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 .
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 11/11/2025 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of the allowed U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0327727 (Application Number 18/017,625) and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0370141 (Application Number 18/247,050) has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Response to Amendment
The amendment to the claims filed on 11/11/2025 complies with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.121(c) and has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's Arguments/Remarks filed 11/11/2025 (hereinafter Resp.) have been fully considered hereinafter.
Applicant argues that Gao et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0119184 (hereinafter Gao) “only discloses measurement-based reporting for configured resources, such as per-TRP or per-beam feedback” and “is entirely silent on the generation of multiple CSI reports corresponding to different transmission hypotheses (e.g., single TRP vs. joint TRP transmissions), much less reporting that includes both wideband and subband quality information and an indication of a preferred hypothesis”, concluding that “Guo' s disclosure focuses on CSI feedback that reflects the measured channel conditions of received signals . . . which is materially distinct from the claimed hypothesis-driven comparative reporting” – See Resp., ¶2:12, referencing Guo:[¶¶0063-65]. Examiner respectfully disagrees with this reading of Guo and the conclusion Applicant draws from it.
First, what is claimed in the amended independent Claims 1, 14, and 15 is “generating a CSI report corresponding to at least one transmission hypothesis” after “receiving a channel state information (CSI) reporting configuration corresponding to at least two transmission and reception points (TRPs)” and “CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) based on the CSI reporting configuration.” Unless the present disclosure redefines the meaning of a “CSI report” to be a special type of report different from what a person of ordinary skills in the art would understand from the art–which it does not–a CSI report contains UE generated “measurement-based reporting for configured resources,” namely resources on which CSI Reference Signals (CSI-RS) are transmitted on the downlink of the base station, and those resources are configured to the UE through procedures explained in 3GPP specifications – See, e.g., § 5.2, 3GPP TS 38.214 V16.2.0 (2020-06), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 16),” cited in Note 2 of the previous OA, at page 11 (stating: “Each CSI Resource Setting CSI-ResourceConfig contains a configuration of a list of S≥1 CSI Resource Sets (given by higher layer parameter csi-RS-ResourceSetList), where the list is comprised of references to either or both of NZP CSI-RS resource set(s) and SS/PBCH block set(s) or the list is comprised of references to CSI-IM resource set(s). Each CSI Resource Setting is located in the DL BWP identified by the higher layer parameter BWP-id, and all CSI Resource Settings linked to a CSI Report Setting have the same DL BWP”); see also Guo:[¶0023](defining Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS) and CSI-RS resources). Therefore, Guo’s “measurement-based reporting for configured resources, such as per-TRP or per-beam feedback” constitutes “generating a CSI report”, just like the action claimed in the present application. To be sure, Guo also discloses transmitting multiple CSI reports – See [¶0027] (“a WD can be configured with multiple CSI reporting settings (e.g., with higher layer parameter CSIReportConfig) and multiple CSI resource settings (e.g., with higher layer parameter CSI-ResourceConfig)”) and [¶0040](“Each CSI trigger state can include up to 16 CSI reporting settings in NR”), e.g. “a WD may be configured with multiple CSI reporting settings, one for each TRP” – See [¶0048] and “[t]o support dynamic switching between single TRP transmission and NC-JT transmission over multiple TRPs, multiple CSI report settings may be configured for a WD” – See [¶0105], just like claimed in the present application.
Second, Applicant further argues that Gao “is entirely silent on the generation of multiple CSI reports corresponding to different transmission hypotheses (e.g., single TRP vs. joint TRP transmissions).” This statement could not be farther from the Guo disclosure of “techniques for joint CSI feedback supporting the possibility to perform dynamic switching between single TRP transmission with DPS and NC-JT” – See [¶0112] whereby “[f]or the case of three TRPs configured for the WD, the single TRP transmission hypothesis comprises three single TRP transmissions each from one of the three TRPs, and the NC JT transmission hypothesis comprises three NC-JT transmissions each from one pair of TRPs of the three TRPs” – See [¶0113] constitutes disclosure of a plurality of transmission hypotheses, just like claimed by the present application. To be sure, Gao does not encourage multiple CSI report settings and multiple CSI reports because “the feedback overhead can be large, particularly when a large number of antenna ports are deployed per TRP” and “the CSI overhead for supporting dynamic switching between DPS and NC-JT would be increased almost three times compared to DPS only if the current NR or LTE CSI reporting approach is used” – See [¶¶0105-110] and instead proposes techniques to reduce the CSI report size, e.g., by allowing the UE to determine whether “the CSI feedback report includes one of: both a single transmission point (TRP) hypothesis and a non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) transmission hypothesis; and one of the single TRP hypothesis and the non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) transmission hypothesis” – See [¶0172]. This is no different from the present Specification [¶0053] (stating “a UE may be enabled to: 1) reduce a CSI reporting overhead without degrading performance; and/or 2) modify partial CSI omission priorities to favor multi-TRP transmission”). Therefore, this argument is unpersuasive.
