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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 6/16/2026 has been entered.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it should be in narrative form and should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims should be avoided. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-10 and 12-22 are objected to because of the following informalities: Regarding the independent claims, “user equipment, UE,” should be changed to “user equipment (UE)” for clarity. 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 2022/0141839 (hereinafter Zhou2).
Regarding claims 1-4 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 user equipment, UE, 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 a time value that corresponds to a time required for the UE to perform beam switching; adapting a reference signaling structure at a symbol level for a slot based on the time value that corresponds to the time required for the UE to perform the beam switching including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the adapting of the reference signaling stricture at the symbol level comprising at least one of: configuring two successive OFDM symbols for carrying reference signaling based on the time value; and configuring at least one symbol gap among the OFDM symbols carrying the refence signaling based on the time value.
However, Zhou2 teaches the beam switching time indication indicating a time value that corresponds to a time required for the UE to perform beam switching ([0070][0071]: details beam switch timing value; beamSwitchTiming); adapting a reference signaling structure at a symbol level for a slot based on the time value that corresponds to the time required for the UE to perform the beam switching including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols ([0070][0071]: details reported beam switch timing value may indicate an aperiodic CSI-RS beam switch latency threshold, which may correspond to a minimum time gap (in terms of OFDM symbols) between a scheduling DCI and a scheduling aperiodic CSI-RS for the UE to apply an indicated downlink beam in the scheduling DCI), the adapting of the reference signaling stricture at the symbol level comprising at least one of: configuring two successive OFDM symbols for carrying reference signaling based on the time value ([0070][0071]: details reported beam switch timing value may correspond to a minimum quantity of OFDM symbols between a DCI triggering aperiodic CSI-RS and a corresponding aperiodic CSI-RS transmission in a CSI resource set; “at least one” so this limitation may not have patentable weight); and configuring at least one symbol gap among the OFDM symbols carrying the refence signaling based on the time value ([0070][0071]: details aperiodic CSI-RS beam switch latency threshold… minimum time gap (in terms of OFDM symbols) between a scheduling DCI and a scheduling aperiodic CSI-RS for the UE to apply an indicated downlink beam in the scheduling DCI; “at least one” so this limitation may not have patentable weight).
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 Zhou2 and include the beam switching time indication indicating a time value that corresponds to a time required for the UE to perform beam switching; adapting a reference signaling structure at a symbol level for a slot based on the time value that corresponds to the time required for the UE to perform the beam switching including a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols, the adapting of the reference signaling stricture at the symbol level comprising at least one of: configuring two successive OFDM symbols for carrying reference signaling based on the time value; and configuring at least one symbol gap among the OFDM symbols carrying the refence signaling based on the time value of Zhou2 with Zhou. Doing so would further improve radio access technologies (Zhou2, at paragraph [0005]).
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 Zhou2, 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 UE is configured to perform beam switching in the time up to a threshold value; and the two successive OFDM symbols utilizing a mapping according to: two consecutive symbols when the beam switching time indication indicates the UE is configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value; and at least two non-consecutive symbols separated by the at least one gap symbol in which no reference signaling is transmitted by the transmitting radio node when the beam switching time indication indicates the UE 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 UE is configured to perform beam switching in the 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 two successive OFDM symbols utilizing a mapping according to: two consecutive symbols when the beam switching time indication indicates the UE is configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value; and at least two non-consecutive symbols separated by the at least one gap symbol in which no reference signaling is transmitted by the transmitting radio node when the beam switching time indication indicates the UE 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 UE is configured to perform beam switching in the time up to a threshold value; and the two successive OFDM symbols utilizing a mapping according to: two consecutive symbols when the beam switching time indication indicates the UE is configured to perform the beam switching in the time up to the threshold value; and at least two non-consecutive symbols separated by the at least one gap symbol in which no reference signaling is transmitted by the transmitting radio node when the beam switching time indication indicates the UE 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 with respect to claims 1-10 and 12-22 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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