DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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
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 of this title, 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 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210377876 A1 (Jeon), in view of US 20210377876 A1 (Deghel) and in further view of 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #105-e R1-2105292 (R1).
Regarding Claims 1, 14, 25 and 30:
An apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a processor; memory coupled with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: establish a communications link with a network via a first transmission and reception point and a second transmission and reception point according to a SFN configuration; determine a first uplink power level for first uplink transmissions to the network via the first transmission and reception point and a second uplink power level for second uplink transmissions to the network via the second transmission and reception point; and transmit the first uplink transmissions to the first transmission and reception point in accordance with the first uplink power level and the second uplink transmissions to the second transmission and reception point in accordance with the second uplink power level (Jeon: Fig. 1, a network system that enables various communication among devices that comprises, AMF/UPFs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, UEs, which the network supports SFN and non-SFN configurations; e.g., Figs. 21A-B multi-TRP configuration; [0355]-[0364], a base station may configure a wireless device with different power control parameters for different TRP-antenna group (e.g., panel) links such that transmissions on different TRP-antenna group (e.g., panel) may be transmitted at different power; Deghel further provides a detailed steps, e.g., Figs. 4-5 illustrate uplink power in a SFN PDCCH schemes with multi-TEP, and non-SFN PDCCH, where UE determines two uplink power control for different TRPs; Furthermore, R1 explicitly illustrates: 1.2: gNB can determine the first SRI and first TPMI from the first SRS resource set among two sets," where the first SRS resource set corresponds to the first TRP, and the associated power control parameters determine the first uplink power level; "the second SRI and second TPMI from the second SRS resource set," where the second SRS resource set corresponds to the second TRP with independent power control parameters).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Jeon with Multi-TRP in a SFN network as further taught by Deghel and R1. The advantage of doing so is to a mechanism for networks that meet the needs of lower power, low data rate, and long battery life and leverage the industrial standard (Deghel: Background).
Regarding Claims 2, 15 and 26, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive a DCI message indicating a first transmit power command associated with the first transmission and reception point and a second transmit power command associated with the second transmission and reception point, wherein determining the first uplink power level and the second uplink power level is based at least in part on the first transmit power command and the second transmit power command (Deghel: e.g., [0024]-[0027], PDCCH may contains 1 or more CORESET configured with K.1 states…DCI can point directly to the TCI index; R1: 1.5: "UE can calculate and report PHs per TRP through two SRI fields and enhanced TPC field(s)... in DCI when mTRP PUSCH repetition is scheduled by DCI format 0_1," confirming per-TRP TPC commands in DCI).
Regarding Claims 3, 16 and 27, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: determine that a first field indicating the first transmit power command is associated with a first transmission configuration indicator state of a transmission configuration indicator codepoint and a second field indicating the second transmit power command is associated with a second transmission configuration indicator state of the transmission configuration indicator codepoint based at least in part on an order of the first field and the second field within the DCI message (R1: 1.2: "gNB can determine the first SRI and first TPMI from the first SRS resource set among two sets and the second SRI and second TPMI from the second SRS resource set.", where the first DCI field (first TPC command) is positionally associated with the first SRS resource set = first TCI state codepoint; the second DCI field with the second SRS resource set = second TCI state codepoint. 1.7: "the second SRI field can be reinterpreted to determine the TRP... one of two SRS resource sets that is related to TRP can be determined by the second SRI field. The first SRI field can indicate the SRS resources within the SRS resource set", where the ordered position (first vs. second field) within DCI determines TCI state association).
Regarding Claims 4, 17 and 28, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: determine that a first field indicating the first transmit power command is associated with a first transmission configuration indicator state of a first closed loop index in a transmission configuration indicator codepoint and a second field indicating the second transmit power command is associated with a second transmission configuration indicator state of a second closed loop index in the transmission configuration indicator codepoint based at least in part on an order of the first field and the second field within the DCI message (R1: 1.2, Proposal 3: "The two srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates included in both SRS-ResourceSets have same value as sameAsFci2 or separateClosedLoop", when separateClosedLoop, each SRS resource set (TCI state) has an independent closed-loop index; 1.2: the first SRS resource set carries first closed-loop index; second carries second. The ordered first/second DCI field position maps to first/second TCI state's closed-loop index).
Regarding Claims 5, 18 and 29, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: identify, based at least in part on a first transmission configuration indicator state associated with the first transmission and reception point and a second transmission configuration indicator state associated with the second transmission and reception point, a first set of power control parameters associated with the first transmission and reception point and a second set of power control parameters associated with the second transmission and reception point, wherein determining the first uplink power level for the first uplink transmissions and the second uplink power level for the second uplink transmissions is based at least in part on the first set of power control parameters and the second set of power control parameters (R1: "power control parameters such as alpha, p0, and pathlossReferenceRS defined in each SRS-ResourceSet can be different as each SRS-ResourceSet corresponds to different TRPs"; which implies that each SRS resource set is a TCI state; the first TCI state (first SRS-ResourceSet) is associated with first TRP → first set of PC parameters; second TCI state (second SRS-ResourceSet) with second TRP → second set; 1.2, Proposal 2: "The first and second SRI of indicated SRIs... can be associated with the most recent transmission of SRS resources in the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively," confirming TCI-state-indexed parameter set identification).
