DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/20/2026 has been entered. Claim(s) 1-3, 5-6, and 8-14 have been amended; Claim(s) 7 and 15-20 have been canceled; No Claim(s) have been added. Claim(s) 1-6 and 8-14 are subject to examination.
Acknowledgement is made to the applicant’s amendment to claims 1 and 14 to obviate the previous 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection to claims 1-6 and 8-14. The previous 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection to claims 1-6 and 8-14 is/are hereby withdrawn.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-6 and 8-14 have been considered but 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 specifically challenged in the argument.
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) 1-2 and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ETSI TS 138.331 V16.1.0 (ETSI, ‘5G; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol Specification (3GPP TS 38.331 version 16.1.0 Release 16)’, 3GPP TS 38.331 V16.1.0 (2020-07)) (see 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to as TS138.331, in view of LI et al. (US 20220286184 A1), hereby referred to as LI, and LIU et al. (US 20220046430 A1), hereby referred to as LIU.
Claim 1:
TS138.331 teaches a method comprising: establishing, by a first user equipment (UE), a unicast link with a second UE (TS138.331: pg 220 (“The purpose of this procedure is to modify a PC5-RRC connection…”) wherein reconfiguration procedure is for already established unicast links); receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, a inter-UE Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message (TS138.331: pg 219 FIG. 5.8.9.1.1-1 (“RRCReconfigurationSidelink”)), wherein the inter-UE RRC reconfiguration message comprises a configuration for a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) (TS138.331: pg 220 (“The purpose of this procedure is to modify a PC5-RRC connection…to configure Sidelink CSI reference signal resources and CSI reporting latency bound…”); transmitting, by the first UE, to the second UE, an inter-UE RRC reconfiguration complete message in response to the inter-UE RRC reconfiguration message (TS138.331 pg 220 FIG. 5.8.9.1.1-1 (“”RRCReconfiguration Complete Sidelink”));
While TS138.331 teaches receiving, by the first UE, form the second UE, a first inter-UE control information (TS138.331: pg 227 section 5.8.9.4.1 (“The sidelink common control information is carried by MasterInforamtionBlockSidelink…”)), TS138.331 does not explicitly disclose wherein the first inter-UE control information comprises a first CSI-RS Resource Index (CRI) indicating a CSI request for a first beam; receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, a second inter-UE control information wherein the second inter-UE control information comprises a second CRI indicating a CSI request for a second beam; receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, the CSI-RS via the first beam and the second beam; measuring, by the first UE, the CSI-RS received via the first beam and the second beam; and transmitting, by the first UE, to the second UE, an inter-UE CSI reporting; wherein, based on at least one of the first beam or the second beam being aligned with a transmission beam of the second UE in inter-UE physical feedback occasion, a transmission beam of the first UE is determined based on a channel reciprocity with the aligned beam, and wherein the inter-UE CSI reporting including a result of the measurement, the first CRI, and the second CRI is transmitted through the transmission beam of the first UE.
