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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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) 1-3, 14-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by He et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0376847).
Regarding claim 1, He et al. discloses a user equipment (UE) (see UE 106 in fig. 3), comprising:
at least one memory (see memory 306 in fig. 3); and
at least one processor (see processors 302 in fig. 3) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:
determine a payload size of a downlink control information (DCI) format, wherein the DCI format schedules a first plurality of carriers (read as the selected CCs in para. 0096) of a second plurality of carriers (read as the selected and unselected CCs in fig. 11) (He et al. see fig. 11, select and unselected CCs; fig. 12, FDRA field 1202 and Zero padding 1204; para. 0087, 0094, 0096; In para. 0087, …At block 702, process 700 groups and selects the CCs to determine an ‘effective’ bandwidth that is indicated by downlink (DL) scheduling DCI format. FIG. 12 is an illustration of some embodiments of a FDRA size determination 1202 for DCI-based approach 1200… If the number of actual FDRA bits in a DCI format is less than the reserved FDRA field size, e.g. CC.sub.1/CC.sub.2 are selected for a transmission occasion with effective BW.sub.t=75 PRBs, zeros 1204 shall be appended to the actual FDRA IE until the payload size equals reserved size.). Thus, the determined payload size of a DCI format is associated with the selected CCs size (e.g., FDRA field size) and the padding size. The DCI format is used to schedule with the selected CCs;
receive the DCI format according to the determined payload size, wherein the first plurality of carriers is indicated by a first indicator of the DCI format or is configured by a base station (He et al. see fig. 10, CSF field indicator 1002; fig. 12, FDRA field 1202; para. 0092, 0096; In para. 0092, …the CC Selection Field (CSF) 1002 may be transmitted in DCI format 1000 to signal the selected CCs indices for the scheduled DL and UL transmissions. In para. 0096, FIG. 12 is an illustration of some embodiments of a FDRA size determination 1202 for DCI-based approach 1200…). The UE receives the DCI format according to the determined payload size in the FDRA field and the selected CCs are indicated by the CSF field indicator 1002;
determine resource blocks (RBs) assigned on the first plurality of carriers based on the DCI format (He et al. see fig. 7, step 706; para. 0087, At block 706, process 700 determines the PDSCH resources based on the aggregated RE-level or RB-level resource mapping patterns of selected CCs.). The PDSCH resources mapped to the selected CCs are determined; and
receive downlink transmissions on the assigned RBs based at least in part on the DCI format scheduling the downlink transmissions, or transmit uplink transmissions on the assigned RBs based at least in part on the DCI format scheduling the uplink transmissions (He et al. see para. 0092; FIG. 10 is an illustration of some embodiments of a DCI format 1000 to indicate dynamically selected CCs. In some embodiments, the CC Selection Field (CSF) 1002 may be transmitted in DCI format 1000 to signal the selected CCs indices for the scheduled DL and UL transmissions). The UE receives the PDSCH using the selected CCs.
