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 .
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.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8, 10-12, 14-16, 18-19, and 22-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang (US 20240380442 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses:
“An information reporting method, applied to a first communication node, wherein the method comprises: receiving first configuration information and second configuration information of a second communication node;” (¶ 0159: “Wireless device 22 is configured to receive (Block S142) a configuration for performing channel state information, CSI, measurements on CSI-reference signal, RS, resources associated with a selection of at least a subset of a plurality of CSI-RS ports where a quantity of the subset of the plurality of CSI-RS ports that is selected is based at least on a total quantity of the plurality of CSI-RS ports, as described herein.”)
“receiving a channel state information reference signal transmitted by the second communication node, in accordance with the first configuration information; and” (¶ 0159: “Wireless device 22 is configured to perform (Block S144) CSI measurements based at least on the received configuration, as described herein.”)
“reporting channel state information according to the channel state information reference signal and the second configuration information.” (¶ 0159: “Wireless device 22 is configured to cause (Block S146) transmission of a CSI report based at least on the CSI measurements, as described herein.”)
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim. Zhang further discloses:
“wherein the channel state information comprises a precoding matrix indicator;” (¶ 0157: “According to one or more embodiments, the CSI feedback includes a Pre-coding Matrix Indicator, PMI, that is based on the CSI measurement.”)
“a precoding matrix corresponding to the precoding matrix indicator is determined by a first group of vectors, or by a first group of vectors and a second group of vectors; wherein the first group of vectors comprises L vectors, the second group of vectors comprises Mv vectors; wherein L and Mv are both positive integers; a vector in the first group of vectors corresponds to a channel state information reference signal port; an element in a vector in the second group of vectors corresponds to a precoding matrix.” (¶ 0158: “According to one or more embodiments, the processing circuitry 68 is further configured to cause transmission of a configuration of a plurality of frequency domain, FD, basis vectors, where the CSI feedback indicates a quantized linear combination coefficients that are associated with the at least a subset of the plurality of CSI-RS ports and at least one FD basis vector.”)
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein the first configuration information comprises a number P of channel state information reference signal ports; reporting the channel state information, comprises: selecting K1 channel state information reference signal ports from the P channel state information reference signal ports; wherein L channel state information reference signal ports are selected in each polarization direction, K1=2L; wherein each channel state information reference signal port in the L channel state information reference signal ports is mapped to a vector in a first group of vectors.” (¶ 0189: “Receiving a configuration of a CSI-RS resource from a network node 16 with a plurality of CSI-RS ports.” ; ¶ 0039: “W1 is a size P.sub.CSI-RS×2L port selection precoder matrix… L is the number of selected CSI-RS ports from each polarization and the same ports are selected for both polarizations.”)
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein the second configuration information comprises a first proportion parameter; a manner for determining K1 comprises: determining K1 according to the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports and the first proportion parameter.” (¶ 0168: “It is observed that when the number of CSI-RS ports is 8 or 16, having L=P gives decent gain comparing to selecting, for example, half of the ports. In fact, having small value of K1 comparing to P introduces significant UTP drop. From this result, it is determined that the value of K1 should be comparable with the value of P to guarantee a good performance by 3GPP Rel-17 Type II. Based on the above reasoning, a ratio, for example denoted by 0≤α≤1, can be used to determine the value of L for a given value of P.”)
Regarding claim 5, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein determining K1 according to the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports and the first proportion parameter, comprises: determining a first product value of the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports and the first proportion parameter; determining a rounding value of a second product value between the first product value and a predetermined first fixed value; and determining K1 according to the rounding value and a predetermined second fixed value.” (¶ 0169: “In one embodiment, the value of L is configured and determined via a ratio 0≤α≤1 and P. To be more specific, L=┌αP┐, where ┌ ┐ is the ceiling operator.”)
