DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
2. Applicant’s arguments, filed on November 17, 2025, regarding rejection of claims 1-18, as amended, under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any combination of the references being used in the current rejection. Examiner has applied Wennstrom ‘730 (US 2011/0212730) to clearly teach the amended limitations in claims 1-18.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-6 and 9-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP ‘367 (Texas Instruments, "PDCCH Content and Formats", R1-081367, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 52bis, Shenzhen, China, March 31 – April 4, 2008, “3GPP ‘367”), in view of Sarkar ‘582 (US 2009/0046582, “Sarkar ‘582”), further in view of Imamura ‘588 (US 2013/0301588, “Imamura ‘588”), further in view of Han ‘002 (US 2011/0200002, “Han ‘002”), and further in view of Wennstrom ‘730 (US 2011/0212730, “Wennstrom ‘730”).
Regarding claim 1, 3GPP ‘367 discloses generating first control information including downlink resource assignment information and second control information including uplink resource assignment information (Introduction, Section 2.1; downlink control information (DCI) formats are designed to minimize the number of blind decodes, namely Format 0 for the uplink (UL) resource grant and Format 1A for the downlink (DL) resource grant; DCI for the UL includes UL resource assignment information that is the UL resource block (RB) assignment, and DCI for the DL includes DL resource assignment information that is the DL RB assignment); and
transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information (Title, Section 2.3; DCI of certain formats is detected blindly on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); thus, the network transmits to a terminal the DCI on the PDCCH),
wherein responsive to determining at least one of (i) a number of antenna port(s) of the terminal or (ii) a number of antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus is one (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; the number of antenna ports for the DL is one, and the corresponding DL grant format is Format 1A shown in Table 1; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art),
the generating includes adjusting a size of the second control information with a format including no precoding matrix indicator (PMI) to be equal to a size of the first control information with the format including no PMI (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; UL grant format 0 is padded with a single bit so that the size of UL grant format 0 is equal to the size of DL grant format 1A; UL grant format 0 and DL grant format 1A have no PMI; thus, the size of an UL grant information format is adjusted to be equal to a size of a DL grant information format, where the two formats have no PMI), and
adjusting a size of the second control information to be different from a size of the first control information (Introduction, Section 2.1, Tables 1 and 2; UL grant format 0 is padded with a single bit so that the size of UL grant format 0 is equal to the size of DL grant format 1A; format 1B for DL grant information is different in size relative to format 1A for DL grant information; thus, an UL grant information format is padded to be equal to a size of one DL grant information format and different from a size of another DL grant information format).
Although 3GPP ‘367 discloses generating first control information including downlink resource assignment information and second control information including uplink resource assignment information; and transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information, 3GPP ‘367 does not specifically disclose an integrated circuit to control a process performed by a communication apparatus communicating with a terminal, the process comprising: generating first control information; and transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information.
Sarkar ‘582 teaches an integrated circuit to control a process performed by a communication apparatus communicating with a terminal, the process comprising: generating first control information; and transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information (FIGS. 2 and 10, para 30, 67-68, and 74; Node B includes a processor including a controller and a transmit processor, that is implemented as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), where the processor generates control information; Node B sends the control information; thus, Node B generates and sends the control information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP ‘367’s generating control information, to include Sarkar ‘582’s processor implemented as an ASIC that generates control information. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently and reliably send control information and achieve good performance (Sarkar ‘582, para 6).
Although 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 discloses adjusting a size of the second control information to be different from a size of the first control information, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 does not specifically disclose the second control information with a format including the PMI.
Imamura ‘588 teaches the second control information with a format including the PMI (Table 1-3, para 60-61; DCI format for UL grant includes PMI).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367 and Sarkar ‘582, to include Imamura ‘588’s DCI format for UL grant that includes PMI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for selecting an uplink modulation scheme (Imamura ‘588, para 21).
Although 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 and Imamura ‘588 discloses generating first control information; and transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 and Imamura ‘588 does not specifically disclose generating first control information and second control information; and transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information and the second control information.
