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 .
Response to Arguments
1. Applicant’s arguments filed on 06/17/2026 regarding claims 1-30 in the remarks are fully considered but moot in view of new ground(s) of rejection.
Response to Amendments
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
2. 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.
3. Claim(s) 1, 15, 29 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Awadin (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0039676).
Note: With regard to prior art Awadin (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0039676), examiner is relying on the contents of the provisional application 63/359,579 filed on July, 08, 2022 in addressing applicant’s claimed invention.
As per claim 1:
Awadin teaches an apparatus for wireless communication (see paragraph [0134], UE), comprising:
one or more memories (see Figure 19, paragraphs [0234], [0239], memory 930);
and one or more processors each communicatively coupled with at least one of the one or more memories, the one or more processors, individually or in any combination (see paragraph [0237], processor 920 may load command or data received from another component and store data in memory 934. Note: Provisional application disclose said UE which inherently has a memory and processor and thus provides support for the UE with memory and processor in the PG Pub), operable to cause the apparatus to:
receive a channel state information (CSI) report configuration indicating a plurality of CSI subbands of at least one bandwidth part (BWP), wherein one of the CSI subbands overlaps in frequency with a downlink subband and an uplink subband (see paragraph [0133], disclose the UE may determine which NZP-CSI-RS or CSI-IM resource belongs to the clean report or dirty report by checking the overlap between the RSs and the UL subband, if its configurations are provided to the UE. Thus, it is evident that CSI-RS report configurations such as for dirty reports are provided to the UE and overlap with the UL subband. As disclosed in paragraph [0132] and figure 8 disclose for dirty reporting, last two CS-RS resources collide (i.e., overlap) with the UL subband for either the serving gNB or the neighbor cell of the corresponding CRB grid. Figure 8 also shows the DL BWP is divided into said UL subband(s) and DL subband(s). Paragraph [0134] disclosing the gNB may indicate to the UE said NZP-CSI-RS(s) are to be used for said clean or dirty report through higher layer signaling);
receive a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) in a full duplex symbol associated with the downlink subband and the uplink subband (see Figure 8, for dirty reporting, the CSI-RS is received in symbol slots 0 and 1 of subframes 1 and 2 and overlapping the DL and UL subbands. Paragraph [0131] discloses the UE derives measurements belonging to the report type. That is, the UE may only average CSI-RSs belonging to the same reporting type (i.e., dirty reporting));
and transmit a CSI report including CSI associated with the CSI-RS for the one of the CSI subbands (see paragraph [0129], UE may provide two reports to the gNB. Example of such report provided include said dirty report corresponding to reference signals colliding with UL subband. Paragraph [0004] disclose UE participating in full-duplex communications of the CSI-RS overlapped in uplink transmission).
As per claim 15:
Awadin teaches an apparatus for wireless communication (see paragraph [0134], gNB), comprising:
one or more memories (Note: Provisional application disclose said gNB which inherently has a memory);
and one or more processors each communicatively coupled with at least one of the one or more memories, the one or more processors, individually or in any combination (Note: Provisional application disclose said gNB which inherently has a processor for executing instructions stored in memory), operable to cause the apparatus to:
transmit a channel state information (CSI) report configuration indicating a plurality of CSI subbands of at least one bandwidth part (BWP), wherein one of the CSI subbands overlaps in frequency with a downlink subband and an uplink subband (see paragraph [0133], disclose the UE may determine which NZP-CSI-RS or CSI-IM resource belongs to the clean report or dirty report by checking the overlap between the RSs and the UL subband, if its configurations are provided to the UE. Thus, it is evident that CSI-RS report configurations such as for dirty reports are provided to the UE and overlap with the UL subband. As disclosed in paragraph [0132] and figure 8 disclose for dirty reporting, last two CS-RS resources collide (i.e., overlap) with the UL subband for either the serving gNB or the neighbor cell of the corresponding CRB grid. Figure 8 also shows the DL BWP is divided into said UL subband(s) and DL subband(s). Paragraph [0134] disclose the gNB may indicate to the UE said NZP-CSI-RS(s) are to be used for said clean or dirty report through higher layer signaling);
transmit a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) in a full duplex symbol associated with the downlink subband and the uplink subband (see Figure 8, for dirty reporting, the CSI-RS is received in symbol slots 0 and 1 of subframes 1 and 2 and overlapping the DL and UL subbands. Paragraph [0131] discloses the UE derives measurements belonging to the report type. That is, the UE may only average CSI-RSs belonging to the same reporting type (i.e., dirty reporting));
and receive a CSI report including CSI associated with the CSI-RS for the one of the CSI subbands (see paragraph [0129], UE may provide two reports to the gNB. Example of such report provided include said dirty report corresponding to reference signals colliding with UL subband).
