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 § 103
1. 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.
2. Claim(s) 1 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (US PG Pub. No. 2019/0334584) in view of Miyata (US PG Pub. No. 2011/0130160).
As per claim 1:
Cai teaches a method, performed by a base station (BS), of supporting multiple accesses of a plurality of user equipments (UEs) by using a switch network (SN) in a wireless communication system (see paragraphs [0108], [0114], disclose a control unit for adjusting the antenna configuration of panels for serving user equipments), the method comprising:
identifying a plurality of subarrays (SAs) formed from an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements (see paragraph [0081], according to the signalling, the configuration of the antenna elements is adjusted as determined by the control unit 200. The adjustment may be done for each sub-array which may comprise multiple antenna elements. Figure 7, paragraph [0112] disclose antenna array 710 comprising multiple antenna panels 720, with each containing multiple antenna sub-arrays 730);
identifying at least one SA to be allocated to the plurality of UEs from among the plurality of SAs (see Figure 8, paragraph [0114], the antenna array 710 with electromechanically steerable panels 720a, 720b and 720c can be used to provide coverage for hotspots 820a, 820b or to create virtual cells with in a macro cell 810. Paragraph [0115] also disclose, each antenna panel 720a, 720b and 720c may comprise multiple reconfigurable sub-arrays 730 enabled by the switching unit 220, which can be used to maximize the capacity for each user equipment served by a specific antenna panel 720a, 720b and 720c);
determining a structure of a first SN corresponding to at least one SA to be allocated to a first UE from among the plurality of UEs (paragraph [0117], first panel 720a may be adjusted for creating a first host 820a, a second panel 720b may be adjusted for serving the macro cell and third panel 720c may also be adjusted for creating a second hotspot 820b, at certain moments in time when the traffic/concentration of user equipment may be predicted to be high. Note: Examiner is reading said first panel 720a and third panel 720c (as illustrated in figure 8 of the prior art) as said first SN and second SN respectively while the creation of the respective hotspots (i.e., 820b and 820a) as said structures for the first and second SN respectively);
determining a structure of a second SN corresponding to at least one SA to be allocated to a second UE from among the plurality of UEs (as explained earlier in paragraph [0117], first panel 720a may be adjusted for creating a first host 820a, a second panel 720b may be adjusted for serving the macro cell and third panel 720c may also be adjusted for creating a second hotspot 820b, at certain moments in time when the traffic/concentration of user equipment may be predicted to be high. Note: Examiner is reading said first panel 720a and third panel 720c (as illustrated in figure 8 of the prior art) as said first SN and second SN respectively while the creation of the respective hotspots (i.e., 820b and 820a) as said structures for the first and second SN respectively);
and supporting the multiple accesses of the plurality of UEs, based on the determined structure of the first SN and the determined structure of the second SN (see paragraph [0117], since the respective hotspots are created at certain moments in time when the traffic/concentration of user equipment may be predicted to be high, it is evident that user equipment are served by the respective hotspots at certain moments in time and thus the system supports multiple accesses. Furthermore, paragraph [0118] disclose by redirecting panels 720a, 720b and 720c of the particular transceiver 110, transceiver capacity of the cell 810 may be adapted to user population changes over time within the cell, leading to resource utilization, higher capacity within the cell 810 and enhanced user performance. Therefore, system supports multiple accesses).
Cai does not clearly teach obtaining channel state information (CSI) from the plurality of UEs.
Miyata teaches obtaining channel state information (CSI) from the plurality of UEs (see paragraph [0008] explicitly states: “an acquisition unit (quality acquisition unit 121) configured to acquire quality information indicating quality of the radio communication between each of the plurality of radio terminals and the radio base station”).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the reception of signal quality of a plurality of radio terminals by the base station (as disclosed in Miyata) into Cai as a way of enabling the base station to allocate subarray antenna including antennas to the top beamforming target terminals in ascending order of SINR value (please see paragraph [0056] of Miyata). Therefore, allocating sub-arrays based on signal quality makes it possible to further improve the probability that the degraded radio terminal can normally receive message (please see paragraph [0060] of Miyata).
