-DETAILED ACTION
Applicant’s response filed on 12/26/2025 has been entered and made of record.
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 Status
No claim is/are amended.
No new claim is/are added.
Claims 41-60 are pending for examination.
Applicant Argument
Applicant’s response has been fully considered. Below are applicant’s main arguments and examiner’s response to those arguments:
Applicant’s argument: (remark page 9-10), filed on 12/26/2025, with respect to claim 41, ‘In reference to "acquire at least two SSB resources based on measurements of the plurality of SSBs … There is no teaching or suggestion that the UE obtains at least two measured SSB resources, each explicitly tied to a different TRP, as required’.
Examiner’s response: Examiner respectfully disagrees. First, in response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, examiner would like to mention that one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
Kalbasi teaches UE acquires multiple SSB resources (Kalbasi: [FIG.13]-[FIG.15]; [0096]; [0116]; [0103]) and multiple TRPs (Kalbasi: [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s)). Kung teaches SSB resources associated with first TRP and second TRP of a cell (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]; [Page 27]; [Page 49]; [Page 3]). Therefore combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches the limitation as claimed.
Applicant’s argument: (remark page 10-11), filed on 12/26/2025, with respect to claim 41, ‘In reference to "encode first uplink control signaling for a first PUCCH transmission … Kung's teachings do not retrofit Kalbasi to send a single PUCCH UCI carrying multiple SSBRIs for different TRPs’.
Examiner’s response: Examiner respectfully disagrees. Kalbasi teaches UCI on a PUCCH could carry SSBRI (Kalbasi: [0116]; [0152]; [0124]; [0104]) and multiple TRPs (Kalbasi: [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”). Kung teaches SSBRI associated with first TRP and second TRP of a cell (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]; [Page 27]; [Page 49]; [Page 3]). Therefore combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches the limitation as claimed.
Applicant’s argument: (remark page 11-11), filed on 12/26/2025, with respect to claim 41, ‘In reference to "encode third uplink control signaling for a third PUCCH transmission … In short, the central teaching relied on by the NFOA (Kung's multi-TRP PHR) is incompatible with the claim's "third PUCCH transmission" requirement and therefore does not meet this limitation’.
Examiner’s response: Examiner is thankful to Applicant for raising this deficit. However, this is addressed by the new reference Kim’s teaching of PHR MAC control information for a PUCCH (Kim: [FIG.6]-[FIG.9]: [0146]). See the detailed Office Action bellow under 35 U.S.C. § 103 section.
Applicant’s arguments (remark pages 8-13), filed on 12/26/2025, with respect to claims 41-60 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection below which better address the claimed invention.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 53-60 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kalbasi et al. (US 20240162969 A1), hereinafter “Kalbasi”, in view of Kung et al. (US 20220217653 A1), hereinafter “Kung”, and in view of Kim et al. (US 20120224535 A1), hereinafter “Kim”.
Per claim 53 and 55:
Regarding claim 53, Kalbasi teaches ‘A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.20]: “Memory”, “Base Station”); ‘that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a base station’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.20]: “Processor”, “Base Station”; [0149]: “The memory 2030 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 2035 including instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform various functions”); ‘the instructions to configure the base station for beam management in a multiple transmission-reception point (TRP) operation in a New Radio (NR) network’ (Kalbasi: [0144]: “a UE 1900 may perform a set of physical layer/medium access control procedures to acquire and maintain a set of beam pair links e.g., a beam used at transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s)) for BS side paired with a beam used at UE. The beam pair links may be used for downlink and uplink transmission/reception. The beam management procedures”, TRP(s) => could have multiple TRPs; [0036]: “RATs include New Radio (NR)”; [0009]: “user equipment (UE) that includes a transceiver configured to: receive, one or more messages comprising configuration parameters”; [0011]: “UE to transmit a configuration message to a base station including configuration parameter”); ‘to cause the base station to perform operations comprising’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.20]: “Base Station”; [0149]: “instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform various functions”);
‘encoding a plurality of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) blocks (SSBs) for transmission to a user equipment’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.13]: “PSS”, “SSS”, “PBCH”; [0096]: “Synchronization Signal and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) Block (SSB)”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1” … “SSB_N”; [0097]: “The PBCH may be used to carry Master Information Block (MIB) used by a UE during cell search and initial access procedures. The UE may first decode PBCH/MIB”; Base station would encode SSBs to transmit to UE);
‘decoding first uplink control signaling for a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission to at least one of a plurality of TRPs associated with the base station, the first uplink control signaling indicating at least two SSB resources acquired based on measurements of the plurality of SSBs, each SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with a corresponding TRP of the plurality of TRPs configured for the multiple TRP operation’ (Kalbasi: [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”; [0124]: “a UE may report CRI and/or SSBRI (CSI-RS resource indicator/Synchronization Signal Block resource indicator)”; [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”, could have multiple TRPs; [FIG.13]: “TRB/BS beam sweeping”). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach uplink control signaling indicating two SSB resources;
‘encoding a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for transmission via the SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with the at least one of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”, CSR-RS via SSB resource; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam sweeping”; [FIG.16]-[FIG.17]; [0007]-[0008]: “transmitting, by a base station (BS), one or more messages comprising configuration parameters of reference signals … The reference signals may include one or more of: channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs)”; Base station would encode the CSI-RS to transmit to UE; [0100]-[0101]: “the UE measurements of the CSI-RS resources and the UE CSI reporting … to decode PDSCH according to a detected PDCCH with DCI intended for the UE”; [0103]: “the UE and/or TRP/BS may perform beam measurement by measuring beam sweeping based RS, e.g., CSI-RS”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”);
‘decoding second uplink control signaling for a second PUCCH transmission from the UE, the second uplink control signaling transmitted via the SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with the at least one of the plurality of TRPs and including report information based on the CSI-RS’ (Kalbasi: [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … CSI-RS resource indicator… a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam”; [0032]: “Uplink (UL) beams reporting from a UE to a base station”; [0099]: “a beam of the N beams may be associated with a CSI-RS resource”; [0122]: “UE to report CRI/SSBRI (CSI-RS Resource Indicator/Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator) for preferred UL and DL beams”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”; Base station would decode uplink control signaling about the CSI-RS);
