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
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 10/13/2024 has been placed in record and considered by the examiner.
Summary
This action is in reply to Applicant's Amendments and Remarks filed on 10/13/2024.
Claims 1-6, 8-9, 12-16, 19-23, 32 and 40 are pending.
NOTICE for all US Patent Applications filed on or after March 16, 2013
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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of AIA 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 4-6, 8-9, 12-16, 19-23 and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Huang et al. (US 20210377938 A1, of IDS, hereinafter ‘HUANG’).
Regarding claim 1, HUANG teaches a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) (
Fig. 8, [0081] FIG. 8 shows a sequence 800 of four consecutive slots 802, 804, 806, and 808 in a carrier configured to allow dynamic reconfiguration between slots for TDD and SBFD communication. In some examples, the respective portions of the carrier within a given slot may be designated as UL portion or DL portion by the base station and signaled to a UE by utilizing a suitable indication or configuration message that enables a UE to determine a slot format. ….. This indication or configuration message may be included within DCI, within higher-layer (e.g., RRC) signaling, or some combination of these. The slot format corresponds to a configuration of REs within a slot, with each RE being designated as being either for UL, DL, or, in some examples, as being flexible (can be either UL or DL).
[0082] As illustrated, the first slot 802 is configured for TDD, wherein the full carrier bandwidth is utilized for DL communication, other than the final one or two OFDM symbols of the slot, where the full carrier bandwidth may be utilized for UL communication ….. The second slot 804 and third slot 806 are configured utilizing SBFD in essentially the same way as described above and illustrated in FIG. 7, with DL communication at the upper and lower portions of the carrier and UL communication in between. As discussed above, the UL portion of the carrier is shown being separated from the DL portions of the carrier by suitable-bandwidth guard bands above and below the UL portion. As shown, the fourth slot 808 is configured for TDD, and is fully-allocated for UL communication.
See also Fog. 16, [0139] FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process 1600 for a UE to determine a set of usable resources based on a Type 1 resource allocation with subband indexing on a SBFD carrier ….. the process 1600 may be carried out by the scheduled entity or UE 1300 illustrated in FIG. 13.), the method comprising:
receiving, from a network node, information that configures one or more subbands within a bandwidth of a carrier for subband full duplex operation (
See Fig. 8 slots 804, 806, [0081] the respective portions of the carrier within a given slot may be designated as UL portion or DL portion by the base station and signaled to a UE by utilizing a suitable indication or configuration message that enables a UE to determine a slot format. ….. This indication or configuration message may be included within DCI, within higher-layer (e.g., RRC) signaling.), the information comprising:
first information that configures a cell-specific Time Division Duplexing (TDD) symbol pattern for the carrier, wherein the TDD symbol pattern comprises a set of symbols (
Fig. 3, [0056] The resource grid 304 may be used to schematically represent time-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a MIMO implementation with multiple antenna ports available, a corresponding multiple number of resource grids 304 may be available for communication. The resource grid 304 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 306. An RE, which is 1 subcarrier×1 symbol.
See [0081] a carrier configured to allow dynamic reconfiguration between slots for TDD and SBFD communication ….. indication or configuration message may be included within DCI, within higher-layer (e.g., RRC) signaling, or some combination of these. The slot format corresponds to a configuration of REs within a slot, with each RE being designated as being either for UL, DL, or, in some examples, as being flexible (can be either UL or DL.
See also Fig. 16, 1602, [0141] As in the example described in relation to FIG. 14, at block 1602 the UE receives information indicating slot format configuration from a transceiver (e.g., the transceiver 1310) and determines, using that information, a slot format configuration corresponding to a given slot in which the UE is to transmit or receive information. For example, the UE may receive an indication or configuration message from a base station sufficient for the processor to determine the slot format configuration for a given slot using the resource allocation determination circuitry. The slot format configuration may designate portions (e.g., resources, resource blocks) of the slot as being designated for a particular transmission direction (e.g., for UL transmission or for DL transmission).); and
second information that configures, for each symbol from at least a subset of the set of symbols within the TDD symbol pattern, one or more subbands for subband full duplex operation within the symbol (
Fig, 7, Fig. 8, [0082] The second slot 804 and third slot 806 are configured utilizing SBFD in essentially the same way as described above and illustrated in FIG. 7, with DL communication at the upper and lower portions of the carrier and UL communication in between.
