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
Applicant’s amendment filed on 04/16/2026 has been entered. Independent Claims 1, 14, 28, and 30 have been amended. No dependent claims have been amended. No claims have been cancelled. No claims are new and have been entered. Claims 1-30 are still pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 14, 28, and 30, under 35 USC § 103, 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 specified challenged in the argument.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/15/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 7, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 19, 21-22, 24, and 26-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (Pub. No.: US 20210058131 A1, hereafter “Zhu”) in view of Guan (Pub. No.: US 20250030612 A1, hereafter “Guan”), and even further in view of Nogami (Pub. No.: US 20230319842 A1, hereafter “Nogami”).
Regarding Claim 1, Claim 14, Claim 28, and Claim 30
Zhu teaches a method and apparatus comprising
A method for wireless communications (Zhu Fig. 1: 100) at a user equipment (UE) (Zhu Fig. 1: 111), comprising: receiving (Zhu ¶0515, (1): in the given beam codebook), from a network entity (Zhu Fig. 1: 101, Base Station), a set of reference signals (Zhu ¶0515, (1): candidate beams, e.g. beams selected from reference signal transmissions, see ¶0166) associated with a set of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0515, (1): subset of all candidate beams) for communications with the network entity (Zhu ¶0515, (1): used by the terminal; Zhu teaches the UE receiving a codebook of multiple beams, and selecting one or more beams from a set of candidate beams, see Fig. 1, ¶0166, and ¶0515);
Claim 14 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art,
Zhu does not explicitly teach
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), control signaling configuring a machine learning module for performing a beam prediction process at the UE;
However, Guan teaches
transmitting (Guan ¶0113: transmission), to a user equipment (UE) (Guan Fig. 2: 210), control signaling (Guan ¶0113: CSI-RS) configuring a machine learning module (Guan ¶0113: ML-based) for performing a beam prediction process at the UE (Guan ¶0113: beam selection; Guan teaches a CSI-RS transmission to the UE for an ML-based beam management selection at the UE, see ¶0113);
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu by way of Guan, to include an element that teaches a CSI transmission to the UE for an ML-based beam management selection at the UE, as taught by Guan in ¶0113, to improve ML models in air interface interactions, and improve detecting and handling any interface errors caused by the ML in a feedback loop.
Zhu in view of Guan does not explicitly teach
performing, based at least in part on measurements of the set of reference signals, a beam prediction process for the set of candidate beams;
identifying, based at least in part on the beam prediction process, a slot aggregation configuration comprising a subset of candidate beams of the set of candidate beams wherein the slot aggregation configuration indicates that the UE is to repeat transmission of a same slot over the subset of candidate beams and wherein a repetition factor for the slot aggregation configuration is based at least in part on a number of candidate beams in the subset of candidate beams;
and communicating with the network entity in accordance with the slot aggregation configuration, wherein the communicating comprises repeating a transmission over a number of slots corresponding to the repetition factor.
However, Nogami teaches
performing (Nogami ¶0201: supported for PUSCH), based at least in part on measurements (Nogami ¶0201: from the DCI) of the set of reference signals (Nogami ¶0201: from codebook), a beam prediction process for the set of candidate beams (Nogami ¶0201: Two transmission schemes may be supported for PUSCH; Nogami teaches determining a PUSCH precoder based on the codebook from the DCI with two transmission schemes, see ¶0201); identifying (Nogami ¶0201-¶0204: select the PUSCH transmit precoder), based at least in part on the beam prediction process (Nogami ¶0201-¶0204: semi-static grant over RRC), a slot aggregation configuration (Nogami ¶0201: slot aggregation) comprising a subset of candidate beams (Nogami Fig. 25: Tx beam #1, Tx beam #2, and Tx beam #3, see ¶0188 for LBT parameters) of the set of candidate beams wherein the slot aggregation configuration (Nogami ¶0201: slot aggregation) indicates that the UE (Nogami Fig. 1: 102) is to repeat transmission (Nogami ¶0201: Aggregation of multiple slots with TB repetition may be supported) of a same slot over the subset of candidate beams (Nogami ¶0188: LBT parameters may be managed per Tx beam) and wherein a repetition factor (Nogami ¶0190: frequency domain repetition factor) for the slot aggregation configuration is based at least in part on a number of candidate beams (Nogami ¶0204: LBT parameters are also part of the RRC configuration) in the subset of candidate beams (Nogami ¶0188: LBT parameters may be managed per Tx beam; Nogami teaches a UE receiving a plurality of codebook instructions from a DCI, which contain an RCC instructions containing the LBT