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 .
The Examiner thanks the Applicant for the well-prepared amendment. The Examiner appreciates the Applicant’s effort to carefully analyze the Office action, and make appropriate arguments and amendments.
Status of Claims
Claims 10-18 and 28-38 responded on December 15, 2025 are pending, claims 10, 28 and 37 are amended.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on January 14, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 10, 28, and 37 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
Claims 10-11, 15-17, 28-29, 33-35 and 37-38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2021/0329517 A1, hereinafter "Noh") in view of You et al. (US 2016/0366576 A1, hereinafter "You").
Regarding claim 10, Noh discloses a base unit for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base unit to:
transmit a configuration of an enhanced tracking reference signal (TRS) (Noh, 0020, 0108-0109] Based on the resource setting, NR may support beam measurement, reporting, and management; NZP-CSI-RS-Resource ConfigID: ID of corresponding CSI-RS resource configurations), wherein the configuration of the enhanced TRS includes one or more Non-Zero Power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) sets for frequency and timing tracking without a source Quasi Co-Location (QCL)-TypeC reference signal (RS) (Noh, [0127, 0135] if the CSI-RS resources are configured as the TRS, when it is explicitly configured for the UE that time/frequency tracking can be performed through the corresponding CSI-RS; antenna ports within a CSI-RS resource are quasi co-located with QCL Type A, Type D (i.e. without QCL type C)), and wherein each NZP CSI-RS set includes of 4 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in one slot or 8 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in two consecutive slots (Noh, [0120-0121] When there are 4 ports and Y=4, the CSI-RS RE may be configured for every four subcarriers in the PRB; The TRS may be transmitted in one (X=1) or two (X=2) consecutive slots at a particular interval such as 10 ms or 20 ms, and this may be called a TRS burst ) but does not explicitly disclose wherein each NZP CSI-RS set includes:
for frequency range 2 (FR2). 4 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in one slot or 8 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in two consecutive slots with a same pattern in each slot, and
for frequency range l (FR1). 8 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in two consecutive slots with 4 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in each slot.
You from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein each NZP CSI-RS set includes:
for frequency range 2 (FR2). 4 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in one slot or 8 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in two consecutive slots with a same pattern in each slot, and for frequency range l (FR1). 8 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in two consecutive slots with 4 single port periodic NZP CSI-RS resources in each slot (You, [0099-0103] a downlink reference signal…CSI-RS; R0 denotes an RE to which a CRS transmitted using an antenna port number 0 of a BS is mapped… p denotes an antenna port, and ns denotes a slot number 0 or 1).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified tracking reference signal disclosed by Noh and CSI-RS mapping for CSI-RS disclosed by You with a motivation to make this modification in order to transmit downlink reference signal in the same transmission period/offset (You, [0161]).
Regarding claim 11, Noh does not explicitly disclose the time domain locations of the 4 CSI-RS resources in a slot is set as lϵ{0, 4, 7, 11} or {l, 5, 8, 12} or {2, 6, 9, 13}, where l represents the symbol number in the slot.
You from the same field of endeavor discloses the time domain locations of the 4 CSI-RS resources in a slot is set as lϵ{0, 4, 7, 11} or {l, 5, 8, 12} or {2, 6, 9, 13}, where l represents the symbol number in the slot (You, [0105] the antenna port p, and a possible value for 1 is 0, 4, 7, 11. Accordingly, the CRS is transmitted on symbols 0, 4, 7, and 11).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified tracking reference signal disclosed by Noh and CSI-RS mapping for CSI-RS disclosed by You with a motivation to make this modification in order to transmit downlink reference signal in the same transmission period/offset (You, [0161]).
Regarding claim 15, Noh discloses wherein, the enhanced TRS is configured as the QCL-TypeA RS for CSI-RS resource for beam management, or CSI-RS resource for CSI acquisition, or Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS) of Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PDCCH) (Noh, table 20 TRS QCL-Type A CSI-RS (beam management)).
Regarding claim 16, Noh discloses wherein, wherein, the enhanced TRS is also configured as the QCL-TypeD RS for the CSI-RS resource for beam management, or the CSI-RS resource for CSI acquisition, or the DM-RS of PDSCH or PDCCH (Noh, table 20 TRS QCL-Type A CSI-RS (beam management) QCL-Type D).
Regarding claim 17, Noh discloses wherein, the enhanced TRS is configured as the QCL-TypeC RS for CSI-RS resource for CSI acquisition (Noh, table 19 SS/PBCH BlockQCL-TypeC CSI-RS (BM)).
Regarding claims 28-29, 33-35 and 37-38, these claims recite "a remote unit" and "a method" that disclose similar steps as recited by the base unit of claims 10-11 and 15-17, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 10-11 and 15-17 as presented above.
