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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s submission filed on 01/29/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-2, 4-12, and 14-20 are pending. Claims 3 and 13 are cancelled.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/03/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Claims 1 and 11 each. There is support for the DCI indicating a toggled value in a new beam indicator field in par. [0030] of the Applicant’s specification, but there is no indication that the toggled value specifically indicates whether the UE shall perform beam switching as claimed. Dependent claims 2 and 4-10 are rejected due to their dependency on independent claim 1. Dependent claims 14-20 are rejected due to their dependency on independent claim 11.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claims 1-3, 5, 7, 11-13, 15, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farag et al. (US 2022/0104043), hereinafter "Farag", in view of John Wilson et al. (US 2019/0222289), hereinafter “Wilson”.
Regarding claim 1, Farag teaches:
A method, comprising:
performing, by a user equipment (UE), measurement on a set of reference signal (RS) resources (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0113]: Upon receiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 802), the UE measures the AP-CSI-RS and calculates and reports a “beam metric” that indicates a quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis (step 803). Examples of such beam reporting are a CRI, or a SSB resource indicator (SSB-RI), coupled with an associated L1-RSRP/layer 1-reference signal receive quality (L1-RSRQ)/layer 1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (L1-SINR)/CQI), wherein each RS resource is associated with a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (see Farag, par. [0142]: A TCI-state and/or a QCL-TypeD reference RS associated with the TCI-State and/or a source reference RS associated with the TCI state can be associated or mapped or linked to a set S, S is a set of reference signals for measurement of the channel, wherein, S can be a set of CSI-RS resource(s) and/or a set of CSI-RS resource set(s) and/or SSB resource(s) and/or SSB resource set(s) and/or SRS resource(s) and/or SRS resource set(s));
reporting, by the UE, at least one RS resource of the set of RS resources or at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource in a reporting instance to a network node (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0113]: Upon receiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 802), the UE measures the AP-CSI-RS and calculates and reports a “beam metric” that indicates a quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis (step 803). Examples of such beam reporting are a CRI, or a SSB resource indicator (SSB-RI), coupled with an associated L1-RSRP/layer 1-reference signal receive quality (L1-RSRQ)/layer 1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (L1-SINR)/CQI);
receiving, by the UE, a response from the network node in response to the reporting instance (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0114]: Upon receiving the beam report from the UE, the gNB/NW can use the beam report to select a DL RX beam for the UE and indicate the DL RX beam selection (step 804) using a TCI-state field in a DCI format such as a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by the UE); and
applying, at least one beam associated with the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state to downlink reception or uplink transmission upon receiving the response from the network node in response to the reporting instance (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0115]: the TCI-state indicates a reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS, representing the selected DL TX beam (by the gNB/NW). In addition, the TCI-state can also indicate a “target” RS, such as a CSI-RS, that is linked to the reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS. Upon successfully decoding the purpose-designed DL channel for beam indication with the TCI state, the UE selects a DL RX beam and performs DL reception, such as a PDSCH reception, using the DL RX beam associated with the reference CSI-RS (step 805); in this case, the indication of a beam which is then applied for reception is associated with the beam metric which includes at least one RS resource, corresponding to applying at least one beam associated with the at least one RS resource), wherein the at least one beam is associated with the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state in the reporting instance (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0115]: the TCI-state indicates a reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS, representing the selected DL TX beam (by the gNB/NW). In addition, the TCI-state can also indicate a “target” RS, such as a CSI-RS, that is linked to the reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS. Upon successfully decoding the purpose-designed DL channel for beam indication with the TCI state, the UE selects a DL RX beam and performs DL reception, such as a PDSCH reception, using the DL RX beam associated with the reference CSI-RS (step 805); in this case, the indication of a beam which is then applied for reception is associated with the beam metric which includes at least one RS resource, corresponding to applying at least one beam associated with the at least one RS resource in the reporting instance), wherein the response in response to the reporting instance comprises a downlink control information (DCI) with a value transmitted from the network node (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0114]: Upon receiving the beam report from the UE, the gNB/NW can use the beam report to select a DL RX beam for the UE and indicate the DL RX beam selection (step 804) using a TCI-state field in a DCI format such as a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by the UE)
However, Farag does not teach:
wherein the DCI with a toggled value transmitted from the network node, and the toggled value indicates whether the UE shall perform beam switching.
