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 Statement filed on 11/23/2024 and 01/27/2026 complies with 37 CFR 1.97. Therefore, the information referred therein has been considered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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, 3, 8, 35 and 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yoon et al. (US 2023/0413258).
Regarding claim 1, Yoon discloses a wireless communication method comprising: receiving, by a wireless communication terminal from a wireless communication node, configuration signaling comprising configuration information for a transmission block, TB, transmitted over multiple slots ([0260], “As described above, the base station may configure, for the terminal, configuration information as in Table 22 via higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling) and may indicate (or configure), to the terminal, that one TB is transmitted over multiple slots (i.e., a corresponding PDSCH is for TBoMS) according to higher-layer signaling, L1 signaling (e.g., DCI), or a combination thereof.”); receiving, by the wireless communication terminal from the wireless communication node, control signaling comprising a code block group, CBG, information indication (Table 7 depicts the CBG information indication via DCI. [0180], “DCI format 1_1 may include at least the information as in Table 7 in case that transmitted with a CRC scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), an MCS-C-RNTI, or a new-RNTI.”); and receiving, by the wireless communication terminal from the wireless communication node, the TB according to the configuration information and the CBG information indication ([0261], “The base station may determine configuration information, scheduling, etc. for the terminal, based on the “UE capability information for TBoMS” included in the response message. The configuration information may include information configured via RRC signaling.”).
Regarding claim 3, Yoon discloses the wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: a maximum number of CBGs of the TB transmitted over multiple slots, a maximum number of slots of the TB transmitted over multiple slots and using a CBG based transmission, an enable indication for transmitting the TB over multiple slots and using a CBG based transmission, an enable indication for dynamically adjusting a number of bits of hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment, HARQ-ACK, an enable indication for transmitting the TB over multiple slots, an enable indication for transmitting the TB using a CBG transmission, or a maximum number of CBGs in one slot ([0261], “The configuration (or indication) for processing the TB transmitted via multiple slots (TB processing over multi-slot (TBoMS)) is performed in case that the terminal supports TBoMS. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, UE capability information for TBoMS may be defined. In case that a “UECapabilityEnquiry” message is received from the base station, the terminal may transmit a response message including the “UE capability information for TBoMS” to the base station.”).
Regarding claim 8, Yoon discloses the wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein at least one of a number of CBGs in the TB or a number of slots for transmitting the TB is determined according to at least one of the configuration signaling or the control signaling (Table 7 depicts the CBG information indication via DCI. [0180], “DCI format 1_1 may include at least the information as in Table 7 in case that transmitted with a CRC scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), an MCS-C-RNTI, or a new-RNTI.”; [0261], “The base station may determine configuration information, scheduling, etc. for the terminal, based on the “UE capability information for TBoMS” included in the response message. The configuration information may include information configured via RRC signaling.”).
Regarding claim 35, Yoon discloses a wireless communication method comprising: transmitting, by a wireless communication node to a wireless communication terminal, configuration signaling comprising configuration information for a transmission block, TB, transmitted over multiple slots ([0260], “As described above, the base station may configure, for the terminal, configuration information as in Table 22 via higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling) and may indicate (or configure), to the terminal, that one TB is transmitted over multiple slots (i.e., a corresponding PDSCH is for TBoMS) according to higher-layer signaling, L1 signaling (e.g., DCI), or a combination thereof.”); transmitting, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication terminal, control signaling comprising a code block group, CBG, information indication Table 7 depicts the CBG information indication via DCI. [0180], “DCI format 1_1 may include at least the information as in Table 7 in case that transmitted with a CRC scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), an MCS-C-RNTI, or a new-RNTI.”); and transmitting, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication terminal, the TB in response to the configuration information and the CBG information indication ([0261], “The base station may determine configuration information, scheduling, etc. for the terminal, based on the “UE capability information for TBoMS” included in the response message. The configuration information may include information configured via RRC signaling.”).
