DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding independent claim 1, this claim contains a limitation stating “preforming, by the terminal, transmission of a first signal… wherein the first signal comprises… channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS)”. As known in the art, a CSI-RS is a signal received by a terminal, not transmitted by a terminal. The teachings of Applicant’s specification also describe a CSI-RS being received by a terminal (i.e. see paragraphs 44-45 of the Applicant’s specification). Thus it is unclear from the Applicant’s specification exactly how a CSI-RS transmission is made by a terminal, as claimed. It is recommended that this claim be amended such that the claimed CSI-RS is a received signal by the terminal rather than a signal transmitted by the terminal.
Regarding independent claims 17 and 19, these claims contain similar unclear language as that described above with respect to claim 1 regarding a terminal transmitting a CSI-RS. Thus, these claims are rejected for the same reasons as applied above to claim 1.
Regarding dependent claims 2-16, 18, and 20, these claims each depend on a rejected independent claim, and thus each contain the same unclear language.
Further regarding claim 9, this claim contains a limitation stating “wherein the third subband is configured to determine the number of resource occupied by SRS resources”. A subband, as known in the art, is a communication frequency. It is unclear how a subband may be used to “determine” anything, as claimed, since a subband is not a physical device.
Further regarding claims 19-20, these claims are directed towards a “non-transitory readable storage medium”. It is unclear by what or by whom the claimed storage medium is readable. It is recommended that these claims be amended such that it is clear that the claimed storage medium is readable by a specific device (i.e. a computer readable storage medium).
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)(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.
Claims 1-2, 5-8, 13-17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Abdelghaffar et al. (U.S. Publication US 2022/0022183 A1).
It is noted that many of the claims contain multiple alternatives using language such as “at least one of” and “or”. In order to properly anticipate such limitations, the prior art is shown to teach at least one of the multiple claimed alternatives.
With respect to claims 1, 17, and 19, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses a terminal comprising a processor, a memory that is a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, and a program or instruction stored in the memory executable by the processor causing the terminal to perform a signal transmission method (See the abstract, paragraph 52, paragraph 119, and Figures 3 and 10 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to a UE, which is a terminal, comprising a processor associated with a memory storing program codes executed by the process to perform a method of wireless communication). Abdelghaffar et al. also discloses determining, by a terminal, that a first subband is an available resource or an unavailable resource according to a resource type of the first subband (See paragraph 79, paragraphs 123-124, and Figure 10 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to determining whether or not a subband is available for transmission or reception of a signal based on whether the type of subband, i.e. UL, DL, or flexible, matches the direction of transmission or reception of the signal). Abdelghaffar et al. further discloses performing, by the terminal, transmission of a first signal on the basis of the first subband in a case that the first subband is an available resource, wherein the first signal comprises sounding reference signal (SRS) and/or channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) (See paragraph 79, paragraphs 123-124, and Figure 10 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the UE performing transmission of SRS if the direction of the subband is determined to be UL or flexible and performing reception of a CSI-RS if the direction of the subband is determined to be DL or flexible).
With respect to claim 2, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the operation of determining that a first subband is an available resource or an unavailable resource according to a resource type of the first subband comprises at least one of following: determining that the first subband is an available resource in a case that the first signal comprises the SRS and the resource type of the first subband is uplink and/or flexible; and determining that the first subband is an available resource in a case that the first signal comprises the CSI-RS and the resource type of the first subband is downlink and/or flexible (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the UE determining that a subband is available for performing transmission of SRS if the direction of the subband is determined to be UL or flexible and determining that a subband is available for performing reception of a CSI-RS if the direction of the subband is determined to be DL or flexible).
With respect to claim 5, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the resource type of the first subband is indicated through first indication information, wherein the first indication information comprises at least one of high-layer signaling, medium access control (MAC)-control element (CE), and downlink control information (See paragraphs 81-83 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to a base station signaling configuration information of subbands as uplink, downlink, or flexible to the UE through layer 3 RRC messages, which corresponds to high-layer signaling).
With respect to claim 6, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein transmission time of the first indication information is earlier than transmission time of the first signal, and there is a first time difference between the transmission time of the first indication information and the transmission time of the first signal (See paragraph 83, paragraphs 91-94, and Figure 6 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the configuration information be transmitted by the base station before the UE transmits uplink to or receives downlink signals from the base station using the configured subbands, such that there is inherently a time difference between the transmission of the configuration information and transmission of signals using the configured subbands).
With respect to claim 7, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein before the operation of performing transmission of a first signal on the basis of the first subband, the method further comprises: selecting a target SRS configuration from at least one set of SRS configurations on the basis of a first subband determined to be an available resource in a case that the first signal comprises the SRS and is configured with at least one set of SRS configurations (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the embodiments of the UE using a selected configuration for SRS transmission, i.e. a configuration wherein the SRS is entirely within the subband, or a configuration wherein a threshold bandwidth overlapped with an available subband is met).
