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 .
General Remarks
1/ Claims 1-18, and 29
2/ claims 1, 18 and 29 are independent
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 9, 18 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1).
Regarding claim 1. a terminal device ( [0223] First, the UE (terminal) receives first DCI from the base station (S610)) comprising:
at least one processor ([0223] discloses UE that comprises processor); and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor ([0223] UE), cause the terminal device at least to:
receive, from a network device, control information for controlling packet combining at the terminal device ([0223] First, the UE receives first DCI (control information) from the base station (S610);
determine the packet combining based on the control information([0223] First, the UE receives first DCI (control information) from the base station (S610). [0224] The UE selects a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table based on the first DCI (S620). [0225] The first DCI may include a field indicating the MCS table, and the MCS table may be determined based on the field. [0226] The field indicating the MCS table may be joint-coded with a redundancy version (RV). [0227] The UE calculates a first transport block size (TBS) based on at least one any one of a format of the first DCI and the selected MCS table (S630). [0228] The UE transmits a first TB to the base station according to the calculated first TBS (S640). Inherently the packet can comprise voice packet);
perform the packet combining; and transmit the combined packet to the network device ([0223] First, the UE receives first DCI (control information) from the base station (S610). [0224] The UE selects a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table based on the first DCI (S620). [0225] The first DCI may include a field indicating the MCS table, and the MCS table may be determined based on the field. [0226] The field indicating the MCS table may be joint-coded with a redundancy version (RV). [0227] The UE calculates a first transport block size (TBS) based on at least one any one of a format of the first DCI and the selected MCS table (S630). [0228] The UE transmits a first TB to the base station according to the calculated first TBS (S640). Inherently the packet can comprise voice packet).
Bae does not explicitly disclose: perform the voice packet combining; and transmit the combined voice packet;
However, in the same field of endeavor, Dongdong discloses perform the voice packet combining; and transmit the combined voice packet (page 4, lines 58-60 and page 5, lines 9-11 discloses the base station (network element) returns the feedback message to the terminal (terminal) according to the voice packet. Optionally, the feedback information may be used to indicate header compression that supports voice packets. Optionally, the feedback message is RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling (control information)…When the terminal receives the feedback message from the base station according to the voice packet, triggers the corresponding header compression scheme, and adjusts (combining) one or more header parameters of the packet information of the voice packet to be transmitted to generate the target voice data packet. Wherein the size of the header information obtained after the adjustment satisfies the transport block size adaptation condition);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of Bae with Dongdong. The modification would allow effectively aggregating voice packets to efficient resource usage and management.
Regarding claim 2.The combination discloses terminal device of claim 1, wherein: the terminal device is caused to receive the control information by:
Bae discloses receive, from the network device, a Transport Block Size (TBS) threshold for the packet combining at the terminal device([0223] First, the UE receives first DCI (control information) from the base station (S610). [0224] The UE selects a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table based on the first DCI (S620). [0225] The first DCI may include a field indicating the MCS table, and the MCS table may be determined based on the field. [0226] The field indicating the MCS table may be joint-coded with a redundancy version (RV). [0227] The UE calculates a first transport block size (TBS) based on at least one any one of a format of the first DCI and the selected MCS table (S630). [0228] The UE transmits a first TB to the base station according to the calculated first TBS (S640). Inherently the packet can comprise voice packet);
the terminal device is caused to perform the packet combining by: determining a plurality of packets to be combined if the required TBS to accommodate combined packets is less than the TBS threshold ([0223] First, the UE receives first DCI (control information) from the base station (S610). [0224] The UE selects a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table based on the first DCI (S620). [0225] The first DCI may include a field indicating the MCS table, and the MCS table may be determined based on the field. [0226] The field indicating the MCS table may be joint-coded with a redundancy version (RV). [0227] The UE calculates a first transport block size (TBS) based on at least one any one of a format of the first DCI and the selected MCS table (S630). [0228] The UE transmits a first TB to the base station according to the calculated first TBS (S640). Inherently the packet can comprise voice packet); and
combining the plurality of voice packets into a single packet for uplink transmission ([0227] The UE calculates a first transport block size (TBS) based on at least one any one of a format of the first DCI and the selected MCS table (S630). [0228] The UE transmits a first TB to the base station according to the calculated first TBS (S640).
Dongdong discloses perform the voice packet combining; and transmit the combined voice packet (page 4, lines 58-60 and page 5, lines 9-11 discloses the base station (network element) returns the feedback message to the terminal (terminal)according to the voice packet. Optionally, the feedback information may be used to indicate header compression that supports voice packets. Optionally, the feedback message is RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling (control information)…When the terminal receives the feedback message from the base station according to the voice packet, triggers the corresponding header compression scheme, and adjusts (combining) one or more header parameters of the packet information of the voice packet to be transmitted to generate the target voice data packet. Wherein the size of the header information obtained after the adjustment satisfies the transport block size adaptation condition);
Regarding claim 9. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 1.
