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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-9, 11 & 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Grant et al. US 2022/0368489 A1
Claims 1 and 13:
Grant discloses a method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, comprising: receiving, a frequency domain configuration of a control resource set (CORESET) (See para 148, “configured with multiple frequency domain monitoring locations where each monitoring location is configured by a frequency translation of the CCEs defined in the associated CORESET”),
determining a frequency domain area where the control resource set (CORESET) is located (See para 232, “determining a subset of a set of CCEs to monitor”), wherein the frequency domain area where the CORESET is located comprises at least a part of the frequency domain area of the CORESET determined based on the received frequency domain configuration of the CORESET (See para 148-150, “configured with multiple frequency domain monitoring locations where each monitoring location is configured by a frequency translation of the CCEs defined in the associated CORESET … If the frequency domain monitoring occasion overlaps with a set of configured guard PRBs or extends outside the configured BWP, and If a PDCCH candidate makes use of CCEs that partially/fully overlap the guard PRBs or partially/fully extend outside the BWP, the UE is receives the PDCCH in resources …”); and monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) based on the determined frequency domain area where the CORESET is located (See fig. 16 step 1004, Monitoring the determined CCEs).
With regards to claim 13, a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals; and a processor coupled to the transceiver (See fig. 7 and para 231, UE).
Claims 14 and 15:
Grant discloses a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, comprising: transmitting a frequency domain configuration of a control resource set (CORESET) to the terminal (See para 148, “configured with multiple frequency domain monitoring locations where each monitoring location is configured by a frequency translation of the CCEs defined in the associated CORESET”), and transmitting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to the terminal (See para 150, “the UE is receives the PDCCH in resources corresponding to that PDCCH candidate”), wherein the frequency domain area where the PDCCH is located is at least a part of the frequency domain area determined by the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET (See para 148-150, “configured with multiple frequency domain monitoring locations where each monitoring location is configured by a frequency translation of the CCEs defined in the associated CORESET … If the frequency domain monitoring occasion overlaps with a set of configured guard PRBs or extends outside the configured BWP, and If a PDCCH candidate makes use of CCEs that partially/fully overlap the guard PRBs or partially/fully extend outside the BWP, the UE is receives the PDCCH in resources …”).
With regards to claim 15, a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals; and a processor coupled to the transceiver (See fig. 7 and para 231, Base station).
Claim 2:
Grant discloses that the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET comprises: one or more resource block (RB) groups, wherein at least one RB in one RB group of the one or more RB groups is within the BWP bandwidth (See para 148-150, “configured with multiple frequency domain monitoring locations where each monitoring location is configured by a frequency translation of the CCEs defined in the associated CORESET … If the frequency domain monitoring occasion overlaps with a set of configured guard PRBs or extends outside the configured BWP, and If a PDCCH candidate makes use of CCEs that partially/fully overlap the guard PRBs or partially/fully extend outside the BWP, the UE is receives the PDCCH in resources …”).
Claim 4:
Grant discloses that the number of RBs included in the RB group is a predefined value (See para 22, “A bitmap indicating which groups of 6 contiguous PRBs (RB groups) are allocated within a bandwidth part”).
Claim 5:
Grant discloses that the predefined value is a positive integer less than 6 (See para 22, “A bitmap indicating which groups of 6 contiguous PRBs (RB groups) are allocated within a bandwidth part”).
Claim 6:
Grant discloses that receiving a time domain duration of a CORESET corresponding to the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET, wherein the product of the time domain duration and the number of RBs occupied by all RB groups in the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is a multiple of 6 (See para 22, “A bitmap indicating which groups of 6 contiguous PRBs (RB groups) are allocated within a bandwidth part”).
Claim 7:
Grant discloses receiving a time domain duration of the CORESET, interleaving configuration and resource element group (REG) bundle configuration corresponding to the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET (See 119, “A REG bundle defines the precoder granularity and interleaving granularity for the resources in a CORESET”), wherein, when the time domain duration is 6 and the interleaving configuration is interleaving, the size of the resource element group (REG) bundle is 6 (See para 22, “A bitmap indicating which groups of 6 contiguous PRBs (RB groups) are allocated within a bandwidth part”).
