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 .
This action is in response to applicant’s request of Continued Examination (RCE) filed on 02/17/2026 on amendments/arguments filed on 02/17/2026. Claims 2, 5, 6, 11, 14 and 18 have been canceled. Claims 21-23 have been added. Claims 1, 9 and 17 have been amended. Currently, claims 1, 3, 4, 7-10, 12, 13, 15-17 and 19-23 are pending for consideration.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments/amendments with respect to amended claims 1, 9 and 17 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Response to Amendments
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.
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.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 5-9, 12, 14-17 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Barbiebri (WO 2011/130409 A1) in view of Wolf (US 20210243703 A1).
Consider claim 1, Barbiebri discloses a method (read as the communication method which a UE T may communicate with a serving base station/eNB Y and may observe high interference from a strong/dominant interfering base station/eNB Z, figure 5, par [0044]-[0045] and [0071]) comprising:
receiving, by a user equipment (UE), reference signals from a serving cell and an interfering cell (read as UE receiving the reference signals/CRSs transmitted from target/serving eNB and interfering eNB, par [0055]-[0057] and [0073-[0074]);
measuring, by a UE, the reference signals (read as measuring based on first reference signal/CRS from the target/serving eNB, par [0051] and [0055]-[0057] and [0073]);
determining, by the UE, the serving cell based on the measuring of the reference signals (read as the use of cell ID of the target/serving eNB, and determining RSRP based on measured received power of the first reference signal and that the RSRP may be used to select a serving base station, par [0056]-[0057], [0073] and [0080]);
removing, by the UE, a contribution of the interfering cell to the reference signals (read as UE performs interference cancellation if there is collision between CRS of the target and the CRS of the interfering eNB, which the UE estimates interference due to a second reference signal from the interfering base station and subtracts or cancels that interference to obtain an interference-canceled signal, par [0058] and [0074]); and
based at least in part on the measuring, the determining, and the removing, estimating, by the UE, a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the reference signal from the serving cell (read as the UE may then measure RSRP based on the CRS of the target eNB in the interference-canceled signal, including determining RSRP from received power of the first reference signal, measuring that received power after forming the interference-cancelled signal by subtracting/canceling interference from the second reference signal, and using RSRP to select the server/target base station, par [0058], [0073]-[0074] and [0080]); and
removing interference from received signals affecting data resource (read as estimating and removing interference and subtracting or canceling estimated interference so received quality more closely matches the quality of data resources, par [0070] and [0074]).
However, Barbiebri discloses the claimed invention above but does not expressly disclose the reference signals received on a same frequency at a same transmission time intervale, and wherein the reference signals include a synchronization signal block (SSB), and removing interference from at least one of a PDSCH transmission received by the UE or a PDCCH transmission received by the UE.
Nonetheless, Wolf discloses a neighboring base station interfering a serving base station, which the UE receiving SSB (including SS/PBCH block definition) from the base stations and that the transmissions would overlap in time and frequency (par [0025], [0032] and [0047]); and when an SSB overlaps and interferes with a scheduled PDSCH, the UE estimates the SSB channel and remove the interfering SSB channel from the PDSCH, including removing the reconstructed second SSB from the PDSCH, par [0026] and [0075]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Wolf’s UE teachings of interference conditions with overlap in time and frequency and for removing interfering SSB contribution from a received PDSCH into Barbieri’s UE-side framework for estimating and removing interference and subtract or cancel process to obtain an interference-canceled signal in order to improve robustness of downlink data reception and interference mitigation consistent with Barbieri’s objective of aligning received quality with data resource.
Consider claim 3, as applied to claim 1 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein removing the contribution of the interfering cell to the reference signals comprises determining the contribution to the reference signals based at least in part on a cell identifier of the interfering cell (read as a CRS is a reference signal that is specific for a cell, e.g., generated based on a cell identity (ID);therefore, reference signal of serving cell is specific for serving cell and generated based on serving cell identify (ID) and reference signal of interfering cell is specific for interfering cell and generated based on interfering cell identify (ID) (par [0039]); also, CRS collision would occur when the target eNB and the interfering eNB transmit their CRSs on the same set of subcarriers. The UE may obtain the cell ID of each eNB based on the PSS and SSS transmitted by that eNB and may then determine whether there is CRS collision based on the cell IDs of the target eNB and the interfering eNB, par [0037]).
Consider claim 5, as applied to claim 1 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses removing interference from a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) received by the UE (read as the removing of interference when the eNB transmits to the user equipment (UE) using a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), par [0037] and [0035]).
Consider claim 6, as applied to claim 1 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses removing interference from a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) received by the UE (read as the removing of interference when the eNB transmits to the user equipment (UE) using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), par [0037] and [0035]).
