DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to Application #18/399,166 filed 12/28/2023. Claims 1-20 are subject to examination.
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 Objections
Claims 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites the limitation “A signal transmission method,” but only mentions “receiving the reference signal,” not transmitting. It is believed this should instead read “A signal reception method ...”.
Claims 3, 9, and 15 each recite the limitation “the initial location is a location that is of the reference signal in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol and that is determined ...”. For the sake of clarity, the Examiner recommends amending this limitation to instead read “the initial location is a location [[that is]] of the reference signal in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol [[and]] that is determined”.
Claims 12 and 18 each recite the limitation “in response to the first location range representing ... , the second location range representing ... , and the location of the reference signal ...”. However, the location of the reference signal is conditional on the first and second location ranges. For the sake of clarity, the Examiner recommends amending this limitation to instead read “in response to the first location range representing ... [[,]] and the second location range representing ... , [[and]] the location of the reference signal ...”.
Claims 12 and 18 each recite the limitation “in response to the first location range representing ... , the second location range representing ... , and the quantity of reference signals ...”. However, the quantity of reference signals within the first location range is conditional on the first and second location ranges. For the sake of clarity, the Examiner recommends amending this limitation to instead read “in response to the first location range representing ... [[,]] and the second location range representing ... , [[and]] the quantity of reference signals ...”.
Claims 12, 18, and 20 each recite the limitations “N1 represents a location ...” and “N2 represents a location ...”. However, the equations associated with each appear to be equations for a quantity of reference signals within that location. For the sake of clarity, the Examiner recommends amending these limitations to instead read “N1 represents the quantity of reference signals within a location range other than the location range accounted for by N2 ” and “N2 represents the quantity of reference signals within a location range ...”.
Claim 20 defines an equation that uses the variable “M”. However, this variable is not defined in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 4-6, 10-12, and 16-20 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 Claims 4, 10, 16, and 19, the claims each recite the limitations “a location of the reference signal within a first location range” and “a location of the reference signal within a second location range”. These limitations render the claims indefinite because it is unclear how “a location of the reference signal” recited in these limitations correspond to the “target location” previously recited in claims 3, 9, and 15.
Regarding Claims 5, 11, and 17, the claims each recite the limitations “the location of the reference signal within the first location range” and “the location of the reference signal within the second location range”. These limitations render the claims indefinite because it is unclear how “the location of the reference signal” recited in these limitations correspond to the “target location” previously recited in claims 3, 9, and 15.
Regarding Claims 6, 12, and 18, the claims each recite the limitations “the location of the reference signal within the first location range”, “a location of the reference signal within a location range of the first data block”, “a location of the reference signal within a location range of the second data block”, and “relative locations of the reference signal within the location ranges of the first data block and the second data block”. These limitations render the claim indefinite because it is unclear how the each “location” recited in these limitations corresponds to the “initial location” or “target location” previously recited in claim 3, 9, and 15.
Additionally, the claims each recite the limitations “the location of the reference signal within the first location range satisfies the following”. However, it is unclear whether “the location of the reference signal” refers to the location before or after the re-determination of claims 5, 11, and 17. For the sake of clarity, the Examiner recommends amending this limitation to instead read “the target location of the reference signal within the first location range is re-determined according to the following”.
Regarding Claims 12, 18, and 20, the claims state “a quantity of reference signals within the first location range satisfies the following:” and proceeds to provide equations for N1 and N2, which are subsequently associated with ranges other than the first location range. It is unclear whether N1 is intended to represent the quantity of reference signals within the first location range, or the quantity of reference signals in a range other than the range associated with N2.
Additionally, it is unclear whether the “quantity of reference signals within the first location range” and the “quantity of reference signals within the location ranges of the first data block and the second data block” recited in the claims refer to the quantity of reference signals within these ranges before or after the location re-determining of claims 11, 17, and 19. For the sake of clarity, the Examiner recommends amending this limitation to instead read “the quantity of reference signals within the first location range after re-determination can be determined according to the following”.
Tentative Indication of Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, 11-12, and 17-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but appear to contain allowable subject matter if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, pending satisfactory overcoming of the above objections and rejections under 7. 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
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 1, 7, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Levinbook et al. (WO 2019/096415 A1, hereinafter “Levinbook”) in view of Bai et al. (US 2019/0109749 A1, hereinafter “Bai’).
