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 (IDSs) submitted on 10/14/2024 and 04/17/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yuan et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0129101 (hereinafter Yuan).
Regarding Claim 1, Yuan teaches a method for transmitting/receiving data by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (“a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE)” – See [¶0005] whereby “devices of wireless network 100 may communicate using an operating band having a first frequency range (FR1), which may span from 410 MHz to 7.125 GHz, and/or may communicate using an operating band having a second frequency range (FR2), which may span from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz” – See [¶0037] and Fig. 1), the method comprising:
receiving first configuration information about a full-duplex communication mode1 (“communicating in the full duplex communication mode comprises rate matching based at least in part on the at least one rate matching configuration” – See id.; see also 3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP 38.331) specifying, at page 854-856 the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon RRC Information Element (IE) that “determines the cell specific Uplink/Downlink TDD configuration” indicating, for each of the FR1 and FR2, the supported referenceSubcarrierSpacing (SCS) that are “[r]eference SCS used to determine the time domain boundaries in the UL-DL pattern which must be common across all subcarrier specific carriers” and the TDD-UL-DL-Pattern for UL/DL slots and symbols per slot, whereby the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon is indicated, e.g., broadcasted, as part of ServingCellConfigCommon IE used to configure cell specific parameters of a UE's serving cell, as described infra; see also id., at page 789-790, the SCS-SpecificCarrier IE, specifying the parameter subcarrierSpacing (SCS) for FR1, FR2);
receiving resource allocation information for allocating a radio resource for uplink transmission in a predetermined frequency band (“the UE 120 may receive, a downlink control information (DCI) transmission that includes a rate matching indicator field” whereby “the DCI transmission may include one or more resource allocations,” e.g., “the DCI is a DCI scheduling an uplink transmission, and the rate matching indicator field in the DCI may select at least one out of the multiple rate match patterns configured for the UE 120 to be rate matched in scheduled uplink transmission” – See [¶0069] and Fig. 5 wherein the DCI 510, transmitted by the NR base station 110, schedules uplink resources 540 and also indicates rate matching around DL resources 525); and
performing uplink transmission in the full-duplex communication mode based on the first configuration information and the resource allocation information (“The rate matching indicator field may indicate a set of rate matching resources for dynamically scheduled physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, and the rate matching indicator may be configured to indicate downlink resources and/or a downlink numerology, among other examples. In this way, the UE 120 may precode the uplink resources for uplink transmissions to facilitate rate matching around the downlink resources, and/or the UE 120 may determine coding rates and resources to match the downlink numerology in cases in which the uplink numerology is different than the downlink numerology” – See [¶0069] e.g., when the downlink numerology, i.e., SCS infra, may be in the FR1 band and the uplink numerology is in the FR2 band),
wherein the resource allocation information is received from a first radio access technology (RAT) base station (the NR “base station 110 may transmit and the UE 120 may receive, [the] downlink control information (DCI) transmission that includes a rate matching indicator field” and “the DCI transmission may include one or more resource allocations . . . for dynamically scheduled physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions” – See [¶0069] and Fig. 5 wherein the base station shown is an NR base station with a RAT working in FR1 and FR2), and
wherein the frequency band is a frequency band where a radio resource for downlink transmission is allocated by a second radio access technology base station (a “wireless network may support a particular RAT and may operate on one or more frequencies,” e.g., FR1 and/or FR2 explained supra, but “[e]ach frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs” – See [¶0035]; furthermore, “[t]he UE 120 may receive the [downlink rate matching] indication from . . . another base station (not shown)” in Fig. 5– See [¶0066], e.g., the not shown base station is a LTE RAT base station working in FR1, whereby “communicating according to a rate matching configuration may include rate matching around resources such that a communication may be transmitted and/or received using a first numerology in a manner that can be communicated in accordance with a second numerology,” e.g., “the UE 120 may determine that an uplink communication channel has a first numerology,” e.g., µ=2 (SCS 60KHz), i.e., FR1 or FR2, corresponding to the base station 110 in Fig. 5, e.g., an NR base station, “and may determine that a downlink communication channel has a second numerology that is different from the first numerology” e.g., µ=0 (SCS 15KHz), i.e., FR1, corresponding to the other base station not shown in Fig. 5, e.g., an LTE base station – See [¶0074] e.g., because “a parameter, lte-CRS-ToMatchAround carried in a configuration such as a ServingCellConfig” was obtained from the other, LTE, base station – See [¶0068]).