LI, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the first inter-UE control information comprises a first CSI-RS Resource Index (CRI) indicating a CSI request for a first beam (LI: FIG. 5B item “Beam 1” and para 87 (“…beam index information may be indicated by the SCI scheduling the PSSCH…a SCI field may be used to carry the beam index…beam index information may be carried by the RS port…used in the PSSCH carrying the SCI…When SL-CSI-RS is used for beam measurement, such information may be carried by the SL-CSI-RS…”) wherein SCI/SL control information has a CRI/CSI-RS beam index); receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, a second inter-UE control information wherein the second inter-UE control information comprises a second CRI indicating a CSI request for a second beam (LI: FIG. 5B item “beam 2” and para 87 (“…beam index information may be indicated by the SCI scheduling the PSSCH…a SCI field may be used to carry the beam index…beam index information may be carried by the RS port…used in the PSSCH carrying the SCI…When SL-CSI-RS is used for beam measurement, such information may be carried by the SL-CSI-RS…”) wherein SCI/SL control information has a CRI/CSI-RS beam index); receiving, by the first UE, from the second UE, the CSI-RS via the first beam and the second beam (LI: FIG. 5B item “Beam 1” and item “Beam 2”); measuring, by the first UE, the CSI-RS received via the first beam and the second beam (LI: FIG. 2 item 2 (“Monitor and measure the received RS…”)); and transmitting, by the first UE, to the second UE, an inter-UE CSI reporting (LI: FIG. 2 item 3 (“Indicate preferred beam(s) E.g., PSFCH…”) and para 119 (“…UE2 may indicate the absolute value of the measurement results for each beam in the reporting…”)); and wherein the inter-UE CSI reporting including a result of the measurement (LI: para 119 (“…UE2 may indicate the absolute value of the measurement results for each beam in the reporting…”)), the first CRI, and the second CRI is transmitted through the transmission beam of the first UE (LI: FIG. 2 item 3 (“Indicate preferred beam(s) E.g., PSFCH…”), para 119 (“…UE2 may indicate the beam index of…one or multiple preferred beam(s)…”), para 120-122 (“UE2 may indicate the preferred beam…implicitly by performing Sidelink transmission…using the selected beam…The UE2 may indicate the preferred beam to UE1 using…PSFCH…”) wherein multiple preferred beams include multiple beam index such as a first and second beam index/CRI and is sent on a preferred/selected beam).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.311 with LI, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI, for the benefit of improved beam condition and beam alignment (LI: para 58-59).
However, TS138.331-LI does not explicitly disclose wherein, based on at least one of the first beam or the second beam being aligned with a transmission beam of the second UE in inter-UE physical feedback occasion, a transmission beam of the first UE is determined based on a channel reciprocity with the aligned beam
LIU, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein, based on at least one of the first beam or the second beam being aligned with a transmission beam of the second UE in inter-UE physical feedback occasion, a transmission beam of the first UE is determined based on a channel reciprocity with the aligned beam (LIU: para 143 (“…UE302b…may perform transmit beam selection…utilize the same…receive beam 410…for reception while the UE 302a sweep across the set of transmit beam 420, 422, 424…UE 302b may determine a resource in the PSFCH 406 for reporting the preferred transmit beam direction…”) and para 160 (“The UE 302a and 302 may also apply channel reciprocity by using the same set of transmit-receive beams for communication in a reverse link direction…the UE 302b may transmit data to the UE 302a over the sidelink channel in the same beam direction as the preferred receive beam direction, and the UE 302a may receive the data from the UE 302b in the same beam direction as the preferred transmit beam direction.”) wherein channel reciprocity is used on the aligned/preferred beam discovered in the PSFCH occasion to determine a beam to transmit data).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI with LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, for the benefit of reducing transmit beam selection time, reduce transmission gaps, and improve sidelink communication performance (LIU: para 57).
Claim 2:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first CRI included in the first inter-UE control information and/or the second CRI included in the second inter-UE control information has a size greater than one bit (LI: para 87 (“…SCI field may be used to carry the beam index…32, a 5-bits field, e.g., a beam index indicator field…”) wherein CRI is greater than 1 bit).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.311 and LIU with LI for the benefit of improved beam condition and beam alignment (LI: para 58-59).
Claim 13:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first UE is in communication with at least one of a mobile device, a network, and/or autonomous vehicles other than the first UE (LI: FIG 20A wherein first device is communicating in a large system).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.311 with LI for the benefit of improved beam condition and beam alignment (LI: para 58-59).
Claim 14:
TS138.331 teaches a first user equipment (UE) comprising: at least one transceiver; at least one processor; and at least one memory connected to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed, cause the first device to perform operations (TS138.331 FIG. 5.8.9.1.1-1 wherein first device requires at least a transceiver, processor, and memory to perform the described operation).
For further limitations, see rejection for claim 1 above.
Claim(s) 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI and LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, and in further view of SHIN et al. (US 20220399917 A1) (See 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to as SHIN.
