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 .
Continued Examination
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on March 27 has been entered.
This Office Action is in response to claim amendment filed on March 27, 2026 and wherein claims 1, 13 and 20 being currently amended, claims 2, 3 and 14 being currently cancelled.
In virtue of this communication, claims 1, 4-13, 15-20 are currently pending in this Office Action.
The Office appreciates the explanation of the amendment and analyses of the prior arts, and however, although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993) and MPEP 2145.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, Pages , filed on , with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, under 35 USC §103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Medvedev.
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.
Claims 1, 13, 20, 4, 10-12, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (US 20130343328 A1, hereinafter Nilsson) in view of Hedayat et al. (US 20160165607 A1, hereinafter Hedayat), and further in view of Aritra el al. (“Improving MIMO Performance Using Water-Filling Algorithm”, ISSN:2321-9939, hereinafter Aritra), and further in view of Medvedev et al. (US 20100166100 A1, hereinafter Medvedev).
Claim 1: Nilsson teaches a power control method in a WI-FI communication system, applied to a first communication apparatus that supports transmission of a plurality of spatial streams ([0007], “A channel quality indication (CQI) is provided for each of a plurality of data streams between a radio base station node and a user equipment node in the system. Subsequently, transmit power is allocated to each of the plurality of data streams based at least on the provided respective CQI”), wherein the plurality of spatial streams are data signals transmitted simultaneously over different antennas, and wherein the method comprises:
receiving a channel quality measurement result fed back by the second communication apparatus, wherein the channel quality measurement result comprises subband measurement information of each subband on the channel (Fig. 8, elements S110, S120, [0038], “The user equipment calculates the rank, PMI for each rank and CQI for each data stream and transmits the calculated values to the radio base station. For wideband precoding, the rank and PMI are chosen for the whole frequency band, while the CQI is calculated for every sub band”, Fig. 10, 11, [0054], wherein illustrating power allocation for each sub band within one data stream),
and selectively performing, based on the subband measurement information, power water filling on subbands (Fig. 4, Fig. 8, [0041], “The power allocation matrix W is determined based on reported channel quality indicators for the data streams. W is a diagonal matrix and only allocates different power to each stream based on the CQI reports in order to increase the throughput. The UE specific RS is also passed through the power allocating matrix W”, [0052], “The power allocation algorithm can for example be a kind of water filling algorithm”, [0040], “power is allocated to different streams and or different sub-bands based on channel quality indication reports already signaled from the user equipment to the radio base station”. Fig. 10, 11, [0054], wherein power is allocated differently for each sub band within one data stream) occupied by the plurality of spatial streams.
However, Nilsson does not explicitly teach water filling is performed for spatial streams in WI-FI communication system, and the plurality of spatial streams are data signals transmitted simultaneously over different antennas.
sending measurement indication information to a second communication apparatus, to indicate to the second communication apparatus to perform channel quality measurement on a channel between the first communication apparatus and the second communication apparatus, wherein each of the plurality of spatial streams occupies a plurality of subbands on the channel.
for each spatial stream in the plurality of spatial streams, wherein the subband measurement information for each subband occupied by each spatial stream comprises corresponding subband average signal-to-noise ratio information;
wherein the selectively performing the power water filling on the subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams comprises:
determining, based on the subband average signal-to-noise ratio information, a power adjustment value for each subband occupied by each spatial stream;
ascertaining, for each spatial stream, when the power adjustment value for a subband occupied by the spatial stream meets a preset adjustment condition,
after ascertaining, selecting the subband as a target subband for power water filling in that spatial stream;
and performing power water filling on each selected target subband based on a corresponding target power adjustment value.
