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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/01/2026 has been entered.
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 1-2, 4-6, 9-12, 14 and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 3364554 A1 (Choi et al., hereinafter Choi) in view of US 20090130980 A1 (Palanki et al., hereinafter Palanki).
Regrading claim 1, Choi discloses a device (Fig. 6, “wireless communications device 200”. Note that device is disclosed, in applicant’s specification, as a UE or BS), comprising:
an antenna arrangement (Fig. 6, showing MIMO antenna configuration/arrangement); and
a processor circuit (Figs 3 and 6, “controller 240”), wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control an antenna radiation pattern of the antenna arrangement (Fig. 3, “radio signal processing unit (RU)”, “digital signal processing unit (DU) 230”, and “controller 240” coordinate to steer the antenna radiation pattern of the antenna),
wherein the antenna radiation pattern comprises a main lobe (Fig. 6, please see the protruding longer, main lobe in “Beam #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”), at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the smaller side lobes of “beams #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”) and a null between the main lobe and the at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the space between the main and side lobes of “Beam #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”),
where the processor circuit is arranged to control the antenna radiation pattern to direct the main lobe along a path to a communication partner (Figs. 4 and 6; par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…”; thus, the processors in “wireless communication device 200” stir/direct/control the main lobe of Beam #1 along a path towards terminal 100-1, since the power is concentrated in the main lobe towards the direction of terminal 100-1. Please see also pars. [0045]-[0047] and [0069]) in a wireless communication network (par. [0003], “5th generation (5G) mobile networks”),
wherein the processor circuit is arranged to receive a request to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device (par. [0062], “plurality of terminals 100 measure the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for a plurality of beams radiated in different directions from the wireless communications device 200 and generate information of the measured SINR (S404).” par. [0056], “analog beamforming control module 241 controls the RF signal processing unit 210 to remove sidelobes based on channel state information (CSI)”; and Par. [0070], “an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410)”,
wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control a direction of the at least one side lobe, and/or to control a direction of the main lobe, so as to address interference at the second device (Fig. 6, “device 100-2” corresponds to “second device”; Figs. 4 and par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…” when the direction of the main lobe is adjusted/changed, the direction/angle of the side lobes as well as the nulls is changed. par. [0070], “…there may be some degree of interference between the terminals 100. … an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410).” And par. [0077], “After calculating the beamforming signal causing the radio interference based on the channel state information and the angle-of-arrivals, the analog beamforming control module 241 in the wireless communications device 200 may null the beamforming signal having caused the radio interference to suppress the interference (S418). The first removal (i.e., nulling) of the beamforming signal may be accomplished by removing sidelobes having caused the radio interference. Where the mobile device 100-1 while moving, measures interference, sends feedback to the device (BS) 200, which in turn, uses the feedback information to suppress interference by removing sidelobes, which eventually remove nulls.
This removal process, changes the direction of the side lobes, as well as the nulls).
The examiner believes that Choi implicitly discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to receive a “request” to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device, as shown above.
However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the examiner is introducing a new reference related to persistent interference mitigation in a wireless communication system. The reference Palanki explicitly discloses receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device discloses (at least par. [0086], “sending a reduce interference request… may be performed by a station, which may be a base station or a terminal”; and [0087], “station may send a request to reduce interference to at least one interfering station… interfering station…may grant the request by transmitting at lower than full power and/or a different beam direction”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Palanki’s teachings about receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device discloses with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that any element in the system has the capability of making an interference reduction request to any other node in the uplink or downlink direction, as well in a side-to-side communication direction. However, the devices experiencing the interference would be more compelled to request the interference reduction, so that prompt measures can be put in place to improve communication quality.