Lastly, Applicant argues that Guo is also “entirely silent” on “reporting that includes both wideband and subband quality information and an indication of a preferred hypothesis.” Because Gao follows the same CSI reporting configuration as provided for in industry standards, i.e., “the CSI-ReportConfig parameter or information element (IE) is . . . according to 3GPP TS 38.331” – See [¶0029] and the ensuing table, not unlike the present application – See, e.g., Spec. [¶0056] (“a UE may be configured by higher layers with one or more CSI report configuration reporting settings,” e.g., “one or more CSI resource configuration resource settings (e.g., CSI-ResourceConfig resource settings) for CSI measurement”), in Gao “[e]ach CSI reporting setting may include one or more of the following information: . . . Frequency granularity, e.g., wideband or subband CQI and PMI respectively” – See [¶¶0030,0035] (emphasis added). Furthermore, using the CSI reporting settings, the UE in Gao may indicated its preferred transmission hypothesis – See, e.g., [¶0102](“ the network node (e.g., gNB) may configure a WD with N>l NZP CSI-RS resources, each associated with one TRP, in a CSI resource setting as part of a CSI reporting setting for channel measurement. The WD may be allowed to select m=(l, 2, ... , N) preferred NZP CSI-RS resources. In this case, the WD would feedback a single CSI report including at least an indicator of "Number of Selected Resources", i.e., NSRI, which indicates how many resources are selected along with a set of the selected CSI-RS resource indicators (CRIs), i.e., {CRI1, ... , CRINRI}. NSRI=l may mean that only a single TRP is selected, i.e., DPS transmission is preferred, while NRI> 1 may indicate that NC-JT transmission is preferred”). Therefore, this argument also fails to persuade.
To be sure, CSI reporting enhancements for multiple TRPs was the subject matter of discussions on Agenda Item 8.1.4 in 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 102-e meeting held in August 2020 – See 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #102-e v0.1.0, Draft Report (R1-200xxx), Source: MCC Support, published September 19, 2020 (hereinafter 3GPP R1-200xxx) and Tdoc submissions referenced therein. Several contributions are pertinent to the present disclosure and could add clarity to these arguments. For example, § 2.1.1, R1-2005864, Title: “On CSI enhancements for MTRP and FDD reciprocity,” Source: Intel Corporation (hereinafter 3GPP R1-2005864) discloses CSI measurements for MTRP configured as multiple CSI-RS resources corresponding to one CSI report settings, using three transmission hypotheses of which at least one is selected at the UE:
“Three transmission hypotheses are considered at the UE side for the MTRP CSI process:
Hypothesis 1: TRP1 is transmitting and TRP2 is muted (DPB/DPS);
Hypothesis 2: TRP2 is transmitting and TRP1 is muted (DPB/DPS);
Hypothesis 3: TRP1 and TRP2 are transmitting (NC-JT).
For hypothesis 1 and 2 one of the configured CSI-RS resources is assumed for transmission, for hypothesis 3 it is assumed that a subset of transmission layers is using CSI-RS resource 1 and another subset of transmission layers is using CSI-RS resource 2. One hypothesis is selected for CSI reporting at the UE side” – See § 2.1.1, 3GPP R1-200xxx:2.
The contribution further proposes advanced features to be considered for NR “to give more flexibility and coordination for MTRP scheduling, i.e. more CSI-RS resources corresponding to different TRP configured for one CSI report setting and possibility to report CSI for different hypothesis including NC-JT and DPB/DPS” – See id..
Yet another contribution, R1-2005369, Title: “Evaluation on MTRP CSI and Partial reciprocity,” Source: vivo (hereinafter 3GPP R1-2005369), discusses in § 2.2, CSI framework enhancement for mTRP, and in § 2.4 schemes for calculating reported CSI parameters for NC-JT CSI concluding that “in separate CSI reporting, the feedback overhead of MTRP CSI report is also huge. Therefore, CSI feedback enhancement is also needed” – See § 2.4.2, R1-2005369:6. Addressing this specific concern, contribution R1-2006685, Title: “On CSI enhancements in Rel-17 feMIMO,” Source: Ericsson (hereinafter 3GPP R1-2006685), proposes in §2, at page 2: “specify a method where the UE take an even larger active part in the hypothesis selection, similar to the use of CRI for beam selection in the current Rel.15 framework but extended to multi-TRP transmission hypotheses. By letting the UE select a preferred transmission hypothesis (i.e. set of multiple TRPs in this context), the overhead can be reduced since the UE is removing ‘bad’ hypotheses before sending the feedback (i.e. instead of blindly reporting all hypotheses as part of different CSI reports)” and submits Proposal 1: “For CSI feedback, evaluate UE assisted multi/single-TRP hypothesis selection feedback where the UE decides on single-TRP transmission or multi-TRP NC-JT transmission hypothesis based on its measurements and indicate the preferred hypothesis to the gNB”.
