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 .
Response to Amendment
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 01/03/2026.
Claims 1, 13, and 17 have been amended.
Claims 4-12, 16, 20, 24-25, and 28-29 were previously canceled.
Claims 1-3, 13-15, 17-19, 21-23, 26-27, and 30-35 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 13 and 17 filed on 01/03/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments related solely to newly added limitations addressed in the instant Office Action with newly identified prior art, thus rendering Applicant’s arguments moot.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claims 1-3, 13-15, 17-19, and 33-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muruganathan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20190058557; hereinafter “Muruganathan”), in view of Kakishima (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20180115919; hereinafter “Kakishima”), and further in view of Ren et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20200374175; hereinafter “Ren”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Muruganathan unless otherwise mentioned.
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, Muruganathan teaches A user equipment (UE) (Fig. 16; wireless device 12a) comprising:
a transceiver (Fig. 16; “communication interface 16”) configured to receive information about (i) a channel state information (CSI) report associated with PCSIRS ports, and (ii) N groups of ports, where N∈ {2,3,4} (Para [0173]; Processing circuitry 18 receives a CDM aggregation configuration (interpreted as “information about (i) a channel state information (CSI) report, and (ii) N groups of ports”) corresponding to an aggregated first set and second set of reference signal resources) (Table 8 and Para [0167]: Each CSI-RS resource configuration in such an aggregation corresponds to ports Nports CSI=8 antenna ports (interpreted as “a channel state information (CSI) report associated with PCSIRS ports”)) (Table 8 and para [0168]: For the case of OCC8, i.e., when higher layer parameter ‘cdmType’ is set to cdm8, and a list of Nres CSI=4 CSI-RS resource configurations {k0, k1, k2, k3}, (interpreted as “N groups of ports, where N∈ {2,3,4}”, here N=4),), wherein: r∈R
a group with index r comprises a group of PCSIRS,r channel state information reference signal (CSIRS) antenna ports
P
C
S
I
R
S
=
∑
r
=
1
N
P
C
S
I
R
S
,
r
,
(para [0167]: Nres CSINports CSI antenna ports (interpreted as “PCSIRS ”, see Table 8: total number of antenna ports Nres CSINports CSI 24 or 32), and
r =1,…, N;
(para [0168]: a list of Nres CSI= 4 CSI-RS resource configurations {k0, k1, k2, k3}, (k is interpreted as “index r”)); and
Table 8 is reproduced herein below.
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(Table 8 of Muruganathan)
ａprocessor operably coupled to the transceiver, the processor, based on the information, configured to:
aggregate PCSIRS ports across the N groups of ports (para [0078]: The wireless device includes processing circuitry configured to receive a CDM aggregation configuration corresponding to an aggregated first set and second set of reference signal resources in a subframe. The processing circuitry is further configured to perform channel estimation based on the CDM aggregation configuration.)(para [0167]: For CSI reference signals using 24 or 32 antenna ports, Nres CSI CSI-RS resource configurations in the same subframe, numbered from 0 to Nres CSI−1 (interpreted as “the N groups of ports”), are aggregated to obtain Nres CSINports CSI antenna ports (interpreted as “PCSIRS ports across the N groups of ports”) in total. ), and
determine the CSI report associated with PCSIRS ports,
wherein:
(The missing/crossed out limitations will be discussed in view of Kakishima.)
PCSIRS,r = P (Table 8 and Para [0167]: Each CSI-RS resource configuration in such an aggregation corresponds to ports Nports CSI=8 antenna ports (interpreted as “PCSIRS,r = P”)), and
PCSIRS = NP (para [0167]: Nres CSINports CSI antenna ports (interpreted as “PCSIRS ”, see Table 8: total number of antenna ports Nres CSINports CSI 24 or 32), and
Muruganathan does not explicitly teach the claimed features:
“PCSIRS belongs to a set including {48, 64},” and
“wherein the processor is further configured to determine inter-group information including:
a set of phase values each associated with one of the N groups of ports, the set of phase values representing a relative phase between the groups, and
a set of amplitude values each associated with one of the N groups of ports, the set of amplitude values representing a relative amplitude between the groups,
wherein the CSI report includes the inter-group information,
wherein a phase and an amplitude for a reference one of the N groups of ports is a predetermined value,
wherein the relative phase between the groups and the relative amplitude between the groups are with respect to the reference, and
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the CSI report.”
