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.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 11/28/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-10 and 12-22 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 5-9 and 22 are objected to because of the following informalities: Regarding claim 1, a “;” is missing after “beams” and before the “and” in line 8 and should be added. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-10 and 12-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 10,873,386 (hereinafter Zhou) in view of US 2021/0321383 (hereinafter Nam ’383) and US 2018/0262313 (hereinafter Nam ‘313).
Regarding claims 1, 2 and 10, Zhou teaches a method of operating a transmitting radio node in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: receiving a beam switching time indication associated with a receiving radio node in the wireless communication network (Claim 9: details receiving, from a first device, a first indication of first device’s capabilities associated with beam switch latency); and transmitting reference signaling to a receiving radio node (Claim 9: details transmitting, from the second device to the first device, the one or more reference signals).
Zhou does not explicitly teach the beam switching time indication indicating at least one of: a range of time durations for performing a beam switching during a cyclic prefix (CP) duration; a threshold time duration for switching between beams; and the range of time durations being a function of a subcarrier spacing of a symbol before a beam switch and a subcarrier spacing of a symbol after the beam switch; configuring reference signaling for a slot including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the reference signaling being mapped to at least two successive OFDM symbols of the slot based at least in part on the beam switching time indication, two successive OFDM symbols of the at least two successive OFDM symbols being separated in a time domain by the CP duration.
However, Nam ’383 teaches the beam switching time indication indicating at least one of: a range of time durations for performing a beam switching during a cyclic prefix (CP) duration; a threshold time duration for switching between beams (FIG. 14; [108][0150][0200]-[0208]: details indicated threshold quantity of symbol periods, as threshold time duration); and the range of time durations being a function of a subcarrier spacing of a symbol before a beam switch and a subcarrier spacing of a symbol after the beam switch.
Therefore, 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 Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Nam ’383 and include the beam switching time indication indicating at least one of: a range of time durations for performing a beam switching during a cyclic prefix (CP) duration; a threshold time duration for switching between beams; and the range of time durations being a function of a subcarrier spacing of a symbol before a beam switch and a subcarrier spacing of a symbol after the beam switch of Nam ’383 with the beam switching time indication of Zhou. Doing so would increase system performance and communication efficiency (Nam ’383, at paragraph [0136]).
Moreover, Nam ‘313 teaches configuring reference signaling for a slot including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the reference signaling being mapped to at least two successive OFDM symbols of the slot based at least in part on the beam switching time indication (FIG. 13; [0250][0294]: details The RS in Slot 0 being mapped to at least two OFDM symbols; CSI-RS resource is mapped in OFDM symbol l.sub.offset in slot n.sub.offset; CSI-RS can be used for beam management for the purpose of beam alignment and switching), two successive OFDM symbols of the at least two successive OFDM symbols being separated in a time domain by the CP duration (FIG. 37: details CP between symbol 1 and symbol 2).
Therefore, 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 Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Nam ‘313 and include configuring reference signaling for a slot including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the reference signaling being mapped to at least two successive OFDM symbols of the slot based at least in part on the beam switching time indication, two successive OFDM symbols of the at least two successive OFDM symbols being separated in a time domain by the CP duration of Nam ‘313 with the beam switching time indication of Zhou. Doing so would improve reliability (Nam ‘313, at paragraph [0439]).
Regarding claims 3 and 4, Zhou teaches a method of operating a receiving radio node in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: indicating, to a transmitting radio node, a beam switching time indication pertaining to the receiving radio node (Claim 9: details receiving, from a first device, a first indication of first device’s capabilities associated with beam switch latency… transmitting, from the second device to the first device, the one or more reference signals wherein a delay between transmitting the second indication and the one or more reference signals is based on the first beam switch latency).
Zhou does not explicitly teach the beam switching time indication indicating at least one of: a range of time durations for performing beam switching during a cyclic prefix (CP) duration; a threshold time duration for switching between beams; and the range of time durations being a function of a subcarrier spacing of a symbol before a beam switch and a subcarrier spacing of a symbol after the beam switch; and receiving, from the transmitting node, reference signaling for a slot including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the reference signaling being mapped to at least two successive OFDM symbols of the slot based at least in part on the beam switching time indication, two successive OFDM symbols of the at least two successive OFDM symbols being separated in a time domain by the CP duration.
However, Nam ’383 teaches the beam switching time indication indicating at least one of: a range of time durations for performing beam switching during a cyclic prefix (CP) duration; a threshold time duration for switching between beams (FIG. 14; [108][0150][0200]-[0208]: details indicated threshold quantity of symbol periods, as threshold time duration); and the range of time durations being a function of a subcarrier spacing of a symbol before a beam switch and a subcarrier spacing of a symbol after the beam switch.
Therefore, 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 Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Nam ’383 and include the beam switching time indication indicating at least one of: a range of time durations for performing beam switching during a cyclic prefix (CP) duration; a threshold time duration for switching between beams; and the range of time durations being a function of a subcarrier spacing of a symbol before a beam switch and a subcarrier spacing of a symbol after the beam switch of Nam ’383 with the beam switching time indication of Zhou. Doing so would increase system performance and communication efficiency (Nam ’383, at paragraph [0136]).
Moreover, Nam ‘313 teaches receiving, from the transmitting node, reference signaling for a slot including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the reference signaling being mapped to at least two successive OFDM symbols of the slot based at least in part on the beam switching time indication (FIG. 13; [0250][0294]: details The RS in Slot 0 being mapped to at least two OFDM symbols; CSI-RS resource is mapped in OFDM symbol l.sub.offset in slot n.sub.offset; CSI-RS can be used for beam management for the purpose of beam alignment and switching), two successive OFDM symbols of the at least two successive OFDM symbols being separated in a time domain by the CP duration (FIG. 37: details CP between symbol 1 and symbol 2).
