DETAILED ACTION
This office action is responsive to communications filed on July 2, 2026. Claims 1, 2, 4, 9, 14, 15, 17, 22, 27, 29, and 30 have been amended. Claims 5-7 and 18-20 have been canceled. Claims 1-4, 9-17, and 22-30 are pending in the application.
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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 July 2, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 10, 14, 15, 17, 23, and 27, 28, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo (US 2024/0389087) in view of Oh et al. (US 2024/0236736) and Salem et al. (US 2022/0124796).
Regarding Claim 1, Luo teaches a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
performing, in response to a report configuration specifying L1 RSSI measurement, the L1 RSSI measurement on at least one CSI-RS resource (“Step S801 includes receiving a preset aperiodic trigger state dedicated to L1-RSSI measurement and sent by the base station. The preset aperiodic trigger state is associated with at least one zero power-channel state information-reference signal (ZP-CSI-RS)” – See [0119]; “Step S803 includes measuring, in a case of determining that the DCI carries the preset aperiodic trigger state, the L1-RSSI of the channel corresponding to the second beam on a resource corresponding to the ZP-CSI-RS” – See [0122]; The UE measures the L1-RSSI); and
reporting a result of the L1 RSSI measurement to a network entity in accordance with one or more CSI reporting configurations (“Step S703 includes reporting an assessment result, obtained by assessing the channel corresponding to the second beam, to the base station” – See [0098]; “After obtaining the L1-RSSI by assessing, the terminal may report the L1-RSSI to the base station on an uplink resource scheduled by the DCI” – See [0065]; See also Fig. 8; The UE reports the L1-RSSI to the base station in accordance with the reporting configuration).
Luo does not explicitly teach that the at least one CSI resource is a CSI-RS resource set, wherein the method includes receiving a channel state information (CSI) measurement configuration that configures a plurality of CSI reference signal (RS) resource sets and one or more CSI reporting configurations, wherein at least one of the one or more CSI reporting configurations includes (i) a report configuration type information element (IE); (ii) a report quantity IE; and (iii) a resources for measurement IE that indicates at least one of the CSI-RS resource sets for performing an L1 RSSI measurement.
However, Oh teaches receiving a channel state information (CSI) measurement configuration that configures a plurality of CSI reference signal (RS) resource sets and one or more CSI reporting configurations (“For CSI measurement and reporting, the UE may receive a configuration of at least one of configuration information (CSI-ReportConfig) for N(≥1) CSI reports, configuration information (CSI-ResourceConfig) for M(≥1) RS transmission resources, or list information (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList, CSI-SemiPersistentOnPUSCH-TriggerStateList) for one or more trigger states through higher layer signaling” – See [0285]; See also Table 22; The UE receives CSI-ResourceConfig (CSI measurement configuration) that configures an NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSetList (a plurality of CSI-RS resource sets) and a CSI-ReportConfig that configures one or more CSI reporting configurations),
wherein at least one of the one or more CSI reporting configurations includes (i) a report configuration type information element (IE) (“reportConfigType … periodic … semiPersistentOnPUCCH … semiPersistentOnPUSCH … aperiodic” – See Table 21; “reportConfigType Time domain behavior of reporting configuration” – See Table 21; The CSI reporting configuration includes a reportConfigType IE (report configuration type information element) that specifies time domain behavior of the CSI reporting configuration (e.g., aperiodic, periodic, semi-persistent, etc.));
(ii) a report quantity IE (“reportQuantity … none … cri-RI-PMI-CQI … cri-RI-i1 … cri-RI-i1-CQI” – See Table 21; “reportQuantity The CSI related quantities to report” – See Table 21); and
