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 .
This office action is a response to an application filed on 10/29/2024 in which claims 1-10 and 19 are pending. Claims 11-18 and 20 were canceled.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 12/30/2024 and 07/15/2026 have been considered by the examiner. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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 1-4, 6, 9-10 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2022/0132550), hereinafter “Yu” in view of Guan et al. (US 2021/0153209), hereinafter “Guan”.
As to claim 1, Yu teaches a user equipment (UE) (Yu, Fig. 2, [0082]-[0083], a UE), comprising:
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions (Yu, Fig. 2, [0089], the UE includes a memory 234 that stores a computer-readable and/or computer-executable program 232 (e.g., software codes) that are configured to, when executed, cause the processor 228 to perform various functions disclosed herein, for example, with reference to FIG. 1); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium and configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the UE to (Yu, Fig. 2, [0089], the UE includes the processor 228 executes the software codes stored in the memory 234 executes to perform the functions of the UE):
receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration that configures, to the UE, a plurality of Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) fields (Yu, [0041], “A first set of TCI states may be configured by RRC”, [0042], “A second set of TCI states may be configured by RRC”, Fig. 1, [0076], “In action 102, the UE may receive a first configuration for configuring a plurality of first Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states”, [0078], “the UE may further receive a second configuration for configuring a second TCI state”);
receive a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) that activates at least one TCI state associated with the plurality of TCI fields (Yu, Fig. 1, [0077], “In action 104, the UE may receive a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) for activating one or more first TCI states from the plurality of first TCI states”, [0078], “the MAC-CE received in action 104 may further be used to indicate to the UE the second TCI state”);
receive a downlink control information (DCI) message including a plurality of DCI fields that is associated with the received RRC configuration and that indicates at least one first TCI state among the activated at least one TCI state (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “In action 106, the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”, [0079], “a PUCCH resource determined by another one field in the first DCI in response to the reception of the first DCI”); and
perform, based on the indicated at least one first TCI state, at least one downlink reception (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”) or at least one uplink transmission (Yu, Fig. 1, [0080], “In action 110, the UE may transmit the at least one PUCCH and the at least one PUSCH based on a spatial transmitter (TX) parameter derived according to the indicated first TCI state after transmitting the HARQ-ACK”).
Yu teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Yu does not explicitly teach the following underlined features: regarding claim 1, receive, from a base station (BS), a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration;
receive, from the BS, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE);
receive, from the BS, a downlink control information (DCI) message.
However, Guan teaches receive, from a base station (BS), a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration (Guan, [0108], the network device is a base station (eNB, NB, HNB, etc.). Fig. 5, [0206], “the network device may indicate a TCI state list to the terminal device by using the RRC message, and the TCI state list may include a plurality of TCI states…step 302: The network device sends the RRC message, where the RRC message includes the TCI state list, and the TCI state list includes the plurality of TCI states. Correspondingly, in step 302, the terminal device receives the RRC message”);
receive, from the BS, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) (Guan, Fig. 5, [0207], “the network device may indicate an activated TCI state to the terminal device by using the MAC CE…step 303: The terminal device receives a plurality of MAC CEs”);
receive, from the BS, a downlink control information (DCI) message (Guan, Fig. 5, [0273], “step 306: The network device sends a TCI, where the TCI is used to indicate a selected TCI state. Correspondingly, in step 306, the terminal device receives the TCI”, [0275], “the TCI may be carried in DCI. That is, step 306 specifically includes: The network device sends the DCI, where the DCI includes the TCI, and the TCI is used to indicate the selected TCI state. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the DCI, where the DCI includes the TCI, and the TCI is used to indicate the selected TCI state”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jang to have the features, as taught by Guan, in order to help a receive end and a transmit end use a paired receive beam and transmit beam to receive and send a signal, thereby helping improve signal transmission quality (Guan, [0006]).
As to claim 2, Yu teaches wherein the DCI message corresponds to a DCI format scheduling the at least one downlink reception (Yu, [0078], “The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”, “”) or the at least one uplink transmission (Yu, [0079], “the UE may transmit a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request-Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) on a PUCCH resource determined by another one field in the first DCI in response to the reception of the first DCI”).
