DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/788,205 filed on 7/30/2024. The preliminary amendment presented on 4/3/2025, which cancels claims 2-20, amends claim 1, and adds new claims 21-39, is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1 and 21-39 have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/30/2024 and 4/3/2025 is being considered by the examiner.
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, 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 21-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taherzadeh Boroujeni et al. (hereinafter Boroujeni)(US 2024/0023030) in view of Ouchi et al. (hereinafter Ouchi)(US 2023/0247638).
Regarding claims 1 and 25, Boroujeni teaches as follows:
A wireless communication device (interpreted as the device 805 in figure 8)(the device 805 may be an example of or include the components of a device 505, a device 605, or a UE 115 as described herein, see, ¶ [0108] and figure 8), comprising:
at least one processor (840 in figure 8) configured to (the device 805 may include components for bi-directional voice and data communications including components for transmitting and receiving communications, such as a communications manager 820, an input/output (I/O) controller 810, a transceiver 815, an antenna 825, a memory 830, code 835, and a processor 840, see, ¶ [0108] and figure 8):
receive, via a transceiver from a network, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling (the UE 115-a may utilize a waveform component 205 to perform waveform type switching based on a trigger event. In such example, the UE 115-a may receive a configuration message 210 (e.g., via RRC) from the network entity 105-a. The configuration message 210 may include a set of rules for waveform type switching, see, ¶ [0060] and figure 2);
receive, via the transceiver from the network, a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format that schedules an uplink transmission (the set of rules may indicate to switch to the DFT-S-OFDM waveform type based on detecting the trigger event, where the trigger event includes an indication (e.g., in DCI)(equivalent to applicant’s first indication) of an uplink shared channel transmission repetition or a number of repetitions associated with the uplink shared channel transmission exceeding a threshold, see, ¶ [0060]); and
send, via the transceiver to the network, the uplink transmission using a first waveform or a second waveform, according to the first indication (upon detecting the trigger event, the UE 115-a may switch from the first waveform type to the second waveform type. That is, the UE 115-a may transmit a signal 215 using the first waveform type, select the second waveform type based on detecting the trigger event, and transmit a signal 220 using the second waveform type, see, ¶ [0063] and figure 2).
Boroujeni does not teach the second indication in the RRC signaling indicates that a transform precoder is enabled or disabled according to a first indication in the DCI format.
Ouchi teaches as follows:
Either DFT-s-OFDM or CP-OFDM may be given based whether or not transform precoder is enabled. DFT-s-OFDM may be given if the transform precoder is enabled. CP-OFDM may be given if the transform precoder is disabled. E.g. either enabled transform precoder or disabled transform precoder for PUSCH may be indicated based on RRC parameters transformPrecoder in PUSCH-Config or ConfiguredGrantConfig and/or msg3-transformPrecoder in RACH-ConfigCommon (see, ¶ [0044]);
the RRC parameter transformPrecoder indicates the UE specific selection of the transform precoder for a PUSCH. If the transformPrecoder is absent/not configured, the UE applies the value of the msg3-transformPrecoder to the transform precoder for the PUSCH (see, ¶ [0045]); and
the method may comprise acquiring at least a first RRC parameter for indicating txConfig and a second RRC parameter for indicating whether or not a transform precoding indicator field is included in a DCI format (see, ¶ [0039]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Boroujeni with Ouchi to include the RRC parameter for indicating whether or not a transform precoding indicator field is included in a DCI format as taught by Ouchi in order for dynamically switching waveform by the UE.
Regarding claims 30 and 35, Boroujeni in view of Ouchi teaches similar limitations as presented above. Boroujeni further teaches as follows:
A network node comprising at least one processor and a transceiver (the device 1205 may be an example of or include the components of a device 905, a device 1005, or a network entity 105 as described herein… The device 1205 may include components that support outputting and obtaining communications, such as a communications manager 1220, a transceiver 1210, an antenna 1215, a memory 1225, code 1230, and a processor 1235, see, ¶ [0134] and figure 12).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claims 21, 26, 31, and 36, Ouchi teaches as follows:
Wherein the first indication comprises a transform precoder indicator field (the number of bits for the DCI field may be 0 bit if transform precoder is enabled. The number of bits for the DCI field may be 1 bit if transform precoder is disabled, see, ¶ [0202]).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claims 22, 27, 32, and 37, Boroujeni teaches as follows:
Wherein the first waveform comprises a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) (DFT-s-OFDM) or Cyclic Prefix (CP) OFDM (CP-OFDM) waveform, and the second waveform comprises a CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM waveform (switching from the first waveform type to the second waveform type based on detecting the trigger event may include selecting between the CP-OFDM waveform type and the DFT-S-OFDM waveform type, see, ¶ [0062]).
Regarding claims 23, 28, 33, and 38, Ouchi teaches as follows:
Wherein absence of the second indication indicates that the transform precoder is enabled or disabled according to at least one parameter in the RRC signaling (the RRC parameter transformPrecoder indicates the UE specific selection of the transform precoder for a PUSCH. If the transformPrecoder is absent/not configured, the UE applies the value of the msg3-transformPrecoder to the transform precoder for the PUSCH (see, ¶ [0045]).
Therefore, they are rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Regarding claims 24, 29, 34, and 39, Ouchi teaches as follows:
The base station may set the DCI size (number of bits) for each of the DCI fields based on the assumption if the RRC parameter dynamicSwitchingTransformPrecoder indicates that the transform precoding indicator field is included in the DCI format 0_1 and/or the DCI format 0_2. In other words, each DCI size of the associated DCI fields may be determined/assumed based on whether or not the configured RRC parameter dynamicSwitchingTransformPrecoder indicates that the transform precoding indicator field is included in the DCI format 0_1 and/or the DCI format 0_2 (see, ¶ [0622]-[0623]).
Boroujeni in view of Ouchi does not explicitly teach the size of transform precoder indicator as 1 bit.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Boroujeni in view of Ouchi to include one bit transform precoding indicator field in order to minimize the size of the DCI format.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
June 12, 2026
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