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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/19/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-2, 8-9, and 16-17 have been amended; Claims 5-7, 13-15, and 19-20 have been cancelled; Claims 21-27 have been added. Claims 1-2, 4, 8-10, 12, 16-17, and 21-27 are subject to examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 9, and 16 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 Objections
Claims 16, 21, 23, and 25 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 16 recites the limitation “... caused by the communication apparatus to ...”. It is recommended that this be amended to read “... cause the communication apparatus to ...”.
Claims 21, 23, and 25 each recite the limitation “highest reference signal received quality (RSRQ) in the N reference signal resource”. It is recommended that this be amended to read “highest reference signal received quality (RSRQ) in the N reference signal resources”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21, 23, and 25 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, pending satisfactory overcoming of the above objections.
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, 9-10, 16-17, 22, 24, and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2021/0351824 A1, hereinafter “Kim”) in view of Kang et al. (US 2020/0204239 A1, hereinafter “Kang”).
Regarding Claim 1, Kim teaches a communication method, comprising: receiving, by a terminal device from an access network device, first configuration information that comprises second configuration information of a first resource set having M reference signal resources and an indication indicating that the first resource set is used by the access network device to generate a first transmit beam, wherein the second configuration information of the first resource set includes a field indicating that the terminal device does not expect the access network device to use a same transmit spatial filter to send all reference signal resources in the first resource set (Kim: the UE receives a configuration of NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet ... when repetition is configured to ‘OFF’, the UE does not assume that at least one CSI-RS resource in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is transmitted to the same downlink spatial domain transmission filter. In other words, at least one CSI-RS resource in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is transmitted through different Tx beams, see paragraphs [0168]-[0175]);
receiving, by the terminal device, the M reference signal resources sent by the access network device using multiple transmit beams (Kim: The UE receives a resource(s) in CSI-RS resource set configured as repetition ‘OFF’ through different Tx beams (DL spatial domain transmission filters) of the eNB, see paragraph [0196]);
measuring, by the terminal device, each of N reference signal resources in the M reference signal resources to obtain first measurement information, both N and M are integers greater than 1, and M is greater than or equal to N (Kim: The UE selects (or determines) a best beam ..., see paragraph [0197]); and
sending, by the terminal device to the access network device, first indication information (Kim: ... and reports to the eNB an ID for the selected beam and related quality information (e.g., L1-RSRP), see paragraph [0197]).
Kim does not explicitly teach the first measurement information comprises first phase information;
indication information indicating the first phase information used by the access network device to generate the first transmit beam for communication between the access network device the terminal device; and
wherein the first phase information comprises one or more phase differences, each phase difference corresponding to one of the N reference signal resources.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Kang teaches the first measurement information comprises first phase information (Kang: a matrix for compensating for a phase difference and/or gain difference between panels … may be referred to as W3, see paragraph [0341]);
indication information indicating the first phase information used by the access network device to generate the first transmit beam for communication between the access network device the terminal device (Kang: The W2 codebook may function to additionally select the best beam ... and to select and compensate for the best phase difference value between antenna ports transmitted in two different polarization antennas that belong to a corresponding beam, see paragraph [0293]); and
wherein the first phase information comprises one or more phase differences, each phase difference corresponding to one of the N reference signal resources (Kang: a different CSI-RS resource is mapped to each panel, see paragraph [0334]; a matrix for compensating for a phase difference and/or gain difference between panels … may be referred to as W3, see paragraph [0341]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Kim to include the features as taught by Kang above in order to reduce CSI reporting overhead (Kang: see paragraph [0018]).
Regarding Claim 2, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the M reference signal resources are used for beam management (Kim: if parameter repetition is configured ... in a specific CSI-RS resource set, the CSI-RS is used for beam management, see paragraph [0179]).
Regarding Claim 9, Kim teaches a communication method, comprising: sending, by an access network device to a terminal device, first configuration information that comprises second configuration information of a first resource set having M reference signal resources and an indication indicating that the first resource set is used by the access network device to generate a first transmit beam, wherein the second configuration information of the first resource set includes a field indicating that the terminal device does not expect the access network device to use a same transmit spatial filter to send all reference signal resources in the first resource set (Kim: the UE receives a configuration of NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet ... when repetition is configured to ‘OFF’, the UE does not assume that at least one CSI-RS resource in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is transmitted to the same downlink spatial domain transmission filter. In other words, at least one CSI-RS resource in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is transmitted through different Tx beams, see paragraphs [0168]-[0175]);
sending, by the access network device, the M reference signal resources to the terminal device, wherein the M reference signal resources are sent using multiple transmit beams (Kim: The UE receives a resource(s) in CSI-RS resource set configured as repetition ‘OFF’ through different Tx beams (DL spatial domain transmission filters) of the eNB, see paragraph [0196]); and
receiving, by the access network device, first indication information sent by the terminal device, wherein the first indication information indicates information obtained by the terminal device by measuring N reference signal resources, the M reference signal resources comprise the N reference signal resources, both N and M are integers greater than 1, and M is greater than or equal to N (Kim: The UE selects (or determines) a best beam, and reports to the eNB an ID for the selected beam and related quality information (e.g., L1-RSRP), see paragraph [0197]).
