DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8, 10-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hao et al. (US20220302979).
Regarding claim 1, 14, 16 Hao teaches A user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE ([0049-50] “The memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 a and UE 120 a …The controller/processor 280 and/or other processors and modules at the UE 120 a may perform or direct the execution of processes for the techniques described herein”) to:
receive a set of reference signals based on at least one resource setting configuring the UE for a channel state information (CSI) measurement ([0052] “A UE (e.g., such as a UE 120 a) may be configured by a BS (e.g., such as a BS 110) for CSI reporting. The BS may configure the UE with a CSI reporting configuration or with multiple CSI report configurations. The BS may provide the CSI reporting configuration to the UE via higher layer signaling, such as radio resource control (RRC) signaling (e.g., via a CSI-ReportConfig information element (IE))”, [0054] “The CSI report configuration may configure the time and frequency resources used by the UE to report CSI. For example, the CSI report configuration may be associated with CSI-RS resources for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both. The CSI report configuration may configure CSI-RS resources for measurement (e.g., via a CSI-ResourceConfig IE). ”, (Examiner’s Note: the CSI-RS resources for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both ==set of reference signals based on at least one resource));
determine a set of CSI feedback parameters based on the set of reference signals and at least one report setting configuring the UE for CSI reporting ([0059] “The UE may report the CSI feedback based on the CSI report configuration and the CSI report trigger. For example, the UE may measure the channel associated with CSI for the triggered CSI-RS resources. Based on the measurements, the UE may select a preferred CSI-RS resource. The UE reports the CSI feedback for the selected CSI-RS resource. LI may be calculated conditioned on the reported CQI, PMI, RI and CRI; CQI may be calculated conditioned on the reported PMI, RI and CRI; PMI may be calculated conditioned on the reported RI and CRI; and RI may be calculated conditioned on the reported CRI”, (Examiner’s Note: measure the channel associated with CSI for the triggered CSI-RS resources ==set of reference signal);
and transmit a CSI report to a network, wherein the CSI report comprises information for at least one layer based on the set of reference signals ([0059] “([0059] “The UE may report the CSI feedback based on the CSI report configuration and the CSI report trigger”, [0057-58] “The BS may have a plurality of transmit (TX) beams. The UE can feed back to the BS an index of a preferred beam, or beams, of the candidate beams. For example, the UE may feed back the precoding vector w for the l-th layer…the Type II codebook (e.g., which may be designed for single panel), the PMI is a linear combination of beams; it has a subset of orthogonal beams to be used for linear combination and has per layer),
wherein: a codebook type is configured via a codebook configuration ([0056] “The CSI report configuration can also configure the CSI parameters (sometimes referred to as quantities) to be reported. Codebooks may include Type I single panel, Type I multi-panel, and Type II single panel. Regardless which codebook is used, the CSI report may include at least the channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), and rank indicator (RI)”);
the CSI report includes at least one CSI part comprising the set of CSI feedback parameters ([0070] “The UE may report the CSI in uplink control information (UCI). In some examples, the CSI is reported in a two-part UCI. In some examples, in the UCI part one the UE may transmit RI, CQI, the number of non-zero coefficients (NNZC). In some examples, in the UCI part two the UE may transmit for the supported layers (e.g., layers 0 to RI-1) the SD beam selection, FD basis selection, coefficient selection, strongest coefficient indication (SCI), and/or coefficient quantization. The SD beam selection may indicate the selected beams (e.g., the subset of 2L beams)”, [0065] “the UE may be configured to report FD compressed precoder feedback to reduce overhead of the CSI report”) (Examiner’s Note: one CSI part is equivalent to part one of the UE may transmit for example CQI, UE may report the CSI == CSI feedback, the UE report CSI information is the UE providing the feedback information, and that CSI information can contain multiple parts);
the set of CSI feedback parameters corresponds to at least one of: a transformed spatial domain information of at least one dimension; a transformed frequency domain information of at least one dimension; and a transformed time domain information of at least one dimension ([0078] “According to certain aspects, the CSI may be compressed in the frequency domain in addition to SD and TD compression. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing example precoder matrix feedback with SD, TD, and FD compression, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The linear combination coefficients may be compressed in the TD domain, (Examiner’s Note: SD is equivalent to spatial domain, FD is equivalent to frequency domain and TD is equivalent to time domain”).
