Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/244,871

CHANNEL CALCULATIONS BASED ON CHANNEL STATE INFORMATION REFERENCE SIGNAL (CSI-RS) AND SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS)

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Sep 11, 2023
Examiner
RUTNAM, SAMUEL DILAN
Art Unit
2471
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
2 (Final)
90%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
3m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 90% — above average
90%
Career Allowance Rate
47 granted / 52 resolved
+32.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +13% lift
Without
With
+12.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
28 currently pending
Career history
96
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.4%
-39.6% vs TC avg
§103
89.4%
+49.4% vs TC avg
§102
10.2%
-29.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 52 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
CTFR 18/244,871 CTFR 98881 DETAILED ACTION This Final Office Action is in response to application number 18/244,871 filed on September 11 th 2023. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Information Disclosure Statements The Information Disclosure Statements (IDS), submitted on December 14 th 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20 AIA 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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made. 07-21-aia AIA Claims 1- 2,7-12,17-21,26,27 and 31-34 are re jected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ti mo et al. (US 20240275519 A1 in view of Jang et al. (US 12074822 B2) further in view of Kovacs et al. (US 20240196187 A1). Re garding claim 1,11,20 and 26, Timo et al disclose an apparatus configured for wireless communications, the apparatus comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors configured to cause the apparatus to: send a first CSI-RS; receive a first SRS; (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0019 discloses “Each configuration includes the following: a first configuration for UE measurement of DL RS transmitted by the RAN node, a second configuration for UE transmission of UL RS, and an identifier of one of the UE encoders. For example, the DL RS can be CSI-RS and the UL RS can be SRS.” receive first channel state feedback (CSF) corresponding to the CSI-RS; and perform channel estimation based on the first CSF and the first SRS (Paragraph 0018 discloses “…the RAN node can configure the UE with CSI-RS resources and an ML-based CSI reporting model, i.e., for the UE to use its encoder to compress its CSI-RS based channel estimate. As a variant, the RAN node can also configure the UE with UL SRS resources for reciprocity (denoted “AntennaSwitching” in 3GPP specifications). The network can select the configured CSI-RS and SRS resources jointly to maximize correlation between the measured DL and UL channels, respectively.”) . Timo et al. fail to explicitly disclose to send signaling indicative of one or more power ratios, wherein each of the one or more power ratios is based on a transmit power for transmitting sounding reference signal (SRS) using a corresponding antenna and a receive power for receiving channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) using the corresponding antenna, and wherein the one or more power ratios are associated with one or more antennas; However, in an analogous art, Jang et al. teach to send signaling indicative of one or more power ratios, wherein each of the one or more power ratios is based on a transmit power for transmitting sounding reference signal (SRS) (US 12074822 B2 Paragraph 247 discloses “… In order to transfer configuration information for these SRS transmission, the base station may configure, for the terminal, at least one SRS configuration for each uplink BWP and at least one SRS resource set for each SRS configuration. For example, the base station and the terminal may transmit or receive higher-layer signaling information below to transfer information relating to the SRS resource set:… This corresponds to a configuration for the usage of the SRS resource referred to by the SRS resource set, and may be configured with one of “beamManagement,” “codebook,” “nonCodebook,” and “antennaSwitching”; and alpha, p0, pathlossReferenceRS, srs -PowerControlAdjustmentStates: This provides a parameter configuration for transmission power adjustment of the SRS resource referred by the SRS resource set.” using a corresponding antenna and a receive power for receiving channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) using the corresponding antenna, and wherein the one or more power ratios are associated with one or more antennas (US 12074822 B2 Paragraph 260 discloses “When a value of the higher-layer signaling referenceSignal is configured as “csi-RS-Index,” the terminal may apply a reception beam which has been used when a CSI-RS corresponding to csi-RS-Index is received, as a transmission beam for the corresponding SRS transmission.” In addition paragraph 0247 discloses “When it is configured with “periodic” or “semi-persistent,” the associated CSI-Rs information may be provided according to the usage of the SRS resource set. When it is configured with “aperiodic,” an aperiodic SRS resource trigger list and slot offset information may be provided, and associated CSI-RS may be provided according to the usage of the SRS resource set; usage: This corresponds to a configuration for the usage of the SRS resource referred to by the SRS resource set, and may be configured with one of “beamManagement,” “codebook,” “nonCodebook,” and “antennaSwitching”; and alpha, p0, pathlossReferenceRS, srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates: Paragraphs 0247 address power control in the uplink through parameters