DETAILED ACTION
The instant application having Application No. 18/094,758 filed on 01/09/2023 is presented for examination by the examiner.
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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 are amended. Claim 4, 6, 7, 11 and 13-15 are cancelled. Claims 1-3, 5, 8-10 and 12 are pending.
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on January 23, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see Remarks, filed on 01/23/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1-3, 5, 8-10 and 12 have been considered but are not persuasive because the arguments do not apply to the references as used in the current rejection. Examiner provides a new ground(s) of rejections to address Applicant’s arguments.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1, 3, 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Werner et al. (Pub. No. 2021/0160027 A1 hereinafter Werner) in view of Kim et al. (WO 2018/048055 A2 hereinafter Kim), further in view of Abedi (Pub. No. 2007/0217329 A1), and further in view of Davydov et al. (Pub. No. 2016/0227520 A1 hereinafter Davydov).
Regarding claim 1, Werner teaches “a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system,” as [(Para. 0004), There is disclosed a method of operating a signaling radio node in a radio access network … (Para. 0070), A network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relay node and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP) and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN as described herein] “the method comprising: identifying layers in which demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) are transmitted,” [(Para. 0033), Use of demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) may be considered, e.g. for coherent demodulation of physical layer channels, in particular data channels like PDSCFI (DL) and PUSCFI (UL). DM-RS may be confined and/or associated to resource blocks carrying the associated PDSCH/PUSCH, and may be mapped on the OFDM time-frequency grid such that the receiver can efficiently handle time/frequency-selective fading radio channels.] “and code division multiplexing (CDM) groups comprising a first CDM group and a second CDM group;” [(Para. 0012), Layers may generally be grouped into CDM groups, in which, based on the same original sequence, via code division multiplexing utilising in particular orthogonal cover codes (OCC), different sequences are used].
However, Werner does not specifically disclose in case of the first CDM group, obtaining a first DMRS signal for a first layer of the layers; in case of the second CMD groups, obtaining a second DMRS signal for a second layer of the layers by applying a phase rotation to a DMRS for the PDSCH; and transmitting, to at least one terminal, the first DMRS signal and the second DMRS signal to which the phase rotation is applied, wherein different phase values for the phase rotation are applied to a plurality of sub-blocks in a frequency region where the PDSCH is transmitted, and wherein a size of each of the plurality of sub-blocks is a multiple of a size of a precoding resource block (PRG) to which a precoding is applied.
In an analogous art, Kim teaches “in case of the first CDM group, obtaining a first DMRS signal for a first layer of the layers; in case of the second CMD groups, obtaining a second DMRS signal for a second layer of the layers by applying a phase rotation to a DMRS sequence for the PDSCH;” as [(Page 3, Para. 13), the processor receiving one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) from a base station in a DMRS symbol, the DMRSs being a first DMRS port group or a second; DMRS port Transmitted through at least one of the groups, wherein the first DMRS port group and the second DMRS port group each include at least one DMRS port, wherein the first DMRS port group and the second DMRS port group are each a first Receive from the base station in a specific resource region at least one first reference signal corresponding to a Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) group and a second CDM group and used for phase rotation estimation of a DMRS port; And controlling to estimate a phase rotation of the DMRS port based on the at least one first reference signal, wherein the at least one first reference signal is set for each DMRS port group] “and transmitting, to at least one terminal, the first DMRS signal and the second DMRS signal to which the phase rotation is applied,” [(Page 3, Para. 3), In the present specification, a method for estimating phase rotation of a transmission port in a wireless communication system, wherein the method performed by a terminal includes one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRS) from a base station. ) In the DMRS symbol, wherein the pMRSs are transmitted through at least one of a first DMRS port group or a second DMRS port group, wherein the first DMRS port group and the second DMRS port group are each at least one DMRS. And a first DMRS port group and a second DMRS port group, each of which comprises a V 1 CDM (Code Division Multiplexing) group; To the second CDM group; Receiving at least one first reference signal from the base station in a specific resource region used for phase rotation estimation of a DMRS port].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings as in Werner to provide an effective technique as taught by Kim for estimating phase rotation of a transmission port in a wireless communication system, wherein the method performed by a terminal includes one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRS) from a base station [Kim: Page 3, Para. 3].