[0094] With Type 1 resource allocation a base station may provide a UE with an allocation of consecutive, contiguous RBs by transmitting, to the UE, information (e.g., in the DCI) representing a starting RB, and information representing a number of consecutive, contiguous RBs.
[0095] As an example, this resource allocation information may include a resource indicator value (RIV) that defines both the starting RB (sometimes referred to as RB.sub.start) and the number of consecutive, contiguous RBs (sometimes referred to as L.sub.RBs).
[0097] In some aspects of the disclosure, the base station may provide multiple RIVs in the DCI. In such aspects, each RIV corresponds to a distinct subband and the subband index indicator in the DCI may identify multiple (e.g., two or more) subbands
Fig. 16, [0142] At block 1604, the UE receives a control message (e.g., DCI) that includes a Type 1 resource allocation for a given transmission direction (e.g., either a UL transmission to be sent by the processor or a DL transmission to be received by the UE). For example, the control message may include a subband index indicator and an RIV that defines the Type 1 resource allocation. The subband index indicator may identify one of a number of subband indices each representing subbands that are included in the active BWP.
[0143] the identified subband may correspond to a portion of a downlink or uplink subband defined in the slot format.
See also See also [0151] At block 1704, the UE receives a control message (e.g., DCI) using the transceiver that includes a Type 1 resource allocation for a given transmission direction (e.g., either a UL transmission to be sent by the UE using the transceiver or a DL transmission to be received by the UE via the transceiver). For example, the control message may include a subband index indicator and one or more RIVs that define the Type 1 resource allocation. ); and
operating in accordance with the received information (
Fig. 16, 1606-1608, [0144] At block 1606, the UE, using the resource allocation determination circuitry, determines the values of RB.sub.start and L.sub.RBs based on the RIV.
[0145] At block 1608, the UE, using the resource allocation determination circuitry, determines a set of usable resources for the given transmission direction based on the values of RB.sub.start and L.sub.RBs, with respect to the subband identified in the subband index indicator.
[0146] At block 1610, the UE optionally uses the communication controller to rate-match UL data to be transmitted over a set of resources supported by the set of usable resources “C.” ).
Regarding claim 40, HUANG teaches a User Equipment (UE) (
Fig. 13 Scheduled Entity 1300, [0114] scheduled entity 1300 employing a processing system 1314. In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented with a processing system 1314 that includes one or more processors 1304. For example, the scheduled entity 1300 may be a UE as illustrated in any one or more of FIGS. 1 and/or 2.
Fig. 16, UE, [0139] FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process 1600 for a UE to determine a set of usable resources based on a Type 1 resource allocation with subband indexing on a SBFD carrier), comprising:
a communication interface comprising a transmitter and a receiver (
Fig. 13 Transceiver 1310); and
processing circuitry associated with the communication interface, the processing circuitry configured to cause the UE to (
[0115] The processing system 1314 may be substantially the same as the processing system 1214 illustrated in FIG. 12, including a bus interface 1308, a bus 1302, memory 1305, a processor 1304, and a computer-readable medium 1306. Furthermore, the scheduled entity 1300 may include a user interface 1312 and a transceiver 1310):
Further, claim 40 is interpreted mutatis mutandis of claim 1 and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, HUANG teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the set of symbols comprises a set of flexible symbols (
Fig. 8, [0081] The slot format corresponds to a configuration of REs within a slot, with each RE being designated as being either for UL, DL, or, in some examples, as being flexible (can be either UL or DL).).
Regarding claim 4, HUANG teaches the method of claim 2 wherein the same one or more subbands for subband full duplex operation are configured in each of the at least a subset of the set of flexible symbols (
See [0056] An RE, which is 1 subcarrier×1 symbol.
[0081] FIG. 8 shows a sequence 800 of four consecutive slots 802, 804, 806, and 808 in a carrier configured to allow dynamic reconfiguration between slots for TDD and SBFD communication. …. a UE may determine a slot format for a given slot based on a suitable indication or configuration message provided by a base station. …..The slot format corresponds to a configuration of REs within a slot, with each RE being designated as being either for UL, DL, or, in some examples, as being flexible (can be either UL or DL)).