Regarding claim 14, He et al. discloses a base station for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory (see memory 460 in fig. 4); and
at least one processor (see processors 404 in fig. 4) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to:
configure a second plurality of carriers (read as the selected and unselected CCs in fig. 11) for a user equipment (UE) (see fig. 11, the CC aggregation includes the selected and unselected CCs; para. 0094; in some embodiments, CCs 1102A and 1102D out of CCs 1102A-E are aggregated into the virtual 1104. The other CCs can be available for another virtual CC.). The CC aggregation 1100 is configured as shown in fig. 11;
transmit, to the UE, a downlink control information (DCI) format for scheduling a plurality of resource blocks (RBs) on a first plurality of carriers (read as the selected CCs in para. 0096) of the second plurality of carriers for transmission (He et al. see fig. 10, CSF field indicator 1002; fig. 12, FDRA field 1202; para. 0087, 0092, 0096; In para. 0092, …the CC Selection Field (CSF) 1002 may be transmitted in DCI format 1000 to signal the selected CCs indices for the scheduled DL and UL transmissions.). The BS transmits the DCI format including the selected CCs for scheduled DL and UL transmissions, wherein the selected CCs are mapped to the PDSCH resources,
wherein the first plurality of carriers is indicated by a first indicator in the DCI format or configured to the UE by the base station (He et al. see fig. 10, CSF field indicator 1002; para. 0092, 0096; In para. 0092, …the CC Selection Field (CSF) 1002 may be transmitted in DCI format 1000 to signal the selected CCs indices for the scheduled DL and UL transmissions.). The UE receives the DCI format including the selected CCs that are indicated by the CSF field indicator 1002; and
transmit downlink transmissions on the plurality of RBs based at least in part on the DCI format scheduling downlink transmissions, or receive uplink transmissions on the plurality of RBs based at least in part on the DCI format scheduling uplink transmissions (He et al. see para. 0092; FIG. 10 is an illustration of some embodiments of a DCI format 1000 to indicate dynamically selected CCs. In some embodiments, the CC Selection Field (CSF) 1002 may be transmitted in DCI format 1000 to signal the selected CCs indices for the scheduled DL and UL transmissions). The BS transmits the PDSCH using the selected CCs.
Claims 15, 16 are rejected similarly to claim 1.
Regarding claims 2, 17, He et al. discloses the feature wherein the first indicator indicates one or more of: a first carrier of the first plurality of carriers and a number of the first plurality of carriers, wherein the first plurality of carriers are contiguously arranged in the second plurality of carriers according to a predefined order; the number of the first plurality of carriers, wherein the first plurality of carriers are contiguously arranged in the second plurality of carriers according to a predefined order and the DCI format is received on a first carrier of the first plurality of carriers; a carrier combination from a set of carrier combinations; or a bitmap with each bit corresponding to a corresponding carrier of the second plurality of carriers (He et al. see fig. 10, CSF 1002; para. 0093; wherein each bit indicates one index of N CCs selected from M CCs group. In a further embodiment, the N CCs maybe restricted to be continuous in frequency). The indicator includes bit indicates one index of N CCs (combination) from M CCs groups (set of combination).
Regarding claims 3, 18, He et al. discloses the feature wherein to determine the assigned RBs on each of the first plurality of carriers, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: combine the first plurality of carriers into a virtual carrier according to a predefined order; and determine the assigned RBs on the virtual carrier according to a second indicator in the DCI format and a resource allocation type associated with the first plurality of carriers (He et al. see fig. 11, virtual CC 1104; para. 0093, 0094, 0096; A virtual CC 1104 may be formed by aggregating the bandwidth of at most N CCs signaled in block 704 of FIG. 7 above for resource allocation by a single frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field, as illustrated in FIG. 11. For example and in some embodiments, CCs 1102A and 1102D out of CCs 1102A-E are aggregated into the virtual 1104. The other CCs can be available for another virtual CC. The number of bits is determined by the aggregated bandwidth 1104 and resource allocation type as follows…). The N CCs may be aggregated in an order to form a virtual CC. The number of bits indicating the N CCs is determined according to the aggregated bandwidth 1104 and resource allocation type.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
The factual inquiries 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.
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) 4, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0376847) in view of Takeda et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0314924) (‘924).
Regarding claims 4, 19, He et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein to determine the assigned RBs on each of the first plurality of carriers, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: combine active bandwidth parts (BWPs) of the first plurality of carriers into a virtual BWP according to a predefined order; and determine the assigned RBs on the virtual BWP according to a second indicator in the DCI format and a resource allocation type associated with the first plurality of carriers.
