DETAILED ACTION
This Non-Final Office Action is in response to application number 18/798,453 filed on August 8th,2024. 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
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.
Claims1-6, 13-18,25 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by Rastegardoost et al. (US 20210105812 A1).
Regarding claims 1,13,25 and 28, Rastegardoost et al. disclose an apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more processors; memory coupled with the one or more processors; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to: receive a downlink message indicating a configured grant (CG) configuration (Paragraph 0434 discloses “At 2710, a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of periodic radio resources of a configured uplink grant. The periodic radio resources may comprise: one or more first resource elements of a first sub-band; and one or more second resource elements of a second sub-band.”); and perform a transmission in accordance with the CG configuration and using multiple sub-bands including a first sub-band and a second sub-band that is distinct from the first sub-band, the first sub-band including a first set of frequency resources that is non-contiguous with a second set of frequency resources of the second sub-band (Paragraph 0434 discloses “At 2720, a wireless device multiplexing: a first configured grant uplink control information (CG-UCI) via the one or more first resource elements; and a second CG-UCI via the one or more second resource elements…At 2730, at least one of the first CG-UCI and the second CG-UCI may be transmitted via the periodic radio resources and based on one or more listen-before-talk (LBT) procedures performed on the first sub-band and the second sub-band.” Additionally Paragraph 0403 discloses “For example, the CG resource may have a bandwidth comprising one or more LBT subbands. For example, one or more UEs may map the CG-UCI to the entire bandwidth of the CG resource. For example, in a wideband operation, one or more UEs may map the CG-UCI to different resource elements in different subbands. For example, the one or more UEs may map the CG-UCI to different resource elements spanning the entire CG bandwidth, e.g., over one or more LBT subbands. For example, the different resource elements may not overlap in frequency domain. For example, the different resource elements may be confined to one LBT subband. For example, the different resource elements may not be confined to one LBT subband. For example, the different resource elements may be contiguous or non-contiguous in frequency domain. For example, the different resource elements may be interlaced across one or more LBT subband.”).
Regarding claims 2 and 14, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first sub-band is associated with a first downlink and uplink (D/U) resource allocation for a plurality of time slots, wherein the second sub-band is associated with a second D/U resource allocation for the plurality of time slots, and wherein the second D/U resource allocation is different than the first D/U resource allocation (Paragraph 0434 discloses “The periodic radio resources may comprise: one or more first resource elements of a first sub-band; and one or more second resource elements of a second sub-band.”).
Regarding claims 3 and 15, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to: select one or more first uplink resources from the first D/U resource allocation (Paragraph 0199 discloses “When configured with a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may select one of the plurality of PUCCH resource sets based on a total bit length of the UCI information bits (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and/or CSI).”); select one or more second uplink resources from the second D/U resource allocation (Paragraph 0199 discloses “When configured with a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may select one of the plurality of PUCCH resource sets based on a total bit length of the UCI information bits (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and/or CSI).”); and perform the transmission further in accordance with the one or more first uplink resources and the one or more second uplink resources (Paragraph 0434 discloses “At 2730, at least one of the first CG-UCI and the second CG-UCI may be transmitted via the periodic radio resources and based on one or more listen-before-talk (LBT) procedures performed on the first sub-band and the second sub-band.”).
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to perform the transmission using at least a first occasion associated with the first sub-band and using at least a second occasion associated with the second sub-band (Paragraph 0293 discloses “n an example, a wireless device may be configured with multiple transmission occasions over the pre-configured time-domain resource within a CG period. In an example, before the beginning of the pre-configured period, the wireless device may perform the LBT procedure towards accessing the first transmission occasion/burst starting position. If the LBT is successful, the UE may start transmitting one or more PUSCHs up to the end of the CG resource within the pre-configured period. In an example, if the LBT fails, the UE may not defer the channel access for the remaining period. The wireless device may resume its channel access attempt by performing LBT towards accessing the second transmission occasion, and so on.” Paragraph 0436 discloses “According to various embodiments, the wireless device may transmit the PUSCH via the periodic radio resources of the configured uplink grant and based on the one or more LBT procedures performed on the first sub-band and the second sub-band.”).
Regarding claims 5 and 17, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first sub-band or the second sub-band is associated with a particular period, and wherein, within the particular period, the first sub-band is associated with a first resource configuration and the second sub-band is associated with a second resource configuration different than the first configuration (Paragraph 0436 discloses “According to various embodiments, the wireless device may transmit the PUSCH via the periodic radio resources of the configured uplink grant and based on the one or more LBT procedures performed on the first sub-band and the second sub-band.” Paragraph 0434 discloses “ The periodic radio resources may comprise: one or more first resources elements of a first sub-band; and one or more second resources elements of a second sub-band.” Additionally paragraph 0157 discloses “ The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more SRS configuration parameters indicating at least one of following:… a frequency hopping bandwidth; a cyclic shift; and/or an SRS sequence ID”.).