These examples show that the transmission hypotheses are no more than context for CSI measurement-based reporting for configured CSI-RS resources, per-TRP or joint among TRPs, just as disclosed in Guo. Therefore, it is unlikely that a person of ordinary skills in the art would reasonably see the disclosure in Gao as “materially distinct from the claimed hypothesis-driven comparative reporting,” as argued by the Applicant, when Guo’s method is specifically based on comparing the transmission hypotheses to reduce the payload of CSI reports – See, e.g., [¶0215](“the WD 22 may determine whether NC-JT CSI is reported or not based on data throughput estimation, and if the data throughput with NC-JT is lower than the data throughput with single TRP transmission, NC-JT CSI is not reported”).
Because Gao discloses both the selection of the at least one transmission hypothesis (the preferred hypothesis) and the CSI reporting settings for multiple transmission hypothesis at the UE, Gao remains the main reference for the present Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4-5, 12, 14-17, 19-22, and 24-28, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gao et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0119184 (hereinafter Gao).
Regarding Amended Claim 1, Gao teaches a method of a user equipment (UE) (“a method implemented in a wireless device (WD)” – See [¶0067]), the method comprising:
receiving a channel state information (CSI) reporting configuration corresponding to at least two transmission and reception points (TRPs) (“[t]o support CSI feedback for DPS, a WD may be configured with multiple CSI reporting settings, one for each TRP” – See [¶0048], e.g., shown for Dynamic Point Selection between two TRPs – See [¶¶0049-56], by a network node “sending downlink channel transmissions from . . . multiple transmission points (multi-trp)” – See [¶0063], whereby “[a]n example of the CSI-ReportConfig parameter or information element (IE) is shown below according to 3GPP TS 38.331” – See [¶0029] and the CSI-ReportConfig IE Table);
receiving a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) based on the CSI reporting configuration (“For CSI measurement and feedback, dedicated reference signals for CSI-RS may be defined” and “[b]y measuring the received CSI-RS, a WD can estimate the channel that the CSI-RS is traversing” whereby “[t]he CSI-RS . . . may also be referred to as Non-Zero Power (NZP) CSI-RS” – See [¶0023], and “CSI-RS can be configured to be transmitted in certain REs [resource elements] in a slot and/or certain slots” – See [¶0024] and Fig. 5; see also the CSI-ReportConfig IE Table indicating, inter alia, parameters resourcesForChannelMeasurement, csi-IM-ResourcesForInterference and nzp-CSI -RS-ResourcesForInterference each of type CSI-ResourceConfigid, i.e., pointing to where the UE would receive the CSI-RS to be monitored and measured for CSI reporting and the CSI-RS on the downlink from each TRP, also including parameter reportFreqConfiguration, indicating whether reporting of channel quality should be made on wideband frequency, i.e., averaged across all subbands, or per subband, or both); and
generating a CSI report corresponding to at least one transmission hypothesis wherein the at least one transmission hypothesis corresponds to a single TRP transmission or multiple TRP transmissions from multiple TRPs and wherein the CSI report is based on the CSI reporting configuration (“measuring and sending a channel state information (CSI) feedback report assuming data transmission from each one of the K TRPs and data transmission from each of M> 1 TRPs of the K TRPs based on the received CSI report setting” – See [¶0069] whereby “the WD 22 is configured to take part in the hypothesis selection for CSI feedback, e.g., the WD 22 may select whether to feedback CSI for single, or multiple TRP” – See [¶0210], e.g., “the WD can measure and report CSI for both TRPs at once in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), e.g., { CSI for TRP #1, CSI for TRP #2}” – See [¶0057]; furthermore, the transmission hypotheses may be ranked when “[a] single CSI report setting is configured for both single TRP transmission and NC-JT transmission hypotheses” – See [¶0113] and “the CSI feedback report includes one of: both a single transmission point (TRP) hypothesis and a non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) transmission hypothesis; and one of the single TRP hypothesis and the non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) transmission hypothesis” – See [¶0172], i.e., the CSI report corresponds to at least one transmission hypothesis), and
