DETAILED ACTION
RCE
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/12/2026 has been entered.
Response to Remark
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 03/12/26.
a. Independent claims have been amended.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Faxer et al. (US 2020/0389883, which is equivalent to the WO 2019/097478, published on 05/23/2019, hereinafter “Faxer”) in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2023/0072323, “Matsumura”).
Regarding claim 7, Faxer discloses a method implemented by a network node that is configured to communicate with a wireless device, the method comprising:
- causing triggering, at a wireless device, a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state update (See ¶.89, when a set of aperiodic CSI-RS resources are triggered, the triggering DCI includes a TCI state index which provides spatial QCL reference for the triggered set of CSI-RS resources. Following the measurement, the spatial QCL reference in the RS set corresponding to the indicated TCI state is updated based on the preferred CSI-RS determined by the UE; See further 608 Fig.6 and ¶.98) that is based on at least one quasi co-located (QCL) property of at least one reference signal (RS) (See ¶.50, the QCL reference associated with the active TCI state should be updated in accordance with the radio measurement report; See ¶.83, QCL is one way to describe the relation between two different signals originating from the same TRP that can be received using the same spatial receiver parameters. As an example, a UE should be able to assume it can use the same receive beam when receiving the two difference signals that have spatial QCL. The spatial QCL relations between different types of reference RS; See ¶.89, the spatial QCL reference in the RS set corresponding to the indicated TCI state is updated based on the preferred CSI-RS determined by the UE; See Fig.4, ‘DL RS(s) in the RS set in each TCI state provide QCL reference(s): QCL reference is dynamically update; See 710 & 720 Fig.7, receive measurement reports and determine a QCL reference update; See ¶.98, one of the RSs associated with each TCI state will be used as a QCL reference for the corresponding TCI state at a given time; See ¶.76, some measurement is propagation delay, power-based or channel quality measurements, CSI; Examiner’s Note: As indicated in ¶.76 and ¶.83, propagation delay, power-based or channel quality measurements, CSI, and spatial QCL are considered as QCL property), measured and reported by the wireless device while a previous TCI state is active (See ¶.42, the wireless device can transmit a radio measurement report to a network node; See ¶.98, based on dynamic layer-1 measurement reports sent by the UE to the gNB, the gNB can be made aware that a different set of Tx and/or Rx beams have become more appropriate to be used for downlink transmission (e.g. as opposed to/compared to the currently used set of Tx and/or Rx beams). This implies that the RS that is being currently used as the spatial QCL reference within a given TCI state should be updated to the new QCL reference RS which corresponds to the new set of Tx and/or Rx beams which have become more appropriate; See 604 Fig.6 and ¶.114, UE sends measurement report(s) to a network node; See 614 Fig.6 and ¶.115, before updating QCL reference associated with a TCI state 608, i.e. a previous TCI state).
Faxer does not explicitly disclose the newly added claim limitations “before a further occurrence of a reference signal associated with the updated TCI state” and “determining when to temporarily store the at least one QCL property associated with the at least one RS based at least in part on whether the RS is transmitted periodically, semi-persistently or aperiodically.”
However, Matsumura discloses,
- before a further occurrence of a reference signal associated with the updated TCI state (Matsumura, See ¶.129, for accurate path loss measurement for transmit power control, for the UE of Rel. 15, up to 4 PL-RSs are configured by RRC signaling. As shown in FIG. 5, even when the UL transmit beam (spatial relation) is updated by the MAC CE, the PL-RS cannot be updated by the MAC CE; See ¶.133, Measurement for the higher layer filtered RSRP requires time, and thus the updated PL-RS cannot be applied immediately after update of the TCI state); and
- determining when to temporarily store the at least one QCL property associated with the at least one RS based at least in part on whether the RS is transmitted periodically, semi-persistently or aperiodically (Matsumura, See ¶.40, the TCI state may be, for example, information related to QCL between a channel as a target (in other words, a reference signal (RS) for the channel) and another signal (for example, another RS). See ¶.92, Here, the SRS resource type may indicate any one of a periodic SRS (P-SRS), a semi-persistent SRS (SP-SRS), and an aperiodic SRS (A-SRS or AP-SRS). Note that the UE may periodically (or periodically after activation) transmit the P-SRS and the SP-SRS, and transmit the A-SRS, based on an SRS request of the DCI; See further ¶.45 and ¶.48 for the relationship of QCL and RS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “before a further occurrence of a reference signal associated with the updated TCI state and determining when to temporarily store the at least one QCL property associated with the at least one RS based at least in part on whether the RS is transmitted periodically, semi-persistently or aperiodically” as taught by Matsumura into the system of Faxer, so that it provides a way for accurate path loss measurement for transmit power control (Matsumura, See ¶.129).
Regarding claim 13, Faxer discloses a wireless device comprising:
- processing circuitry configured to (See Fig.9, processing circuitry): at least temporarily store at the least one QCL property of the at least one RS (See 950 Fig.10 and ¶.137, a QCL update module for updating a QCL reference for an active TCI state; See further the paragraphs cited in claim 7), the at least one RS being measured and reported while a previous Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state is active (See 604 Fig.6 and ¶.114, UE sends measurement report(s) to a network node; See 614 Fig.6 and ¶.115, before updating QCL reference associated with a TCI state 608, i.e. a previous TCI state; See further the rejection of claim 7); and
- apply a TCI state update based on the at least temporarily stored at least one QCL property of the at least one RS (See ¶.40, the indication of a reference signal indicates at least one of a reference signal type and a reference signal to be used as the updated QCL reference. In some embodiments, the indication of a reference signal indicates a reference signal index to be used as the updated QCL reference. In some embodiments, the indicated reference signal is one of the candidate reference signals for the active TCI state).”