Regrading claim 19, Choi discloses a method for operating a device in a wireless communication network (Fig. 4 and par. [0074]), the method comprising: forming an antenna radiation pattern for communicating with a communication partner (Fig. 6, terminal 100-1), wherein the antenna radiation pattern comprises a main lobe (Fig. 6, “Beam #1”, please see the protruding longer, main lobe), and, at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the smaller side lobes of beams #1), and a null between the main lobe and the side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the space between the main and side lobes of Beam #1);
directing the main lobe along a path to the communication partner (Figs. 4 and 6, Beam #1 is focused/directed towards terminal 100-1 and par. [0069] “In order to reduce such interferences, the wireless communications device 200 schedules the allocation of the beamforming signals in different directions for the plurality of terminals based on the SINR (S408). For this operation, the wireless communications device 200 allocates the same frequency-time resource, among the frequency-time resources prepared for the beam search, to terminals that bear the least interference while allocating different frequency-time resources to terminals suffering from severe interferences. For example, in FIG. 6, the signals that may be assigned with the same frequency-time resource may be the first beam (beam #1) and a seventh beam (beam #7) between which little interference is occurred.”)); and
in response to the request [for interference reduction at a second device], controlling a direction of the at least one side lobe, and/or controlling a direction of the main lobe to address interference from and/or to a second device (Figs. 4 and 6 par. [0070], “…there may be some degree of interference between the terminals 100. … an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410).” And par. [0077], “After calculating the beamforming signal causing the radio interference based on the channel state information and the angle-of-arrivals, the analog beamforming control module 241 in the wireless communications device 200 may null the beamforming signal having caused the radio interference to suppress the interference (S418). The first removal (i.e., nulling) of the beamforming signal may be accomplished by removing sidelobes having caused the radio interference.)”.
The examiner believes that Choi implicitly discloses receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device.
However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the examiner is introducing a new reference related to persistent interference mitigation in a wireless communication system. The reference Palanki explicitly discloses receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device (at least par. [0086], “sending a reduce interference request… may be performed by a station, which may be a base station or a terminal”; and [0087], “station may send a request to reduce interference to at least one interfering station… interfering station…may grant the request by transmitting at lower than full power and/or a different beam direction”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Palanki’s teachings about receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that any element in the system has the capability of making an interference reduction request to any other node in the uplink or downlink direction, as well in a side-to-side communication direction. However, the devices experiencing the interference would be more compelled to request the interference reduction, so that prompt measures can be put in place to improve communication quality.
Regrading claim 2, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the device is arranged to transmit a transmit signal with the antenna arrangement using the antenna radiation pattern and/or to receive a receive signal using the antenna radiation pattern (par. [0006], “The beamforming refers to… directional signal transmission or reception in such a way that the energy radiated from or received by an antenna is concentrated in a particular direction in space. …”).
Regrading claim 4, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the at least one side lobe in view of a level of power transmission between the device and the second device along at least one path between the device and the second device in a radio propagation environment (par. [0056], “The analog beamforming control module 241 may control the RF signal processor 210 to remove sidelobes based on an angle-of-arrival (AoA) additionally”).
Regrading claim 5, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 4. Choi further discloses wherein the communication partner (Fig. 6, “terminal 102-1”) is located further from the device than the second device (Fig. 6, terminal 100-1), wherein the second device is located as a near device (Fig. 6, terminal 100-1 is located near terminal 100-2).
Regrading claim 6, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the direction of the at least one side lobe to address interference from and/or to the second device (par. [0077], Where the mobile device 100-1 while moving, measures interference, sends feedback to the device (BS) 200, which in turn, uses the feedback information to suppress interference by removing sidelobes, which eventually remove nulls. This removal process, changes the direction of the side lobes, as well as the nulls; and par. [0059], “inter-user interference”).
Regrading claim 9, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to: acquire information about a location of the second device, determine a direction to the second device based on the location, wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the side lobe to reduce an amount of power transfer along the at least one direction so as to address the interference (pars. [0049]-[0050], [0056], [0058] “The analog beamforming control module 241 may control the RF signal processor 210 to remove sidelobes based on an angle-of-arrival (AoA) additionally” and par. [0059], “inter-user interference”).
Regrading claim 10, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the request to reduce interference is based on instructions received from the wireless communication network (par. [0062], “plurality of terminals 100 measure the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for a plurality of beams radiated in different directions from the wireless communications device 200 and generate information of the measured SINR (S404).” Par. [0070], “an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410)”). Palanki further discloses where the request for interference reduction comes from the wireless communication network.