(iii) a resources for measurement IE that indicates at least one of the CSI-RS resource sets for performing an L1 RSSI measurement (“resourcesForChannelMeasurement … CSI-ResourceConfigId” – See Table 21; “CSI-ResourceConfigId, csi-RS-ResourceSetList … nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceSetList” – See Table 22; “CSI Received Signal Strength Indicator (CSI-RSSI), comprises the linear average of the total received power (in [W]) observed only in OFDM symbols of measurement time resource(s), in the measurement bandwidth, over N number of resource blocks from all sources, including co-channel serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise etc. The measurement time resource(s) for CSI-RSSI corresponds to OFDM symbols containing configured CSI-RS occasions” – See Table 37; The resourcesForChannelMeasurement IE indicates a CSI-ResourceConfig that includes the nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceSetList (one or more CSI-RS resource sets), wherein the resource sets are for performing layer 1 RSSI measurements).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo such that the at least one CSI resource is a CSI-RS resource set, wherein the method includes receiving a channel state information (CSI) measurement configuration that configures a plurality of CSI reference signal (RS) resource sets and one or more CSI reporting configurations, wherein at least one of the one or more CSI reporting configurations includes (i) a report configuration type information element (IE); (ii) a report quantity IE; and (iii) a resources for measurement IE that indicates at least one of the CSI-RS resource sets for performing an L1 RSSI measurement. Motivation for doing so would be to configure the UE to measure and report the L1 RSSI using CSI measurement and reporting configuration message formats that are defined in the well-known and widely used 3GPP standards (See Oh, Table 21).
Luo and Oh do not explicitly teach that the report quantity IE specifies physical layer (L1) received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement as a report quantity.
However, Salem teaches that the report quantity IE specifies physical layer (L1) received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement as a report quantity (“In order to facilitate the reporting of the determined level of interference, the UE 110 may be configured, by higher layers, with a new IE providing configuration parameters for a new CSI report, e.g., CSI-ReportConfig-r17, including one or more of a report size in bits per sensed channel, a new report Quantity, a measurement duration, and an EDT threshold below which the channel is sensed to be idle. The new reportQuantity may be set to L1-RSSI” – See [0189]; The higher layer/RRC CSI reporting configuration includes a reportQuantity IE that specifies L1-RSSI reporting).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo such that the report quantity IE specifies physical layer (L1) received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement as a report quantity. As disclosed by Salem, the higher layer CSI report configuration message includes a new report quantity that is set to L1-RSSI. Accordingly, using the pre-existing reportQuantity IE from the CSI report configuration message defined in the well-known 3GPP standards achieves the predictable result of enabling the network to notify the specific type of measurements the UE should report.
Regarding Claim 2, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 1. Salem further teaches that the report quantity IE indicates the UE is to report physical layer RSSI measurement in response to the report configuration type EI indicating aperiodic CSI (A-CSI) (“In order to facilitate the reporting of the determined level of interference, the UE 110 may be configured, by higher layers, with a new IE providing configuration parameters for a new CSI report, e.g., CSI-ReportConfig-r17, including one or more of a report size in bits per sensed channel, a new report Quantity, a measurement duration, and an EDT threshold below which the channel is sensed to be idle. The new reportQuantity may be set to L1-RSSI” – See [0189]; The L1-RSSI is configured to be reported when aperiodic reporting is configured).
Regarding Claim 4, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 1. Oh further teaches that the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets include at least one of: CSI-RS resources for channel measurement (CM), CSI-RS resources for interference measurement (IM), and non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources for interference measurement (“CSI-RS resource in the linked ResourceConfig for channel measurement” – See Table 21; “CSI IM resources for interference measurement” – See Table 21; “NZP CSI RS resources for interference measurement” – See Table 21; The CSI resources include channel measurement and interference measurement resources).
Regarding Claim 10, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 1. Oh further teaches that the CSI reporting configuration indicates one or more time restrictions for reporting the L1 RSSI measurement (“timeRestrictionForChannelMeasurements” – See Table 21; The report configuration indicates time restrictions for the measurement).
Claims 14, 27, and 30 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 1.
Claims 15 and 28 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 2.
Claim 17 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 4.
Claim 23 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 10.
