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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 10-20 are presented for examination.
Claims 1, 5, 8, and 18-20 are amended.
Claims 7 and 9 are canceled.
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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 9/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 112 applicant’s arguments, see page 7 Section 3, filed September 17, 2025, with respect to claims 1-5 and 7-20 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the 112 rejection has been withdrawn.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 103 applicant’s arguments, , see page 7 Section 4, filed September 17, 2025, with respect to claims 1 and 18-20 have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
Regarding claims 1, and 18-20, the applicant argued that, see page 8, “…Without agreeing to the rejection and solely to expedite allowance, claims 1 and 18-20 have been amended, thereby rendering the rejection moot. … Without agreeing to this rejection, and solely to expedite allowance, Applicant hereby amends independent claims 1 and 18-20 as discussed above to incorporate the allowable subject matter of claim 7. Accordingly, Applicant respectfully submits that amended claims 1 and 18- 20, and all dependent claims depending from the independent claims, are patentable and in condition for allowance, and requests withdrawal of the rejections under 35 USC § 103.
In response to applicant's argument, the examiner respectfully disagrees with the argument above. Claim 7 was 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. Intervening claims 4 and 5 were not included in the amended claims.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 18-20 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.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Hence a new ground of rejection is further made in view of Jeon et al (US provisional 63062412, further published as US Pub. No.:2023/0276530).
Notice re prior art available under both pre-AIA and AIA
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.
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 of this title, 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, 10-11, 15 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Schmidt (EP3476059B1), in view of Vemuri et al. (US Pub. No.: 2022/0140874) and further Jeon et al (US provisional 63062412, further published as US Pub. No.:2023/0276530).
As per claim 1, Schmidt disclose A wireless communication method, comprising:
sending, by a wireless communication device to a wireless communication node, a message indicating reception information of a first downlink reference signal of a plurality of downlink reference signals (see Fig.10, para. 13, 45, 76, UE receives n DL signals each including a lobe direction indicator, LDI, or a beam ID, and reports the LDls back, see also para. 0025),
wherein the reception information comprises reception beam information (see Fig.10, para. 13, 45, 73, 75, the report includes LDI and / or reference signal time difference, RSTD and Rx-Tx time difference),
wherein the reception beam information includes (i) angle information indicating a first direction from which the wireless communication device receives the first downlink reference signal, the first downlink reference signal having a plurality of repetitions (see Table 1, para. 13, 74-78, provide a mapping of LDI values to horizontal rotation angles. In cases, where the vertical position is important, the vertical tilting could be used in addition to the horizontal rotation angles), (ii) at least one repetition index indicating which of the plurality of repetitions through which the wireless communication device receives the first downlink reference signal, (see Table 1, para. 74-80, with knowledge of the various TRP's geolocations and the various beam's horizontal rotation angles and probably the vertical tiltings (both can be derived from look-up tables by means of the reported LDI values) the mobile device's position can be calculated on the infrastructure side, a possible criteria for LDI storage and/or reporting could be the time difference between two arbitrary LDI. Also, Table 1 shows an example look-up table according to this invention. If the UE of Fig. 5 in the multi-lobe beam arrangement Example Configuration #2 reports a beam Beam received from TRP B as the strongest lobe received at its current location for a reasonable dwell time (e.g., the dwell time of UE in Beam 8 is above the threshold received previously in the MeasConfig IE). Let's further assume the LDI value was set to "7" on Beam 8 and providing a mapping of LDI values to horizontal rotation angles, where the vertical position is important, the vertical tilting could be used in addition to the horizontal rotation angles ).
