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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 08/08/2025, have been fully considered but are moot in view of new ground(s).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 20 recite the terms " ssb-PositionslnBurst, SSB-ToMeasure, ssb-periodicity, and ss-PBCH-BlockPower” without providing clear definitions for the terms, resulting in considerable speculation about their meanings, and assumptions that must be made as to the scope of the claims. This lack of definition renders the scope of the claims ambiguous and indefinite.
The claims seem to be omitting essential elements necessary for one of ordinary skill in the art to clearly grasp the scope of the claim(s). such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. As such, the claim is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete and ambiguous. See MPEP § 2172.01.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4-5, 10-12, 19-21, 24, and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lunardi et al. (US 20240015549) in view of Guo (US 20230021510) and in view of Yang et al. (US 20230180081).
Regarding claim 1, Lunardi discloses a processor of a base station (FIG. 1 network node 102; [0002]) configured to perform operations comprising:
generating, for transmission to a user equipment (UE), channel state information (CSI) configuration information for a CSI measurement report comprising layer 1 (L1) measurement values for one or more reference signals (RS) transmitted from a neighbor base station (transmitting (5705) a measurement configuration over a radio interface to a communication device, wherein the measurement configuration defines a measurement report triggering event based on a measurement of a first reference signal received by the communication device and based on a measurement of a second reference signal received by the communication device. wherein the first reference signal is a serving channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, wherein the second reference signal is a serving synchronization signal block, SSB, reference signal, and wherein the third reference signal is a neighbor SSB reference signal; [0748, 0765]),
wherein the CSI configuration information includes one or more parameters for each of the RS to be measured from the neighbor base station (Each measurement reporting configuration consists of the following: reporting criterion, RS type, and reporting format. The reporting criterion triggers the UE to send a measurement report. This can either be periodical or a single event description. The RS type is the type of RS that the UE uses for beam and cell measurement results (SS/PBCH block or CSI-RS or both SS/PBCH and CSI-RS). The reporting format indicates the quantities per cell and per beam that the UE includes in the measurement report (e.g. RSRP) and other associated information such as the maximum number of cells and the maximum number beams per cell to report; [0239]),
wherein the one or more RS transmitted from the neighbor base station includes an SSB (the first reference signal is a serving channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, wherein the second reference signal is a serving synchronization signal block, SSB, reference signal, and wherein the third reference signal is a neighbor SSB reference signal; [0748, 0765]); and
receiving the CSI measurement report comprising the L1 measurement values for the neighbor base station (if there is at least one applicable neighbouring cell to report: [0600] 2> if the reportType is set to eventTriggered or periodical: [0601] 3> set the measResultNeighCells to include the best neighbouring cells up to maxReportCells; [0599-0601]).
Lunardi does not expressly disclose wherein the CSI configuration information includes an CSI-synchronization signal block (SSB)-ResourceSet information element (IE) configured to indicate one or more parameters for each of the RS to be measured; wherein the one or more parameters include a physical cell identifier (PCI), a time domain pattern including a ssb-PositionslnBurst, a SSB-ToMeasure and a ssb-periodicity and a transmit power parameter including ss-PBCH-BlockPower.
In an analogous art, Guo discloses wherein the CSI configuration information includes an CSI-synchronization signal block (SSB)-ResourceSet information element (IE) configured to indicate one or more parameters for each of the RS to be measured; wherein the one or more parameters include a physical cell identifier (PCI), a time domain pattern including a SSB-ToMeasure and a ssb-periodicity and a transmit power parameter including ss-PBCH-BlockPower (to configure an SS/PBCH block of a non-serving cell as a resource for CSI measurement and reporting, the UE 10 can be provided with the following parameters: 1. Physical cell ID (PCI) of a cell to identify one cell, SSB-periodicity to indicate the transmission periodicity of the SS/PBCH blocks, 6. SSB Index to identify one SS/PBCH block, and/or 7. SS-PBCH-BlockPower to indicate the transmit power of the SS/PBCH block. UE 10 can be provided with SS/PBCH blocks of a non-serving cell in resource setting through the following higher layer parameters: Table 1, CSI-SSB-ResourceSet, SSB-Index, ssb-periodicity, ss-PBCH-BlockPower, PhysCellId; [0044-0045]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Guo into the system of Lunardi in order to provide a beam management of a non-serving cell, improve a latency in a multi-beam operation, provide a good communication performance, and provide high reliability (Guo; [0004]).
The combination of Lunardi and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein the one or more parameters include a ssb-PositionslnBurst.