(The above missing/crossed out limitations will be discussed in view of Kakishima and Ren.)
In analogous art, Kakishima teaches the missing features as follows:
PCSIRS belongs to a set including {48, 64},” (para [0016] of Kakishima: a reference signal extraction unit configured to extract the reference signals for measuring the channel state information based on the received information indicating the mapping; a channel state information generator configured to generate the channel state information by using the extracted reference signals(interpreted as “determine the CSI report associated with PCSIRS ports”); and a transmitter configured to transmit the generated channel state information.) (para [0036] of Kakishima: For example, it is desired that not only numbers of antenna ports, such as 16, 32, and 64, but also the numbers of antenna ports, such as 10, 12, 16, 24, 32, 36, 48, 64, 96, and 128 can be supported.).
Muruganathan and Kakishima are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of CSI reporting technology. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the CSIRS port mapping of Muruganathan to incorporate the teachings of Kakishima to provide a mapping for 48 ports and 64 ports.
Muruganathan and Kakishima fail to explicitly teach the feature of “wherein the processor is further configured to determine inter-group information including: a set of phase values each associated with one of the N groups of ports, the set of phase values representing a relative phase between the groups, and a set of amplitude values each associated with one of the N groups of ports, the set of amplitude values representing a relative amplitude between the groups, wherein the CSI report includes the inter-group information, wherein a phase and an amplitude for a reference one of the N groups of ports is a predetermined value, wherein the relative phase between the groups and the relative amplitude between the groups are with respect to the reference, and wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the CSI report.”
In analogous art, Ren teaches the above missing features.
Ren is directed to a communication method, a communications apparatus, and a system, to reduce complexity of measurement by a receive end device.
Ren teaches the wherein the processor is further configured to determine inter-group information including:
a set of phase values each associated with one of the N groups of ports (para [0299] of Ren: It should be understood that if the terminal device performs channel measurement and feedback based on a plurality of antenna port groups, the terminal device may feedback, to the network device in a same indication manner, a plurality of groups of indication information that correspond to the plurality of antenna port groups(interpreted as “inter-group information”). For example, the M beams, the M amplitude coefficients corresponding to the M beams, and the M phase coefficients corresponding to the M beams may be indicated based on different antenna port groups and in the foregoing listed manner. … Therefore, the CSI fed back based on the plurality of antenna port groups may include the NR groups of indication information that correspond to the plurality of antenna port groups, and the NR groups of indication information that correspond to the plurality of antenna port groups may be used to indicate a measured value set including a plurality of measured values.), the set of phase values representing a relative phase between the groups (para [0254] of Ren: It should be noted that, in the embodiments of this application, NR groups of indication information that correspond to the NR columns may be fed back independent of each other, or may be fed back in a different manner. For example, when M base vectors, M amplitude coefficients corresponding to the M base vectors, and M phase coefficients corresponding to the M base vectors are all fed back by the terminal device, one of the NR columns may be indicated by using the M base vectors, M absolute amplitudes, and M absolute phases, and remaining (NR−1) columns may be indicated by using the M base vectors, M relative amplitudes, and M relative phases. ….), and
a set of amplitude values each associated with one of the N groups of ports (para [0299] of Ren: It should be understood that if the terminal device performs channel measurement and feedback based on a plurality of antenna port groups, … For example, the M beams, the M amplitude coefficients corresponding to the M beams, and the M phase coefficients corresponding to the M beams may be indicated based on different antenna port groups and in the foregoing listed manner… Therefore, the CSI fed back based on the plurality of antenna port groups may include the NR groups of indication information that correspond to the plurality of antenna port groups, and the NR groups of indication information that correspond to the plurality of antenna port groups may be used to indicate a measured value set including a plurality of measured values.), the set of amplitude values representing a relative amplitude between the groups (para [0254] of Ren: …For example, when M base vectors, M amplitude coefficients corresponding to the M base vectors, and M phase coefficients corresponding to the M base vectors are all fed back by the terminal device, …may be indicated by using … M relative amplitudes, …),
wherein the CSI report includes the inter-group information (paragraphs [0249-0252] of Ren: The terminal device sends the CSI. The CSI may be used to indicate the measured value. When performing measurement and feedback based on NR receive antennas or NR layers, the terminal device may send NR groups of indication information (interpreted as “inter-group information”) to the network device. For an antenna port group, … (b) indication information of amplitude coefficients corresponding to the M beams; or (c) indication information of phase coefficients corresponding to the M beams.),