Although Schmidt disclose wherein the reception beam information includes (i) angle information indicating a first direction from which the wireless communication device receives the first downlink reference signal, the first downlink reference signal including a plurality of repetitions, and (ii) at least a repetition index indicating which of the plurality of repetitions and the corresponding angle information;
Schmidt however does not explicitly disclose the angle information further indicating a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by at least one repetition index of the first downlink reference signal;
Vemuri however disclose angle information further indicating a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by at least one repetition index of a first downlink reference signal (see Fig.1, para. 0051-0058, the transmission beams 135-1 to 135-5 have a radiation pattern with a selected beam width. For example, each of the transmission beams 135-1 to 135-5 may have a sharp radiation pattern having a narrow beam width. Beam parameters include, for example, a specific angle (e.g., beam direction), a specific intensity (e.g., beam intensity), and a specific width (e.g., beam width), further the mobile UE 90 may perform a reception beam sweeping 140 while the base station 100 is performing the transmission beam sweeping 130. For example, while the base station 100 is performing first transmission beam sweeping 130, the mobile UE 90 may fix a first reception beam 145-1 in a first direction to receive a signal transmitted by at least one of the first to fifth transmission beams 135-1 to 135-5. While the base station 100 is performing second transmission beam sweeping 130, the mobile UE 90 may fix a second reception beam 145-2 in a second direction to receive a signal transmitted by the first to fifth transmission beams 135-1 to 135-5, clearly each of the second transmission beams 135-1 to 135-5 have a sharp radiation pattern having a narrow beam width. Beam parameters include, for example, a specific angle (e.g., beam direction), in this case a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by the repetition index/ index =2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of angle information further indicating a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by at least one repetition index of a first downlink reference signal, as taught by Vemuri, in the system of Schmidt, so as to provide for improved communication linking between a network tower and a UE device to effect millimeter wave communication, see Vemuri, paragraphs 2, 15-20.
The combination of Schmidt and Vemuri however does not explicitly disclose wherein the reception beam information includes (iii) “at least one corresponding beam index indication”.
Jeon however disclose wherein a reception beam information includes (iii) “at least one corresponding beam index indication” (see para. 0166-0177, in a beam management procedure, a UE assess (e.g., measure) a channel quality of one or more beam pair links, a beam pair link comprising a transmitting beam transmitted by a base station and a receiving beam received by the UE. Based on the assessment, the UE transmits a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pair quality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications, a beam index, a reference signal index / a reception beam information includes beam index indication, see also Fig.12A para. 0168, see prov412, para. 0149-0150).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of wherein a reception beam information includes (iii) “at least one corresponding beam index indication”, as taught by Jeon, in the system of Schmidt and Vemuri, so that a UE transmit a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pair quality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications, a beam index, see Vemuri, paragraph 0167, prov412, para. 0150.
As per claim 2, the combination of Schmidt, Vemuri and Jeon disclose the method of claim 1.
Schmidt further disclose wherein the reception beam information includes an identity of the first downlink reference signal (see Table 1, para. 13, 74-78, a current beam forming and/or hopping configuration of a transmission and reception point (TRP) in a radio signal, a form of lobe direction indicator (LDI) or a beam
identifier or a target area itemization code is included on a downlink signal).
As per claim 4, the combination of Schmidt, Vemuri and Jeon disclose the method of claim 1.
Schmidt further disclose receiving, by the wireless communication device from the wireless communication node, assistance data, wherein the assistance data comprises a mapping between angle information and beam index information; wherein the beam index information includes indices mapped to different angle information (see Table 1, para. 13, 74-78, Table 1 shows an example look-up table according to this invention. If the UE of Fig. 5 in the multi-lobe beam arrangement Example Configuration #2 reports a beam Beam received from TRP B as the strongest lobe received at its current location for a reasonable dwell time (e.g., the dwell time of UE in Beam8 is above the threshold received previously in the MeasConfig IE). Let's further assume the LDI value was set to "7" on Beam8 . In addition to this the UE of Fig. 5 might also report other beams with their respective LDls (in a further embodiment, these other beams might be transmitted by the same or by other transmission and reception points) as being beams with an acceptable signal strength, but with a much shorter dwell time, and beams with an acceptable dwell time but a much lower signal strength. The infrastructure side can now quickly determine all parameters (from the look-up table) needed for TRP B to form an optimal beam to serve the UE in question).
