DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 10/27/2022. Claims 1 and through 30 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. 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 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.
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.
Claims 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2021/0050893 A1) in view of Zhou et al. (US 2020/0266875 A1).
For claim 1 Park teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) associated with analog reception combining (see paragraph 51, Fig. 15 “UE”, paragraph 97 and Fig. 3 “analog beamforming receive antennas 325 combining incoming signals”), comprising:
at least one memory (see Fig. 15 “memory 1535”); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on stored information that is stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to (see Fig. 15 “processor 1540 coupled to the memory 1535”):
obtain a configuration for an antenna identification associated with a plurality of antennas at the UE (see paragraph 99 “one or more of the base station 105-b or the UE 115-b may determine and select a directional beam (antenna pair) (e.g., (fn, wm)) for directional communications based on the effective channel, and in accordance with, the analog beamforming FRF component 310 or the analog beamforming WRF component 330”, paragraph 93 “the beamforming operation may involve the base station 105-a identifying, in accordance with the codebooks, an fn that results in a metric satisfying a threshold, where fn is a beamforming vector (identification or ID). Similarly, the beamforming operation may involve the UE 115-a identifying, in accordance with the codebooks, a wm that results in a metric satisfying a threshold, where wm is a beamforming combining vector (identification or ID)”, and paragraph 95 “one or more of the base station 105-a or the UE 115-a may perform a search over a number of possible beamforming (antenna) pairs (fn, wm). As demand for communication efficiency increases, it may be desirable … to determine wideband and baseband beamforming (antenna) parameters (e.g., to select two or more beamforming pairs (fn wm), or beam weights (antenna identity))”);
output, for a network device and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, a set of antenna identification signals (see paragraph 99 “one or more of the base station 105-b or the UE 115-b may determine and select a directional beam (antenna pair) (e.g., (fn, wm)) for directional communications based on the effective channel, and in accordance with, the analog beamforming FRF component 310 or the analog beamforming WRF component 330”);
obtain, based on the set of antenna identification signals, analog reception combining information (see paragraph 99 “One or more of the base station 105-b or the UE 115-b may determine and select a directional beam (antenna pair) (e.g., (fn, wm)) for directional communications based on the effective channel, and in accordance with, the analog beamforming FRF component 310 or the analog beamforming WRF component 330” and paragraph 93 “the beamforming operation may involve the base station 105-a identifying, in accordance with the codebooks, an fn that results in a metric satisfying a threshold, where fn is a beamforming vector (identification or ID). Similarly, the beamforming operation may involve the UE 115-a identifying, in accordance with the codebooks, a wm that results in a metric satisfying a threshold, where wm is a beamforming combining vector (identification or ID)”); and
communicate with the network device based on the analog reception combining information (see Fig. 3, Fig.5, “Analog Beamforming FRF and Analog Beamforming WRF”, Fig. 20 “where the second wireless device determines a set of receive baseband combiner parameters (information)”, and paragraph 99 “One or more of the base station 105-b or the UE 115-b may determine and select a directional beam (antenna pair) (e.g., (fn, wm)) for directional communications based on the effective channel, and in accordance with, the analog beamforming FRF component 310 or the analog beamforming WRF component 330”).
Park does not explicitly teach output, for a network device and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, a set of antenna identification signals.
However, Zhou teaches UE 15-b identifies antenna panel IDs associated with sets of beams (signals) and UE determines panel specific capabilities for panels and sets of beams and communicates panel-specific capabilities with base station 105-b.
Base station 105-b identifies panels and beams for communications based on panel-specific capabilities and transmits configuration information for communication with UE 15-b (see Zhou: Fig. 5).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing claimed invention to use the teachings of Zhou in the analog beamforming method of Park in order for the base station to communicate with the UE according to panel-specific capabilities (see Zhou: Fig. 5).
For claim 2 Park teaches the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
output a capability indication of support for the analog reception combining (see paragraph 106 “one or more of the base station 105-c or the UE 115-c may be capable of supporting a number of MIMO streams CNs) depending on a number of RF chains… the precoder 410 may then forward (output), via the RF chain 415, the processed one or
more MIMO streams 405 (e.g., in the form of packets) to the wideband (e.g., analog) beamforming FRF component 420”); and
output a set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining, wherein the configuration is based on at least one of the capability indication or the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining (see paragraph 106 “one or more of the base station 105-c or the UE 115-c may be capable of supporting a number of MIMO streams CNs) depending on a number of RF chains… the precoder 410 may then forward (output), via the RF chain 415, the processed one or
more MIMO streams 405 (e.g., in the form of packets) to the wideband (e.g., analog) beamforming F RF component 420”).
