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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 13-14, 16-17, 19, 38, 40-41 and 43 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Go et al. (US Publication 2022/0201696 A1).
In regards to claims 1 and 13, Go et al. (US Publication 2022/0201696 A1) teaches, method performed by a wireless device comprising up to eight transmit and receive chains, the method comprising: obtaining a sounding reference signal (SRS) antenna switching capability of the wireless device, the antenna switching capability including one or more antenna switching configurations (ASCs) and an indication that the wireless device supports unbalanced antenna switching (see paragraph 271; a case where a panel switching capability of a 2-panel UE is “1Tp2Rp”, and “1T2R” is supported in a first panel and “1T4R” is supported in a second panel for each panel is assumed. In this case, in the capability related to the SRS resource setting for the panel switching; paragraph 227; the capability of the UE related to the antenna switching may be ‘1T2R’, ‘2T4R’, ‘1T4R’, ‘1T4R/2T4R’, ‘1T1R’, ‘2T2R’, ‘4T4R’, etc. Here, ‘mTnR’ may mean a UE capability supporting m transmissions and n receptions; the 1T2R, 2T4R, 1T4R read on the unbalance antenna switching); transmitting the SRS antenna switching capability to a network node (see paragraph 271; the UE may be configured to report, to the BS, integrated capability information by considering hierarchies of the panel switching and the antenna switching as in {“1Tp2Rp” with “1T2R” for panel0 and “1T4R” for panel1}; see paragraph 279; UE may report, to the BS, capability information such as {“1Tp2Rp” with “1T2R” for panel0 and “1T4R” for panel1, whether the SRS resource set of each panel may be simultaneously transmitted; see); and receiving, from the network node, a SRS configuration for one or more SRS resource sets based on at least one of the ASCs and the unbalanced antenna switching indication (see paragraph 271; the BS may configure/indicate, to the UE, the SRS for the panel switching and the antenna switching corresponding to the corresponding capability information).
In regards to claims 14 and 38, Go teaches, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability further indicates the wireless device supports balanced antenna switching (paragraph 227; the capability of the UE related to the antenna switching may be ‘1T2R’, ‘2T4R’, ‘1T4R’, ‘1T4R/2T4R’, ‘1T1R’, ‘2T2R’, ‘4T4R’, etc. Here, ‘mTnR’ may mean a UE capability supporting m transmissions and n receptions; the 1T1R, 2T2R, 4T4R read on the balance antenna switching).
In regards to claims 16 and 40, Go teaches, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability further indicates the wireless device supports single or partial antenna switching (see paragraph 225; in the case of a terminal with a partial reciprocity, SRS transmission based on antenna switching (i.e., transmission antenna switching) may be supported for downlink (DL) channel state information (CSI) acquisition through the SRS transmission in a situation such as time division duplex (TDD)).
In regards to claims 17 and 41, Go teaches, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability further indicates how may receive chains are associated with a transmit chain (see paragraph 227; ‘mTnR’ may mean a UE capability supporting m transmissions and n receptions).
In regards to claims 19 and 43, Go teaches, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability further indicates that one transmit chain is fixed to one antenna and the transmit chain may transmit with repetition (see paragraph 227; ‘1T1R’).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 18, 20-24 and 42 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Go et al. as stated above, and further in view of Shi et al. (US Publication 2022/0369214 A1).
In regards to claims 18 and 42, Go teaches, all the limitations of the parent claim as stated above.
Go however fails to teach, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability further indicates that one of the up to eight transmit chains may be switched between antennas and the remaining transmit chains of the up to eight transmit chains are each fixed to one antenna.
Shi however teaches, Shi teaches, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability indicates that one of the up to eight transmit chains may be switched between antennas and the remaining transmit chains of the up to eight transmit chains are each fixed to one antenna (see figure 13, PA0 transmit chain can correspond to any of the 8 receiving changes and each the PA1-PA7 transmit chains only correspond the corresponding 7 receiving chains on a one to one basis).
Go and Shi both relate to UE antenna switching capability.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application to incorporate the receive chains as taught by Shi into the teachings of Go. The motivation to do so would be optimize uplink performance by improving coverage and throughput since the gNB can using the capability for more accurate beamforming.
In regards to claim 20, Go teaches all the limitations of the parent claim as stated above.
Go however fails to teach, wherein the SRS antenna switching capability further indicates that one or more transmit chains of the up to eight transmit chains are not used.
Shi teaches wireless device of claim 15 wherein the SRS antenna switching capability indicates that one or more transmit chains of the up to eight transmit chains are not used (see paragraph 431; it is implicit that in 1T6R ASC, the two receiving antennas will not be used).
Go and Shi both relate to UE antenna switching capability.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application to incorporate the receive chains as taught by Shi into the teachings of Go. The motivation to do so would be optimize uplink performance by improving coverage and throughput since the gNB can using the capability for more accurate beamforming.
