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 .
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 8-12, 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mallik et al. (Mallik) (US 2016/0128028).
As to claim 1, Mallik discloses a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 5), comprising:
a transceiver (paragraph 106-107) configured to:
receive first information related to an operation with two-stage downlink (DL) control (paragraph 88-89, 97-98, 104),
receive second information related to a control region for a first stage of the two-stage DL control, wherein the control region includes multiple resources (aggregation level indicating resource locations to locate first control message; paragraph 46, 105, 155), and
receive a first channel using N>=1 resources of the multiple resources, wherein the first channel includes a first control information (receiving fast pdcch; Fig. 3b-4; paragraph 88-89, 97-98, 104); and
a processor operably coupled to the transceiver (paragraph 102), the processor configured to determine, based on the first control information, (i) a resource allocation of a second channel (paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73) and (ii) a size of a payload for the second channel (the fast PDCCH payload includes an indication of the slow PDCCH payload size; paragraph 48, 72, 74-78),
wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive the second channel (paragraph 104), and
wherein the second channel includes a second control information related to a second stage of the two-stage DL control (paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73).
As to claim 8, Mallik discloses a base station (BS) (105, Fig. 1, 12; paragraph 50-55), comprising:
a transceiver (1235) configured to:
transmit first information related to an operation with two-stage downlink (DL) control (paragraph 88-89, 97-98, 104), and
transmit second information related to a control region for a first stage of the two-stage DL control, wherein the control region includes multiple resources (aggregation level indicating resource locations to locate first control message; paragraph 46, 105, 155); and
a processor operably coupled to the transceiver (1205, Fig. 12), the processor configured to generate, a first control information including (i) a resource allocation of a second channel and (paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73) and (ii) a size of a payload for the second channel (the fast PDCCH payload includes an indication of the slow PDCCH payload size; paragraph 48, 72, 74-78),
wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit:
a first channel using N>=1 resources of the multiple resources, wherein the first channel includes the first control information (fast pdcch; Fig. 3b-4; paragraph 88-89, 97-98, 104, 159), and
the second channel (slow PDCCH in second bandwidth, frequency; paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73, 104, 160), and
wherein the second channel includes a second control information related to a second stage of the two-stage DL control (paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73).
As to claim 15, Mallik discloses a method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving first information related to an operation with two-stage downlink (DL) control (paragraph 88-89, 97-98, 104),
receiving second information related to a control region for a first stage of the two-stage DL control, wherein the control region includes multiple resources (aggregation level indicating resource locations to locate first control message; paragraph 46, 105, 155), and
receiving a first channel using N>=1 resources of the multiple resources, wherein the first channel includes a first control information (receiving fast pdcch; Fig. 3b-4; paragraph 88-89, 97-98, 104); and
determining, based on the first control information, (i) a resource allocation of a second channel (paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73) and (ii) a size of a payload for the second channel (the fast PDCCH payload includes an indication of the slow PDCCH payload size; paragraph 48, 72, 74-78), and
receiving the second channel (paragraph 104), wherein the second channel includes a second control information related to a second stage of the two-stage DL control (paragraph 44-45, 60, 71-73).
As to claim 2, 9, 16, Mallik discloses wherein: the transceiver is further configured to receive third information for M payload sizes, and the first control information indicates one of the M payload sizes (indicated payload size from range of plural payload sizes; paragraph 76, Table 2).
As to claim 3, 10, 17, Mallik discloses wherein: the resource allocation of the second channel is a time offset from the control region, and the time offset is indicated in the first control information (fast PDCCH may indicate slow PDCCH in other time intervals, TTIs; paragraph 48, 59).
As to claim 4, 11, Mallik discloses wherein the first control information indicates an identity of the UE to receive the second channel (paragraph 61).
As to claim 5, 12, 18, Mallik discloses wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit an acknowledgment after reception of the first channel (paragraph 84-86).
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 6-7, 13-14, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mallik in view of Rahman et al. (Rahman) (US 2021/0337547).
As to claim 6, 13, 19, Mallik fails to specifically disclose wherein reception of the first channel includes N instances of the first channel, the processor is further configured to determine a preferred instance of the N instances, and the acknowledgment indicates the preferred instance.
In an analogous art, Rahman discloses a communication system with two-stage downlink (DL) control (paragraph 182-185) wherein reception of a first channel includes N instances of the first channel (paragraph 49, 66, 114, 118), and a UE will determine a preferred instance of the N instances, and transmit an acknowledgment indicating the preferred instance (UE measuring each beam and transmitting a beam report for quality; paragraph 49, 66, 114, 118) so as to take advantage of plural directional beams and select the highest quality signal (paragraph 93-97, 114, 118)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mallik’s system to include wherein reception of the first channel includes N instances of the first channel, the processor is further configured to determine a preferred instance of the N instances, and the acknowledgment indicates the preferred instance, as taught in combination with Rahman, for the typical benefit of utilizing known plural directional beams transmission systems and selecting the highest quality signal (paragraph 93-97, 114, 118).
As to claim 7, 14, 20, Mallik fails to specifically disclose wherein: the first control information includes a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state, and the transceiver is further configured to apply the TCI state for reception of the second channel.
In an analogous art, Rahman discloses a communication system with two-stage downlink (DL) control (paragraph 182-185) wherein reception of a first channel includes N instances of the first channel (paragraph 49, 66, 114, 118), and first control information including a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (paragraph 5-7, 49, 66, 100, 104-105, 182-190) and applying the TCI state for reception of a second channel (paragraph 182-190) so as to allow the UE to locate and take advantage of plural directional beams and select the highest quality signal (paragraph 5-7, 66, 93-97, 114, 118)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mallik’s system to include wherein: the first control information includes a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state, and the transceiver is further configured to apply the TCI state for reception of the second channel, as taught in combination with Rahman, for the typical benefit of enabling the UE to locate and take advantage of plural directional beams and select the highest quality signal (paragraph 5-7, 66, 93-97, 114, 118).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to James R Sheleheda whose telephone number is (571)272-7357. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am-5 pm CST.
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/James R Sheleheda/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424
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