Regarding Claim 6, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive control signaling indicating the first set of power control parameters are associated with the first transmission configuration indicator state and the second set of power control parameters are associated with the second transmission configuration indicator state based at least in part on a transmission configuration indicator codepoint comprising the first transmission configuration indicator state and the second transmission configuration indicator state (R1: 1.2: "each pathlossReferenceRS is configured per SRS resource set" via RRC).
Regarding Claims 7 and 19, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive control signaling indicating two sets of power control parameters for each uplink bandwidth part of a plurality of uplink bandwidth parts, wherein the identifying is based at least in part on an uplink bandwidth part of the plurality of uplink bandwidth parts associated with the first uplink transmissions and the second uplink transmissions (R1: 1.3: "p0 for TRP1 is determined from P0-PUSCH-Set that is included in the first p0-PUSCH-SetList and is associated with the first SRI. And p0 for TRP2 is determined from P0-PUSCH-Set that is included in the second p0-PUSCH-SetList and is associated with the second SRI.", where P0-PUSCH-SetList is a BWP-level RRC configuration element (within PUSCH-Config, configured per BWP); two lists = two sets of PC parameters per BWP; Jeon: Fig. 10 and etc.).
Regarding Claim 8, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first set of power control parameters comprises a first default set of power control parameters and the second set of power control parameters comprises a second set of default power control parameters (R1: 1.3, Proposal 4: "a single OLPC parameter set indication field is enough for determining two p0 values for mTRP URLLC transmission based on two SRI fields and an additional p0-PUSCH-SetList", when one OLPC indicator addresses both TRPs, each TRP applies its default p0 from its configured set).
Regarding Claims 9 and 20, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: transmit a message comprising a first power headroom report associated with the first transmission and reception point and a second power headroom report associated with the second transmission and reception point (R1: 1.5: "Option 4: Calculate two PHRs, each associated with a first PUSCH occasion to each TRP, and report two PHRs," which discloses a message (PHR MAC-CE) comprising first PHR for first TRP and second PHR for second TRP.
Regarding Claims 10 and 22, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive control signaling indicating for the UE to report the first power headroom report and the second power headroom report (R1: 1.5: "For Option 4, UE can calculate and report PHs per TRP through two SRI fields and enhanced TPC field(s)... in DCI when mTRP PUSCH repetition is scheduled by DCI format 0_1.", where the DCI (control signaling from network entity) scheduling PUSCH with dual TPC fields constitutes the control signaling indicating the UE to report dual PHRs).
Regarding Claims 11 and 23, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive control signaling scheduling an uplink transmission using the SFN configuration, wherein the first power headroom report and the second power headroom report comprise real power headroom reports associated with the uplink transmission (R1: 1.5: "UE can calculate and report PHs per TRP... in DCI when mTRP PUSCH repetition is scheduled by DCI format 0_1", i.e., DCI schedules the uplink transmission (SFN-configured), triggering PHR; Option 4: "Calculate two PHRs, each associated with a first PUSCH occasion to each TRP", i.e., both PHRs are based on actual PUSCH occasions = real PHRs).
Regarding Claims 12 and 24, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: receive control signaling scheduling an uplink transmission using a transmission configuration different from the SFN configuration, wherein the first power headroom report comprises a real power headroom report associated with the uplink transmission and the second power headroom report comprises a virtual power headroom report (Deghel: [0153]-[0155]. PHR may be contain both real and virtual PHRs; R1: 1.5, Option 2: "Calculate two PHRs, each associated with a first PUSCH occasion to each TRP, but report one of them", i.e., the reported PHR is real; the calculated but modified (virtual) one represents the non-scheduled TRP condition).
Regarding Claim 13, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to establish the communications link with the network according to the SFN configuration by being executable by the processor to: receive a first set of parameter values for a first set of antenna elements of the UE for uplink transmissions to the first transmission and reception point and a second set of parameter values for a second set of antenna elements of the UE for uplink transmissions to the second transmission and reception point during a same set of time and frequency resources (R1: Proposal 3, The two srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates included in both SRS-ResourceSets have same value as sameAsFci2 or separateClosedLoop).
Regarding Claim 21, Jeon as modified further teaches:
The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to transmit the power management signaling by being executable to: transmit control signaling indicating the first uplink power level and the second uplink power level (R1: 1.5: "UE can calculate and report PHs per TRP through two SRI fields and enhanced TPC field(s)... in DCI," where the TPC fields in DCI (transmitted by gNB) indicate the power levels for each TRP).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHITONG CHEN whose telephone number is (571) 270-1936. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:30am - 5pm.
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/ZHITONG CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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