Kim does not explicitly teach the first indication information indicates first phase information;
generating, by the access network device based on the first phase information indicated by the first indication information, the first transmit beam used for communication between the access network device and the terminal device;
wherein the first phase information comprises one or more phase differences, each phase difference corresponding to one of the N reference signal resources.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Kang teaches the first indication information indicates first phase information (Kang: a matrix for compensating for a phase difference and/or gain difference between panels … may be referred to as W3, see paragraph [0341]);
generating, by the access network device based on the first phase information indicated by the first indication information, the first transmit beam used for communication between the access network device and the terminal device (Kang: The W2 codebook may function to additionally select the best beam ... and to select and compensate for the best phase difference value between antenna ports transmitted in two different polarization antennas that belong to a corresponding beam, see paragraph [0293]);
wherein the first phase information comprises one or more phase differences, each phase difference corresponding to one of the N reference signal resources (Kang: a different CSI-RS resource is mapped to each panel, see paragraph [0334]; a matrix for compensating for a phase difference and/or gain difference between panels … may be referred to as W3, see paragraph [0341]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Kim to include the features as taught by Kang above in order to reduce CSI reporting overhead (Kang: see paragraph [0018]).
Regarding Claim 10, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 9, wherein the M reference signal resources are used for beam management (Kim: if parameter repetition is configured ... in a specific CSI-RS resource set, the CSI-RS is used for beam management, see paragraph [0179]).
Regarding Claims 16 and 17, the limitations of the claims are substantially the same as the limitations of claims 1 and 2, and claims 16 and 17 are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding Claim 22, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 1.
Kang further teaches the first indication information comprises N*(N-1) phase differences between phases of every two reference signal resources in N reference signal resources, N is an integer larger than 2 (Kang: a different CSI-RS resource is mapped to each panel, see paragraph [0334]; a matrix for compensating for a phase difference and/or gain difference between panels … may be referred to as W3, see paragraph [0341]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Kang is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 24, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 9.
Kang further teaches the first indication information comprises N*(N-1) phase differences between phases of every two reference signal resources in N reference signal resources, N is an integer larger than 2 (Kang: a different CSI-RS resource is mapped to each panel, see paragraph [0334]; a matrix for compensating for a phase difference and/or gain difference between panels … may be referred to as W3, see paragraph [0341]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Kang is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 9.
Regarding Claim 26, the limitations of the claim are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 22, and claim 26 is therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 4, 8, 12, and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim-Kang in further view of Wu et al. (US 2023/0328568 A1, hereinafter “Wu”).
Regarding Claim 4, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 1.
Kang further teaches the first measurement information comprises N reference signal resource indicators (CRIs), N reference signal received powers, and the first phase information, the N CRIs corresponding to the respective N reference signal resources, and the N reference signal received powers corresponding to the respective N reference signal resources (Kang: the UE may report N′ CRIs (CSI-RS resource indicators), see paragraph [0104]; L1 RSRP and CSI reporting support (when the CSI-RS is for CSI acquisition), see paragraph [0121]; a UE may be configured to report W3 information, see paragraph [0371]).
Kim-Kang does not explicitly teach the one or more phase differences comprise N–1 phase differences.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wu teaches the one or more phase differences comprise N–1 phase differences (Wu: the UE quantizes the measured phases for each port and FD basis component combination in the data array (except for the phase measurement that was set to zero), see paragraph [0102]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Kim-Kang to include the features as taught by Wu above in order to reduce the size of the CSI report (Wu: see paragraph [0091]).
Regarding Claim 8, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach the first configuration information further comprises reporting granularity information of the first phase information.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wu teaches the first configuration information further comprises reporting granularity information of the first phase information (Wu: the UE may also be configured to perform quantization of the measured phase values. For example, each measured phase value in the CSI report may be quantized using phase shift keying (PSK) techniques. For example, the UE may quantize the phase values using 8PSK or 16PSK alphabets, see paragraph [0093]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Wu is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 4.
Regarding Claim 12, Kim-Kang teaches the method according to claim 9.
Kim-Kang does not explicitly teach the one or more phase differences comprise N–1 phase differences.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wu teaches the one or more phase differences comprise N–1 phase differences (Wu: the UE quantizes the measured phases for each port and FD basis component combination in the data array (except for the phase measurement that was set to zero), see paragraph [0102]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Kim-Kang to include the features as taught by Wu above in order to reduce the size of the CSI report (Wu: see paragraph [0091]).
Regarding Claim 27, the limitations of the claim are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 4, and claim 27 is therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Conclusion
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/P.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/SHARMIN CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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