Consider claim 7, as applied to claim 1 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein the reference signals include at least first reference signals of a first reference signal type and second reference signals of a second reference signal type; wherein the removing further comprises removing a contribution of the interfering cell to the first reference signals and removing a contribution of the interfering cell to the second reference signals; and wherein the estimating further comprises: estimating, by the UE, a first RSRP of a first reference signal of the first reference signals for the serving cell; estimating, by the UE, a second RSRP of a second reference signal of the second reference signals for the serving cell; and determining the estimated RSRP based on the first RSRP and the second RSRP (read as the UE may measure the RSRP and RSSI of the target eNB in the U subframe and also measure the RSRP of each interfering eNB having an N subframe corresponding to the U subframe of the target eNB; estimating the in interference and removing it; and the base station may obtain a measurement made by a UE based on received power of a first reference signal sent from the base station in the first set of resources; and the measurement may comprise RSRP of the base station; the RSRP may be used for various purposes such as to select a serving base station for the UE; the received power of the first reference signal may be measured by the UE after estimating and canceling interference due to a second reference signal from an interfering base station in the subframe, par [0058], [0062], [0063], [0076] and [0077]).
Consider claim 8, as applied to claim 1 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses providing the estimated RSRP to the serving cell in a measurement report (read as the base station may obtain a measurement made by a UE based on received power of a first reference signal sent from the base station in the first set of resources; and the measurement may comprise RSRP of the base station, par [0076] and [0077]).
Consider claim 9, Barbiebri discloses a user equipment (UE) (read as, for example, UE 120, figure 2, par [0030]) comprising: a processor (read as processor 280, figure 2, par [0033]); a transceiver for sending and receiving signals (read as the transmitter and receiver of UE 120 as shown in figure 2, par [0033]-[0034]); and programming instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the UE to perform operations including: receiving, by a user equipment (UE), reference signals from a serving cell and an interfering cell (read as UE receiving the CRSs transmitted from target eNB and interfering eNB, par [0055]-[0057]);
measuring, by a UE, the reference signals (read as measuring based on CRS from the target eNB, par [0051] and par [0055]-[0057]);
determining, by the UE, the serving cell based on the measuring of the reference signals (read as the use of cell ID of the target/serving eNB, and determining RSRP based on measured received power of the first reference signal and that the RSRP may be used to select a serving base station, par [0056]-[0057], [0073] and [0080]);
removing, by the UE, a contribution of the interfering cell to the reference signals (read as UE performs interference cancellation if there is collision between CRS of the target and the CRS of the interfering eNB, par [0058]); and
based at least in part on the measuring, the determining, and the removing, estimating, by the UE, a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the reference signal from the serving cell (read as the UE may then measure RSRP based on the CRS of the target eNB in the interference-canceled signal, par [058]); and
removing interference from received signals affecting data resource (read as estimating and removing interference and subtracting or canceling estimated interference so received quality more closely matches the quality of data resources, par [0070] and [0074]).
However, Barbiebri discloses the claimed invention above but does not expressly disclose the reference signals received on a same frequency at a same transmission time intervale, and wherein the reference signals include a synchronization signal block (SSB), and removing interference from at least one of a PDSCH transmission received by the UE or a PDCCH transmission received by the UE.
Nonetheless, Wolf discloses a neighboring base station interfering a serving base station, which the UE receiving SSB (including SS/PBCH block definition) from the base stations and that the transmissions would overlap in time and frequency (par [0025], [0032] and [0047]); and when an SSB overlaps and interferes with a scheduled PDSCH, the UE estimates the SSB channel and remove the interfering SSB channel from the PDSCH, including removing the reconstructed second SSB from the PDSCH, par [0026] and [0075]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Wolf’s UE teachings of interference conditions with overlap in time and frequency and for removing interfering SSB contribution from a received PDSCH into Barbieri’s UE-side framework for estimating and removing interference and subtract or cancel process to obtain an interference-canceled signal in order to improve robustness of downlink data reception and interference mitigation consistent with Barbieri’s objective of aligning received quality with data resource.
Consider claim 12, as applied to claim 9 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein removing the contribution of the interfering cell to the reference signals comprises determining the contribution to the reference signals based at least in part on a cell identifier of the interfering cell (read as a CRS is a reference signal that is specific for a cell, e.g., generated based on a cell identity (ID);therefore, reference signal of serving cell is specific for serving cell and generated based on serving cell identify (ID) and reference signal of interfering cell is specific for interfering cell and generated based on interfering cell identify (ID) (par [0039]); also, CRS collision would occur when the target eNB and the interfering eNB transmit their CRSs on the same set of subcarriers. The UE may obtain the cell ID of each eNB based on the PSS and SSS transmitted by that eNB and may then determine whether there is CRS collision based on the cell IDs of the target eNB and the interfering eNB, par [0037]).