‘decoding third uplink control signaling for a third PUCCH transmission from the UE, the third uplink control signaling including at least two power headroom reports (PHRs), the at least two PHRs associated with at least two reference signal resources for at least two of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [0126]: “a UE may report beam specific PHR (Power Headroom Report)”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam”; [0004]: “a plurality of downlink beams … a plurality of uplink beams”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”; Base station would decode uplink control signaling of PHR associated with a given beam). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach two PHRs associated with two TRPs on a PUCCH;
However, Kung in the same field of endeavor teaches multi-TRP transmission where UE communicates with multiple TRPs at the same time and is configured with RS such as SS/PBCH resources and CSI-RS resources to measure path loss of each serving TRPs (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “For a UE communicating with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP, the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP … The UE could be indicated with different pathloss reference signals associated with different TRPs of the cell”; [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … the set of RS resource indexes can include one or both of a set of SS/PBCH block indexes … and a set of CSI-RS resource indexes”; [Page 49]: “The first and/or the second TRP could be a serving TRP of the UE”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations … This includes CSI designed for multi-TRP/panel for NC-JT use case”; [Page 3]: “CSI reporting for DL multi-TRP and/or multi-panel transmission to enable more dynamic channel/interference hypotheses for NCJT”) and two PHRs associated with two TRPs (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 47]: “PHs of the first TRP and the second TRP of cell are reported in the MAC CE”; [0049]: “Performing UL transmission with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP; Triggering a PHR, wherein the UE generates a MAC CE (control element) in response to the PHR; indicating a first power headroom associated with the first TRP and a second power headroom associated with the second TRP”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching with that of Kalbasi for UE to acquire two SSB resources associated with two TRPs and indicate the two SSB resources in the uplink control signaling in order to enhance multi-TRP deployment to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung does not expressly teach report PHR on a PUCCH.
However, Kim in the same field of endeavor teaches PHR MAC control information for a PUCCH to overcome the limitation of 3GPP that UE could not sent PHR at the time when UE only transmits on PUCCH and does not have PUSCH transmission (Kim: [FIG.6]-[FIG.9]; [0146]: “In this case, due to some problems encountered in the legacy LTE rel-9 system … the UE may omit PHR_pucch of PUCCH as shown in Method 2. In this case, a method for constructing additional PHR MAC control information in a PUCCH in the same manner as in a PUSCH may also be considered”; [0114]-[0150]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kim’s teaching with that of combination of Kalbasi and Kung to report PHR on a PUCCH in order to avoid omitting PHR at a time when UE only transmits on PUCCH (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 55, Kalbasi teaches ‘A user equipment (UE)’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: [0030]: “a User Equipment (UE) device”); ‘configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network’ (Kalbasi: [0036]: “The RAN implements a Radio Access Technology (RAT) and resides between User Equipments (UEs) 125 and the core network. Examples of such RATs include New Radio (NR)”); ‘the UE comprising: front-end circuitry coupled to one or more antennas’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: front-end “Transceiver” coupled to “antenna”:
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, existence of circuitry for “Transceiver” is implied); ‘processing circuitry’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: “Processor”; [0153]: “computing devices (e.g., a processor, processing circuit, and/or other components) of the UE” ); ‘coupled to the front-end circuitry, the processing circuitry is to’ (these are implied);
‘decode a plurality of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) blocks (SSBs)’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.13]: “PSS”, “SSS”, “PBCH”; [0096]: “Synchronization Signal and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) Block (SSB)”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1” … “SSB_N”; [0097]: “The PBCH may be used to carry Master Information Block (MIB) used by a UE during cell search and initial access procedures. The UE may first decode PBCH/MIB”);
‘acquire at least two SSB resources based on measurements of the plurality of SSBs, each SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with a corresponding transmission-reception point (TRP) of a plurality of TRPs configured for multiple TRP operation in the NR network’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam sweeping”; [0116]: “SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0103]: “the UE and/or TRP/BS may perform beam measurement”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”, could have multiple TRPs). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach two SSB resources corresponding two TRPs;
‘encode first uplink control signaling for a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission to at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the first uplink control signaling indicating the at least two SSB resources’ (Kalbasi: [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”, UE would encode uplink control signaling in order to transmit over PUCCH; [0124]: “a UE may report CRI and/or SSBRI (CSI-RS resource indicator/Synchronization Signal Block resource indicator)”; [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”, could have multiple TRPs; [FIG.13]: “TRB/BS beam sweeping”). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach uplink control signaling indicating two SSB resources;
‘decode a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from the at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the CSI-RS received via the SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with the at least one of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”, CSR-RS via SSB resource; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam sweeping”; [FIG.16]-[FIG.17]; [0116]: “the channel state information (CSI) reporting may be triggered by DCI … CSI-RS resource indicator”; [0100]-[0101]: “the UE measurements of the CSI-RS resources and the UE CSI reporting … to decode PDSCH according to a detected PDCCH with DCI intended for the UE”; [0103]: “the UE and/or TRP/BS may perform beam measurement by measuring beam sweeping based RS, e.g., CSI-RS”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”; UE would decode the received CSI-RS for measurement and reporting);