As per claim 8:
Cai teaches a base station (BS) configured to support multiple accesses of a plurality of user equipments (UEs) by using a switch network (SN) in a wireless communication system (see paragraphs [0108], [0114], disclose a control unit for adjusting the antenna configuration of panels for serving user equipments), the BS (see Figure 10, control unit 200) comprising:
a transceiver (see Figure 10, paragraphs [0145], [0149], receiver 1010 and transmitter 1030 collectively as said transceiver);
and at least one processor (see Figure 10, processor 1020), wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
identify a plurality of subarrays (SAs) formed from an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements (see paragraph [0081], according to the signalling, the configuration of the antenna elements is adjusted as determined by the control unit 200. The adjustment may be done for each sub-array which may comprise multiple antenna elements. Figure 7, paragraph [0112] disclose antenna array 710 comprising multiple antenna panels 720, with each containing multiple antenna sub-arrays 730);
identify at least one SA to be allocated to the plurality of UEs from among the plurality of Sas (see Figure 8, paragraph [0114], the antenna array 710 with electromechanically steerable panels 720a, 720b and 720c can be used to provide coverage for hotspots 820a, 820b or to create virtual cells with in a macro cell 810. Paragraph [0115] also disclose, each antenna panel 720a, 720b and 720c may comprise multiple reconfigurable sub-arrays 730 enabled by the switching unit 220, which can be used to maximize the capacity for each user equipment served by a specific antenna panel 720a, 720b and 720c);
determine a structure of a first SN corresponding to at least one SA to be allocated to a first UE from among the plurality of UEs (paragraph [0117], first panel 720a may be adjusted for creating a first host 820a, a second panel 720b may be adjusted for serving the macro cell and third panel 720c may also be adjusted for creating a second hotspot 820b, at certain moments in time when the traffic/concentration of user equipment may be predicted to be high. Note: Examiner is reading said first panel 720a and third panel 720c (as illustrated in figure 8 of the prior art) as said first SN and second SN respectively while the creation of the respective hotspots (i.e., 820b and 820a) as said structures for the first and second SN respectively);
determine a structure of a second SN corresponding to at least one SA to be allocated to a second UE from among the plurality of UEs (as explained earlier in paragraph [0117], first panel 720a may be adjusted for creating a first host 820a, a second panel 720b may be adjusted for serving the macro cell and third panel 720c may also be adjusted for creating a second hotspot 820b, at certain moments in time when the traffic/concentration of user equipment may be predicted to be high. Note: Examiner is reading said first panel 720a and third panel 720c (as illustrated in figure 8 of the prior art) as said first SN and second SN respectively while the creation of the respective hotspots (i.e., 820b and 820a) as said structures for the first and second SN respectively);
and support the multiple accesses of the plurality of UEs, based on the determined structure of the first SN and the determined structure of the second SN (see paragraph [0117], since the respective hotspots are created at certain moments in time when the traffic/concentration of user equipment may be predicted to be high, it is evident that user equipment are served by the respective hotspots at certain moments in time and thus the system supports multiple accesses. Furthermore, paragraph [0118] disclose by redirecting panels 720a, 720b and 720c of the particular transceiver 110, transceiver capacity of the cell 810 may be adapted to user population changes over time within the cell, leading to resource utilization, higher capacity within the cell 810 and enhanced user performance. Therefore, system supports multiple accesses).
Cai does not clearly teach obtain, via the transceiver, channel state information (CSI) from the plurality of UEs.
Miyata teaches obtain, via the transceiver, channel state information (CSI) from the plurality of UEs (see paragraph [0008] explicitly states: “an acquisition unit (quality acquisition unit 121) configured to acquire quality information indicating quality of the radio communication between each of the plurality of radio terminals and the radio base station”).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the reception of signal quality of a plurality of radio terminals by the base station (as disclosed in Miyata) into Cai as a way of enabling the base station to allocate subarray antenna including antennas to the top beamforming target terminals in ascending order of SINR value (please see paragraph [0056] of Miyata). Therefore, allocating sub-arrays based on signal quality makes it possible to further improve the probability that the degraded radio terminal can normally receive message (please see paragraph [0060] of Miyata).
3. Claim(s) 2 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Maltsev (US PG Pub. No. 2014/0126620).
As per claim 2:
Cai in view of Miyata teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein identifying the at least one SA to be allocated to the first UE from among the plurality of SAs comprises identifying the at least one SA to be allocated to the first UE, based on a quality of service (QoS) requested for the first UE.
Maltsev teaches wherein identifying the at least one SA to be allocated to the first UE from among the plurality of SAs comprises identifying the at least one SA to be allocated to the first UE, based on a quality of service (QoS) requested for the first UE (see paragraphs [0157], [0165], the wireless communication unit 110 may communicate the channel measurement feedback element, in response to a channel measurement request transmitted from device 104. The channel measurement feedback element may include an identifier of an antenna subarray and one or more measurements corresponding to the antenna subarray. Example of such measurements include(s) SINR values corresponding to a plurality of received diversity streams of the particular directional link, please see paragraphs [0128] and [0148] of Maltsev).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of the channel measurement feedback in response to a channel measurement request (as disclosed in Maltsev) into both Cai and Miyata as a way of providing plurality of measurements per sector of an antenna subarray (please see paragraph [0145] of Maltsev).
Claim 9 is rejected in the same scope as claim 2.
