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
This is in response to an amendment/response/communication filed 7/23/2026.
No claims have been cancelled.
No claims have been added.
Claims(s) 1-20 is/are currently pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 7/23/2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 1-20 under 35 USC § 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of 35 USC § 103.
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.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US 20200245333 A1) in view of Yang et al. (US 20220046651 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Lin et al. teaches an apparatus for a 5th generation NodeB (gNB), the apparatus comprising (Paragraphs 60-61, Teaches a 5G NR gNB apparatus having RF transceivers, transmit and receive processing circuitry, a controller/processor, and memory): processing circuitry to configure the gNB to (Paragraphs 61, 64-65, Teaches processing circuitry including a controller/processor, TX circuitry, and RX circuitry that controls the gNB's communication operations by executing programs stored in memory): transmit, to a user equipment (UE), demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) and downlink control information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) (Paragraphs 81 and 164, Teaches the gNB transmitting DCI through a PDCCH together with PDCCH-associated DM-RS received by the UE for demodulation and channel measurement) during a downlink (DL) period of a time domain duplexing (TDD) period (Paragraphs 80 and 82, Teaches TDD operation in which time resources include DL and UL transmission symbols, thereby providing DL transmission periods within the TDD operation), the DCI requesting channel state information (CSI) reporting (Paragraphs 178, 185, and 456, Teaches DCI containing an A-CSI request field whose value triggers and requests transmission of a PDCCH CSI report by the UE); and in response to transmission of the DM-RS and DCI, receive, from the UE (Paragraphs 185 and 457, Teaches that after the UE receives and decodes DCI containing an A-CSI request that triggers a PDCCH CSI report, the UE transmits the resulting CSI report to the gNB), uplink control information (UCI) (Paragraphs 82 and 189, Teaches that UCI includes CSI reports for PDCCH transmissions and that a PDCCH CSI report can contain a CQI value) of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (Paragraphs 82, 185, and 457, Teaches that after DCI triggers a PDCCH CSI report, the UE transmits the CSI report as UCI through a PUSCH or PUCCH to the gNB), the UCI containing a channel quality indicator (CQI) (Paragraphs 82 and 185, Teaches the UE transmitting UCI, including a triggered PDCCH CSI report, through either a PUCCH or a PUSCH); and a memory configured to store the CQI (Paragraphs 61, 65, 67, and 457, Teaches a gNB receiving a CSI report containing a CQI value and having processor-coupled memory into which the processor can move received data).
Lin et al. does not explicitly teach calculated using the DM-RS of the PDCCH that carried the DCI requesting the CSI reporting.
However, Yang et al. teaches calculated using the DM-RS of the PDCCH that carried the DCI requesting the CSI reporting (paragraphs 105-106, 109-110, 138, 150-151, 216-218, 225, Teaches calculating CQI from the PDCCH's DMRS and expressly associates the PDCCH/DCI with dynamically triggering communication of that calculated CQI to the base station).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide calculated using the DM-RS of the PDCCH that carried the DCI requesting the CSI reporting as taught by Yang et al. in the system of Lin et al., so that it would enable the reported CQI to accurately reflect the radio channel conditions experienced by the specific control channel carrying the CSI request, thereby improving the reliability and accuracy of channel quality feedback used by the gNB for subsequent link adaptation, scheduling, and transmission parameter selection.
Regarding claim 2, Lin et al. teaches the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH comprises one of a DL DCI, an uplink (UL) DCI, or a joint DL and UL DCI (paragraphs 81, 88-90, 92, the passage teaches that DCI formats are transmitted in respective PDCCHs and expressly identifies the DCI carried for scheduling PDSCH reception as DL DCI and the DCI carried for scheduling PUSCH transmission as UL DCI, thereby teaching a PDCCH-transmitted DCI comprising one of the recited DL or UL DCI alternatives).
Regarding claim 3, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to transmit, to the UE, radio resource control (RRC) signaling that indicates an offset and a periodicity of the DM-RS of the PDCCH (Paragraphs 95, 104, 106-107, 164, 167, the gNB provides the UE with higher-layer signaling configuring a PDCCH search space associated with a CORESET, including a PDCCH monitoring periodicity and offset that define configured monitoring occasions at which the UE receives/detects the PDCCH DM-RS, thereby indicating the offset and periodicity associated with the DM-RS of the PDCCH).