‘encode second uplink control signaling for a second PUCCH transmission from the UE to the at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the second uplink control signaling transmitted via the SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with the at least one of the plurality of TRPs and including report information based on the CSI-RS’ (Kalbasi: [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … CSI-RS resource indicator… a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam”; [0032]: “Uplink (UL) beams reporting from a UE to a base station”; [0099]: “a beam of the N beams may be associated with a CSI-RS resource”; [0122]: “UE to report CRI/SSBRI (CSI-RS Resource Indicator/Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator) for preferred UL and DL beams”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”; UE would encode uplink control signaling about the CSI-RS to transmit to a TRP);
‘encode third uplink control signaling for a third PUCCH transmission to the at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the third uplink control signaling including at least two power headroom reports (PHRs), the at least two PHRs associated with at least two reference signal resources for at least two of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [0126]: “a UE may report beam specific PHR (Power Headroom Report)”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam”; [0004]: “a plurality of downlink beams … a plurality of uplink beams”; UE would encode uplink control signaling of PHR associated with a given beam for reporting). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach two PHRs associated with two TRPs on a PUCCH;
However, Kung in the same field of endeavor teaches multi-TRP transmission where UE communicates with multiple TRPs at the same time and is configured with RS such as SS/PBCH resources and CSI-RS resources to measure path loss of each serving TRPs (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “For a UE communicating with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP, the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP … The UE could be indicated with different pathloss reference signals associated with different TRPs of the cell”; [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … the set of RS resource indexes can include one or both of a set of SS/PBCH block indexes … and a set of CSI-RS resource indexes”; [Page 49]: “The first and/or the second TRP could be a serving TRP of the UE”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations … This includes CSI designed for multi-TRP/panel for NC-JT use case”; [Page 3]: “CSI reporting for DL multi-TRP and/or multi-panel transmission to enable more dynamic channel/interference hypotheses for NCJT”) and two PHRs associated with two TRPs (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 47]: “PHs of the first TRP and the second TRP of cell are reported in the MAC CE”; [0049]: “Performing UL transmission with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP; Triggering a PHR, wherein the UE generates a MAC CE (control element) in response to the PHR; indicating a first power headroom associated with the first TRP and a second power headroom associated with the second TRP”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching with that of Kalbasi for UE to acquire two SSB resources associated with two TRPs and indicate the two SSB resources in the uplink control signaling in order to enhance multi-TRP deployment to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung does not expressly teach report PHR on a PUCCH.
However, Kim in the same field of endeavor teaches PHR MAC control information for a PUCCH to overcome the limitation of 3GPP that UE could not sent PHR at the time when UE only transmits on PUCCH and does not have PUSCH transmission (Kim: [FIG.6]-[FIG.9]; [0146]: “In this case, due to some problems encountered in the legacy LTE rel-9 system … the UE may omit PHR_pucch of PUCCH as shown in Method 2. In this case, a method for constructing additional PHR MAC control information in a PUCCH in the same manner as in a PUSCH may also be considered”; [0114]-[0150]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kim’s teaching with that of combination of Kalbasi and Kung to report PHR on a PUCCH in order to avoid skipping PHR at a time when UE only transmits on PUCCH (see reference quotes in element above).
Per claim 54 and 56:
Regarding claim 54, combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 53 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbas and Kung teaches ‘wherein the first uplink control signaling includes SS/PBCH block resource indicators (SSBRIs) for the at least two SSB resources’ (Kalbasi: [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0124]: “a UE may report CRI and/or SSBRI (CSI-RS resource indicator/Synchronization Signal Block resource indicator)”; [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; 0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”, UE would encode uplink control signaling to transmit over PUCCH. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP … The UE could be indicated with different pathloss reference signals associated with different TRPs of the cell”; [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … a set of SS/PBCH block indexes”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of enhancement of multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbas in order to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Regarding claim 56, combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim teaches the UE of claim 55 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbas and Kung teaches ‘encode the first uplink control signaling to include SS/PBCH block resource indicators (SSBRIs) for the at least two SSB resources’ (Kalbasi: [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0124]: “a UE may report CRI and/or SSBRI (CSI-RS resource indicator/Synchronization Signal Block resource indicator)”; [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; 0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”, UE would encode uplink control signaling to transmit over PUCCH. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP … The UE could be indicated with different pathloss reference signals associated with different TRPs of the cell”; [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … a set of SS/PBCH block indexes”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of enhancement of multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbas in order to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Regarding claim 57, combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim teaches the UE of claim 55 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘decode radio resource control (RRC) signaling received from the at least one of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.2B]: “UE”<->”gNB”: “RRC”; [0059]: “dedicated control information between a UE and the network and may be used by UEs having an RRC connection”; [0097]: “SIB2”; [0101]: “decode PDSCH”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “For a UE communicating with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations”; [Page 16]: “RRC controls Power Headroom reporting”; UE would decode the received RRC signaling);
‘the RRC signaling including one or more open-loop power control parameters’ (Kalbasi: [0097]: “SIB2”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, target power level for open loop power control; [Page 26]: “the UE is provided by SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl … open-loop power control parameter”; RRC signaling including open-power power control parameters);
‘determine a reference signal received power (RSRP) associated with a reference signal received from the at least one of the plurality of TRPs using a receive beam’ (Kalbasi: [0099]: “a beam of the N beams may be associated with a CSI-RS resource. A UE may measure CSI-RS resources and may select a CSI-RS with RSRP above a configured threshold value”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … a set of CSI-RS resource indexes”);