Regrading claim 11, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the request to reduce interference is received indirectly from a third device in a report about a measure of the interference at the second device (par. [0062], “plurality of terminals 100 measure the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for a plurality of beams radiated in different directions from the wireless communications device 200 and generate information of the measured SINR (S404).” Par. [0070], “an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410)”). Palanki discloses where the request can be originated from any of the UEs or the BSs (at least par. [0086], “sending a reduce interference request… may be performed by a station, which may be a base station or a terminal”; and [0087], “station may send a request to reduce interference to at least one interfering station… interfering station…may grant the request by transmitting at lower than full power and/or a different beam direction”).
Regrading claim 12, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 11. Choi further discloses wherein the report is based on a reception of wireless energy transmitted by the device; and/or comprises a prediction based on a location or movement of the device (par. [0062], “plurality of terminals 100 measure the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for a plurality of beams radiated in different directions from the wireless communications device 200 and generate information of the measured SINR (S404).”).
Regrading claim 14, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the at least one side lobe comprises a plurality of side lobes, wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the plurality of side lobes of the antenna radiation pattern so as to address interference from and/or to a plurality of locations (pars. [0055]-[0056], “analog beamforming control module 241 controls the RF signal processing unit 210 to remove sidelobes…”).
Regrading claim 16, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to perform is configured for performing a beam sweeping procedure to address the interference in which the antenna radiation pattern is at least in parts moved in space (pars. [0048]-[0049], “The baseband signal processor 220 receives a baseband digital signal output by the RF signal processor 210 and performs spatial processing on the signal. …”).
Regrading claim 17, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to perform, responsive to the request to reduce interference at a location of the second device at least one of:
a renegotiation between devices forming a link in which the device is one part of that link, where the link was previously formed via a negotiation (before a signal is transmitted, there is negotiation between the transmitting and receiving devices);
a pattern restriction of the antenna radiation pattern characteristic in at least one direction;
an action to achieve a specific goal or target (goals or targets can be removal of interference, achieving a certain power level, using a certain antenna/s, rotating a certain angle, among many other goals or targets);
an action in response to a specific command (actions follow after the processor receives commands. Note: the above limitations are too broad); and
an action using selective code book entries or beam indices (Fig. 2 and pars. [0062],[0070], where based a BS or gNB, based on CSI reports from at least a UE, selects a “best” codebook matrix that is a best fit for downlink transmission).
Regrading claim 18, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Choi further discloses wherein the device comprises one of: a base station configured for operating a cell of the wireless communication network, or a user equipment operating in the cell (par. [0089], where BSs operate cells).
Regrading claim 20, Choi and Palanki disclose discloses all the limitations of claim 1. Chois further discloses a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program stored thereon to perform the method of claim 19 when the computer program is executed by a processor (par. [0082], where a processor, memory and software in conjunction can be consider a computer).
Claims 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of US 20180351605 A1 (Liang et al., hereinafter Liang).
Regrading claim 7, Choi discloses A device (Fig. 6, “wireless communications device 200”), comprising:
an antenna arrangement (Fig. 6, showing MIMO antenna configuration/arrangement); and
a processor circuit (Figs 3 and 6, “controller 240”), wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control an antenna radiation pattern of the antenna arrangement (Fig. 3, “radio signal processing unit (RU)”, “digital signal processing unit (DU) 230”, and “controller 240” coordinate to steer the antenna radiation pattern of the antenna),
wherein the antenna radiation pattern comprises a main lobe (Fig. 6, please see the protruding longer, main lobe in “Beam #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”), at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the smaller side lobes of “beams #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”) and a null between the main lobe and the at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the space between the main and side lobes of “Beam #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”),
where the processor circuit is arranged to control the antenna radiation pattern to direct the main lobe along a path to a communication partner (Figs. 4 and 6; par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…”; thus, the processors in “wireless communication device 200” stir/direct/control the main lobe of Beam #1 along a path towards terminal 100-1, since the power is concentrated in the main lobe towards the direction of terminal 100-1. Please see also pars. [0045]-[0047] and [0069]) in a wireless communication network (par. [0003], “5th generation (5G) mobile networks”),
wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control a direction of the at least one side lobe, and/or to control a direction of the main lobe, so as to address interference at the second device (Fig. 6, “device 100-2” corresponds to “second device”; Figs. 4 and par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…” when the direction of the main lobe is adjusted/changed, the direction/angle of the side lobes as well as the nulls is changed. par. [0070], “…there may be some degree of interference between the terminals 100. … an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410).” And par. [0077], “After calculating the beamforming signal causing the radio interference based on the channel state information and the angle-of-arrivals, the analog beamforming control module 241 in the wireless communications device 200 may null the beamforming signal having caused the radio interference to suppress the interference (S418). The first removal (i.e., nulling) of the beamforming signal may be accomplished by removing sidelobes having caused the radio interference. Where the mobile device 100-1 while moving, measures interference, sends feedback to the device (BS) 200, which in turn, uses the feedback information to suppress interference by removing sidelobes, which eventually remove nulls.