In an analogous art, Yang discloses wherein the one or more parameters include a ssb-PositionslnBurst (layer 1 measurement configuration may include CSI-SSB-ResourceSet, SSB to be measured. The time domain information includes synchronization signal block positions in burst (ssb-PositionsInBurst); [0222]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Yang into the system of Lunardi and Guo in order to reduce the delay of the UE measuring the reference signal of the target neighboring cell and reporting a measurement result to the network, thereby improve the efficiency of cell handover performed by the UE, and the mobility management between cells (Yang; [0207]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo, particularly Lunardi discloses wherein the CSI configuration information further includes a CSl-ReportConfig IE (if reportQuantityRS-Indexes and maxNrofSSB-RS-IndexesToReport are configured, include SSB beam measurement information as described in 5.5.5.2; [0627] 5> set resultsCSIRS-Beam within the measResultCSIRSBeam to include the CSI-RS beam based quantity(ies) indicated in the reportQuantityBeam within the concerned reportConfig, in decreasing order of the sorting quantity, determined as specified in 5.5.5.3, i.e. the best beam is included first; [0628] 6> if reportQuantityRS-Indexes and maxNrofCSI-RS-IndexesToReport are configured, include CSI-RS beam measurement information as described in 5.5.5; [0626-0628]).
Guo discloses wherein the one or more parameters are introduced at the CSI-SSB-ResourceSet level (to configure an SS/PBCH block of a non-serving cell as a resource for CSI measurement and reporting, the UE 10 can be provided with the following parameters: 1. Physical cell ID (PCI) of a cell to identify one cell, SSB-periodicity to indicate the transmission periodicity of the SS/PBCH blocks, 6. SSB Index to identify one SS/PBCH block, and/or 7. SS-PBCH-BlockPower to indicate the transmit power of the SS/PBCH block. UE 10 can be provided with SS/PBCH blocks of a non-serving cell in resource setting through the following higher layer parameters: Table 1, CSI-SSB-ResourceSet, SSB-Index, ssb-periodicity, ss-PBCH-BlockPower, PhysCellId; [0044-0045]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Guo into the system of Lunardi and Yang in order to provide a beam management of a non-serving cell, improve a latency in a multi-beam operation, provide a good communication performance, and provide high reliability (Guo; [0004]).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo, particularly Lunardi discloses wherein the one or more RS transmitted from the neighbor base station includes a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) (transmitting (5705) a measurement configuration over a radio interface to a communication device, wherein the measurement configuration defines a measurement report triggering event based on a measurement of a first reference signal received by the communication device and based on a measurement of a second reference signal received by the communication device. wherein the first reference signal is a serving channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, wherein the second reference signal is a serving synchronization signal block, SSB, reference signal, and wherein the third reference signal is a neighbor SSB reference signal; [0748, 0765]).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo, particularly Lunardi discloses wherein the one or more RS include a CSI reference signal (RS) and the CSI-RS is configured only as a periodic CSI-RS (The reporting criterion can be a criterion that triggers the UE to send a measurement report. This can either be periodical or a single event description. The RS type can be the RS that the UE uses for beam and cell measurement results (SS/PBCH block or CSI-RS); [0115]).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo, particularly Lunardi discloses wherein the one or more RS includes a CSI reference signal (RS) and the CSI-RS is configured only as a periodic CSI-RS or a semi-persistent CSl-RS (FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a non-zero power (“NZP”)-CSI-RS-Resource IE. The NZP-CSI-RS-Resource IE can be used to configure NZP-CSI-RS transmitted in the cell where the IE is included, which the UE may be configured to measure on (see TS 38.214, clause 5.2.2.3.1). A change of configuration between periodic, semi-persistent or aperiodic for an NZP-CSI-RS-Resource may be supported).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo, particularly Lunardi discloses wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to fully overlap in the time domain (from a CCO point of view this event may imply that the coverage of the serving CSI-RS beam is degrading, while the coverage of the neighbour SSB beam is strong, i.e. neighbour SSB RSs have relatively strong signal. However, such event does not guarantee that coverage and capacity are optimal. As an example, if the serving SSB signal is still strong in the area where the event is recorded, there might be an extended overlap between SSB areas of serving and neighbour cells; [0189]).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo, particularly Lunardi discloses wherein the CSI measurement report comprises an L1 reference signal received power (RSRP) (L1-RSRP) or an L1 signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR) (L1-SINR) (The reporting format indicates the quantities per cell and per beam that the UE includes in the measurement report (e.g. RSRP) and other associated information such as the maximum number of cells and the maximum number beams per cell to report; [0239]).
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 24, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 5.
Regarding claim 31, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 12.
Claim(s) 13-15 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lunardi in view of Guo and Yang, and in view of Grobmann et al. (US 20220385344).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to not overlap in the time domain.
In an analogous art, Grobmann discloses wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to not overlap in the time domain (the set of frequency and time domain resources of a CSI port may be segmented into N non-overlapping or overlapping resource subsets in time and/or frequency domain. Each resource subset may be associated with a sub-port of the CSI-RS port. A CSI-RS port may comprise one or more sub-ports. In one method, the locations of the frequency and time domain resources of a sub-port associated with a CSI-RS port are configured via a higher layer configuration to the UE; [0195]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio, to add the features taught by Grobmann into the system of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo in order to efficiently provide feedback reporting for a codebook-based precoding in a wireless communication system (Grobmann; [0002]).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to fully overlap in the frequency domain.