Wilson, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the DCI with a toggled value transmitted from the network node, and the toggled value indicates whether the UE shall perform beam switching (see Wilson, par. [0185]: Base station communications manager 2015 may transmit to the UE DCI including a TCI state, where the indicated TCI state is associated with a data beam switch (e.g., a first subset of TCI states) or both a control beam switch and a data beam switch (e.g., a second subset of TCI states). Base station communications manager 2015 may trigger, based on the first indication and the TCI state (e.g., whether the indicated TCI state belongs to the first subset of TCI states or the second subset of TCI states), a first beam switching operation or a second beam switching operation, where the first beam switching operation includes data beam switching and the second beam switching operation includes data beam switching and control beam switching; in this case, the DCI indicating one of a selection of beam switching operations corresponds to a toggled value indicating whether the UE shall perform beam switching)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the DCI of Farag with the toggled value indicating whether the UE shall perform beam switching of Wilson with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing overhead and latency associated with beam switching operations (see Wilson, par. [0055]).
Regarding claims 2, 12, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE. Farag further teaches:
wherein a layer one reference signal received power or layer one signal to interference noise ratio value is reported along with the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource in the reporting instance to the network node (see Farag, par. [0113]: the UE measures the AP-CSI-RS and calculates and reports a “beam metric” that indicates a quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis (step 803). Examples of such beam reporting are a CRI, or a SSB resource indicator (SSB-RI), coupled with an associated L1-RSRP/layer 1-reference signal receive quality (L1-RSRQ)/layer 1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (L1-SINR)/CQI).
Regarding claims 3, 13, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE. Farag further teaches:
wherein the response is a downlink control information (DCI) transmitted from the network node (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0114]: Upon receiving the beam report from the UE, the gNB/NW can use the beam report to select a DL RX beam for the UE and indicate the DL RX beam selection (step 804) using a TCI-state field in a DCI format such as a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by the UE).
Regarding claims 5, 15, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE. Farag further teaches:
wherein the at least one TCI state is associated with the at least one RS resource by a configuration transmitted from the network node (see Farag, par. [0140]: The network can indicate a new common TCI state (or spatial relation information) through DL control signaling (i.e., DCI) and/or through L2 signaling (e.g., MAC CE), and see par. [0143]: The new (most recently updated) TCI state indication triggers the aperiodic (AP)-CSI-RS and/or semi-persistent (SP)-CSI-RS and/or AP-SRS and/or SP-SRS for downlink beam measurement and beam reporting, wherein the CSI-RS resources or the CSI-RS resource sets associated with the AP-CSI-RS and/or SP-CSI-RS and/or AP-SRS and/or SP-SRS are those associated or mapped or linked to the new TCI state (i.e., set S)).
Regarding claims 7, 17, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE. Farag further teaches:
wherein the at least one TCI state indicates a quasi-co-location (QCL) information for the at least one RS resource (see Farag, par. [0140]: The network can indicate a new common TCI state (or spatial relation information) through DL control signaling (i.e., DCI) and/or through L2 signaling (e.g., MAC CE). In one example, the TCI state is associated with a reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS), wherein the reference signal is a source RS for the TCI state of QCL Type D).