Therefore, Claim 1 is anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding claim 2, dependent from Claim 1, Yuan further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising receiving second configuration information for instructing puncturing or rate matching for the radio resource used for downlink transmission of the second radio access technology base station (“a parameter, lte-CRS-ToMatchAround carried in a configuration such as a ServingCellConfig or a ServingCellConfigCommon, [that] may indicate the at least one rate matching configuration” for downlink – See [¶0068]; see also 3GPP TS 38.331 specifying, at page 805-812 the ServingCellConfig RRC Information Element (IE) “used to configure (add or modify) the UE with a serving cell, which may be the SpCell or an SCell of an MCG or SCG,” defining lte-CRS-ToMatchAround as “Parameters to determine an LTE CRS pattern that the UE shall rate match around,” i.e., the NR RAT at the first base station 110 shown in Fig. 5 may configure a NR cell for rate matching around the downlink reference signals of the other, LTE RAT base station, not shown in Fig. 5 whereby “the UE 120 may obtain the at least one downlink configuration by receiving an indication of the at least one downlink configuration . . . from . . . another base station (not shown)” – See [¶0066] e.g., “The indication of the at least one downlink configuration may be included in a serving cell configuration that indicates a CRS, which is related to a CRS pattern in an LTE cell.” – See [¶0068]; see also 3GPP TS 36.331 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 36.331) specifying, at page 581-592, the PhysicalConfigDedicated IE “used to specify the UE specific physical channel configuration” including csi-RS-Config and csi-RS-ConfigZP-ApList parameters used “for PDSCH rate matching”)
Therefore, Claim 2 is anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding claim 3, dependent from Claim 2, further teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the downlink transmission of the second radio access technology base station includes transmission of at least one of a synchronization signal, system information, and a cell-specific reference signal (“the at least one rate matching configuration may include . . . one or more periodic reference signal configuration corresponding to a CSI-RS, . . . in a serving cell configuration that indicates a CRS, which is related to a CRS pattern in an LTE cell,”– See [¶0068] i.e., as scheduled by the second RAT base station and explained supra and shown as resources 535 in Fig. 5).
Therefore, Claim 3 is anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding claim 4, dependent from Claim 2, Yuan further teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the second configuration information for instructing puncturing or rate matching further includes information for instructing rate matching on a radio resource adjacent to the radio resource used for downlink transmission of the second radio access technology base station (e.g., as shown in Fig. 5, the NR base station 510 scheduling “a resource allocation 530 may include a set of dedicated downlink rate matching resources 535 that the UE 120 may rate match around for transmitting uplink resources 540” – See [¶0070] wherein the uplink resource 540 is adjacent to the downlink resource 535 and the two resources may be slot level or symbol level TTIs adjacent in time; in addition, “the UE 120 may blank out at least one of a tone adjacent to the rate matching pattern or a symbol adjacent to the rate matching pattern to prevent and/or reduce inter-tone leakage” whereby “one or more blanking parameters may be obtained from the base station 110 via an RRC configuration and/or a numerology-specific blanking parameter table” – See [¶0075]).
Therefore, Claim 4 is anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding claim 5, dependent from Claim 1, further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising
receiving third configuration information for instructing puncturing or rate matching for a radio resource used for downlink transmission of the first radio access technology base station (a “downlink configuration may include a rate matching pattern indication value of a parameter rateMatchPattemToAddModList, which may be provided as part of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) configuration (e.g., provided using a PDSCH Config parameter)” so that “the UE 120 may be configured with multiple rate match patterns” by “by receiving a PDSCH configuration that includes the rate match pattern list” – See [¶0067], i.e., a third configuration information from the NR RAT base station, whereby 3GPP TS 38.331 specifies at page 668-675, the PDSCH-Config IE in NR “used to configure the UE specific PDSCH parameters” including rateMatchPattemToAddModList parameter that indicates “Resources patterns which the UE should rate match PDSCH around. The UE rate matches around the union of all resources indicated in the rate match patterns (see TS 38.214 [19], clause 5.1.4.1)”; see also §5.1.4.1, 3GPP TS 38.214 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.214) stating, at page 38 that an “UE may be configured with any of the following higher layer parameters indicating REs declared as not available for PDSCH: rateMatchPatternToAddModList given by PDSCH-Config, by ServingCellConfig or by ServingCellConfigCommon, . . and configuring up to 4 RateMatchPattern(s) per BWP and up to 4 RateMatchPattern(s) per serving-cell”).