Han ‘002 teaches generating first control information and second control information; and transmitting, to the terminal, the first control information and the second control information (para 53; downlink control information is transmitted on the downlink channel PDCCH, where the downlink control information includes DL resource assignment information and UL resource assignment information; thus, first control information and second control information are generated and transmitted to the terminal; DL resource assignment information reads on first control information, and UL resource assignment information reads on second control information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, and Imamura ‘588, to include Han ‘002’s downlink control information that includes DL resource assignment information and UL resource assignment information. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method and device for signal transmission having a low peak-to-average-power ratio/cubic metric (PAPR/CM) characteristic (Han ‘002, para 5-8 and 11).
However, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, and Han ‘002 does not specifically disclose wherein the antenna port(s) of the terminal are different from antenna(s) of the terminal, and the antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus are different from antenna(s) of the communication apparatus.
Wennstrom ‘730 teaches wherein the antenna port(s) of the terminal are different from antenna(s) of the terminal (FIG. 3, para 24-25; a virtual antenna port of a user terminal is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal; thus, the virtual antenna port of the user terminal is different from the two physical antennas of the user terminal; user terminal reads on the terminal), and
the antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus are different from antenna(s) of the communication apparatus (FIG. 3, para 24-25; a virtual antenna port of a user terminal is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal; thus, the virtual antenna port of the user terminal is different from the two physical antennas of the user terminal; user terminal reads on the communication apparatus).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, and Han ‘002, to include Wennstrom ‘730’s virtual antenna port of a user terminal that is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal. The motivation for doing so would have been to satisfy a need for efficient use of reference signals in the uplink of a wireless communication system (Wennstrom ‘730, para 13).
Regarding claim 9, 3GPP ‘367 discloses generates first control information including downlink resource assignment information and second control information including uplink resource assignment information (Introduction, Section 2.1; downlink control information (DCI) formats are designed to minimize the number of blind decodes, namely Format 0 for the UL resource grant and Format 1A for the DL resource grant; DCI for the UL includes UL resource assignment information that is the UL resource block (RB) assignment, and DCI for the DL includes DL resource assignment information that is the DL RB assignment); and
transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information (Title, Section 2.3; DCI of certain formats is detected blindly on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); thus, the network transmits to a terminal the DCI on the PDCCH),
wherein responsive to determining at least one of (i) a number of antenna port(s) of the terminal or (ii) a number of antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus is one (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; the number of antenna ports for the DL is one, and the corresponding DL grant format is Format 1A shown in Table 1; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art),
the circuitry adjusts a size of the second control information with a format including no precoding matrix indicator (PMI) to be equal to a size of the first control information with the format including no PMI (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; UL grant format 0 is padded with a single bit so that the size of UL grant format 0 is equal to the size of DL grant format 1A; UL grant format 0 and DL grant format 1A have no PMI; thus, the size of an UL grant information format is adjusted to be equal to a size of a DL grant information format, where the two formats have no PMI), and
adjusts a size of the second control information to be different from a size of the first control information (Introduction, Section 2.1, Tables 1 and 2; UL grant format 0 is padded with a single bit so that the size of UL grant format 0 is equal to the size of DL grant format 1A; format 1B for DL grant information is different in size relative to format 1A for DL grant information; thus, an UL grant information format is padded to be equal to a size of one DL grant information format and different from a size of another DL grant information format).
Although 3GPP ‘367 discloses generates first control information including downlink resource assignment information and second control information including uplink resource assignment information; and transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information, 3GPP ‘367 does not specifically disclose an integrated circuit embedded to a communication apparatus communicating with a terminal, the integrated circuit comprising: circuitry, which, in operation: generates first control information; and controls transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information.
Sarkar ‘582 teaches an integrated circuit embedded to a communication apparatus communicating with a terminal, the integrated circuit comprising: circuitry, which, in operation: generates first control information; and controls transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information (FIGS. 2 and 10, para 30, 67-68, and 74; Node B includes a processor including a controller and a transmit processor, that is implemented as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), where the processor generates control information, and controls transmission of the control information to a user equipment (UE)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP ‘367’s generating control information, to include Sarkar ‘582’s processor implemented as an ASIC that generates control information. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently and reliably send control information and achieve good performance (Sarkar ‘582, para 6).