Claim 3:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 2, disclose wherein, after the first inter-UE control is received, the CSI-RS is received via the first beam after X slot (LI: FIG. 7B wherein the RS is received/transmitted some slot time after the SCI), wherein, after the first inter-UE control information is received, the inter-UE CSI reporting is transmitted after Y slot (LI: FIG. 2 item 3 wherein reporting is done sometime after 1st SL control information and CSI-RS reception, therefore Y is greater than X), but does not explicitly wherein the X and the Y are a positive integer.
SHIN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the X and the Y are a positive integer (SHIN: para 164 (“…periodicity for transmission of the SL CSI-RS. CSI-ResourcePeriodicity…slots4, slots5…”) wherein CSI-RS is received after X slots and para 165 (“…periodicity for transmission of the SL CSI report…slots4, slots6…”) wherein CSI reporting is after Y slot).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU with SHIN for the benefit of reducing pathloss and improving coverage (SHIN: para 55).
Claim 4:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 2, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the CSI-RS received via the first beam and the CSI-RS received via the second beam are received at regular periods.
SHIN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the CSI-RS received via the first beam and the CSI-RS received via the second beam are received at regular periods (SHIN: FIG. 9A item 901 (“OFFsetIndicator1”) and (“Periodicity”); para 164 (“…periodicity for transmission of the SL CSI-RS. CSI-ResourcePeriodicity…slots4, slots5…”) wherein CSI-RS is received in regular periods).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU with SHIN for the benefit of reducing pathloss and improving coverage (SHIN: para 55).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI and LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, and in further view of SON et al. (US 20230217287 A1) (see 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to as SON.
Claim 5:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the inter-UE CSI reporting is transmitted within an inter-UE CSI latency boundary configured in the inter-UE RRC reconfiguration message (TS138.331: pg 220 (“The purpose of this procedure is to modify a PC5-RRC connection…to configure Sidelink CSI reference signal resources and CSI reporting latency bound…”) wherein SL CSI latency boundary is configured for SL CSI reporting), but does not explicitly disclose from after the first inter-UE control information is received.
SON, in the same field of endeavor, teaches from after the first SL control information is received (SON: FIG. 8 item K and para 94 (“…feedback indication information and K may be included in SCI…K may be ‘sl-LatencyBound-CSI-Report’.”) wherein SL CSI latency boundary is started after SL control information is received).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU with SON for the benefit of improving sidelink communication performance (SON: para 13).
Claim(s) 6 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI and LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, and in further view of GROSSMAN et al. (US 20230246785 A1) (see 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to GROSSMAN.
Claim 6:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the CSI-RS received via the first beam and the CSI-RS received via the second beam are received via different dynamically allocated time resources (LI: FIG. 4 wherein each beam is dynamically allocated a different time slot),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.311 and LIU with LI for the benefit of improved beam condition and beam alignment (LI: para 58-59).
However, TS138.331-LI-LIU does not explicitly disclose wherein the first CRI in the first inter-UE control information and/or the second CRI included in the second inter-UE control information has a size of 1 bit.
GROSSMAN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the first CRI in the first SL control information and/or the second CRI included in the second SL control information has a size of 1 bit (GROSSMAN: para 209 (“…then the CRI field has a size of log2X bits…”) wherein CRI can be 1 bit).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.133-LI-LIU with GROSSMANN for the benefit of interference management (GROSSMANN: para 205).
Claim 10:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the at least one of the first CRI or the second CRI included in the inter-UE CSI reporting has a size of at least 7 bits.
GROSSMANN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the first CRI and/or the second CRI included in the inter-UE CSI reporting has a size of at least 7 bits (GROSSMANN: para 209 (“…then the CRI field has a size of LOG2X bits…”) and para 217 (“…the CSI report comprises two parts…there exists a first CRI and a second CRI…”) wherein a CRI field for each of the first and second CRI can be any number of bits including 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.133-LI-LIU with GROSSMANN for the benefit of interference management (GROSSMANN: para 205).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI and LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, and in further view of SHIN and SON.