In regards to claims 21-24, Go teaches all the limitations of the parent claims as stated above.
Go however fails to teach, Shi teaches, wherein the one or more ASCs at least comprise tlrl-tlr2-tlr4-tlr6, wherein the one or more ASCs comprise at least one of t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4-t4r8, tlrl-tlr2-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4-t4r6, tlrl-tlr2-t2r2-t2r4-t2r6, tlrl-tlr2-tlr4-t2r2-t2r4-t2r6-t2r8, and tirl-tlr2-tlr4-tlr6-tlr8, wherein the one or more ASCs comprise at least one of t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r4- t1r6-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r6-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r8-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6-t1r8-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2- t1r4-t1r8-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4, and t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6-t1r8-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4 and wherein the one or more ASCs comprise at least one of t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-tlr4-t2r4-tlr6-t2r6, t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6-t1r8, t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-t1r4-t2r4-t1r6-t2r6-t1r8-t2r8, and t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-tlr4-t2r4-t1r6-t2r6-t1r8-t2r8-t4r8.
Shi however teaches, wherein the one or more ASCs at least comprise tlrl-tlr2-tlr4-tlr6 (see paragraphs 336 and 340; antenna switching capabilities indicated by the first UE capability, that is, reporting antenna switching capabilities: ‘t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6’. [0340] 1T1R, 1T2R, 1T4R, 1T6R (t1r1, t1r2, t1r4, t1r6)), wherein the one or more ASCs comprise at least one of t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4-t4r8 (see paragraph 195; reporting antenna switching capabilities: ‘t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4-t4r8), tlrl-tlr2-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4-t4r6, tlrl-tlr2-t2r2-t2r4-t2r6, tlrl-tlr2-tlr4-t2r2-t2r4-t2r6-t2r8, and tirl-tlr2-tlr4-tlr6-tlr8, wherein the one or more ASCs comprise at least one of t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t2r2 (see paragraph 152; reporting antenna switching capabilities: ‘t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t2r2-t2r4-t2r8’), t1r1-t1r2-t1r4- t1r6-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r6-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r8-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6-t1r8-t2r2, t1r1-t1r2- t1r4-t1r8-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4, and t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6-t1r8-t2r2-t2r4-t4r4 and wherein the one or more ASCs comprise at least one of t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-tlr4-t2r4-tlr6-t2r6 (see paragraph 264; [0264] 1T1R, 1T2R, 1T3R, 1T4R, 1T5R, 1T6R, 1T6R, 1T7R, 1T8R, 2T2R, 2T4R, 2T6R, 2T8R, 4T4R, 4T8R), t1r1-t1r2-t1r4-t1r6-t1r8, t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-t1r4-t2r4-t1r6-t2r6-t1r8-t2r8, and t1r1-t1r2-t2r2-tlr4-t2r4-t1r6-t2r6-t1r8-t2r8-t4r8.
Go and Shi both relate to UE antenna switching capability.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application to incorporate the receive chains as taught by Shi into the teachings of Go. The motivation to do so would be optimize uplink performance by improving coverage and throughput since the gNB can using the capability for more accurate beamforming.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the Shi reference 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.
Relevant Prior Art
Prior art Shahmohammadian et al. (US Publication 2022/0029861 A1) teaches, In order to increase SRS antenna ports to 8, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, new configurations are defined and added for the number of SRS resource sets and resources for the new UE capability supportedSRS-TxPortSwitch xTyR, where x={1, 2, 4} and y={6, 8} (see paragraph 76); “to reduce the potential high overhead of SRS resources and facilitate high UE power efficiency, Rel. 16 allows for the configuration of SRS resources with downgrading configuration with new UE capability reporting. For example, a UE supporting 4T4R can also support SRS transmission of 1T1R and 2T2R in order to save uplink resources. However, in order to increase the number of SRS antenna ports to 8 in Rel. 17, a new UE capability parameter supportedSRS-TxPortSwitch xTyR for x={1, 2, 4} and y={6, 8} should be defined”:
[0119] In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, for an xTyR scenario with x={1,2,4} and y={6,8}, a gNB should be able to configure a downgrading configuration of an SRS for antenna switching with allowing new UE capability design for SRS antenna switching as follows.
[0120] {t1r1, t1r2, t1r6}
[0121] {t1r1, t1r2, t2r2, t2r6}
[0122] {t1r1, t1r2, t2r2, t1r6, t2r6}
[0123] {t1r1, t1r2, t1r4, t1r8}
[0124] {t1r1, t1r2, t2r2, t2r4, t4r4, t1r8}
[0125] {t1r1, t1r2, t2r2, t1r4, t2r4, t1r8, t2r8, t4r8}.
Conclusion
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/JAY P PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466