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 .
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 16 December 2024 and 07 April 2026 is being considered by the examiner.
Claims 1-9 and 11-14 are pending.
Figure 13 of the application illustrates the claimed invention.
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 11 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
It is not clear what is meant by “lager” in the limitation “a size of the first DCI field commonly configured for the co-scheduled cells is determined based on a lager one of the M-bit and the N-bit.”
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) 1-2, 6-7, 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TAKEDA et al. (US 2023/0284134 A1) in view of YANG et al. (US 2022/0046688 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 14, TAKEDA et al. discloses a method of receiving a signal in a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
monitoring physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates ([over one or more slots ([0053]: “A UE is configured to monitor PDCCH candidates in a PDCCH search space (e.g., common search space, UE-specific search space) during PDCCH monitoring occasions on the CORESET, where the PDCCH candidates have different DCI formats and different aggregation levels.”); and
detecting downlink control information (DCI) through the monitoring of the PDCCH candidates [0078]: “For example, the multi-cell PDCCH of CC0 602 may include a DCI format for multi-cell scheduling, such that one or more PDSCH/PUSCH may be scheduled on one or more CCs (e.g., CC1 604-CC3 608) ,
wherein the DCI supports multi-cell scheduling based on a plurality of cells configured in the UE ([0078]: “Multi-cell PDSCH/PUSCH scheduling may be based on multi-cell single-slot scheduling or multi-cell multi-slot scheduling.”),
wherein the DCI includes a first DCI field that is commonly configured for co-scheduled cells ([0081]: “For instance, if the resource allocation corresponds to common information across each of CC1 604-CC3 608, one field in the DCI may be used to indicate a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA), which may be applied across CC1 604-CC3608. Such techniques may reduce overhead associated with the DCI format, but may also decrease a granularity of the scheduling information., and
TAKEDA et al. fails to teach wherein, based on that the plurality of cells include a first cell and a second cell, and that a size related configuration of the first DCI field is M-bit for scheduling of the first cell and is N-bit for scheduling of the second cell, respectively:
a size of the first DCI field commonly configured for the co-scheduled cells is determined based on a lager one of the M-bit and the N-bit.
YANG et al. in the same field of invention, teaches this feature.
YANG et al. teaches ([0113]: “Two cells (cell 1 and cell 2) subject to multi-CC scheduling share a single field. A state indicated by a corresponding field may be interpreted as an entry (corresponding to the state) in an entry table/set for single-cell scheduling configured for a specific one of cell 1 and cell 2 (e.g., a cell with a lowest cell index, a PCell (when included in multi-CC), a (scheduling) cell carrying DCI, or a cell corresponding to a CIF in multi-CC DCI), and the entry may be applied commonly to cell 1 and cell 2.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configured different sizes of the DCI field corresponding to each cell, such as teaching in YANG et al., in TAKEDA et al.
Regarding claim 2, YANG et al. teaches wherein the first DCI field includes at least one of field regarding antenna port information, a field regarding sounding reference signal (SRS) resource information, a field regarding information about precoding and number of layers, a field regarding beta offset information, an open-loop power control parameter set indication (ODPC) field, and a field regarding channel access and cyclic prefix (CP) information. ([0104]: “For example, DCI field Type 1 may include ...SRS transmission trigger information.”).
Regarding claim 6, YANG et al. teaches wherein the DCI includes a second DCI field applied for reference cell from among the co-scheduled cells, and
wherein the reference cell is a cell having a smallest serving cell index from among the co-scheduled cells. ([0113]: “[0113]: “(e.g., a cell with a lowest cell index, a PCell (when included in multi-CC), a (scheduling) cell carrying DCI, or a cell corresponding to a CIF in multi-CC DCI), and the entry may be applied commonly to cell 1 and cell 2.”).
Regarding claim 7, YANG et al. teaches wherein the second DCI field includes a channel state information (CSI) request field. ([0142]: “In another example, (when both of cell 1 and cell 2 have been scheduled) and (aperiodic CSI on PUSCH) operation indicated by a CSI request field may be applied only to the specific cell”).
Regarding claims 12 and 13, further comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit or receive a wireless signal under control of the processor, wherein the device includes a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system. See figure 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 and 8-9 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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 BRENDA H PHAM whose telephone number is (571)272-3135. The examiner can normally be reached 571-272-3135.
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BRENDA H. PHAM
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2412
/BRENDA H PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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