As to claim 3, Yu teaches wherein the MAC CE comprises more than one MAC CE field (Yu, [0058], “The common beam indication may provide one or more beam information. For example, when M>1, the common beam indication may include up to M pieces of beam information. This may be applicable for the MAC-CE-based indication and the DCI-based indication”) for activating the at least one TCI state (Yu, Fig. 1, [0077], “In action 104, the UE may receive a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) for activating one or more first TCI states from the plurality of first TCI states”) for a plurality of Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) downlink receptions or a plurality of TRP uplink transmissions (Yu, [0053], “M>1 may find its application in, for example, a multi-Transmission Reception Point (TRP) scenario”, [0058], “The beam information may be provided in the form of a TRP-related index (value), e.g., CORESETPoolIndex”, [0078], PDSCH, [0080], PUCCH and PUSCH. Multiple pieces of beam information is provided in the MAC CE for the multi-TRP scenario, where transmissions are performed in the PDSCH, PUCCH and PUSCH).
As to claim 4, Yu teaches wherein the indicated at least one first TCI state comprises a Downlink (DL) TCI state (Yu, [0078], “the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”, “The second TCI state may be applied only for receiving a PDSCH scheduled by second DCI”), an Uplink (UL) TCI state (Yu, [0080], “the UE may transmit the at least one PUCCH and the at least one PUSCH based on a spatial transmitter (TX) parameter derived according to the indicated first TCI”), or a joint TCI state.
As to claim 6, Yu teaches wherein the MAC CE is different from another MAC CE that is for activating at least one second TCI state for a single TRP operation (Yu, [0053], M=1 may be restricted to a single-TRP scenario and M>1 may find its application in, for example, a multi-Transmission Reception Point (TRP) scenario. [0058], “For example, when M>1, the common beam indication may include up to M pieces of beam information. This may be applicable for the MAC-CE-based indication and the DCI-based indication”. The MAC CE used for multi-TRP scenario (M>1) includes M pieces of beam information, which is different from the only one piece of beam information in the MAC CE used for a single-TRP scenario (M=1)).
As to claim 9, Yu teaches wherein;
the at least one uplink transmission comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or an uplink (UL) reference signal transmission (Yu, Fig. 1, [0080], “In action 110, the UE may transmit the at least one PUCCH and the at least one PUSCH based on a spatial transmitter (TX) parameter derived according to the indicated first TCI state after transmitting the HARQ-ACK”, and
the at least one downlink reception comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a control resource set (CORESET), or a downlink (DL) reference signal reception (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”).
As to claim 10, Yu teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) for communicating based on an indicated Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state, the method comprising (Yu, Fig. 1, [0075]-[0076], Fig. 2, [0082]-[0083], a UE performing a method for UL transmissions based on TCI states):
receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration that configures, to the UE, a plurality of Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) fields (Yu, [0041], “A first set of TCI states may be configured by RRC”, [0042], “A second set of TCI states may be configured by RRC”, Fig. 1, [0076], “In action 102, the UE may receive a first configuration for configuring a plurality of first Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states”, [0078], “the UE may further receive a second configuration for configuring a second TCI state”);
receiving a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) that activates at least one TCI state associated with the plurality of TCI fields (Yu, Fig. 1, [0077], “In action 104, the UE may receive a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) for activating one or more first TCI states from the plurality of first TCI states”, [0078], “the MAC-CE received in action 104 may further be used to indicate to the UE the second TCI state”);
receiving a downlink control information (DCI) message including a plurality of DCI fields that is associated with the received RRC configuration and that indicates at least one first TCI state among the activated at least one TCI state (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “In action 106, the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”, [0079], “a PUCCH resource determined by another one field in the first DCI in response to the reception of the first DCI”); and
performing, based on the indicated at least one first TCI state, at least one downlink reception (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”) or at least one uplink transmission (Yu, Fig. 1, [0080], “In action 110, the UE may transmit the at least one PUCCH and the at least one PUSCH based on a spatial transmitter (TX) parameter derived according to the indicated first TCI state after transmitting the HARQ-ACK”).