parameter for the Tx and corresponding Rx beam, and which includes instructions for slot aggregation and repetition with an associated repetition factor, see Fig. 1, Fig. 25, ¶0185, ¶0188-¶0192, and ¶0201-¶0204); and communicating (Nogami ¶0201: UE may use the indication to select the PUSCH transmit precoder from the codebook) with the network entity (Nogami Fig. 1: 160, gNB, e.g. a base station) in accordance with the slot aggregation configuration (Nogami ¶0201: Aggregation of multiple slots), wherein the communicating comprises repeating a transmission over a number of slots (Nogami ¶0201: TB repetition may be supported) corresponding to the repetition factor (Nogami ¶0190: frequency domain repetition factor; Nogami teaches the UE transmitting through a PUSCH in accordance to the code book from the base station, including an aggregation of multiple slots with a repetition factor being possibly used, see Fig. 1, ¶0190, and ¶0201).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan by way of Nogami, to include an element that teaches determining a PUSCH precoder based on the codebook from the DCI with two transmission schemes, a UE receiving a plurality of codebook instructions from a DCI, which contain an RCC instructions containing the LBT parameter for the Tx and corresponding Rx beam, and which includes instructions for slot aggregation and repetition with an associated repetition factor, and the UE transmitting through a PUSCH in accordance to the code book from the base station, including an aggregation of multiple slots with a repetition factor being possibly used, as taught by Nogami in Fig. 1, Fig. 25, ¶0185, ¶0188-¶0192, ¶0201, and ¶0204, to combine a known element with another known element for an expect result, to improve communication standards by enabling more quick options for selection for beam optimization, and thereby improving QoS for end-to-end communication.
Claim 28 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art, Zhu teaches
a processor (Zhu Fig. 3: 340); memory coupled with the processor (Zhu Fig. 3: 360); and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to (Zhu Fig. 3: 362; Zhu teaches a processor coupled to memory with application instructions inside of the memory, see Fig. 3):
Regarding Claim 2, Claim 15, and Claim 29
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
identifying a first candidate beam of the set of candidate beams having a highest communications metric (Zhu ¶0521: best performance metrics) and a second subset of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0521: second tier of beam codewords) having a predicted communications metric satisfying a threshold (Zhu ¶0521: highest received signal powers), wherein the subset of candidate beams comprises the first candidate beam (Zhu ¶0526: first tier) and the second subset of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0526: hierarchical beam prediction; Zhu teaches a hierarchical beam prediction system in which there are two tiers of beam codewords that have performance metrics, see ¶0521 and ¶0526).
Regarding Claim 3 and Claim 16
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
identifying a single candidate beam of the set of candidate beams having a predicted communications metric satisfying a threshold (Zhu ¶0515: best performance metric), wherein communicating with the network entity in accordance with the slot aggregation configuration comprises receiving a transmission in a slot via the single candidate beam (Zhu ¶0516: received signals; Zhu teaches using the best performance metric from the candidates to receive signals, see ¶0515-¶0516).
Regarding Claim 4 and Claim 24
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
receiving, from the network entity, control signaling indicating a rule for identifying slot aggregation configurations (Zhu ¶0521: presented codebook) for sets of candidate beams based on the beam prediction process (Zhu ¶0521: beam codewords), wherein the identifying is based at least in part on the rule (Zhu ¶0521: selection method; Zhu teaches receiving a codebook with beam codewords to be selected from, see ¶0521).
Regarding Claim 5 and Claim 19
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
transmitting, to the network entity, a report indicating an output of the beam prediction process (Zhu ¶0543: update), the output comprising a second slot aggregation configuration (Zhu ¶0543: beam selection strategy) comprising a second subset of candidate beams of the set of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0543: beam selection; Zhu teaches communicating the base station the selected beam strategy to be used, see ¶0543); and receiving, from the network entity and in response to the report, an indication of the slot aggregation configuration (Zhu ¶0543: terminal updates their beam selection strategy) comprising the subset of candidate beams different from the second slot aggregation configuration comprising the second subset of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0543: “type” of beam), wherein the identifying is based at least in part on the receiving the indication (Zhu ¶0543: update; Zhu teaches the base station updating their beam selection strategy by using the selected beam, see ¶0543).