Claims 3, 16, and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo (US 2024/0389087) in view of Oh et al. (US 2024/0236736) and Salem et al. (US 2022/0124796) and further in view of Zhu et al. (US 2022/0295498).
Regarding Claim 3, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 2. Oh further teaches that the CSI measurement configuration further indicates a plurality of A-CSI trigger states (“For CSI measurement and reporting, the UE may receive a configuration of at least one of configuration information (CSI-ReportConfig) for N(≥1) CSI reports, configuration information (CSI-ResourceConfig) for M(≥1) RS transmission resources, or list information (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList, CSI-SemiPersistentOnPUSCH-TriggerStateList) for one or more trigger states through higher layer signaling” – See [0285])
Luo, Oh, and Salem do not explicitly teach receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) activating a subset of the plurality of A-CSI trigger states and receiving downlink control information (DCI) indicating one of the activated subset of A-CSI trigger states, the indicated A-CSI trigger state being associated with the at least one CSI reporting configuration including the report quantity IE that specifies the L1 RSSI as the report quantity.
However, Zhu teaches receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) activating a subset of the plurality of A-CSI trigger states and receiving downlink control information (DCI) indicating one of the activated subset of A-CSI trigger states, the indicated A-CSI trigger state being associated with the at least one CSI reporting configuration including the report quantity IE that specifies the L1 RSSI as the report quantity (“the UE receives from the network a MAC CE subselection command (A-CSI trigger state subselection MAC CE), which is used to map up to NS A-CSI trigger states to the codepoints of the CSI request field in DCI. In this case, the CSI request in DCI (i.e., the A-CSI trigger) would correspond to a codepoint, and therefore, a corresponding A-CSI trigger state, in the A-CSI trigger state subselection MAC CE containing a subset of all candidate A-CSI trigger states in the list of A-CSI trigger states” – See [0077]; The UE receives a MAC CE activating a subset of A-CSI trigger states and receives DCI indicating one of the A-CSI trigger states from the subset).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo to include receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) activating a subset of the plurality of A-CSI trigger states and receiving downlink control information (DCI) indicating one of the activated subset of A-CSI trigger states, the indicated A-CSI trigger state being associated with the at least one CSI reporting configuration including the report quantity IE that specifies the L1 RSSI as the report quantity. Motivation for doing so would be to provide dynamic report triggering for the UE (See Zhu, [0090]).
Claims 16 and 29 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 3.
Claims 9 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo (US 2024/0389087) in view of Oh et al. (US 2024/0236736) and Salem et al. (US 2022/0124796) and further in view of Liu et al. (US 2019/0281487).
Regarding Claim 9, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 1. Luo, Oh, and Salem do not explicitly teach performing cancellation on a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources to compute the RSSI.
However, Liu teaches performing cancellation on a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources to compute the RSSI (“the UE cancels NZP CSI-RS on the NZP CSI-RS REs, such that only interference is left on those REs” – See [0220]; The UE performs measurement on an NZP CSI-RS resource and performs cancellation on the NZP CSI-RS transmitted on the NZP CSI-RS resource).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo to perform cancellation on a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources to compute the RSSI. Motivation for doing so would be to provide more accurate estimation of dominant interference (See Liu, [0243]).
Claim 22 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 9.
Claims 11, 12, 24, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo (US 2024/0389087) in view of Oh et al. (US 2024/0236736) and Salem et al. (US 2022/0124796) and further in view of Niu et al. (US 2023/0299826).
Regarding Claim 11, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 1. Luo, Oh, and Salem do not explicitly teach that the CSI reporting configuration indicates a range for reporting the L1 RSSI measurement.