Regarding claim 11, Farag teaches:
A user equipment (UE) comprising:
a beam management circuit (see Farag, Fig. 3, par. [0066]: The processor 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116) that:
performs measurement on a set of reference signal (RS) resources (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0113]: Upon receiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 802), the UE measures the AP-CSI-RS and calculates and reports a “beam metric” that indicates a quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis (step 803). Examples of such beam reporting are a CRI, or a SSB resource indicator (SSB-RI), coupled with an associated L1-RSRP/layer 1-reference signal receive quality (L1-RSRQ)/layer 1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (L1-SINR)/CQI), wherein each RS resource is associated with a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (see Farag, par. [0142]: A TCI-state and/or a QCL-TypeD reference RS associated with the TCI-State and/or a source reference RS associated with the TCI state can be associated or mapped or linked to a set S, S is a set of reference signals for measurement of the channel, wherein, S can be a set of CSI-RS resource(s) and/or a set of CSI-RS resource set(s) and/or SSB resource(s) and/or SSB resource set(s) and/or SRS resource(s) and/or SRS resource set(s));
a transceiver (see Farag, Fig. 3, par. [0064]: The RF transceiver 310 receives, from the antenna 305, an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100, and see par. [0065]: The RF transceiver 310 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 315 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the antenna 305) that:
reports at least one RS resource of the set of RS resources or at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource in a reporting instance to a network node (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0113]: Upon receiving the AP-CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB/NW (step 802), the UE measures the AP-CSI-RS and calculates and reports a “beam metric” that indicates a quality of a particular TX beam hypothesis (step 803). Examples of such beam reporting are a CRI, or a SSB resource indicator (SSB-RI), coupled with an associated L1-RSRP/layer 1-reference signal receive quality (L1-RSRQ)/layer 1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (L1-SINR)/CQI); and
receives a response from the network node in response to the reporting instance (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0114]: Upon receiving the beam report from the UE, the gNB/NW can use the beam report to select a DL RX beam for the UE and indicate the DL RX beam selection (step 804) using a TCI-state field in a DCI format such as a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by the UE); and
a configuration and control circuit (see Farag, Fig. 3, par. [0066]: The processor 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116) applies at least one beam associated with the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state to downlink reception or uplink transmission upon receiving the response from the network node in response to the reporting instance (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0115]: the TCI-state indicates a reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS, representing the selected DL TX beam (by the gNB/NW). In addition, the TCI-state can also indicate a “target” RS, such as a CSI-RS, that is linked to the reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS. Upon successfully decoding the purpose-designed DL channel for beam indication with the TCI state, the UE selects a DL RX beam and performs DL reception, such as a PDSCH reception, using the DL RX beam associated with the reference CSI-RS (step 805); in this case, the indication of a beam which is then applied for reception is associated with the beam metric which includes at least one RS resource, corresponding to applying at least one beam associated with the at least one RS resource), wherein the at least one beam is associated with the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state in the reporting instance (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0115]: the TCI-state indicates a reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS, representing the selected DL TX beam (by the gNB/NW). In addition, the TCI-state can also indicate a “target” RS, such as a CSI-RS, that is linked to the reference RS, such as an AP-CSI-RS. Upon successfully decoding the purpose-designed DL channel for beam indication with the TCI state, the UE selects a DL RX beam and performs DL reception, such as a PDSCH reception, using the DL RX beam associated with the reference CSI-RS (step 805); in this case, the indication of a beam which is then applied for reception is associated with the beam metric which includes at least one RS resource, corresponding to applying at least one beam associated with the at least one RS resource in the reporting instance), wherein the response in response to the reporting instance comprises a downlink control information (DCI) with a value transmitted from the network node (see Farag, Fig. 8, par. [0114]: Upon receiving the beam report from the UE, the gNB/NW can use the beam report to select a DL RX beam for the UE and indicate the DL RX beam selection (step 804) using a TCI-state field in a DCI format such as a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by the UE)
However, Farag does not teach:
wherein the DCI with a toggled value transmitted from the network node, and the toggled value indicates whether the UE shall perform beam switching.
Wilson, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the DCI with a toggled value transmitted from the network node, and the toggled value indicates whether the UE shall perform beam switching (see Wilson, par. [0185]: Base station communications manager 2015 may transmit to the UE DCI including a TCI state, where the indicated TCI state is associated with a data beam switch (e.g., a first subset of TCI states) or both a control beam switch and a data beam switch (e.g., a second subset of TCI states). Base station communications manager 2015 may trigger, based on the first indication and the TCI state (e.g., whether the indicated TCI state belongs to the first subset of TCI states or the second subset of TCI states), a first beam switching operation or a second beam switching operation, where the first beam switching operation includes data beam switching and the second beam switching operation includes data beam switching and control beam switching; in this case, the DCI indicating one of a selection of beam switching operations corresponds to a toggled value indicating whether the UE shall perform beam switching)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the DCI of Farag with the toggled value indicating whether the UE shall perform beam switching of Wilson with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing overhead and latency associated with beam switching operations (see Wilson, par. [0055]).
