DETAILED ACTION
1. It is hereby acknowledged that 18/832842 following papers have been received and placed of record in the file: Remark date 07/24/24
2. The present application, file on or after March 16, 2013, is being examiner under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
3. 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 26-28, 30-32, 36-38, 40-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over NPL- 3GPP TSG-RAN WG1 Meeting #104b-e R21-2103924 in view of Rahman (US 2019/0327693)
Regarding claim 26. 3GPP teaches an apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE), wherein the apparatus comprises: memory to story a received downlink control information (DCI) that schedules a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), (3GPP page 14 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …) wherein the DCI includes a field to indicate whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled for the PUSCH; (3GPP page 14 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …) and one or more processors to encode the PUSCH for transmission based on the field. (3GPP page 14 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …)
While it can be understood 3GPP teaches these limitation does not explicitly disclose DCI including a field to indicate whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled for a PUSCH, and encoding the PUSCH for transmission based on the field.
However to further clarify Rahman explains ….The method comprises transmitting, to a base station (BS), UE capability information including a full power transmission capability of the UE, receiving, from the BS, downlink control information (DCI) including a transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI), determining a power level for each antenna port at the UE based on the full power transmission capability of the UE and the TPMI, and transmitting, to the BS, UL data via physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) based on the determined power level for each antenna port at the UE and the TPMI wherein the TPMI indicates a precoding matrix and a number of layers used to transmit the UL data via the PUSCH(see paragraph [0015]… one example, this indication is joint via a field “Precoding information and number of layers” in DCI, e.g., using DCI format 0_1. In another example, this indication is via higher layer RRC signaling. In one example, the mapping between a field “Precoding information and number of layers…(see paragraph [00122] Table 2)
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 Rhaman. 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 efficiency of UL data communication (See column paragraph [0011])
Regarding claim 27, the modified 3PP taught the apparatus of claim 26, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0_0, a DCI format 0_1, or a DCI format 0_2. (3GPP 5.1 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …6.1.3…. For PUSCH transmission scheduled by a PDCCH with CRC scrambled by CS-RNTI with NDI=1, C-RNTI, or MCS-C-RNTI or SP-CSI-RNTI:
-)
Regarding claim 28, the modified 3PP taught the apparatus of claim 26, , as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the DCI has a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a cell (C)-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a configured scheduling (CS)-RNTI with a new data indicator having a value of 1, or a modulation and coding scheme (MCS)-C-RNTI. (3GPP 5.1 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …6.1.3…. For PUSCH transmission scheduled by a PDCCH with CRC scrambled by CS-RNTI with NDI=1, C-RNTI, or MCS-C-RNTI or SP-CSI-RNTI:
)
Regarding claim 30, the modified 3PP taught the apparatus of claim 26, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the one or more processors are further to identify configuration information to indicate whether the field is to be present in the DCI.(see Rahman paragraphs [0124],[00184] explains field using DCI)
Regarding claim 31, the modified 3PP taught the apparatus of claim 26, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the PUSCH is included in a Msg3 of a random access procedure. (see 3GPP 2.2….ThemsgA-Alpha and msg3-Alpha should be used for the PUSCH transmission of 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH, respectively…)
Regarding claim 32, the modified 3PP taught the apparatus of claim 26, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the PUSCH is a first PUSCH, wherein the DCI schedules multiple PUSCHs in a cell including the first PUSCH, and wherein the field indicates whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled for all of the multiple PUSCHs.(see Rahman paragraph [0156], [0188] precoding disabling)
Regarding claim 36. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors of a next generation Node B (gNB) configure the gNB to: encode, for transmission to a user equipment (UE), a downlink control information (DCI) that schedules a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), (3GPP page 14 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …) wherein the DCI includes a field to indicate whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled for the PUSCH; and decode the PUSCH based on the field. (3GPP page 14 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …)
While it can be understood 3GPP teaches these limitation does not explicitly disclose DCI including a field to indicate whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled for a PUSCH, and encoding the PUSCH for transmission based on the field.