For claim 3 Park teaches the apparatus claim 2, wherein the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining comprise one or more of:
a first number of analog processing chains at the UE (see Fig. 3 “UE processes analog RF chains”);
or
a resolution of a phase shifter at the UE (see paragraph 77 “the adjustment
of signals communicated via the antenna elements may include a transmitting device or a receiving device applying certain amplitude and phase offsets to signals carried via each of the antenna elements associated with the device”);
a resolution of an amplitude adjustment at the UE (see paragraph 77 “the adjustment of signals communicated via the antenna elements may include a transmitting device or a receiving device applying certain amplitude and phase offsets to signals carried via each of the antenna elements associated with the device”);
or
For claim 4 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the configuration for the antenna identification comprises one or more of:
a third indication of a first allocation of at least one frequency resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (see Zhou: paragraph 42 “a base station may
identify the panel-specific capabilities of one or more UEs, and may allocate resources on one or more beams in accordance with the UE capabilities” and pargraph 74 “resource may refer to a combination of a radio frequency spectrum, a time resource, and a spatial resource”) ;
a fourth indication of a second allocation of at least one time resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (see Zhou: paragraph 42 “A base station may
identify the panel-specific capabilities of one or more UEs, and may allocate resources on one or more beams in accordance with the UE capabilities” and pargraph 74 “resource may refer to a combination of a radio frequency spectrum, a time resource, and a spatial resource”); or
For claim 5 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus of claim 4, wherein the set of antenna identification signals comprises a plurality of reference signals associated with a corresponding antenna in the plurality of antennas and wherein, to output the set of antenna identification signals, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination (as discussed in claim 1), is further configured to:
transmit each of the plurality of reference signals via the corresponding antenna via the at least one frequency resource and the at least one time resource for the corresponding antenna (see Park: paragraph 199 “reference signal mapped to a set of antennas”).
For claim 6 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the analog reception combining information is associated with downlink control information (DCI) (see Zhou: paragraph 109 “downlink control information delivers combined configuration information”) .
For claim 7 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the analog reception combining information indicates at least one of
or a set of weights associated with each antenna of the plurality of antennas at the UE (see Park: paragraph 77 “the adjustments associated with each of the antenna elements may be defined by a beamforming weight set associated with a particular orientation”).
For claim 8 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus of claim 7, wherein the set of weights associated with a first antenna of the plurality of antennas at the UE comprises a plurality of weights corresponding to a plurality of frequency bands associated with the first antenna (see Park: paragraph 77 “the adjustments associated with each of the antenna elements may be defined by a beamforming weight set associated with a particular orientation” and paragraph 95 “to select two or more beamforming pairs (fm wm), or beam weights”).
For claim 9 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination (as discussed in claim 1), is further configured to:
output, for the network device and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, an additional set of antenna identification signals (park: paragraph 57 “iterative selection” and as discussed in claim 1);
obtain, based on the set of antenna identification signals, updated analog reception combining information (park: paragraph 57 “iterative selection” and as discussed in claim 1); and
communicate with the network device based on the updated analog reception combining information (park: paragraph 57 “iterative selection” and as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 10 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to output the additional set of antenna identification signals based on one of a periodicity associated with outputting the set of antenna identification signals (park: paragraph 57 “iterative selection” and as discussed in claim 1) or or
For claim 11 Park in view of Zhou teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a network node associated with analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 1), comprising:
at least one memory (as discussed in claim 1); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on stored information that is stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination(as discussed in claim 1), is configured to:
output a configuration for an antenna identification associated with a plurality of antennas at a user equipment (UE) (as discussed in claim 1);
obtain, from the UE and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, a set of antenna identification signals;
output, based on the set of antenna identification signals, analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 1); and
communicate with the UE based on the analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 12 Park teaches the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
obtain a capability indication of support for the analog reception combining at the UE (as discussed in claim 2); and
obtain a set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining, wherein the configuration is based on at least one of the capability indication or the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 13 Park teaches the apparatus of claim 12, wherein the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining comprise one or more of:
a first number of analog processing chains at the UE (as discussed in claim 3);
a resolution of a phase shifter at the UE (as discussed in claim 3);
a resolution of an amplitude adjustment at the UE (as discussed in claim 3), or
For claim 14 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the configuration for the antenna identification comprises one or more of:
a third indication of a first allocation of at least one frequency resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (as discussed in claim 4);
a fourth indication of a second allocation of at least one time resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (as discussed in claim 4); or
For claim 15 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the analog reception combining information is associated with downlink control information (DCI) (as discussed in claim 5).