Claims 12 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2021/0329517 A1, hereinafter "Noh") in view of You et al. (US 2016/0366576 A1, hereinafter "You") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Maleki et al. (US 2023/0076100 A1, Provisional application No. 62/976,444, filed on Feb.14, 2020, hereinafter "Maleki").
Regarding claim 12, Noh does not explicitly disclose wherein, the periodicity of periodic enhanced TRS is 5 slots.
Maleki from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein, the periodicity of periodic enhanced TRS is 5 slots (Maleki, [0052] The IE CSI-ResourcePeriodicityAndOffset is used to configure a periodicity and a corresponding offset for periodic and semi-persistent CSI resources… slots5 corresponds to 5 slots).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Maleki’s system for CSI-RS mapping for TRS into Noh’s CSI-RS mapping process as modified by You with a motivation to make this modification in order to fine tune its time and frequency synchronization (Maleki, [0055]).
Regarding claim 30, this claim recites "a remote unit" that disclose similar steps as recited by the base unit of claim 12, thus is rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 12 as presented above.
Claims 13 and 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2021/0329517 A1, hereinafter "Noh") in view of You et al. (US 2016/0366576 A1, hereinafter "You") as applied to claim above, and further in view of 3GPP (3GPP TS 38.211 V16.2.0, hereinafter "3GPP").
Regarding claims 13 and 31, Noh in view of You does not explicitly disclose the frequency domain locations of the 1st and the 3rd CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {ko, ko+4, ko+8 } in one RB, ko=0 or 1 or 2, and the frequency domain locations of the 2nd and the 4th CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {ko+2, ko+6, ko+10} in one RB, where k represents the subcarrier number of the carrier where the enhanced TRS is transmitted.
3GPP from the same field of endeavor discloses the density is 3, but does not explicitly disclose when the density 𝜌=3, the frequency domain locations of the 1st and the 3rd CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {k0, k0+4, k0+8 } in one RB, k0=0 or 1 or 2, and the frequency domain locations of the 2nd and the 4th CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {k0+2, k0+6, k0+10} in one RB, where k represents the subcarrier number of the carrier where the enhanced TRS is transmitted (3GPP, Table 7.4.1.5.3-1: CSI-RS locations within a slot. Row 1 {(k0,l0), (k0+4,l0), (ko+8, l0) } ko= 0, 1, 2; lo= 0, 4).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of 3GPP’s system for density is 3 into Noh’s TRS process as modified by You with a motivation to make this modification in order to increase frequency domain allocation (3GPP, pg. 107).
Claims 14 and 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2021/0329517 A1, hereinafter "Noh") in view of You et al. (US 2016/0366576 A1, hereinafter "You") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Cha et al. (US 2021/0006372 A1, hereinafter "Cha").
Regarding claims 14 and 32, Noh in view of You does not explicitly disclose when the density 𝜌=2, the frequency domain locations of the 1st and the 3rd CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {ko, ko+6} in one RB, ko=0 or 1 or 2, and the frequency domain locations of the 2nd and the 4th CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {ko+3, ko+9} in one RB, where k represents the subcarrier number of the carrier where the enhanced TRS is transmitted.
Cha from the same field of endeavor discloses the density is 3, but does not explicitly disclose when the density 𝜌=2, the frequency domain locations of the 1st and the 3rd CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {ko, ko+6} in one RB, ko=0 or 1 or 2, and the frequency domain locations of the 2nd and the 4th CSI-RS resources are set as k ϵ {ko+3, ko+9} in one RB, where k represents the subcarrier number of the carrier where the enhanced TRS is transmitted (Cha, [0255] the PRS RE density may be increased to 2 Fig. 9A l=6 and Fig. 9B l=5 ).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Cha’s system for density is 2 into Noh’s TRS process as modified by You with a motivation to make this modification in order to having efficiency, reliability, economic feasibility, production sustainability, and automation (Cha, [0060]).
Claims 18 and 36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2021/0329517 A1, hereinafter "Noh") in view of You et al. (US 2016/0366576 A1, hereinafter "You") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Xiao et al. (WO 2019/195171 A1, hereinafter "Xiao").
Regarding claims 18 and 36, Noh does not explicitly disclose wherein, the transmitter further transmits a configuration of one SS/PBCH block (SSB} of a serving cell associated with the enhanced TRS to obtain an initial average delay.
Xiao from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein, the transmitter further transmits a configuration of one SS/PBCH block (SSB} of a serving cell associated with the enhanced TRS to obtain an initial average delay (Xiao, pg. 8 the UE may assume that the antenna ports of one DM-RS port group of PDSCH of a serving cell are spatially quasi co-located with the SSB determined in the initial access procedure with respect to Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, spatial Rx parameters).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Xiao’s system for TRS into Noh’s TRS process as modified by You with a motivation to make this modification in order to facilitate the UE's estimation of the correct Doppler shift state and application of a corresponding phase compensation (Xiao, pg. 12).
Conclusion
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2415