4. Claims 3 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Kiiskila (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0373060).
As per claim 3:
Cai in view of Miyata teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the first SN comprises at least one switch configured to connect at least one SA to at least one radio frequency (RF) chain which are allocated to the first UE, and
the determining of the structure of the first SN comprises determining ON or OFF of the at least one switch comprised in the first SN.
Kiiskila wherein the first SN comprises at least one switch configured to connect at least one SA to at least one radio frequency (RF) chain which are allocated to the first UE, and the determining of the structure of the first SN comprises determining ON or OFF of the at least one switch comprised in the first SN (see paragraphs [0033], [0054], discloses switching on and controlling dedicated subarrays among the whole antenna arrangement and switching the rest of the subarray off, applied in a predetermined use frequency, enabling reswitching of the sub-arrays on or off in a given time instant during wideband testing of a 5.5G or 5G base station).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporating the switching on/off of sub-arrays (as disclosed in Kiiskila) into both Cai and Miyata as a way of implementing the antenna array for different frequency areas (please see paragraph [0064] of Kiiskila).
Claim 10 is rejected in the same scope as claim 3.
5. Claims 4, 7, 11 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Guan (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0083748).
As per claim 4:
Cai in view of Miyata teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
further comprising:
transmitting, to the first UE, first Type-S channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration information;
transmitting, to the first UE, feedback configuration information determined based on the structure of the first SN;
transmitting, to the first UE, a first Type-S CSI-RS generated based on the first Type-S CSI-RS configuration information;
and receiving, from the first UE, CSI determined based on the feedback configuration information and the first Type-S CSI-RS, wherein the first Type-S CSI-RS is transmitted via at least one SA allocated to the first UE.
Guan teaches further comprising:
transmitting, to the first UE, first Type-S channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration information (see paragraph [0160], the network device may notify terminal device of information about antenna panel of the transmit beam. The network device may configure a plurality of CSI-RS resource sets and CSI-RS resources in each CSI-RS resource set correspond to beams on a same antenna panel of the network device. Note: Examiner is reading said CSI-RS corresponding to the antenna panel as said Type-S CSI-RS);
transmitting, to the first UE, feedback configuration information determined based on the structure of the first SN (see paragraph [0160], the network device may further configure the terminal device to that the terminal device provides a feedback for each CSI-RS resource set. Examiner is reading said antenna panel of the network device as said first SN especially since it is associated with the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets and CSI-RS resources in each resource set);
transmitting, to the first UE, a first Type-S CSI-RS generated based on the first Type-S CSI-RS configuration information (as explained earlier in paragraph [0160], the network device may further configure the terminal device to provide feedback for each CSI-RS resource set. For example, the CSI-RS resources that can be simultaneously received on a same antenna panel of the terminal device);
and receiving, from the first UE, CSI determined based on the feedback configuration information and the first Type-S CSI-RS (see paragraph [0160], the network device configures the terminal device to provide feedback for each CSI-RS resource set. Thus, it is evident that the terminal provides feedback information for each CSI-RS resource set. Also, paragraph [0160] disclose, in this way, the terminal device may learn of transmit beams that can be simultaneously sent by the network device and the network device may learn of transmit beams that cab simultaneously serve the terminal device), wherein the first Type-S CSI-RS is transmitted via at least one SA allocated to the first UE (see paragraph [0122], the network device may include a plurality of antenna panels and each antenna panel includes one or more beams. Paragraph [0123], disclose the antenna panel may include one or more antenna arrays/subarrays. Thus, it is evident that the terminal device is served by subarrays of the antenna panel).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of feedback by the terminal device (as disclosed in Guan) into both Cai and Miyata as a way of enabling the network device to determine that antenna panels of the terminal device correspond to the respective transmit beams (please see paragraph [0157] of Guan).
As per claim 7:
Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Guan teaches the method of claim 4.
Cai and Guan do not clearly teach further comprising determining whether to additionally allocate a SA to the first UE and whether to change the structure of the first SN, based on the CSI received from the first UE.
Miyata teaches further comprising determining whether to additionally allocate a SA to the first UE and whether to change the structure of the first SN, based on the CSI received from the first UE (see paragraph [0056], the transmission control unit 123 allocates sub-array antennas to top Z BF target terminals in ascending order of SINR value and allocated a sub-array antenna including antennas to the remaining radio terminals).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate allocation of subarray antenna including antennas to the top beamforming target terminals in ascending order of SINR value (please see paragraph [0056] of Miyata) into both Cai and Guan as a way of improving the probability that the degraded radio terminal can normally receive message (please see paragraph [0060] of Miyata).
Claim 11 is rejected in the same scope as claim 4.
Claim 14 is rejected in the same scope as claim 7.