alpha, p0, pathlossReferenceRS, srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates, whereby pathlossRefereceRS is the CSI-RS received power and is a component of the power ratio. As shown above, Jang discloses sending [alpha, p0, pathlossReferenceRS, srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates], which are “signaling indicative of one or more power ratios.” These parameters are a ratio between transmit power and receive power; however, Jang does not expand upon these parameters. US20250267592 paragraphs 0070-0078 discloses “SRS Transmission Power Control”, here equation 3 paragraph 0072 shows that SRS Transmission Power P SRS,b,f,c is directly proportional to the DL Path Loss PL b,f,c ,whereby paragraph 0076 discloses the usage of CSI-RS in the determination of DL Path Loss. As CSI-RS Path Loss is inversely proportional to the CSI-RS RSRP then SRS Transmission Power is Inversely proportional CSI-RS RSRP, the inverse relationship between SRS Transmission Power and CSI-RS RSRP corresponds to the power ratio. Zhang US20230180137 paragraph 00160 discloses the pathloss is based on transmit and receive power. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. to incorporate the teachings of Jang et al., to send signaling indicative of one or more power ratios, wherein each of the one or more power ratios is based on a transmit power for transmitting sounding reference signal (SRS) using a corresponding antenna and a receive power for receiving channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) using the corresponding antenna, in order to support efficient uplink power control of SRS transmissions. Timo et al. and Jang et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the signaling indicative of the one or more power ratios includes and identifier of a machine learning model, at the network entity, associated with the one or more power ratios. However, in an analogous art, Kovacs et al. teaches wherein the signaling indicative of the one or more power ratios includes and identifier of a machine learning model, at the network entity, associated with the one or more power ratios (US 20240196187 A1 Paragraph 0092 discloses “ 1) ML configuration information may include ML-enabled feature ID to indicate which UE ML functionality is being (re)configured by the MLConfig message. This ID is assumed to be available at both network and UE side after the UE capability exchange procedures (during network attach, etc.). Alternatively, the ID can be part of the pre-configuration that each new UE is provided during manufacturing. UEs have ML model information, and the network may store this information or may keep track of these ML model information. Network may assign various ML-enabled feature IDs for different RRM features (e.g., different ML-enabled feature IDs to indicate different ML-enabled functions). For example, the network may assign ID1 for link adaptation; ID2 for power control; ID3 for beam selection, where each ID for each ML-enabled feature may have sub-IDs indicating the available ML model IDs. Thus, ML configuration may be specified for a particular combination of ML-enabled feature ID and ML model ID—so use this existing structure to indicate for which ML model this ML configuration may be used.”) . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. and Jang et al. to incorporate the teachings of Kovacs et al., wherein the signaling indicative of the one or more power ratios includes and identifier of a machine learning model, at the network entity, associated with the one or more power ratios, in order to achieve model synchronization between the network entity and network device and to provide the network entity greater autonomy by providing the ability change ML models. Regarding claims 2,12,21 and 27, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, Timo et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the signaling indicates a quasi-co-location (QCL) type associated with the one or more power ratios. However, in an analogous art, Jang et al. teach wherein the signaling indicates a quasi-co-location (QCL) type associated with the one or more power ratios (US 12074822 B2 Paragraph 149 discloses “In a wireless communication system, one or more different antenna ports (or replaceable with one or more channels, signals, or combinations of thereof, but for convenience of description later in the disclosure, referred to as “different antenna ports” for consistency) may be associated with each other by quasi co-location (QCL) configuration as shown in [Table 13] below. A TCI state is for notifying of a QCL relationship between a PDCCH (or a PDCCH DMRS) and different RSs or channels, and when one reference antenna port A (reference RS #A) is QCLed with another target antenna port B (target RS #B), it means that the terminal is allowed to apply some or all of large-scale channel parameters estimated in the antenna port A to perform a channel measurement from the antenna port B.”) . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. to incorporate the teachings of Jang et al., to indicates a quasi-co-location (QCL) type associated with the one or more power ratios, in order to support accurate beam reception and data modulation. Regarding claims 7 and 17, Timo et al disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first CSI-RS is sent within a threshold time period of when the first SRS is received (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0145 discloses “Since it is important that UL and DL channel measurements are based on the same channel or at least on highly correlated channels, it is important that the UL SRS and DL CSI-RS are transmitted as close in time as possible—preferably in the same slot.”). Regarding claims 8, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CSF comprises a first channel estimate, and wherein, to perform channel estimation, the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: determine a second channel estimate based on the first SRS; input the first channel estimate and the second channel estimate into a machine learning model; and output, from the machine learning model, a third channel estimate (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0118 discloses “the RAN node can configure the UE with CSI-RS resources and an ML-based CSI reporting model, i.e., for the UE to use its encoder to compress its CSI-RS based channel estimate. As a variant, the RAN node can also configure the UE with UL SRS resources for reciprocity (denoted “AntennaSwitching” in 3GPP specifications). The network can select the configured CSI-RS and SRS resources jointly to maximize correlation between the measured DL and UL channels, respectively.”) . Regarding claims 9, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CSF comprises a first precoder matrix, and wherein, to perform channel estimation, the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: determine a first channel estimate based on the first SRS; input the first channel estimate and the first precoder matrix into a machine learning model; and output, from the machine learning model, a second precoder matrix (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0118 discloses “the RAN node can configure the UE with CSI-RS resources and an ML-based CSI reporting model, i.e., for the UE to use its encoder to compress its CSI-RS based channel estimate. As a variant, the RAN node can also configure the UE with UL SRS resources for reciprocity (denoted “AntennaSwitching” in 3GPP specifications). The network can select the configured CSI-RS and SRS resources jointly to maximize correlation between the measured DL and UL channels, respectively.”) . Regarding claim 10, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CSF comprises a first precoder matrix, and wherein, to perform channel estimation, the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: determine a second precoder matrix based on the first SRS; input the first precoder matrix and the second precoder matrix into a machine learning model; and output, from the machine learning model, a third precoder matrix (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0118 discloses “the RAN node can configure the UE with CSI-RS resources and an ML-based CSI reporting model, i.e., for the UE to use its encoder to compress its CSI-RS based channel estimate. As a variant, the RAN node can also configure the UE with UL SRS resources for reciprocity (denoted “AntennaSwitching” in 3GPP specifications). The network can select the configured CSI-RS and SRS resources jointly to maximize correlation between the measured DL and UL channels, respectively.”) . Regarding claim 18, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: receive an identifier of a machine learning model (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0019 discloses “the UE sends an encoder capability report to the RAN node. This can be done, for example, in conjunction with the UE joining, connecting to, and/or registering with the RAN node. This report can indicate the UE's ML model capabilities for CSI encoding. This can be indicated, for example, by including a particular encoder ID or an equivalent representation of this ID.”). Regarding claim 19, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 18, wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: determine the first CSF based on the CSI-RS and the identifier of the machine learning model (US 20240275519 A1 Paragraph 0019 discloses “the UE sends an encoder capability report to the RAN node. This can be done, for example, in conjunction with the UE joining, connecting to, and/or registering with the RAN node. This report can indicate the UE's ML model capabilities for CSI encoding. This can be indicated, for example, by including a particular encoder ID or an equivalent representation of this ID.”) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 3,13,22 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Timo et al. (US 20240275519 A1) in view of Jang et al. (US 12074822 B2) in view of Kovacs et al. (US 20240196187 A1) further in view of Harrison et al. (US 20210092687 A1) . Regarding claims 3,13,22 and 28, Timo et al. disclose the apparatus of claim 1. Timo et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: receive an indication of at least one supported power ratio, wherein the at least one supported power ratio comprises the one or more power ratios. However in an analogous art Harrison et al. teaches wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: receive an indication of at least one supported power ratio, wherein the at least one supported power ratio comprises the one or more power ratios (US 20210092687 A1 Paragraph 0046 discloses “signaling, to a network node, a wireless device power transmission capability. The wireless device power transmission capability identifies a power ratio value of a plurality of power ratio values that the wireless device supports for transmission of a physical uplink channel. Each value of the plurality of power ratio values corresponds to a transmission power capability and to a number of antenna ports.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. to incorporate the teachings of Harrison et al., to receive an indication of at least one supported power ratio, wherein the at least one supported power ratio comprises the one or more power ratios, in order to ensure system compatibility and optimal network scheduling . 