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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 07/27/2023 and 01/30/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it contains international publication data. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a single, separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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, 6, 11, 16-18, 21, 24 and 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma et al. (US 2020/0336178 A1), hereinafter referred to as Ma, in view of Davydov et al. (US 2019/0239245 A1), hereinafter referred to as Davydov.
Regarding claim 1, Ma teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (Ma – Paragraph [0034], note a Source UE (SUE) that has source data to be transmitted in the uplink direction shares that source data with one or more Cooperating UEs (CUEs) through direct or multi-hop UE-to-UE communications), comprising:
a memory (Ma – Fig. 15; Paragraph [0244], note memory 1578a); and
one or more processors, coupled to the memory (Ma – Fig. 15; Paragraph [0244], note processor 1576a), configured to:
transmit, to a base station, an indication associated with cooperative transmissions (Ma – Paragraph [0069], note an identifier of the SUE, such as an SUE ID, can be indicated through a control channel, by one or more participating UEs to the network equipment for the cooperative transmissions); and
communicate with the base station based at least in part on the indication (Ma – Paragraph [0046], note source data from one UE, referred to herein as an SUE, is cooperatively transmitted to network equipment such as a gNB; Paragraph [0074], note an identifier of the SUE is transmitted through a control channel for transmission of the source data, this identifier enables the network equipment to identify the SUE as the source of the source data).
Ma does not teach transmitting, to a base station, a panel sharing indication that indicates panel sharing information associated with a cooperative panel that is shared with the UE; and communicating with the base station using the cooperative panel and based at least in part on the panel sharing information.
In an analogous art, Davydov teaches transmitting, to a base station, a panel sharing indication that indicates panel sharing information associated with a cooperative panel that is shared with the UE (Davydov – Paragraph [0033], note a UE can be configured to report the capability of the UE with respect to whether the BWPs or CCs can be quasi co-located with spatial receiving parameters or can share the same antennas; Paragraph [0034], note a UE can be configured with multiple panels, the beam reported by the UE can indicate whether the BWPs or CCs share the same panel); and
communicating with the base station using the cooperative panel and based at least in part on the panel sharing information (Davydov – Paragraph [0032], note the gNB can schedule PDCCH and PDSCH reception on some selected CCs with a same receive panel based on the reported UE capability).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Davydov into Ma in order for the base station identify scheduling restrictions and perform scheduling on particular resources based on UE capability (Davydov – Paragraphs [0032] and [0048]).
Regarding claim 2, Ma does not teach wherein the panel sharing information comprises at least one of a panel configuration associated with the cooperative panel or a UE capability associated with the cooperative panel.
In an analogous art, Davydov teaches wherein the panel sharing information comprises at least one of a panel configuration associated with the cooperative panel or a UE capability associated with the cooperative panel (Davydov – Paragraph [0033], note a UE can be configured to report the capability of the UE with respect to whether the BWPs or CCs can be quasi co-located with spatial receiving parameters or can share the same antennas).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Davydov into Ma for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Ma and Davydov, specifically Ma teaches wherein the panel sharing information indicates at least one of:
a supported multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission scheme, a MIMO layer, a maximum transmit power, or a supported beam application time (Ma – Paragraph [0058], note in a hybrid approach, different UL cooperative MU-MIMO schemes are applied together; Paragraph [0059], note UL cooperative virtual MIMO).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Ma and Davydov, specifically Ma teaches wherein communicating with the base station comprises communicating with the base station based at least in part on a panel sharing configuration corresponding to the UE, wherein the cooperative panel is shared with at least one additional UE (Ma – Paragraph [0115], note the SUE determines, from UE cooperation group configuration information that is stored at the SUE for example, the number of UEs in the cooperation group and determines a split or distribution of the source data equally among itself and the other UE(s) in the cooperation group).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Ma and Davydov, specifically Ma teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to transmit the panel sharing configuration to the base station (Ma – Paragraph [0125], note one way to indicate an SUE identifier is to introduce a member ID within a cooperative group so that network equipment is able to identify the SUE by member ID or group ID+member ID (associated with the UE cooperation group configuration information)).