Yu teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Yu does not explicitly teach the following underlined features: regarding claim 10, receiving, from a base station (BS), a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration;
receiving, from the BS, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE);
receiving, from the BS, a downlink control information (DCI) message.
However, Guan teaches receive, from a base station (BS), a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration (Guan, [0108], the network device is a base station (eNB, NB, HNB, etc.). Fig. 5, [0206], “the network device may indicate a TCI state list to the terminal device by using the RRC message, and the TCI state list may include a plurality of TCI states…step 302: The network device sends the RRC message, where the RRC message includes the TCI state list, and the TCI state list includes the plurality of TCI states. Correspondingly, in step 302, the terminal device receives the RRC message”);
receiving, from the BS, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) (Guan, Fig. 5, [0207], “the network device may indicate an activated TCI state to the terminal device by using the MAC CE…step 303: The terminal device receives a plurality of MAC CEs”);
receiving, from the BS, a downlink control information (DCI) message (Guan, Fig. 5, [0273], “step 306: The network device sends a TCI, where the TCI is used to indicate a selected TCI state. Correspondingly, in step 306, the terminal device receives the TCI”, [0275], “the TCI may be carried in DCI. That is, step 306 specifically includes: The network device sends the DCI, where the DCI includes the TCI, and the TCI is used to indicate the selected TCI state. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the DCI, where the DCI includes the TCI, and the TCI is used to indicate the selected TCI state”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jang to have the features, as taught by Guan, in order to help a receive end and a transmit end use a paired receive beam and transmit beam to receive and send a signal, thereby helping improve signal transmission quality (Guan, [0006]).
As to claim 19, Yu teaches transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration that configures, to the UE, a plurality of Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) fields (Yu, [0041], “A first set of TCI states may be configured by RRC”, [0042], “A second set of TCI states may be configured by RRC”, Fig. 1, [0076], “In action 102, the UE may receive a first configuration for configuring a plurality of first Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states”, [0078], “the UE may further receive a second configuration for configuring a second TCI state”);
transmit, to the UE, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) that activates at least one TCI state associated with the plurality of TCI fields (Yu, Fig. 1, [0077], “In action 104, the UE may receive a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) for activating one or more first TCI states from the plurality of first TCI states”, [0078], “the MAC-CE received in action 104 may further be used to indicate to the UE the second TCI state”);
transmit, to the UE, a downlink control information (DCI) message including a plurality of DCI fields that is associated with the received RRC configuration and that indicates at least one first TCI state among the activated at least one TCI state (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “In action 106, the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”, [0079], “a PUCCH resource determined by another one field in the first DCI in response to the reception of the first DCI”); and
perform, based on the indicated at least one first TCI state, at least one downlink transmission (Yu, Fig. 1, [0078], “the UE may receive first Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating one of the one or more first TCI states activated by the MAC-CE. The first DCI may include at least one field for indicating scheduling information for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)”) or at least one uplink reception (Yu, Fig. 1, [0080], “In action 110, the UE may transmit the at least one PUCCH and the at least one PUSCH based on a spatial transmitter (TX) parameter derived according to the indicated first TCI state after transmitting the HARQ-ACK”).
Yu teaches the claimed limitations as stated above. Yu does not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 19, a base station (BS), comprising:
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions; and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium and configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to cause the BS.
