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 .
Priority
This application is a 371 of PCT/IB2022/000419 filed on 7/20/2022.
PCT/IB2022/000419 has a provisional application 63/223,945 filed on 7/20/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 1/22/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because of following informalities:
The abstract contains reference numbers of elements or steps such as (400), (405), and (425) in lines 2-3. For clarity, it is suggested to remove the reference numbers from the Abstract. See, MPEP §608.01(b).
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-12, 14, and 15 are objected because of the following informalities:
In claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-12, 14, and 15, it is suggested to remove double quotation marks (“ ”) from all acronyms to use American English style and for clarity.
In claims 1 and 15, it is suggested to amend to read, “…; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to cause …” in line 3 for clarity.
In claim 7, it is suggested to amend to read “… an orthogonal frequency …” in line 2 for correction of a typographical error.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 11, 12, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kimura et al. (EP 3627880 A1, hereinafter Kimura).
Regarding claim 1:
Kimura teaches a user equipment (“UE”) apparatus (see, Kimura: Fig. 6, Terminal Apparatus 200; Fig. 28 and Para. [0243], Smart Phone 900), comprising: a transceiver (see, Kimura: Fig. 28 and Para. [0243], Wireless Communication Interface 912); and a processor (see, Kimura: Fig. 28 and Para. [0243], Processor 901) coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to cause the apparatus to:
receive a first signaling information from a network (see, Kimura: para. [0140], “the base station 100 notifies the terminal apparatus 200 of the first communication parameter set (that is, transmits the first communication parameter set to the terminal apparatus 200) to set the first communication parameter set to the terminal apparatus 200”), the first signaling information indicating a reference signal (“RS”) resource and a corresponding association to at least one waveform (see, Kimura: para. [0143], “the base station 100 transmits the reference signal to the terminal apparatus 200 (Step S104). … using the first communication parameter set.”; para. [0124], Table 3. Example of communication parameter candidates contained in first communication parameter set, “Waveform: OFDM, DFT-S-OFDM, GFDMA”, “Frequency range: …, Specific RBs”; para. [0125], “the first communication parameter set contains a waveform and physical layer parameters.”);
receive a second signaling information from the network, the second signaling information indicating a reporting configuration for performing measurements on the RS resource and the corresponding at least one waveform (see, Kimura: para. [0153], “The base station 100 sets a communication parameter set used in the measurement report process to the terminal apparatus 200. ..., the communication parameter set used in the measurement report process may be interpreted as the communication parameter set used in the report (that is, feedback).”; para. [0155], “The communication parameter set used in the measurement report process will be also referred to as "second communication parameter set."”; para. [0156], “The second communication parameter set contains a waveform and physical layer parameters similarly to the first communication parameter set.”; para. [0199], “Resources for use in reporting the measurement report by the terminal apparatus 200 may be set by the base station 100.”);
generate a measurement report according to the reporting configuration (see, Kimura: para. [0144], “The terminal apparatus 200 then performs measurement on the basis of the reference signal received from the base station 100 (Step S106). At this time, the terminal apparatus 200 performs the measurement on the assumption that the second communication parameter set is used for transmission of the CSI-RS.”); and
transmit the measurement report to the network (see, Kimura: para. [0145], “the terminal apparatus 200 reports the information indicating the measurement result (measurement report) to the base station 100 (Step S108).”).
Regarding claim 2:
As discussed above, Kimura teaches all limitations in claim 1.
Kimura further teaches wherein the RS resource is at least one selected from the group of channel state information reference signal (“CSI-RS”), sounding reference signal (“SRS”), demodulation reference signal (“DMRS”) and synchronization signal block reference signal (“SSB-RS”) (see, Kimura: para. [0137], “The reference signal may be, for example, a CSI-RS (Channel State Information Reference Signal).”; para. [0269], “the reference signal may be, for example, an SRS (Sounding Reference Signal).”).
Regarding claim 11:
Claim 11 is directed towards method of a user equipment (“UE”) apparatus, comprising: the same steps described in claim 1. Therefore, claim 11 is rejected by applying the similar rationale used to reject claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 12:
Claim 12 is directed towards the method of claim 11 that is further limited to perform the features of claim 2. Therefore, claim 12 is rejected by applying the similar rationale used to reject claim 2 above.
Regarding claim 15:
Claim 15 is directed towards a network entity apparatus (see, Kimura: Fig. 26 and Para. [0224], Base Station Apparatus 820), comprising:
a transceiver (see, Kimura: Fig. 26 and Para. [0226], Wireless Communication Interface 825); and a processor (see, Kimura: Fig. 26 and Para. [0226], Controller 821) coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to cause the apparatus to: perform similar features to claim 1 from the perspective of the network entity apparatus. Therefore, claim 15 is rejected by applying the similar rationale used to reject claim 1 above.