wherein the CSI report includes wideband and subband channel quality information for each of a plurality of transmission hypotheses (“[e]ach CSI reporting setting may include . . . Frequency granularity, e.g., wideband or subband CQI” – See [¶¶0030,0035] and the cqi-Formatlndicator parameter in the CSI-ReportConfig IE Table indicating widebandCQI, and subbandCQI formats for reporting on channel frequency1, whereby “a network node (e.g., gNB) may configure a WD with multiple CSI reporting settings, some for DPS and the other for NC-JT” – See [¶0048], i.e., for each single TRP transmission hypothesis and/or joint mTRP transmission hypothesis the CQI frequency reporting may be set to wideband or subband CQI)
and further indicates a preferred transmission hypothesis among the plurality of transmission hypotheses (“the WD would feedback a single CSI report including at least an indicator of "Number of Selected Resources", i.e., NSRI, which indicates how many resources are selected along with a set of the selected CSI-RS resource indicators (CRIs), i.e., {CRI1, ... , CRINRI}. NSRI=l may mean that only a single TRP is selected, i.e., DPS transmission is preferred, while NSRI> 1 may indicate that NC-JT transmission is preferred” – See [¶0102], i.e., the NSRI value in the CSI report is an indication of the preferred transmission hypothesis at the UE when “the WD 22 is configured to take part in the hypothesis selection for CSI feedback, e.g., the WD 22 may select whether to feedback CSI for single, or multiple TRP” – See [¶0210]) and
wherein the at least one transmission hypothesis comprises: a first transmission hypothesis corresponding to a transmission from a first TRP, a second transmission hypothesis corresponding to a transmission from a second TRP (“the WD 22 first measures and estimates the single TRP transmission hypothesis CSI based on each CSI resource pair individually. . . . This results in K CSIs, each corresponding to a single TRP transmission hypothesis” – See [¶0219], e.g., a first single TRP transmission hypothesis and a second single TRP hypothesis); and
a third transmission hypothesis corresponding to a joint transmission derived from a CSI-RS resource pair associated with the first TRP and the second TRP (“For NC-JT (e.g., where multiple TRPs are simultaneously transmitting to the same WD 22), it has been observed that this feature provides system performance benefit over DPS (e.g., where only one TRP is transmitting to the WD 22) under only (or primarily) the following conditions:” including a low rank indicator (RI) at each TRP– See [¶¶0211-14], e.g., “a rank threshold, Rth, is introduced for the WD 22, for the WD 22 to dynamically determine, for each CSI report to be fed back, whether NC-JT CSI is reported or not” – See [¶0215], therefore the at least one transmission hypothesis comprises a third transmission hypothesis, the NC-JT transmission, i.e., the joint transmission derived from a CSI-RS resource pair associated with the first TRP and the second TRP; furthermore, “An example with two TRPs is shown in Table 2 where Rth=2” and “the WD 22 determines two single-TRP transmission hypothesis CSIs, each of which includes a respective RI” and the “NC-JT transmission hypothesis CSI is also fed back in addition to the two single-TRP transmission hypothesis CSIs . . . in four cases out of the 16 possible rank combinations, resulting in reduced feedback overhead since NC-JT CSI may be omitted for 12 out of the 16 possible cases” – See [¶0222] and Table 2, whereby the NC-JT transmission hypothesis CSI corresponds to a joint transmission derived from a CSI-RS resource pair associated with the first TRP and the second TRP, as shown in Table 2).
