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 .
The Examiner thanks the Applicant for the well-prepared amendment. The Examiner appreciates the Applicant’s effort to carefully analyze the Office action, and make appropriate arguments and amendments.
Status of Claims
Claims 18-24 responded on March 02, 2026 are pending, claims 18, and 21-23 are amended, and claims 20 are canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 18 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 18-19 and 21-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao et al. (US 2020/0322013 A1, hereinafter "Gao") in view of Kim et al. (US 2015/0244508 A1, hereinafter "Kim") and Geirhofer et al.(US 9,559,820 B2, hereinafter "Geirhofer").
Regarding claim 18, Gao discloses a terminal (Gao, Fig. 7 22) comprising:
a receiver (Gao, Fig. 7 72) that receives higher layer signaling indicating a time-domain offset between a first Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource and a second CSI-RS resource (Gao, [0037, 0041-43] At least the following configuration parameters are signaled via RRC at least for CSI acquisition; A configuration of S'≥1 CSI-RS resource set(s); each set corresponds to different selections from a "pool" of all configured CSI-RS resources to the WD; A configuration of K's≥1 CSI-RS resources for each set s, including at least: mapping to REs, the number of ports, time-domain behavior); and
a processor (Gao, Fig. 7 76) that, controls reception of at least one CSI-RS by using the first CSI-RS resource and the second CSI-RS resource that are determined based on the higher layer signaling (Gao, [0031] Port index indication per CSI-RS resource is configured by RRC to select the CSI-RS port(s) used for RI/CQI calculation per rank).
Gao discloses a plurality of CSI-RSs but does not explicitly disclose wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource (Kim, [0088] if the CSI-RS transmission periodicity is T and 64-port CSI-RSs are transmitted in two subframes in a state of being divided by 32 ports, CSI-RS ports 0 to 31 may be transmitted in an n-th subframe and CSI-RS ports 32 to 64 may be transmitted in an (n+T)-th subframe).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CSI-RS RRC configuration disclosed by Gao and two configured CSI-RS resources disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve feedback overhead and performance (Kim, [0082]).
Gao in view of Kim does not explicitly disclose wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID.
Geirhofer from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID (Geirhofer, Col. 15 lin3 30-33 According to other aspects, different scrambling IDs may be assigned to each CSI-RS group, even if the CSI-RS groups have the same cell ID; Col. 16 line 32-36 the UE could use to indicate the reported CSI-RS group. For example, this indicator may be an index or bitmap linking the radio resource control (RRC) configuration of the CSI-RS group to the CSI-RS configuration).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Geirhofer’s system for mapping different scrambling ID into different group of CSI-RS group into Gao’s CSI-RS resources as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services (Geirhofer, Col. 1 line 47).
Regarding claim 19, Gao does not explicitly disclose wherein the number of the plurality of CSI-RS ports is 32.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the number of the plurality of CSI-RS ports is 32 (Kim, [0017] The reference signal sequence may be for one of 16-port, 32-port or 64-port CSI-RSs).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CSI-RS RRC configuration disclosed by Gao and two configured CSI-RS resources disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve feedback overhead and performance (Kim, [0082]).
Regarding claim 21, Gao discloses a radio communication method of a terminal (Gao, Fig. 7 22) comprising:
receiving higher layer signaling indicating a time-domain offset between a first Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource and a second CSI-RS resource (Gao, [0037, 0041-43] At least the following configuration parameters are signaled via RRC at least for CSI acquisition; A configuration of S'≥1 CSI-RS resource set(s); each set corresponds to different selections from a "pool" of all configured CSI-RS resources to the WD; A configuration of K's≥1 CSI-RS resources for each set s, including at least: mapping to REs, the number of ports, time-domain behavior); and
controlling reception of at least one CSI-RS by using the first CSI-RS resource and the second CSI-RS resource that are determined based on the higher layer signaling (Gao, [0031] Port index indication per CSI-RS resource is configured by RRC to select the CSI-RS port(s) used for RI/CQI calculation per rank).
Gao discloses a plurality of CSI-RSs but does not explicitly disclose wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource (Kim, [0088] if the CSI-RS transmission periodicity is T and 64-port CSI-RSs are transmitted in two subframes in a state of being divided by 32 ports, CSI-RS ports 0 to 31 may be transmitted in an n-th subframe and CSI-RS ports 32 to 64 may be transmitted in an (n+T)-th subframe).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CSI-RS RRC configuration disclosed by Gao and two configured CSI-RS resources disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve feedback overhead and performance (Kim, [0082]).
Gao in view of Kim does not explicitly disclose wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID.
Geirhofer from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID (Geirhofer, Col. 15 lin3 30-33 According to other aspects, different scrambling IDs may be assigned to each CSI-RS group, even if the CSI-RS groups have the same cell ID; Col. 16 line 32-36 the UE could use to indicate the reported CSI-RS group. For example, this indicator may be an index or bitmap linking the radio resource control (RRC) configuration of the CSI-RS group to the CSI-RS configuration).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Geirhofer’s system for mapping different scrambling ID into different group of CSI-RS group into Gao’s CSI-RS resources as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services (Geirhofer, Col. 1 line 47).