Regarding claim 4, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to indicate, to the UE, a power offset to be used for calculation of the CQI, the power offset indicates a power ratio between the DM-RS of the PDCCH and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the CQI, and the power offset is one of explicitly included in the DCI, able to be implicitly derived from the DCI, or provided to the UE in radio resource control (RRC) signaling (paragraphs 81, 163-165, 174-175, 178, 180-183, 193, the passage teaches a gNB configuring a UE through higher-layer/RRC signaling and DCI-related indications for CQI reporting based on measurements of PDCCH DM-RS power/SINR, while expressly relating the resulting PDCCH CQI to the corresponding PDSCH CQI and allowing CQI parameters or offsets to be signaled through higher-layer signaling or determined from information included in DCI).
Regarding claim 5, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to indicate, in at least one of the DCI or radio resource control (RRC) signaling, timing of transmission of the UCI (paragraphs 125, 423-429, Teaches the gNB configuring the UE through dedicated RRC signaling or DCI with a CSI reporting configuration that specifies the time-domain behavior of UCI/CSI reporting over PUCCH or PUSCH, including periodic or semi-persistent transmission and an expressly provided slot-based periodicity and offset defining the timing of the CSI report occasion relative to the DRX ON duration).
Regarding claim 6, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to indicate, to the UE, to transmit the UCI in a soonest discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol that satisfies a minimum time between a last symbol of the PDCCH and a first symbol of the UCI (paragraphs 82-83, 125, 178, 180-185, 188, the passage teaches a gNB configuring and indicating CSI/UCI reporting to a UE through signaling including DCI, with the UE transmitting the resulting UCI through configured PUSCH or PUCCH resources using an uplink waveform that may be DFT-spread-OFDM, while the CSI transmission is subject to a defined UE computation time following the triggering PDCCH/DCI).
Regarding claim 7, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to transmit, to the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table to derive the CQI, the CQI derived from a CQI index that corresponds to an MCS index of the MCS table (paragraphs 190, 193, Teaches the gNB providing the UE an index identifying an MCS table used for a CQI report, with the CQI represented by an entry/index of the selected table that maps to corresponding modulation and coding-rate parameters, thereby providing the UE the MCS-table/index relationship used to derive and report the CQI).
Regarding claim 8, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to: transmit, to the UE, CSI reference signals (CSI-RS) on at least one of a plurality of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) beams during a beam management procedure, and receive, from the UE, an additional CQI report together with a CSI-RS resource index (CRI) report, a CQI in the CQI report is derived using the CSI-RS, the CRI report indicating preferred beamforming for at least one of DL or uplink (UL) transmissions (paragraphs 81, 187, 189, 395, 409, 417, 420, 430-433, Teaches a gNB transmitting CSI-RS resources to a UE for CSI and beam measurements, including multiple CSI-RS resources having different QCL/TCI properties corresponding to different spatial transmission characteristics, and receiving CSI reporting in which the UE selects CSI-RS resources having preferred channel quality and reports an indication identifying the selected CSI-RS resource together with a CQI derived from the CSI-RS, while expressly providing beam-management report quantities containing CRI with CQI/RI/PMI information usable to identify a preferred CSI-RS-associated beam for subsequent wireless transmissions).
Regarding claim 9, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to transmit, to the UE, a set of power offsets to apply to measurements of the DM-RS for evaluation of a block error rate (BLER) based on a set of CQIs, each power offset based on a modulation order corresponding to a different CQI in the set of CQIs, and calculation of each CQI by the UE accounts for reduction in transmission power by applying scaling to measurements of the DM-RS based on a corresponding power offset from the set of power offsets (paragraphs 163-165, 167, 169, 174-175, 190, 193, Teaches the gNB configuring the UE with measurement parameters and BLER-related CQI information, the UE performing PDCCH DM-RS-based channel/SINR measurements to derive CQIs, different CQI values corresponding to different modulation schemes and target BLERs, and CQI/BLER configurations employing offsets between CQI/MCS entries, thereby collectively relating DM-RS measurement, CQI calculation, modulation-dependent CQI values, BLER evaluation, and configured offsets).