Therefore, Claim 5 is anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding Claim 6, Yuan teaches a method for transmitting/receiving data by a base station in a wireless communication system (“a method of wireless communication performed by a base station (BS) includes obtaining an indication of at least one rate matching configuration; and communicating in a full duplex communication mode” – See [¶0006]), the method comprising:
transmitting first configuration information about a full-duplex communication mode (“NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed” – See [¶0035] whereby “devices of wireless network 100 may communicate using an operating band having a first frequency range (FR1), which may span from 410 MHz to 7.125 GHz, and/or may communicate using an operating band having a second frequency range (FR2), which may span from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz” – see [¶0037] and using “rate matching for full duplex communications” when “a base station 110 and a UE 120 . . . communicate with one another” – See [¶0064] and Fig. 5, wherein “the base station 110 may transmit the at least one rate matching configuration to the UE 120 using a radio resource control (RRC) message . . . based at least in part on a wireless communication standard” – See [¶0065], e.g. “a parameter, lte-CRS-ToMatchAround carried in a configuration such as a ServingCellConfig or a ServingCellConfigCommon, may indicate the at least one rate matching configuration” – See [¶0068] whereby ServingCellConfig and ServingCellConfigCommon are NR specific RRC IEs defined in 3GPP TS 38.331, as explained supra);
transmitting resource allocation information for allocating a radio resource for uplink reception in a predetermined frequency band; and performing uplink reception in the full-duplex communication mode based on the first configuration information and the resource allocation information wherein the resource allocation information is received from a first radio access technology (RAT) base station (a “DCI transmission may include one or more resource allocations” whereby “ the DCI is a DCI scheduling an uplink transmission, and the rate matching indicator field in the DCI may select at least one out of the multiple rate match patterns configured for the UE 120 to be rate matched in scheduled uplink transmission” – See [¶0069] and Fig. 5 wherein the NR RAT base station transmits the DCI 510 indicating “the first numerology for uplink may be a 30 Khz numerology” – See [¶0074], i.e., and indication to rate match the uplink resources around the lte-CRS-ToMatchAroun2d indication in the first configuration information supra), and
wherein the frequency band is a frequency band where a radio resource for downlink transmission is allocated by a second radio access technology base station (e.g., the LTE base station from which the NR base station “obtain[s] an indication of at least one rate matching configuration” – See [¶0006] provides “numerology for downlink may be a 15 Khz numerology” and “the first numerology for uplink may be a 30 Khz numerology”– See [¶0074], i.e., FR1 band numerology, while resources for LTE CRS transmissions are also allocated in the FR1 band, as specified by the SCS-SpecificCarrier RRC IE and explained supra).
Therefore, Claim 6 is anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding Claims 7-10, dependent from Claim 6, they merely recite the same limitations as Claims 2-5, respectively, only from the perspective of a base station. Because each of the claims 2-6 is anticipated by Yuan, Claims 7-10 are anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding Claim 11, teaches a user equipment (UE) transmitting/receiving data in a wireless communication system, comprising:
a transmitter; a receiver; and a controller configured to control an operation of the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the controller receives first configuration information about a full-duplex communication mode (“a UE for wireless communication includes a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory, configured to: obtain an indication of at least one rate matching configuration; and communicate in a full duplex communication mode, wherein the one or more processors, to communicate in the full duplex communication mode, are configured to rate match based at least in part on the at least one rate matching configuration” – See [¶0007]) with the limitations recited in Claim 1 using the same language. Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Yuan, Claim 11 is also anticipated by Yuan.
Regarding Claims 12-15, dependent from Claim 11, they merely recite the same limitations as Claims 2-5, respectively, only from the perspective of the controller of the UE in the method of Claim 1. Because each of the claims 2-5 and 11 is anticipated by Yuan, each of the Claims 12-15 is anticipated by Yuan.
In sum, Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §102(a)(2) as anticipated by Yuan
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Xu et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0273742 discloses rate matching between uplink and downlink channels for full-duplex communications;
Abotabl et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0295549 discloses fullduplex communications through rate matching and LBT;
Abotabl et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0298026 discloses fullduplex communications through rate matching;
Zhang, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0112503 discloses puncturing and rate matching in the context of interference measurement for flexible duplex communication;
Rudolf et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0292294 discloses sub-band full duplex transmission;
Kim et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0007641 discloses sub-band full duplex transmission;
3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 36.331 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.214 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.423 V17.0.0 (2022-04), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NG-RAN; Xn application protocol (XnAP) (Release 17)”.
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/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1 The Specification broadly defines “configuration information about a full-duplex communication mode” as “the configuration information about the full-duplex communication mode may include configuration information for full-duplex communication, such as information about a predetermined frequency band including a plurality
of resource blocks used in the full-duplex communication mode” – See [¶0107] stating that “there is a need for a method for efficiently multiplexing a radio resource unit based on different numerologies from other (e.g., subcarrier spacing, subframe, Transmission Time Interval (TTI), etc.)” – See [¶0004], therefore a scenario based on mixed SCSs and TDD for UL/DL would have been within the understanding of a person of ordinary skill sin the art in light of the present Specification.
2 A person of ordinary skills in the art would also consult §§ 9.2.2.33-35, 3GPP TS 38.423 V17.0.0 (2022-04), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NG-RAN; Xn application protocol (XnAP) (Release 17)” specifying, at page 263-268 for the UL/DL coordination information messages between an NR base station and a LTE base station over the X2/Xn interface.
Prosecution Insights