Therefore, Amended Claim 1 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 4, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Gao further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein
the CSI-RS corresponding to a first TRP of the multiple TRPs is associated with a first non-zero power CSI-RS (NZP CSI-RS) resource for channel measurement, and the CSI-RS corresponding to a second TRP of the multiple TRPs is associated with a second NZP CSI-RS resource for channel measurement (“K TRPs, a WD 22 may be configured with a CSI report setting with K NZP CSI-RS resources for channel measurement and K CSI-IM resources for interference measurement, i.e., {NZP CSI-RS #1, NZP CSI-RS #2, ... , NZP CSI-RS #K} {CSI-IM #1, CSI-IM #2, ... , CSI-IM #K}, where the resource pair {NZP CSI-RS #k, CSI-IM #k}, k=l,. . . , K, is associated with the kth TRP” whereby “the WD 22 first measures and estimates the single TRP transmission hypothesis CSI based on each CSI resource pair individually” – See [¶¶0216-19] wherein the reference signals for each TRP, i.e., CSI-RS, are sent on the respective NZP CSI-RS resources associated with each TRP)
Therefore, Claim 4 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 5, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Gao further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the CSI report comprises one or more components comprising a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), (when “the network node (e.g., gNB) may configure a WD with N>l NZP CSI-RS resources, each associated with one TRP, in a CSI resource setting as part of a CSI reporting setting for channel measurement,” then “[t]he WD may be allowed to select m=(l, 2, ... ,N) preferred NZP CSI-RS resources” and “would feedback a single CSI report including at least an indicator of "Number of Selected Resources", i.e., NSRI, which indicates how many resources are selected along with a set of the selected CSI-RS resource indicators (CRIs), i.e., {CRI1, ... , CRINSRI}” – See [¶0102]), a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), or a combination thereof (“Report quantity, e.g., CSI parameters to be reported such as RI, PMI, CQI, layer indicator (LI) and CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) in case of multiple NZP CSI-RS resources in a resource set” – See [¶0036] whereby “[t]he WD may derive the other CSI parameters (i.e., RI, PMI and CQI) conditioned on the reported CRI, where CRI k (k>0) corresponds to the configured (k+l)-th entry of associated NZP CSI-RS Resource in the corresponding NZP CSI-RS ResourceSet for channel measurement” – See [¶0039]).
Therefore, Claim 5 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 12, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Gao further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the CSI report comprises a channel quality indicator (CQI) value, and wherein the CQI value corresponds to an absolute value for each sub band of a channel (“Each CSI reporting setting may include one or more of ” – See [¶0030] “[f]requency granularity, e.g., . . . subband CQI” – See [¶0035] for “CSI parameters to be reported such as . . .CQI” – See [¶0036] and the CSI-ReportConfig IE Table, wherein the reportQuantity parameter would indicate cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI and cqi-Formatlndicator would indicate subbandCQI with csi-ReportingBand pointing to the subbands, i.e., CQI is reported as an absolute value for each subband of a channel; see also 3GPP TS 38.214:52, describing configurable subband sizes and stating: “When subband CQI reporting is configured, one CQI for each codeword is reported for each subband in the CSI reporting band”).
Therefore, Claim 12 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Amended Claim 14, Gao teaches a user equipment (UE) comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory (“the WD 22 further includes processing circuitry 84. The processing circuitry 84 may include a processor 86 and memory 88” – See [¶0174] and Fig. 10, the processor configured to cause the UE (“the WD 22 may further comprise software 90, which is stored in, for example, memory 88 at the WD 22, or stored in external memory (e.g., database, storage array, network storage device, etc.) accessible by the WD 22. The software 90 may be executable by the processing circuitry 84” – See [¶0175] and “[t]he processing circuitry 84 may be configured to control any of the methods and/or processes described herein and/or to cause such methods, and/or processes to be performed, e.g., by WD 22” – See [¶0176]) to execute the steps of Amended Claim 1, anticipated by Gao.
Therefore, Amended Claim 14 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Amended Claim 15, Gao further teaches a base station comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to cause the base station (“a network node 16 provided in a communication system 10 and including hardware 58 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 24 and with the WD 22” – see [¶0164] and Fig. 10, “the hardware 58 of the network node 16 further includes processing circuitry 68. The processing circuitry 68 may include a processor 70 and a memory 72” – See [¶0165], and “[t]he processing circuitry 68 may be configured to control any of the methods and/or processes described herein and/or to cause such methods, and/or processes to be performed, e.g., by network node 16” – See [¶0166]) to:
transmit a channel state information (CSI) reporting configuration corresponding to at least two transmission and reception points (TRPs) (“configure the WD with one channel state information (CSI) report setting with K> 1 non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZP CSIRS) resources, each associated with one TRP” – See [¶0147] and “request a CSI feedback report from the WD based on the CSI report setting by assuming data transmission from each one of the K TRPs and data transmission from each of M> 1 TRPs of the K TRPs” – See [¶0148]); and
transmit CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) based on the CSI reporting configuration (“send downlink channel transmissions from a single transmission point (TRP) and/or multiple transmission points (multi-trp)” – See [¶0146] and “schedule the downlink channel transmissions to the WD based on the CSI feedback report” – See [¶0149] whereby the UE “measure channels based at least in part on the NZP CSI-RS resources” – See [¶0153]); and
receive a CSI report corresponding to at least one transmission hypothesis (“the CSI feedback report includes one of: both a single transmission point (TRP) hypothesis and a non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) transmission hypothesis; and one of the single TRP hypothesis and the non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) transmission hypothesis” – See [¶0172]), wherein the at least one transmission hypothesis has the same features and limitations as required by Amended Claim 1. Because Amended Claim 1 is anticipated by Gao, Amended Claim 15 is also anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 16, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Gao further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the generated CSI report based on a CSI reporting trigger (“For aperiodic CSI reporting, a list of CSI trigger states may be configured using the higher layer parameter CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList” whereby “[e]ach trigger state includes at least one CSI report setting” – See [¶0028] and “multiple CSI reports, each associated with one CSI report setting, may be aggregated and sent from the WD to the network node (e.g., gNB) in a single physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) . . . triggered at the same time with a DCI”– See [¶0040]; furthermore, “the NC-JT CSI reporting may be triggered only when a certain condition is met in single TRP CSI feedback” – See [¶0265]).
