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 § 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.
Claims 1, 3, 7, 11, 13, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ABOTABL et al. (20230042490 A1) in view of Etemad (US 20120063358 A1).
ABOTABL et al. discloses a wireless communication comprising: regarding claim 1, receiving, by the processor ([0156], “the reception component 702 may include…a receive processor, a controller/processor, a memory, or a combination thereof, of the UE described in connection with FIG. 2”), one or more bandwidth part (BWP) configurations from the network node, wherein each of the one or more BWP configuration indicates a BWP comprising one or more radio resource clusters ([0062] the UE 120 may receive a configuration for an aggregate component carrier. The aggregate component carrier may include a combination of multiple component carriers having a same configuration; [0063] “the configuration for the aggregate component carrier may indicate one or more attributes of the aggregate component carrier. In some implementations, the one or more attributes may include ….. a bandwidth part (BWP) associated with the aggregate component carrier, among other examples”; [0070] “the one or more BWPs may be associated with the multiple component carriers. For example, the multiple component carriers may include a first component carrier associated with a first BWP and a second component carrier associated with a second BWP, and the aggregate component carrier may be configured with the first BWP and/or the second BWP”; Examiner notes that the first and second BWPs, each associating with a respective CC, are the claimed radio resource clusters), each of which comprises a set of physically contiguous radio resources within one of the CCs (FIG. 3F, CC1 comprises a set of contiguous radio resources timeslots 355, 360, 365); performing, by the processor, a carrier aggregation within the cell based on the CC configurations and the one or more BWP configurations ([0087] “the UE 120 may perform an HD communication utilizing the aggregate component carrier based at least in part on operating in the aggregate component carrier. In some implementations, the UE 120 may receive an indication while operating in the aggregate component carrier. The UE 120 may switch from operating in the aggregate component carrier to operating in the multiple component carriers based on the indication”; [0067] “the user device may determine one or more attributes of the aggregate component carrier based at least in part on the configuration for the aggregate component carrier”; [0068] “the UE 120 may determine one or more attributes of the aggregate component carrier based at least in part on one or more attributes of the multiple component carriers”; [0063] “the configuration for the aggregate component carrier may indicate one or more attributes of the aggregate component carrier….. the one or more attributes may include … a bandwidth part (BWP) associated with the aggregate component carrier”).
ABOTABL et al. does not disclose, but Etemad discloses: receiving, by a processor of an apparatus, a cell configuration from a network node of a wireless network ([0042], “The eNode B can communicate configuration information about each component carrier to the UEs that are being served by the eNode B. When the UE receives this information, each alternative component carrier can be treated as a configured component carrier”; [0084] The eNode B 510 can then communicate 526 to the UE specific carrier configuration information), wherein the cell configuration comprises a plurality of component carrier (CC) configurations, each of which is corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of CCs associated with a cell ([0042], “Component Carriers are typically configured as DL and UL component carrier pairs. Each component carrier pair, and its corresponding resources, can be referred to as a serving cell for the UE. Thus, component carrier configuration may also be considered as cell configuration”; [0044] “The component carrier configuration information can include radio layer information for the uplink and downlink for each component carrier (cell). For example, the information can include details regarding the UL and DL component carriers' center frequency, bandwidth, duplex mode, and eNode B specific carrier index”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of ABOTABL et al. by the teachings of Etemad; in order to enable efficient carrier aggregation based on the appropriate component carrier and BWP configurations.
Claim 11 recites claim 1 in apparatus form. The claim 1 limitations are met for the reasons discussed above. To the extent claim 11 recites a transceiver which, during operation, wirelessly communicates with a network node of a wireless network; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver such that, during operation, the processor performs operations, these additional limitations are taught by ABOTABL et al. ([0047], “the UE 120 includes a transceiver. The transceiver may include any combination of the antenna(s) 252, the modem(s) 254, the MIMO detector 256, the receive processor 258, the transmit processor 264, and/or the TX MIMO processor 266 …. The transceiver may be used by a processor (e.g., the controller/processor 280) and the memory 282 to perform aspects of any of the methods described herein ”).
Regarding claims 3, 13, ABOTABL et al. does not disclose, but Etemad discloses: wherein each of the CC configurations indicates a frequency location and a bandwidth size of a respective one of the CCs ([0044] The component carrier configuration information can include radio layer information for the uplink and downlink for each component carrier (cell). For example, the information can include details regarding the UL and DL component carriers' center frequency, bandwidth, duplex mode, and eNode B specific carrier index). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of ABOTABL et al. by the teachings of Etemad; in order to precisely define the carrier resources for proper aggregation and scheduling.