Takeda et al. ‘924 from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein to determine the assigned RBs on each of the first plurality of carriers, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: combine active bandwidth parts (BWPs) of the first plurality of carriers into a virtual BWP according to a predefined order; and determine the assigned RBs on the virtual BWP according to a second indicator in the DCI format and a resource allocation type associated with the first plurality of carriers (Takeda et al. ‘924 see para. 0068, 0071; In para. 0068, …A virtual BWP is a BWP configured for a virtual CC. One or more parameters of the virtual BWP (e.g., bandwidth, resource block granularity (RBG), resource allocation type, numerology, and/or the like) may be used for both the first BWP and the second BWP… In para. 0071, …Thus, an FDRA field size for DCI for the virtual CC is 7+18=25 bits. This represents a 6-bit reduction over providing separate DCI for the CCs by using a same FDRA field for both CCs, and by imputing the virtual CC's BWP configuration to CC1.).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of He et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Takeda et al. ‘924 where the virtual BWP (e.g., virtual CC with CC1 and CC2) is determined/configured according to resource allocation type 0 associated with FDRA field size for CC1 and CC2 (second indicator).
The motivation would be to reduce resource processing.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0376847) in view of Lee et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0282165).
Regarding claim 6, He et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein based at least in part on the first plurality of carriers is being indicated by the first indicator, the payload size of the DCI format is determined based on a maximum total number of RBs schedulable by the DCI format.
Lee et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein based at least in part on the first plurality of carriers is-being indicated by the first indicator, the payload size of the DCI format is determined based on a maximum total number of RBs schedulable by the DCI format (Lee et al. see para. 0156; the maximum number of subchannels (referred to as SF_MAXNUMSCH), which can be included in a V2V resource pool, in one subframe is (always) 20, the payload size of a MODE1_DYN DCI format may be a total of 20 bits). Based on the CIF, the payload size is based on the maximum number of subchannels (e.g., RBs).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of He et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Lee et al. where the payload size of the DCI format is determined based on the maximum number of subchannels or RBs.
The motivation would be to provide transmission efficiency.
Claim(s) 7, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0376847) in view of Lee et al. (Pub No.: 2021/0282165) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (Pub No.: 2023/0073686).
Regarding claims 7, 8, He et al. in view of Lee et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein N is a maximum number of carriers schedulable by the DCI format, and wherein the maximum total number of RBs is determined based on at least one of: N and a predefined maximum number of RBs per carrier; N and a maximum number of RBs per carrier among the second plurality of carriers; or the total number of RBs of N carriers among the second plurality of carriers, and the N carriers include a largest RB numbers among the second plurality of carriers.
Li et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein N is a maximum number of carriers schedulable by the DCI format, and wherein the maximum total number of RBs is determined based on: N and a predefined maximum number of RBs per carrier (Li et al. see para. 0120, 0123, 0127; An RBG size P (a quantity of included RBs) is determined according to a total RB quantity of the plurality of carriers, cells, or active BWPs scheduled by using the first DCI or a maximum/minimum RB quantity in N carriers, cells, or active BWPs, and a correspondence between an RB quantity and an RBG size… and is used as a granularity (that is, an RB quantity represented by 1 bit in a bitmap) for indication of frequency domain resource allocation of each carrier, cell, or active BWP,). The RBG size P is determined according to a max/total RB quantity of the plurality of carriers, cells, or active BWPs (e.g., carriers) scheduled using the first DCI and a max RB quantity for each carrier.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of He et al. in view of Lee et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Li et al. to determine the maximum total number of RBs based on max/total RB quantity of the plurality of carrier, cell, or active BWPs/Carriers scheduled using the first DCI and predefined max RB quantity for each carrier.
The motivation would be to provide transmission reliability.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0376847) in view of Takeda et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0174716) (‘716).
Regarding claim 9, He et al. does not explicitly disclose the feature wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to receive a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) pattern list from the base station.
Takeda et al. ‘716 from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to receive a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) pattern list from the base station (Takeda et al. ‘716 see para. 0092; Specifically, the UE may receive configuration information (also referred to as an FDRA list, a list, and so on)).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of He et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Takeda et al. ‘716 to receive a FDRA list from a base station.
The motivation would be to improve transmission flexibility.