Therefore, Claim 16 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 17, dependent from Claim 5, Gao further teaches the method of claim 5, wherein each of the one or more components is associated with a transmission hypothesis of the at least one transmission hypothesis (“Requesting, e.g. by a network node 16, CSI feedback from the WD 22 based on one or more CSI reporting setting” – See [¶0270], e.g., when the reportQuantity parameter the CSI-ReportConfig IE Table would indicate cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI , and “the CSI for single TRP transmission hypotheses associated with each NZP CSI-RS resource further comprises one or more of a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matric indicator (PMI), and a channel quality indicator (CQI)” – See [¶0275]).
Therefore, Claim 17 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 19, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Gao further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the CSI report comprises a CSI part 1 and a CSI part 2 (“The CSI feedback report includes at least one of a first CSI feedback and a second CSI feedback” – See [¶0070] wherein “the first CSI feedback comprises one CSI associated with each of the K NZP CSI-RS resources,” e.g., single TRP transmission hypothesis measurements, and “the second CSI feedback comprises a CSI for one of non-coherent joint, NC-JT, transmission,” e.g., for joint multi-TRP transmission hypothesis measurements – See [¶0071]; in an alternative embodiment wherein “[a] single CSI report setting is configured for both single TRP transmission and NC-JT transmission hypotheses” – See [¶0113], “[t]wo-parts CSI encoding is used: the first part has a fixed payload size and contains the ranks for single TRP transmission hypothesis CSI. The second part has a variable payload size and contains the remaining CSI” – See [¶0118]).
Therefore, Claim 19 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claims 20-22, and 24, as amended, dependent from Amended Claim 14, each require the same limitations as recited in Claims 16, 5, 17, and 19, respectively, as amended, only applied to the UE in Amended Claim 14. Because each of the Claims 14, 16, 5, 17, and 19, as amended, is anticipated by Gao, Claims 20-22, and 24, as amended, are anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 25, dependent from Claim 16, the method in Gao further comprises wherein the CSI reporting trigger comprises:
receiving a non-acknowledgment (NACK) of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure;
receiving an indication in a downlink control information (DCI) (“DCI may be used to select a CSI trigger state dynamically” and “[e]ach trigger state includes at least one CSI report setting” – See [¶0028], e.g., “[f]or aperiodic CSI reporting in NR . . more than one CSI reporting setting . . . can be configured within a single CSI trigger state and triggered at the same time with a DCI” and “[a] 3-bit CSI request field in an uplink DCI (i.e., DCI format 0-1) may be used to select one of the trigger states for CSI reporting” – See [¶0040]; see also 3GPP TS 38.331:394 further describing “CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList IE . . . used to configure the UE with a list of aperiodic trigger states. Each codepoint of the DCI field ‘CSI request’ is associated with one trigger state (see TS 38.321 [3], clause 6.1.3.13). Upon reception of the value associated with a trigger state, the UE will perform measurement of CSI-RS, CSI-IM and/or SSB (reference signals) and aperiodic reporting on L1 according to all entries in the associatedReportConfigInfoList for that trigger state”);
a UE-assisted trigger;
or combination thereof2; and
the CSI reporting trigger is based on:
a change of a parameter value in the CSI report compared with a prior value of a same parameter in a prior CSI,
a change in position of the UE with respect to a prior position estimate of the UE (e.g., “the NC-JT CSI reporting may be triggered only when a certain condition is met” such as “the network node 16 determines through single TRP CSI feedback and/or reference signal received power (RSRP) reports that the WD 22 is at the cell edge and is in line of sight (LOS) condition to two TRPs” – See [¶0265], i.e., the WD 22 changed position); or a combination thereof.