wherein a phase and an amplitude for a reference one of the N groups of ports is a predetermined value (para [0266] of Ren: In another possible design, the network device and the terminal device may pre-store correspondences between a plurality of amplitude coefficients and a plurality of indexes and correspondences between a plurality of amplitude difference values and the plurality of indexes (interpreted as “a predetermined value”). The correspondences between the plurality of amplitude coefficients and the plurality of indexes may be referred to as, for example, a first amplitude codebook, and the correspondences between the plurality of amplitude difference values and the plurality of indexes may be referred to as a second amplitude codebook. The terminal device may perform feedback in a different manner, to reduce feedback overheads. For example, an absolute value of a highest amplitude in the M complex number elements may be indicated to the network device. For example, an index of an amplitude coefficient that is in the first amplitude codebook and that is closest to the highest amplitude is sent to the network device (interpreted as “an amplitude for a reference … is a predetermined value”). Difference values of amplitudes of the remaining (M−1) complex number elements relative to the highest amplitude are indicated to the network device. For example, indexes of (M−1) difference values that are closest to the amplitudes of the remaining (M−1) complex elements relative to the highest amplitude are sent to the network device. Overheads of bits used to indicate the highest amplitude may be greater than overheads of bits used to indicate each of the remaining (M−1) relative amplitudes. For example, the bit overheads of the highest amplitude are b bits, and the bit overheads of each relative amplitude are c bits, where b>c. The network device may determine, based on different quantities of bits of all fields in the received CSI, codebooks corresponding to indexes carried in the fields.) (para [0271] of Ren: In another possible design, the network device may pre-store correspondences between a plurality of phase coefficients and a plurality of indexes and correspondences between a plurality of phase difference values and a plurality of indexes (interpreted as “a predetermined value”). … an index of a phase coefficient that is in the first phase codebook and closest to the phase coefficient of the first complex element is sent to the network device. Difference values of phase coefficients of the remaining (M−1) complex element relative to the phase coefficient of the first complex element (interpreted as “a phase … for a reference one of the N groups of ports is a predetermined value”) are indicated to the network device…),
wherein the relative phase between the groups and the relative amplitude between the groups are with respect to the reference (para [0266] of Ren: … The terminal device may perform feedback in a different manner, to reduce feedback overheads. For example, an absolute value of a highest amplitude in the M complex number elements may be indicated to the network device (interpreted as “an amplitude for a reference”). For example, an index of an amplitude coefficient that is in the first amplitude codebook and that is closest to the highest amplitude is sent to the network device(interpreted as “the reference”). Difference values of amplitudes of the remaining (M−1) complex number elements relative to the highest amplitude are indicated to the network device. ...) (para [0271] of Ren: For example, an index of a phase coefficient that is in the first phase codebook and closest to the phase coefficient of the first complex element is sent to the network device (interpreted as “the reference”). … Difference values of phase coefficients of the remaining (M−1) complex element relative to the phase coefficient of the first complex element are indicated to the network device…), and
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the CSI report (paragraphs [0249-0252] of Ren: The terminal device sends the CSI. The CSI may be used to indicate the measured value. When performing measurement and feedback based on NR receive antennas or NR layers, the terminal device may send NR groups of indication information (interpreted as “inter-group information”) to the network device. For an antenna port group, optionally, the CSI may include NR groups of indication information, and each group of indication information may include one or more of the following items: (a) indication information of the M beams; (b) indication information of amplitude coefficients corresponding to the M beams; or (c) indication information of phase coefficients corresponding to the M beams.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify the combination of Muruganathan and Kakishima by using the features (‘indication information indicating relative amplitude/phase) of Ren to reduce feedback overheads. Doing so would reduce complexity of measurement by a receive end device (see para [0008] of Ren).
Regarding claims 13 and 17, claims 13 and 17 recite similar features with the limitations of claim 1, respectively, and are similarly rejected as discussed above.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim 2, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1, Muruganathan further discloses wherein for each group with index r = 1, ..., N, the information includes an information about PCSIRS,r (Para[0167]; Each CSI-RS resource configuration in such an aggregation corresponds to ports Nports CSI =8 antenna ports and one of the CSI-RS configurations in Table 2. Nres CSI (interpreted as “index r”) and Nports CSI ports (interpreted as “PCSIRS”) respectively denote the number of aggregated CSI-RS resources and the number of antenna ports per aggregated CSI-RS resource configuration. The values of Nres CSI and Nports CSI for the cases of 24 and 32 port NZP CSI-RS design are given in Table 8.).
