DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
This is in response to an amendment/response filed 5/26/2026.
No claims have been cancelled.
No claims have been added.
Claims 1-6 and 8-20 are now pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the independent claims (pages 1-3) in a reply filed 5/26/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments are based on newly changed limitations in the amendment and new ground of rejections using newly introduced references or a newly introduced portion of an existing reference are applied in the current rejection.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou et al. US 20180227886 (hereinafter “Chou”) in view of Fukui WO 2007108073 (hereinafter “Fukui”, citations are from the attached translation document) and in further view of Zhou et al. US 20160142143 (hereinafter “Zhou”)
As to claim 1 and 18 (claim 1 is the method claim for the system in claim 18):
Chou discloses:
A method for multi-user("one or more UEs", Chou [0054]) physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) ("PDCCH", Chou [0060]) beamforming (“beamforming", Chou [0060]) , the method comprising: communicating, by a node configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more UEs ("The base station can communicate with one or more UEs in the radio communication system", Chou [0054]), a transmission to a first UE of the one or more UEs, the transmission including a first signal encoded with a first orthogonal code; and communicating, by the node configured to wirelessly communicate with the one or more UEs, the transmission to the second UE of the one or more UEs, the transmission including a second signal encoded with a second orthogonal code, ("RSs of different UEs are allocated at the same resource (“e.g. time and frequency) element, and separated by orthogonal codes", Chou [FIG. 9A]) (Examiner’s Note: each UE is separated by orthogonal code as shown in FIG. 9A; therefore, there can be multiple PDCCH)
wherein the first signal and the second signal are communicated by the node via a single PDCCH beam, (“Since UE2 and UE3 use the same refine beam (e.g., refine beam 1-1 in FIG. 7A), TRP1 may schedule them together within the same sub-frame with frequency and/or time diversity", Chou [0101])
Chou as described above does not explicitly teach:
wherein the first orthogonal code and the second orthogonal code are mutually orthogonal such that multiplying the first signal by the second orthogonal code yields a zero result;
and wherein the first UE distinguishes that the first signal is intended for the first UE by receiving a result of the first signal when multiplying the first signal by the first orthogonal code.
However, Fukui further teaches distinguishing signals by multiplying each signal by respective orthogonal codes which includes:
and wherein the first UE distinguishes that the first signal is intended for the first UE by receiving a result of the first signal when multiplying the first signal by the first orthogonal code. (“FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which an orthogonal code is used for control information and a control information area is shared by a plurality of UEs. For example, in the second subframe, frequency group # 3 and frequency group # 4 are used to simultaneously transmit control information to UE4 and UE5. At this time, each control information is multiplied by a different orthogonal code, and each UE is preliminarily notified to extract only the signal addressed to itself by using the orthogonal code V. Can do.”, Fukui [0029]) (“Note that the frequency width (number of subcarriers) occupied by the control information is fixed as in the above-described embodiment. Also, regardless of whether the control information area is shared by multiple UEs, the control information is always multiplied by an orthogonal code. As a result, the terminal performs reception and decoding processing on the premise that orthogonal codes are always multiplied, and there is no need to perform prior notification of the presence or absence of orthogonal codes. The processing of the present embodiment can be realized by performing spreading processing using orthogonal codes in the modulation Z transmission unit 14 and performing despreading processing in the reception Z demodulation unit 21.”, Fukui [0031])
Chou and Fukui are analogous because they pertain to UEs decoding signals transmitted by a base station.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include distinguishing signals by multiplying each signal by respective orthogonal codes as described in Fukui et al. into Chou. By modifying the method to include distinguishing signals by multiplying each signal by respective orthogonal codes as taught by Fukui, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]) and improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]) are achieved.
The combination of Chou and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
wherein the first orthogonal code and the second orthogonal code are mutually orthogonal such that multiplying the first signal by the second orthogonal code yields a zero result;
However, Zhou further teaches orthogonal codes that are mutually orthogonal which includes:
wherein the first orthogonal code and the second orthogonal code are mutually orthogonal such that multiplying the first signal by the second orthogonal code yields a zero result; (“There are multiple manners for the OLT to convert the first digital signal and the second digital signal into the digital in-phase signal and the digital quadrature signal by using a CDM modulation scheme. Optionally, the OLT multiplies the first digital signal by a first codeword, and multiples the second digital signal by a second codeword, to obtain the digital in-phase signal and the digital quadrature signal, where the first codeword and the second codeword are codewords that are mutually orthogonal. Orthogonal code refer to two different codewords whose multiply-accumulate result is 0, and a length of an orthogonal code may be arbitrary, for example, 2 bits (byte), 3 bits, or 4 bits.”, Zhou [0082]) (“In this embodiment of the present invention, when the digital in-phase signal and the digital quadrature signal are orthogonalized by using CDM modulation, optionally, the digital in-phase signal and the digital quadrature signal are separately processed by using orthogonal codes for orthogonalization. Orthogonal codes refer to two different codewords whose multiply-accumulate result is 0, and a length of an orthogonal code may be arbitrary, for example, 2 bits (byte), 3 bits, or 4 bits.”, Zhou [0085])
Chou, Zhou, and Fukui are analogous because they pertain to decoding signals based on orthogonal codes.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal codes that are mutually orthogonal as described in Zhou into Chou as modified by Fukui. By modifying the method to include orthogonal codes that are mutually orthogonal as taught by Zhou, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), and improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]) are achieved.