Hedayat, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches sending measurement indication information to a second communication apparatus, to indicate to the second communication apparatus to perform channel quality measurement on a channel between the first communication apparatus and the second communication apparatus, wherein each of the plurality of spatial streams occupies a plurality of subbands on the channel ( Fig. 17, elements S1702, S1704, [0213], wherein the received indication of which sub-band to measure may be determined according to OFDMA sub-band CSI provided by the station. [0214], “The measurements taken for each sub-band may include a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), a Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR), an estimated best Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), and a Number of Spatial Streams (NSS)”, [0015], “the announcement frame includes an indication of whether the first device is to transmit a report prepared using an average of channel strengths for a sub-band across multiple transmitting antennas, multiple receiving antennas”, [0010], “and the frame is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) frame including an indication that the channel strengths are to be determined using the frame”, [0103], “The parameters may include one or more of a bandwidth resolution and an indication of one or more sub-bands to be reported on or not reported on”).
Nilsson and Hedayat are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Nilsson and the features of sending the indication to configure which sub-bands need be measured as taught by Hedayat, for the benefit for supporting more flexible configuration for CSI measurement, such as CSI measurement bandwidth, which sub-bands to measure , whether reporting CSI and etc. (paragraph [0103], [0010], [0015] ).
Aritra, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teach water filling is performed for spatial streams in WI-FI communication system, and the plurality of spatial streams are data signals transmitted simultaneously over different antennas (Page 1, paragraph [0002],disclose MIMO system is applied in Wi-Fi system, paragraph [0004] disclose Spatial multiplexing of MIMO concept, which each stream is transmitted from a different transmit antenna in the same frequency. Page 2-3, section III and IV further disclose the method and math to perform Water-Filling algorithm for subchannels/different antennas.).
Nilsson and Arita are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Nilsson and the features of performing water-filling algorithm for spatial streams in WI-FI communication system, as taught by Arita, for the benefit for When channel state information is known at the transmitter the capacity can be increased by allocating transmit power to different antennas using Water filling algorithm( page 3, section IV), and improving MIMO performance with cost effective water filling algorithm (Page 4, section VI).
Medvedev, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teach
for each spatial stream in the plurality of spatial streams, wherein the subband measurement information for each subband occupied by each spatial stream comprises corresponding subband average signal-to-noise ratio information ([0110], “may be provided with (1) NF singular vectors for these NF frequency bands and (2) information indicative of the post-detection SNR for each of the NF selected eigenmodes … be provided with (1) the post-detection SNR for each data stream or each group of data streams”, [0114], “one data stream may be processed and transmitted over the NF selected eigenmodes of the NF frequency bands” , [0090], “each transmission scheme at any given time instant is a function of the operating SNR as well as the channel at that instant … For faster-varying channels, a time average of the channel may be obtained and used as the channel estimate.”, [0006], “Each of the Ns independent channels is also referred to as a spatial subchannel of the MIMO channel and corresponds to a dimension … an independent data stream may be transmitted on each of the NS spatial subchannels to increase system spectral efficiency” );
wherein the selectively performing the power water filling on the subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams comprises ([0012], “The water-filling transmission scheme allocates more transmit power to transmission channels with less noise and less transmit power to more noisy channels … The selective channel inversion transmission scheme allocates transmit power non-uniformly over selected ones of the transmission channels such that the post-detection SNRs are similar for the selected transmission channels”):
determining, based on the subband average signal-to-noise ratio information, a power adjustment value for each subband occupied by each spatial stream ([0014], “The one or more data streams are then processed based on the selected transmission scheme and the available CSI”, [0090], “each transmission scheme at any given time instant is a function of the operating SNR as well as the channel at that instant … For faster-varying channels, a time average of the channel may be obtained and used as the channel estimate.”, [0006], “Each of the Ns independent channels is also referred to as a spatial subchannel of the MIMO channel and corresponds to a dimension … an independent data stream may be transmitted on each of the NS spatial subchannels to increase system spectral efficiency”, [0012], “The water-filling transmission scheme allocates more transmit power to transmission channels with less noise and less transmit power to more noisy channels … The selective channel inversion transmission scheme allocates transmit power non-uniformly over selected ones of the transmission channels such that the post-detection SNRs are similar for the selected transmission channels”);