Regarding claim 3, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 2, Muruganathan further discloses wherein PCSIRS,r = αrN1,rN2,r and the information about PCSIRS,r corresponds to a value of (N1,r, N2,r) and a value of αr, where αr ∈ {1,2} (Para[0012]; Such antenna arrays may be (partly) described by the number of antenna columns corresponding to the horizontal dimension Nh, the number of antenna rows corresponding to the vertical dimension Nv, and the number of dimensions corresponding to different polarizations Np. The total number (interpreted as “information about PCSIRS,r”) of antenna elements is thus N=NhNvNp. An example of an antenna where Nh=8 and Nv=4 is illustrated in FIG. 5 below. It furthermore consists of cross-polarized antenna elements meaning that Np=2 (interpreted as “a value of αr, where αr ∈ {1,2}”). We will denote such an antenna as an 8×4 antenna array with cross-polarized antenna elements.”).
Claims 14 and 18 recite similar features with the limitations of claim 2, respectively, and are similarly rejected as discussed above.
Claims 15 and 19 recite similar features with the limitations of claim 3, respectively, and are similarly rejected as discussed above.
Regarding claim 33, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1, Muruganathan further teaches wherein each of the N groups of ports corresponds to a CSI-RS resource (para [0038]: Nres CSI and Nports CSI respectively denote the number of aggregated CSI-RS resources).
Regarding claim 34, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 3, wherein αr = 2 for all r. (Para[0012]; Such antenna arrays may be (partly) described by the number of antenna columns corresponding to the horizontal dimension Nh, the number of antenna rows corresponding to the vertical dimension Nv, and the number of dimensions corresponding to different polarizations Np. The total number of antenna elements is thus N=NhNvNp. An example of an antenna where Nh=8 and Nv=4 is illustrated in FIG. 5 below. It furthermore consists of cross-polarized antenna elements meaning that Np=2 (interpreted as “αr = 2 for all r”). We will denote such an antenna as an 8×4 antenna array with cross-polarized antenna elements.”).
Regarding claim 35, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1, wherein a mapping between PCSIRS, N, and P is according to
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Muruganathan teaches mapping for 24 ports and 32 ports (see Table 8 of Muruganathan). Table 8 is reproduced herein below.
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(Table 8 of Muruganathan)
Kakishima teaches 48 and 64 as the numbers of antenna ports (see para [0036] of Kakishima).
Muruganathan and Kakishima are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of CSI reporting technology. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the CSIRS port mapping of Muruganathan to incorporate the teachings of Kakishima to provide a mapping for 48 ports and 64 ports.
Claims 21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muruganathan, in view of Kakishima, in view of Ren, and further in view of Ramireddy et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0224390; hereinafter “Ramireddy”).
Regarding claim 21, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1, Ramireddy teaches wherein:
the processor is further configured to select a strongest group of ports from the N groups of ports; and the transceiver is further configured to transmit the CSI report including a second indicator indicating the strongest group of ports. (Para[0150] of Ramireddy; the strongest coefficient indicator for all RI layers is jointly reported, by the UE, and represented by a
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bit indicator (interpreted as “a second indicator indicating the strongest group of ports”). This bit indication along with the bitmap in UCI part 2 is used to identify the strongest combining coefficients per layer).
Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren and Ramireddy are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of CSI reporting technology. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Muruganathan, Kakishima and Ren to incorporate the teaching of Ramireddy to provide CSI reporting in order to report exactly the selected strongest/best CSI-RS ports or resources and guide the UE to take into account a relative quality/performance measure compared to the best quality/performance CSI-RS port or resource.
Claims 22 and 23 recite similar features with the limitations of claim 21, respectively, and are similarly rejected as discussed above.
Claims 26-27, and 30-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muruganathan, in view of Kakishima, in view of Ren, and further in view of Park (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20220006496; hereinafter “Park”).