This removal process, changes the direction of the side lobes, as well as the nulls).
wherein the processor circuit is arranged to:
select a selected antenna radiation pattern from a plurality of possible antenna radiation patterns, and adapt the selected antenna radiation pattern to produce an adapted radiation pattern, wherein the adapted radiation pattern reduces the interference between the device and the second device when compared to the selected antenna radiation pattern; or
select the selected antenna radiation pattern from the plurality of possible antenna radiation patterns:
such that the interference is below a predefined interference threshold between the device and the further device; or
to minimize the interference between the device and the second device whilst providing for an energy transmission above a predefined transmission threshold between the device and the communication partner, or
to maximize an energy transmission between the device and the communication partner (Fig. 2 and par. [0062], “wireless communications device 200 carries out the beam search to transmit the beamforming signal to a plurality of terminals 100 (S402). Accordingly, the plurality of terminals 100 measure the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for a plurality of beams radiated in different directions from the wireless communications device 200 and generate information of the measured SINR (S404). The wireless communications device 200 receives, from the plurality of terminals 100, SINR measurement information measured for each of the plurality of beamforming signals (S406).” Please see also pars. [0045], “RF signal processor 210 is connected to a plurality of antennas and processes signals transmitted and received through the antennas. Here, the antennas may be implemented by a phased array antenna, an adaptive array antenna, or a digital beamforming (DBF) antenna”, where AAAs change radiation patterns dynamically according to the movement of the intended/target user and the movement of interference and signals are weighted and combined to increase the desired signal versus the interfering signals and [0070]. Only one of the selections provided is required).
Choi does not specifically disclose wherein the processor circuit is arranged to: select a selected antenna radiation pattern from a plurality of pre-defined antenna radiation patterns.
In related art concerning cellular wireless communication systems enhanced by intelligent self-organizing wireless distributed active antennas, Liang discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to: select a selected antenna radiation pattern from a plurality of pre-defined antenna radiation patterns (par. [0057], “uses predefined quantized radiation patterns, where the BS selects one of the predefined patterns…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Liang’s teachings wherein the processor circuit is arranged to: select a selected antenna radiation pattern from a plurality of pre-defined antenna radiation patterns with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that pre-set pattern would save processing resources as well as time when selecting a radiation pattern.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Palanki, and further in view of WO 2018228697 A1 (Axmon et al., hereinafter Axmon).