Regarding claim 16, Ma teaches a base station for wireless communication (Ma – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0038], note base stations 170), comprising:
a memory (Ma – Fig. 13B; Paragraph [0174], note memory 1358); and
one or more processors, coupled to the memory (Ma – Fig. 13B; Paragraph [0174], note processing unit 1350), configured to:
determine an indication that indicates cooperative transmission with a user equipment (UE) (Ma – Paragraph [0069], note an identifier of the SUE, such as an SUE ID, can be indicated through a control channel, by one or more participating UEs to the network equipment for the cooperative transmissions); and
communicate with the UE based at least in part on the indication (Ma – Paragraph [0046], note source data from one UE, referred to herein as an SUE, is cooperatively transmitted to network equipment such as a gNB; Paragraph [0074], note an identifier of the SUE is transmitted through a control channel for transmission of the source data, this identifier enables the network equipment to identify the SUE as the source of the source data).
Ma does not teach determining a panel sharing indication that indicates panel sharing information associated with a cooperative panel that is shared with a user equipment (UE); and communicating with the UE using the cooperative panel and based at least in part on the panel sharing information.
In an analogous art, Davydov teaches determining a panel sharing indication that indicates panel sharing information associated with a cooperative panel that is shared with a user equipment (UE) (Davydov – Paragraph [0033], note a UE can be configured to report the capability of the UE with respect to whether the BWPs or CCs can be quasi co-located with spatial receiving parameters or can share the same antennas; Paragraph [0034], note a UE can be configured with multiple panels, the beam reported by the UE can indicate whether the BWPs or CCs share the same panel); and
communicating with the UE using the cooperative panel and based at least in part on the panel sharing information (Davydov – Paragraph [0032], note the gNB can schedule PDCCH and PDSCH reception on some selected CCs with a same receive panel based on the reported UE capability).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Davydov into Ma in order for the base station identify scheduling restrictions and perform scheduling on particular resources based on UE capability (Davydov – Paragraphs [0032] and [0048]).
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 2 above.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 3 above.
Regarding claim 21, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 6 above.
Regarding claim 24, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 11 above.
Regarding claim 29, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above, except the claim is written in a method claim format.
Regarding claim 30, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 16 above, except the claim is written in a method claim format.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, 7-10, 12-15, 19-20, 22-23, and 25-28 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Applicant’s dependent claims recite: wherein the panel sharing information comprises latency information for cross-panel scheduling associated with the cooperative panel; wherein the panel sharing configuration corresponding to the UE indicates a dedicated symbol pattern associated with a time division multiplexing scheme; wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive the panel sharing configuration from the base station, wherein the panel sharing configuration comprises a dedicated slot format indicator that indicates one or more valid communication time occasions corresponding to the UE; wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit a dedicated symbol pattern report to the base station; and receive the panel sharing configuration from the base station, wherein the panel sharing configuration is based at least in part on the dedicated symbol pattern report; and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit a dedicated symbol pattern request to the base station; and receive the panel sharing configuration from the base station, wherein the panel sharing configuration is based at least in part on the dedicated symbol pattern request, which are neither taught nor suggested by the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (US 2015/0003346 A1) discloses cooperative MIMO such as MU-MIMO in which a BS allocates antenna resources to UEs.
Park et al. (US 2015/0304082 A1) discloses UE capability information which indicates to a serving cell that the UE desires to operate in a semi-static CoMP mode.
Li et al. (US 2016/0112170 A1) discloses downlink virtual MIMO for sharing of receiving antennae of multiple users to form a virtual SU-MIMO receiver.
Park et al. (US 2016/0028448 A1) discloses MU-MIMO operation and UE capability information.
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/BAILOR C HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461