Regarding claim 10, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to transmit, to the UE, a set of power offsets to apply to measurements associated with DM-RS of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for evaluation of a block error rate (BLER) based on a set of CQIs, each power offset based on a modulation order corresponding to a different CQI in the set of CQIs, and calculation of each CQI by the UE based on measurements of the DM-RS accounts for reduction in transmission power by applying scaling to the measurements based on a corresponding power offset from the set of power offsets (paragraphs 81, 175, 190, 193, Teaches a gNB providing configuration information to a UE for CQI reporting associated with specified BLER targets, where CQIs correspond to different modulation schemes/orders and may be related through configured offsets, together with DM-RS associated with PDSCH reception and UE measurements used to derive CQI, thereby relating configured offsets, modulation-dependent CQIs, DM-RS measurements, and BLER evaluation).
Regarding claim 11, Lin et al. teaches the set of power offsets are to be applied to measurements associated with the DM-RS associated with the DM-RS of the PDCCH and the DM-RS of the PDSCH for evaluation of the BLER, and the processing circuitry is to configure the gNB to transmit, to the UE, an indication of selection of one of the DM-RS associated with the PDCCH or the DM-RS associated with PDSCH for BLER evaluation dependent on the modulation order associated with the CQI calculated from the DM-RS associated with the PDCCH and the CQI calculated from the DM-RS associated with PDSCH (paragraphs 163-165, 167, 174-175, 178, 183, 189-190, 193, Teaches obtaining CQI from DM-RS-based PDCCH measurements, separately evaluating PDCCH and PDSCH CQI according to their respective target BLERs and modulation schemes, applying BLER-related CQI/MCS offsets, and configuring/signaling the UE to select PDCCH-only, PDSCH-only, or both CSI evaluations, thereby associating selection of the PDCCH or PDSCH measurement with the differing modulation orders represented by their respective CQIs).
Regarding claim 12, Lin et al. teaches calculation of the CQI is not based on channel state information (CSI) reference signals (CSI-RS) (paragraphs 163, 165, 167, 169-170, 174-175, the UE calculates a CQI from PDCCH DM-RS-based channel measurements, including deriving the CQI from a SINR measured using the PDCCH DM-RS, while expressly permitting DM-RS use when the UE does not receive a CSI-RS during that PDCCH reception, thereby providing a CQI calculation based on the DM-RS rather than CSI-RS).
Regarding claim 13, Lin et al. teaches an apparatus for a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising (paragraph 69, Teaches a UE apparatus including a processor and memory for implementing the disclosed wireless communication operations): processing circuitry to configure the UE to (paragraphs 73-74, Teaches processing circuitry in the form of processor 340 that executes stored programs and controls the UE's reception, transmission, and other wireless communication operations): demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) associated with a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) (paragraphs 81, 164, Teaches the UE receiving DM-RS associated with a PDCCH reception and using the PDCCH DM-RS for control-information demodulation and channel measurement) and downlink control information (DCI) of the PDCCH (paragraphs 81, 92, 169, Teaches that the gNB transmits DCI in a PDCCH and that the UE receives the PDCCH carrying the DCI format); in response to reception of the DM-RS and the DCI (paragraphs 169-170, Teaches obtaining CSI from the PDCCH DM-RS following reception of the PDCCH carrying DCI and expressly associates use of the DM-RS for determining CSI with successful decoding of the DCI), calculate a channel quality indicator (CQI) (paragraphs 163, 174-175, Teaches the UE performing PDCCH channel measurements and calculating or deriving a CQI value from those measurements) based on the DM-RS of the PDCCH that carried the DCI (paragraphs 164, 169-170, 174, Teaches using the DM-RS of the received PDCCH carrying a successfully decoded DCI to perform channel measurements from which the UE derives the CQI) requesting the CSI reporting (paragraphs 125, 185, Teaches DCI containing a CSI request field that requests or triggers the UE to provide the corresponding CSI report); and transmit, to the gNB, uplink control information (UCI) paragraph 82, Teaches the UE transmitting UCI containing CSI reporting information to the gNB) of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (paragraphs 82, 125, 185, Teaches transmitting the UE's UCI/CSI report over either a PUSCH or a PUCCH), the UCI containing the CQI (paragraphs 82, 175, 189, Teaches that UCI includes CSI reports and that the PDCCH CSI report carried therein can contain a CQI value); and a memory configured to store the CQI (paragraphs 74-76, 175, Teaches processor-generated data, including the determined CQI value used for reporting, being movable into UE memory 360 during execution of the UE's processes).