Regarding claim 5, HUANG teaches the method of claim 2 wherein different one or more subbands for subband full duplex operation are configured for at least two of the at least a subset of the set of flexible symbols (
See Fig. 8 slots 804, 806, [0081] cited above for claim 4.).
Regarding claim 6, HUANG teaches the method of claim 2 wherein the second information further configures a transmission direction for each of the one or more subbands for each of the at least a subset of the set of flexible symbols (
See Fig. 8 slots 804, 806, [0081, 0082], and
Fig. 16 block 1604, [0142] cited above for claims 1 and 4.).
Regarding claim 8, HUANG teaches the method of claim 6 wherein:
the same one or more subbands are configured for all of the at least a subset of flexible symbols configured for subband full duplex operation; and
for each subband of the one or more subbands, the transmission direction is the same within the subband for all of the at least a subset of the set of flexible symbols configured for subband full duplex operation (
See Fig. 8 slots 804, 806, [0081, 0082], and
Fig. 16 block 1604, [0142] cited above for claims 1 and 4.).
Regarding claim 9, HUANG teaches the method of claim 6 wherein:
the same one or more subbands are configured for all of the at least a subset of flexible symbols configured for subband full duplex operation; and
for at least one subband of the one or more subbands, the transmission direction is different within the subband for at least two of the at least a subset of the set of flexible symbols configured for subband full duplex operation (
See Fig. 7 symbols direction within subband 702 is different than symbol direction with subband 706.
See also Fig. 8 slots 804, 806, [0081, 0082] cited above for claim 4).
Regarding claim 12, HUANG teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the set of symbols comprises a set of downlink symbols (
See Fig. 7 702, 704 and Fig. 8 slots 802, 804 and 806 with PDSCH).
Regarding claim 13, HUANG teaches the method of claim 12 wherein, for each downlink symbol from the at least a subset of the set of downlink symbols within the TDD symbol pattern, the one or more subbands for subband full duplex operation within the downlink symbol consist of a single subband, wherein a transmission direction for the signal subband is the uplink direction (
See Fig. 7 Subband 706 for PUSCH with subbands 702/704 for PDSCH and Fig. 8 slots 804 and 806 with respective subbands for PUSCH and PDSCHs).
Regarding claim 14, HUANG teaches the method of claim 13 wherein resource blocks that are not part of the single subband are implicitly indicated as being one or more subbands for downlink transmission for subband full duplex operation (
See Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 as in claim 13).
Regarding claim 15, HUANG teaches the method of claim 13 wherein the received information further comprises information that indicates a guardband on either or both sides of the single subband (
See Fig. 7, guard band 708 between adjacent subbands for PDSCH 702 and PUSCH 706, and similarly guard band 710 between adjacent subbands for PDSCH 704 and PUSCH 706.
See also Fig. 6 and Fig. 8,
[0082] The second slot 804 and third slot 806 are configured utilizing SBFD in essentially the same way as described above and illustrated in FIG. 7, with DL communication at the upper and lower portions of the carrier and UL communication in between. As discussed above, the UL portion of the carrier is shown being separated from the DL portions of the carrier by suitable-bandwidth guard bands above and below the UL portion.).
Regarding claim 16, HUANG teaches the method of claim 15 wherein resource blocks that are not part of the single subband and not part of the guardband on either or both sides of the single subband are implicitly indicated as being one or more subbands for downlink transmission for subband full duplex operation (
See Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, subband, not included or not overlapped with subband for PUSCH and guardband, to be used for PDSCH).
Regarding claim 19, HUANG teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the set of symbols comprises a set of uplink symbols (
Fig. 8, symbols for slot 808 for PUSCH, or symbols in SBFD slots 804/806 associated with subband for PUSCH).
Regarding claim 20, HUANG teaches the method of claim 19 wherein, for each uplink symbol from the at least a subset of the set of uplink symbols within the TDD symbol pattern, the one or more subbands for subband full duplex operation within the uplink symbol consist of a single subband, wherein a transmission direction for the signal subband is the downlink direction (
Fig. 8, Symbols associated with SBFD slots 804/806 supporting subband for PUSCH and subband for PDSCH).