Regarding claim 15, Hao teaches A base station, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station ([0049-50] “The memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 a… For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the controller/processor 240 of the BS 110 a has a CSI manager 241 that may be configured for CSI reporting with TD compression, according to aspects described herein”) to:
transmit a set of reference signals based on at least one resource setting configuring the base station for a channel state information (CSI) measurement ([0052] “A UE (e.g., such as a UE 120 a) may be configured by a BS (e.g., such as a BS 110) for CSI reporting. The BS may configure the UE with a CSI reporting configuration or with multiple CSI report configurations. The BS may provide the CSI reporting configuration to the UE via higher layer signaling, such as radio resource control (RRC) signaling (e.g., via a CSI-ReportConfig information element (IE))”, [0054] “The CSI report configuration may configure the time and frequency resources used by the UE to report CSI. For example, the CSI report configuration may be associated with CSI-RS resources for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both. The CSI report configuration may configure CSI-RS resources for measurement (e.g., via a CSI-ResourceConfig IE), (Examiner’s Note: the signal using CSI-RS resources for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both ==set of reference signals based on at least one resource)”)),
wherein a set of CSI feedback parameters is determined based on the set of reference signals and at least one report setting configuring the base station for CSI reporting ([0059] “The UE may report the CSI feedback based on the CSI report configuration and the CSI report trigger. For example, the UE may measure the channel associated with CSI for the triggered CSI-RS resources. Based on the measurements, the UE may select a preferred CSI-RS resource. The UE reports the CSI feedback for the selected CSI-RS resource. LI may be calculated conditioned on the reported CQI, PMI, RI and CRI; CQI may be calculated conditioned on the reported PMI, RI and CRI; PMI may be calculated conditioned on the reported RI and CRI; and RI may be calculated conditioned on the reported CRI”, ”, (Examiner’s Note: measure the channel associated with CSI for the triggered CSI-RS resources ==set of reference signal));
and receive a CSI report at a network, wherein the CSI report comprises information for at least one layer based on the set of reference signals ([0059] “([0059] “The UE may report the CSI feedback based on the CSI report configuration and the CSI report trigger”, (Examiner’s Note: the UE is reporting to the BS as previously configured), [0057-58] “The BS may have a plurality of transmit (TX) beams. The UE can feed back to the BS an index of a preferred beam, or beams, of the candidate beams. For example, the UE may feed back the precoding vector w for the l-th layer…the Type II codebook (e.g., which may be designed for single panel), the PMI is a linear combination of beams; it has a subset of orthogonal beams to be used for linear combination and has per layer),
wherein: a codebook type is configured via a codebook configuration ([0056] “The CSI report configuration can also configure the CSI parameters (sometimes referred to as quantities) to be reported. Codebooks may include Type I single panel, Type I multi-panel, and Type II single panel. Regardless which codebook is used, the CSI report may include at least the channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), and rank indicator (RI)”);
the CSI report includes at least one CSI part comprising the set of CSI feedback parameters ([0070] “The UE may report the CSI in uplink control information (UCI). In some examples, the CSI is reported in a two-part UCI. In some examples, in the UCI part one the UE may transmit RI, CQI, the number of non-zero coefficients (NNZC). In some examples, in the UCI part two the UE may transmit for the supported layers (e.g., layers 0 to RI-1) the SD beam selection, FD basis selection, coefficient selection, strongest coefficient indication (SCI), and/or coefficient quantization. The SD beam selection may indicate the selected beams (e.g., the subset of 2L beams)”, [0065] “the UE may be configured to report FD compressed precoder feedback to reduce overhead of the CSI report”) (Examiner’s Note: one CSI part is equivalent to part one of the UE may transmit for example CQI, UE may report the CSI == CSI feedback, the UE report CSI information is the UE providing the feedback information, and that CSI information can contain multiple parts) ;
the set of CSI feedback parameters corresponds to at least one of: a transformed spatial domain information of at least one dimension; a transformed frequency domain information of at least one dimension; and a transformed time domain information of at least one dimension ([0078] “According to certain aspects, the CSI may be compressed in the frequency domain in addition to SD and TD compression. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing example precoder matrix feedback with SD, TD, and FD compression, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The linear combination coefficients may be compressed in the TD domain, (Examiner’s Note: SD is equivalent to spatial domain, FD is equivalent to frequency domain and TD is equivalent to time domain”).