For claim 16 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus, wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination (as discussed in claim 6), is further configured to:
obtain, from the UE and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, an additional set of antenna identification signals (as discussed in claim 6);
output, based on the additional set of antenna identification signals, updated analog reception combining information; and communicate with the UE based on the updated analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 6).
For claim 17 Park in view of Zhou teaches the apparatus of claim 16, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to obtain the additional set of antenna identification signals based on one of a periodicity associated with outputting the set of antenna identification signals or a triggering event, wherein the triggering event is one of a request from the apparatus or a condition detected at the apparatus (as discussed in claim 7).
For claim 18 Park in view of Zhou teaches a method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) associated with analog reception combining, comprising:
obtaining a configuration for an antenna identification associated with a plurality of antennas at the UE (as discussed in claim 1);
outputting, for a network device and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, a set of antenna identification signals (as discussed in claim 1);
obtaining, based on the set of antenna identification signals, analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 1); and
communicating with the network device based on the analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 19 Park teaches the method, further comprising:
outputting a capability indication of support for the analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 2); and
outputting a set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining, wherein the configuration is based on at least one of the capability indication or the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 20 Park teaches the method of claim 19, wherein the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 3) comprise one or more of:
a first number of analog processing chains at the UE (as discussed in claim 3);
a resolution of a phase shifter at the UE (as discussed in claim 3);
a resolution of an amplitude adjustment at the UE (as discussed in claim 3); or
For claim 21 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method, wherein the configuration for the antenna identification comprises one or more of:
a third indication of a first allocation of at least one frequency resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (as discussed in claim 4);
a fourth indication of a second allocation of at least one time resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (as discussed in claim 4); or
For claim 22 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method of claim 21, wherein the set of antenna identification signals comprises a plurality of reference signals associated with a corresponding antenna in the plurality of antennas and outputting the set of antenna identification signals (as discussed in claim 5) comprises:
transmitting each of the plurality of reference signals via the corresponding antenna via the at least one frequency resource and the at least one time resource for the corresponding antenna (as discussed in claim 5).
For claim 23 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method, wherein the analog reception combining information is associated with downlink control information (DCI) (as discussed in claim 6), wherein the analog reception combining information indicates at least one of or a set of weights associated with each antenna of the plurality of antennas at the UE (as discussed in claim 7).
For claim 24 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method claim 23, wherein the set of weights associated with a first antenna of the plurality of antennas at the UE comprises a plurality of weights corresponding to a plurality of frequency bands associated with the first antenna (as discussed in claim 8).
For claim 25 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method, further comprising:
outputting, for the network device and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, an additional set of antenna identification signals (as discussed in claim 9);
obtaining, based on the set of antenna identification signals, updated analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 9); and
communicating with the network device based on the updated analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 9).
For claim 26 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method of claim 25, wherein the additional set of antenna identification signals are output based on one of a periodicity associated with outputting the set of antenna identification signals or a triggering event, wherein the triggering event is one of a request from the network device or a condition detected at the UE (as discussed in claim 10).
For claim 27 Park in view of Zhou teaches a method of wireless communication at a network device associated with analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 1), comprising:
outputting a configuration for an antenna identification associated with a plurality of antennas at a user equipment (UE) (as discussed in claim 1);
obtaining, from the UE and based on the configuration for the antenna identification, a set of antenna identification signals (as discussed in claim 1);
outputting, based on the set of antenna identification signals, analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 1); and
communicating with the UE based on the analog reception combining information (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 28 Park teaches the method, further comprising:
obtaining a capability indication of support for the analog reception combining at the UE (as discussed in claim 2); and
obtaining a set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining, wherein the configuration is based on at least one of the capability indication or the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 29 Park teaches the method of claim 28, wherein the set of one or more parameters related to the analog reception combining comprise one or more of:
a first number of analog processing chains at the UE (as discussed in claim 3);
a resolution of a phase shifter at the UE (as discussed in claim 3);
a resolution of an amplitude adjustment at the UE (as discussed in claim 3); or
For claim 30 Park in view of Zhou teaches the method, wherein the configuration for the antenna identification comprises one or more of:
a third indication of a first allocation of at least one frequency resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (as discussed in claim 4);
a fourth indication of a second allocation of at least one time resource for each antenna of the plurality of antennas (as discussed in claim 4); or
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415