Regarding claim 21, HUANG teaches the method of claim 20 wherein resource blocks that are not part of the single subband are implicitly indicated as being one or more subbands for uplink transmission for subband full duplex operation (
Fig. 8, Symbols associated with SBFD slots 804/806 supporting subband for PUSCH and subband for PDSCH).
Regarding claim 22, HUANG teaches the method of claim 20 wherein the received information further comprises information that indicates a guardband on either or both sides of the single subband (
See Fig. 8, [0082] The second slot 804 and third slot 806 are configured utilizing SBFD ….. the UL portion of the carrier is shown being separated from the DL portions of the carrier by suitable-bandwidth guard bands above and below the UL portion.
Fig. 17, block 1704, [0151] ….. the base station may set boundary conditions for the values of RB.sub.start and L.sub.RBs such that RB.sub.start corresponds to a RB within the identified subband and the sum RB.sub.start+L.sub.RBs does not exceed the length (in RBs) of the corresponding identified subband. Such boundary conditions may prevent conflict or overlap with other subbands.).
Regarding claim 23, HUANG teaches the method of claim 22 wherein resource blocks that are not part of the single subband and not part of the guardband on either or both sides of the single subband are implicitly indicated as being one or more subbands for uplink transmission for subband full duplex operation (
See Fig. 7 or Fig. 8 or [0142 or 0151]).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 20210377938 A1, of IDS, hereinafter ‘HUANG’ in view of Dimou et al. (WO 2022066661 A1, of IDS, hereinafter ‘DIMOU’).
Regarding claim 3, HUANG teaches the method of claim 2 wherein receiving the information comprises:
receiving a cell-specific TDD downlink-uplink configuration that comprises the first information (
Fig. 16, at block 1602 the UE receives information indicating slot format configuration); and
receiving a UE-specific configuration that comprises the second information (
[0064] The PDCCH may carry downlink control information (DCI) for one or more UEs in a cell.
See Fig. 7 DCI, PDSCH 702 & 704, PUSCH 706.
See also [0151] At block 1704, the UE receives a control message (e.g., DCI) using the transceiver that includes a Type 1 resource allocation for a given transmission direction (e.g., either a UL transmission to be sent by the UE using the transceiver or a DL transmission to be received by the UE via the transceiver). For example, the control message may include a subband index indicator and one or more RIVs that define the Type 1 resource allocation. ).
HUANG does not explicitly disclose receiving a cell-specific TDD downlink-uplink configuration that comprises the first information.
In an analogous art, DIMOU teaches receiving a cell-specific TDD downlink-uplink configuration that comprises the first information (
[0046] In other examples, full-duplex communication may be implemented within unpaired spectrum (e.g., within a single carrier bandwidth), where transmissions in different directions occur within different sub-bands of the carrier bandwidth. This type of full-duplex communication may be referred to as sub-band full-duplex (SBFD), also known as flexible full-duplex.
[0076] In dynamic TDD scheduling, a UE may be scheduled with DCI in the PDCCH. Additionally, in systems utilizing semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), a UE may be provided with (1) a cell specific slot format configuration (e.g., tdd-UL-DL- ConfigurationCommon); (2) a dedicated slot format configuration (e.g., tdd-UL-DL- ConfigurationDedicated); or (3) a slot format through DCI. ….. According to TS 38.213, if a UE is additionally provided with the tdd-UL-DL- ConfigurationDedicated parameter, the parameter tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated overrides only flexible symbols per slot over the number of slots as provided by tdd-UL- DL-ConfigurationCommon.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of providing SBFD configuration and cell-specific slot format combined with dedicated or UE-specific configuration for flexible symbols of a TDD slot to UE of DIMOU to the systems using a subband full duplex carrier of HUANG in order to take the advantage of a method for improving the spectrum efficiency (DIMOU: [0003, 0046, 0076]).
Claim 32 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 20210377938 A1, of IDS, hereinafter ‘HUANG’ in view of Abotabl et al. (US 20210352667 A1, of IDS, hereinafter ‘ABOTABL’).
Regarding claim 32, HUANG teaches the method of claim 1.