As to claim 2:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating, by the node (“UEs to communicate the TRP", Chou [0096]), an indication to the first UE and the second UE that the node supports more than one UE via the single beam.( "UE2 and UE3 may obtain the scheduling information of their data channels for themselves and/or for each other in the second stage DCI (e.g., in second stage DCI 820A in FIG. 8A) within refine beam 1-1", Chou [0100])
As to claim 3:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving, at the node, a signal from the first UE. (“the UE notifies the TRP", Chou [0115])
As to claim 5:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving, at the node, a signal from the second UE. (“the UE notifies the TRP", Chou [0115])
As to claim 9:
Claim 9 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 1 from the perspective of the UE.
As to claim 10:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 9, further comprising determining, at the first UE which of the first signal or the second signal was intended for the first UE.( "All UEs can decode their corresponding data with their beam-specific RSs precoded with the corresponding second stage DCIs" Chou [0101])
As to claim 15:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 9, further comprising communicated ("transmitted", Chou [0109]), to the node ("TRP1", Chou [0101]), a third signal from the first UE comprising the first orthogonal code. (“RSs of different UEs are allocated at the same resource (e.g. time and frequency) element, and separated by orthogonal codes", Chou [FIG. 9A])
As to claim 16:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 9, wherein the first UE generates the first orthogonal code and communicates the first orthogonal code to the node. (“exemplary actions the UEs to communicate with the TRP", Chou [FIG. 9B]) ("RSs of different UEs are allocated at the same resource (e.g. time and frequency) element, and separated by orthogonal codes" Chou [FIG. 9A])
As to claim 17:
Chou discloses:
The method of claim 9, wherein the node generates the first orthogonal code and communicates the first orthogonal code to the first UE. ("exemplary actions the UEs to communicate with the TRP", Chou [FIG. 9B]) ("RSs of different UEs are allocated at the same resource (e.g. time and frequency) element, and separated by orthogonal codes", Chou [FIG. 9A])
Claim(s) 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou in view of Fukui and Zhou, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Aldabahi et al. US 11342973 (hereinafter “Aldabahi”)
As to claim 4:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 3, further comprising interpreting, at the node, the signal communicated by the first UE by multiplying the signal by the first orthogonal code.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The method of claim 3, further comprising interpreting (“identifies", Aldabahi [27]), at the node ("base station (BS)", Aldabahi [27]), the signal communicated by the first UE by multiplying the signal by the first orthogonal code. ("These codes are reciprocal at the mobile station (MS) and the base station (BS). Therefore, when a signal is received at the base station (BS), it is basically receiving one codeword. The BS multiplies the received codeword (appearing in the weights of the antennas) by all four codewords in order to retrieve the unique codeword and its affiliated beam in the bundle. As a result, the base station (BS) now identifies the direction with the highest signal level", Aldabahi [27])
Chou, Zhou, Fukui, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 6:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 5, further comprising interpreting, at the node, the signal communicated by the second UE by multiplying the signal by the second orthogonal code.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The method of claim 5, further comprising interpreting (“identifies", Aldabahi [27]), at the node ("base station (BS)", Aldabahi [27]), the signal communicated by the second UE by multiplying the signal by the second orthogonal code. ("These codes are reciprocal at the mobile station (MS) and the base station (BS). Therefore, when a signal is received at the base station (BS), it is basically receiving one codeword. The BS multiplies the received codeword (appearing in the weights of the antennas) by all four codewords in order to retrieve the unique codeword and its affiliated beam in the bundle. As a result, the base station (BS) now identifies the direction with the highest signal level", Aldabahi [27])
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhoui. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 11:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining ("distinguishable signals are generated", Aldabahi [14]) comprises: upon determining the result is not zero, determining the first signal was intended for the first UE. ("At the MS side, the received signals are multiplied (correlated) by all the codes, then the signal that results in the highest correlation indicates signals of interest (SoI) that need to be demodulated and retrieved. Meanwhile, the received signals that result in zero cross-correlation are discarded (for other users)", Aldabahi [14])
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to multi-beam data transmission.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 12:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises: multiplying the first signal by the second orthogonal code; and upon determining the result is zero, determining the first signal was not intended for the first UE.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining ("distinguishable signals are generated", Aldabahi [14]) comprises: multiplying the first signal by the second orthogonal code; and upon determining the result is zero, determining the first signal was not intended for the first UE. ("At the MS side, the received signals are multiplied (correlated) by all the codes, then the signal that results in the highest correlation indicates signals of interest (SoI) that need to be demodulated and retrieved. Meanwhile, the received signals that result in zero cross-correlation are discarded (for other users)", Aldabahi [14])