ascertaining, for each spatial stream, when the power adjustment value for a subband occupied by the spatial stream meets a preset adjustment condition ([0052], “The power distribution is dependent on the total transmit power, Ptot, and the depth of the vessel over the bottom surface. The water surface level for the vessel after all of the total transmit power has been poured is constant over all points in the vessel. The points with elevations above the water surface level are not filled, i.e., eigenmodes with SNRs below a particular threshold are not used”, [0097], “The specific transmission scheme to use for data transmission may be determined by comparing the operating SNR against one or more threshold SNRs. If the MIMO system supports only the partial-CSI and beam-forming transmission schemes, then the partial-CSI scheme may be selected if the operating SNR is equal to or greater than the threshold SNR, Ƴth and the beam-forming transmission scheme may be selected if the operating SNR is less than the threshold SNR”),
after ascertaining, selecting the subband as a target subband for power water filling in that spatial stream ([0098], “a single data stream may be transmitted on a single eigenmode corresponding to the highest eigenvalue for the beam-forming transmission scheme, and NT data streams may be transmitted on NT transmit antennas for the partial-CSI transmission scheme. The total transmit power, Ptot, available to the system is then allocated to the one or more data streams based on the selected transmission scheme (step 218). The one or more data streams are then processed based on the selected transmission scheme and in accordance with the allocated transmit power and available CSI ”, [0082], “As SNR is reduced, the water-filling transmission scheme tends to allocate a greater fraction of the total transmit power to the principal eigenmode having better performance. At some threshold SNR, Ƴth, a good strategy is to allocate the total transmit power to the eigenmode corresponding to the maximum eigenvalue”, [0086], “if two or more eigenmodes achieve effective SNRs above some threshold SNR. A "selective partial-CSI" transmission scheme may also be used whereby only some of the transmit
antennas are used for data transmission and the remaining transmit antennas would then be turned off”);
and performing power water filling on each selected target subband based on a corresponding target power adjustment value ([0054], “For a MIMO system with limited total transmit power of Ptot, the water-filling transmission scheme can optimally allocate the total transmit power to the NS spatial subchannels such that capacity is achieved. The water-filling transmission scheme distributes the total transmit power, Ptot, over the eigenmodes in such a way that the eigenmode with the lowest noise variance (i.e., the highest SNR) receives the greatest fraction of the total power”, [0053-0055], Eq(7) – Eq(10) disclose computing allocated power and capacity of water -filling based on SNR).
Nilsson and Medvedev are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Nilsson and the features of performing water-filling algorithm according to subband average signal-to-noise ratio, as taught by Medvedev, for the benefit of maximizing spectral efficiency and transmission capacity ([0052], [0074], [0082]), and allowing the same coding and modulation scheme to be used for all data streams via allocating the total transmit power non-uniformly over selected ones of the eigenmodes, which can simplify the processing at both the transmitter and receiver ([0057-0058)).
Claim 13 is analyzed and rejected according to claim 1.
Claim 20 is analyzed and rejected according to Claim 1 and Nilsson further teaches a transceiver (Fig. 12, element 110) and a processor (Fig. 13, element 310), coupled to the transceiver and configured to selectively perform (Fig. 12, [0056], “the radio base station node 100 includes a transceiver 110 configured for receiving a rank e.g. number of data streams and corresponding PMI for the rank, and a respective CQI for each of said plurality of data streams from the user equipment node”,[0065], “at least some of the steps, functions, procedures, and/or blocks described above are implemented in software 325, which is loaded into the operating memory 320 for execution by the processor 310”).
Claim 4: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra ,Hedayat and Medvedev teaches the method according to claim 1, Medvedev additionally teaches wherein the subband average signal-to-noise ratio information of each subband occupied by each spatial stream comprises the following information of the subband in the spatial stream: a subband average signal-to-noise ratio ([0090], “each transmission scheme at any given time instant is a function of the operating SNR as well as the channel at that instant … For faster-varying channels, a time average of the channel may be obtained and used as the channel estimate.”); or a signal-to-noise ratio difference, wherein the signal-to-noise ratio difference is a difference between a signal-to-noise ratio of the subband in the spatial stream and a stream average signal- to-noise ratio of the spatial stream (alternative); and the channel quality measurement result further comprises a stream average signal-to-noise ratio of each spatial stream ([0110], “may be provided with (1) NF singular vectors for these NF frequency bands and (2) information indicative of the post-detection SNR for each of the NF selected eigenmodes … be provided with (1) the post-detection SNR for each data stream or each group of data streams”, [0114], “one data stream may be processed and transmitted over the NF selected eigenmodes of the NF frequency bands”).