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.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 3-8, 13, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kimura in view of Sakhnini et al. (US 2022/0330252 A1, hereinafter Sakhnini).
Regarding claim 3:
As discussed above, Kimura teaches all limitations in claim 1.
Kimura further teaches wherein at least two RS resources are configured to the apparatus (see, Kimura: para. [0169], “In a case of assuming a plurality of waveforms, the terminal apparatus 200 performs measurement for each of the assumed waveforms.”; para. [0212], “the measurement report process on the assumption of a plurality of waveforms can be performed on the basis of the reference signal modulated by a certain waveform. At that time, the waveform of the reference signal may be associated with a waveform to be assumed in the measurement report process. Furthermore, the reference signal may be transmitted in different resources fixedly set to waveforms used for modulation of the reference signal, or may be transmitted in a resource common to the different waveforms.”).
Kimura does not explicitly teach wherein the first resource associated with a first waveform and the second resource associated with a second waveform.
In the same field of endeavor, Sakhnini teaches wherein the first resource associated with a first waveform and the second resource associated with a second waveform (see, Sakhnini: para. [0097], “The base station 105 may transmit a reference signal (e.g., a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)), which may be precoded or unprecoded.”; Fig. 13 and para. [0238], “the method may include receiving, from a base station, an indication of a set of transmission parts that each include a respective set of time resources and frequency resources, where at least one of the time resources and the frequency resources included in the respective set of time resources and frequency resources is different for each transmission part of the set of transmission parts, and where the indication associates a first transmission part of the set of transmission parts with a first waveform type and a second transmission part of the set of transmission parts with a second waveform type.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teachings of Kimura in combination of the teachings of Sakhnini in order to configure a UE with waveform-specific communications with a base station (see, Sakhnini: Fig. 13 and para. [0237]).
Regarding claim 4:
As discussed above, Kimura in view of Sakhnini teaches all limitations in claim 3.
Sakhnini further teaches wherein the first waveform is a single carrier waveform (e.g., SC-FDMA in Table 5 of Kimura) and the second waveform is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (“OFDM”)-based multi-carrier waveform (e.g., OFDMA in Table 5 of Kimura) (see, Sakhnini: Para. [0272], “the first waveform type comprises a first one of a single carrier frequency domain waveform, a single carrier time domain waveform, or an OFDM waveform; and the second waveform type comprises a second one of the single carrier frequency domain waveform, the single carrier time domain waveform, or the OFDM waveform.”).
Regarding claim 5:
As discussed above, Kimura in view of Sakhnini teaches all limitations in claim 3.
Kimura teaches wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to perform measurements on the at least two RS resources associated with at least two different waveforms and transmit the measurement report to the network (see, Kimura: para. [0169], “In a case of assuming a plurality of waveforms, the terminal apparatus 200 performs measurement for each of the assumed waveforms.”), the measurement report indicating at least one of two waveforms and corresponding measurements including reference signal received power (“RSRP”), channel quality indicator (“CQI”), rank indicator (“RI”), layer indicator (“LI”), precoding matrix indicator (“PMI”), or some combination thereof (see, Kimura: para. [0197], “The information indicating the measurement result includes, for example, at least any of the CQI, the RI, the PMI, the CPI, or the WI.”; para. [0198], “It is desirable herein that the information indicating the measurement result includes at least information indicating the waveform (that is, WI) used in the measurement report process.”).
Regarding claim 6:
As discussed above, Kimura teaches all limitations in claim 1.
Kimura does not explicitly teach wherein the RS resource is associated with a first and a second waveform type and corresponding RS structures, the RS resource transmitted a first time using the first waveform type and transmitted a second time using the second waveform type.
In the same field of endeavor, Sakhnini teaches wherein the RS resource is associated with a first and a second waveform type and corresponding RS structures, the RS resource transmitted a first time using the first waveform type and transmitted a second time using the second waveform type (see, Sakhnini: para. [0097], “The base station 105 may transmit a reference signal (e.g., a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)), which may be precoded or unprecoded.”; Fig. 13 and para. [0238], “the method may include receiving, from a base station, an indication of a set of transmission parts that each include a respective set of time resources and frequency resources, where at least one of the time resources and the frequency resources included in the respective set of time resources and frequency resources is different for each transmission part of the set of transmission parts, and where the indication associates a first transmission part of the set of transmission parts with a first waveform type and a second transmission part of the set of transmission parts with a second waveform type.”; para. [0239], “At 1310, the method may include communicating with the base station, during a first time period, over the first transmission part via signaling that is based on the first waveform type.”; para. [0240], “At 1315, the method may include communicating with the base station, during a second time period after the first time period, over the second transmission part via signaling that is based on the second waveform type.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teachings of Kimura in combination of the teachings of Sakhnini in order to configure a UE with waveform-specific communications with a base station (see, Sakhnini: Fig. 13 and para. [0237]).