Regrading claim 8, Choi discloses (Fig. 6, “wireless communications device 200”. Note that device is disclosed, in applicant’s specification, as a UE or BS), comprising:
an antenna arrangement (Fig. 6, showing MIMO antenna configuration/arrangement); and
a processor circuit (Figs 3 and 6, “controller 240”), wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control an antenna radiation pattern of the antenna arrangement (Fig. 3, “radio signal processing unit (RU)”, “digital signal processing unit (DU) 230”, and “controller 240” coordinate to steer the antenna radiation pattern of the antenna),
wherein the antenna radiation pattern comprises a main lobe (Fig. 6, please see the protruding longer, main lobe in “Beam #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”), at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the smaller side lobes of “beams #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”) and a null between the main lobe and the at least one side lobe (Fig. 6, please see the space between the main and side lobes of “Beam #1”, “Beam #3” and “Beam #7”),
where the processor circuit is arranged to control the antenna radiation pattern to direct the main lobe along a path to a communication partner (Figs. 4 and 6; par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…”; thus, the processors in “wireless communication device 200” stir/direct/control the main lobe of Beam #1 along a path towards terminal 100-1, since the power is concentrated in the main lobe towards the direction of terminal 100-1. Please see also pars. [0045]-[0047] and [0069]) in a wireless communication network (par. [0003], “5th generation (5G) mobile networks”),
wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control a direction of the at least one side lobe, and/or to control a direction of the main lobe, so as to address interference at the second device (Fig. 6, “device 100-2” corresponds to “second device”; Figs. 4 and par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…” when the direction of the main lobe is adjusted/changed, the direction/angle of the side lobes as well as the nulls is changed. par. [0070], “…there may be some degree of interference between the terminals 100. … an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410).” And par. [0077], “After calculating the beamforming signal causing the radio interference based on the channel state information and the angle-of-arrivals, the analog beamforming control module 241 in the wireless communications device 200 may null the beamforming signal having caused the radio interference to suppress the interference (S418). The first removal (i.e., nulling) of the beamforming signal may be accomplished by removing sidelobes having caused the radio interference. Where the mobile device 100-1 while moving, measures interference, sends feedback to the device (BS) 200, which in turn, uses the feedback information to suppress interference by removing sidelobes, which eventually remove nulls.
This removal process, changes the direction of the side lobes, as well as the nulls).
wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control a direction of the at least one side lobe, and/or to control a direction of the main lobe, so as to address interference at the second device (Fig. 6, “device 100-2” corresponds to “second device”; Figs. 4 and par. [0046]-[0047], “the RF signal processor 210…adjusts the shape and direction of the beam using the differences of the amplitude and phase of a carrier signal in the RF band…” when the direction of the main lobe is adjusted/changed, the direction/angle of the side lobes as well as the nulls is changed. par. [0070], “…there may be some degree of interference between the terminals 100. … an operation of measuring the channel state information (CSI) is continued in order to suppress the interference caused by the sidelobes between the beaming signals allocated with the same frequency-time resource (S410).” And par. [0077], “After calculating the beamforming signal causing the radio interference based on the channel state information and the angle-of-arrivals, the analog beamforming control module 241 in the wireless communications device 200 may null the beamforming signal having caused the radio interference to suppress the interference (S418). The first removal (i.e., nulling) of the beamforming signal may be accomplished by removing sidelobes having caused the radio interference. Where the mobile device 100-1 while moving, measures interference, sends feedback to the device (BS) 200, which in turn, uses the feedback information to suppress interference by removing sidelobes, which eventually remove nulls.
This removal process, changes the direction of the side lobes, as well as the nulls).
The examiner believes that Choi implicitly discloses wherein the processor circuit is arranged to receive a “request” to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device, as shown above.
However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the examiner is introducing a new reference related to persistent interference mitigation in a wireless communication system. The reference Palanki explicitly discloses receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device discloses (at least par. [0086], “sending a reduce interference request… may be performed by a station, which may be a base station or a terminal”; and [0087], “station may send a request to reduce interference to at least one interfering station… interfering station…may grant the request by transmitting at lower than full power and/or a different beam direction”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Palanki’s teachings about receiving a “request” to reduce interference at a second device, and wherein, in response to the request to reduce interference with the second device discloses with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that any element in the system has the capability of making an interference reduction request to any other node in the uplink or downlink direction, as well in a side-to-side communication direction. However, the devices experiencing the interference would be more compelled to request the interference reduction, so that prompt measures can be put in place to improve communication quality. Choi further discloses wherein the antenna radiation pattern comprises a plurality of side lobes, wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the sidelobes and/or the antenna radiation pattern (Fig. 2 and pars. [0049]-[0050], [0062] and [0070], only one of the selections provided is required).
Choi does not specifically disclose where the antenna radiation pattern is based on a codebook.