Claim 8:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein, disclose based on the first beam being aligned with the transmission beam of the second UE, the inter-UE CSI reporting including the result of the measurement, the first CRI and the second CRI is transmitted through the beam reciprocal to the first beam (LI: FIG. 2 item 3 (“Indicate preferred beam(s) E.g., PSFCH…”), para 119 (“…UE2 may indicate the absolute value of the measurement results for each beam in the reporting…”), para 119 (“…UE2 may indicate the beam index of…one or multiple preferred beam(s)…”), para 120-122 (“UE2 may indicate the preferred beam…implicitly by performing Sidelink transmission…using the selected beam…The UE2 may indicate the preferred beam to UE1 using…PSFCH…”) wherein multiple preferred beams include multiple beam index such as a first and second beam index/CRI and is sent on a preferred/selected beam along with the measurements) and (LIU: para 143 (“…UE302b…may perform transmit beam selection…utilize the same…receive beam 410…for reception while the UE 302a sweep across the set of transmit beam 420, 422, 424…UE 302b may determine a resource in the PSFCH 406 for reporting the preferred transmit beam direction…”) and para 160 (“The UE 302a and 302 may also apply channel reciprocity by using the same set of transmit-receive beams for communication in a reverse link direction…the UE 302b may transmit data to the UE 302a over the sidelink channel in the same beam direction as the preferred receive beam direction, and the UE 302a may receive the data from the UE 302b in the same beam direction as the preferred transmit beam direction.”) wherein channel reciprocity is used on the aligned/preferred beam discovered in the PSFCH occasion to determine a beam to transmit data), within an inter-UE CSI latency boundary configured in the inter-UE RRC reconfiguration message (TS138.331: pg 220 (“The purpose of this procedure is to modify a PC5-RRC connection…to configure Sidelink CSI reference signal resources and CSI reporting latency bound…”)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.311 with LI and LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, for the benefit of improved beam condition and beam alignment (LI: para 58-59); and reducing transmit beam selection time, reduce transmission gaps, and improve sidelink communication performance (LIU: para 57).
However, TS138.331-LI-LIU does not explicitly in a slot corresponding to a multiple of a beam alignment cycle check parameter received by an upper layer, and from after the first inter-UE control information is received.
SHIN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches in a slot corresponding to a multiple of a beam alignment cycle check parameter (SHIN: FIG. 10D and para 195 (“…transmitting UE…may transmit a signal to the receiving UE…by forming a beam for PSCCH/PSSCH based on the beam information received….”) wherein first beam is the beam that aligns with the transmitting UE beam in a slot/forms PSCCH/PSSCH based on multiple parameters/beam alignment cycle check parameters) received by an upper layer (SHIN: FIG. 5 item 510 and para 108 (“SL-SIB information may include…parameter configuration operation..”) wherein parameters are received via upper layer) and (MANOLAKOS: para 59 (“CSI Report configuration…indicating…what parameters to report…”) wherein parameters are received via upper layer),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU with SHIN for the benefit of reducing pathloss and improving coverage (SHIN: para 55).
While TS138.331-LI-LIU in view of SHIN teaches within an inter-UE CSI latency boundary configured in the inter-UE RRC reconfiguration message (TS138.331: pg 220 (“The purpose of this procedure is to modify a PC5-RRC connection…to configure Sidelink CSI reference signal resources and CSI reporting latency bound…”)), TS138.331-LI-LIU in view of SHIN does not explicitly disclose from after the first SL control information is received.
SON, in the same field of endeavor, teaches from after the first SL control information is received (SON: FIG. 8 item K and para 94 (“…feedback indication information and K may be included in SCI…K may be ‘sl-LatencyBound-CSI-Report’.”) wherein SL CSI latency boundary is started after SL control information is received).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU in view of SHIN with SON for the benefit of improving sidelink communication performance (SON: para 13).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI and LIU, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU, and in further view of MANOKALOS et al. (US 20210050888 A1) (see 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to as MANOKALOS.