‘determine a path loss associated with the receive beam based on the RSRP’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 23]: “
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is a downlink pathloss estimate in dB calculated by the UE using reference signal (RS)”; [0025]: “
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= referenceSignalPower - higher layer filtered RSRP”; UE would estimate a path loss based on RSRP);
‘determine a transmission (Tx) power using the one or more open-loop power control parameters and the path loss’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “the estimated power for UL-SCH transmission per activated Serving Cell”; [Page 25]: “the UE determines the PUSCH transmission power …
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”);
‘adjust the Tx power based on a power threshold shared between at least two antenna panels of a plurality of antenna panels available at the UE’ (Kalbasi: [0121]: “the UE is equipped with multiple antenna panels … RS resource or resource set associated with an antenna panel”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “a UE transmits a PUSCH on active UL BWP b of carrier f of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with index j and PUSCH power control adjustment state …
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is the UE configured maximum output power”; [Page 16]: “RRC controls Power Headroom reporting by configuring the following parameters: … mpe-Threshold”; [Page 23]: “mpe-Threshold …The same value applies for each serving cell”; [Page 42]: “A network could provide or configure different PUSCH power control adjustment state for different TRPs in a cell. For example, the network could indicate the UE to apply a first PUSCH power control adjustment state, f1, to the first TRP of the cell, and apply a second PUSCH power control adjustment state, f2, to the second TRP of the cell … a UE could calculate a i-th of a first (Type 1) PH for the first TRP using a first pathloss (e.g. PL(q1)) derived from a DL reference signal q 1. The UE could calculate the i-th first PH using a first PUSCH power control adjustment state (e.g. f(i, 1). The UE could calculate a i-th second (Type 1) PH for the second TRP using a second pathloss (e.g. PL(q2)) derived from a DL reference signal q2. The UE could calculate the second PH using a second PUSCH power control adjustment state”; [Page 50]: “enhance power control adjustments for different TRPs in multi-TRP scenarios”; [Page 41]: “The goal of multi-TRP PUSCH is for the UE to transmit a same data via multiple PUSCH to a network to achieve reliability”; [Page 1]: “beam management considering multi-TRP/panel operation”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations”; [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP”; adjust TX power based on a power threshold shared between two antenna panels available at the UE);
‘encode uplink data for transmission to the at least one of the plurality of TRPs according to the adjusted Tx power’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.16]; [0129]: “the UE 1603 may use beams 1607a-d to transmit data and control information to the base station”; [0130]: “the MPE limits the maximum transmission power in specific directions … the UE 1603 reduced transmit power”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “a UE transmits a PUSCH on active UL BWP b of carrier j of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with index j and PUSCH power control adjustment”; [Page 48]: “The UE could transmit a same TB via multiple PUSCH (to different TRPs) … UL data”; UE would encode uplink data for transmission according to the adjusted power).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention combine Kung’s teaching of power adjustment for multi-TRP/multi-panel transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Regarding claim 58, combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches the UE of claim 57 (discussed above).
Kalbasi does not expressly teach, but Kung teaches ‘wherein the one or more open-loop power control parameters comprise a path loss coefficient and target receive power’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, path loss coefficient (
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) and target receive power (
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); [Page 26]: “the UE is provided by SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl … open-loop power control parameter”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance power control for multi-TRP (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 39]: “multi-TRP enhancements in FR2,• Support separate power control parameters for different TRP via associating power control parameters”).
Regarding claim 59, combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim teaches the UE of claim 58 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘determine Tx power spectral density (PSD) using the path loss coefficient, the path loss, and the target receive power and determine the Tx power using the Tx PSD’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.18a], [FIG.18b]: “RB”, resource assignment; [0006]: “The second determining of the first subset of uplink beams may include identifying the beams that fit a specific power spectral density (PSD)”; [0136]: “The UE (e.g., 1603, 1703) may identify the UL beams to meet specific PSD requirements in each UL beam directions in the operating frequency bands. As shown in FIG. 18a, the UE may assign a set of RBs contiguous in frequency in frequency domain to the UL beams in order to meet PSD and MPE requirements. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 18b, the UE may assign a set of RBs interlaced (spatially apart) in frequency domain to the UL beams in order to meet PSD and MPE requirements”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, path loss coefficient (
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), path loss (
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) and target receive power (
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); [Page 27]: “
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is the bandwidth of the PUSCH resource assignment”; PSD = Tx Power / Bandwidth and Tx Power = PSD * Bandwidth; [Page 50]: “enhance power control adjustments for different TRPs in multi-TRP scenarios”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Regarding claim 60, combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim teaches the UE of claim 57 (discussed above).
Kalbasi does not expressly teach, but Kung teaches ‘determine a transmit power control (TPC) command based on the one or more open-loop power control parameters; and adjust the Tx power for transmission of the uplink data further based on the TPC command’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, path loss coefficient (
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); [Page 29]: “ the PUSCH power control adjustment …
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a TPC command value included in a DCI format that schedules the PUSCH transmission …
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is the PUSCH power control adjustment”; [Page 26]: “the UE is provided by SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl … open-loop power control parameter”, determine and adjust Tx power based on TPC).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Claims 41-47 and 52 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kalbasi, in view of Kung, in view of Kim, and in view of Lei et al. (US 20200389258 A1), hereinafter “Lei”.