Although 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 discloses adjusting a size of the second control information to be different from a size of the first control information, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 does not specifically disclose the second control information with a format including the PMI.
Imamura ‘588 teaches the second control information with a format including the PMI (Table 1-3, para 60-61; DCI format for UL grant includes PMI).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367 and Sarkar ‘582, to include Imamura ‘588’s DCI format for UL grant that includes PMI. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for selecting an uplink modulation scheme (Imamura ‘588, para 21).
Although 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 and Imamura ‘588 discloses generates first control information; and controls transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582 and Imamura ‘588 does not specifically disclose generates first control information and second control information; and controls transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information and the second control information.
Han ‘002 teaches generates first control information and second control information; and controls transmission, to the terminal, of the first control information and the second control information (para 53; downlink control information is transmitted on the downlink channel PDCCH, where the downlink control information includes DL resource assignment information and UL resource assignment information; thus, first control information and second control information are generated and transmitted to the terminal; DL resource assignment information reads on first control information, and UL resource assignment information reads on second control information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, and Imamura ‘588, to include Han ‘002’s downlink control information that includes DL resource assignment information and UL resource assignment information. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method and device for signal transmission having a low peak-to-average-power ratio/cubic metric (PAPR/CM) characteristic (Han ‘002, para 5-8 and 11).
However, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, and Han ‘002 does not specifically disclose wherein the antenna port(s) of the terminal are different from antenna(s) of the terminal, and the antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus are different from antenna(s) of the communication apparatus.
Wennstrom ‘730 teaches wherein the antenna port(s) of the terminal are different from antenna(s) of the terminal (FIG. 3, para 24-25; a virtual antenna port of a user terminal is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal; thus, the virtual antenna port of the user terminal is different from the two physical antennas of the user terminal; user terminal reads on the terminal), and
the antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus are different from antenna(s) of the communication apparatus (FIG. 3, para 24-25; a virtual antenna port of a user terminal is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal; thus, the virtual antenna port of the user terminal is different from the two physical antennas of the user terminal; user terminal reads on the communication apparatus).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, and Han ‘002, to include Wennstrom ‘730’s virtual antenna port of a user terminal that is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal. The motivation for doing so would have been to satisfy a need for efficient use of reference signals in the uplink of a wireless communication system (Wennstrom ‘730, para 13).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, Sarkar ‘582 teaches comprising:
circuitry which, in operation, controls the process (FIG. 10, para 67-68 and 74; circuitry of the processor that includes the controller and the transmit processor controls functions of the Node B);
at least one input coupled to the circuitry, wherein the at least one input, in operation, inputs data (FIG. 10, para 67-68 and 74; as seen in FIG. 10, the processor inputs data from other components of the Node B; thus, the processor includes inputs for inputting data into the circuitry in the processor); and
at least one output coupled to the circuity, wherein the at least one output, in operation, outputs data (FIG. 10, para 67-68 and 74; as seen in FIG. 10, the processor outputs data to other components of the Node B; thus, the processor includes outputs for outputting data from the circuitry in the processor).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730, to further include Sarkar ‘582’s processor that inputs and outputs data. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently and reliably send control information and achieve good performance (Sarkar ‘582, para 6).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, 3GPP ‘367 teaches wherein when a transmission is performed using one antenna port or when a diversity transmission is performed, the format including no PMI is used (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; when the number of antenna ports for the DL is one, the DL grant format is Format 1A that includes no PMI; examiner notes the use of alternative language; for rejection purposes, only one of the alternative limitations must be disclosed by prior art).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, 3GPP ‘367 teaches wherein the format including no PMI for the second control information is a Format 0, and the format including no PMI for the first control information is a Format 1A (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; Format 0 is used for UL grant information, and Format 1A is used for DL grant information).