As per claim 29:
Awadin teaches a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (see abstract), comprising:
receiving a channel state information (CSI) report configuration indicating a plurality of CSI subbands of at least one bandwidth part (BWP), wherein one of the CSI subbands overlaps in frequency with a downlink subband and an uplink subband (see paragraph [0133], disclose the UE may determine which NZP-CSI-RS or CSI-IM resource belongs to the clean report or dirty report by checking the overlap between the RSs and the UL subband, if its configurations are provided to the UE. Thus, it is evident that CSI-RS report configurations such as for dirty reports are provided to the UE and overlap with the UL subband. As disclosed in paragraph [0132] and figure 8 disclose for dirty reporting, last two CS-RS resources collide (i.e., overlap) with the UL subband for either the serving gNB or the neighbor cell of the corresponding CRB grid. Figure 8 also shows the DL BWP is divided into said UL subband(s) and DL subband(s). Paragraph [0134] disclose the gNB may indicate to the UE said NZP-CSI-RS(s) are to be used for said clean or dirty report through higher layer signaling);
receiving a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) in a full duplex symbol associated with the downlink subband and the uplink subband (see Figure 8, for dirty reporting, the CSI-RS is received in symbol slots 0 and 1 of subframes 1 and 2 and overlapping the DL and UL subbands. Paragraph [0131] discloses the UE derives measurements belonging to the report type. That is, the UE may only average CSI-RSs belonging to the same reporting type (i.e., dirty reporting));
and transmitting a CSI report including CSI associated with the CSI-RS for the one of the CSI subbands (see paragraph [0129], UE may provide two reports to the gNB. Example of such report provided include said dirty report corresponding to reference signals colliding with UL subband).
As per claim 30:
Awadin teaches a method of wireless communication at a network entity, (see abstract) comprising:
transmitting a channel state information (CSI) report configuration indicating a plurality of CSI subbands of at least one bandwidth part (BWP), wherein one of the CSI subbands overlaps in frequency with a downlink subband and an uplink subband (see paragraph [0133], disclose the UE may determine which NZP-CSI-RS or CSI-IM resource belongs to the clean report or dirty report by checking the overlap between the RSs and the UL subband, if its configurations are provided to the UE. Thus, it is evident that CSI-RS report configurations such as for dirty reports are provided to the UE and overlap with the UL subband. As disclosed in paragraph [0132] and figure 8 disclose for dirty reporting, last two CS-RS resources collide (i.e., overlap) with the UL subband for either the serving gNB or the neighbor cell of the corresponding CRB grid. Figure 8 also shows the DL BWP is divided into said UL subband(s) and DL subband(s). Paragraph [0134] disclose the gNB may indicate to the UE said NZP-CSI-RS(s) are to be used for said clean or dirty report through higher layer signaling);
transmitting a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) in a full duplex symbol associated with the downlink subband and the uplink subband (see Figure 8, for dirty reporting, the CSI-RS is received in symbol slots 0 and 1 of subframes 1 and 2 and overlapping the DL and UL subbands. Paragraph [0131] discloses the UE derives measurements belonging to the report type. That is, the UE may only average CSI-RSs belonging to the same reporting type (i.e., dirty reporting));
and receiving a CSI report including CSI associated with the CSI-RS for the one of the CSI subbands (see paragraph [0129], UE may provide two reports to the gNB. Example of such report provided include said dirty report corresponding to reference signals colliding with UL subband).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 6 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Wernersson (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0367652).
As per claim 6:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a granularity of the CSI subbands is based on a BWP size.
Wernersson teaches wherein a granularity of the CSI subbands is based on a BWP size (see paragraph [0021], each CSI reporting setting may contain some or all of CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement, frequency granularity (i.e., wideband or sub-band). With respect to sub-band size, one out of the two possible sub-band sizes is indicated. The value range depends on the bandwidth of the BWP).
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 configured sub-band CQI granularity (as disclosed in Wernersson) into Awadin as a way of enabling significant performance increase as a precoder that more precisely matches the frequency-selective channel results in better beamforming gain (please see paragraph [0155] of Wernersson).
Claim 20 is rejected in the same scope as claim 6.
5. Claims 7 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Wernersson and further in view of Li (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0279557).
As per claim 7:
Awadin in view of Wernersson teaches the apparatus of claim 6 with the exception of:
wherein the at least one BWP includes a single active BWP in a frequency band, and the BWP size is of the single active BWP.
Li teaches wherein the at least one BWP includes a single active BWP in a frequency band, and the BWP size is of the single active BWP (see paragraph [0128], the size of a BWP can vary from a minimum of 1PRBs to the maximum size of system bandwidth. Currently, up to four BWPs can be configured by higher layer parameters for each DL and UL, with a single active downlink and uplink BWP in a given TTI).