HUANG does not explicitly disclose performing one or more actions to handle one or more downlink signals or one or more downlink channels that overlap at least one of the one or more subbands configured for uplink transmission for subband full duplex operation within at least one symbol and/or overlap at least one guard band configured on either side of at least one of the one or more subbands configured for uplink transmission for subband full duplex operation within at least one symbol.
In analogous art, ABOTABL teaches performing one or more actions to handle one or more downlink signals or one or more downlink channels that overlap at least one of the one or more subbands configured for uplink transmission for subband full duplex operation within at least one symbol and/or overlap at least one guard band configured on either side of at least one of the one or more subbands configured for uplink transmission for subband full duplex operation within at least one symbol (
Fig. 5, [0022] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of in-band full-duplex (IBFD) communication according to some embodiments.
Fig. 6, [0023] FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) communication according to some embodiments.
Fig. 13 Blocks 1308, 1310, [0137] At block 1308, the scheduled entity 106 may determine whether the DL grant message overlaps in frequency (e.g., partially or fully) with the resources designated as not available for DL transmission. In an example, the scheduled entity 106 may determine whether any portion of the DL resource allocation for the slot (e.g., the DL grant message) overlaps with resources designated as unavailable for DL communication (e.g., over the SBFD wireless carrier). Alternatively, as described above, the scheduled entity 106 may make this determination when communicating over a wireless carrier by disregarding any portion of the DL grant message that overlaps with the resources designated as unavailable for DL transmission. In an example, block 1308 may represent an optional item (e.g., a descriptive item, or presumably factual item of the particular communication used for the example illustration). In an example, the item may be shown for illustration purposes to show that an overlapping portion may be present in certain instances. This block 1308 may further be shown as included in the example flow chart to indicate how one or more of the various techniques of this disclosure may apply to address certain DL information related to the overlapping portion. As described herein, the techniques of this disclosure address certain DL information related to the overlapping portion in a manner that seeks to avoid portions of the DL transmission from interfering with portions of a UL transmission, when a scheduled entity 106 is utilizing a particular wireless carrier to communicate with a scheduling entity 108.
[0138] If the DL grant message overlaps with the resources designated as unavailable for DL transmission, then at block 1310, the scheduled entity 106 may disregard REs located within the overlapping portion of the DL grant message. In this way, the scheduled entity 106 may disregard information of the DL grant message corresponding to the UL portion of the slot. In an example, the scheduled entity 106 may communicate over an SBFD wireless carrier utilizing the slot while disregarding (e.g., ignoring, forgoing to process, omitting, discarding, excluding, etc.) REs received in the overlapping portion of the DL grant message (e.g., information related to the overlapping portion). That is, the scheduled entity 106 may communicate over the wireless carrier utilizing the slot format (e.g., using the slot on the carrier configured according to the slot format) while disregarding information related to (e.g., that falls within) the overlapping portion.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of resource allocation (e.g., frequency allocation in a slot, such as SBFD slot) of ABOTABLE to the systems using a subband full duplex carrier of HUANG in order to take the advantage of a method for mitigate potential interference scenarios improving device performance and system throughput (ABOTABL: [0002]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Harada et al. (US 20250097917 A1), describing TERMINAL, RADIO COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BASE STATION
Abotabl et al. (US 20230354300 A1), describing UE BEHAVIOR WITH REFERENCE SIGNALS IN A FULL-DUPLEX SYMBOL
Rudolf et al. (US 20230276438 A1), describing UPLINK TRANSMISSION IN FULL-DUPLEX SYSTEMS
Abotabl et al. (US 20230224942 A1), describing SYMBOL LEVEL INTERLEAVING IN FULL-DUPLEX SLOTS
Kim et al. (US 20230007641 A1), describing METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SUBBAND DUPLEX OPERATION
Lei et al. (US 20220007395 A1), describing SLOT FORMAT INDICATOR (SFI) ENHANCEMENT FOR SUB-BAND FULL-DUPLEX
Abotabl et al. (US 20210400637 A1), describing SCHEDULED ENTITY BEHAVIOR IN FULL-DUPLEX SLOT FORMAT
Yi et al. (US 20190089502 A1), describing A COMMUNICATION METHOD OF USING FULL DUPLEX IN NR
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/SHAH M RAHMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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