Dongdong discloses, wherein the voice packet is corresponding to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) speech frame (page. 5, lines 9-11 discloses Wherein the size of the header information obtained after the adjustment satisfies the transport block size adaptation condition. In the current technology, in order to enhance the voice performance in the LTE system as much as possible, in the LTE standard design TBS (Transport Block Size, transmission block size), for VoIP business have special considerations, TBS will be as much as possible adaptation of voice packets Size).
Regarding claim 18. Dae discloses a network device (fig. 6 base station) comprising:
at least one processor (fig. 6 discloses network device); and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (fig. 6 discloses network device), cause the network device at least to:
determine control information for controlling packet combining at a terminal device (fig. 6 discloses S610 receive DCI (control information from base station);
transmit the control information to the terminal device (fig. 6 discloses UE receive DCI from base station); and
receive the combined packet from the terminal device (fig. 6 S640 discloses the UE sends to base station TB based on TBS determined based on DCI a TB).
Bae does not explicitly disclose: perform the voice packet combining; and transmit the combined voice packet;
However, in the same field of endeavor, Dongdong discloses perform the voice packet combining; and transmit the combined voice packet (page 4, lines 58-60 and page 5, lines 9-11 discloses the base station (network element) returns the feedback message to the terminal (terminal)according to the voice packet. Optionally, the feedback information may be used to indicate header compression that supports voice packets. Optionally, the feedback message is RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling (control information)…When the terminal receives the feedback message from the base station according to the voice packet, triggers the corresponding header compression scheme, and adjusts (combining) one or more header parameters of the packet information of the voice packet to be transmitted to generate the target voice data packet. Wherein the size of the header information obtained after the adjustment satisfies the transport block size adaptation condition);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of Bae with Dongdong. The modification would allow effectively aggregating voice packets to efficient resource usage and management.
Regarding claim 29. The combination discloses a method comprising:
All other limitations of claim 29 are similar with the limitations of claim 1 rejected above.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of LEE (US pg. no. 20170064705).
Regarding claim 3. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 2.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose:
,wherein the terminal device is further caused to:
transmit, to the network device, radio channel conditions of the terminal device for determining the TBS threshold by the network device
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lee discloses ,wherein the terminal device is further caused to: transmit, to the network device, radio channel conditions of the terminal device for determining the TBS threshold by the network device ([0041] control information transmitted to an eNode B (network device) from a user equipment (terminal) via UL or the control information received by the user equipment from the eNode B includes CQI (Channel Quality Indicator (radio channel condition)); [0095] discloses having received the calculated CQI, the eNB adds a separate compensation value to the CQI to make the CQI to be appropriate for a configuration actually applied to DL transmission corresponding to the CQI and may be then able to determine a DL transport block size).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Lee. The modification would allow exchanging channel condition to effectively determine capacity to enable effective resource allocation.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Meylan (US pg. no. 20220191730).
Regarding claim 4. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 2.
The combination does not explicitly disclose: wherein the terminal device is further caused to:
determine the number of voice packets to be combined in a single packet based on the TBS threshold and an applied voice codec rate
However, in the same field of endeavor Meylan discloses wherein the terminal device is further caused to:
determine the number of voice packets to be combined in a single packet based on the TBS threshold and an applied voice codec rate ([0109] the UE 120 may determine an expected number of bytes associated with the first communication and an expected number of bytes associated with the second communication. For example, the UE 120 may determine an expected payload of the first communication and an expected payload of the second communication. In some aspects, the UE 120 may determine an expected payload for each of the high-priority group of LCHs, …In some aspects, the UE 120 may determine an expected payload based at least in part on … a voice or video codec rate associated with a call, a modem configuration of the UE 120 (e.g., based at least in part on a throughput of the modem, a transport block size supported by the modem, a bandwidth throttling configuration of the modem), or the like).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the rt art the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Meylan. The modification would allow effective packet aggregation into block to enable capacity management to avoid communication congestion.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Liu (US pg. no. 20230125753).
Regarding claim 8. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 1.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose, wherein the terminal device is caused to perform the voice packet combining by:
receive, from the network device, a flag indicating whether the voice packet combining at the terminal device is allowed;
determine the voice packet combining at the terminal device is allowed; and perform the voice packet combining.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Liu discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to perform the voice packet combining by:
receive, from the network device, a flag indicating whether the voice packet combining at the terminal device is allowed; determine the voice packet combining at the terminal device is allowed; and perform the voice packet combining ([0218] further comprising: receiving a plurality of side link transmissions including the first side link transmission prior to expiration of the timer, each of the plurality of side link transmissions comprising a respective one of a plurality of packets and a respective one of a plurality of network coding request flags; combining a plurality of accept request messages including the first accept request message to produce a combined accept request message for the plurality of packets; and transmitting the combined accept request message to at least the transmitting wireless communication device upon expiration of the timer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Liu. The modification would allow effective communication and resource management where payload is aggregated when the channel condition allows it.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Kim (US pg.. no. 20170142749).