Regarding claim 26, Muruganathan, Kakishima and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1, Park teaches:
wherein the information includes a codebookType indicating a codebook for the CSI report, where the codebook includes a set of vectors of length based on PCSIRS,r and a value of the codebookType is TypeII-D-MIMO or TypeII-PortSelection- D-MIMO (Para [0439] of Park; Type II Port Selection Codebook.)( Paragraphs [0440-0443] of Park; A UE is configured with 4 antenna ports …, 8 antenna ports …, 12 antenna ports …, 16 antenna ports … , 32 antenna ports … and configured with a higher layer parameter codebookType set as ‘typeII-PortSelection’. The number of CSI-RS ports is given by a PCSI-RSϵ{4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32} as set by a higher layer parameter nrofPorts. A value of L is set as a higher layer parameter numberOfBeams. When the PCSI-RS is 4, a value of L is 2. When the PCSI-RS is greater than 4, Lϵ{2, 3, 4}. A value of d is set as a higher layer parameter portSelectionSamplingSize.… ),
when codebookType = TypeII-D-MIMO, the set of vectors are DFT vectors, and when codebookType = TypeII-PortSelection-D-MIMO, the set of vectors are port selection vectors, each comprising one nonzero and remaining zero entries (Para [0447] of Park; Furthermore, a UE is set as a higher layer parameter typeII-PortSelectionRI-Restriction. The bitmap parameter typeII-PortSelectionRI-Restriction forms bit sequences r1, r0. In this case, r0 is the LSB, and r1 is the MSB. When r1 is zero, iϵ{0, 1}).
Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren, and Park are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of CSI reporting technology. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Muruganathan, Kakishima and Ren to incorporate the teaching of Park in order to report a codebookType indicating a codebook for the CSI report. The benefit of such incorporation enables that a wireless device can estimate the effective channel the CSI-RS is traversing including the radio propagation channel and antenna gains.
Regarding claim 27, Muruganathan, Kakishima and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1,
Park teaches wherein PCSIRS, r ∈ {4,8,12,16,24,32} (Para [0440] of Park; The number of CSI-RS ports is given by a PCSI-RS ϵ{4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32}.).
Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren, and Park are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of CSI reporting technology. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Muruganathan, Kakishima and Ren to incorporate the teaching of Park in order to report a codebookType indicating a number of CSI-RS portt. The benefit of such incorporation enables that a wireless device can estimate the effective channel the CSI-RS is traversing including the radio propagation channel and antenna gains.
Regarding claim 30, claim 30 recites similar features with the limitations of claim 26, respectively, and are similarly rejected as discussed above.
Regarding claim 31, claim 31 recites similar features with the limitations of claim 27, respectively, and are similarly rejected as discussed above.
Claims 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muruganathan in view of Kakishima, in view of Ren, in view of Ramireddy, in view of GROßMANN et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20210167837; hereinafter “GROßMANN”), and further in view of Faxer (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20220303919; hereinafter “Faxer”)..
Regarding claim 32, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren teach The UE of Claim 1, Muruganathan, Kakishima, and Ren fails to teach wherein the processor is further configured to:
select Z out of the N groups of ports, where 1 ≤ Z ≤ N, wherein the selection of Z out of N groups of ports is turned OFF or ON via a radio resource control (RRC) parameter,
determine a bit sequence b1 ... bN comprising Z nonzero bits and remaining zero bits where a bit br is associated with a group r, and a nonzero bit corresponds to a selected group of ports; and
determine the CSI report for the selected Z out of the N groups of ports,
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the CSI report via a two-part uplink control information (UCI) comprising part 1 and part 2, where the UCI part 1 includes a bitmap indicator indicating the bit sequence b1 ... bN,
wherein, when the RRC parameter is not provided, the selection is turned OFF and the CSI report is associated with the N groups of ports,
wherein, when the RRC parameter is provided, the selection is turned ON and the CSI report is associated with the selected Z out of the N groups of ports, an
wherein selection of the Z out of the N groups of ports is reported as layer-common, where the layer-common corresponds to a single value that is common for all layers.