In an analogous art, Grobmann discloses wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to fully overlap in the frequency domain (the set of frequency and time domain resources of a CSI port may be segmented into N non-overlapping or overlapping resource subsets in time and/or frequency domain. Each resource subset may be associated with a sub-port of the CSI-RS port. A CSI-RS port may comprise one or more sub-ports. In one method, the locations of the frequency and time domain resources of a sub-port associated with a CSI-RS port are configured via a higher layer configuration to the UE; [0195]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio, to add the features taught by Grobmann into the system of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo in order to efficiently provide feedback reporting for a codebook-based precoding in a wireless communication system (Grobmann; [0002]).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to not overlap in the frequency domain.
In an analogous art, Grobmann discloses wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to not overlap in the frequency domain (the set of frequency and time domain resources of a CSI port may be segmented into N non-overlapping or overlapping resource subsets in time and/or frequency domain. Each resource subset may be associated with a sub-port of the CSI-RS port. A CSI-RS port may comprise one or more sub-ports. In one method, the locations of the frequency and time domain resources of a sub-port associated with a CSI-RS port are configured via a higher layer configuration to the UE; [0195]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio, to add the features taught by Grobmann into the system of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo in order to efficiently provide feedback reporting for a codebook-based precoding in a wireless communication system (Grobmann; [0002]).
Regarding claim 32, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 13.
Claim(s) 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lunardi in view of Guo and Yang, and in view of Hong et al. (US 20220086671).
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to have a same subcarrier spacing.
In an analogous art, Hong discloses wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and the RS are configured to have a same subcarrier spacing (A measurement is defined as an SSB based intra-frequency measurement provided the center frequency of the SSB of the serving cell and the center frequency of the SSB of the neighbour cell are the same, and the subcarrier spacing of the two SSBs is also the same; [0123]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio, to add the features taught by Hong into the system of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo in order to effectively manage processes and power by preventing cell measurement or cell measurement report operation from being performed frequently (Hong; [0171]).
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and at least one of the RS is configured to have a subcarrier spacing different from another one of the RS, wherein the operations further comprise:
configuring a measurement gap during which the UE is not required to monitor the base station and tunes to the neighbor base station.
In an analogous art, Hong discloses herein a plurality of RS are configured for the CSI measurement report and at least one of the RS is configured to have a subcarrier spacing different from another one of the RS (an SSB based inter-frequency measurement provided the center frequency of the SSB of the serving cell and the center frequency of the SSB of the neighbour cell are different, or the subcarrier spacing of the two SSBs is different; [0124]),
wherein the operations further comprise: configuring a measurement gap during which the UE is not required to monitor the base station and tunes to the neighbor base station (the cell measurement skip may indicate that the UE is not required to perform measurements on intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and inter-RAT neighboring cells. For another example, the cell measurement skip may indicate that the UE is not required to perform measurement on the serving cell. For another example, the cell measurement skip may indicate that the UE is not required to perform measurement on a neighboring cell for one or more cases of intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and inter-RAT neighboring cells. As another example, cell measurement skip may indicate that the UE is not required to perform measurement on the serving cell and the neighboring cell).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio, to add the features taught by Hong into the system of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo in order to effectively manage processes and power by preventing cell measurement or cell measurement report operation from being performed frequently (Hong; [0171]).
Claim(s) 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lunardi in view of Guo and Yang, and in view of Xiao et al. (US 20220200684).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo does not expressly disclose wherein the operations further comprise: receiving an indication from the UE for whether rate matching to the reference signal transmitted from the neighbor base station is supported; and configuring the UE to perform rate matching between a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and the one or more configured RS.
In an analogous art, Xiao discloses wherein the operations further comprise: receiving an indication from the UE for whether rate matching to the reference signal transmitted from the neighbor base station is supported; and configuring the UE to perform rate matching between a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and the one or more configured RS (CSI-RS may be interfered by the PDSCH of neighbor cells. Therefore, PDSCH RE muting is used to reduce the interference to the CSI-RS of neighbor cell(s). When muting of PDSCH REs is configured: a Rel-10 UE may assume PDSCH rate matching around the muted REs (after UE capability, i.e. its release, is known by the eNB) for all unicast PDSCH transmissions in any transmission mode; [0027]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed inventio, to add the features taught by Xiao into the system of Lunardi, Yang, and Guo in order to reduce the signaling overhead if some or all of the multiple CQIs share a same RS resource and/or a same IM resource (Xiao; [0043]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chen et al. (US 20230189177), “SSB DETERMINATION METHOD AND APPARATUS, AND DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM.”
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OUSSAMA ROUDANI whose telephone number is (571)272-4727. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413