Regarding claim 6, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein determining K1 according to the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports and the first proportion parameter, comprises: determining a first rounding value, wherein the first rounding value is a rounding value of a product value of the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports, the first proportion parameter and a predetermined first fixed value; and determining K1 according to the first rounding value and a predetermined second fixed value; or determining K1 according to a product value of the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports and the first proportion parameter.” (¶ 0169: “In one embodiment, the value of L is configured and determined via a ratio 0≤α≤1 and P. To be more specific, L=┌αP┐, where ┌ ┐ is the ceiling operator.”)
Regarding claim 8, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein the second configuration information comprises a first proportion parameter; a manner for determining L comprises: determining a first product value of the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports and the first proportion parameter, and determining L according to a rounding value of a second product value between the first product value and a predetermined first fixed value; or determining the L according to a first rounding value, wherein the first rounding value is a rounding value of a product value of the number P of the channel state information reference signal ports, the first proportion parameter and a predetermined first fixed value.” ((¶ 0168: “It is observed that when the number of CSI-RS ports is 8 or 16, having L=P gives decent gain comparing to selecting, for example, half of the ports. In fact, having small value of K1 comparing to P introduces significant UTP drop. From this result, it is determined that the value of K1 should be comparable with the value of P to guarantee a good performance by 3GPP Rel-17 Type II. Based on the above reasoning, a ratio, for example denoted by 0≤α≤1, can be used to determine the value of L for a given value of P.” ; ¶ 0169: “In one embodiment, the value of L is configured and determined via a ratio 0≤α≤1 and P. To be more specific, L=┌αP┐, where ┌ ┐ is the ceiling operator.”)
Regarding claim 10, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein the second communication node indicates a value of Mv and a value of N by the second configuration information; wherein N candidate vectors are indicated by the value of N, the N candidate vectors are vectors with continuous index numbers; the Mv vectors are determined from the N candidate vectors.” ((¶ 0047: “Mv FD basis vectors that are selected from N3 orthogonal DFT basis vectors”)
Regarding claim 11, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein indicating the value of Mv and the value of N by the second configuration information, comprises: comprising the value of N in the second configuration information, and indicating the value of Mv in accordance with the value of N; or comprising the value of Mv in the second configuration information, and indicating the value of N in accordance with the value of Mv.” ((¶ 0047: “Mv FD basis vectors that are selected from N3 orthogonal DFT basis vectors”)
Regarding claim 12, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “corresponding to the value of N being 1, the value of Mv being 1;
corresponding to the value of N being 2, the value of Mv being 2; corresponding to the value of N being greater than 2, the value of Mv being 2.” ((¶ 0168: “In the example graph of FIG. 17, the mean user throughput (UTP) is compared for different values of P and L, for N= Mv=1 and N= Mv=2, where N and Mv are the number of configured and selected FD basis vectors.”)
Regarding claim 14, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein indicating the value of N in accordance with the value of Mv, comprises one of: corresponding to the value of Mv being 1, the value of N being 1; corresponding to the value of Mv being 2, the value of N being equal to or greater than 2; corresponding to the value of Mv being 2, selecting a value from {2, Ni} as the value of N; wherein Ni is a value in {3, 4, 5}.” (¶ 0168: “In the example graph of FIG. 17, the mean user throughput (UTP) is compared for different values of P and L, for N= Mv=1 and N= Mv=2, where N and Mv are the number of configured and selected FD basis vectors.”)
Regarding claim 15, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein indicating the value of Mv and the value of N by the second configuration information, comprises: comprising a combination parameter in the second configuration information, and indicating the value of Mv and the value of N in accordance with the combination parameter.” (See equations in ¶¶49-55.)
Regarding claim 16, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein reporting the channel state information according to the channel state information reference signal and the second configuration information, comprises: determining a reporting case of a vector in the second group of vectors by the first communication node, according to the value of Mv and the value of N; or determining a reporting case of a vector in the second group of vectors by the first communication node, according to the value of N.” (¶ 0168: “In the example graph of FIG. 17, the mean user throughput (UTP) is compared for different values of P and L, for N= Mv=1 and N= Mv=2, where N and Mv are the number of configured and selected FD basis vectors.”)