Regarding claims 7 and 17, ABOTABL et al. discloses: receiving, by the processor, time-division duplexing (TDD) configurations from the network node, wherein each of the TDD configuration is associated with a respective one of the radio resource clusters and indicates which slot or orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols of a slot in a radio frame is or are configured for downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) ([0057]” In some cases, a group of component carriers for a time slot may be allocated for UL or DL transmissions. For example, for time slot 355, CC1, CC2, and CC3 are allocated for DL transmissions. As another example, for time slot 360, CC1 and CC3 are allocated for DL transmissions. As yet another example, for time slot 365, CC1, CC2, and CC3 are allocated for UL transmissions”; [0077], “a radio resource control (RRC) configuration may indicate a mapping between one or more attributes of the aggregate component carrier and one or more attributes of a component carrier, of the multiple component carriers”).
Claims 2, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ABOTABL et al. (20230042490 A1) in view of Etemad (US 20120063358 A1) as applied to claims 1, 11 above, and further in view of DAI et al. (US 20230072549 A1).
ABOTABL et al. in view of Etemad disclose the claimed limitation above. ABOTABL et al. and Etemad do not disclose, but DAI et al. discloses: regarding claims 2, 12, wherein the radio resource clusters of the BWP share a subcarrier spacing (SCS) and a cyclic prefix (CP) ([0091] “FIG. 7 illustrates a BWP 700 that is configured with multiple sub-BWPs 702, 704, 706, 708. The sub-BWPs 702, 704, 706, 708 may be defined at different frequency locations within the BWP 700. The sub-BWPs 702, 704, 706, 708 may be configured with the same bandwidth. Each sub-BWP 702, 704, 706, 708 retains the numerology (SCS and CP length) of the BWP 700, such that the sub-BWPs 702, 704, 706, 708 have a common numerology”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of ABOTABL et al. and Etemad by the teachings of DAI et al.; in order to simplify implementation and ensure consistent transmission and reception across the BWP.
Claims 4-6, 10, 14-16, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ABOTABL et al. (20230042490 A1) in view of Etemad (US 20120063358 A1) as applied to claims 1, 11 above, and further in view of Liao (US 20200221308 A1).
ABOTABL et al. in view of Etemad disclose the claimed limitation above. ABOTABL et al. and Etemad do not disclose, but Liao discloses: regarding claims 4, 14, wherein the BWP is an initial DL BWP provided by a synchronization signal block (SSB) in a case that the BWP comprises only one radio resource cluster ([0033], “The initial DL BWP defined by the essential DL CORESET (e.g. CORESET #0) shall be a single-cluster BWP… one of the radio resource clusters within the initial DL BWP shall contain the essential DL CORESET (e.g. CORESET #0) and synchronization signal block (SSB)”); regarding claims 5, 15, wherein the BWP is an initial DL BWP provided by system information in a case that the BWP comprises only one radio resource cluster or multiple radio resource clusters ([0033], “The initial DL BWP configured in the essential SIBs by the network can be either a single-cluster DL BWP or multi-cluster DL BWP”); regarding claims 6, 16, wherein the BWP is an initial UL BWP provided by system information in a case that the BWP comprises only one radio resource cluster or multiple radio resource clusters ([0033], “The initial UL BWP configured in the essential SIBs by the network can be either a single-cluster UL BWP or a multi-cluster UL BWP”); regarding claims 10, 20, wherein one of the radio resource clusters overlaps another one of the radio resource clusters ([0030], “The radio resource clusters within a BWP can either overlap with or orthogonal to each other in frequency domain”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of ABOTABL et al. and Etemad by the teachings of Liao; in order to enable reliable initial access, reduce signaling overhead.
Claims 9, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ABOTABL et al. (20230042490 A1) in view of Etemad (US 20120063358 A1) as applied to claims 1, 11 above, and further in view of Abotabl et al. (US 20220086029 A1).
ABOTABL et al. (20230042490 A1) in view of Etemad (US 20120063358 A1) disclose the claimed limitation above. They do not disclose, but Abotabl et al. (US 20220086029 A1) discloses: regarding claims 9, 19, wherein one of the CCs is configured with a sub-band full duplex mode in a case that more than one of the radio resource clusters is located in the one of the CCs and is associated with multiple TDD configurations ([0084], “FIG. 4C shows an example of sub-band full duplex, wherein uplink signal 401 of the full duplex mode overlaps downlink signal 402 in time, but not in frequency”; [0096], “One or more slot format information messages, such as provided in DCI fields, may be used to indicate the number of RB sets, the slot formats, etc. of a full duplex BWP configuration to a UE on a serving cell. As one example, the RBs of RB set 0 and RB set 3 may be configured for downlink symbols according to a full duplex slot configuration, and RBs of RB set 1 and RB set 2 may be configured for uplink symbols according to the full duplex slot configuration”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of ABOTABL et al. (20230042490 A1)and Etemad (US 20120063358 A1) by the teachings of Abotabl et al. (US 20220086029 A1); in order to support flexible duplex operation and improve coexistence of different transmission patterns.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 and 18 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chou et al. (US 20180183551 A1) discloses a method for signaling radio access network (RAN) profile index.
Li et al. (US 11019610 B2) discloses various methods and apparatuses for communicating, controlling, and configuring component carrier and bandwidth part (BWP).
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KWANG B. YAO
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2473
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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