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 4,6,14,16,23,25 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Timo et al. (US 20240275519 A1) in view of Jang et al. (US 12074822 B2) in view of Kovacs et al. (US 20240196187 A1) further in view of Bail et al. (US 20240389033 A1) . Regarding claims 4,14,23 and 29, Timo et al disclose the apparatus of claim 1. Timo et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the first CSF comprises an indication of at least one power ratio of the one or more power ratios. However in an analogous art Bai et al. teaches wherein the first CSF comprises an indication of at least one power ratio of the one or more power ratios (US 20240389033 Paragraph 0039 discloses “…the method further comprises transmitting an original value of a power ratio of energy per resource element (EPRE) of the channel over the EPRE of the signal without the EIRP limit to the terminal device. The channel state information report is determined based on the signal and the original value of the power ratio of EPRE of the channel over the EPRE of the signal without the EIRP limit.”) . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. to incorporate the teachings of Bai et al., wherein the first CSF comprises an indication of at least one power ratio of the one or more power ratios, in order to enable the UE to accurately calculate CQI for the network node. Regarding claims 6,16,25 The apparatus of claim 1. Timo et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein each of the one or more power ratios is a ratio of a function of the transmit power to a function of the receive power. However in an analogous art Bai et al. teaches wherein each of the one or more power ratios is a ratio of a function of the transmit power to a function of the receive power (US 20240389033 Paragraph 0039 discloses “…the method further comprises transmitting an original value of a power ratio of energy per resource element (EPRE) of the channel over the EPRE of the signal without the EIRP limit to the terminal device. The channel state information report is determined based on the signal and the original value of the power ratio of EPRE of the channel over the EPRE of the signal without the EIRP limit.”) . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. to incorporate the teachings of Bai et al., wherein each of the one or more power ratios is a ratio of a function of the transmit power to a function of the receive power, in order to enable the UE to get the path loss value used as input in the determination of the uplink power control . 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 31-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Timo et al. (US 20240275519 A1) in view of Jang et al. (US 12074822 B2) in view of Kovacs et al. (US 20240196187 A1) further in view of Li et al. (CN 120937472 A Translation) . Regarding claims 31-34, Timo et al., disclose the apparatus of claim 2. Timo et al. fails to explicitly disclose wherein the signaling indicates the QCL type associated with mappings of the one or more power ratios to identifiers of different machine learning models at the network entity. However in an analogous art Li et al. teaches wherein the signaling indicates the QCL type associated with mappings of the one or more power ratios to identifiers of different machine learning models at the network entity (CN 120937472 A Page 38 Paragraph 1 discloses “In some aspects, when a TCI state with QCL type D is activated, the UE may be configured to activate additional AI/ML model inference features, such as, but not limited to, opportunistic measurements based on additional or alternative AI/ML models that may consume higher power. Thus, the maximum number of TCI states with QCL type D that can be activated at the same time can be UE capability or can be pre-configured”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Timo et al. to incorporate the teachings of LI et al., wherein the signaling indicates the QCL type associated with mappings of the one or more power ratios to identifiers of different machine learning models at the network entity., in order to enable the network device to facilitate accelerated channel estimation and decoding. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 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 07-39 AIA THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Samuel Dilan Rutnam whose telephone number is 703-756-1374. The examiner can normally be reached between 8:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached on 571-272-8586. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). /Samuel Dilan Rutnam/ Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471 /SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 2 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 3 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 4 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 5 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 6 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 7 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 8 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 9 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 10 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 11 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 12 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 13 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 14 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 15 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 16 Art Unit: 2471 Application/Control Number: 18/244,871 Page 17 Art Unit: 2471
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Sep 11, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 10, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Jan 14, 2026
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Jan 14, 2026
Examiner Interview Summary
Feb 09, 2026
Response Filed
Jun 04, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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