Regarding claim 41, Kalbasi teaches ‘An apparatus for a user equipment (UE)’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: [0030]: “a User Equipment (UE) device”; [Title]: “APPARATUS”); ‘configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network’ (Kalbasi: [0036]: “The RAN implements a Radio Access Technology (RAT) and resides between User Equipments (UEs) 125 and the core network. Examples of such RATs include New Radio (NR)”); ‘the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: “Processor”; [0153]: “computing devices (e.g., a processor, processing circuit, and/or other components) of the UE”), ‘wherein to configure the UE for beam management in a multiple transmission-reception point (TRP) operation in the NR network’ (Kalbasi: [0144]: “a UE 1900 may perform a set of physical layer/medium access control procedures to acquire and maintain a set of beam pair links e.g., a beam used at transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s)) for BS side paired with a beam used at UE. The beam pair links may be used for downlink and uplink transmission/reception. The beam management procedures”, TRP(s) => could have multiple TRPs; [0009]: “user equipment (UE) that includes a transceiver configured to: receive, one or more messages comprising configuration parameters”; [0011]: “UE to transmit a configuration message to a base station including configuration parameter”; [0036]: “RATs include New Radio (NR)”);
‘the processing circuitry is to:
decode a plurality of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) blocks (SSBs)’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.13]: “PSS”, “SSS”, “PBCH”; [0096]: “Synchronization Signal and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) Block (SSB)”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1” … “SSB_N”; [0097]: “The PBCH may be used to carry Master Information Block (MIB) used by a UE during cell search and initial access procedures. The UE may first decode PBCH/MIB”);
‘acquire at least two SSB resources based on measurements of the plurality of SSBs, each SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with a corresponding TRP of a plurality of TRPs configured for the multiple TRP operation’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam sweeping”; [0116]: “SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0103]: “the UE and/or TRP/BS may perform beam measurement”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”, could have multiple TRPs). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach two SSB resources corresponding two TRPs;
‘encode first uplink control signaling for a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission to at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the first uplink control signaling indicating the at least two SSB resources’ (Kalbasi: [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”, UE would encode uplink control signaling in order to transmit over PUCCH; [0124]: “a UE may report CRI and/or SSBRI (CSI-RS resource indicator/Synchronization Signal Block resource indicator)”; [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”, could have multiple TRPs; [FIG.13]: “TRB/BS beam sweeping”). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach uplink control signaling indicating two SSB resources;
‘decode a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from the at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the CSI-RS received via the SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with the at least one of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”, CSR-RS via SSB resource; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam sweeping”; [FIG.16]-[FIG.17]; [0116]: “the channel state information (CSI) reporting may be triggered by DCI … CSI-RS resource indicator”; [0100]-[0101]: “the UE measurements of the CSI-RS resources and the UE CSI reporting … to decode PDSCH according to a detected PDCCH with DCI intended for the UE”; [0103]: “the UE and/or TRP/BS may perform beam measurement by measuring beam sweeping based RS, e.g., CSI-RS”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”; UE would decode the received CSI-RS for measurement and reporting);
‘encode second uplink control signaling for a second PUCCH transmission from the UE to the at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the second uplink control signaling transmitted via the SSB resource of the at least two SSB resources associated with the at least one of the plurality of TRPs and including report information based on the CSI-RS’ (Kalbasi: [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … CSI-RS resource indicator… a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam”; [0032]: “Uplink (UL) beams reporting from a UE to a base station”; [0099]: “a beam of the N beams may be associated with a CSI-RS resource”; [0122]: “UE to report CRI/SSBRI (CSI-RS Resource Indicator/Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator) for preferred UL and DL beams”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”; UE would encode uplink control signaling about the CSI-RS to transmit to a TRP);
‘encode third uplink control signaling for a third PUCCH transmission to the at least one of the plurality of TRPs, the third uplink control signaling including at least two power headroom reports (PHRs), the at least two PHRs associated with at least two reference signal resources for at least two of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [0126]: “a UE may report beam specific PHR (Power Headroom Report)”; [FIG.14]: “SSB_1”, “CSI-RS_1” … “SSB_N”, “CSI-RS N”; [FIG.15]: “TRP/BS beam”; [0004]: “a plurality of downlink beams … a plurality of uplink beams”; UE would encode uplink control signaling of PHR associated with a given beam for reporting). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach two PHRs associated with two TRPs on a PUCCH;
‘a memory’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: “Memory”); ‘coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to’ (these are implied); ‘store the first, second, and third uplink control signaling’ (Kalbasi: [0078]: “the AS context may be stored by both UE and gNB”). However, Kalbasi fails to expressly teach store the encoded uplink control signaling.
However, Kung in the same field of endeavor teaches multi-TRP transmission where UE communicates with multiple TRPs at the same time and is configured with RS such as SS/PBCH resources and CSI-RS resources to measure path loss of each serving TRPs (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “For a UE communicating with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP, the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP … The UE could be indicated with different pathloss reference signals associated with different TRPs of the cell”; [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … the set of RS resource indexes can include one or both of a set of SS/PBCH block indexes … and a set of CSI-RS resource indexes”; [Page 49]: “The first and/or the second TRP could be a serving TRP of the UE”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations … This includes CSI designed for multi-TRP/panel for NC-JT use case”; [Page 3]: “CSI reporting for DL multi-TRP and/or multi-panel transmission to enable more dynamic channel/interference hypotheses for NCJT”) and two PHRs associated with two TRPs (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 47]: “PHs of the first TRP and the second TRP of cell are reported in the MAC CE”; [0049]: “Performing UL transmission with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP; Triggering a PHR, wherein the UE generates a MAC CE (control element) in response to the PHR; indicating a first power headroom associated with the first TRP and a second power headroom associated with the second TRP”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching with that of Kalbasi for UE to acquire two SSB resources associated with two TRPs and indicate the two SSB resources in the uplink control signaling in order to enhance multi-TRP deployment to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung does not expressly teach report PHR on a PUCCH.