Claim 8:
Grant discloses at least a part of the frequency domain area of CORESET determined based on the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET comprises: the bandwidth occupied by a predefined number of RBs starting from a specific RB in a specific RB group within the frequency domain area indicated by the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET (See para 38, “monitoringFrequencyOffset: frequency offset to move the CORESET to a new frequency location [0043] Said frequency offset can be in unit of 6 RB (as is used in definition of CORESET). Said frequency offset can be in unit of RB or RBG size to allow fine tuning of SearchSpace locations”).
Claim 9:
Grant discloses a starting point of the frequency domain area of the CORESET is determined by a specific RB in the specific RB group, and wherein, the specific RB is the RB with an offset spacing from a first RB in the RB group with the smallest index indicated by the bit being 1 indicated by the frequency domain resource configuration parameter frequencyDomainResources (See para 24, “ frequencyDomainResources: A bitmap indicating which groups of 6 contiguous PRBs (RB groups) are allocated within a bandwidth part, i.e., the frequency domain resources used for PDCCH”).
Claim 11:
Grant discloses that the offset is indicated by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling and/or media access control control element (MAC CE) and/or downlink control information (DCI) signaling; and/or Wherein the offset is determined by the mapping of PDCCH candidates to CCEs and the frequency domain positions of CCEs (See paras 27-31, “The current RRC configuration includes the following: [0028] controlResourceSetId: reference to the associated CORESET for the SearchSpace [0029] monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset: Slots for PDCCH Monitoring configured as periodicity and offset. [0030] duration: Number of consecutive slots that a SearchSpace lasts in every time domain monitoring occasion, i.e., upon every period as given in the periodicityAndOffset. [0031] monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot: Symbols for PDCCH monitoring in the slots configured for PDCCH monitoring (see monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset)…”).
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.
Claim(s) 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant et al. in view of Taherzadeh et al. US 20200021419 A1.
Claim 3:
Grant doesn’t disclose receiving a time domain duration of the CORESET corresponding to the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET, wherein, when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 1, the time domain duration is 6; and/or when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 2, the time domain duration is 3 or 6; and/or when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 3, the time domain duration is 2 or 6; and/or when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 4 or 5, the duration of the time domain is 6.
Kuang discloses receiving a time domain duration of the CORESET corresponding to the frequency domain configuration of the CORESET, wherein, when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 1, the time domain duration is 6; and/or when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 2, the time domain duration is 3 or 6; and/or when the number of RBs in the BWP bandwidth of the one RB group in frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is 3, the time domain duration is 2 or 6; (See para 139, “if each CCE has 6 REGs and the length of the CORESET in time is two symbols, the number of RBs in the CORESET may be a multiple of 6/2=3.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Grant with the teachings of Kuang to improve the method disclosed by Grant by including the feature of number of RB is 3 and time domain duration is 2. The motivation to combine would have been to maintain fundamental 3GPP unit definition for standard and compatibility purposes.
Claim(s) 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant et al. in view of Li et al. US 2023/0179356 A1.
Claim 12:
Grant doesn’t disclose monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) based on non-interleaved CORESET; and/or wherein the interleaving configuration corresponding to the received frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is non-interleaving.
Li discloses monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) based on non-interleaved CORESET; and/or wherein the interleaving configuration corresponding to the received frequency domain configuration of the CORESET is non-interleaving (See para 89, “monitoring for one or more PDCCH candidates in the one or more repetitions of the non-interleaved CORESET…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Grant with the teachings of Li to improve the method disclosed by Grant by including the feature of monitoring PDCCH based on non-interleaved CORESET. The motivation to combine would have been to channel exploitation and reduce demodulation overhead.
Claim(s) 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant et al. in view of Sasaki US 2019/0200334 A1.
Claim 10:
Grant doesn’t disclose that the bandwidth occupied by the predefined number of RBs is less than or equal to the channel bandwidth supported by the terminal.
Sasaki discloses that the bandwidth occupied by the predefined number of RBs is less than or equal to the channel bandwidth supported by the terminal (See para 76, “the number of RBs set for a bandwidth part is equal to or less than a maximum bandwidth supported by respective terminal apparatuses”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Grant with the teachings of Sasaki to improve the method disclosed by Grant by including the feature of RBs less than or equal to the terminal supported bandwidth. The motivation to combine would have been to avoid interference by adding guard bands.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HASHIM S BHATTI whose telephone number is (571)270-7748. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00am-5:30pm.
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HASHIM S. BHATTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/HASHIM S BHATTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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