Consider claim 14, as applied to claim 9 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein the operations further include: removing interference from a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) received by the UE; and removing interference from a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) received by the UE (read as the removing of interference when the eNB transmits to the user equipment (UE) using a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH); and the removing of interference when the eNB transmits to the user equipment (UE) using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), par [0037] and [0035]).
Consider claim 15, as applied to claim 9 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein the reference signals include at least first reference signals of a first reference signal type and second reference signals of a second reference signal type; wherein the removing further comprises removing a contribution of the interfering cell to the first reference signals and removing a contribution of the interfering cell to the second reference signals; and wherein the estimating further comprises: estimating, by the UE, a first RSRP of a first reference signal of the first reference signals for the serving cell; estimating, by the UE, a second RSRP of a second reference signal of the second reference signals for the serving cell; and determining the estimated RSRP based on the first RSRP and the second RSRP (read as the UE may measure the RSRP and RSSI of the target eNB in the U subframe and also measure the RSRP of each interfering eNB having an N subframe corresponding to the U subframe of the target eNB; estimating the in interference and removing it; and the base station may obtain a measurement made by a UE based on received power of a first reference signal sent from the base station in the first set of resources; and the measurement may comprise RSRP of the base station; the RSRP may be used for various purposes such as to select a serving base station for the UE; the received power of the first reference signal may be measured by the UE after estimating and canceling interference due to a second reference signal from an interfering base station in the subframe, par [0058], [0062], [0063], [0076] and [0077]).
Consider claim 16, as applied to claim 9 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein the operations further include providing the estimated RSRP to the serving cell in a measurement report (read as the base station may obtain a measurement made by a UE based on received power of a first reference signal sent from the base station in the first set of resources; and the measurement may comprise RSRP of the base station, par [0076] and [0077]).
Consider claim 17, Barbiebri discloses a non-transitory computer storage medium having programming instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a user equipment (UE) cause the UE to perform operations (read as, for example, UE 120, figure 2, par [0030]) comprising: a processor (read as processor 280, figure 2, par [0033]) comprising: receiving, via a transceiver of the UE, reference signals from a serving cell and an interfering cell (read as UE receiving the CRSs transmitted from target eNB and interfering eNB, par [0055]-[0057]); measuring the reference signals (read as measuring based on CRS from the target eNB, par [0051] and par [0055]-[0057]); determining the serving cell based on the measuring of the reference signals (read as the use of cell ID of the target/serving eNB, and determining RSRP based on measured received power of the first reference signal and that the RSRP may be used to select a serving base station, par [0056]-[0057], [0073] and [0080]); removing a contribution of the interfering cell to the reference signals (read as UE performs interference cancellation if there is collision between CRS of the target and the CRS of the interfering eNB, par [0058]); and based at least in part on the measuring, the determining, and the removing, estimating a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the reference signal from the serving cell (read as the UE may then measure RSRP based on the CRS of the target eNB in the interference-canceled signal, par [058]); and
removing interference from received signals affecting data resource (read as estimating and removing interference and subtracting or canceling estimated interference so received quality more closely matches the quality of data resources, par [0070] and [0074]).
However, Barbiebri discloses the claimed invention above but does not expressly disclose the reference signals received on a same frequency at a same transmission time intervale, and wherein the reference signals include a synchronization signal block (SSB), and removing interference from at least one of a PDSCH transmission received by the UE or a PDCCH transmission received by the UE.
Nonetheless, Wolf discloses a neighboring base station interfering a serving base station, which the UE receiving SSB (including SS/PBCH block definition) from the base stations and that the transmissions would overlap in time and frequency (par [0025], [0032] and [0047]); and when an SSB overlaps and interferes with a scheduled PDSCH, the UE estimates the SSB channel and remove the interfering SSB channel from the PDSCH, including removing the reconstructed second SSB from the PDSCH, par [0026] and [0075]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Wolf’s UE teachings of interference conditions with overlap in time and frequency and for removing interfering SSB contribution from a received PDSCH into Barbieri’s UE-side framework for estimating and removing interference and subtract or cancel process to obtain an interference-canceled signal in order to improve robustness of downlink data reception and interference mitigation consistent with Barbieri’s objective of aligning received quality with data resource.