Claims 4, 6, 14, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farag in view of Wilson as applied to claims 1-3, 5, 7, 11-13, 15, and 17 above, and further in view of Lee et al. (US 2021/0111846), hereinafter “Lee”.
Regarding claims 4, 14, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE.
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson does not teach:
wherein the at least one TCI state is mapped to at least one TCI codepoint of a downlink control information (DCI) field by a specified rule.
Lee, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the at least one TCI state is mapped to at least one TCI codepoint of a downlink control information (DCI) field by a specified rule (see Lee, par. [0175], lines 1-8: The UE receives an activation command used to map up to 8 TCI states to codepoints of a TCI field in the DCI. When a HARQ-ACK signal corresponding to the PDSCH carrying the activation command is transmitted in slot #n, mapping between the TCI states and codepoints of the TCI field in the DCI may be applied starting from slot #(n+3*Nsubframe,μslot+1) In this case, Nsubframe,μslot is determined based on Table 1 or Table 2 described above).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or UE of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson with the mapping of a TCI state to a TCI codepoint of Lee with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the required number of physical components (see Lee, par. [0123], lines 1-12).
Regarding claims 6, 16, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE.
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson does not teach:
wherein the at least one RS resource is a direct or indirect spatial quasi-co-location (QCL) source RS of the at least one TCI state.
Lee, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the at least one RS resource is a direct or indirect spatial quasi-co-location (QCL) source RS of the at least one TCI state (see Lee, par. [0206], lines 4-6: When a TRS for DL is used for QCL type-D, the TRS is a source RS for QCL type-D and thus needs to have an SS/PBCH block or CSI-RS, and see Lee, par. [0170], lines 1-3: Each TCI state contains parameters for configuring a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship between one or two DL reference signals and the DMRS ports of the PDSCH).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or UE of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson with the RS resource being a QCL source RS of Lee with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the required number of physical components (see Lee, par. [0123], lines 1-12).
Claims 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farag in view of Wilson as applied to claims 1-3, 5, 7, 11-13, and 17 above, and further in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2023/0389038), hereinafter "Matsumura".
Regarding claims 8, 18, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE.
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson does not teach:
further comprising:
transmitting, by the UE, an acknowledgement in response to the response, wherein the UE applies the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state to downlink reception or uplink transmission after the UE transmits the acknowledgement.
Matsumura, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
further comprising:
transmitting, by the UE, an acknowledgement in response to the response, wherein the UE applies the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state to downlink reception or uplink transmission after the UE transmits the acknowledgement (see Matsumura, Fig. 11, par. [0090], lines 1-6: The UE receives DCI (DL assignment) indicating TCI #2 in the common active TCI state pool. After that, the UE receives a PDSCH scheduled by the DCI. After that, the UE transmits HARQ-ACK information responding to the PDSCH in a PUCCH. After that, the common beam is updated to TCI #2, and applied to the all channels, and see Matsumura, par. [0069], lines 5-7: The UL/DL DCI may select one from M active TCI states. The selected TCI state may be applied to the channel/RS for both UL and DL, and see Matsumura, par. [0128], lines 1-5: The threshold for the offset from the DCI to the PDSCH/from the DCI to the PUSCH may be the QCL time length (timeDurationForQCL) in Rel. 15, a new UE capability parameter reported by the UE, or a new RRC parameter configured by the base station; in this case, the UE receives a response in the form of PDSCH which is scheduled based on a capability report and the UE transmits an acknowledgement before applying the TCI information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or UE of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson with the application of an RS resource or TCI state to downlink or uplink communication of Matsumura with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of appropriately determining QCL information (see Matsumura, par. [0009], lines 1-3).
Claims 9-10 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farag in view of Wilson as applied to claims 1-3, 5, 7, 11-13, 15, and 17 above, and further in view of Matsumura, and further in view of Svedman et al. (US 2024/0014880), hereinafter “Svedman”.
Regarding claims 9, 19, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE.
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson does not teach:
wherein the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state is applied to the downlink reception or uplink transmission when the at least one RS resource is a direct or indirect quasi-co-location(QCL) source RS with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC of the at least one associated TCI state.
