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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on February 02, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed February 02, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants submit that Feng does not disclose any STA producing the ∑ and V matrices from a channel matrix that has been aggregated across channels between that STA and all collaborating APs. Instead, Applicant asserts that Feng explicitly aggregates CSI only after the individual APs exchange per-AP feedback at the AP side (see Feng paras. [0028] to [0034], describing the "full-dimension channel matrix" as constructed at the AP after receiving separate feedback vectors). Feng expressly performs SVD on H, (the per-AP submatrix), and not on any STA-aggregated composite matrix.
As discussed below in the rejection, Examiner submits that Feng teaches that the APs may jointly sound Ntotal_tx spatial time streams, where Ntotal_tx=Ntx1+Ntx2+…+Ntx(Nap). At the ith STA (e.g., ith user), channel response matrix Hi[Nrxi×Ntotal_tx] is estimated. Then, full-dimension channel matrix H, may be constructed may be as Hi=[Hi1, Hi2,…, Hi(Nap)]. Moreover, singular value decomposition (SVD) may be performed on Hi as [Ui, Si, Vi]=SVD(Hi) (Paragraph 0030). Therefore, the "full-dimension channel matrix" is not constructed at the AP but instead each STA constructs an aggregated channel between the STA and all the APs that jointly sounded the Ntotal_tx spatial time streams. Then, singular value decomposition (SVD) is performed on the aggregated channel. Therefore, Feng teaches all the limitations of claims 20, 26 and 32.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 20 – 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 was amended to recite “wherein each STA produces the ∑ matrix and the V matrix pair from a channel matrix that was first aggregated across channels between each STA and all of the plurality of collaborating APs;”. In reviewing Applicants disclosure, the specification recites that each STA produces the ∑ matrix and the V matrix pair from an aggregated channel between the STA and all of the plurality of collaborating APs (Paragraph 0067 of printed publication). The specification does not recite of wherein each STA produces the ∑ matrix and the V matrix pair from a channel matrix that was first aggregated across channels between each STA and all of the plurality of collaborating APs. Therefore, the amendment to claim 1 constitutes new matter to Applicants original disclosure. The same rejection applies to claims 26 and 32 – 33.
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)(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 20 – 21, 25 – 27 and 31 – 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Feng et al (US 2021/0126686) (as supported by the provisional application No 62/927,174).
Re claims 20, 26 and 32 – 33, Feng teaches of a method for determining channel state information (CSI) of a wireless channel by an access point (AP) (AP, Figures 1 – 2) of a plurality of collaborating APs (AP1, AP2, AP3, Figures 1 – 2 and Abstract), the method comprising: transmitting a sounding transmission (sounding, Paragraphs 0027, 0031, 0042 and 0045) to a plurality of stations (STAs) (STA1, STA2, STA3, Fig.2) over a plurality of communication channels (plurality of channels, Figures 1 – 2 and Paragraphs 0026 – 0042), the plurality of STAs including one or more STAs associated with the AP and one or more STAs associated with other ones of the plurality of collaborating APs (Paragraphs 0028 – 0029); obtaining, following the sounding transmission, a respective ∑ matrix and a V matrix pair from each STA of the plurality of STAs (∑ matrix and V matrix are fed back, Paragraphs 0034 and 0043), each of the ∑ matrix and the V matrix pair produced through a singular value decomposition of a STA-specific channel matrix indicative of CSI of a respective channel estimated by said STA of the plurality of STAs (SVD, Paragraphs 0030, 0034, 0041 and 0045), the respective channel being between said STA and the AP and an aggregated channel (as shown in Fig.2, where the respective channel Hi for STAi and AP1 is Hi1 and the aggregated channel is [Hi1, Hi2, Hi3] between the STAi and the three APs and Hi,j, ith STA and jth AP, Paragraph 0035), wherein each STA produces the ∑ matrix and the V matrix pair from a channel matrix that was first aggregated across channels between each STA and all of the plurality of collaborating APs (joint sounding, SVD(Hi), where full-dimension channel matrix H, may be constructed as Hi=[Hi1, Hi2, . . . , Hi(Nap)], Paragraph 0030); reconstructing, by the AP, an overall aggregated matrix of the CSI based on the ∑ matrix and the V matrix pairs (reconstructed from singular values and V vectors, Paragraphs 0057 – 0058) received from both the one or more STAs associated with the AP and the one or more STAs associated with the other ones of the plurality of collaborating APs (“construct full dimension channel matrix Hi”, Page 2 of provisional application, “Jointly feedback CSI”, “We assume all fed back CSI’s are available at all APs”, “Pre-coding as JMAP”, “Pre-coding as CMAP”, Page 7 of provisional application, See also Paragraphs 0030 and 0054 – 0065 of non-provisional application); and computing a precoder matrix based on the aggregated matrix on the AP side (precoding matrix, Paragraph 0046 and 0061).
Re claims 21 and 27, Feng teaches of further comprising the AP communicating with one of the plurality of STAs using the precoder matrix with coordinated beam forming techniques (coordinated multi-AP (CMAP) configuration, Abstract).
Re claims 25 and 31, Feng teaches of wherein the overall aggregated matrix is limited to indicating channels between the AP and the plurality of STAs (as shown in Fig.2).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 22 – 24 and 28 – 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Feng in view of Kim et al (US 2015/0245373).
Re claims 22 and 28, Feng teaches all the limitations of claims 20 and 26 except of wherein the precoder matrix is a Zero-Forcing Beamforming (ZFBF) precoder matrix.
Kim teaches of a precoder matrix being a Zero-Forcing Beamforming (ZFBF) precoder matrix (Paragraphs 0008 and 0048).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a precoder matrix be a Zero-Forcing Beamforming (ZFBF) precoder matrix for its low complexity.
Re claims 23 and 29, Feng teaches all the limitations of claims 20 and 26 except of wherein the precoder matrix is determined by taking a Pseudo-Inverse of part or all of the overall aggregated matrix.
Kim teaches of a precoder matrix determined by taking a Pseudo-Inverse of part or all of the overall aggregated matrix (Paragraph 0048).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the precoder matrix determined by taking a Pseudo-Inverse of part or all of the overall aggregated matrix for ZFBF.
Re claims 24 and 30, Feng teaches all the limitations of claims 20 and 26 as well as Feng teaches of said part of the overall aggregated channel matrix being indicative of a channel between the AP and the one of the one or more STAs associated with the AP (H11, between AP1 and STA1, Fig.3) and further being indicative of another channel between the AP and one or more of the STAs associated with another one of the plurality of collaborating AP (H12, between AP2 and STA2, Fig.3). However, Feng do not specifically teach of wherein the precoder matrix is determined by taking a Pseudo-Inverse of part or all of the overall aggregated matrix.
Kim teaches of a precoder matrix determined by taking a Pseudo-Inverse of part or all of the overall aggregated matrix (Paragraph 0048).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the precoder matrix determined by taking a Pseudo-Inverse of part or all of the overall aggregated matrix for ZFBF.
Conclusion
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/ARISTOCRATIS FOTAKIS/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633