With respect to claim 8, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the target SRS configuration meets at least one of following that: SRS resources in the target SRS configuration are all located in the first subband determined to be an available resource; in the at least one set of SRS configurations, the target SRS configuration has the largest number of resources occupied by the SRS resources; and the target SRS configuration is an SRS configuration with a second specified index value in the at least one set of the SRS configurations (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the embodiments of the UE using a selected configuration for SRS transmission, i.e. a configuration wherein the SRS is entirely within the subband, which corresponds to the claimed SRS resources in the target SRS configuration are all located in the first subband determined to be an available resource).
With respect to claim 13, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the number of resources is any one of the number of subbands, the number of resource blocks, and the number of resource elements (See paragraph 44, paragraph 79, and Figures 2A-D for reference to resources being defined as a number of subbands, RBs, and REs).
With respect to claim 14, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein after the operation of performing transmission of a first signal on the basis of the first subband in a case that the first subband comprises the CSI-RS, the method further comprises: performing at least one of following by the terminal in a case that the CSI-RS is received in a first time unit but some frequency domain resources in time domain resources in the first time unit are unavailable resources (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to embodiments wherein based on an overlap of bandwidth there is partial transmission of CSI-RS on a threshold amount of available bandwidth of the subband, i.e. transmission is made on some, but not all bandwidth resources). Abdelghaffar et al. also discloses performing at least one of following: not reporting a CSI report corresponding to the CSI-RS; reporting a first CSI report determined based on a first CSI-RS, wherein the first CSI-RS is a CSI-RS received through a first subband that is in the first time unit and determined to be an available resource; reporting a parameter value in the CSI report corresponding to the CSI-RS that goes out of a predetermined range; and reporting a second CSI report, wherein the second CSI report is a CSI report reported by the terminal previously (See paragraphs 77 and 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the UE sending a measurement report, i.e. a CSI report, to the base station based on the CSI-RS received on the threshold amount of available bandwidth, such that the report is based on CSI-RS received through a first subband that is in the first time unit and determined to be an available resource, as claimed).
With respect to claim 15, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the some frequency domain resources comprise at least one subband and/or a guard band between subbands; or in a case that the CSI report corresponding to the wideband CSI-RS is reported, the CSI report is reported through a first subband determined to be an available resource; or the unavailable resource comprises at least one of following: a subband of which a resource type is uplink or flexible; a guard band; and a subband that comprises a number of resources less than a predetermined value (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the frequency domain resources for transmission of CSI-RS being resources determined to be downlink or flexible, wherein an uplink subband is determined to be an unavailable resource).
With respect to claim 16, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein resource types of the first subbands located in different time units are different (See paragraph 62 and Figures 4A-B of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to subband types in different slots being different, i.e. uplink, downlink, or flexible).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 3-4, 9, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abdelghaffar et al. in view of Oh et al. (U.S. Publication US 2022/0231808 A1).
With respect to claim 3, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the operation of performing transmission of a first signal on the basis of the first subband comprises: performing the transmission of the first signal based on second subbands in a case that a plurality of first subbands are determined to be available resources (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to performing transmission on a threshold bandwidth of the subband resources determined to be available, wherein the threshold bandwidth corresponds to claimed second subbands). Abdelghaffar et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the second subbands are at least one of following: consecutive subbands in the plurality of first subbands; and/or subbands with a first specified index value among the plurality of first subbands. However, Oh et al., in the field of communications disclose that 5G or NR systems define transmission of SRS via a number N of consecutive available symbols, i.e. subbands (See paragraph 219 of Oh et al.). Oh et al. also discloses transmission of SRS in embodiments wherein subbands are divided into types including uplink, downlink, and flexible (See paragraph 295 and paragraphs 370-371 of Oh et al.). Performing SRS transmission via a number of consecutive symbols, i.e. subbands, has the advantage of ensuring that SRS transmission conforms to the 5G and NR standards. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Oh et al., to combine performing SRS transmission via a number of consecutive symbols, i.e. subbands, as suggested by Oh et al., within the system and method of Abdelghaffar et al., with the motivation being to ensure that SRS transmission conforms to the 5G and NR standards.
With respect to claim 4, this claim contains limitations the further limits a second alternative limitation of claim 3 stating “subbands with a first specified index value among the plurality of first subbands”. However, as shown above in the rejection of claim 3, the first claimed alternative stating “consecutive subbands in the plurality of first subbands” is rendered obvious. Since claim 4 depends on claim 3, and the first alternative limitation of claim 3 has already been shown to be rendered obvious, the language of claim 4 further limiting the second alternative limitation of claim 3 does not affect the first alternative limitation. Thus, claim 4 is rejected for the same reasons as applied above to claim 3 with respect to the first alternative limitation of claim 3.