Regarding Claim 7 and Claim 21
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
transmitting (Zhu ¶0543: update), to the network entity, a first message indicating the measurements of the set of reference signals (Zhu ¶0543: “type” of selection strategy; Zhu teaches the UE updating the base station the type of beams used for communication, see ¶0543).
Regarding Claim 9
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guan teaches
receiving, from the network entity, control signaling (Guan ¶0113: CSI-RS transmission) configuring a machine learning module (Guan ¶0113: ML-based), wherein performing the beam prediction process is based at least in part on the machine learning module (Guan ¶0113: beam selection; Guan teaches a transmission from the base station to the UE as a CSI-RS for the purpose for a machine learning system, see ¶0113).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu by way of Guan, to include an element that teaches a transmission from the base station to the UE as a CSI-RS for the purpose for a machine learning system, as taught by Guan in ¶0113, to improve ML models in air interface interactions, and improve detecting and handling any interface errors caused by the ML in a feedback loop.
Regarding Claim 11 and Claim 26
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
receiving a same first transmission in a set of slots via the subset of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0510: second tier beam codewords): or transmitting a same second transmission in the set of slots via the subset of candidate beams (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Zhu teaches a second tier of beam codewords sent in the same message as the first, see ¶0510).
Regarding Claim 12 and Claim 27
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu further discloses
and transmitting, to the network entity, a report (Zhu ¶0543: measurement report) indicating the second measurements of the set of demodulation reference signals (Zhu ¶0535: second tier beam codewords; Zhu teaches the measurement report contains the second tier beam codeword measurements, see ¶0543 and ¶0535).
Regarding Claim 22
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 21. Zhu further discloses
performing, based at least in part on the measurements of the set of reference signals (Zhu ¶0532: measurement), a second beam prediction process for the set of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0531: second tier beam codewords), wherein the identifying is based at least in part on the second beam prediction process (Zhu ¶0531: selects), and wherein the second beam prediction process is the same as the beam prediction process at the UE (Zhu ¶0531: similar to Type-IV(a); Zhu teaches beam measurement based on the second tier of beam codewords, and the selecting method is similar to the first beam selection process, see ¶0531-¶0532).
Claim(s) 6, 8, 10, 13, 17-18, 20, 23, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (Pub. No.: US 20210058131 A1, hereafter “Zhu”) in view of Guan (Pub. No.: US 20250030612 A1, hereafter “Guan”), even further in view of Nogami (Pub. No.: US 20230319842 A1, hereafter “Nogami”), and further in view of Chen (Pub. No.: US 20220095307 A1, hereafter “Chen”).
Regarding Claim 6 and Claim 20
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Zhu teaches
transmitting, to the network entity, a report (Zhu ¶0543: measurement report) indicating the subset of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0543: updates) based at least in part on the beam prediction process for the set of candidate beams (Zhu ¶0543: beam section strategy; Zhu teaches a measurement report for the purposes of updating a beam selection strategy, see ¶0543);
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami does not explicitly teach
and receiving, from the network entity, an acknowledgment message for the report, wherein communicating with the network entity in accordance with the slot aggregation configuration is based at least in part on receiving the acknowledgment message a defined period of time before the communicating
However, Chen teaches
transmitting (Chen ¶0077: feedback information), to the network entity, a report indicating the subset of candidate beams based at least in part on the beam prediction process for the set of candidate beams (Chen ¶0077: beam selection information); and receiving, from the network entity, an acknowledgment message for the report (Chen ¶0085: ACK/NACK), wherein communicating with the network entity in accordance with the slot aggregation configuration (Chen ¶0089: slot aggregation format for ACK/NACK information) is based at least in part on receiving the acknowledgment message a defined period of time before the communicating (Chen ¶0085: ACK/NACK reporting time; Chen teaches feedback information, including the beam selection information, in an ACK/NACK within a slot aggregation format, and within a set time, see ¶0077-¶0085).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami, further by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches feedback information, including the beam selection information, in an ACK/NACK within a slot aggregation format, and within a set time, as taught by Chen in ¶0085, to improve transmission performance during data transmission efficiently and the problems of low data transmission flexibility and low transmission efficiency caused by less powerful aggregated slots from related art.