As per claim 10, the combination of Schmidt, Vemuri and Jeon disclose the method of claim 1.
Schmidt further disclose wherein the reception timing information includes an identity of a second one of the plurality of downlink reference signals that is indicated, by the wireless communication node or the wireless communication device, as a reference, and a reception time of the second downlink reference signal (see para. 73, IEs that are reported by a UE per beam are, for instance: reference signal time difference (RSTD) and Rx-Tx-time-difference ).
As per claim 11, the combination of Schmidt, Vemuri and Jeon disclose the method of claim 10.
Schmidt further disclose wherein the reception timing information further includes a time difference between a reception time of the first downlink reference signal and the reception time of the second downlink reference signal (see para. 73-74, IEs that are reported by a UE per beam is Rx-Tx-time-difference).
As per claim 15, the combination of Schmidt, Vemuri and Jeon disclose the method of claim 1.
Schmidt further disclose wherein the reception information further comprises an identity of a third one of the plurality of downlink reference signals that is indicated, by the wireless communication device, as a reference, thereby indicating a reference direction in which the third downlink reference signal is received (see Table 1, para. 75-80, the detected LDls may be compared against thresholds received as part of the configuration and stored if appropriate (i.e. if certain criteria are met). Once a reporting event
is detected (for example, when the mobile device has collected a sufficient number of LOI values from surrounding base stations, or upon receiving an appropriate request from the infrastructure side), the mobile device may choose to generate an LDI report for submission in an uplink direction to the first base station. With knowledge of the various TRP's geolocations and the various beam's horizontal rotation angles and probably the vertical tiltings (both can be derived from look-up tables by means of the reported LDI values) the mobile device's position can be calculated on the infrastructure side, a possible criteria for LDI storage and/or reporting could be the time difference between
two arbitrary LDI).
As per claim 17, the combination of Schmidt, Vemuri and Jeon disclose the method of claim 15.
Schmidt further disclose wherein the plurality of downlink reference signals are all transmitted by the wireless communication node (see Fig.10, Fig. 11, para. 13, 45, 76, UE receives n DL signals each including a lobe direction indicator, LDI, or a beam ID, and reports the LDls back).
As per claim 18, claim 18 is rejected the same way as claim 1. Schmidt also disclose A wireless communication device (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, UE), comprising: at least one processor (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, UE with a CPU / a processor) configured to: send, via a transmitter (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, UE with a transmitter) to a wireless communication node (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, TRP A).
As per claim 19, claim 19 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 20, claim 20 is rejected the same way as claim 1. Schmidt also disclose A wireless communication node (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, TRP A), comprising: at least one processor (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, TRP A, with a CPU / a processor) configured to: receive, via a receiver (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, TRP A, with a receiver) from a wireless communication device (see Fig. 10, Fig.11, UE).
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Second Rejection:
Claims 1 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Byun (US Pub. No.:20170163318), in view of Cha et al. (US Pub. No.: 2022/0174641) and further Jeon et al (US provisional 63062412, further published as US Pub. No.:2023/0276530).
As per claim 1, Byun disclose A wireless communication method, comprising:
sending, by a wireless communication device to a wireless communication node, a message indicating reception information of a first downlink reference signal of a plurality of downlink reference signals (see para. 0010, a method of transmitting a feedback signal may include: receiving a plurality of reference signals, see also Fig.15, para. 0118-0124),
wherein the reception information comprises reception beam information (see para. 0010, transmitting a feedback signal including a beam index indicating any one of the plurality of reference signals, see also Fig.15-16, para. 0118-0124, 0127-0129)’
wherein the reception beam information includes (i) angle information indicating a first direction from which the wireless communication device receives the first downlink reference signal, the first downlink reference signal including a plurality of repetitions, and (ii) at least one repetition index indicating which of the plurality of repetitions through which the wireless communication device receives the first downlink reference signal (see para. 0058-0059, 0089-0100, two guidance beams may be generated. The two guidance beams may have directivity tilted by the same angle up or down with respect to the main beam, or may have directivity tilted by the same angle to the left or right with respective to the main beam, see also Fig.8, Fig.9, para. 0087-0091, an RRB may be divided into a vertical RRB for measuring a mobility in a beam advancing direction and a horizontal RRB for measuring a mobility in a direction horizontal to the beam advancing direction, and the number of arranged horizontal RRBs and the number of arranged vertical RRBs may be determined to be different from each other. Since a BS is installed in a high place in general, the arrangement may be achieved such that the number of vertical RRBs for measuring the mobility in the beam advancing direction is less than the number of horizontal RRBs for the mobility in the horizontal direction, at least a repetition index indicating which of the plurality of repetitions and the corresponding angle information).