However Rahman explains ….The method comprises transmitting, to a base station (BS), UE capability information including a full power transmission capability of the UE, receiving, from the BS, downlink control information (DCI) including a transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI), determining a power level for each antenna port at the UE based on the full power transmission capability of the UE and the TPMI, and transmitting, to the BS, UL data via physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) based on the determined power level for each antenna port at the UE and the TPMI wherein the TPMI indicates a precoding matrix and a number of layers used to transmit the UL data via the PUSCH(see paragraph [0015]… one example, this indication is joint via a field “Precoding information and number of layers” in DCI, e.g., using DCI format 0_1. In another example, this indication is via higher layer RRC signaling. In one example, the mapping between a field “Precoding information and number of layers…(see paragraph [00122] Table 2)
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 Rhaman. 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 efficiency of UL data communication (See column paragraph [0011])
Regarding claim 37, the modified 3PP taught the one or more NTCRM of claim 36, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0_0, a DCI format 0_1, or a DCI format 0_2. (3GPP 5.1 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …6.1.3…. For PUSCH transmission scheduled by a PDCCH with CRC scrambled by CS-RNTI with NDI=1, C-RNTI, or MCS-C-RNTI or SP-CSI-RNTI:)
Regarding claim 38, the modified 3PP taught the one or more NTCRM of claim 36, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the DCI has a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a cell (C)-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a configured scheduling (CS)-RNTI with a new data indicator having a value of 1, or a modulation and coding scheme (MCS)-C-RNTI. (3GPP 5.1 …If the DCI with the scheduling grant was received with DCI format 0_0, the UE shall, for this PUSCH transmission, consider the transform precoding either enabled or disabled according …6.1.3…. For PUSCH transmission scheduled by a PDCCH with CRC scrambled by CS-RNTI with NDI=1, C-RNTI, or MCS-C-RNTI or SP-CSI-RNTI:
)
Regarding claim 40, the modified 3PP taught the one or more NTCRM of claim 36, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to configure the gNB to transmit configuration information to the UE to indicate whether the field is to be present in the DCI. (see Rahman paragraphs [0124],[00184] explains field using DCI)
Regarding claim 41, the modified 3PP taught the one or more NTCRM of claim 36, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the PUSCH is included in a Msg3 of a random access procedure. see 3GPP 2.2….ThemsgA-Alpha and msg3-Alpha should be used for the PUSCH transmission of 2-step RACH and 4-step RACH, respectively…)
Regarding claim 42, the modified 3PP taught the one or more NTCRM of claim 36, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the PUSCH is a first PUSCH, wherein the DCI schedules multiple PUSCHs in a cell including the first PUSCH, and wherein the field indicates whether transform precoding is enabled or disabled for all of the multiple PUSCHs. (see Rahman paragraph [0156], [0188] precoding disabling)
6. Claims 29 and 39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over NPL- 3GPP TSG-RAN WG1 Meeting #104b-e R21-2103924 in view of Rahman (US 2019/0327693)
Regarding claim 29, the modified 3PP taught the apparatus of claim 26, as described above. The modified 3GPP alone does not explicitly disclose these limitation however further combined with WO teaches wherein the field is one bit. (see WO explains page 2 paragraph [0002]For example, a 1-bit field may be included in the DCI; see Rhamman paragraph [0224] the indication can be via 1-bit DCI signaling )
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine the modified 3GPP with WO. 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 transmission power of PUSCH(See page 2 paragraphs[0004], [0005])
Regarding claim 39, the modified 3PP taught the one or more NTCRM of claim 36, as described above. The modified 3GPP further teaches wherein the field is one bit (see WO explains page 2 paragraph [0002] For example, a 1-bit field may be included in the DCI; see Rhamman paragraph [0224] the indication can be via 1-bit DCI signaling )
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine the modified 3GPP with WO. 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 transmission power of PUSCH(See page 2 paragraphs[0004], [0005])
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claim 33-35 and 43-45 objected 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 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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