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 configured BWP sizes (as disclosed in Li) into Awadin and Wernersson as a way of supporting the non-dormancy-like behavior of an active Scell (please see paragraphs [0181]-[0183] of Li).
Claim 21 is rejected in the same scope as claim 7.
6. Claims 8-10 and 22-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Wernersson and further in view of Liao (US PG Pub. No. 2025/0261172).
As per claim 8:
Awadin in view of Wernersson teaches the apparatus of claim 6 with the exception of:
wherein the at least one BWP includes a first active BWP and a second active BWP in a frequency band, a first group of the CSI subbands is within the first active BWP, a second group of the CSI subbands is within the second active BWP, the granularity of the first group of the CSI subbands is based on a first BWP size of the first active BWP, the granularity of the second group of the CSI subbands is based on a second BWP size of the second active BWP, and the second BWP size is different than the first BWP size.
Liao teaches wherein the at least one BWP includes a first active BWP and a second active BWP in a frequency band, a first group of the CSI subbands is within the first active BWP, a second group of the CSI subbands is within the second active BWP (see Figure 8, TA group#1 comprise of active BWP#1s and TA group#2 comprise of active BWP#2s each associated with a component carrier), the granularity of the first group of the CSI subbands is based on a first BWP size of the first active BWP, the granularity of the second group of the CSI subbands is based on a second BWP size of the second active BWP (see paragraph [0044], the bandwidth sizes of the radio resource clusters of a BWP are confined within the CC(s) belonging to a TA group), and the second BWP size is different than the first BWP size (see Figure 8, the size of the BWP#1 in TA group#1 is smaller than the size of the BWP#2 in TA group#2).
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 BWP cluster or groups (as disclosed in Liao) into Awadin and Wernersson as a way of adapting to the traffic load variation and to reduce power consumption (please see paragraph [0041] of Liao).
As per claim 9:
Awadin in view of Wernersson teaches the apparatus of claim 6 with the exception of:
wherein the granularity of the CSI subbands is further based on a downlink subband size.
Liao teaches wherein the granularity of the CSI subbands is further based on a downlink subband size (see paragraph [0037], a single cluster BWP may reside in the DL BWP provided by SIBx).
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 BWP cluster or groups (as disclosed in Liao) into Awadin and Wernersson as a way of adapting to the traffic load variation and to reduce power consumption (please see paragraph [0041] of Liao).
As per claim 10:
Awadin in view of Wernersson and further in view of Liao teaches the apparatus of claim 9.
The combination of Awadin and Wernersson do not teach wherein the at least one BWP includes a single active BWP in a frequency band, the frequency band includes a second downlink subband, and the granularity of the CSI subbands is based on an aggregate size of the downlink subband and the second downlink subband.
Liao teaches wherein the at least one BWP includes a single active BWP in a frequency band, the frequency band includes a second downlink subband, and the granularity of the CSI subbands is based on an aggregate size of the downlink subband and the second downlink subband (see Figure 8, paragraph [0044], discloses multiple BWPs may be needed to aggregate the CCs associated with the respective BWPs of different TA groups. The frequency locations and bandwidth sizes of the radio resource clusters of a BWP are configured within the respective CCs belonging to a TA group).
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 BWP cluster or groups (as disclosed in Liao) into Awadin and Wernersson as a way of adapting to the traffic load variation and to reduce power consumption (please see paragraph [0041] of Liao).
Claim 22 is rejected in the same scope as claim 8.
Claim 23 is rejected in the same scope as claim 9.
Claim 24 is rejected in the same scope as claim 10.
7. Claims 11 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Liu (US PG Pub. No. 2025/0274249).
As per claim 11:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a granularity of the CSI subbands is based on a duplex mode of the CSI report.
Liu teaches wherein a granularity of the CSI subbands is based on a duplex mode of the CSI report (see paragraph [0013] PRG granularity of at least one DL subband in a subband full duplex SBFD mode is based on the first information).
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 configured PRG granularity (as disclosed in Liu) into Awadin as a way of enabling the user equipment to better adapt to the SBFD scenario, thereby improving channel estimation accuracy (please see paragraph [0210] of Liu).
Claim 25 is rejected in the same scope as claim 11.
8. Claims 12 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Liu and further in view of Choi (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0330291).
As per claim 12:
Awadin in view of Liu teaches the apparatus of claim 11 with the exception of:
wherein the CSI report configuration indicates a half- duplex subband size and a full duplex subband size, and the granularity of the CSI subbands is the full duplex subband size based on the duplex mode being the full duplex mode.
