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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claims 1-3, 5, 7-10 and 12-20 have been amended.
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 1-4, 6-14 and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong (US 2024/0154761) in view of Davydov (US 2021/0168011).
Regarding claim 1, Xiong discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
at least one memory (memory; see at least Fig. 9 and paragraph 0092); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory (processor; see at least Fig. 9 and paragraph 0092), the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
transmit or receive a first transmission of a physical channel, wherein the physical channel includes one of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (initial transmission in a PDSCH or PUSCH; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021); and
transmit or receive a subsequent retransmission of the physical channel (retransmission; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021), wherein the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel comprises a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) having a pattern that is independent of whether the first transmission was an initial transmission or a prior retransmission (determining PT-RS pattern for initial transmission and retransmission within a PDSCH or PUSCH; see at least paragraphs 0021, 0025 and 0027).
Xiong is not clear about wherein a PTRS pattern is based on a fixed value that is unrelated to the initial transmission and wherein the fixed value includes a fixed modulation and coding scheme (MCS) or a fixed codeword.
Davydov discloses the above missing limitation; the pattern of PTRS can be determined by the MCS or estimated MCS in a current retransmission or MCS in codewords; see at least paragraphs 0217, 0225-0231 and 0240.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Xiong by the teachings of Davydov by having the above limitations for the purpose or PT-RS configuration; see at least paragraph 0003.
Regarding claim 2, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein to transmit or receive the first transmission of the physical channel, the at least one processor is configured to
cause the UE to transmit or receive the first transmission of the physical channel via the transceiver, and wherein to transmit or receive the first transmission of the physical channel, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
transmit, to a network entity, the first transmission of the PUSCH, and wherein to transmit or receive the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel (Xiong; transmission between receiver and transmitter; see at least paragraphs 0020 and 0023), the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
transmit, to the network entity, the subsequent retransmission of the PUSCH (Xiong; transmission between receiver and transmitter; see at least paragraphs 0020 and 0023).
Regarding claim 3, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein to transmit or receive the first transmission of the physical channel, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from a network entity, the first transmission of the PDSCH, and wherein to transmit or receive the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel (Xiong; transmission between receiver and transmitter; see at least paragraphs 0020 and 0023), the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from the network entity, the subsequent retransmission of the PDSCH (Xiong; transmission between receiver and transmitter; see at least paragraphs 0020 and 0023).
Regarding claim 4, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first transmission of the physical channel comprises the PTRS having the pattern (Xiong; determining PT-RS for the initial transmission; see at least paragraphs 0021, 0025 and 0027).
Regarding claim 6, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pattern is based on a configured pattern (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0134-0141).
Regarding claim 7, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from a network entity, a pattern configuration indicative of the pattern for the PTRS (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0134-0141).
Regarding claim 8, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to:
obtain the MCS for the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel; and
determine, based on the MCS, the pattern of the PTRS (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0028-0029 and 0031-0039 in combination with Davydov’s patter; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Regarding claim 9, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 8, wherein to obtain the MCS, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
receive an MCS configuration indicating the MCS, or
obtain the MCS based on a configured MCS (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0028-0029 and 0031-0039).
Regarding claim 10, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel includes multiple codewords (TBs), and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to:
determine, based on the fixed codeword of the multiple codewords, the MCS for the subsequent retransmission (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021, 0023-0025 and 0030-0037 and Davydov’s codewords; see at least the rejection of claim 1); and
determine, based on the MCS, the pattern for the PTRS (see at least paragraphs 0028-0029 and 0031-0039).
Regarding claim 11, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the fixed codeword is based on a configured codeword (see at least paragraphs 0020-0021, 0023-0025 and 0030-0037 and Davydov’s codewords; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Regarding claim 12, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from a network entity, a codeword configuration indicating the fixed codeword (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021, 0023-0025 and 0030-0037 and Davydov’s codewords; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Regarding claim 13, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the PTRS in the first transmission of the physical channel is based on the fixed codeword (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021, 0023-0025 and 0030-0037 and Davydov’s codewords; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Claim 14 is rejected on the same grounds as claim 1.
Regarding claim 16, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a pattern configuration indicative of the pattern for the PTRS (see at least the rejection of claim 7).
Regarding claim 17, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 14, wherein the pattern of the PTRS is based on the fixed MCS for the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0028-0029 and 0031-0039 and Davydov; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Regarding claim 18, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 14, wherein the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel includes multiple codewords, and wherein the pattern for the PTRS is based on the fixed MCS associated with a fixed codeword of the
multiple codewords (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021, 0023-0025 and 0030-0037 and Davydov; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Regarding claim 19, Xiong in view of Davydov disclose the apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the network entity to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a codeword configuration indicating the fixed
codeword (Xiong; see at least paragraphs 0020-0021, 0023-0025 and 0030-0037 and Davydov; see at least the rejection of claim 1).
Claim 20 is rejected on the same grounds as claim 1.
Claims 5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong in view of Davydov and further in view of Park (US 2026/0150104).
Regarding claim 5, Xiong in view of Davydov the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from a network entity, downlink control information (DCI); see a least paragraphs 0020 and 0023, but are not clear about it is comprising a new data indicator (NDI), wherein the subsequent retransmission of the physical channel is based on the NDI.
Park discloses the above missing limitation; DCI includes NDI that indicates whether it is initial transmission or re-transmission; see at least paragraphs 0160-0172.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Xiong in view of Davydov by the teachings of Park by having the above limitations so to be able to provide a device and method capable of effectively providing a service in a wireless communication system such as a satellite communication system; see at least paragraph 0009.
Claim 15 is rejected on the same grounds as claim 5.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/YASSIN ALATA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2426