Faxer does not explicitly disclose what Matsumura discloses,
- before a further occurrence of a reference signal associated with the updated TCI State (Matsumura, as rejected in claim 7).
- determining when to temporarily store the at least one QCL property associated with the at least one RS based at least in part on whether the RS is transmitted periodically, semi-persistently or aperiodically (Matsumura, as rejected in claim 7). Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 7.
Regarding claim 14, Faxer discloses “the at least one QCL property of a plurality of QCL properties associated with the at least one RS (See ¶.50, the QCL reference associated with the active TCI state should be updated in accordance with the radio measurement report; See ¶.83, QCL is one way to describe the relation between two different signals originating from the same TRP that can be received using the same spatial receiver parameters. As an example, a UE should be able to assume it can use the same receive beam when receiving the two difference signals that have spatial QCL. The spatial QCL relations between different types of reference RS) is based on a QCL type of the at least one RS (See ¶.83 and Table#1, the spatial QCL relations between different types of reference RS and target RS are shown in Table 1 below).”
Regarding claim 15, Faxer discloses “the at least temporarily storing of the at least one QCL property corresponds to storing of the at least one QCL property for a predefined quantity of time (See ¶.98, one of the RSs associated with each TCI state will be used as a QCL reference for the corresponding TCI state at a given time).”
Regarding claim 16, Faxer discloses “the at least one RS is a plurality of RSs, the at least one QCL property corresponds to a plurality of QCL properties for the plurality of RSs that were measured and reported while the previous TCI is active (See ¶.83, Table #1, a plurality of RSs associated with QCL parameters related with spatial QCL).”
Regarding claim 17, Faxer discloses “the at least temporarily storing of at least one QCL property associated with the at least one RS is based on a time domain behavior of at least the at least one RS (See ¶.18, wherein such a burst consists of a number of SS Block transmissions following close after each other in time. Furthermore, a set of SS Bursts may be grouped together (denoted as “SS Burst Set”), where the SS Bursts in the SS Burst Sets are assumed to have some relation to each other. Both SS Bursts and SS Burst Sets have their respective given periodicity; See ¶.19, in single beam scenarios, the network could configure time-repetition within one SS Burst in a wide beam. Also show in FIG. 3, in multi-beam scenarios, at least some of these signals and physical channels (e.g. SS Block); See ¶.84, the UE can assume that PDSCH DMRS is QCL with the CSI-RS indicated by PQI with respect to time parameters).”
Regarding claim 18, Faxer discloses “further configured receive a channel state information (CSI) report configuration indicating QCL properties of at least one RS measurement to be reported (See ¶.83, Table#1, CSI-RS related with QCL parameters; See ¶.86, due to UE movement/rotation, the CSI-RS in a TCI state that is used for the purposes of spatial QCL indication may need to be updated, or configured, on a continuous basis; See ¶.9, an enhanced CSI-RS reporting called Class B for beamformed CSI-RS; See ¶.10, in addition to MAC CE activation, a DCI trigger is sent to the UE so that one of the activated CSI-RS resources is selected by the UE for CSI computation and subsequent reporting. In the case of semi-persistent CSI-RS, once the CSI-RS resources are activated by MAC CE, the UE can use the activated CSI-RS resources for CSI computation and reporting).”
Regarding claim 19, Faxer discloses “further configured to transmit wireless device capability information indicating that the wireless device is capable of storing information related to the at least one QCL property of the at least one RS that is measured and reported while the previous TCI state is active (See ¶.40, the indication of a reference signal indicates at least one of a reference signal type and a reference signal to be used as the updated QCL reference. In some embodiments, the indication of a reference signal indicates a reference signal index to be used as the updated QCL reference. In some embodiments, the indicated reference signal is one of the candidate reference signals for the active TCI state).”
Regarding claim 20, Faxer discloses “the at least one QCL property includes at least one of power, at least one property associated with a channel state information, CSI, report, signal delay, doppler property and spatial property (See ¶.76, some measurement is propagation delay, power-based, channel quality measurement, CSI).”
Regarding claim 21, Faxer discloses “the at least one QCL property corresponds to at least one spatial QCL property (See ¶.83, spatial QCL).”
Regarding claim 22, Faxer discloses “the at least one RS is at least one downlink RS, the at least one downlink RS being one of a periodic, semi-persistent and aperiodic RS; and the processing circuitry is configured to transmit a CSI report based on the TCI state update, the report being one of a periodic, semi-persistent and aperiodic report (See ¶.98, each RS within a TCI state can be associated with a set of Tx (transmit) and/or Rx (receive) beams. Note that one of the RSs associated with each TCI state will be used as a QCL reference for the corresponding TCI state at a given time. Based on dynamic layer-1 measurement reports sent by the UE to the gNB, the gNB can be made aware that a different set of Tx and/or Rx beams have become more appropriate to be used for downlink transmission; See ¶.23, periodic CSI reporting by the UE; See ¶.25, semi-persistent CSI reporting; See ¶.28, periodic CSI-RS and a single semi-persistent CSI-RS; See ¶.30, semi-persistent CSI-RS).”
Regarding claim 23, it is a method claim corresponding to the device claim 13 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 24-32, they are claims corresponding to claims 14-22, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been considered. But, in view of the applicant’s amendment to the claims, examiner has clarified and totally remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims and a new prior art by Matsumura. The previous 103 rejection over Faxer in view of Xi has been replaced with a new 103 rejection over Faxer in view of Matsumura for a newly added claim limitations.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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