However, Niu teaches that the CSI reporting configuration indicates a range for reporting the L1 RSSI measurement (“the L1-RSSI may reuse the L3-RSSI report range. For example, an information element (IE) such as RSSI-Range may specify the value range used in RSSI measurements and thresholds for operation (e.g., new radio (NR)) with shared spectrum channel access. More specifically, the L1-RSSI report range may be characterized as “RSSI-Range-r16 :: = INTEGER(0..76) ” where the reporting range of the measurements may be defined from -100 dBm to -25 dBm with a 1 dBm resolution. For example, a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 00” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value of less than -100 dBm, a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 01” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -100 dBm and less than -99 dBm, and a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 02” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -99 dBm and less than -98 dBm, according to some embodiments. Moreover, this characterization may continue for the L1-RSSI reporting range such that a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 75” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -26 dBm and less than -25 dBm and a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 76” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -25 dBm” – See [0195]; The report configuration includes a range for reporting L1-RSSI values).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo such that the CSI reporting configuration indicates a range for reporting the L1 RSSI measurement. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the measurement values to be reported according to a specified resolution (See Niu, [0195]).
Regarding Claim 12, Luo in view of Oh, Salem, and Niu teaches the method of Claim 11. Niu further teaches that the range corresponds to: a range for Cross Link Interference (CLI) RSSI reporting; a range configured for L1 RSSI reporting; or a range for CSI-RS based physical layer reference signal received power (RSRP) (“the L1-RSSI may reuse the L3-RSSI report range. For example, an information element (IE) such as RSSI-Range may specify the value range used in RSSI measurements and thresholds for operation (e.g., new radio (NR)) with shared spectrum channel access. More specifically, the L1-RSSI report range may be characterized as “RSSI-Range-r16 :: = INTEGER(0..76) ” where the reporting range of the measurements may be defined from -100 dBm to -25 dBm with a 1 dBm resolution. For example, a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 00” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value of less than -100 dBm, a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 01” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -100 dBm and less than -99 dBm, and a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 02” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -99 dBm and less than -98 dBm, according to some embodiments. Moreover, this characterization may continue for the L1-RSSI reporting range such that a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 75” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -26 dBm and less than -25 dBm and a RSSI reported value of “RSSI 76” may correspond to a RSSI measured quantity value greater than or equal to -25 dBm” – See [0195]; The range corresponds to a range for L1-RSSI reporting).
Claim 24 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 11.
Claim 25 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 12.
Claims 13 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo (US 2024/0389087) in view of Oh et al. (US 2024/0236736) and Salem et al. (US 2022/0124796) and further in view of Zhang et al. (US 2019/0306924).
Regarding Claim 13, Luo in view of Oh and Salem teaches the method of Claim 1. Luo, Oh, and Salem do not explicitly teach using, for L1 RSSI measurement, a beam corresponding to an active transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state derived using rules used for L1 reference signal received power (RSRP) reporting.
However, Zhang teaches using, for L1 RSSI measurement, a beam corresponding to an active transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state derived using rules used for L1 reference signal received power (RSRP) reporting (“the quasi-co-location (QCL) information for resources used for RSSI can be configured by higher layer signaling so that UE can use the same beam to receive the RSSI as well as corresponding SSB and/or CSI-RS resource for RSRP measurement” – See [0216]; The UE uses a beam for RSSI measurement corresponding to QCL information (active TCI state) with the same rules as those used for RSRP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Luo to include using, for L1 RSSI measurement, a beam corresponding to an active transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state derived using rules used for L1 reference signal received power (RSRP) reporting. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the UE to jointly measure the physical layer RSSI and physical layer RSRP (See Zhang, [0217]).
Claim 26 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 13.
Response to Arguments
On pages 8-11 of the remarks, Applicant argues in substance that Luo, Zhu, and Salem do not teach “at least one of the one or more CSI reporting configurations includes (i) a report configuration type information element (IE); (ii) a report quantity IE that specifies physical layer (L1) received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement as a report quantity; and (iii) a resources for measurement IE that at least one of the CSI-RS resource sets for performing the L1 RSSI measurement,” as recited in independent claims 1, 14, 27, and 30. Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot based on the new grounds of rejection. In response to the amended limitations, the Examiner relies upon the newly-cited Oh reference.
Conclusion
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/SCOTT M SCIACCA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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