Regarding claim 7:
As discussed above, Kimura in view of Sakhnini teaches all limitations in claim 6.
Sakhnini further teaches wherein the first waveform type is a single carrier waveform (e.g., SC-FDMA in Table 5 of Kimura) and the second waveform type is a orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (“OFDM”)-based multi-carrier waveform (e.g., OFDMA in Table 5 of Kimura) (see, Sakhnini: Para. [0272], “the first waveform type comprises a first one of a single carrier frequency domain waveform, a single carrier time domain waveform, or an OFDM waveform; and the second waveform type comprises a second one of the single carrier frequency domain waveform, the single carrier time domain waveform, or the OFDM waveform.”).
Regarding claim 8:
As discussed above, Kimura in view of Sakhnini teaches all limitations in claim 7.
Kimura further teaches wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to perform two separate measurements on the RS resource transmitted the first time using the first waveform type and transmitted the second time using the second waveform type, and transmit the measurement report to the network (see, Kimura: para. [0169], “In a case of assuming a plurality of waveforms, the terminal apparatus 200 performs measurement for each of the assumed waveforms.”), the measurement report indicating at least one of two waveforms and corresponding measurements including reference signal received power (“RSRP”), channel quality indicator (“CQI”), rank indicator (“RI”), layer indicator (“LI”), precoding matrix indicator (“PMI”), or some combination thereof (see, Kimura: para. [0197], “The information indicating the measurement result includes, for example, at least any of the CQI, the RI, the PMI, the CPI, or the WI.”; para. [0198], “It is desirable herein that the information indicating the measurement result includes at least information indicating the waveform (that is, WI) used in the measurement report process.”).
Regarding claim 13:
Claim 13 is directed towards the method of claim 11 that is further limited to perform the features of claim 3. Therefore, claim 13 is rejected by applying the similar rationale used to reject claim 3 above.
Regarding claim 14:
Claim 14 is directed towards the method of claim 13 that is further limited to perform the features of claim 4. Therefore, claim 14 is rejected by applying the similar rationale used to reject claim 4 above.
Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kimura in view of Iyer et al. (US 2021/0176765 A1, hereinafter Iyer).
Regarding claim 9:
As discussed above, Kimura teaches all limitations in claim 1.
Kimura does not explicitly teach wherein the first signaling information is a semi-static radio resource control (“RRC”) configuration.
In the same field of endeavor, Iyer teaches wherein the first signaling information is a semi-static radio resource control (“RRC”) configuration (see, Iyer: para. [02134], “If a UE is required to blindly decode the NR-DCI across the entire bandwidth it will experience significant latency and battery drain. As a result, NR must allow transmission of the NR-DCI to a UE in specific subbands. The UE must be configured to have knowledge of the resources of these subbands.”; para. [0215], “The subbands may be configured semi-statically through RRC and MAC CE updates.”; para. [0231], “The resource assignment of DM-RS can be either dynamic or semi-static. Dynamic signaling can be done through DCI. … When semi-static signaling is used, RRC or MAC CE updates will indicate the DM-RS configurations.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teachings of Kimura in combination of the teachings of Iyer in order to configure a UE with specific subbands semi-statically through RRC (see, Iyer: para. [0215]).
Regarding claim 10:
As discussed above, Kimura in view of Iyer teaches all limitations in claim 9.
Iyer further teaches wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive an indication of dynamic signaling information to update the waveform associated with the RS resource, wherein the updated waveform is different from the first waveform indicated by the first signaling information (see, Iyer: para. [0054], “The application is also directed to mechanisms for control channel designs including techniques to assign resources for NR-DCI and waveforms for UL signaling. Mechanisms to aid control channel estimation and allocation of UL and DL resources within sub-bands can limit the computational burden on the UE.”), the dynamic signaling information comprising a medium access control control element (“MAC CE”), downlink control information (“DCI”), or a combination thereof (see, Iyer: para. [0221], “it is envisaged that the waveform (CP-OFDM or DFT-S-OFDM) is assigned to a UE by the network. Here, the NR-Node makes the decision for the UE on which waveform to use. NR-Node can decide the waveform for the UE based on feedback from UE (such as beam or cell measurements or CQI) or from SRS or other RS on the UL. The configuration of the waveform may be done in the following ways:”; para. [0222], “1. Dynamically through DL-control signaling (DCI/PDCCH) (DCI may support multiple formats which may explicitly indicate the waveform or the DCI may have to be blindly decoded for either possibility of the waveform); and”; para. [0223], “2. Semi-static through RRC and MAC CE”).
Conclusion
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/JI-HAE YEA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471