Lin et al. does not explicitly teach receive, from a 5th generation NodeB (gNB) during a downlink (DL) period of a time domain duplexing (TDD) period.
However, Yang et al. teaches receive, from a 5th generation NodeB (gNB) (Paragraphs 34, 36, 105, Yang identifies the base station communicating with the UE as including a gNB and teaches the UE receiving a reference signal from that base station) during a downlink (DL) period of a time domain duplexing (TDD) period (Paragraphs 37, 39, 78, Teaches TDD carriers carrying both downlink and uplink communications and slots having defined DL and UL portions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide receive, from a 5th generation NodeB (gNB) during a downlink (DL) period of a time domain duplexing (TDD) period as taught by Yang et al. in the system of Lin et al., so that it would enable the UE to perform PDCCH reception, channel measurement, CQI calculation, and CSI reporting within the standardized TDD downlink transmission interval, thereby ensuring proper synchronization between downlink control signaling and uplink feedback while improving compatibility and interoperability with 5G NR TDD communication procedures.
Regarding claim 14, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is further configured to calculate the CQI based on a power offset, the power offset indicates a power ratio between the DM-RS of the PDCCH and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) associated with the CQI, and the power offset is one of explicitly included in the DCI, able to be implicitly derived from the DCI, or provided to the UE in radio resource control (RRC) signaling (paragraphs 81, 163-165, 167, 169, 174-175, 193, Teaches processing at the UE that derives CQI from channel/SINR measurements made using the DM-RS of a PDCCH, distinguishes the resulting PDCCH CQI from a PDSCH CQI, and applies CQI-related offset/configuration information that can be determined from a field included in DCI or supplied through higher-layer signaling including RRC signaling).
Regarding claim 15, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is configured to determine timing of transmission of the UCI from at least one of the DCI or radio resource control (RRC) signaling (paragraphs 114-115, 118, 125, 178, 180, 184-185, the passage teaches determining the timing of UCI/CSI-report transmission from signaling by configuring the UE through higher-layer signaling with CSI reporting behavior and PUCCH transmission resources, including periodic or periodically occurring reporting instances, while alternatively using a DCI A-CSI request field to trigger the UE's aperiodic CSI report transmission over PUCCH or PUSCH).
Regarding claim 16, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is to configure the UE to transmit the UCI in a soonest discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol that satisfies a minimum time between a last symbol of the PDCCH and a first symbol of the UCI (paragraphs 80-83, 125, 178, 180, 185, Teaches symbol-based DL/UL operation in which the UE receives DCI on a PDCCH that triggers UCI in the form of a CSI report, is configured with time-domain PUCCH/PUSCH transmission resources for transmitting that UCI, and can perform the UL transmission using the DFT-precoded OFDM waveform expressly identified as DFT-spread-OFDM).
Regarding claim 17, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is further configured to derive the CQI based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table, a CQI index of the CQI corresponding to an index of an MCS from the MCS table (paragraphs 174-175, 190, 193, the UE derives a CQI from its channel/SINR measurement and determines the CQI as an indexed entry of a selected MCS table, where the CQI table entry maps to a particular modulation scheme and code rate and thus corresponds to the indexed modulation-and-coding combination of the MCS table).
Regarding claim 18, Lin et al. teaches the processing circuitry is further configured to: derive the CQI based on a set of power offsets to apply to the DM-RS for evaluation of a block error rate (BLER) based on a set of CQIs, each power offset based on a modulation order corresponding to a different CQI in the set of CQIs, and scale measurements of the DM-RS by applying a power offset from the set of power offsets that corresponds to the modulation order associated with a calculated CQI for the BLER (paragraphs 163, 165, 167, 169, 174-175, 189-190, 193, Teaches deriving CQI from PDCCH DM-RS-based channel/SINR measurements, selecting CQI values from sets associated with respective target BLERs and modulation schemes/orders, and using CQI/MCS-table offsets associated with different BLERs, thereby teaching adjustment of the DM-RS-derived channel measurement according to an offset corresponding to the modulation associated with the CQI used for BLER evaluation).
