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 .
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 07/10/2026 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
No Terminal disclaimer has been filed to overcome the double patenting rejection over claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614. Therefore, this double patenting rejection is maintained.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
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Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 disclose all the subject matters claimed in claims 1, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 18, and 20 of the instant application except for expressly disclosing performing segmentation of to-be-encoded information bits. However, this limitation is implicitly disclosed in claims 1 and 20 of Patent No. 11,888,614 (see claims 1 and 20, especially the last limitation). Furthermore, even though claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 do not expressly disclose that the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined based on the code rate, this limitation has been implicitly disclosed from claims 1 and 20, because claims 1 and 20 disclose determining the code length based on the code rate and then disclose determining the segment quantity based on the code length. Therefore, the segment quantity has been derived based on the code rate (see the table below that shows the comparison between claims 1, 5, and 7 of the instant application and claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614). The same comparison applies to claims 8, 12, 14, 15, 18, and 20 of the instant application and claim 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614. Claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 do not expressly disclose the subject matters claimed in claims 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, and 19 of the instant application. However, since claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 disclose that a and b are positive integers, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention was made, to try to modify the teachings of claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 and choose the values of a and b in a way that the maximum segment code length is equal to 1024 and (b – a + 1) types of segment code lengths comprise: 1024, 512, 256, and 128 in order to meet the design requirements of the system and increase the performance of the communication system. Claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 do not expressly disclose the subject matters disclosed in claims 3, 4, 10, 11, and 17 of the instant application. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of claims 1 and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 11,888,614 and choose “0” as the quantity of the maximum or minimum length segments in order to meet the design requirements of the system and increase the performance of the communication system.
Instant Application
11,888,614
1. A polar code segment encoding method, comprising: performing segmentation of to-be-encoded information bits into respective quantities of different types of segments, wherein: the different types of segments are among (b - a + 1) types of segments that correspond to (b - a + 1) different segment code lengths, wherein: a and b are positive integers, the (b - a + 1) types of segments comprise a minimum-length segment that has the minimum segment code length of 2^a among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and a maximum-length segment that has the maximum segment code length of 2^b among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined based on a length of the to-be-encoded information bits and a code rate, wherein the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined by firstly determining a quantity of the maximum- length segments and lastly determining a quantity of the minimum-length segments, and performing polar code encoding on the respective quantities of the different types of segments of the to-be-encoded information bits to obtain encoded output bits.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the maximum-length segment that has the maximum segment code length of 2^b is 1024.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the quantity of the maximum-length segments is 0.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the quantity of the minimum-length segments is 0.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the (b - a + 1) types of segments comprise a segment that has a segment code length of 2^c among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and a ≤ c ≤b,c is a positive integer.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths comprise: 1024, 512, 256, and 128.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined by firstly determining the quantity of the maximum-length segments and lastly determining the quantity of the minimum-length segments, and: after firstly determining the quantity of the maximum-length segments and before lastly determining the quantity of the minimum-length segments, determining a quantity of a segment that is not the maximum-length segment or the minimum-length segment among the (b - a + 1) types of segments.
8. A communication device, comprising at least one memory and at least one processor, wherein the at least one memory is coupled to the at least one processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: performing segmentation of to-be-encoded information bits of a length N into respective quantities of different types of segments, wherein: the different types of segments are among (b - a + 1) types of segments that correspond to (b - a + 1) different segment code lengths, wherein: a and b are positive integers, the (b - a + 1) types of segments comprise a minimum-length segment that has the minimum segment code length of 2^a among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and a maximum-length segment that has the maximum segment code length of 2^b among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined based on the length N of the to-be-encoded information bits and a code rate, wherein the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined by firstly determining a quantity of the maximum-length segments and lastly determining a quantity of the minimum-length segments, and performing polar code encoding on the respective quantities of the different types of segments of the to-be-encoded information bits to obtain encoded output bits.
9. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the maximum-length segment that has the maximum segment code length of 2^b is 1024.
10. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the quantity of the maximum- length segments is 0.
11. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the quantity of the minimum- length segments is 0.
12. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the (b - a + 1) types of segments comprise a segment that has a segment code length of 2^c among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and a ≤ c ≤ b, c is a positive integer.
13. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths comprise: 1024, 512, 256, and 128.
14. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined by firstly determining the quantity of the maximum- length segments and lastly determining the quantity of the minimum-length segments, and after firstly determining the quantity of the maximum-length segments and before lastly determining the quantity of the minimum-length segments, determining a quantity of a segment that is not the maximum-length segment or the minimum-length segment among the (b - a + 1) types of segments.
15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising: performing segmentation of to-be-encoded information bits of a length N into respective quantities of different types of segments, wherein: the different types of segments are among (b - a + 1) types of segments that correspond to (b - a + 1) different segment code lengths, wherein: a, b, and N are positive integers, the (b - a + 1) types of segments comprise a minimum-length segment that has the minimum segment code length of 2^a the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and a maximum-length segment that has the maximum segment code length of 2^b among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined based on the length N of the to-be-encoded information bits and a code rate, wherein the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined by firstly determining a quantity of the maximum-length segments and lastly determining a quantity of the minimum-length segments, and performing polar code encoding on the respective quantities of the different types of segments of the to-be-encoded information bits to obtain encoded output bits.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the maximum-length segment that has the maximum segment code length of 2^b is 1024.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the quantity of the maximum-length segments is 0 or the quantity of the minimum-length segments is 0.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the (b - a + 1) types of segments comprise a segment that has a segment code length of 2^c among the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths, and a ≤ c ≤b, c is a positive integer.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the (b - a + 1) types of segment code lengths comprise: 1024, 512, 256, and 128.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the respective quantities of the different types of segments are determined by firstly determining the quantity of the maximum-length segments and lastly determining the quantity of the minimum- length segments, and after firstly determining the quantity of the maximum-length segments and before lastly determining the quantity of the minimum-length segments, determining a quantity of a segment that is not the maximum-length segment or the minimum-length segment among the (b - a + 1) types of segments.
1. A polar code segment encoding method, comprising: determining, based on a length of to-be-encoded information bits and a code rate, a code length N after encoding the to-be-encoded information bits, wherein N is a positive integer; determining, based on N, a minimum segment code length, a maximum segment code length, a reserved segment quantity of each type of segments in segments of b-a+1 types of segment code lengths and a reserved code length corresponding to N, wherein a value of the minimum segment code length is 2^a, a value of the maximum segment code length is 2^b, the b-a+1 types of segment code lengths of the segments are 2^c, a, b, and c are positive integers, a<b, and a≤c≤b; determining a segment quantity of each type of segments based on N, the reserved code length, a segment code length of each type of segments, the reserved segment quantity of each type of segments and the segment code lengths from a largest to a smallest, wherein a sum of segment quantities of all types of segments is equal to S, N corresponds to S segments, and a first segment code length of an ith segment in the S segments is greater than or equal to a second segment code length of an (i+1)th segment in the S segments; determining a target information bit length of each segment based on the code rate and the segment code length of each segment in the S segments; and performing polar code encoding on the to-be-encoded information bits based on the target information bit length of each segment.
20. A communication device, comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the communication device to: determine, based on a length of to-be-encoded information bits and a code rate, a code length N after encoding, wherein N is a positive integer; determine, based on N, a minimum segment code length, a maximum segment code length, a reserved segment quantity of each type of segments in segments of b−a+1 types of segment code lengths and a reserved code length corresponding to N, wherein a value of the minimum segment code length is 2^a, a value of the maximum segment code length is 2^b, the b−a+1 types of segment code lengths of the segments are 2^c, a, b, and c are positive integers, a<b, and a≤c≤b; determine a segment quantity of each type of segments based on N, the reserved code length, a segment code length of each type of segments, the reserved segment quantity of each type of segments and the segment code lengths from a largest to a smallest, wherein a sum of segment quantities of all types of segments is equal to S, N corresponds to S segments, and a first segment code length of an i.sup.th segment in the S segments is greater than or equal to a second segment code length of an (i+1).sup.th segment in the S segments; determine a target information bit length of each segment based on the code rate and the segment code length of each segment in the S segments; and perform polar code encoding on the to-be-encoded information bits based on the target information bit length of each segment.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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LEILA . MALEK
Examiner
Art Unit 2632
/LEILA MALEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
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