Regarding claims 5 and 13, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, 3GPP ‘367 teaches wherein a larger one of a size of the first control information with the format including no PMI and a size of the second control information with the format including no PMI is determined as the size of the second control information (Introduction, Section 2.1, Table 1; UL grant format 0 and DL grant format 1A include no PMI, and UL grant format 0 is padded to be equal in size as the DL grant format 1B; thus, the larger size of the DL control information is determined as the size of the UL control information).
Regarding claims 6 and 14, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, Sarkar ‘582 teaches wherein when a transmission with directivity control is performed, the format including the PMI is used for the second control information (para 7 and 53-54; UE transmits PMI control information to the Node B, and the Node B performs transmission with beamforming, based on the PMI; beamforming reads on directivity control).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730, to further include Sarkar ‘582’s PMI control data and transmission with beamforming. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently and reliably send control information and achieve good performance (Sarkar ‘582, para 6).
Regarding claims 17 and 18, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 9 and 1, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, Wennstrom ‘730 teaches wherein the number of antenna port(s) of the terminal is different from a number of the antenna(s) of the terminal (FIG. 3, para 24-25; a virtual antenna port of a user terminal is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal; thus, the number of the virtual antenna port of the user terminal is different from the number of the physical antennas of the user terminal; user terminal reads on the terminal), and
the number of antenna port(s) of the communication apparatus is different from a number of the antenna(s) of the communication apparatus (FIG. 3, para 24-25; a virtual antenna port of a user terminal is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal; thus, the number of the virtual antenna port of the user terminal is different from the number of the physical antennas of the user terminal; user terminal reads on the communication apparatus).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730, to further include Wennstrom ‘730’s virtual antenna port of a user terminal that is mapped to two physical antennas of the user terminal. The motivation for doing so would have been to satisfy a need for efficient use of reference signals in the uplink of a wireless communication system (Wennstrom ‘730, para 13).
5. Claims 7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP ‘367, in view of Sarkar ‘582, further in view of Imamura ‘588, further in view of Han ‘002, further in view of Wennstrom ‘730, and further in view of 3GPP ‘529 (Texas Instruments, "Further Analysis on Uplink SU-MIMO for E-UTRA", R1-083529, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 54bis, Prague, Check Republic, September 29 – October 3, 2008, “3GPP ‘529”).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
However, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 does not specifically disclose wherein the size of the second control information with the format including the PMI is determined from an uplink bandwidth.
3GPP ‘529 teaches wherein the size of the second control information with the format including the PMI is determined from an uplink bandwidth (Section 3.3, Table 2; UL grant control information format is UL-CLSM 1CW/2CW-1, and includes PMI; the size of the format is different for different UL bandwidths).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730, to include 3GPP ‘529’s size of UL control information format that is different for different UL bandwidths. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide results for 2x2 and 4x4 UL SU-MIMO in the context of layer mapping (3GPP ‘529, Introduction, line 15).
6. Claims 8 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP ‘367, in view of Sarkar ‘582, further in view of Imamura ‘588, further in view of Han ‘002, further in view of Wennstrom ‘730, and further in view of Kamuf ‘455 (US 2011/0099455, “Kamuf ‘455”).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses all the limitations with respect to claims 1 and 9, respectively, as outlined above.
Further, 3GPP ‘367 teaches first control information with the format including the PMI (Section 2.1, Table 2; Format 1B for DL grant information includes a PMI).
Although 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 discloses first control information with the format including the PMI, 3GPP ‘367 in combination with Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730 does not specifically disclose wherein the size of the first control information is determined from a downlink bandwidth.
Kamuf ‘455 teaches wherein the size of the first control information is determined from a downlink bandwidth (para 51; size of control information for DL scheduling depends on the system bandwidth).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add features to the combined integrated circuit of 3GPP ‘367, Sarkar ‘582, Imamura ‘588, Han ‘002, and Wennstrom ‘730, to include Kamuf ‘455’s size of control information for DL scheduling that depends on the system bandwidth. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide improved methods for decoding a signal encoded by a tail-biting code (Kamuf ‘455, para 12).
Conclusion
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/NEVENA ZECEVIC SANDHU/Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/HABTE MERED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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