In related art concerning beam selection, Axmon discloses where the antenna radiation pattern is based on a codebook (page 6, lines 9-30; page 7, lines 1-2 and page 17, lines 3-16).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Axmon’s teachings where the antenna radiation pattern is based on a codebook with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that beamforming reduce latency in beam acquisition and measurement overhead, particularly in New Radio 5Gand mmWave systems.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Palanki, and further in view of US 2009/0243931 A1 (Weckerle et al., hereinafter Weckerle).
Regrading claim 15, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Although implied, due to the direction of tilting of the main lobe, Choi does not specifically disclose wherein the at least one side lobe comprises at least a first side lobe and a second side lobe, wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the, first side lobe and the second side lobe based on a sidelobe-by-sidelobe assessment, to address the interference and additional interference to an additional device (pars. [0005]-[0010]. Please see also par. [0049], “a configuration suitable for calculating each weight vector in such a manner that the shape of a transmitted or received beam converges to a desired beam pattern through a closed loop circuit”, suggesting a weighted consideration of each antenna beam pattern; thus, each lobe of the beam pattern would be steered in the direction away from the interference of devices located on the left or right of the interfered device).
In related art concerning an apparatus for power loss compensation and suppression of sidelobes in antenna arrays, Weckerle more explicitly disclose wherein the at least one side lobe comprises at least a first side lobe and a second side lobe, wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the, first side lobe and the second side lobe based on a sidelobe-by-sidelobe assessment, to address the interference and additional interference to an additional device (Figs 3 and 4 and pars [0035]-[0036], where the sidelobe angle and signal strength of each side lobe is modified independently based on sidelobe-by-sidelobe).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Weckerle’s teachings wherein the at least one side lobe comprises at least a first side lobe and a second side lobe, wherein the processor circuit is arranged to control the, first side lobe and the second side lobe based on a sidelobe-by-sidelobe assessment, to address the interference and additional interference to an additional device with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi and Palanki because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that “This is advantageous as the lower sidelobes 220L and 230L tilting downwards point within the cell and cannot interfere with the transmitters in other cells. The upper sidelobes 220u and 230u tilted upwards risk interference with adjacent cells and therefore it is advantageous to reduce the size of the upper sidelobes 220u and 230u substantially (Weckerle, par. [0034]).
Claims 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Palanki, and further in view of US 20180351605 A1 (Liang et al., hereinafter Liang).
Regrading claims 21 and 22, Choi and Palanki disclose all the limitations of claims 1 and 19, respectively.
Choi and Palanki do not specifically disclose wherein the request is based on a predicted interference at the second device.
Liang discloses wherein the request is based on a predicted interference at the second device (par. [0067], “I-Interference coordination: In one embodiment, the CaPs close to cell edges adjust their antenna down tilts, beam patterns and/or transmission power gains to achieve desired throughput in their own coverage area and to reduce the interference caused to other cells. As illustrated in FIG. 18, BS-1 86 or BS-2 89 or both can initiate a negotiation with the neighboring cell to coordinate the interference if the interference level learned from the feedback from the UEs at the cell edge is larger than a threshold. Alternatively, a radio access controller can initiate the interference coordination based on measurements, estimates or predictions of interference. The involved BSs send control messages to their associated CaPs to adjust the antenna tilts, beam patterns and/or transmission power gains based on predefined optimization criteria, e.g., minimizing interference, maximizing the SINR of target UEs.”, where two devices coordinate beam patterns based on predicted interference of UEs in the two cells).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Liang’s teachings wherein the request is based on a predicted interference at the second device with the wireless communication method and device using hybrid beamforming disclosed by Choi and Palanki because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that “BS-1 86 or BS-2 89 or both can initiate a negotiation with the neighboring cell to coordinate the interference if the interference level learned from the feedback from the UEs at the cell edge is larger than a threshold. Alternatively, a radio access controller can initiate the interference coordination based on measurements, estimates or predictions of interference” (Liang, par. [0067]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-2, 4-12, 14-22 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2017/0318541 A1 relates to uplink transmit power control after beam change.
US 2018/0352553 A1 relates to antenna-radiation-pattern selection for reduced interference.
US 2022/0322370 A1 relates to method for interference reduction.
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/Angelica M. Perez/
Primary Examiner AU 2649
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