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 1-3, 5-12,14-21, 23-27 and 29-30 responded on January 27, 2026 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see pg. 8-10, filed January 27, 2026, with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Claims reciteApplicant argued Liu lacks any disclosure of an FDRSB of an IQ modulator of a transmitting end. Independent claims does not clearly recite which apparatus is performing the steps, how the measurement is being done and what the different IQ modulator of the BS refers to. In light of specification, IQ is modeled with N filter in [0085], Liu discloses in claim 10 signal compensated by the positive frequency filter and negative frequency filter. If different IQ modulators refers to other filters or other modulator, claim should positively recite additional elements in the independent claims to distinguish from Liu. Shim can be reasonable to incorporate the result generated by capable apparatus from Liu and transmits a report.
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 1-3, 5, 7-8, 10-12, 14, 16-17, 20-21, 23, 25-27 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shim et al. (US 2023/0055304 A1, hereinafter "Shim") in view of Rafique et al. (US 2017/0093458 A1, hereinafter "Rafique") and Liu et al. (CN 114465677 A, hereinafter "Liu").
Regarding claim 1, Shim discloses an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory (Shim, [0549] a memory); and
at least one processor coupled to the memory (Shim, [0549] a controller or processor) and configured to:
receive a dedicated pilot signal for measurement associated with a plurality of antennas of a base station (BS) (Shim, [0333] the measurement configuration information may include CLI measurement and reporting-associated configuration information in addition to existing DL reference signal (i.e. dedicated pilot signal) measurement configuration and reporting).
transmit a report including a reported value at the apparatus (Shim, [0333] The UE #1 1802 may perform measurement (1820) according to the configured measurement information, and may report a measurement report to the BS 1801 via a higher layer message 1830 according to a report procedure 1825).
Shim does not explicitly disclose frequency dependent residual side band (FDRSB) measurement.
Rafique from the same field of endeavor discloses receive a dedicated pilot signal for frequency dependent residual side band (FDRSB) measurement associated with a plurality of antennas of a base station (Rafique, [0008] a UE to receive an over-the-air tone pilot, to apply the received over-the-air tone pilot to a mixer for mixing the tone pilot with a local tone to generate a baseband signal, to determine an estimate of one or more parameters corresponding to a residual side band (RSB) in the baseband signal resulting from the mixer; [0065] pilot is broadcasting by BTS (i.e. base station); [0078] a first rotate block 802 may implement a negative shift corresponding to -f0 and a second rotate block 804 may implement a positive shift corresponding to +f0 (i.e. frequency dependent RSB)) and a value associated to a composite FDRSB value (Rafique, [0008] to apply the estimated one or more parameters to compensate for the RSB).
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 measurement reporting disclosed by Shim and residual side band calibration disclosed by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve RSB parameters (Rafique, [0095]).
Shim in view of Rafique does not explicitly disclose wherein the composite FDRSB value is a weighted sum of individual FDRSB measurements corresponding to different in-phase and quadrature (IQ) modulators of the BS.
Liu from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the composite FDRSB value is a weighted sum of individual FDRSB measurements corresponding to different in-phase and quadrature (IQ) modulators of the BS (Liu, claim 4 and 10 equation 1 and 5 wherein obtaining the phase error factor and the amplitude error factor according to the narrowband test signal, comprising: obtaining I component and Q component of the narrowband test signal corrected at last moment; carrying out conjugate multiplication to I component and Q component of the narrow-band test signal corrected at last time; obtaining conjugate multiplying signal; performing sectional accumulation average operation on the conjugated multiplication signal; obtaining the first segmented accumulated average signal… performing addition operation to the first input signal component and the second input signal component, obtaining the corrected input signal).
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 Liu’s system for calibration IQ imbalance residual sideband into Shim’s measurement reporting process as modified by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to effectively improve the I/Q imbalance and frequency-related I/Q imbalance in the broadband system (Liu, [0022]).
Regarding claim 2, Shim discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
transmit, to the BS, capability information indicating a capability to support a measurement (Shim, [0545] a UE may transmit, to a BS, UE capability associated with a CLI); and
receive, based on the capability information, a request from the BS to participate in estimation (Shim, [0545] the UE may receive, from the BS by higher layer signaling, configuration of CLI measurement and reporting based on the transmitted UE capability).
Shim does not explicitly disclose the measurement is OTA FDRSB.
Rafique from the same field of endeavor discloses OTA FDRSB (Rafique, [0008] a UE to receive an over-the-air tone pilot, to apply the received over-the-air tone pilot to a mixer for mixing the tone pilot with a local tone to generate a baseband signal, to determine an estimate of one or more parameters corresponding to a residual side band (RSB).
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 measurement reporting disclosed by Shim and residual side band calibration disclosed by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve RSB parameters (Rafique, [0095]).
Regarding claim 3, Shim discloses wherein the apparatus is a user equipment (UE) (Shim, [0333] user equipment (UE)).