However, Kim in the same field of endeavor teaches PHR MAC control information for a PUCCH to overcome the limitation of 3GPP that UE could not sent PHR at the time when UE only transmits on PUCCH and does not have PUSCH transmission (Kim: [FIG.6]-[FIG.9]; [0146]: “In this case, due to some problems encountered in the legacy LTE rel-9 system … the UE may omit PHR_pucch of PUCCH as shown in Method 2. In this case, a method for constructing additional PHR MAC control information in a PUCCH in the same manner as in a PUSCH may also be considered”; [0114]-[0150]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kim’s teaching with that of combination of Kalbasi and Kung to report PHR on a PUCCH in order to avoid omitting PHR at a time when UE only transmits on PUCCH (see reference quotes in element above).
Combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim does not expressly teach, but Lei in the same field of endeavor teaches store the encoded uplink control signaling in memory (Lei: [0018]: “the apparatus further comprises a memory that stores the UCI until the base unit indicates that the UCI is correctly decoded”; [0074]: “If the UE is configured to support UCI retransmission, it is required to store the UCI in its memory so that the stored UCI may be used for retransmission”; [0005]: “encoded UCI payload”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Lei’s teaching with that of combination of Kalbasi, Kung and Kim in order to support UCI retransmission (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 42, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 41 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbas and Kung teaches ‘encode the first uplink control signaling to include SS/PBCH block resource indicators (SSBRIs) for the at least two SSB resources’ (Kalbasi: [0116]: “The CSI may consist of … SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI) … a UE may be configured by higher layers with N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig Reporting Settings”; [0124]: “a UE may report CRI and/or SSBRI (CSI-RS resource indicator/Synchronization Signal Block resource indicator)”; [0104]: “a UE may report beam information including measurement quantities for N downlink Tx beams and information indicating these N beams, e.g., DL RS ID(s)”; 0076]: “The UE may determine CSI reports and transit them in the uplink to the base station using PUCCH”, UE would encode uplink control signaling to transmit over PUCCH. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP … The UE could be indicated with different pathloss reference signals associated with different TRPs of the cell”; [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … a set of SS/PBCH block indexes”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of enhancement of multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbas in order to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Regarding claim 43, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 41 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘decode radio resource control (RRC) signaling received from the at least one of the plurality of TRPs’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.2B]: “UE”<->”gNB”: “RRC”; [0059]: “dedicated control information between a UE and the network and may be used by UEs having an RRC connection”; [0097]: “SIB2”; [0101]: “decode PDSCH”; [0144]: “transmit-receive point(s) (TRP(s))”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 48]: “For a UE communicating with a cell via a first TRP and a second TRP”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations”; [Page 16]: “RRC controls Power Headroom reporting”; UE would decode the received RRC signaling);
‘the RRC signaling including one or more open-loop power control parameters’ (Kalbasi: [0097]: “SIB2”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, target power level for open loop power control; [Page 26]: “the UE is provided by SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl … open-loop power control parameter”; RRC signaling including open-power power control parameters);
‘determine a reference signal received power (RSRP) associated with a reference signal received from the at least one of the plurality of TRPs using a receive beam’ (Kalbasi: [0099]: “a beam of the N beams may be associated with a CSI-RS resource. A UE may measure CSI-RS resources and may select a CSI-RS with RSRP above a configured threshold value”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 27]: “the UE is configured with a number of RS resource indexes, up to the value of maxNrofPUSCH-PathlossReferenceRSs, and a respective set of RS configurations for the number of RS resource indexes by PUSCH-PathlossReferenceRS, … a set of CSI-RS resource indexes”);
‘determine a path loss associated with the receive beam based on the RSRP’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 23]: “
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is a downlink pathloss estimate in dB calculated by the UE using reference signal (RS)”; [0025]: “
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= referenceSignalPower - higher layer filtered RSRP”; UE would estimate a path loss based on RSRP);
‘determine a transmission (Tx) power using the one or more open-loop power control parameters and the path loss’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “the estimated power for UL-SCH transmission per activated Serving Cell”; [Page 25]: “the UE determines the PUSCH transmission power …
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”);
‘adjust the Tx power based on a power threshold shared between at least two antenna panels of a plurality of antenna panels available at the UE’ (Kalbasi: [0121]: “the UE is equipped with multiple antenna panels … RS resource or resource set associated with an antenna panel”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “a UE transmits a PUSCH on active UL BWP b of carrier f of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with index j and PUSCH power control adjustment state …
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is the UE configured maximum output power”; [Page 16]: “RRC controls Power Headroom reporting by configuring the following parameters: … mpe-Threshold”; [Page 23]: “mpe-Threshold …The same value applies for each serving cell”; [Page 42]: “A network could provide or configure different PUSCH power control adjustment state for different TRPs in a cell. For example, the network could indicate the UE to apply a first PUSCH power control adjustment state, f1, to the first TRP of the cell, and apply a second PUSCH power control adjustment state, f2, to the second TRP of the cell … a UE could calculate a i-th of a first (Type 1) PH for the first TRP using a first pathloss (e.g. PL(q1)) derived from a DL reference signal q 1. The UE could calculate the i-th first PH using a first PUSCH power control adjustment state (e.g. f(i, 1). The UE could calculate a i-th second (Type 1) PH for the second TRP using a second pathloss (e.g. PL(q2)) derived from a DL reference signal q2. The UE could calculate the second PH using a second PUSCH power control adjustment state”; [Page 50]: “enhance power control adjustments for different TRPs in multi-TRP scenarios”; [Page 41]: “The goal of multi-TRP PUSCH is for the UE to transmit a same data via multiple PUSCH to a network to achieve reliability”; [Page 1]: “beam management considering multi-TRP/panel operation”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations”; [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP”; adjust TX power based on a power threshold shared between two antenna panels available at the UE);
‘encode uplink data for transmission to the at least one of the plurality of TRPs according to the adjusted Tx power’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.16]; [0129]: “the UE 1603 may use beams 1607a-d to transmit data and control information to the base station”; [0130]: “the MPE limits the maximum transmission power in specific directions … the UE 1603 reduced transmit power”; [0152]: “the MPE agent 2060, may determine if it can decode data and control information in the reported UL beams”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “a UE transmits a PUSCH on active UL BWP b of carrier j of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with index j and PUSCH power control adjustment”; [Page 48]: “The UE could transmit a same TB via multiple PUSCH (to different TRPs) … UL data”; UE would encode uplink data for transmission according to the adjusted power).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention combine Kung’s teaching of power adjustment for multi-TRP/multi-panel transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to improve reliability and robustness (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 2]: “Enhancement on the support for multi-TRP deployment … to improve reliability and robustness”).