Regarding claim 2, 17 Hao teaches wherein the codebook type comprises a Type-II codebook ([0056] “The CSI report configuration can also configure the CSI parameters (sometimes referred to as quantities) to be reported. Codebooks may include Type I single panel, Type I multi-panel, and Type II single panel”).
Regarding claim 3, 18 Hao teaches wherein the transformed time domain information is reported in a form of an indication of at least one column of a matrix based on a transformation matrix of at least one dimension ([0074] “Each group contains a subset of NZCs, and within each group, the NZCs and their bitmap are mapped following any order of SD bases, FD bases or subbands, TD bases, layers. In an illustrative example, referring to FIG. 10, if the cube is split in half vertically, then one group can include the coefficients for the FD bases 0 to (M/2-1) across all of the SD bases and layers, and the other group can include the coefficients for the remaining FD bases (M/2 to (M-1)) across all of the SD bases and layer. In this case, the coefficient mapping includes {bitmap of (column 0, slice 0), bitmap of (column 1, slice 0), . . . , bitmap of (column ┌M/2┐-1, slice 0), bitmap of (column 0, slice 1), . . . , bitmap of (column ┌M/2┐-1, slide 1)”).
Regarding claim 4, 19 Hao teaches wherein the transformation matrix of at least one dimension is a discrete Fourier transformation (DFT) matrix of at least one dimension ([0067] “The Wf,0 H matrix 630 is composed of the basis vectors (each row is a basis vector) used to perform compression in frequency domain. In the example shown, both the Wf,0 H matrix 630 at layer 0 and the Wf,1 H matrix 660 at layer 1 include M=4 FD basis (illustrated as shaded rows) from N3 candidate DFT basis.”).
Regarding claim 5, 20, Hao teaches wherein a number of dimensions of the at least one dimension is two ([0078] “According to certain aspects, the CSI may be compressed in the frequency domain in addition to SD and TD compression. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing example precoder matrix feedback with SD, TD, and FD compression, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The linear combination coefficients may be compressed in the TD domain, (Examiner’s Note: SD is equivalent to spatial domain, FD is equivalent to frequency domain and TD is equivalent to time domain”).
Regarding claim 6, Hao teaches wherein a first dimension of two dimensions of the two-dimensional transformation matrix corresponds to the transformed time domain, and a second dimension of the two dimensions of the two-dimensional transformation matrix corresponds to one of the transformed frequency domain and the transformed spatial domain ([0078] “According to certain aspects, the CSI may be compressed in the frequency domain in addition to SD and TD compression. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing example precoder matrix feedback with SD, TD, and FD compression, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The linear combination coefficients may be compressed in the TD domain, (Examiner’s Note: SD is equivalent to spatial domain, FD is equivalent to frequency domain and TD is equivalent to time domain”).
Regarding claim 8, wherein the indication of the at least one column of the matrix based on the transformation matrix corresponding to the transformed time domain information is drawn from a codebook of combinatorial values ([0078] “For each specific TD basis, the UE may report a subset of the total 2LM coefficients. In some examples, a bitmap may be used to indicate position. The UE may report each NZC after quantization. In some examples, the UE may report up to K0 coeffcients per layer KNZ,l≤K0. In some examples, the UE may report up to 2K0 coefficients across all layers Σl=0 RI-1 KNZ,l≤2K0”),
wherein each value of the codebook of combinatorial values corresponds to a distinct combination of columns of the at least one column of the matrix ([0058] “For the Type II codebook (e.g., which may be designed for single panel), the PMI is a linear combination of beams; it has a subset of orthogonal beams to be used for linear combination and has per layer, per polarization, amplitude and phase for each beam. The preferred precoder for a layer can be a combination of beams and associated quantized coefficients, and the UE can feedback the selected beams and the coefficients to the BS”).