Therefore, Claim 25 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 26, dependent from Claim 19, Gao further teaches the method of claim 19, further comprising: reporting a subset of the CSI report, wherein the subset is based on a network configuration, UE assistance information, or a combination thereof (“CSI for NC-JT is only reported when the above conditions are met” – See [¶0215], e.g., “The supported rank (number of MIMO layers) from each TRP is low ( e.g., 1 or 2 layers) even though the WD 22 is equipped with more receive antennas and is thus capable of receiving more layers than these few layers from a single TRP” – See [¶0213], i.e., the UE will report a subset of the CSI report based on network configuration and UE assistance information; see also 3GPP TS 38.331:295-302, describing UEAssistanceInformation IE, comprising reducedMIMO-Layers parameters indicating “the UE's preference on reduced configuration corresponding to the maximum number of . . . MIMO layers . . . to address overheating or power saving”).
Therefore, Claim 26 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 27, dependent from Claim 26, Gao further teaches the method of claim 26, wherein the subset comprises the CSI part 1, the CSI part 2, or a subset of a set of CSI reports, or a combination thereof (e.g., with reference to the case of the first CSI feedback and second CSI feedback explained in Regarding Claim 19, supra, “[t]he WD 22 may then compare the rank of each single TRP CSI with the rank threshold, Rth,” and “[i]f the rank of any of the K single TRP CSIs exceeds the rank threshold Rth, a decision is made e.g., by the WD 22, that NC-JT CSI is not reported but the CSI for one or more single TRP transmission hypothesis are reported” – See [¶0220], or, as explained in relationship with Table 2, “NC-JT CSI is only fed back for some of these [RI] combinations” – See [¶0222], i.e., CSI part 1, CSI part 2, or a subset of CSI part 1 containing feedback for single TRP CSIs exceeding the rank threshold are reported).
Therefore, Claim 27 is anticipated by Gao.
Regarding Claim 28, dependent from Claim 26, Gao further teaches the method of claim 26, further comprising: transmitting exclusively the CSI part 2 after a CSI report triggering (comprises a CSI for one of non-coherent joint, NC-JT, transmission, “[i]f the reported RI for all the K single TRP CSIs is below or equal to the threshold. . . then CSI for NC-JT is additionally reported, or alternatively reported in lieu of the single-TRP CSIs” – See [¶0223] and “in one embodiment, the single TRP CSI is not reported when NC-JT CSI is reported” – See [¶0224], i.e., only the second CSI feedback is reported at CSI report triggering).
Therefore, Claim 28 is anticipated by Gao.
In sum, Claims 1, 4-5, 12, 14-17, 19-22, and 24-28, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as anticipated by Guo.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao as applied to Amended Claim 1 above, and further in view of Ahmed Salem et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0283342 (hereinafter Ahmed Salem).
Regarding Amended Claim 13, dependent from Amended Claim 1, anticipated by Gao, while the method in Gao discloses that the CSI includes CQI per subband – See [¶0035] and “the WD 22 selects and reports the M (> 1) best CSIs out of the K CSIs” – See [¶0208], Gao does not disclose reporting one absolute channel quality indicator (CQI) value that corresponds to maximum CQI value or minimum CQI values corresponding to subbands, wherein one differential CQI value is reported for each subband with respect to the one absolute CQI value.
Ahmed Salem, also teaching CQI reporting by subchannel – See, e.g., [¶0033] in multi TRP operations – See, e.g., [¶0040], further teaches differential CSI reporting (“improved technique includes designating at least one of the reports as a reference and the other reports as dependent on the reference” whereby “a dependent CSI report may have a differential value of a CSI quantity rather than a raw value of the CSI quantity” – See [¶0041, e.g., “[a] flag can be added in UCI part 1 which indicates whether the CSI quantity is going to be sent differentially or not” and if “flag is set to 1, UE will send back CQI differential to first report” – See [¶0075]).
Ahmed Salem further teaches reporting one absolute channel quality indicator (CQI) value that corresponds to maximum CQI value or minimum CQI values corresponding to subbands (regarding “how to pick the reference report” whereby the “reference report can be used per CSI quantity,” e.g., per subband – See [¶0081], the UE can use “the report which corresponds to the highest CQI” – See [¶0083], i.e., the maximum CQI value is chosen as reference absolute value per subband)
wherein one differential CQI value is reported for each subband with respect to the one absolute CQI value (“generally for parameters in a CSI report, the differential quantity has a smaller range of values than the raw values of the CSI quantity” – See [¶0041] and in “a plurality of dependent CSI reports, each of the plurality of dependent CSI reports replacing a value of the CSI quantity with a secondary value of the CSI quantity, the secondary value of the CSI quantity included in that dependent CSI report, in combination with the value of the CSI quantity included in a reference CSI report of the set of reference CSI reports, producing the value of the CSI quantity of the channel of the plurality of channels” – See [¶0088] and Fig. 7; “wherein the CSI quantity . . . channel quality indicator (CQI)” – See [¶0096]).