Regarding claim 37, Yoon discloses a wireless communication terminal, comprising: a transceiver; and a processor configured to ([0278], “Referring to FIG. 15, a terminal may include a transceiver 1501, a controller 1503, and a memory 1502.”): receive, via the transceiver from a wireless communication node, configuration signaling comprising configuration information for a transmission block, TB, transmitted over multiple slots ([0260], “As described above, the base station may configure, for the terminal, configuration information as in Table 22 via higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling) and may indicate (or configure), to the terminal, that one TB is transmitted over multiple slots (i.e., a corresponding PDSCH is for TBoMS) according to higher-layer signaling, L1 signaling (e.g., DCI), or a combination thereof.”); receive, via the transceiver from the wireless communication node, control signaling comprising a code block group, CBG, information indication Table 7 depicts the CBG information indication via DCI. [0180], “DCI format 1_1 may include at least the information as in Table 7 in case that transmitted with a CRC scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), an MCS-C-RNTI, or a new-RNTI.”); and receive, via the transceiver from the wireless communication node, the TB according to the configuration information and the CBG information indication ([0261], “The base station may determine configuration information, scheduling, etc. for the terminal, based on the “UE capability information for TBoMS” included in the response message. The configuration information may include information configured via RRC signaling.”).
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 4, 6, 10-14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoon et al. (US 2023/0413258) in view of Sundararajan et al. (US 2021/0274520).
Regarding claim 4, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the CBG information indicating CBGTI. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the CBG information indication comprises at least one of: a CBG transmission indication, CBGTI, an indication of a number of slots for transmitting the TB, an indication of a number of CBGs in the TB, an indication of a number of CBGs in a slot, an indication of a maximum number of CBGs in a slot, CBG flushing out information, CBGFI, or a CBG pattern indication ([0051], “Segmentation of the data to be transmitted can additionally or alternatively occur within the protocol stack at the PHY layer. For example, if a TB is too large to fit within the maximum codeblock (CB) size used at the PHY layer, the TB may be segmented into multiple CBs. In such cases, the acknowledgment (ACK)/negative acknowledgment (NACK) could happen at the TB-level or at the level of a codeblock group (CBG). A retransmission of a TB may include only a subset of the CBGs from the original transmission (for example, only those CBGs that were NACKed) if the ACK/NACK is at the CBG-level. A CBG Transmission Information (CBGTI) field, such as may be provided in the downlink control information (DCI), may convey the set of CBGs that are being retransmitted.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the CBG information indicating CBGTI. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 6, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the CBG pattern indicating the TB transmitted over multiple slots. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 3, wherein the CBG pattern indication indicates whether CBGs in the TB are transmitted over multiple slots ([0056], “According to aspects of the disclosure, the PHY layer segments the multi-slot TB 400 over the multiple slots 401, 402, and 403 of the multi-slot TB configuration. As shown in FIG. 4A, a CBG-based mechanism may be used to transport the data of file 410, or other large RLC SDU, within the multi-slot TB 400. In some aspects, the PHY layer of the protocol stack segments the data of file 410 over slots 401, 402, and 403 of multi-slot TB 400 using multiple CBGs (shown as CBG1, CBG2, CBG3, CBG4, CBG5, and CBG6, such as may be based upon the maximum CB size selected for the data flow), each including one or more CBs.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the CBG pattern indicating the TB transmitted over multiple slots. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 10, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the number of slots and CBGs being the same. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the number of CBGs in the TB is determined according to a number of slots for transmitting the TB indicated in the control signaling, and the number of CBGs in the TB is the same as the number of slots for transmitting the TB ([0076], “In block 601 of the example flow 600, the receiving wireless device receives a multi-slot TB including multiple CBs mapped to multiple CBGs. A wireless device may map one or more CBGs of the multiple CBGs onto each frame slot of multiple frame slots of the multi-slot TB such that all the CBs in each respective CBG are mapped to a same corresponding frame slot and such that the CBs in each respective CBG are entirely contained within the corresponding frame slot. In accordance with the example of flow 600, a wireless device mapped the one or more CBGs to each frame slot corresponding to a respective TB segment of the multi-slot TB.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the number of slots and CBGs being the same. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 11, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the number of CBGs in the TB based on a maximum number of slots. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the number of CBGs in the TB is deduced according to a smaller one of a maximum number of slots for transmitting the TB and a number of code blocks, CBs, in the TB ([0051], “Segmentation of the data to be transmitted can additionally or alternatively occur within the protocol stack at the PHY layer. For example, if a TB is too large to fit within the maximum codeblock (CB) size used at the PHY layer, the TB may be segmented into multiple CBs. In such cases, the acknowledgment (ACK)/negative acknowledgment (NACK) could happen at the TB-level or at the level of a codeblock group (CBG). A retransmission of a TB may include only a subset of the CBGs from the original transmission (for example, only those CBGs that were NACKed) if the ACK/NACK is at the CBG-level. A CBG Transmission Information (CBGTI) field, such as may be provided in the downlink control information (DCI), may convey the set of CBGs that are being retransmitted.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the number of CBGs in the TB based on a maximum number of slots. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 12, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the number of CBGs in the TB based on a maximum number of slots. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the number of slots for transmitting the TB is deduced according to a maximum number of CBGs in one slot indicated in the configuration signaling and a number of CBGs in the TB indicated in the control signaling ([0051], “Segmentation of the data to be transmitted can additionally or alternatively occur within the protocol stack at the PHY layer. For example, if a TB is too large to fit within the maximum codeblock (CB) size used at the PHY layer, the TB may be segmented into multiple CBs. In such cases, the acknowledgment (ACK)/negative acknowledgment (NACK) could happen at the TB-level or at the level of a codeblock group (CBG). A retransmission of a TB may include only a subset of the CBGs from the original transmission (for example, only those CBGs that were NACKed) if the ACK/NACK is at the CBG-level. A CBG Transmission Information (CBGTI) field, such as may be provided in the downlink control information (DCI), may convey the set of CBGs that are being retransmitted.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the number of CBGs in the TB based on a maximum number of slots. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 13, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the number of CBGs in the TB based on a maximum number of slots. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the number of slots for transmitting the TB is determined according to at least one of the configuration signaling, a CBG information indication, or a number of code blocks in the TB ([0051], “Segmentation of the data to be transmitted can additionally or alternatively occur within the protocol stack at the PHY layer. For example, if a TB is too large to fit within the maximum codeblock (CB) size used at the PHY layer, the TB may be segmented into multiple CBs. In such cases, the acknowledgment (ACK)/negative acknowledgment (NACK) could happen at the TB-level or at the level of a codeblock group (CBG). A retransmission of a TB may include only a subset of the CBGs from the original transmission (for example, only those CBGs that were NACKed) if the ACK/NACK is at the CBG-level. A CBG Transmission Information (CBGTI) field, such as may be provided in the downlink control information (DCI), may convey the set of CBGs that are being retransmitted.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the number of CBGs in the TB based on a maximum number of slots. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 14, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the number of slots and CBGs being the same. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the number of slots for transmitting the TB is the same as the number of CBGs in the TB ([0076], “In block 601 of the example flow 600, the receiving wireless device receives a multi-slot TB including multiple CBs mapped to multiple CBGs. A wireless device may map one or more CBGs of the multiple CBGs onto each frame slot of multiple frame slots of the multi-slot TB such that all the CBs in each respective CBG are mapped to a same corresponding frame slot and such that the CBs in each respective CBG are entirely contained within the corresponding frame slot. In accordance with the example of flow 600, a wireless device mapped the one or more CBGs to each frame slot corresponding to a respective TB segment of the multi-slot TB.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the number of slots and CBGs being the same. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Regarding claim 16, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the number of CBGs in one slot. Sundararajan discloses the wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein CBGs in the TB are transmitted over multiple slots, more than one of the CBGs are transmitted in one of the slots, and a mapping relationship between the CBGs and the slots is determined according to at least one of: a number of CBGs in one slot, a maximum number of CBGs in one of the slots denoted as CBG_oneslot, a number of CBGs in the TB denoted as M, a time domain resource of each slot, a slot pattern, a number of downlink, DL symbol in the slot, a new data indication, NDI, or a number of the slots for transmitting the TB denoted as N_slot ([0076], “In block 601 of the example flow 600, the receiving wireless device receives a multi-slot TB including multiple CBs mapped to multiple CBGs. A wireless device may map one or more CBGs of the multiple CBGs onto each frame slot of multiple frame slots of the multi-slot TB such that all the CBs in each respective CBG are mapped to a same corresponding frame slot and such that the CBs in each respective CBG are entirely contained within the corresponding frame slot. In accordance with the example of flow 600, a wireless device mapped the one or more CBGs to each frame slot corresponding to a respective TB segment of the multi-slot TB.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Sundararajan to have the number of CBGs in one slot. The motivation would have been to improve data transmission and provide flexibility (e.g., Sundararajan [0088]).