However, Guan teaches a base station (BS) (Guan, [0108], the network device is a base station (eNB, NB, HNB, etc.). Fig. 5, the network device is a base station), comprising:
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions (Guan, Fig. 15, [0605], [0619], the network device includes a memory that stores instructions); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium and configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to (Guan, Fig. 15, [0605], [0619], the network device includes processor that executes the computer instructions stored in the memory to perform the functions of the network device (base station)) cause the BS (Guan, Fig. 5, [0206], the network device transmits a RRC with TCI states to the terminal device, [0207], the network device transmits an MAC CE to the terminal to activate a TCI state, [0273], [0275], the network device transmits a DCI to the terminal indicating a selected TCI state).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jang to have the features, as taught by Guan, in order to help a receive end and a transmit end use a paired receive beam and transmit beam to receive and send a signal, thereby helping improve signal transmission quality (Guan, [0006]).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2022/0132550), hereinafter “Yu” in view of Guan et al. (US 2021/0153209), hereinafter “Guan” and further in view of Ahn et al. (US 2009/0316758), hereinafter “Ahn”.
Yu and Guan teach the claimed limitations as stated above. Yu and Guan do not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 5, wherein the at least one downlink reception or the at least one uplink transmission is configured with one or more repeated transceiving operations in time domain or in frequency domain.
As to claim 5, Ahn teaches wherein the at least one downlink reception or the at least one uplink transmission is configured with one or more repeated transceiving operations in time domain or in frequency domain (Ahn, Fig. 13, [0186], uplink data retransmissions are performed in the time domain (retransmission period) and frequency domain (frequency hopping)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Yu and Guan to have the features, as taught by Ahn, in order to effectively perform frequency hopping transmission while maintaining consecutiveness of sub-carriers through which one UE transmits a data at one time within a frequency hopping band, and preventing the packet from colliding with packets transmitted from other UEs (Ahn, [0026]).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2022/0132550), hereinafter “Yu” in view of Guan et al. (US 2021/0153209), hereinafter “Guan” and further in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2021/0258964), hereinafter “Khoshnevisan”.
Yu and Guan teach the claimed limitations as stated above. Yu and Guan do not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 7, wherein;
the indicated at least one first TCI state comprises a plurality of indicated second TCI states, and
one of the plurality of DCI fields in the DCI message indicates which of the indicated second TCI states is applied.
As to claim 7, Khoshnevisan teaches wherein;
the indicated at least one first TCI state comprises a plurality of indicated second TCI states (Khoshnevisan, [0104], “Each TCI codepoint in the DCI (e.g., corresponding to a TCI field value in the DCI) can indicate one TCI state or two TCI states for the PDSCH. Accordingly, the scheduled PDSCH can have two TCI states (e.g., corresponding to the two TRPs)”), and
one of the plurality of DCI fields in the DCI message indicates which of the indicated second TCI states is applied (Khoshnevisan, [0105], “The UE 602 may apply the indicated TCI state or a default QCL assumption, based on whether a time duration between the scheduled PDSCH and the DCI satisfies a threshold”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Yu and Guan to have the features, as taught by Khoshnevisan, in order to improve and provide desirable quasi-colocation (QCL) assumption for aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) reference signal (RS) configured with multiple transmission reception point (mTRP) (Khoshnevisan, [0006]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2022/0132550), hereinafter “Yu” in view of Guan et al. (US 2021/0153209), hereinafter “Guan” and further in view of Tidestav et al. (US 2024/0064770), hereinafter “Tidestav”.
Yu and Guan teach the claimed limitations as stated above. Yu and Guan do not explicitly teach the following features: regarding claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of DCI fields in the DCI message corresponds to a TCI codepoint.
As to claim 8, Tidestav teaches wherein each of the plurality of DCI fields in the DCI message corresponds to a TCI codepoint (Tidestav, Fig. 9, [0148], “different TCI state bit fields in the same DCI”. The TCI states (DL and UL) correspond to DCI codepoints).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Yu and Guan to have the features, as taught by Tidestav, in order to utilize of Downlink Control Information (DCI) to update a list of activated DL TCI states and/or UL TCI states (Tidestav, [0002]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Yi et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0178239 – Method and apparatus for configuring PUCCH resource in wireless communication system. Yi discloses a UE receiving activation commands which are used for mapping a maximum of 8 TCI states to code points of a Transmission Configuration Indication field of the DCI.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICARDO H CASTANEYRA whose telephone number is (571)272-2486. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am - 5:30pm.
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/RICARDO H CASTANEYRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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