Regarding claim 5, Shim discloses wherein the composite FDRSB value is beam dependent (Shim, [0281] UE 1010 with beams in one or more directions, and the UE 1010 may transmit one or more SRSs 1017 and 1018 that are beamformed in the one or more directions).
Regarding claim 7, Shim discloses wherein the report is transmitted on dedicated resource allocated by the BS for uplink communication (Shim, [0333]) a BS 1801 may provide, by an RRC message, the UE #1 1802 with configuration 1805 for indication of measurement with respect to a different frequency/cell).
Regarding claim 8, Shim discloses wherein the report is transmitted via an analog signal on a resource allocated by the BS for uplink communication (Shim, [0333]) a BS 1801 may provide, by an RRC message, the UE #1 1802 with configuration 1805 for indication of measurement with respect to a different frequency/cell).
Regarding claim 10, Shim discloses an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory (Shim, [0555] a memory);
a plurality of antennas for transmitting a wireless signal (Shim, [0555] transceiver collectively referring to a BS receiver 3800 and a BS transmitter 3810); and
at least one processor coupled to the memory (Shim, [0555] a controller or processor) and configured to:
transmit a dedicated pilot signal for measurement associated with the plurality of antennas of the apparatus (Shim, [0333] the measurement configuration information may include CLI measurement and reporting-associated configuration information in addition to existing DL reference signal (i.e. dedicated pilot signal) measurement configuration and reporting).
receive a report including a reported value at a user equipment (UE) (Shim, [0333] The UE #1 1802 may perform measurement (1820) according to the configured measurement information, and may report a measurement report to the BS 1801 via a higher layer message 1830 according to a report procedure 1825).
Shim does not explicitly disclose frequency dependent residual side band (FDRSB) measurement.
Rafique from the same field of endeavor discloses transmit a dedicated pilot signal for frequency dependent residual side band (FDRSB) measurement associated with a plurality of antennas of the apparatus (Rafique, [0008] a UE to receive an over-the-air tone pilot, to apply the received over-the-air tone pilot to a mixer for mixing the tone pilot with a local tone to generate a baseband signal, to determine an estimate of one or more parameters corresponding to a residual side band (RSB) in the baseband signal resulting from the mixer; [0065] pilot is broadcasting by BTS (i.e. base station); [0078] a first rotate block 802 may implement a negative shift corresponding to -f0 and a second rotate block 804 may implement a positive shift corresponding to +f0 (i.e. frequency dependent RSB)) and a value associated to a composite FDRSB value (Rafique, [0008] to apply the estimated one or more parameters to compensate for the RSB).
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 measurement reporting disclosed by Shim and residual side band calibration disclosed by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve RSB parameters (Rafique, [0095]).
Shim in view of Rafique does not explicitly disclose wherein the composite FDRSB value is a weighted sum of individual FDRSB measurements corresponding to different in-phase and quadrature (IQ) modulators of the BS.
Liu from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the composite FDRSB value is a weighted sum of individual FDRSB measurements corresponding to different in-phase and quadrature (IQ) modulators of the BS (Liu, claim 4 and 10 equation 1 and 5 wherein obtaining the phase error factor and the amplitude error factor according to the narrowband test signal, comprising: obtaining I component and Q component of the narrowband test signal corrected at last moment; carrying out conjugate multiplication to I component and Q component of the narrow-band test signal corrected at last time; obtaining conjugate multiplying signal; performing sectional accumulation average operation on the conjugated multiplication signal; obtaining the first segmented accumulated average signal… performing addition operation to the first input signal component and the second input signal component, obtaining the corrected input signal).
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 Liu’s system for calibration IQ imbalance residual sideband into Shim’s measurement reporting process as modified by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to effectively improve the I/Q imbalance and frequency-related I/Q imbalance in the broadband system (Liu, [0022]).
Regarding claim 11, Shim discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
receive, from the UE, capability information indicating a capability to support a measurement (Shim, [0545] a UE may transmit, to a BS, UE capability associated with a CLI); and
transmit, based on the capability information, a request to the UE to participate in estimation (Shim, [0545] the UE may receive, from the BS by higher layer signaling, configuration of CLI measurement and reporting based on the transmitted UE capability).
Shim does not explicitly disclose the measurement is OTA FDRSB.
Rafique from the same field of endeavor discloses OTA FDRSB (Rafique, [0008] a UE to receive an over-the-air tone pilot, to apply the received over-the-air tone pilot to a mixer for mixing the tone pilot with a local tone to generate a baseband signal, to determine an estimate of one or more parameters corresponding to a residual side band (RSB).
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 measurement reporting disclosed by Shim and residual side band calibration disclosed by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve RSB parameters (Rafique, [0095]).
Regarding claim 12, Shim discloses wherein the apparatus is a base station (BS) (UE) (Shim, [0333] a BS 1801).
Regarding claim 14, Shim discloses wherein the composite FDRSB value is beam dependent (Shim, [0281] UE 1010 with beams in one or more directions, and the UE 1010 may transmit one or more SRSs 1017 and 1018 that are beamformed in the one or more directions).
