 2. In some examples, each of the plurality of code blocks (e.g., 305, 310, 315) may have a specified code block size that satisfies the maximum and minimum parameters of the transmitting device and the receiving device; i.e. each of the messages/codewords shown in Fig. 3A would read on the code block bundles and each codeword/code block bundle includes a plurality of code blocks that are then interleaved as shown in Fig. 3A).
Regarding claims 2 and 18, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein each CB, in the plurality of CBs, is rate matched to a group of resource elements (REs) that are interleaved with at least one other group of REs that are rate matched to at least one other CB in a same CB bundle (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate).
Regarding claim 3, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to: receive an indication of a quantity of CBs comprising each CB bundle; and receive an indication of a quantity of REs associated with each CB per interleaving cycle for the CB bundle (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0021, 0034-0038, and 0050-0062; The term “codeword” may refer to an encoded bit sequence that may be segmented into a plurality of “code blocks” comprising subset of bits. In some examples, a minimum and/or maximum code block size may be specified so that the block sizes are compatible with the block sizes supported by either the interleavers (e.g., bit-interleaver or tone-interleaver); the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate).
Regarding claims 4 and 19, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein the plurality of CB bundles comprises a first set of CB bundles that include CBs having a first size, and a second set of CB bundles that include CBs having a second size (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034 and 0050-0062; a codeword 202 comprising a plurality of code blocks (e.g., 305, 310, 315) may be encoded by the transmitting device 205 described with reference to FIG. 2. In some examples, each of the plurality of code blocks (e.g., 305, 310, 315) may have a specified code block size that satisfies the maximum and minimum parameters of the transmitting device and the receiving device).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein the first set of CB bundles is associated with a first quantity of resource elements (REs) for interleaving, and the second set of CB bundles is associated with a second quantity of REs for interleaving (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein the set of messages comprises encoded bits, of the plurality of CBs associated with each CB bundle in the plurality of CB bundles, that are mixed in a stream (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 of a device (e.g., UE 115 or base station 105) may determine whether to perform a bit-level interleaving or tone-level interleaving to a data bit stream based on consideration of number of bits that are carried in each tone, size of the plurality of code blocks, a processing time requirements of the transmitting device, the transmitting device or a receiving device capabilities).
Regarding claims 17 and 30, Manolakos teaches an apparatus/method for wireless communication at a network node (Abstract), comprising:
one or more memories; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors individually or collectively configured to (Para. 0409):
encode a set of messages using a plurality of code block (CB) bundles, wherein each CB bundle, in the plurality of CB bundles, comprises a plurality of CBs, within a codeword, that are interleaved (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034 and 0050-0062; a codeword 202 comprising a plurality of code blocks (e.g., 305, 310, 315) may be encoded by the transmitting device 205 described with reference to FIG. 2. In some examples, each of the plurality of code blocks (e.g., 305, 310, 315) may have a specified code block size that satisfies the maximum and minimum parameters of the transmitting device and the receiving device; i.e. each of the messages/codewords shown in Fig. 3A would read on the code block bundles and each codeword/code block bundle includes a plurality of code blocks that are then interleaved as shown in Fig. 3A); and
transmit the set of messages to a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034 and 0050-0062; if there are a plurality of codewords, each one may be mapped to a different layer and then use independent interleaving process for each OFDM symbol that determines the level of interleaving based on the performance and processing goals of the transmitting device, and the decoding capabilities of the receiving device; i.e. Fig. 3A shows a codeword so the plurality of codewords would read on the set of messages).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, 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 6-7, 9-12, 21-22, and 24-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al (US2018/0083736 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant in view of Baldemair et al (US 2022/0352936 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein a first CB is associated with one of the plurality of CB bundles, and wherein a plurality of resource elements are associated with the first CB (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate).
However, while Manolakos teaches a plurality of resource elements associated with the code blocks (Fig. 3A; Para. 0035), he does not specifically disclose a plurality of virtual resource elements are associated with the first CB.
Baldemair teaches transmitting data signaling utilising a plurality of transmission sources, wherein the data signaling represents a plurality of code blocks (Abstract). He further teaches a plurality of virtual resource elements are associated with the first CB (Para. 0177; control region may span one or more block symbols and/or allocation units and/or have an extension in frequency domain corresponding to a control region bandwidth and/or a plurality of subcarriers or resource blocks, e.g. physical and/or virtual resource blocks; i.e. the resource elements can be either physical or virtual).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Baldemair with the teachings as in Manolakos. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve approaches of handling wireless communication, in particular of data signaling (Baldemair at para. 0003).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein a plurality of resource elements (REs) were proportionally assigned across the plurality of CB bundles, and wherein each CB bundle in the plurality of CB bundles is further associated with one or more CBs (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate).
However, while Manolakos teaches a plurality of resource elements associated with the code blocks (Fig. 3A; Para. 0035), he does not specifically disclose a plurality of virtual resource elements.
Baldemair teaches transmitting data signaling utilising a plurality of transmission sources, wherein the data signaling represents a plurality of code blocks (Abstract). He further teaches a plurality of virtual resource elements (Para. 0177; control region may span one or more block symbols and/or allocation units and/or have an extension in frequency domain corresponding to a control region bandwidth and/or a plurality of subcarriers or resource blocks, e.g. physical and/or virtual resource blocks; i.e. the resource elements can be either physical or virtual).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Baldemair with the teachings as in Manolakos. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve approaches of handling wireless communication, in particular of data signaling (Baldemair at para. 0003).