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Medvedev regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 4.
Claim 15 is analyzed and rejected according to claim 13 and claim 4.
Claim 10: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra ,Hedayat and Medvedev teaches the method according to claim 1, Nilsson further teaches wherein a first power value of the target subband before the power water filling is greater than a second power value of the target subband after the power water filling ([0057], “if one stream has a really high SINR and therefore has reached its maximum MCS (modulation-coding-scheme), then the allocated power of this stream could be reduced as long as it still uses the maximum MCS. This save in power could instead be allocated to another stream, which could lead to that the second stream could use a higher MCS. Then the overall throughput of the two streams will increase without any extra power being spent”).
Claim 11: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra, Hedayat and Medvedev teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement indication information and the channel quality measurement result are transmitted when a transit beamforming (TxBF} technology is used (Medvedev,[0012], “The full-CSI transmission scheme includes a water-filling transmission scheme, a "selective channel inversion" transmission scheme, a "uniform" transmission scheme, a "principal eigenmode beam-forming" transmission scheme, and a "beam-steering" transmission scheme, all of which rely on full-CSI processing at the transmitter … and the beam-forming transmission scheme allocates all transmit power to a single transmission channel having the best performance”) , the measurement indication information is carried in a measurement frame sent by the first communication apparatus (Hedayat, Fig.17, element S1702), the channel quality measurement performed by the second communication apparatus on the channel comprises channel estimation measurement, the channel quality measurement result is carried in a response frame fed back by the second communication apparatus in response to the measurement frame (Hedayat, Fig. 17, [0014], “the announcement frame Includes an indication of whether the first device is to transmit a report prepared according to the determined channels
Strengths in response to the pre-announced frame or transmit the report in response to a poll frame, or an indication that the report may be included in a field of a Medium Access Control (MAC) header of a subsequent frame transmitted by the first device”, [0021], “determining a sub-band channel state information (CSI) report according to one or more of the channel strengths, and transmitting the sub-band CSI report in response to the frame”);
and the channel quality measurement result further comprises a weighting vector of a subcarrier(Nilsson ,Fig. 7, [0050], “Based on the received signals, the user equipment determines S200 a rank e.g. number of data streams (a subset of the plurality of data streams), a precoding matrix indication (PMI) for the rank, and finally a channel quality indication (CQI) for each data stream”) .
the selectively performing, based on the subband measurement information, the power water filling on subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams comprises: selectively performing, during precoding processing based on the subband measurement information and the weighting vector of the subcarrier, power water filling on the subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams (Nilsson ,Fig. 4, Fig. 8, [0052], “The power allocation algorithm can for example be a kind of water filling algorithm that allocates more power to a stream the higher SINR that stream has. The SINR is known (within a certain interval) at the radio base station due to the CQI that is signaled from the UE”, [0041], “The power allocation matrix W is determined based on reported channel quality indicators for the data streams. W is a diagonal matrix and only allocates different power to each stream based on the CQI reports in order to increase the throughput. The UE specific RS is also passed through the power allocating matrix W”, [0050], “Based on the received signals, the user equipment determines S200 a rank e.g. number of data streams (a subset of the plurality of data streams), a precoding matrix indication (PMI) for the rank, and finally a channel quality indication (CQI) for each data stream. Subsequently, the user equipment node reports the determined rank, PMI and CQI to the radio base station”),
Nilsson and Medvedev are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Nilsson and the features of using TxBF technology, to transmit channel quality measurement result as taught by Medvedev, for the benefit for achieving optimum spectral efficiencies with the beam-forming transmission scheme (i.e., the water-filling transmission scheme) at low SNR (paragraph [0074], [0082]).