Regarding claim 18, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “wherein determining the reporting case of a vector in the second group of vectors by the first communication node, according to the value of N, comprises one of: corresponding to the value of N being Ni, reporting, by the first communication node, a vector in the second group of vectors to the second communication node; corresponding to the value of N being less than Ni, not reporting, by the first communication node, a vector in the second group of vectors to the second communication node; wherein Ni is a value in {3, 4, 5}; corresponding to the value of N being greater than 2, reporting, by the first communication node, a vector in the second group of vectors to the second communication node; corresponding to the value of N being less than or equal to 2, not reporting, by the first communication node, a vector in the second group of vectors to the second communication node.”
(¶ 0168: “In the example graph of FIG. 17, the mean user throughput (UTP) is compared for different values of P and L, for N= Mv=1 and N= Mv=2, where N and Mv are the number of configured and selected FD basis vectors.”)
Regarding claim 19, Zhang discloses all the features of the parent claim.
Zhang further discloses: “reporting the second group of vectors to the second communication node by the first communication node, wherein reporting the second group of vectors to the second communication node by the first communication node, comprises: reporting an interval between index numbers corresponding to the Mv vectors, to the second communication node by the first communication node; or corresponding to Mv being 2 and N being greater than Mv, reporting an index number of one vector to the second communication node by the first communication node, and wherein an index number of another vector is a predetermined value; or reporting the second group of vectors by using ┌log2(N−1)┐ bits.” (¶ 0170: “Denote the number of candidate α values as K, then α can be encoded ┌log2K┐ bits.”))
Regarding claim 22, Zhang discloses:
“An information receiving method, applied to a second communication node, wherein the method comprises: transmitting first configuration information and second configuration information to a first communication node, so as to enable the first communication node to determine to-be-reported channel state information according to the first configuration information and the second configuration information; and” (¶ 0159: “Wireless device 22 is configured to receive (Block S142) a configuration for performing channel state information, CSI, measurements on CSI-reference signal, RS, resources associated with a selection of at least a subset of a plurality of CSI-RS ports where a quantity of the subset of the plurality of CSI-RS ports that is selected is based at least on a total quantity of the plurality of CSI-RS ports, as described herein. Wireless device 22 is configured to perform (Block S144) CSI measurements based at least on the received configuration, as described herein.”)
“receiving channel state information reported by the first communication node.” (¶ 0159: “Wireless device 22 is configured to cause (Block S146) transmission of a CSI report based at least on the CSI measurements, as described herein.”)
Claims 23-25 are substantially similar to claim 1 and 22, with the differences amount to that claims 1 and 22 are directed towards methods while claims 23-25 are directed towards apparatuses containing generic hardware and non-transitory storage mediums. These differences are taught by paragraph 132 of Zhang. Thus, claims 23-25 are rejected for substantially similar reasons to claims 1 and 22.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 17 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 17, of the closest prior arts Zhang (US 20240380442 A1) discloses all the features of the parent claim as discussed previously in this action. However, Zhang does not disclose “wherein determining the reporting case of a vector in the second group of vectors by the first communication node, according to the value of Mv and the value of N, comprises: corresponding to Mv being equal to N, not reporting, by the first communication node, a vector in the second group of vectors to the second communication node; corresponding to Mv being not equal to N, reporting, by the first communication node, a vector in the second group of vectors to the second communication node.” Examiner notes that Zhang2 (US 20240244606 A1) in paragraph 14 discloses this feature, but has a priority date one day after the priority date of the instant application. The cited references fail to anticipate or render the above limitations in combination with all the recited limitations of claims 17 obvious, over any of the prior art of record, alone or in combination.
Conclusion
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/SAAD KHAWAR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412