However, the combination of Werner a Kim does not specifically disclose wherein different phase values for the phase rotation are applied to a plurality of sub-blocks in a frequency region where the PDSCH is transmitted, and wherein a size of each of the plurality of sub-blocks is a multiple of a size of a precoding resource block (PRG) to which a precoding is applied.
In an analogous art, Abedi teaches “wherein different phase values for the phase rotation are applied to a plurality of sub-blocks” as [(Para. 0017), The symbol division unit 48 divides the N input signals of each group into M sub-groups (sometimes referred to as “sub-blocks”)…. Each complex multiplier 52 1, to 52 M also receives at a second input a phase adjustment factor b1, to bm. Each complex multiplier 52 1, to 52 M adjusts the phases of all L IDFT output signals of the sub-block by the applied phase adjustment factor.].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings as in Werner and Kim to provide an effective technique as taught by Abedi to improves the processing capability of the transmitter, thus facilitating for achieving a good performance gain with a low processing delay by selecting one allocation based on predicted values of the predetermined property for different available allocations [Abedi: Para. 0037-0039].
However, the combination of Werner, Kim and Abedi does not specifically disclose in a frequency region where the PDSCH is transmitted; wherein a size of each of the plurality of sub-blocks is a multiple of a size of a precoding resource block (PRG) to which a precoding is applied.
In an analogous art, Davydov teaches “in a frequency region where the PDSCH is transmitted” as [(Para. 0031), eNB 110 may transmit data to the UE 120 on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)] “wherein a size of each of the plurality of sub-blocks is a multiple of a size of a precoding resource block (PRG) to which a precoding is applied” [(Para. 0049), In 510, controller 114 may identify from the plurality of preconfigured PRGs a preconfigured PRG with a PRG size and/or a precoding granularity corresponding to a PDSCH scheduling… (Para. 0050), A PRG may consist of one or more consecutive physical resource blocks (PRBs)… the same precoder may apply on all scheduled PRBs within a PRG… (Para. 0061), a PDSCH transmission with a precoding that is the same for one or more physical resource blocks in the preconfigured PRG as identified in 1040].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings as in Werner, Kim and Abedi to provide an effective technique as taught by Davydov to enable averaging channel estimation over a larger number of resource blocks (RBs) to improve channel estimation performance and resource block bundling to improve performance for DM-RS or UE-RS based transmission mode [Davydov: Para. 0043].
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Werner, Kim Abedi and Davydov, specifically Kim teaches “wherein the phase rotation is not applied to the first CDM group and the phase rotation is applied to the second CDM group” as [(Page 3, Para. 6), That is, the phase rotation values of the DMRS ports belonging to the first DMRS port group or the DMRS ports belonging to the second DMRS port group may be the same. Alternatively, phase rotation values of at least one DMRS port belonging to the first DMRS port group and at least one DMRS port belonging to the second DMRS port group may be different from each other].
Regarding claim 8, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1, including “a base station in wireless communication system,” as [(Werner: Para. 0004), There is disclosed a method of operating a signaling radio node in a radio access network … (Para. 0070), A network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relay node and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP) and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN as described herein] “the base station comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal;” [(Werner: Para. 0005), The signaling radio node may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilising processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/or transceiver, for such transmitting] “and a control unit connected to the transceiver” [(Werner: Para. 0057), Radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 120].
Regarding claim 10, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 3.
Claims 2 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Werner in view of Kim, further in view of Abedi, further in view of Davydov, and further in view of Ren et al. (Pub. No. 2023/0030162 A1 hereinafter Ren).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Werner, Kim Abedi and Davydov does not specifically disclose wherein the identifying the layers and the CDM groups comprises: identifying whether a number of the layers to which the PDSCH is mapped is greater than or equal to two; in case that the number of the layers is identified to be greater than or equal to two, identifying a number of the CDM groups; and in case that the number of the CDM groups is identified to be greater than or equal to two, applying the phase rotation to the DMRS sequence.