Regarding claims 9 and 24, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein data/information bits within the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are mixed in a stream, and parity bits within the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are not mixed in a stream (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate; i.e. depending on whether bit-interleaving or tone-interleaving is used, different bits would be included in the different streams/layers).
However, while Manolakos teaches a data bits are included in the layer/streams (Fig. 3A; Para. 0034), he does not specifically disclose systematic bits within the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs.
Baldemair teaches transmitting data signaling utilising a plurality of transmission sources, wherein the data signaling represents a plurality of code blocks (Abstract). He further teaches systematic bits within the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs (Para. 0160; A code rate may represent the ratio of the number of information bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits after encoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detection coding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to information bits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Baldemair with the teachings as in Manolakos. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve approaches of handling wireless communication, in particular of data signaling (Baldemair at para. 0003).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein systematic bits and parity bits within the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are mixed in a stream (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate; i.e. depending on whether bit-interleaving or tone-interleaving is used, different bits would be included in the different streams/layers).
However, while Manolakos teaches a data bits are included in the layer/streams (Fig. 3A; Para. 0034), he does not specifically disclose systematic bits.
Baldemair teaches transmitting data signaling utilising a plurality of transmission sources, wherein the data signaling represents a plurality of code blocks (Abstract). He further teaches systematic bits (Para. 0160; A code rate may represent the ratio of the number of information bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits after encoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detection coding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to information bits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Baldemair with the teachings as in Manolakos. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve approaches of handling wireless communication, in particular of data signaling (Baldemair at para. 0003).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of references Manolakos and Baldemair teach the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein the systematic bits of the plurality of CBs were mixed according to a first quantity of bits per interleaving cycle, and the parity bits of the plurality of CBs were mixed according to a second quantity of bits per interleaving cycle (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate; i.e. depending on whether bit-interleaving or tone-interleaving is used, different bits would be included in the different streams/layers).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of references Manolakos and Baldemair teach the limitations of the previous claims. Manolakos further teaches wherein the systematic bits of the plurality of CBs were mixed according to a quantity of bits per interleaving cycle, and the parity bits of the plurality of CBs were mixed according to the quantity of bits per interleaving cycle (Fig. 3A; Paras. 0034-0038 and 0050-0062; the interleaving component 550 may either perform coarse interleaving using tone-interleaver that may interleave a plurality of data resource elements across the bandwidth or perform refined interleaving using a bit-interleaver that performs interleaving of the bits that are inside each tone (e.g., resource element); The bit encoder 210, at 220, may encode each code block with the plurality of bits (data bits and/or control bits) and perform rate matching 225. The rate matching 225 may create an output bit stream with a desired code rate; i.e. depending on whether bit-interleaving or tone-interleaving is used, different bits would be included in the different streams/layers).
Claims 13-14 and 26-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al (US2018/0083736 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant in view of Takeda et al (US 2020/0112398 A1).
Regarding claims 13 and 26, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims.
However, Manolakos does not specifically disclose wherein the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are chosen using redundancy version (rvid) based selection off a circular buffer before mixing in the stream.
Takeda teaches control retransmission properly in smaller units than TBs (for example, in units of CBs or in units of CBGs) (Abstract). He further teaches wherein the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are chosen using redundancy version (rvid) based selection off a circular buffer before mixing in the stream (Para. 0026; the systematic bit sequence, the first parity bit sequence and the second parity bit sequence are each input to a buffer (circular buffer), and, based on the number of REs that are available in allocated resource blocks, the redundancy version (RV) and so on code bits for each CB are selected from the buffer (rate matching). Interleaving may be applied between multiple CBs as well).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Takeda with the teachings as in Manolakos. The motivation for doing so would have been to interleave in a predetermined manner and has a bit sequence of an amount to match the amount of scheduled resources selected (Takeda at para. 0026).
Regarding claims 14 and 27, Manolakos teaches the limitations of the previous claims.
However, Manolakos does not specifically disclose wherein the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are chosen using redundancy version (rvid) based selection off a circular buffer after mixing in a stream.
Takeda teaches control retransmission properly in smaller units than TBs (for example, in units of CBs or in units of CBGs) (Abstract). He further teaches wherein the encoded bits of the plurality of CBs are chosen using redundancy version (rvid) based selection off a circular buffer after mixing in a stream (Para. 0026; the systematic bit sequence, the first parity bit sequence and the second parity bit sequence are each input to a buffer (circular buffer), and, based on the number of REs that are available in allocated resource blocks, the redundancy version (RV) and so on code bits for each CB are selected from the buffer (rate matching). Interleaving may be applied between multiple CBs as well).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Takeda with the teachings as in Manolakos. The motivation for doing so would have been to interleave in a predetermined manner and has a bit sequence of an amount to match the amount of scheduled resources selected (Takeda at para. 0026).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-16 and 28 are rejected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENT KRUEGER whose telephone number is (303)297-4238. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00 MT.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached on (571) 272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENT KRUEGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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