Regarding claim 16, Shim discloses wherein the report is received on dedicated resource allocated by the apparatus for uplink communication (Shim, [0333]) a BS 1801 may provide, by an RRC message, the UE #1 1802 with configuration 1805 for indication of measurement with respect to a different frequency/cell).
Regarding claim 17, Shim discloses wherein the report is received via an analog signal on a resource allocated by the apparatus for uplink communication (Shim, [0333]) a BS 1801 may provide, by an RRC message, the UE #1 1802 with configuration 1805 for indication of measurement with respect to a different frequency/cell).
Regarding claims 20-21, 23 and 25, these claims recite "a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE)" that disclose similar steps as recited by the apparatus of claims 1-2, 5 and 7, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-2, 5 and 7 as presented above.
Regarding claims 26-27 and 29, these claims recite "a method of wireless communication at a base station (BS)" that disclose similar steps as recited by the apparatus of claims 10-11 and 14, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 10-11 and 14 as presented above.
Claims 6, 15, and 24 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shim et al. (US 2023/0055304 A1, hereinafter "Shim") in view of Rafique et al. (US 2017/0093458 A1, hereinafter "Rafique") and Liu et al. (CN 114465677 A, hereinafter "Liu") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Li et al. (US 2016/0134437 A1, hereinafter "Li1").
Regarding claim 6, Shim discloses channel estimation but does not explicitly wherein estimation of the FDRSB measurement is based on:
a performed channel estimation; and
a performed a correlation with a conjugate of the dedicated pilot.
Rafique from the same of endeavor discloses wherein estimation of the FDRSB measurement is based on:
a performed channel estimation (Rafique, [0067] By refreshing the RSB parameter estimates as needed utilizing a channel such as the FCCH, accurate compensation for RSB may be maintained over time); and
a performed a correlation with a conjugate of the dedicated pilot signal (Rafique, [0075] the over-the-air tone pilot may be carried on a frequency correction channel (FCCH)).
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 measurement reporting disclosed by Shim and residual side band calibration disclosed by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve RSB parameters (Rafique, [0095]).
Shim in view of Rafique does not explicitly disclose performing a minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) equalization based on the channel estimation.
Li1 from the same field of endeavor discloses performing channel estimation and performing a minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) equalization based on the channel estimation (Li1, [0049] Various channel estimation algorithms may be used, such as least square (LS) or linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE)).
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 Li1’s system for channel estimation process into Shim’s channel estimation process as modified by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve processing, and/or communication and accuracy of CSI (Li1, [0003]).
Regarding claims 15, 24 and 30, these claims recite "an apparatus for wireless communication", "a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE)" and "a method of wireless communication at a base station (BS)" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claim 6, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 6 as presented above.
Claim 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shim et al. (US 2023/0055304 A1, hereinafter "Shim") in view of Rafique et al. (US 2017/0093458 A1, hereinafter "Rafique") and Liu et al. (CN 114465677 A, hereinafter "Liu") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Li et al. (US 2024/0205781 A1, hereinafter "Li2").
Regarding claim 18, Shim discloses utilize AI and ML to support communication but does not explicitly disclose perform federated learning based on an average of composite FDRSB measurements from multiple UEs.
Li2 from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
perform federated learning based on an average of composite FDRSB measurements from multiple UEs (Li2, [0250] the network nodes with model training can provide an updated AI/ML model to network nodes/UE with model inference to optimize the predicted results).
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 Li2’s system for AI/ML channel estimation process into Shim’s channel estimation process as modified by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve better output accuracy, better performance (Li2, [0031]).
Claim 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shim et al. (US 2023/0055304 A1, hereinafter "Shim") in view of Rafique et al. (US 2017/0093458 A1, hereinafter "Rafique") and Liu et al. (CN 114465677 A, hereinafter "Liu") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Jongren et al. (US 2023/0036989 A1, hereinafter "Jongren").
Regarding claim 19, Shim does not explicitly disclose wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: apply a single composite correction based on the report using a single filter compensation to a plurality of I/Q modulators.
Jongren from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: apply a single composite correction based on the report using a single filter compensation to a plurality of I/Q modulators (Jongren, [0118] the channel data could include accurate channel estimates obtained after processing and filtering in respective unit (base station or measurement device) but it could alternatively correspond to raw channel estimates or even just I/Q data).
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 Jongren’s system for channel reporting into Shim’s channel estimation process as modified by Rafique with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve both uplink and downlink performance (Jongren, [0041]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 9 are potentially allowable over the prior art of record SHIM et al. (US 2023/0055304 A1, hereinafter "Shim") in view of Rafique et al. (US 2017/0093458 A1, hereinafter "Rafique") as applied to the claim above.
Shim in view of Rafique fails to teach alone or in combination "precode a transmission by dividing the transmission by a mathematical representation of a channel between the apparatus and the BS before transmitting the report via the analog signal".
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415