Choi teaches wherein the CSI report configuration indicates a half- duplex subband size and a full duplex subband size, and the granularity of the CSI subbands is the full duplex subband size based on the duplex mode being the full duplex mode (see paragraph [0099], disclose according to the capability, the terminal can support a bandwidth size based on either the full-duplex communication or half-duplex communication. Examples of such communication involves CSI and SRS 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 incorporate either the half or full duplex communication for the configured bandwidth size (as disclosed in Liu) into Awadin and Liu as a way of supporting transmission and reception of data on the uplink at a specific resource configured by a preconfigured higher layer signal (please see paragraph [0133] of Liu).
Claim 26 is rejected in the same scope as claim 12.
9. Claims 13 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Matsumura (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0298037).
As per claim 13:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1with the exception of:
wherein an initial resource block for the CSI subbands is based on a reference resource block associated with a component carrier including the at least one BWP.
Matsumura teaches wherein an initial resource block for the CSI subbands is based on a reference resource block associated with a component carrier including the at least one BWP (see paragraphs [0049]-[0051], discloses UE performs a CSI reporting (CSI measurement) by using part of a plurality of contiguous subbands. The RBs of the CSI subbands is based on RB associated with a CC including the BWP or a partial band).
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 CSI subband reporting (as disclosed in Matsumura) into Awadin. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce overhead and improve system performance (please see paragraphs [0006]-[0008] of Matsumura).
Claims 27 is rejected in the same scope as claim 13.
10. Claims 2, 3-5, 14, 16-19, 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Awadin in view of Yoshimura (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0064717).
As per claim 2:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a second one of the CSI subbands overlaps in frequency with the uplink subband and a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband.
Yoshimura teaches wherein a second one of the CSI subbands overlaps in frequency with the uplink subband and a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband (see paragraph [0182], in the frequency domain, guard-bands may be between the downlink-uplink of the SBFD region).
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 resource mapping on the SBFD resource grid (as disclosed in Yoshimura) into Awadin. The motivation for doing so would be to enhance uplink coverage (please see paragraph [0007] of Yoshimura).
As per claim 3:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the CSI report lacks second CSI for a second one of the CSI subbands partially overlapping in frequency with the uplink subband or a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband.
Yoshimura teaches wherein the CSI report lacks second CSI for a second one of the CSI subbands partially overlapping in frequency with the uplink subband or a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband (see paragraph [0122], from the vantage point of the wireless terminal, the resources are punctured if the allocated PRBs overlaps with resources not available for the PDSCH).
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 resource mapping on the SBFD resource grid (as disclosed in Yoshimura) into Awadin. The motivation for doing so would be to enhance uplink coverage (please see paragraph [0007] of Yoshimura).
As per claim 4:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a second one of the CSI subbands partially overlaps in frequency with the uplink subband or a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband, and the CSI report includes second CSI for a portion of the second one of the CSI subbands which overlaps with the second downlink subband.
Yoshimura teaches wherein a second one of the CSI subbands partially overlaps in frequency with the uplink subband or a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband (see paragraph [0182], in the frequency domain, guard-bands may be between the downlink-uplink of the SBFD region), and the CSI report includes second CSI for a portion of the second one of the CSI subbands which overlaps with the second downlink subband (see paragraph [0122], from the vantage point of the wireless terminal, the resources are punctured if the allocated PRBs overlaps with resources not available for the PDSCH).
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 resource mapping on the SBFD resource grid (as disclosed in Yoshimura) into Awadin. The motivation for doing so would be to enhance uplink coverage (please see paragraph [0007] of Yoshimura).
As per claim 5:
Awadin teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein a second one of the CSI subbands partially overlaps in frequency with the uplink subband or a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband, and the CSI report includes second CSI for a portion of the second one of the CSI subbands which overlaps with the second downlink subband and the guard band.
Yoshimura teaches wherein a second one of the CSI subbands partially overlaps in frequency with the uplink subband or a guard band between a second downlink subband and the uplink subband, and the CSI report includes second CSI for a portion of the second one of the CSI subbands which overlaps with the second downlink subband and the guard band (see paragraphs [0064]-[0065], [0122], the measured PRBs overlaps between the uplink and downlink. Also, guardbands exists bebetween the uplink and downlink frequency region of the SBFD).
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 resource mapping on the SBFD resource grid (as disclosed in Yoshimura) into Awadin. The motivation for doing so would be to enhance uplink coverage (please see paragraph [0007] of Yoshimura).
Claim 16 is rejected in the same scope as claim 2.
Claim 17 is rejected in the same scope as claim 2.
Claim 18 is rejected in the same scope as claim 3.
Claim 19 is rejected in the same scope as claim 4.
Claim 28 is rejected in the same scope as claim 14.
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
Prosecution Insights