In an analogous art, Ren teaches “wherein the identifying the layers and the CDM groups comprises: identifying whether a number of the layers to which the PDSCH is mapped is greater than or equal to two;” as [(Para. 0050), During specific implementation, the information about the quantity of DMRS layers may be information about a quantity of DMRS layers that are quantized through grading. In the information about the quantity of DMRS layers that are quantized through grading, the quantity of DMRS layers may be an integer multiple of a quantity of DMRS antenna ports in a CDM group. For example, for a DMRS pattern including two DMRS antenna port groups, assuming that DMRS ports included in a port group 1 are {1, 2, 3, 4}, and DMRS ports included in a port group 2 are {5, 6, 7, 8}, the port group 1 and the port group 2 may be quantized into four layers and eight layers.] “in case that the number of the layers is identified to be greater than or equal to two, identifying a number of the CDM groups;” [(Para. 0050), the quantity of DMRS layers may alternatively be an integer multiple of a quantity of DMRS antenna ports having consecutive sequence numbers in ascending order in a CDM group. For example, CDM groups {1, 2, 5, 7} and {3, 4, 6, 8} may be quantized into two layers and four layers.] “and in case that the number of the CDM groups is identified to be greater than or equal to two, applying the phase rotation to the DMRS sequence” [(Para. 0192), One DMRS port group may include one or more DMRS ports. In this application, a same time-frequency resource is multiplexed for DMRSs corresponding to ports in a DMRS port group through CDM, for example, orthogonal cover code (OCC), cyclic shift (CS), cyclic phase rotation, or a combination of a plurality of the foregoing methods, for example, OCC+CS.].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings as in Werner, Kim Abedi and Davydov to provide an effective technique as taught by Ren for matching a plurality of pieces of DMRS configuration information with a plurality of scenarios in NR, to satisfy a requirement for transmitting more layers of data [Ren: Para. 0091].
Regarding claim 9, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2.
Claims 5 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Werner in view of Kim, further in view of Abedi, further in view of Davydov, and further in view of Liu et al. (Pub. No. 2022/0271900 A1 hereinafter Liu).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Werner, Kim Abedi and Davydov does not specifically disclose, wherein the phase rotation applied in a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol is applied to a second OFDM symbol, in case that the DMRS sequence is transmitted in the first OFDM symbol and the second OFDM symbol, and wherein the different phase values are identified as multiples of a predetermined offset.
In an analogous art, Liu teaches “wherein the phase rotation applied in a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol is applied to a second OFDM symbol, in case that the DMRS sequence is transmitted in the first OFDM symbol and the second OFDM symbol,” [(Para. 0127), That the reference signal is precoded based on the delay vector may essentially mean that phase rotation is performed on each frequency domain unit in frequency domain based on an element in the delay vector, to pre-compensate, by using the precoded reference signal, a frequency selective characteristic caused by the multipath delay.] “and wherein the different phase values are identified as multiples of a predetermined offset” [(Para. 0034), The subband size is defined as a subband size corresponding to a transmit port, and the subband size may be the same as the PRG granularity. Therefore, when indicating the configurations corresponding to the transmit ports by using the first indication information, the network device may implicitly indicate the PRG granularity by using the subband size. In other words, only either of the PRG granularity and the subband size may be indicated... (Para. 0234), transmit ports associated with one or more delays whose values are greater than or equal to the predetermined value, for example, the delay information 1, each are configured with a small precoding resource bundling granularity. That is, the PRG granularity is small].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings as in Werner, Kim Abedi and Davydov to provide an effective technique as taught by Liu for configuring a transmit port of a downlink reference signal and a communication apparatus to properly configure a transmit port of a downlink reference signal [Liu: Para. 0006].
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 5.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATALI N PASCUAL PEGUERO whose telephone number is (571)272-4691. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11AM-9PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ASAD M NAWAZ can be reached at (571)272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NATALI PASCUAL PEGUERO/Examiner, Art Unit 2463
/ASAD M NAWAZ/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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