6. Claims 5 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Guan and Fujio (US PG Pub. No. 2017/0237477).
As per claim 5:
Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Guan teaches the method of claim 4 with the exception of:
wherein the feedback configuration information comprises a channel estimation priority order of a plurality of channels.
Fujio teaches wherein the feedback configuration information comprises a channel estimation priority order of a plurality of channels (paragraph [0098], channel estimating unit 42 performs channel estimation by using the reference signals in the estimation period in accordance with the sequence length instructed from the RS sequence estimating unit 41, generates report that includes therein each of the channel estimated values of the plurality of the candidate beams to the transmission unit 25).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the estimation of reference signal in a sequence length (as disclosed in Fujio) into Cai, Miyata and Guan as a way of enabling the transmitting device (i.e., base station) to decide on the candidate beam for data transmission based on the estimated values (please see paragraph [0069] of Fujio).
Claim 12 is rejected in the same scope as claim 5.
7. Claims 6 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Guan and Xi (US PG Pub. No. 2020/0288479).
As per claim 6:
Cai in view of Miyata and further in view of Guan teaches the method of claim 4 with the exception of:
further comprising transmitting, to the first UE, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), according to the CSI determined based on the feedback configuration information and the first Type-S CSI-RS.
Xi teaches further comprising transmitting, to the first UE, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), according to the CSI determined based on the feedback configuration information and the first Type-S CSI-RS (paragraph [0131], based on the beam measurement, reporting on aperiodic RS resources, such as a CSI-RS, and update of a QCL reference, the network may use the updated QCL reference to transmit the NR-PDSCH allocation within the TP).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to implement the NR-PDSCH configuration (as disclosed in Xi) into Cai, Miyata and Guan. The motivation for doing so would be to enable the WTRU to receive PDSCH with a reception beam in NR-PDSCH symbols scheduled for the WTRU (please see paragraph [0128] of Xi).
Claim 13 is rejected in the same scope as claim 6.
8. Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guan (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0083748) in view of Faxer (US PG Pub. No. 2020/0336182).
As per claim 15:
Guan teaches a user equipment (UE) (see Figure 7, paragraph [0259], terminal device 10) configured to transmit and receive signals in a wireless communication system (see paragraph [0259], terminal device 10 comprise of transceiver unit 101 which further includes a receiving unit and a sending unit), the UE comprising:
a transceiver (see Figure 7, paragraph [0259], transceiver unit 101);
and at least one processor (see Figure 7, paragraph [0259], processing unit 102),
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
receive Type-S channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration information from a base station (BS) via the transceiver (see paragraph [0160], the network device may notify terminal device of information about antenna panel of the transmit beam. The network device may configure a plurality of CSI-RS resource sets and CSI-RS resources in each CSI-RS resource set correspond to beams on a same antenna panel of the network device. Note: Examiner is reading said CSI-RS corresponding to the antenna panel as said Type-S CSI-RS);
receive feedback configuration information from the BS via the transceiver (see paragraph [0160], the network device may further configure the terminal device to that the terminal device provides a feedback for each CSI-RS resource set. Examiner is reading said antenna panel of the network device as said first SN especially since it is associated with the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets and CSI-RS resources in each resource set);
receive a Type-S CSI-RS generated based on the Type-S CSI-RS configuration information, from the BS via the transceiver (as explained earlier in paragraph [0160], the network device may further configure the terminal device to provide feedback for each CSI-RS resource set. For example, the CSI-RS resources that can be simultaneously received on a same antenna panel of the terminal device).
Guan does not clearly teach determine channel state information (CSI) of a plurality of channels, based on the feedback configuration information and the Type-S CSI-RS;
and transmit the determined CSI of the plurality of channels, to the BS via the transceiver.
Faxer teaches determine channel state information (CSI) of a plurality of channels, based on the feedback configuration information and the Type-S CSI-RS (see paragraphs [0139], [0142], the UE measures a set of CSI-RS corresponding to multiple antenna panels of the transmitting network node);
and transmit the determined CSI of the plurality of channels, to the BS via the transceiver (see paragraph [0143], selecting at least one precoder matrix from the multi-panel precoder codebook based on the measured set of CSI-RS. Paragraph [0144], transmitting at least one precoder matrix indicator, PMI, indicating the selection of the at least one precoder matrix to the network device. Figure 4 shows wireless device 16 comprise of communication circuitry 310 for transmission).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to implement the transmission of feedback measurements of the multi-panel precoder (as disclosed in Faxer) into Guan as a way of enabling the transmitting to apply a transmission from the multi-panel antenna array (please see paragraph [0023] of Faxer).
Conclusion
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PRINCE AKWASI. MENSAH
Examiner
Art Unit 2474
/PRINCE A MENSAH/Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/Michael Thier/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2474