Claim 12: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra , Hedayat and Medvedev teaches the method according to claim 11, Hedayat additionally wherein the measurement indication information is located in a high efficient signaling field in the measurement frame; and the measurement indication information further indicates different subband widths by setting different values in corresponding bits of the high efficient signaling field ([0103], “the frame OFDM_DF may further include parameters for use in determining and reporting the OFDMA sub-band CSI. The parameters may include one or more of a bandwidth
resolution and an indication of one or more sub-bands to be reported on or not reported on”).
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Hedayat regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 12.
Claims 5-6, 8-9, 16, 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (US 20130343328 A1, hereinafter Nilsson) in view of Hedayat et al. (US 20160165607 A1, hereinafter Hedayat) and in view of Aritra el al. (“Improving MIMO Performance Using Water-Filling Algorthm”, ISSN:2321-9939, hereinafter Aritra) and in view of Medvedev et al. (US 20100166100 A1, hereinafter Medvedev) and further in view of Ketchum et al. (US 20100246704 A1, hereinafter Ketchum).
Claim 5: Nilsson does not explicitly teach the method according to claim 4, wherein for each subband occupied by each spatial stream, the power adjustment value of the subband is a difference between the subband average signal-to-noise ratio of the subband and a specified parameter value, wherein the specified parameter value is a sum of a minimum value of subband average signal-to-noise ratios of the subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams and a preset constant value, and the preset constant value is an empirical value or a simulated value obtained based on a condition number; and the adjustment condition comprises that the power adjustment value of the subband is greater than 0.
Ketchum, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches wherein for each subband occupied by each spatial stream, the power adjustment value of the subband is a difference between the subband average signal-to-noise ratio of the subband and a specified parameter value (Fig. 2A, [0047],
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), wherein the specified parameter value is a sum of a minimum value of subband average signal-to-noise ratios of the subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams and a preset constant value, and the preset constant value is an empirical value or a simulated value obtained based on a condition number; and the adjustment condition comprises that the power adjustment value of the subband is greater than 0 ([0055], wherein minimum received SNR is required for operating at that code rate for a particular level of performance, and the minimal SNR may be determined based on simulation or mathematical derivation.).
Nilsson and Ketchum are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of Nilsson and the features of adjusting the power value of the subband when meeting a preset adjustment condition as taught by Ketchum, for the benefit for distributing power on good channels (with higher SNR or SNR greater than thresholds ) when the total transmit power is limited, which improving the efficiency and allowing maximum throughput (paragraph [0061], [0009]).
Claim 6: Nilsson does not explicitly teach the method according to claim 1, wherein the target power adjustment value of each target subband is less than or equal to an adjustment threshold, and the adjustment threshold is an upper limit of the power adjustment value of the subband; and the channel quality measurement result further comprises: the adjustment threshold; or a maximum received signal strength (RSSI), wherein the maximum RSSI is a power value of an antenna that is of the second communication apparatus and that has a maximum RSSI, and the adjustment threshold is a difference between the maximum RSSI and a preset RSSI threshold.
Ketchum, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches wherein the target power adjustment value of each target subband is less than or equal to an adjustment threshold, and the adjustment threshold is an upper limit of the power adjustment value of the subband ([0041], equation (9),
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); and the channel quality measurement result further comprises: the adjustment threshold ([0130], “the CSI comprises power control information for each spatial subchannel of each frequency subchannel. The power control information may include a single bit for each transmission channel to indicate a request for either more power or less power, or it may include multiple bits to indicate the magnitude of the change of power level requested. the transmitter system may make use of the power control information fed back from the receiver systems to determine which transmission channels to select, and what power to use for each transmission channel”. wherein the “change of power level” is reading as “adjustment threshold”); or a maximum received signal strength (RSSI, wherein the maximum RSSI is a power value of an antenna that is of the second communication apparatus and that has a maximum RSSI, and the adjustment threshold is a difference between the maximum RSSI and a preset RSSI threshold (alternative).
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Ketchum regarding to the claim 5 is also applied to claim 6.
Claim 16 is analyzed and rejected according to claim 13 and claim 6.