Consider claim 19, as applied to claim 17 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses wherein removing the contribution of the interfering cell to the reference signals comprises determining the contribution to the reference signals based at least in part on a cell identifier of the interfering cell (read as a CRS is a reference signal that is specific for a cell, e.g., generated based on a cell identity (ID);therefore, reference signal of serving cell is specific for serving cell and generated based on serving cell identify (ID) and reference signal of interfering cell is specific for interfering cell and generated based on interfering cell identify (ID) (par [0039]); also, CRS collision would occur when the target eNB and the interfering eNB transmit their CRSs on the same set of subcarriers. The UE may obtain the cell ID of each eNB based on the PSS and SSS transmitted by that eNB and may then determine whether there is CRS collision based on the cell IDs of the target eNB and the interfering eNB, par [0037]).
Claim(s) 4, 13 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Barbiebri (WO 2011/130409 A1) in view of Wolf (US 20210243703 A1), and in further view of Joey (US 20160301486 A1).
Consider claim 4, as applied to claim 1 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses the claimed invention above but does not specifically disclose determining whether the estimated RSRP meets a mobility threshold; and when the mobility threshold is met, switching to a different serving cell.
Nonetheless, Joey discloses a UE includes a cell search and selection module to search for a neighbor cell in response to determining that the RSRP is below (i.e. is met) the threshold value (i.e. mobility threshold), [0034].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Joey into the teachings of Barbiebri, which modified by Wolf, to design the system to perform cell search and reselection when the RSRP is below a threshold to ensure provide acceptable communication.
Consider claim 13, as applied to claim 9 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses the claimed invention above but does not specifically disclose wherein the operations further include: determining whether the estimated RSRP meets a mobility threshold; and when the mobility threshold is met, switching to a different serving cell.
Nonetheless, Joey discloses a UE includes a cell search and selection module to search for a neighbor cell in response to determining that the RSRP is below (i.e. is met) the threshold value (i.e. mobility threshold), [0034].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Joey into the teachings of Barbiebri, which modified by Wolf, to design the system to perform cell search and reselection when the RSRP is below a threshold to ensure provide acceptable communication.
Consider claim 20, as applied to claim 17 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses the claimed invention above but does not specifically disclose wherein the operations further include: determining whether the estimated RSRP meets a mobility threshold; and when the mobility threshold is met, switching to a different serving cell.
Nonetheless, Joey discloses a UE includes a cell search and selection module to search for a neighbor cell in response to determining that the RSRP is below (i.e. is met) the threshold value (i.e. mobility threshold), [0034].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Joey into the teachings of Barbiebri, which modified by Wolf, to design the system to perform cell search and reselection when the RSRP is below a threshold to ensure provide acceptable communication.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Barbiebri (WO 2011/130409 A1) in view of Wolf (US 20210243703 A1), and in further view of Zhang (US 20240040388 A1).
Consider claim 10, as applied to claim 9 above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses the claimed invention above but does not specifically disclose wherein at least one of the serving cell or the interfering cell is associated with Fifth Generation (5G) or later technology.
Nonetheless, Zhang discloses the communication system comprising base station and UE using different communication standards such as LTE or fifth generation (5G) NR, see par [0031]-[0034]-[0035].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang into the teachings of Barbiebri, which modified by Wolf, to design the system to use 5G NR as it would enable fast network access with reduced overhead compared to 4G.
Claim(s) 21-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Barbiebri (WO 2011/130409 A1) in view of Wolf (US 20210243703 A1), and in further view of Tsai (US 20170156079 A1).
Consider claims 21-23, as applied to claims 1, 9 and 17 respectively above, Barbiebri, as modified by Wolf, discloses the claimed invention above and the interfering cell being identified by its cell identifier (cell ID) (read as the UE obtains the cell ID of each eNB based on the PSS and SSS and use those cell IDs in an interference scenario involving a target eNB and an interfering eNB, par [0058]-[0059]) and removing the interference from the PDSCH transmission (see par [0075] of Wolf) but does not expressly teach that removing the interference from the PDSCH transmission comprises cancelling physical resource blocks (PRBs) from the interfering cell.
Nonetheless, Tsai discloses that physical resource blocks (PRBs) are the minimal granularity of resource allocation, and that the interference characteristics may need to be estimated on a PRB level for an interference PDSCH, and that the UE cancels the data transmission from the neighboring cell, including cancel/suppress operation for neighboring cell transmission, par [0029], [0032], [0026] and [0028].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the Tsai’s PRB-granular interference-cancellation teaching into the teachings of Barbieri, as modified by Wolf, in order to implement the PDSCH interference removal using PRB-scoped cancellation of the interfering cell’s contribution, which would provide a implementation-level approach for cancelling interference on the specific PRB resources impacted by the interfering cell.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Junpeng Chen whose telephone number is (571) 270-1112. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., EST.
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/Junpeng Chen/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645