Regarding claim 19, Lin et al. teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a 5th generation NodeB (gNB), the one or more processors to configure the gNB to, when the instructions are executed (paragraphs 60-61, 64-65, 67, Teaches a 5G/NR gNB having one or more processors that execute programs stored in memory, including nonvolatile Flash/ROM memory, to control operation of the gNB): transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a channel state information (CSI) reporting configuration (paragraphs 115, 175, 180, Teaches the gNB transmitting higher-layer signaling to configure the UE with one or more CSI/A-CSI report configurations), the CSI reporting configuration indicating that demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) are to be used by the UE for calculating a CSI (paragraphs 163, 166-167, 170, Teaches higher-layer configuration associated with PDCCH DM-RS channel measurements and expressly teaches the UE using the PDCCH DM-RS to obtain and determine CSI) and that the calculated CSI is to be transmitted by the UE on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (paragraphs 82, 125, 185, Teaches that CSI reports, including specifically triggered PDCCH CSI reports, are transmitted by the UE through either PUSCH or PUCCH); transmit, to the UE, DM-RS and downlink control information (DCI) of the PDCCH during a downlink (DL) period of a time domain duplexing (TDD) period (paragraphs 80-81, 164, 169, Teaches gNB downlink transmission of a PDCCH carrying DCI together with its associated DM-RS during DL transmission resources, including operation in a TDD system), the DCI requesting the CSI reporting (paragraphs 125, 178, 185, Lin expressly teaches a DCI containing an A-CSI/CSI report request field that requests and triggers the UE to provide a CSI report, including a PDCCH CSI report); and in response to transmission of the DM-RS and DCI, receive, from the UE, uplink control information (UCI) of the PUCCH or PUSCH (paragraphs 82, 185, Teaches that after the UE receives DCI containing the CSI request, the triggered PDCCH CSI report is transmitted as uplink information through PUSCH or PUCCH to the gNB).
Lin et al. does not explicitly teach the UCI containing a CSI calculated based on the DM-RS of the PDCCH that carried the DCI requesting the CSI reporting during the DL period.
However, Yang et al. teaches the UCI containing a CSI (Paragraphs 98, 111, 139, Teaches DMRS-based CQI/CSI reports being returned as feedback, including channel-quality feedback carried in UCI) calculated based on the DM-RS of the PDCCH (Paragraphs 98, 105-106, 110, 150, Yang expressly teaches calculating DMRS-based CQI/CSI from measurements of DMRS carried by the PDCCH) that carried the DCI requesting the CSI reporting (Paragraphs 104-105, 109, 140, Teaches a PDCCH carrying both its own DMRS and DCI that dynamically triggers the UE's channel-quality reporting, with the reported PDCCH quality determined using parameters associated with that triggering PDCCH/DCI) during the DL period (Paragraphs 39, 78, 81, Teaches PDCCH control transmissions occurring in the downlink portion of a communication structure that supports TDD downlink and uplink operation).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the UCI containing a CSI calculated based on the DM-RS of the PDCCH that carried the DCI requesting the CSI reporting during the DL period as taught by Yang et al. in the system of Lin et al., so that it would enable the gNB to obtain channel-quality feedback that accurately reflects the specific PDCCH transmission that triggered the report, thereby improving the accuracy and reliability of CSI reporting for scheduling, link adaptation, and downlink transmission decisions in a 5G TDD communication system.
Regarding claim 20, Lin et al. teaches the CSI is channel quality information (CQI) (paragraphs 160, 163, 165, 174-175, Teaches that the UE derives channel quality information in the form of a channel quality indicator (CQI) from channel measurements, including DM-RS/SINR-based measurements for PDCCH receptions, and expressly provides the resulting CQI as the content of the CSI/CSI report).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW SHAJI KURIAN whose telephone number is (703)756-1878. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Ngo can be reached at (571) 272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/A.S.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2464 /RICKY Q NGO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2464