In analogous art, Ramireddy teaches wherein the processor is further configured to:
select Z out of the N groups of ports, where 1 ≤ Z ≤ N (Para [0141] of Ramireddy; the CSI part 1 may contain the selected number of non-zero combining coefficients (NNZCC) for each of the RI layers (interpreted as “N groups”). For a maximum of RI=4, the CSI part 1 may contain four NNZCC bit-indicators for the four different layers.), wherein the selection of Z out of N groups of ports is turned OFF or ON via a radio resource control (RRC) parameter (para [0040] of Ramireddy; the UE is configured from the gNB with a CSI report configuration, the CSI report configuration contains the higher-layer (e.g., RRC) parameter(s) U(l) and D(l) representing the number of beam vectors (interpreted as “selection of Z out of N groups of ports”) and delay vectors, respectively, for the l-th layer of the CSI matrix.)
determine a bit sequence b1 ... bN comprising Z nonzero bits and remaining zero bits where a bit br is associated with a group r, and a nonzero bit corresponds to a selected group of ports (Para [0141] of Ramireddy; the CSI part 1 may contain the selected number of non-zero combining coefficients (NNZCC) for each of the RI layers. For a maximum of RI=4, the CSI part 1 may contain four NNZCC bit-indicators (interpreted as “a bit sequence b1 ... bN”) for the four different layers.), and
determine the CSI report for the selected Z out of the N groups of ports (Para [0034] of Ramireddy; the UE may be configured to select a subset of U(l) beam vectors from the first codebook, a subset of DM delay vectors from the second codebook and 2U(l)D(l) combining coefficients, and to indicate in the CSI report the selected RI and the selected beam and delay vectors and combining coefficients of the CSI matrix.),
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the CSI report via a two-part uplink control information (UCI) comprising part 1 and part 2 (Para [0139] of Ramireddy; the CSI report may comprise two parts), where the UCI part 1 includes a bitmap indicator indicating the bit sequence b1 ... bN. (Para [0141] of Ramireddy; the CSI part 1 may contain the selected number of non-zero combining coefficients (NNZCC) for each of the RI layers. For a maximum of RI=4, the CSI part 1 may contain four NNZCC bit-indicators for the four different layers(interpreted as “a bit sequence b1 ... bN”).).
Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren, and Ramireddy fail to teach the following features:
wherein, when the RRC parameter is not provided, the selection is turned OFF and the CSI report is associated with the N groups of ports,
wherein, when the RRC parameter is provided, the selection is turned ON and the CSI report is associated with the selected Z out of the N groups of ports, …
In analogous art, GROßMANN teaches:
wherein, when the RRC parameter is not provided, the selection is turned OFF and the CSI report is associated with the N groups of ports (Para [0011] of GROßMANN; For non-precoded CSI-RSs a one-to-one mapping between a CSI-RS port and a transmit-receive-unit, TXRU, of an antenna array at the gNB is used. Therefore, the non-precoded CSI-RS (interpreted as “when the RRC parameter is not provided”) provides a cell-wide coverage where the different CSI-RS ports have the same beam direction and beam width .),
wherein, when the RRC parameter is provided, the selection is turned ON and the CSI report is associated with the selected Z out of the N groups of ports (Para [0011] of GROßMANN; On the other hand, when using precoded CSI-RSs (interpreted as “when the RRC parameter is provided”), the CSI-RS ports are beam-formed to form several narrow beams in different directions, and each beam provides for a spatially selective coverage instead of a cell-wide coverage).
wherein selection of the Z out of the N groups of ports is reported (Para [0257] of GROßMANN; the beam report provided from the UE towards the gNB … may include an indication of respective beams that may be generated at the UE … so as to provide for beam correspondence or partial beam correspondence. … for example a subset (interpreted as “Z out of the N groups of ports”) of the received DL reception beams at the UE, like the K strongest DL reception beams)
Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren, Ramireddy, and GROßMANN fail to teach the following features: “wherein selection of the Z out of the N groups of ports is reported as layer-common, where the layer-common corresponds to a single value that is common for all layers.”
In analogous art, Faxer, directed to multiple CSI reporting settings and multiple CSI-RS resource settings, teaches the “as layer-common, where the layer-common corresponds to a single value that is common for all layers” (Para[0055-57] of Faxer; “layer-common” and single value “L”;”).
Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren, Ramireddy, GROßMANN and Faxer are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of CSI reporting technology. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Muruganathan, Kakishima, Ren and Ramireddy to incorporate the teachings of GROßMANN and Faxer to report the selected group of ports from the N groups of ports as layer-common and perform efficient compression in order to reduce the number of bits required to represent the information (see paragraph [0039] of Faxer).
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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/WON JUN CHOI/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/JAMAAL HENSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411