Regarding claim 10, Hao teaches wherein the transformed time domain information is common for a subset of layers of the at least one layer of the CSI report ([0085] “The coefficients for each FD basis (m=0, 1 . . . , M-1) can be mapped following the order SD bases, layers, TD basis, and FD bases. In this example, for a first FD basis m, the coefficients associated with a TD basis are mapped across all reported layers, then, for a next TD basis the coefficients across the layers are mapped, until the coefficients for all the reported TD basis are mapped”).
Regarding claim 11, Hao teaches wherein the subset of the layers corresponds to all layers of the at least one layer of the CSI report ([0085] “The coefficients for each FD basis (m=0, 1 . . . , M-1) can be mapped following the order SD bases, layers, TD basis, and FD bases. In this example, for a first FD basis m, the coefficients associated with a TD basis are mapped across all reported layers, then, for a next TD basis the coefficients across the layers are mapped, until the coefficients for all the reported TD basis are mapped”).
Regarding claim 12, Hao teaches wherein a number of indices of the transformed time domain information is based on a number of received reference signals at the UE ([0097] “the UE sends the one or more CSI reports to the BS based on the measurements, the one or more CSI reports providing time domain (TD) compressed CSI feedback including at least linear combination coefficients associated with TD bases used for the TD compression”, [0085] “The coefficients for each FD basis (m=0, 1 . . . , M-1) can be mapped following the order SD bases, layers, TD basis, and FD bases. In this example, for a first FD basis m, the coefficients associated with a TD basis are mapped across all reported layers, then, for a next TD basis the coefficients across the layers are mapped, until the coefficients for all the reported TD basis are mapped. Then, the coefficients for the next FD basis m+1 can be mapped in the same manner”)).
Regarding claim 13, Hao teaches wherein a bitmap corresponding to each layer of the at least one layer is reported that identifies non-zero coefficients for each layer corresponding to at least one of the transformed spatial domain, the transformed frequency domain, and the transformed time domain ([0085] “According to certain aspects, the mapping includes a bitmap and quantization. For the third illustrative example, the mapping may include, for each FD basis, a bitmap indicating the associated SD basis, layer, and TD basis, followed by the quantized coefficients for the associated SD basis, layer, and TD basis indicated by the bitmap. If the coefficients are grouped, then the mapping may include the bitmap for a first group followed by the quantization of the first group; then the bitmap for a second group, followed by the quantization of the second group, and so on. Each group contains a subset of NZCs. Within each group, the NZCs and their bitmap are mapped following the order of SD bases, layers, TD bases, and FD bases”).
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.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao in view of Rahman et al.(US2021099211).
Regarding claim 7, Hao does not teach wherein a subset of dimensions of the at least one dimension of the transformation matrix is oversampled with an oversampling factor of an integer value that is greater than or equal to one.
Rahman teaches wherein a subset of dimensions of the at least one dimension of the transformation matrix is oversampled with an oversampling factor of an integer value that is greater than or equal to one ([0125] “The basis sets for 1st and 2nd port domain representation are oversampled DFT codebooks of length-N1 and length-N2, respectively, and with oversampling factors O1 and O2, respectively. Likewise, the basis set for frequency domain representation (i.e., 3rd dimension) is an oversampled DFT codebook of length-N3 and with oversampling factor O3. In one example, O1=O2=O3=4.”).
It would have been obvious for one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Hao to incorporate the teachings of Rahman. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow for the system increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the configuration.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao in view of Park et al. (US2019132031).
Regarding claim 9, Hao does not teach wherein a number of columns of the distinct combination of columns corresponding to the codebook of the combinatorial values is configured via a higher-layer signaling from the network.
Park teaches wherein a number of columns of the distinct combination of columns corresponding to the codebook of the combinatorial values is configured via a higher-layer signaling from the network [0318] “Here, N1, N2, o1, o2 which are port layout information and an oversampling factor may be informed to the UE by the base station via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), [0317] “a total size of the codebook may be determined as LN1N2o1o2, where L denotes a size of co-phasing illustrated in (17-d) of Equation 17”).
It would have been obvious for one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Hao to incorporate the teachings of Park. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to reduce feedback overhead.
Conclusion
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/K.T.F./Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411