Detailed Action
The office action is in response to the communications filed on 06/04/2026.
Claims Status
Claims 1-3 and 6-8 have been amended.
Claims 1-10 are pending in this application.
Notice of 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 .
Prior Art Made of Record
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Chen et al. (Publication No. US 2020/0274597), the prior art discloses that the X channel measurement resource groups are divided according to at least one of: a plurality of channel measurement resources corresponding to the same port being divided into one group; see ¶ 13.
Response to Arguments
Applicant remarks, filed on 06/04/2026, argues that the cited portion of the prior art, individually or in combination, fails to discloses the features in claim 1. In specific, Applicant argues that the prior art of Wang fails to disclose the claim amendments, which introduces the concept that the plurality of user equipment are different types. Examiner notes that based on the claim amendments a new ground of rejection disclosing that the user equipment are different types is set forth below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under AIA 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 1-10 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (Publication No. US 2016/0142228, hereinafter referred as Wang) in view of Li et al. (Publication No. US 2018/0316405, hereinafter referred as Li) and further in view of Xu et al. (Publication No. US 2021/0120562, hereinafter referred as Xu).
Regarding claims 1 and 6, Wang discloses a method for assessing a channel quality (A wireless communication system related to a channel measurement method; see ¶ 2.),
wherein the method is applicable to a network system, the network system includes a network device and a plurality of mobile stations, and the network device and the mobile stations wirelessly communicate with each other through a plurality of channels, the method comprising (The wireless communication system includes a base station in communication, with a plurality of user terminals (i.e. three), via a plurality of antennas; see figure 1.):
configuring the network device to divide the channels into a plurality of channel groups according to a quantity of the mobile stations; wherein the channels groups correspond to the mobile stations respectively, and each of the channel groups includes at least one channels (The plurality of antennas of the base station are divided into more than two groups in advance, wherein each UE receive the pilot signal; see figure 2 numeral 201 & ¶¶ 61/64. It is interpreted that each antenna is associated with at least one channel.);
configuring the network device to send at least one packet through each of the channel groups to the mobile station corresponding to the channel group for channel measurement, so as to obtain a plurality of quality parameters respectively for the channels (For example, supposing that the base station includes eighteen antennas, which are divided into three groups with six antennas each group. Each group of antennas transmit pilot signals [packet] every n sub-frames, the antennas in group 1, the antennas in group 2 and the antennas in group 3 transmit the pilot signals; see figure 3 & ¶ 62. The UE side uses the pilot signals received from the antennas in one group is taken as example, for description of the spatial channel estimation; see ¶ 64.); and
configuring the mobile stations to transmit the quality parameters back to the network device (The UE side may perform the spatial channel estimation based on the pilot signals received from partial groups of antennas, to obtain the channel measurement result for each of the antennas; see figure 2 numeral 202 & ¶ 64. Furthermore, the channel parameters may be calculated by the UE and fed back to the base station; see ¶ 78).
Wang fails to disclose configuring the network device to assess a communication quality of the channels based on the received quality parameters. However, in analogous art, Li discloses upon the receipt of the CSI [quality parameter] from the UE, the base station may calculate a 3D precoding matrix [assess] based on the intra-group PMI and the inter-group PMI contained in the CSI; see figure 1 & ¶ 63. Furthermore, it discloses that the N beamforming CSI-RSs are configured specially for the UEs within a specific range; see ¶ 8. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wang with the calculation of Li in order to perform link adaptation based on the 3D precoding matrix and the RI and the CQI contained in the CSI; see ¶ 63.
Wang fails to disclose a plurality of mobile stations of different types. However, in analogous art, Xu discloses that the access terminal may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with a wireless communication function, a computing device, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem; see ¶ 49. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wang with the different types of access terminal of Xu in order to enable a heterogeneous network; see ¶ 63.
Regarding claims 2 and 7, Wang discloses wherein the quantity of the channels is m, a quantity of the mobile stations is n, and m and n are each an integer greater than 1 (The wireless communication system includes a base station in communication, with a plurality of user terminals (i.e. three), via a plurality of antennas; see figure 1. Furthermore, the base station includes eighteen antennas, which are divided into three groups with six antennas each group; see figure 3 & ¶ 62.).
Wang fails to disclose each of the quality parameters includes one or a combination of a receiving signal strength, an error rate, and a channel utilization rate. However, in analogous art, Li discloses upon the receipt of the CSI [quality parameter] from the UE, the base station may calculate a 3D precoding matrix [assess] based on the intra-group PMI and the inter-group PMI contained in the CSI; see figure 1 & ¶ 63. The intra-group PMIs to be fed back to the base station includes: calculating average values of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the reference signals corresponding to each reference resource; and acquiring a PMI corresponding to the RSRP having a largest average value, and taking the PMI as the intra-group PMI; see ¶ 60. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wang with the calculation of Li in order to perform link adaptation based on the 3D precoding matrix and the RI and the CQI contained in the CSI; see ¶ 63.
Regarding claims 3 and 8, Wang discloses in response to m being greater than or equal to n, the step of configuring the network device to divide the channels into the channel groups according to the quantity mobile stations includes: configuring the network device to evenly divide the channels into the channels groups that respectively correspond to the mobile stations (The wireless communication system includes a base station in communication, with a plurality of user terminals (i.e. three), via a plurality of antennas; see figure 1. Furthermore, the base station includes eighteen antennas, which are divided into three groups with six antennas each group; see figure 3 & ¶ 62.).
Regarding claims 4 and 9, Wang discloses wherein, in response to m being greater than n and the channels being evenly divided into the channel groups that respectively correspond to the mobile stations, the quantity of the channels included in each of the channel groups is at least [(m/n)], and [(m/n)] is less than or equal to a maximum integer of [(m/n)] (The wireless communication system includes a base station in communication, with a plurality of user terminals (i.e. three), via a plurality of antennas; see figure 1. Furthermore, the base station includes eighteen antennas, which are divided into three groups with six antennas each group; see figure 3 & ¶ 62.).
Regarding claims 5 and 10, Wang discloses, wherein, in response to m being a multiple of n and the channels being evenly divided into the channel groups that respectively correspond to the mobile stations, the quantity of the channels included in each of the channel groups is [(m/n)] (The wireless communication system includes a base station in communication, with a plurality of user terminals (i.e. three), via a plurality of antennas; see figure 1. Furthermore, the base station includes eighteen antennas, which are divided into three groups with six antennas each group; see figure 3 & ¶ 62.).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hector Reyes (Hector.Reyes@uspto.gov) whose telephone number is (571) 270-0239. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6-5.
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/H.R/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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