Claim(s) 11, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0376847) in view of Takeda et al. (Pub No.: 2022/0174716) (‘716) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yi et al. (Pub No.: 2023/0074086).
Regarding claim 11, He et al. in view of Takeda et al. ‘716 doe not explicitly disclose the feature
wherein the FDRA pattern list includes at least one entry comprising at least one of: at least one scheduled carrier and at least one bandwidth part (BWP) associated with the at least one scheduled carrier; or at least one combination of a scheduled carrier and a BWP associated with the scheduled carrier.
Yi et al. from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the feature wherein the FDRA pattern list includes at least one entry comprising at least one of: at least one scheduled carrier and at least one bandwidth part (BWP) associated with the at least one scheduled carrier; or at least one combination of a scheduled carrier and a BWP associated with the scheduled carrier (Yi et al. see para. 0287, 0337, 0375; in para. 0287, …The first frequency domain RA field may indicate an entry of one or more frequency domain resource allocation lists. The entry may comprise a first field indicating first resource(s) of the first uplink carrier and a second field indicating second resource(s) of the second uplink carrier. An entry of the one or more frequency domain resource allocation lists may comprise a plurality of fields/sub-entries; In para. 0337, …The wireless device may determine a size of the frequency domain resource allocation field based on the first rbg-Size, a first bandwidth of the first active UL BWP of the first uplink carrier and a second bandwidth of the second active UL BWP of the second uplink carrier. In para. 0375, …The DCI may comprise the frequency domain resource field indicating frequency domain resources of the first bandwidth part of the first uplink carrier and the second bandwidth part of the second uplink carrier.). The entry of the FDRA includes fields indicating resources (e.g., BWPs) and the first and second uplink carriers.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of He et al. in view of Takeda et al. ‘716 and to implement with the feature as taught by Yi et al. where the FDRA entry comprises resources (e.g., BWPs) and the corresponding uplink carriers.
The motivation would be to provide transmission efficiency.
Regarding claim 12, Yi et al. discloses the feature wherein the FDRA pattern list includes at least one entry comprising at least one FDRA indicator associated with at least one scheduled carrier (Yi et al. see para. 0287, 0337; in para. 0287, …The first frequency domain RA field may indicate an entry of one or more frequency domain resource allocation lists. The entry may comprise a first field indicating first resource(s) of the first uplink carrier and a second field indicating second resource(s) of the second uplink carrier.).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of He et al. in view of Takeda et al. and to implement with the feature as taught by Yi et al. where the FDRA entry comprises a first field or indicator associated with scheduled uplink carrier.
The motivation would be to provide transmission efficiency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 10, 13, 20 are 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.
Examiner's Note
The Applicant is welcome to request a telephonic interview if the Applicant has any questions or requires any additional information that would further or expedite the prosecution of the application.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Cheng et al. (Pub No.: 2015/0327226) discloses embodiments of the present invention provide a PDSCH transmission method and apparatus. The method includes: detecting a downlink control channel for scheduling a PDSCH; determining a resource allocation scheme of the PDSCH according to a DCI format of the downlink control channel for scheduling the PDSCH and an attribute of a carrier for carrying the PDSCH; and decoding the PDSCH according to the resource allocation scheme of the PDSCH and a transmission scheme of the PDSCH. The embodiments of the present invention provide an effective solution to PDSCH transmission.
Yang et al. (Pub No.: 2019/0313385) discloses certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for compact downlink control information (DCI) signaling design for ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). A method for wireless communications performed by a base station (BS) is provided. The method generally includes generating DCI, the DCI scheduling at least one transmission, according to a first DCI format. The first DCI format is compressed relative to a second DCI format and includes a carrier indicator field (CIF) and/or a rate-matching indicator field. The BS transmits the DCI to a user equipment (UE). The UE communicates with the BS based on the received DCI.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAN YUEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1413. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10:30am-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Ngo can be reached at 571-272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KAN YUEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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