Claim 8: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra, Hedayat and Medvedev teaches the method according to claim 1, and the selectively performing, based on the subband measurement information, the power water filling on subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams comprises: performing power water filling on the target subband based on the target power adjustment value of the target subband (Nilsson, Fig. 8, [0052], “The power allocation algorithm can for example be a kind of water filling algorithm that allocates more power to a stream the higher SINR that stream has. The SINR is known (within a certain interval) at the radio base station due to the CQI that is signaled from the UE”, [0041], “The power allocation matrix W is determined based on reported channel quality indicators for the data streams. W is a diagonal matrix and only allocates different power to each stream based on the CQI reports in order to increase the throughput. The UE specific RS is also passed through the power allocating matrix W”).
However, Nilsson does not explicitly teach wherein the subband measurement information of each subband comprises a corresponding power adjustment value when each spatial stream occupies the subband, a target power adjustment value of a target subband that is selected by the second communication apparatus and on which the power water filling needs to be performed in the spatial stream is greater than 0, and a power adjustment value of a subband other than the target subband is equal to 0.
Ketchum, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches wherein the subband measurement information of each subband comprises a corresponding power adjustment value when each spatial stream occupies the subband, a target power adjustment value of a target subband that is selected by the second communication apparatus and on which the power water filling needs to be performed in the spatial stream is greater than 0, and a power adjustment value of a subband other than the target subband is equal to 0 ([0130], “the CSI comprises power control information for each spatial subchannel of each frequency subchannel. The power control information may include a single bit for each transmission channel to indicate a request for either more power or less power, or it may include multiple bits to indicate the magnitude of the change of power level requested”, [0029], “only transmission channels having SNRs (or power gains) at or above a particular SNR (or power gain) threshold are selected for data transmission, and "bad" transmission channels are not used. With selective channel inversion, the total available transmit power is distributed across only "good" transmission channels, and improved efficiency and performance are achieved”).
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Ketchum regarding to the claim 5 is also applied to claim 8.
Claim 18 is analyzed and rejected according to claim 13 and claim 8.
Claim 9: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra ,Hedayat , Medvedev and Ketchum teaches the method according to claim 8, wherein the channel quality measurement result further comprises a stream average signal-to-noise ratio estimated value of each spatial stream (Hedayat, [0126], “computing an RSSI, an SINR, or both of a sub-band may include computing an average of RSSIs or SINRs, respectively, of the subcarriers that belong to the sub-band”, [0015], “the announcement frame includes an indication of whether the first device is to transmit a report prepared using an average of channel strengths for a sub-band across multiple transmitting antennas, multiple receiving antennas”. Nilsson, [0038], “The user equipment calculates the rank, PMI for each rank and CQI for each data stream and transmits the calculated values to the radio base station. For wideband precoding, the rank and PMI are chosen for the whole frequency band, while the CQI is calculated for every sub band”, Fig. 10, 11, [0054], wherein power is allocated differently for each sub band within one data stream), and the stream average signal-to-noise ratio estimated value is a corresponding stream average signal-to-noise ratio that is estimated by the second communication apparatus and that is obtained after the first communication apparatus performs the power water filling on the target subband based on the target power adjustment value (Nilsson, [0052], “The power allocation algorithm can for example be a kind of water filling algorithm”. Fig. 4, [0041], wherein the UE specific RS is also passed through the power allocating matrix W. Fig. 8, element S200, [0050], wherein the user equipment determines S200 a rank e.g. number of data streams (a subset of the plurality of data streams), a precoding matrix indication (PMI) for the rank, and finally a channel quality indication (CQI) for each data stream using the cell specific RS); and the method further comprises: performing modulation and coding scheme (MCS} scheduling based on the stream average signal-to-noise ratio estimated value (Nilsson, Fig. 5, element S30, [0041], “wherein a respective channel quality indicator (CQI) is provided S10 for each of a plurality of data streams to be transmitted. Subsequently, power is allocated S30 to each of the data streams based at least on the provided respective CQI. In addition, coding and modulation schemes are selected S30 for the data streams at least partly based on the selected power allocation”).