Therefore, 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 Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Nam ‘313 and include receiving, from the transmitting node, reference signaling for a slot including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the reference signaling being mapped to at least two successive OFDM symbols of the slot based at least in part on the beam switching time indication, two successive OFDM symbols of the at least two successive OFDM symbols being separated in a time domain by the CP duration of Nam ‘313 with the beam switching time indication of Zhou. Doing so would improve reliability (Nam ‘313, at paragraph [0439]).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 17, Zhou teaches wherein the beam switching time indication indicates a beam switching time of the receiving radio node for at least one of reception beam forming and transmission beam forming (Claim 9; Col. 13, ll. 20-29: details receiving indication associated with beam switching latency; P1, P2, and P3 procedures are used for beam pair link discovery and refinement… each beam formed in a different spatial direction).
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 18, Zhou teaches wherein the beam switching time indication indicates a beam switching time of the receiving node pertaining to at least one of a specific signal and channel (Claim 1: details the first beam switch latency indicates a delay between the DCI and the one or more A-CSI-RSs).
Regarding claims 7, 14 and 19, Zhou teaches wherein the beam switching time indication comprises one or more parameters (Col. 15, ll. 15-35: details the UE signals a fixed beam switch latency for P3 BM as shown in FIG. 11. The UE capability may indicate a single fix latency for P3 BM, e.g. 2ms).
Regarding claims 8, 15 and 20, Zhou teaches wherein the beam switching time indication is transmitted by the receiving radio node (Col. 15, ll. 15-35: details the UE signals a fixed beam switch latency for P3 BM as shown in FIG. 11… the NB may use this value for all P3 BM).
Regarding claims 9, 16 and 21, Zhou teaches wherein the beam switching time indication indicates a beam switching time in units of time (Col. 15, ll. 15-35: details the UE signals a fixed beam switch latency for P3 BM as shown in FIG. 11. The UE capability may indicate a single fix latency for P3 BM, e.g. 2ms).
Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Nam ‘313 and Nam ‘383, further in view of US 2021/0021330 (hereinafter Khoshnevisan).
Regarding claim 22, Zhou does not explicitly teach wherein: the beam switching time indication indicates whether the receiving radio node is configured to perform beam switching in a time up to a threshold value; and the reference signaling being mapped to the at least two successive OFDM symbols utilizing mapping according to: at least two consecutive symbols when the beam switching time indication indicating the receiving radio node is configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value; and at least two non-consecutive symbols separated by at least one gap symbol in which no reference signaling is transmitted by the transmitting radio node when the beam switching time indication indicating the receiving radio node is not configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value.
However, Khoshnevisan teaches wherein: the beam switching time indication indicates whether the receiving radio node is configured to perform beam switching in a time up to a threshold value ([0087][0107]: details the base station 105-a may receive an indication of the duration via UE capability information or may determine a default value for the duration; one or more of the base station 105-a or the UE 115-a may determine an overlap of a symbol of one or more symbols into a duration (for example, a beam switch duration) or a partial overlap of the symbol of the one or more symbols into the duration based on one or more of a subcarrier spacing associated with the one or more symbols, a symbol duration associated with the one or more symbols, or a cyclic prefix duration associated with the one or more symbols); and the reference signaling being mapped to the at least two successive OFDM symbols utilizing mapping according to: at least two consecutive symbols when the beam switching time indication indicating the receiving radio node is configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value; and at least two non-consecutive symbols separated by at least one gap symbol in which no reference signaling is transmitted by the transmitting radio node when the beam switching time indication indicating the receiving radio node is not configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value ([0087][0107]: details the base station 105-a may receive an indication of the duration via UE capability information or may determine a default value for the duration; one or more of the base station 105-a or the UE 115-a may determine an overlap of a symbol of one or more symbols into a duration (for example, a beam switch duration) or a partial overlap of the symbol of the one or more symbols into the duration based on one or more of a subcarrier spacing associated with the one or more symbols, a symbol duration associated with the one or more symbols, or a cyclic prefix duration associated with the one or more symbols).
Therefore, 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 Zhou to incorporate the teachings of Khoshnevisan and include wherein: the beam switching time indication indicates whether the receiving radio node is configured to perform beam switching in a time up to a threshold value; and the reference signaling being mapped to the at least two successive OFDM symbols utilizing mapping according to: at least two consecutive symbols when the beam switching time indication indicating the receiving radio node is configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value; and at least two non-consecutive symbols separated by at least one gap symbol in which no reference signaling is transmitted by the transmitting radio node when the beam switching time indication indicating the receiving radio node is not configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value of Khoshnevisan with the beam switching time indication of Zhou. Doing so would enhance transmission reliability (Khoshnevisan, at paragraph [0117]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 11/28/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant alleges that none of the cited prior art teaches the newly amended limitation. Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Zhou teaches the beam switching time indication. For example, claim 9 of Zhou details a first indication of first device’s capabilities associated with beam switch latency. Nam ‘383 also teaches the indication as well as a threshold time duration. For example, FIG. 14 and paragraphs [0108], [0150], [0200]-[0208] of Nam ‘383 detail the indicated threshold quantity of symbol periods. The phrase “for switching between beams” has no patentable weight because it is an intended use of what the duration is used for. The other features such as the range of time durations has no patentable weight because those features are claimed in the alternative. Because the combination of the cited prior art teaches the indication indicating the threshold time duration, the argument is not persuasive. Examiner suggests positively reciting the functional relationships between the claimed features to give it patentable weight and to distinguish from the prior art.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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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/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415