With respect to claim 9, Abdelghaffar et al. does not specifically disclose wherein a third subband comprises a plurality of consecutive subbands, and the plurality of consecutive subbands do not comprise subbands determined to be unavailable resources, wherein the third subband is configured to determine the number of resources occupied by SRS resources in each set of SRS configurations. However, Oh et al., in the field of communications disclose that 5G or NR systems define transmission of SRS via a number N of consecutive available symbols, i.e. subbands, (See paragraph 219 of Oh et al.). Oh et al. also discloses transmission of SRS in embodiments wherein subbands are divided into types including uplink, downlink, and flexible (See paragraph 295 and paragraphs 370-371 of Oh et al.). Performing SRS transmission via a number of consecutive available symbols, i.e. subbands, has the advantage of ensuring that SRS transmission conforms to the 5G and NR standards. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Oh et al., to combine performing SRS transmission via a number of consecutive available symbols, i.e. subbands, as suggested by Oh et al., within the system and method of Abdelghaffar et al., with the motivation being to ensure that SRS transmission conforms to the 5G and NR standards.
With respect to claims 18 and 20, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses determining that the first subband is an available resource in a case that the first signal comprises the SRS and the resource type of the first subband is uplink and/or flexible; and determining that the first subband is an available resource in a case that the first signal comprises the CSI-RS and the resource type of the first subband is downlink and/or flexible (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to the UE determining that a subband is available for performing transmission of SRS if the direction of the subband is determined to be UL or flexible and determining that a subband is available for performing reception of a CSI-RS if the direction of the subband is determined to be DL or flexible). Abdelghaffar et al. also discloses performing the transmission of the first signal based on second subbands in a case that a plurality of first subbands are determined to be available resources (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to performing transmission on a threshold bandwidth of the subband resources determined to be available, wherein the threshold bandwidth corresponds to claimed second subbands). Abdelghaffar et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the second subbands are at least one of following: consecutive subbands in the plurality of first subbands; and/or subbands with a first specified index value among the plurality of first subbands. However, Oh et al., in the field of communications disclose that 5G or NR systems define transmission of SRS via a number N of consecutive available symbols, i.e. subbands (See paragraph 219 of Oh et al.). Oh et al. also discloses transmission of SRS in embodiments wherein subbands are divided into types including uplink, downlink, and flexible (See paragraph 295 and paragraphs 370-371 of Oh et al.). Performing SRS transmission via a number of consecutive symbols, i.e. subbands, has the advantage of ensuring that SRS transmission conforms to the 5G and NR standards. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Oh et al., to combine performing SRS transmission via a number of consecutive symbols, i.e. subbands, as suggested by Oh et al., within the system and method of Abdelghaffar et al., with the motivation being to ensure that SRS transmission conforms to the 5G and NR standards.
Claims 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abdelghaffar et al. in view of Raghavan et al. (U.S. Publication US 2022/0078717 A1).
With respect to claim 10, Abdelghaffar et al. does not specifically disclose wherein before the operation of performing transmission of a first signal on the basis of the first subband, the method further comprises: determining a target transmission power for SRS transmission according to a first SRS configuration or bandwidth of the first SRS configuration in a case that the first signal comprises the SRS and is configured with at least one set of SRS configurations, wherein the first SRS configuration belongs to the at least one set of SRS configurations; and the operation of performing transmission of a first signal on the basis of the first subband comprises: performing transmission of the first signal at the target transmission power on the basis of the first subband.
With respect to claim 11, Abdelghaffar et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the operation of determining a target transmission power according to a first SRS configuration or bandwidth of the first SRS configuration comprises: determining that a transmission power corresponding to the first SRS configuration is the target transmission power in a case that the number of resources comprised in a first subband determined to be an available resource is less than the number of resources occupied by SRS in the first SRS configuration; or scaling a total transmission power corresponding to the first SRS configuration according to a predetermined ratio to obtain the target transmission power in a case that the number of resources comprised in the first subband determined to be an available resource is less than the number of resources occupied by the SRS in the first SRS configuration, wherein the predetermined ratio is determined according to the number of resources comprised in the first subband determined to be an available resource and the number of resources occupied by the SRS in the first SRS configuration.
With further respect to claims 10 and 11, Raghavan et al., in the field of communications, discloses determining and using a target power for transmitting an SRS that is set and changed based on the sub-bands in which the UE is transmitting the SRS (See paragraph 70 of Raghavan et al.). Determining and using a target power for transmitting an SRS has the advantage of ensuring that the transmission power of the SRS is known such that it may be properly received and measured. Thus, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing, when presented with the work of Raghavan et al., to determining and using a target power for transmitting an SRS, as suggested by Oh et al., within the system and method of Abdelghaffar et al., with the motivation being to ensure that the transmission power of the SRS is known such that it may be properly received and measured.
With respect to claim 12, Abdelghaffar et al. discloses wherein the first SRS configuration comprises at least one of following: a reference SRS configuration specified by a protocol or configured by a network; an SRS configuration of which the bandwidth is a specified value; and an SRS configuration of which an index value is a third specified index value (See paragraph 79 of Abdelghaffar et al. for reference to an embodiment wherein the SRS configuration is based on a threshold amount of overlapped bandwidth being met, which corresponds to the claimed SRS configuration of which the bandwidth is a specified value).
Conclusion
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/JASON E MATTIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461