Regarding Claim 8 and Claim 17
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 7. Chen teaches
receiving, from the network entity and in response to the first message (Chen Fig. 2: S202), a second message comprising an indication of the slot aggregation configuration (Chen Fig. 2: S206) comprising the subset of candidate beams (Chen ¶0077: beam selection information), wherein the identifying is based at least in part on the receiving the indication (Chen ¶0077: indication information; Chen teaches receiving feedback and a second message that includes a slot aggregation configuration containing beam information, see Fig. 2 and ¶0077).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami, further by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches receiving feedback and a second message that includes a slot aggregation configuration containing beam information, as taught by Chen in Fig. 2 and ¶0077, to improve transmission performance during data transmission efficiently and the problems of low data transmission flexibility and low transmission efficiency caused by less powerful aggregated slots from related art.
Regarding Claim 10 and Claim 25
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 1. Guan teaches
transmitting, to the network entity, a first control message indicating a capability of the UE to identify slot aggregation configurations for sets of candidate beams (Guan ¶0104: capability-related information) based on the beam prediction process performed at the UE (Guan Fig. 2: 210; Guan teaches the UE transmitting capability-related information towards the base station, see Fig. 2 and ¶0104);
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu by way of Guan, to include an element that teaches the UE transmitting capability-related information towards the base station, as taught by Guan in Fig. 2 and ¶0104, to improve ML models in air interface interactions, and improve detecting and handling any interface errors caused by the ML in a feedback loop.
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami does not explicitly teach
and receiving, from the network entity and in response to the first control message, a second control message configuring the UE to identify the slot aggregation configurations for sets of candidate beams based on the beam prediction process performed at the UE.
However, Chen teaches
and receiving, from the network entity and in response to the first control message, a second control message (Chen ¶0067: DCI) configuring the UE to identify the slot aggregation configurations for sets of candidate (Chen ¶0067: slot aggregation subgroup) beams based on the beam prediction process performed at the UE (Chen ¶0067: slot aggregation process, e.g. beam selection, see ¶0077; Chen teaches a DCI used to configure the slot aggregation subgroup for the subgroup aggregation process, which includes beam selection, see ¶0067 and ¶0077).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami, further by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches a DCI used to configure the slot aggregation subgroup for the subgroup aggregation process, which includes beam selection, as taught by Chen in ¶0067 and ¶0077, to improve transmission performance during data transmission efficiently and the problems of low data transmission flexibility and low transmission efficiency caused by less powerful aggregated slots from related art.
Regarding Claim 13
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 12. Zhu further discloses
receiving, from the network entity and in response to the report (Chen ¶0077: feedback information), a control message indicating a termination of the slot aggregation configuration (Chen ¶0077: slot aggregation structure) and a selection of a first beam of the subset of candidate beams (Chen ¶0077: beam selection information; Chen teaches the feedback information includes the slot aggregation structure and beam selection information, see ¶0077).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami, even further by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches the feedback information includes the slot aggregation structure and beam selection information, as taught by Chen in ¶0077, to improve transmission performance during data transmission efficiently and the problems of low data transmission flexibility and low transmission efficiency caused by less powerful aggregated slots from related art.
Regarding Claim 18
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami and further in view of Chen teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 17. Chen further teaches
transmitting, to the UE and in response to the report (Chen ¶0077: feedback information), an indication of the slot aggregation configuration (Chen ¶0077: slot aggregation structure) comprising the subset of candidate beams different from the second slot aggregation configuration comprising the second subset of candidate beams (Chen ¶0077: beam selection information; Chen teaches the feedback information containing the slot aggregation structure and the beam selection information, see ¶0077).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami, even further by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches the feedback information containing the slot aggregation structure and the beam selection information, as taught by Chen in ¶0077, to improve transmission performance during data transmission efficiently and the problems of low data transmission flexibility and low transmission efficiency caused by less powerful aggregated slots from related art.
Regarding Claim 23
Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami teach the method and apparatus as explained above in Claim 21. Chen further teaches
transmitting, to the UE and in response to the second message, a third message (Chen Fig. 1: S106) comprising an indication of the slot aggregation configuration comprising the subset of candidate beams (Chen ¶0077: feedback information; Chen teaches a different message containing feedback information, see Fig. 1 and ¶0077).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Zhu in view of Guan, further in view of Nogami, even further by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches a different message containing feedback information, as taught by Chen in Fig. 1 and ¶0077, to improve transmission performance during data transmission efficiently and the problems of low data transmission flexibility and low transmission efficiency caused by less powerful aggregated slots from related art.
Conclusion
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/JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
/Sudesh M. Patidar/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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