Claim 9:
TS138.331-LI-LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the SL RRC reconfiguration message comprises a configuration (TS138.331V16.1.0: pg 219 Figure 5.8.9.1.1-1 the RRCReconfigurationSidelink), but does not explicitly disclose to enable the inter-UE CSI reporting to include at least one of the first CRI or the second CRI and a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP).
MANOLAKOS teaches to enable the inter-UE CSI reporting to include at least one of the first CRI or the second CRI and a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) (MANOLAKOS: para 63 (“The CSI report configuration received…may indicates to the UE…which parameters associated with a sidelink channel quality to measure and report…a RSRP…a CRI…”) wherein inter-UE CSI reporting is configured to include CRI and RSRP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU with the configuration of MANOLAKOS, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS, for the benefit of enabling specified estimates of channel conditions between wireless communication devices (MANOLAKOS: para 6 and 63).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI, LIU, and MANOLAKOS, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS, and in further view of WU et al. (US 20220183017 A1) (see 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to as WU.
Claim 11:
TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the result of the measurement included in the inter-UE CSI reporting comprises an RSRP of the CSI-RS received via the first beam and an RSRP of the CSI-RS received via the second beam (MANOLAKOS: para 63 (“The CSI report configuration received…may indicates to the UE…which parameters associated with a sidelink channel quality to measure and report…a RSRP…a CRI…”) and para 80 (“The CSI feedback from each of the UEs…may be an ordered sequence of parameters associated with…beams…may include RSRP for each of sidelink RS resource sets…”)wherein SL CSI reporting is configured to include CRI and RSRP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.331-LI-LIU with the configuration of MANOLAKOS, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS, for the benefit of enabling specified estimates of channel conditions between wireless communication devices (MANOLAKOS: para 6 and 63).
However, TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS does not explicitly disclose wherein the RSRP of the CSI-RS received via the first beam has a size of 7 bits, and wherein the RSRP of the CSI-RS received via the second beam has a size of 4 bits.
WU, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the RSRP of the CSI-RS received via the first beam has a size of 7 bits (WU: para 83 (“…the SL L1-RSRP…is quantized as 7 bits…”) and para 91 (“…7-bit L1-RSRP reference quantized value, and three 4-bit L1-RSRP differential quantized values…”) wherein the RSRP of a beam is 7 bits), and wherein the RSRP of the CSI-RS received via the second beam has a size of 4 bits (WU: para 83 (“The differences between the L1-RSRPs measured in the other slots and the reference L1-RSRP are quantized as 4 bits…”) and para 91 (“…7-bit L1-RSRP reference quantized value, and three 4-bit L1-RSRP differential quantized values…”) wherein the RSRP difference of the second beam has a size of 4 bits).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.133-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS with WU for the benefit of reducing signaling overhead (WU: para 83).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TS138.331 in view of LI, LIU, and MANOLAKOS, the combination hereby referred to as TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS, and in further view of GHANBARINEJAD et al. (US 20230155800 A1) (see 892 07/17/2025), hereby referred to as GHAN.
Claim 12:
TS138.331-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS teaches the method of claim 9, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the at least one of the first CRI or the second CRI included in the inter-UE CSI reporting is expressed as an offset value of 4 bits relative to a representative CRI.
GHAN, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the first CRI and/or the second CRI included in the inter-UE CSI reporting is expressed as an offset value of 4 bits relative to a representative CRI (GHAN: pg 12 Table 5 “If the UE is configured with a CSI-ReportConfig…set to ‘cri-RSRP’…For L1-RSRP reporting…if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS is configured to be larger than one, or if the higher layer parameter groupBasedBeamReporting is configured as ‘enabled’, the UE shall use differential L1- RSRP based reporting, where the largest measured value of L1-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [−140, −44] dBm with 1 dB step size, and the differential L1-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential L1-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largest measured L1- RSRP value which is part of the same L1-RSRP reporting instance. The mapping between the reported L1-RSRP value and the measured quantity”) wherein CRI including RSRP is represented as a differential/offset 4-bit value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified TS138.133-LI-LIU-MANOLAKOS with GHAN for the benefit of improving beam management (GHAN: para 59).
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.
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/A.T.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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