Regarding claim 22, Gao discloses a base station (Gao, Fig. 7 10) comprising:
a transmitter (Gao, Fig. 7 56) that transmits higher layer signaling indicating a time-domain offset between a first Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource and a second CSI-RS resource for determining the first CSI-RS resource and the second CSI-RS resource in a terminal (Gao, [0037, 0041-43] At least the following configuration parameters are signaled via RRC at least for CSI acquisition; A configuration of S'≥1 CSI-RS resource set(s); each set corresponds to different selections from a "pool" of all configured CSI-RS resources to the WD; A configuration of K's≥1 CSI-RS resources for each set s, including at least: mapping to REs, the number of ports, time-domain behavior); and
a processor (Gao, Fig. 7 62) that controls transmission of at least one CSI-RS using the first CSI-RS resource and the second C SI-RS resource (Gao, [0031] Port index indication per CSI-RS resource is configured by RRC to select the CSI-RS port(s) used for RI/CQI calculation per rank).
Gao discloses a plurality of CSI-RSs but does not explicitly disclose wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource (Kim, [0088] if the CSI-RS transmission periodicity is T and 64-port CSI-RSs are transmitted in two subframes in a state of being divided by 32 ports, CSI-RS ports 0 to 31 may be transmitted in an n-th subframe and CSI-RS ports 32 to 64 may be transmitted in an (n+T)-th subframe).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CSI-RS RRC configuration disclosed by Gao and two configured CSI-RS resources disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve feedback overhead and performance (Kim, [0082]).
Gao in view of Kim does not explicitly disclose wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID.
Geirhofer from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID (Geirhofer, Col. 15 lin3 30-33 According to other aspects, different scrambling IDs may be assigned to each CSI-RS group, even if the CSI-RS groups have the same cell ID; Col. 16 line 32-36 the UE could use to indicate the reported CSI-RS group. For example, this indicator may be an index or bitmap linking the radio resource control (RRC) configuration of the CSI-RS group to the CSI-RS configuration).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Geirhofer’s system for mapping different scrambling ID into different group of CSI-RS group into Gao’s CSI-RS resources as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services (Geirhofer, Col. 1 line 47).
Regarding claim 23, Gao discloses a system comprising a terminal and a base station (Gao, Fig. 7 10, 22) wherein:
a receiver that receives higher layer signaling indicating a time-domain offset between a first Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource and a second CSI-RS resource (Gao, [0037, 0041-43] At least the following configuration parameters are signaled via RRC at least for CSI acquisition; A configuration of S'≥1 CSI-RS resource set(s); each set corresponds to different selections from a "pool" of all configured CSI-RS resources to the WD; A configuration of K's≥1 CSI-RS resources for each set s, including at least: mapping to REs, the number of ports, time-domain behavior); and
a processor that, controls reception of at least one CSI-RS by using the first CSI-RS resource and the second CSI-RS resource that are determined based on the higher layer signaling (Gao, [0031] Port index indication per CSI-RS resource is configured by RRC to select the CSI-RS port(s) used for RI/CQI calculation per rank), and
the base station comprises:
a transmitter section that transmits the higher layer signaling (Gao, [0051] port index indication per CSI-RS resource is configured by radio resource control (RRC) to select the CSI-RS port(s)).
Gao discloses a plurality of CSI-RSs but does not explicitly disclose wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein a plurality of CSI-RS ports are associated with the first CSI-RS resource, and different CSI-RS ports, equal in number to the plurality of CSI-RS ports, are associated with the second CSI-RS resource (Kim, [0088] if the CSI-RS transmission periodicity is T and 64-port CSI-RSs are transmitted in two subframes in a state of being divided by 32 ports, CSI-RS ports 0 to 31 may be transmitted in an n-th subframe and CSI-RS ports 32 to 64 may be transmitted in an (n+T)-th subframe).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CSI-RS RRC configuration disclosed by Gao and two configured CSI-RS resources disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve feedback overhead and performance (Kim, [0082]).
Gao in view of Kim does not explicitly disclose wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID.
Geirhofer from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the higher layer signaling includes a first scrambling ID corresponding to the first CSI-RS resource and a second scrambling ID corresponding to the second CSI-RS resource, the first scrambling ID being different from the second scrambling ID (Geirhofer, Col. 15 lin3 30-33 According to other aspects, different scrambling IDs may be assigned to each CSI-RS group, even if the CSI-RS groups have the same cell ID; Col. 16 line 32-36 the UE could use to indicate the reported CSI-RS group. For example, this indicator may be an index or bitmap linking the radio resource control (RRC) configuration of the CSI-RS group to the CSI-RS configuration).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Geirhofer’s system for mapping different scrambling ID into different group of CSI-RS group into Gao’s CSI-RS resources as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services (Geirhofer, Col. 1 line 47).
Regarding claim 24, Gao discloses wherein using the first C SI-RS resource and the second CSI-RS resource together increases a number of CSI-RS ports available for receiving the at least one CSI-RS (Gao, [0160] a CSI-RS resource for 16 ports with CDM 4 is illustrated. It can be seen that the ports in the CSI-RS resource are grouped into 4 groups. If ports in different CDM groups are selected, for example, ports {0, 4, 8, 12} are selected, then the WD 22 needs to process signals received on all 16 REs in order to obtain signals for the selected ports {0, 4, 8, 12}).
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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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2415