Regarding claim 44, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 43 (discussed above).
Kalbasi does not expressly teach, but Kung teaches ‘wherein the one or more open-loop power control parameters comprise a path loss coefficient and target receive power’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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); [Page 26]: “the UE is provided by SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl … open-loop power control parameter”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance power control for multi-TRP (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 39]: “multi-TRP enhancements in FR2,• Support separate power control parameters for different TRP via associating power control parameters”).
Regarding claim 45, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 44 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘determine Tx power spectral density (PSD) using the path loss coefficient, the path loss, and the target receive power and determine the Tx power using the Tx PSD’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.18a], [FIG.18b]: “RB”, resource assignment; [0006]: “The second determining of the first subset of uplink beams may include identifying the beams that fit a specific power spectral density (PSD)”; [0136]: “The UE (e.g., 1603, 1703) may identify the UL beams to meet specific PSD requirements in each UL beam directions in the operating frequency bands. As shown in FIG. 18a, the UE may assign a set of RBs contiguous in frequency in frequency domain to the UL beams in order to meet PSD and MPE requirements. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 18b, the UE may assign a set of RBs interlaced (spatially apart) in frequency domain to the UL beams in order to meet PSD and MPE requirements”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, path loss coefficient (
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), path loss (
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); [Page 27]: “
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is the bandwidth of the PUSCH resource assignment”; PSD = Tx Power / Bandwidth and Tx Power = PSD * Bandwidth; [Page 50]: “enhance power control adjustments for different TRPs in multi-TRP scenarios”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Regarding claim 46, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 43 (discussed above).
Kalbasi does not expressly teach, but Kung teaches ‘determine a transmit power control (TPC) command based on the one or more open-loop power control parameters; and adjust the Tx power for transmission of the uplink data further based on the TPC command’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “
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”, path loss coefficient (
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) and target receive power (
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); [Page 29]: “ the PUSCH power control adjustment …
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a TPC command value included in a DCI format that schedules the PUSCH transmission …
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is the PUSCH power control adjustment”; [Page 26]: “the UE is provided by SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl … open-loop power control parameter”, determine and adjust Tx power based on TPC).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Regarding claim 47, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 43 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘wherein the power threshold corresponds to a first transmit power limit for a first antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels and a second transmit power limit for a second antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels’ (Kalbasi: [0119]: “UEs equipped with multiple panels”; [0003]: “a plurality of uplink beams associated with the first downlink beams that satisfy maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits”; [0006]: “determining back-off powers for the plurality of uplink beam powers and determining the first subset of uplink beams when back-off powers of said first subset of uplink beams are less than the corresponding thresholds”; [0133]: “the UE 1703 may detect MPE event based on measuring its UL beam RSRP or its power back-off and compare it with a threshold to determine the occurrence of MPE event”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 16]: “ RRC controls Power Headroom reporting by configuring the following parameters … mpe-Threshold”; [Page 23]: “mpe-Threshold … The same value applies for each serving cell”; [Page 22]: “the UE configured maximum output power
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”; [Page 46]: “maximum transmission power (associated with the TRP or the cell)”; [Page 42]: “A network could provide or configure different PUSCH power control adjustment state for different TRPs in a cell. For example, the network could indicate the UE to apply a first PUSCH power control adjustment state, f1, to the first TRP of the cell, and apply a second PUSCH power control adjustment state, f2, to the second TRP of the cell … a UE could calculate a i-th of a first (Type 1) PH for the first TRP using a first pathloss (e.g. PL(q1)) derived from a DL reference signal q 1. The UE could calculate the i-th first PH using a first PUSCH power control adjustment state (e.g. f(i, 1). The UE could calculate a i-th second (Type 1) PH for the second TRP using a second pathloss (e.g. PL(q2)) derived from a DL reference signal q2. The UE could calculate the second PH using a second PUSCH power control adjustment state”; [Page 2]: “multi-TRP transmission (as well as multi-panel reception) which also includes multi-TRP for inter-cell operations”; [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP”; the power threshold associated with transmit power limit of both serving TRPs (panels));
‘the processing circuitry is configured to’ (this is implied);
‘adjust the Tx power for transmission of a first portion of the uplink data via the first antenna panel not to exceed the first transmit power limit; and adjust the Tx power for transmission of a second portion of the uplink data via the second antenna panel not to exceed the second transmit power limit’ (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 25]: “PUSCH power control adjustment …
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…
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is the UE configured maximum output power”; [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP”; adjust Tx power not to exceed the transmit power limit of first TRP and the transmit power limit of the second TRP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Regarding claim 52, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 41 (discussed above).