Thus, Gao and Ahmed Salem each discloses a method of CSI reporting containing CQI reporting setting. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the method of differential CQI reporting taught by Ahmed Salem could have been combined with the method of reporting a set of CSI reports taught by Gao because both methods apply to multi-TRP reporting in LTE/NR wireless communications. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the combination through techniques known in the art. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of significantly reducing communication overhead of CSI reporting by reducing the amount of data transmitted, as taught by Ahmed Salem.
Therefore, Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious of Gao in view of Ahmed Salem.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Kim et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0239358 discloses CSI reporting for multi-TRP based transmission and reception;
Kim et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0056154 discloses CSI-RS resource set includes M CSI-RS resource groups; in addition, N CSI-RS resource groups (NsM) for reporting the CSI are determined from the M CSI-RS resource groups;
Matsumura et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318676 discloses channel state information (CSI) report configuration indicating that at least one of CSI for a single transmission/reception point (STRP) and CSI for multi-TRP (Multi TRP (MTRP)) is reported;
Hao et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0103209, discloses channel state information (CSI) processing for fine granularity CSI;
Park et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0029682, discloses ranking in multi-TRP CSI reporting;
Qi, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0112717, disclosing multiple transmission hypotheses for CSI reporting and a single CSI report or a plurality of CSI reports for an enabled operation mode (e.g., the NCJT mode) with CSI report compression;
Faxer et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0166469, discloses calculating a channel estimate for the selected CSI-RS resources, and determining a channel quality indicator, CQI, corresponding to a hypothetical transmission from a plurality of effective channels where layers transmitted through the effective channels mutually interfere;
Rahman et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0260448 discloses CSI reporting settings in multi-TRP transmissions;
Hajri et al., WIPO Patent Application Publication No. WO 2022/033654 discloses aperiodic CSU reporting with triggers;
Chen et al., WIPO Patent Application Publication No. WO 2021168709 discloses CSI reporting with multiple TRPs;
Miao et al., WIPO Patent Application Publication No. WO 2019029461 discloses CSI reporting with multiple TRPs;
3GPP TS 38.331 V16.1.0 (2020-07), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 16)”;
3GPP TS 38.214 V16.2.0 (2020-06), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 16)”;
3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #102-e v0.1.0, Draft Report (R1-200xxx), Source: MCC Support, published September 19, 2020, referencing R1-2005864, Title: “On CSI enhancements for MTRP and FDD reciprocity,” Source: Intel Corporation; R1-2005369, Title: “Evaluation on MTRP CSI and Partial reciprocity,” Source: vivo; and R1-2006685, Title: “On CSI enhancements in Rel-17 feMIMO,” Source: Ericsson;
3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #102-e, R1-200abcd, Title: “Discussion Summary for CSI enhancements MTRP and FR1 FDD reciprocity,” August 2020, listing 24 company contributions to CSI reporting for MTRP.
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 LUCIA GHEORGHE GRADINARIU whose telephone number is (571)272-1377. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph AVELLINO can be reached at (571)272-3905. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1 Gao references 3GPP TS 38.331 for “[a]n example of the CSI-ReportConfig parameter or information element (IE)” – See [¶0029]. The CSI-ReportConfig IE further contains reportQuantity and reportFreqConfiguration structures further refining the granularity of the CQI reporting, e.g., cqi-FormatIndicator “[i]ndicates whether the UE shall report a single (wideband) or multiple (subband) CQI. (see TS 38.214 [19], clause 5.2.1.4)” – See 3GPP TS 38.331 V16.1.0 (2020-07), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331), at page 404, referring to § 5.2.1.4, 3GPP TS 38.214 V16.2.0 (2020-06), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.214), stating, at page 52, “When wideband CQI reporting is configured, a wideband CQI is reported for each codeword for the entire CSI reporting band. When subband CQI reporting is configured, one CQI for each codeword is reported for each subband in the CSI reporting band.”
2 The language “or a combination thereof” extends the “or” to each alternative as opposed to “and,” following the rule against surplusage in claim interpretation – See Telemac Cellular Corp. v. Topp Telecom, Inc., 247 F.3d 1316, 1325 (Fed. Cir. 2001) (rejecting a proposed construction that would render a phrase as “mere surplusage”).