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Hedayat regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 9.
Claim 19: The combination of Nilsson, Aritra, Hedayat, Medvedev and Ketchum teaches the method according to claim 18, wherein when the second communication apparatus obtains the subband measurement information of each subband on the channel (Nilsson, [0007], “A channel quality indication (CQI) is provided for each of a plurality of data streams between a radio base station node and a user equipment node in the system. Subsequently, transmit power is allocated to each of the plurality of data streams based at least on the provided respective CQI”, [0038], “For wideband precoding, the rank and PMI are chosen for the whole frequency band, while the CQI is calculated for every sub band”, [0050], “the user equipment determines S200 a rank e.g. number of data streams (a subset of the plurality of data streams), a precoding matrix indication (PMI) for the rank, and finally a channel quality indication (CQI) for each data stream”), the method comprises:
performing channel quality measurement on the channel based on the measurement indication information (Nilsson, [0011], “The user equipment node includes a rank, PMI and CQI provider configured for determining a rank, a PMI for the rank, and CQI for each of the plurality of data streams”, [0050], “Based on the received signals, the user equipment determines S200 a rank e.g. number of data streams (a subset of the plurality of data streams), a precoding matrix indication (PMI) for the rank, and finally a channel quality indication (CQI) for each data stream. Subsequently, the user equipment node reports the determined rank, PMI and CQI to the radio base station”. Hedayat, [0213], wherein the received indication of which sub-bands to measure may be determined according to OFDMA sub-band CSI provided by the station.[0122], “The measurements taken for each sub-band may include a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), a Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Number of Spatial Streams”),
to obtain corresponding subband average signal-to-noise ratio information when each spatial stream occupies each subband (Medvedev, [0110], “may be provided with (1) NF singular vectors for these NF frequency bands and (2) information indicative of the post-detection SNR for each of the NF selected eigenmodes … be provided with (1) the post-detection SNR for each data stream or each group of data streams”, [0114], “one data stream may be processed and transmitted over the NF selected eigenmodes of the NF frequency bands” , [0090], “each transmission scheme at any given time instant is a function of the operating SNR as well as the channel at that instant … For faster-varying channels, a time average of the channel may be obtained and used as the channel estimate.”);
determining, based on the subband average signal-to-noise ratio information, a power adjustment value of each subband occupied by each spatial stream, wherein for each subband occupied by each spatial stream, the power adjustment value of the subband is a difference between a subband average signal-to-noise ratio of the subband and a specified parameter value (Ketchum, [0047]
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), the specified parameter value is a sum of a minimum value of subband average signal-to-noise ratios of the subbands occupied by the plurality of spatial streams and a preset constant value, and the preset constant value is an empirical value or a simulated value obtained based on a condition number (Ketchum, [0055], wherein minimum received SNR is required for operating at that code rate for a particular level of performance, and the minimal SNR may be determined based on simulation or mathematical derivation);
and for each subband occupied by each spatial stream, when the power adjustment value of the subband meets a preset adjustment condition, selecting the subband as a target subband on which the power water filling needs to be performed in the spatial stream, wherein the adjustment condition comprises that the power adjustment value of the subband is greater than 0 (Ketchum, [0047], equation 17, “The weighted transmit power for each transmission channel may then be expressed as … only transmission channels for which the received SNR is greater than or equal to an SNR threshold(.e.g, .gamma.(j,k).gtoreq..alpha..gamma..sub.ave) is selected for use”
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[0130], “the CSI comprises power control information for each spatial subchannel of each frequency subchannel. The power control information may include a single bit for each transmission channel to indicate a request for either more power or less power, or it may include multiple bits to indicate the magnitude of the change of power level requested. the transmitter system may make use of the power control information fed back from the receiver systems to determine which transmission channels to select, and what power to use for each transmission channel”).
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Ketchum regarding to the claim 5 is also applied to claim 19.
The motivation for combining Nilsson and Medvedev regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 19.
Conclusion
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/Y.Z./Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/NICHOLAS A JENSEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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