Regarding claims 6 and 18, The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first resource configuration includes one of a frequency hopping configuration or a time repetition configuration, and wherein the second resource configuration includes the other of the frequency hopping configuration or the time repetition configuration (Paragraph 0434 discloses “At 2730, at least one of the first CG-UCI and the second CG-UCI may be transmitted via the periodic radio resources and based on one or more listen-before-talk (LBT) procedures performed on the first sub-band and the second sub-band.”).
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 may not be obtained though 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.
Claims 7,8,19,20,26,27,29 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rastegardoost et al. (US 20210105812 A1) in view of Farag et al. (US 20260040123 A1).
Regarding claims 7,19,26 and 29, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1.
Rastegardoost et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to transmit, in connection with the transmission and via the first sub-band, a report associated with the second sub-band.
However in an analogous art Farag et al. disclose wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to transmit, in connection with the transmission and via the first sub-band, a report associated with the second sub-band (US 20260040123 Paragraph 343 discloses “In one example, the report from the UE includes multiple sub-band reports. In one example, the size of the sub-band is S. In one example, the number of sub-band is L. Wherein S and/or L can be specified in the system specifications and/or configured and/or updated by RRC signaling and/or MAC CE signaling and/or L1 control (e.g., DCI Format) signaling. In one example, the value of S depends on the bandwidth of the DL BWP. In one example, the value of S depends on the bandwidth of the DL signal.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Rastegardoost et al.to incorporate the teachings of Farag et al., to cause the apparatus to transmit, in connection with the transmission and via the first sub-band, a report associated with the second sub-band, in order to facilitate greater reliability, interference avoidance and to maximize data capacity by reducing overhead.
Regarding claims 8,20,27 and 30, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 7.
Rastegardoost et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the report indicates one or more of a measurement associated with the second sub-band, a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) associated with the second sub-band, or uplink control information (UCI) associated with the second sub-band.
However in an analogous art Farag et al. teaches wherein the report indicates one or more of a measurement associated with the second sub-band, a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) associated with the second sub-band, or uplink control information (UCI) associated with the second sub-band (US 20260040123 Paragraph 0322-0326 discloses “In one example, the UE is configured a measurement report to report the measurement of the DL signal, e.g., as in step 2 of FIG. 13 or step 2 of FIG. 14. In one example, the measurement report is in uplink control information (UCI) on PUCCH. In one example, if the PUCCH overlaps a PUSCH, the UCI is transmitted in the PUSCH. In one example, the measurement report is in uplink control information (UCI) on PUSCH. In one example, the measurement report is in MAC CE message. In one example, the measurement report is in RRC message.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Rastegardoost et al.to incorporate the teachings of Farag et al., wherein the report indicates one or more of a measurement associated with the second sub-band, a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) associated with the second sub-band, or uplink control information (UCI) associated with the second sub-band., in order to facilitate greater reliability, interference avoidance and to maximize data capacity by reducing overhead.
Claims 9-11 and,21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rastegardoost et al. (US 20210105812 A1) in view of Blankenship et al. ((US 20150036566 A1).
Regarding claims 9 and 21, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1.
Rastegardoost et al fail to explicitly disclose wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to: in accordance with determining that a first transmit power level associated with a particular CG occasion associated with the transmission exceeds a threshold power level: skip a transmit opportunity of the transmission during the particular CG occasion; and perform a second transmission during the particular CG occasion, the second transmission having a greater priority than the transmission.
However, in an analogous art Blankenship et al. teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to: in accordance with determining that a first transmit power level associated with a particular CG occasion associated with the transmission exceeds a threshold power level: skip a transmit opportunity of the transmission during the particular CG occasion; and perform a second transmission during the particular CG occasion, the second transmission having a greater priority than the transmission (US 20150036566 A1 Paragraph 0121 discloses “In some implementations, the following prioritization rule can be applied. If a PUSCH/PUCCH transmission with a higher priority is transmitted earlier than a PUSCH/PUCCH transmission with a lower priority, and the total uplink power of the UE exceeds a power threshold in the overlap time period, the lower priority PUSCH/PUCCH transmission is power scaled or dropped across the whole subframe of the lower priority PUSCH/PUCCH (subframe j in FIG. 13A). In other words, the power adjustment is performed over a full transmission time period (corresponding to the length of an entire subframe).” Additionally paragraph 0030 discloses “For example, the information relating to the uplink transmit power sharing control can be at least one prioritization rule used by the UE for adjusting one or more uplink transmissions when a power threshold is exceeded.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Rastegardoost et al.to incorporate the teachings of Blankenship et al., to determine that a first transmit power level associated with a particular CG occasion associated with the transmission exceeds a threshold power level: skip a transmit opportunity of the transmission during the particular CG occasion; and perform a second transmission during the particular CG occasion, the second transmission having a greater priority than the transmission, in order to facilitate or enable prioritized transmissions whereby power levels of transmissions satisfy thresholds.