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 13:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises: multiplying the second signal by the second orthogonal code; and upon determining the result is not zero, determining the second signal was intended for the first UE.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining ("distinguishable signals are generated", Aldabahi [14]) comprises: multiplying the second signal by the second orthogonal code; and upon determining the result is not zero, determining the second signal was intended for the first UE. ("At the MS side, the received signals are multiplied (correlated) by all the codes, then the signal that results in the highest correlation indicates signals of interest (SoI) that need to be demodulated and retrieved. Meanwhile, the received signals that result in zero cross-correlation are discarded (for other users)", Aldabahi [14])
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 14:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises: multiplying the second signal by the first orthogonal code; and upon determining the result is zero, determining the second signal was not intended for the first UE.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The method of claim 10, wherein the determining ("distinguishable signals are generated", Aldabahi [14]) comprises: multiplying the second signal by the first orthogonal code; and upon determining the result is zero, determining the second signal was not intended for the first UE. ("At the MS side, the received signals are multiplied (correlated) by all the codes, then the signal that results in the highest correlation indicates signals of interest (SoI) that need to be demodulated and retrieved. Meanwhile, the received signals that result in zero cross-correlation are discarded (for other users)", Aldabahi [14])
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 19:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The system of claim 18, further comprising: receiving, at the node, a signal from the first UE; and interpreting, at the node, the signal communicated by the first UE by multiplying the signal by the first orthogonal code.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The system of claim 18, further comprising: receiving, at the node, a signal from the first UE ("a signal is received at the base station (BS)", Aldabahi [27]); and interpreting (“identifies", Aldabahi [27]), at the node ("base station (BS)", Aldabahi [27]), the signal communicated by the first UE by multiplying the signal by the first orthogonal code. ("These codes are reciprocal at the mobile station (MS) and the base station (BS). Therefore, when a signal is received at the base station (BS), it is basically receiving one codeword. The BS multiplies the received codeword (appearing in the weights of the antennas) by all four codewords in order to retrieve the unique codeword and its affiliated beam in the bundle. As a result, the base station (BS) now identifies the direction with the highest signal level", Aldabahi [27])
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
As to claim 20:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The system of claim 18, further comprising: receiving, at the node, a signal from the second UE; and interpreting, at the node, the signal communicated by the second UE by multiplying the signal by the second orthogonal code.
However, Aldabahi further teaches orthogonal code multiplication which includes:
The system of claim 18, further comprising: receiving, at the node, a signal from the second UE; and interpreting (“identifies", Aldabahi [27]), at the node ("base station (BS)", Aldabahi [27]), the signal communicated by the second UE by multiplying the signal by the second orthogonal code. ("These codes are reciprocal at the mobile station (MS) and the base station (BS). Therefore, when a signal is received at the base station (BS), it is basically receiving one codeword. The BS multiplies the received codeword (appearing in the weights of the antennas) by all four codewords in order to retrieve the unique codeword and its affiliated beam in the bundle. As a result, the base station (BS) now identifies the direction with the highest signal level", Aldabahi [27]) (“The beamformer architecture shown in FIG. 2 is based on upon a uniform circular array (UCA) with an identical radiation pattern of symmetric beamwidth in all spatial directions (no beam broadening in the end-fire direction), i.e., providing similar signal levels to mobile stations (MSs) at different locations with high directivities.”, Aldabahi [28]) (claim 5, Aldabahi)
Chou, Fukui, Zhou, and Aldabahi are analogous because they pertain to communicating using orthogonal code.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include orthogonal code multiplication as described in Aldalbhi into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying coding scheme to include orthogonal code multiplication as taught by Aldalbahi, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), and enhanced signal quality (Aldalbahi [16]) are achieved.
Claim(s) 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou in view of Fukui and Zhou, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zhou et al. US 20220030519 (hereinafter “Zhou2”)
As to claim 8:
The combination of Chou, Zhou, and Fukui as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method of claim 1, wherein the first UE is in closer proximity to the node relative to the second UE.
However, Zhou2 further teaches relative location of UEs which includes:
The method of claim 1, wherein the first UE is in closer proximity to the node relative to the second UE. ("UE 115-d and UE 115-e may be closer in proximity to base station 105-b relative to UE 115-f, UE 115-g, and UE 115-h", Zhou2 [0119])
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include relative location of UEs as described in Zhou2 into Chou as modified by Fukui and Zhou. By modifying the relative location of UEs as taught by Zhou2, the benefits of improved transmission latency and power efficiency (Chou [0008]), improved filtering (Zhou [0047]), improved communication with multiple UEs (Fukui [0031]), and improved data rate (Zhou2 [0048]) are achieved.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW C KIM whose telephone number is (703)756-5607. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM - 5PM (PST).
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/A.C.K./
Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
Prosecution Insights