Kalbasi teaches ‘transceiver circuitry’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: “Transceiver”); ‘coupled to the processing circuitry’ (this is implied);
‘two or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.19]: “Antenna” coupled to “Transceiver”:
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; [0119]: “UEs equipped with multiple panels”).
Claims 48-51 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei as applied to claim 43 above, further in view of Damnjanovic et al. (US 20150282104 A1), hereinafter “Damnjanovic”.
Regarding claim 48, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei teaches the apparatus of claim 43 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘detect unused Tx power at a first antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels’ (Kalbasi: 0121]: “the UE is equipped with multiple antenna panels”; [0064]: “the UL-SCH may be characterized by … support for both dynamic and semi-static resource allocation”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 35]: “For a UE configured with EN-DC/NE-DC and capable of dynamic power sharing …
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… a UE is configured with multiple cells for PUSCH transmissions“; ]: [Page 25]: “PUSCH power control adjustment”; [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP”; for UE capable of dynamic power sharing, it implicitly teaches that UE would detect and utilize the unused Tx power at first antenna panel for transmission at second antenna panel).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Moreover, Damnjanovic in the same field of endeavor teaches power sharing and PHR in dual connectivity for UE to utilize any unused power for transmission to one eNB for transmission to the other eNB (Damnjanovic: [0096]: “the UE may utilize any unused power remaining from transmissions to one eNB towards satisfying the power requirement of the transmissions to the other eNB. According to certain aspects, PHR may be based on the nominal maximum power value or the configured maximum power value of the corresponding eNB. In other words, PHR for a cell of the MeNB or the SeNB may be calculated with respect to the configured maximum power for that cell”; [0009]: “power sharing and power headroom reporting in dual connectivity”; [0007]: “improving spectral efficiency … these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Damnjanovic’s teaching with that of combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei to detect unused Tx power at a first antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels in order to improve spectral efficiency for multi-access technologies (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 49, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, kim, Lei and Damnjanovic teaches the apparatus of claim 48 (discussed above).
Combination of Kalbasi and Kung teaches ‘adjust the Tx power for transmission of the uplink data via a second antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels based on the unused Tx power by the first antenna panel’ (Kalbasi: Kalbasi: 0121]: “the UE is equipped with multiple antenna panels”; [0064]: “the UL-SCH may be characterized by … support for both dynamic and semi-static resource allocation”. Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 35]: “For a UE configured with EN-DC/NE-DC and capable of dynamic power sharing … … a UE is configured with multiple cells for PUSCH transmissions“; ]: [Page 25]: “PUSCH power control adjustment”; [Page 48]: “the UE could perform multi-TRP PUSCH transmission to the cell via the first TRP and the second TRP”; for UE capable of dynamic power sharing, it implicitly teaches UE would utilize the unused Tx power at first antenna panel for transmission at second antenna panel, i.e. adjust the Tx power for transmission to second antenna panel based on the unused Tx power by the first antenna panel).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kung’s teaching of power control adjustment in multi-TRP transmission with that of Kalbasi in order to enhance Multi-TRP PUSCH reliability (Kung: [PRO 63131142]: [Page 40]: “For M-TRP PUSCH reliability enhancement”).
Moreover, Damnjanovic teaches power sharing and PHR in dual connectivity for UE to utilize any unused power for transmission to one eNB for transmission to the other eNB (Damnjanovic: [0096]: “the UE may utilize any unused power remaining from transmissions to one eNB towards satisfying the power requirement of the transmissions to the other eNB. According to certain aspects, PHR may be based on the nominal maximum power value or the configured maximum power value of the corresponding eNB. In other words, PHR for a cell of the MeNB or the SeNB may be calculated with respect to the configured maximum power for that cell”; [0009]: “power sharing and power headroom reporting in dual connectivity”; [0007]: “improving spectral efficiency … these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Damnjanovic’s teaching with that of combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim and Lei to adjust the Tx power for transmission of the uplink data via a second antenna panel of the plurality of antenna panels based on the unused Tx power by the first antenna panel in order to improve spectral efficiency for multi-access technologies (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 50, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, kim, Lei and Damnjanovic teaches the apparatus of claim 49 (discussed above).
Kalbasi teaches ‘determine the RSRP based on synchronization signal block (SSB) measurements associated with a synchronization signal (SS)/physical broadcast channel (PBCH) receive beam’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.13]: “PSS”, “SSS”, “PBCH”; [0096]: “Synchronization Signal and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) Block (SSB)”; [FIG.14]; [0098]: “An SSB burst may include N SSBs and each SSB of the N SSBs may correspond to a beam … The UE may select an SSB with an RSRP above a configured threshold value”).
Regarding claim 51, combination of Kalbasi, Kung, Kim, Lei and Damnjanovic teaches the apparatus of claim 49 (discussed above).
Kalbasi teaches ‘wherein the reference signal is a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling the transmission of the uplink data’ (Kalbasi: [FIG.6]: “DM-RS”; [0076]: “Each TCI-State may contain parameters for configuring a QCL relationship between one or two downlink reference signals and the DM-RS ports of the PDSCH, the DM-RS port of PDCCH or the CSI-RS port(s) of a CSI-RS resource”; [0120]: “the gNB may schedule an UL transmission”; [0125]: “use the uplink beam associated with the uplink beam for an uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH, for example PUSCH for transmission of a transport block scheduled by the DCI) transmission or an uplink signal transmission”).
Conclusion
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/G.F./Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/YEMANE MESFIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2462