Byun however does not explicitly disclose the angle information further indicating a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by the repetition index of the first downlink reference signal;
Cha however disclose angle information further indicating a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by the repetition index of a first downlink reference signal (see Fig. 12, Fig. 17, para. 0270-0274, Referring to FIG. 17, points A and B are possible positions at which the UE may be located. The BS/LMF may estimate/know the direction of a beam transmitted by the TP/gNB based on RS resource index information reported by the UE, and finally determine the location of the UE. That is, to determine the location of the UE as described above, the LMF needs to know the direction of each TX beam of the TP/gNB transmitting the RS (e.g., PRS), see also Fig. 19, para. 0226, 0232-0238, the AoA may be used to measure the direction of the UE. The AoA may be defined as an estimated angle for the location of the UE in the counterclockwise direction from the BS/TP. In this case, the geographical reference direction may be north. The BS/TP may use an UL signal such as a sounding reference signal (SRS) and/or a DMRS for AoA measurement. In addition, the larger the size of antenna arrays, the higher the measurement accuracy of the AoA. When the antenna arrays are placed at the same interval, signals received from adjacent antenna elements may have a constant phase rotate, see also para. 0281, Fig.18, Fig.19, para. 0279-0298, 0307, the embodiments described above in sections 3.2.1 to 3.2.2 may be extended/applied to, for example, angle measurements (e.g., AoA) measured by the UE as well as the above-described UE RX-TX time difference and RSTD measurements);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of angle information further indicating a second direction from which the wireless communication device receives a repetition indicated by the repetition index of a first downlink reference signal, as taught by Cha, in the system of Byun, so as to provide a method of transmitting at least any one of an identifier (ID) of a specific positioning reference signal (PRS) resource and an ID of a PRS resource set including the specific PRS resource based on positioning related information in a wireless communication system, see Cha, paragraphs 6, 9-15.
The combination of Byun and Cha however does not explicitly disclose wherein the reception beam information includes (iii) “at least one corresponding beam index indication”.
Jeon however disclose wherein a reception beam information includes (iii) “at least one corresponding beam index indication” (see para. 0166-0177, in a beam management procedure, a UE assess (e.g., measure) a channel quality of one or more beam pair links, a beam pair link comprising a transmitting beam transmitted by a base station and a receiving beam received by the UE. Based on the assessment, the UE transmits a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pair quality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications, a beam index, a reference signal index / a reception beam information includes beam index indication, see also Fig.12A para. 0168).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of wherein a reception beam information includes (iii) “at least one corresponding beam index indication”, as taught by Jeon, in the system of Byun and Cha, so that a UE transmit a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pair quality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications, a beam index, see Vemuri, paragraph 0167.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 8, 12-14 and 16 are 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Koskela (US Pub. No.:2024/0015759) – see para. 0061, “ … the beam information 210 identifies a downlink reference signal 214 (or a value/index/identifier for the downlink reference signal 214). For example, the beam information 210 specified in the signaling message 208 may include a particular downlink reference signal 214 among a plurality of different downlink reference signals 214. In one example, the beam information 210 specified in the signaling message 208 may include a particular downlink reference signal 214 indicated by the TCI state 212 …”.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR whose telephone number is (571)272-1335. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7 am - 4 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on 571-272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469