Matsumura, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state is applied to the downlink reception or uplink transmission (see Matsumura, par. [0069], lines 5-7: The UL/DL DCI may select one from M active TCI states. The selected TCI state may be applied to the channel/RS for both UL and DL).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or UE of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson with the application of an RS resource or TCI state to downlink or uplink communication of Matsumura with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of appropriately determining QCL information (see Matsumura, par. [0009], lines 1-3).
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson, and further in view of Matsumura does not teach:
when the at least one RS resource is a direct or indirect quasi-co-location(QCL) source RS with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC of the at least one associated TCI state.
Svedman, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
when the at least one RS resource is a direct or indirect quasi-co-location(QCL) source RS with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC of the at least one associated TCI state (see Svedman, par. [0120], lines 3-6: a monitored CORESET in the BWP has an activated TCI state with two source RS, e.g., one source RS for QCL-typeA and one source RS for QCL-typeD).
Svedman also teaches support for applying RS for UL or DL communication (see Svedman, par. [0081], lines 6-9: The SRS for BM may be used for UL BM, i.e., as spatial reference for other UL signals/channels such as other SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, in addition to the DL BM that is mainly considered herein).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the application of an RS resource to communication of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson, and further in view of Matsumura with the RS resource being a source RS with QCL-TypeA of Svedman with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing overhead and latency (see Svedman, par. [0006], lines 1-5).
Regarding claims 10, 20, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson teaches the method or UE.
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson does not teach:
wherein the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state is applied to the downlink reception or uplink transmission when the at least one RS resource and a first source RS of the at least one TCI state are associated with a same second quasi-co-location (QCL) source RS resource with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC.
Matsumura, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the at least one RS resource or the at least one TCI state is applied to the downlink reception or uplink transmission (see Matsumura, par. [0069], lines 5-7: The UL/DL DCI may select one from M active TCI states. The selected TCI state may be applied to the channel/RS for both UL and DL).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson with the application of an RS resource or TCI state to downlink or uplink communication of Matsumura with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of appropriately determining QCL information (see Matsumura, par. [0009], lines 1-3).
However, the combination of Farag in view of Wilson, and further in view of Matsumura does not teach:
when the at least one RS resource and a first source RS of the at least one TCI state are associated with a same second quasi-co-location (QCL) source RS resource with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC.
Svedman, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
when the at least one RS resource and a first source RS of the at least one TCI state are associated with a same second quasi-co-location (QCL) source RS resource with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC (see Svedman, Fig. 23, Fig. 24, par. [0206], lines 1-6: The case with a single TRS associated with all M CORESETs in a BWP is illustrated in FIG. 23. An UL RS, e.g., SRS for BM, is QCL-typeD source for CORESETs. The TRS has an SSB as QCL-typeC source. As discussed above, the TRS may have the SSB or the UL RS as QCL-typeD source, and see Svedman, par. [0214], lines 1-6: The first source RS in an indicated/activated TCI state is applied to a TRS (e.g., the associated TRS). The second source RS is applied to CORESET(s) and to the TRS. Note that the TCI state may be a common beam TCI state indication/activation carried in a DCI or MAC CE).
Svedman also teaches support for applying RS for UL or DL communication (see Svedman, par. [0081], lines 6-9: The SRS for BM may be used for UL BM, i.e., as spatial reference for other UL signals/channels such as other SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, in addition to the DL BM that is mainly considered herein).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the application of an RS resource to communication of the combination of Farag in view of Wilson, and further in view of Matsumura with the RS resource and source RS being associated with a second source RS with QCL-TypeA or QCL-TypeC of Svedman with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing overhead and latency (see Svedman, par. [0006], lines 1-5).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 11 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Cheng et al. (US 2019/0261195) teaches a method for counting a number of beam switching and transmitting a measurement report to a BS when the number of beam switching exceeds a threshold.
John Wilson et al. (US 2019/0268053) teaches techniques provide for the identification of a sequence of beamforming parameters that are used for communications between a user equipment (UE) and a base station using a sequence of transmission beams.
Yu et al. (US 2019/0037426) teaches a beam indication (BI) mechanism is proposed to provide user equipment (UE) information of network (NW) beam(s) for later transmission. UE can then select its UE beam(s) for the later transmission based on the BI.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419