Regarding claim 10, The combination discloses terminal device of claim 1,wherein the terminal device is further caused to:
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose:
receive the flag and one or more information of the control information via Radio Resource Control (RRC);
However, in the same field of endeavor, Kim discloses receive the flag and one or more information of the control information via Radio Resource Control (RRC) ([0135] discloses the UE 301 may then receive a RRC connection setup control message from the eNB 303 (413)(information in RRC corresponds to flag).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Kim. The modification would allow transmitting control information to terminal to enable effective resource management by controlling the terminal for efficient communication and dynamic resource utilization.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Yokota (US pg. no. 20100278095)
Regarding claim 11. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 1.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose: wherein the terminal device is further caused to: report a status of the voice packet combining to the network device.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yokota discloses : wherein the terminal device is further caused to: report a status of the voice packet combining to the network device ([0107] In step S30B, the MN 300 transmits complementary bandwidth amount notification messages (the first downlink transmission control information and the second downlink transmission control information) to the switching server 100 on the basis of the computation result of the amount of bandwidth of "downlink" to be complemented. [0108] In step S40A, the switching server 100 (terminal device) transmits (reports) the number of VoIP packets transmittable within the time period equal to the window T1 minus the window T2 (refer to FIG. 6) to the radio IP network 10A on the basis of a complementary bandwidth amount notification message (the first downlink transmission control information) received from the MN 300).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Yokota. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Wang (US pg. no. 20230269735).
Regarding claim 12. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 11.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose:
wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the status of the voice packet combining based on determining that the number of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) speech frames in a single packet for uplink transmission has changed or to be changed.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wang discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the status of the voice packet combining based on determining that the number of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) speech frames in a single packet for uplink transmission has changed or to be changed ([0089] the UE 115-a may determine to report a BSR based on the TB size being less than the TB threshold size. In some examples, the UE 115-a may report multiple BSRs based on the TB size being larger than the TB threshold size. The MCS parameter value may change (for example, increase or decrease) based on the TB size in relation to the TB threshold size).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Wang. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Chai (US pg. no. 20150139144).
Regarding claim 13. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 11.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose:
wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the number of combined VoIP speech frames in a single packet for uplink transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Chai discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the number of combined VoIP speech frames in a single packet for uplink transmission ([0220] discloses the offload base station receives channel resource information sent by the UE relative to the offload base station, where the resource status report message includes the number of data packets that can be sent and/or the number of data packets waiting to be sent in a buffer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Jiang. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Wenjuan (WO2023051448A).
Regarding claim 14. The terminal device of claim 11.
The combination does not explicitly disclose: wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the status of the voice packet combining based on determining that an offset from the time of the VoIP packet generation to the time of the voice packet transmission is changed or to be changed.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wenjuan discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the status of the voice packet combining based on determining that an offset from the time of the VoIP packet generation to the time of the voice packet transmission is changed or to be changed (page 14, 44-46 Step S502 , once the UE performs SCG Switching, from the first SCG Switch to the second SCG, the UE reports to the MN the time offset change information carrying the SCG switching indication, so as to notify the MN that the UE has performed the SCG Switching).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Wenjuan. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Jiang (US pg. no. 20120282969).
Regarding claim 15. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 11.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose: wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the offset from the time of the VoIP packet generation to the time of the voice packet transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Jiang discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the offset from the time of the VoIP packet generation to the time of the voice packet transmission ([0079] S503: The UE reports a measurement report to the eNodeB, that is, the UE reports time offsets between synchronizations of the downlink CCs to the eNodeB through a synchronization report message. The synchronization report message specifically used by the UE may be a new RRC message or an added information element of an existing RRC message, and may also be a new MAC CE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Jiang. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Regarding claim 17. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 11.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose: wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the status of the voice packet combining via Media Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or RRC.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Jiang discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting the status of the voice packet combining via Media Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or RRC ([0079] S503: The UE reports a measurement report to the eNodeB, that is, the UE reports time offsets between synchronizations of the downlink CCs to the eNodeB through a synchronization report message. The synchronization report message specifically used by the UE may be a new RRC message or an added information element of an existing RRC message, and may also be a new MAC CE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Jiang. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dae (US pg. no. 20210160826 A1), further in view of Dongdong (WO2017143538A1), further in view of Tooru (WO2014017223A1).
Regarding claim 16. The combination discloses terminal device of claim 11.
But, the combination does not explicitly disclose: wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting information indicating whether the voice packet combining is performed or to be performed.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Tooru discloses wherein the terminal device is caused to report the status of the voice packet combining by: reporting information indicating whether the voice packet combining is performed or to be performed (page 5 32-35 As shown in FIG. 8, the user equipment (UE) reports a PDCP status report indicating the reception status of the packet to the target base station (T-eNB). The PDCP status report includes a sequence number (First Missing Sequence Number: FMS) of the first packet among packets that the user equipment (UE) has not yet received and one or more packets following the first packet (FMS) And a bitmap indicating whether or not it is done).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of the combination with Jiang. The modification allow reporting parameter changes to the network in order to enable to control the UE behavior using updated information.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MESSERET F. GEBRE whose telephone number is (571)272-8272. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am-5:30PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Oscar Louie can be reached at 5712701684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MESSERET F GEBRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445