Claims 20, 24 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoon et al. (US 2023/0413258) in view of Takeda et al. (US 2020/0154309).
Regarding claim 20, Yoon does not disclose the interleaving bit sequence of the multiple CBGs. Takeda discloses the wireless communication method of claim 1 further comprising: interleaving bit sequence of the multiple CBGs ([0094], “FIG. 7C shows an example, in which multiple CBs to form each CBG are mapped to varying frequency resources in varying symbols. For example, in FIG. 7C, interleaving is executed in the time direction, among a plurality of CBs that form CBGs #0 to #3 of FIG. 7B, respectively. In the case shown in FIG. 7C, a time diversity effect and a frequency diversity effect can be gained for each CBG.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Takeda to have the interleaving bit sequence of the multiple CBGs. The motivation would have been to reduce retransmission errors (e.g., Takeda [0066]).
Regarding claim 24, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the time and frequency resources of the first and second slot of the TB. Takeda discloses the wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the control signaling indicates a first time resource and a first frequency resource of a first slot transmitting the TB, and a second time resource and a second frequency resource of a second slot transmitting the TB are identical to the first time resource and the first frequency resource of the first slot transmitting the TB ([0088], “Information that specifies whether each CBG is mapped in the order of the time direction and the frequency direction (“time-first, frequency-second”) as described above, or each CBG is mapped in the order of the frequency direction and the time direction (“frequency-first, time-second”) as described above may be reported (configured) to the user terminal by higher layer signaling. Information to indicate whether interleaving is performed in the frequency direction and/or in the time direction may be also reported to (configured in) the user terminal via higher layer signaling.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Takeda to have the time and frequency resources of the first and second slot of the TB. The motivation would have been to reduce retransmission errors (e.g., Takeda [0066]).
Regarding claim 36, Yoon does not explicitly disclose the HARQ-ACK for CBGs in the TB and bits being a fixed or dynamic value. Takeda discloses the wireless communication method of claims 35, further comprising: receiving, by the wireless communication node from the wireless communication terminal, an HARQ-ACK for CBGs in the TB, and a number of bits of the HARQ-ACK is a fixed value or dynamically adjusted in response to a number of CBGs in the TB ([0064], “As shown in FIG. 5A, when a TB contains a single CBG, it is possible to think that the TB and the CBG are equal, so that retransmission may be controlled in units of TBs (fallback from retransmission in CBG units to retransmission in TB units may be possible). In this way, the number of HARQ-ACK bits can be reduced.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yoon in view of Takeda to have the HARQ-ACK for CBGs in the TB and bits being a fixed or dynamic value. The motivation would have been to reduce retransmission errors (e.g., Takeda [0066]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17-19 and 25 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Nick A Sundara whose telephone number is (571)272-6749. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 7:30-5:30 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jae Y. Lee can be reached at (571) 270-3936. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NICK ANON SUNDARA/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
Prosecution Insights