Regarding claims 10 and 22, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 9.
Rastegardoost et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to determine the threshold power level in accordance with a power class parameter associated with a transmit chain of the UE and further in accordance with a second transmit power level associated with the second transmission.
However in an analogous art Blankenship et al. teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to determine the threshold power level in accordance with a power class parameter associated with a transmit chain of the UE and further in accordance with a second transmit power level associated with the second transmission (US 20150036566 A1 Paragraph 0050 discloses “There are various example total uplink transmit power thresholds that may be exceeded by multiple concurrent uplink transmissions by a UE over respective wireless connections involving two or more eNBs. An example total uplink transmit power threshold is P.sub.PowerClass, which is a maximum uplink transmit power threshold specified by an eNB for a given UE power class. Another example total uplink transmit power threshold is {circumflex over (P)}.sub.CMAX, which can be configured by a UE.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Rastegardoost et al.to incorporate the teachings of Blankenship et al., to determine the threshold power level in accordance with a power class parameter associated with a transmit chain of the UE and further in accordance with a second transmit power level associated with the second transmission, in order to optimize coverage, maximize battery efficiency and protect hardware integrity.
Regarding claims 11 and 23, Rastegardoost et al disclose the apparatus of claim 9.
Rastegardoost et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to determine the threshold power level in accordance with a power class parameter associated with a transmit chain of the UE, a second transmit power level associated with the second transmission, and a transmit power offset parameter associated with the CG configuration (US 20150036566 A1 Paragraph 0050 discloses “There are various example total uplink transmit power thresholds that may be exceeded by multiple concurrent uplink transmissions by a UE over respective wireless connections involving two or more eNBs. An example total uplink transmit power threshold is P.sub.PowerClass, which is a maximum uplink transmit power threshold specified by an eNB for a given UE power class. Another example total uplink transmit power threshold is {circumflex over (P)}.sub.CMAX, which can be configured by a UE.”).
However in an analogous art Blankenship et al. teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors, individually or collectively, to cause the apparatus to determine the threshold power level in accordance with a power class parameter associated with a transmit chain of the UE, a second transmit power level associated with the second transmission, and a transmit power offset parameter associated with the CG configuration (US 20150036566 A1 Paragraph 0050 discloses “There are various example total uplink transmit power thresholds that may be exceeded by multiple concurrent uplink transmissions by a UE over respective wireless connections involving two or more eNBs. An example total uplink transmit power threshold is P.sub.PowerClass, which is a maximum uplink transmit power threshold specified by an eNB for a given UE power class. Another example total uplink transmit power threshold is {circumflex over (P)}.sub.CMAX, which can be configured by a UE.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Rastegardoost et al.to incorporate the teachings of Blankenship et al., to determine the threshold power level in accordance with a power class parameter associated with a transmit chain of the UE, a second transmit power level associated with the second transmission, and a transmit power offset parameter associated with the CG configuration, in order to optimize coverage, maximize battery efficiency and protect hardware integrity.
Claims 12 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rastegardoost et al. (US 20210105812 A1) in view of Hideaki et al. (WO 2018074552 A1 Translation).
Regarding claims 12 and 24, Rastegardoost et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1,
Rastegardoost et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the multiple sub-bands are associated with a virtual cell.
However in an analogous art Hideaki et al. teach wherein the multiple sub-bands are associated with a virtual cell (WO2018074552 Page 15 Paragraph 1 discloses “In addition to the resources in the common area, the virtual cell includes one or more subband resources that can be synchronized in the SS (specifically, the SS transmitted in the common area) described in FIG.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Rastegardoost et al.to incorporate the teachings of Hideaki et al., wherein the multiple sub-bands are associated with a virtual cell, in order to facilitate dynamic bandwidth adaptation and exploit frequency diversity.
Conclusion
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached on 571-272-8586.
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/Samuel Dilan Rutnam/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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