Regarding Claim 1, Levinbook teaches a signal transmission method, applied to a communication apparatus, the method comprising: determining a target location of a reference signal in a discrete Fourier transform-spread-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol based on a pattern parameter of the reference signal (Levinbook: In the case of ... DFT-S-OFDM ... the PTRS consists of groups (also sets, blocks, or chunks) of pre-defined QAM symbols which are inserted into the waveform at certain resource locations according to a pre-defined pattern in the pre-DFT time domain, see pg. 1 lines 18-22); and
receiving the reference signal at the target location (Levinbook: After placing the PTRS samples at the locations of the PTRS groups in the DFT input vector, and possibly placing data samples at the remaining sample locations along the DFT input vector, the transmit apparatus maps the DFT input vector onto an OFDM symbol via a DFT operation ... Then the transmit apparatus will further process the signal and transmit it to the receiver, see pg. 6 lines 19-24).
Levinbook does not explicitly teach determining a target location based on a location parameter of a data block, wherein the location parameter of the data block is used to determine a location of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bai teaches determining a target location based on a location parameter of a data block, wherein the location parameter of the data block is used to determine a location of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: At 804, the apparatus may determine at least one location for inserting PT-RS samples into a sequence of a plurality of samples. A first set of the plurality of samples may comprises at least one of a first number of samples at a beginning of the sequence and a second number of samples at an end of the sequence, and the at least one location for the PT-RS samples may be within a second set of the plurality of samples, see paragraph [0068]; The plurality of samples may comprise samples of a symbol of a DFT-s-OFDM transmission, see paragraph [0069]). *Examiner’s Note: reserving the beginning and/or end sample(s) of the pre-DFT sample sequence for non-PTRS signals can be interpreted as a “location parameter of a data block”.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Levinbook to include the features as taught by Bai above in order to reduce phase trajectory estimation error (Bai: see paragraph [0008]).
Regarding Claim 7, Levinbook teaches a signal transmission method, comprising: mapping a reference signal to a target location in a discrete Fourier transform-spread-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol, wherein the target location is determined based on a pattern parameter of the reference signal (Levinbook: In the case of ... DFT-S-OFDM ... the PTRS consists of groups (also sets, blocks, or chunks) of pre-defined QAM symbols which are inserted into the waveform at certain resource locations according to a pre-defined pattern in the pre-DFT time domain, see pg. 1 lines 18-22; After placing the PTRS samples at the locations of the PTRS groups in the DFT input vector ... the transmit apparatus maps the DFT input vector onto an OFDM symbol via a DFT operation, see pg. 6 lines 19-21); and
sending the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Levinbook: Then the transmit apparatus will further process the signal and transmit it to the receiver, see pg. 6 line 24).
Levinbook does not explicitly teach the target location is determined based on a location parameter of a data block, and the location parameter of the data block is used to determine a location of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bai teaches the target location is determined based on a location parameter of a data block, and the location parameter of the data block is used to determine a location of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: At 804, the apparatus may determine at least one location for inserting PT-RS samples into a sequence of a plurality of samples. A first set of the plurality of samples may comprises at least one of a first number of samples at a beginning of the sequence and a second number of samples at an end of the sequence, and the at least one location for the PT-RS samples may be within a second set of the plurality of samples, see paragraph [0068]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Levinbook to include the features as taught by Bai above in order to reduce phase trajectory estimation error (Bai: see paragraph [0008]).
Regarding Claim 13, Levinbook teaches a communication apparatus, comprising a processor, configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, to enable the apparatus to: determine a target location of a reference signal in a discrete Fourier transform-spread-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol based on a pattern parameter of the reference signal (Levinbook: a receive apparatus for acquiring a post-IDFT sample sequence of an OFDM-signal, comprising: a processor, configured to acquire a post-IDFT sample sequence with a pre-defined length and extract: data and a PTRS-group, see pg. 3 lines 13-15; In the case of ... DFT-S-OFDM ... the PTRS consists of groups (also sets, blocks, or chunks) of pre-defined QAM symbols which are inserted into the waveform at certain resource locations according to a pre-defined pattern in the pre-DFT time domain, see pg. 1 lines 18-22); and
receive the reference signal at the target location (Levinbook: The provided methods and apparatuses ensure the receiver demodulates the PTRS in its correct place, see pg. 4 lines 25-26).
Levinbook does not explicitly teach to determine a target location based on a location parameter of a data block, wherein the location parameter of the data block is used to determine a location of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bai teaches to determine a target location based on a location parameter of a data block, wherein the location parameter of the data block is used to determine a location of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: At 804, the apparatus may determine at least one location for inserting PT-RS samples into a sequence of a plurality of samples. A first set of the plurality of samples may comprises at least one of a first number of samples at a beginning of the sequence and a second number of samples at an end of the sequence, and the at least one location for the PT-RS samples may be within a second set of the plurality of samples, see paragraph [0068]; The plurality of samples may comprise samples of a symbol of a DFT-s-OFDM transmission, see paragraph [0069]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Levinbook to include the features as taught by Bai above in order to reduce phase trajectory estimation error (Bai: see paragraph [0008]).
Claims 2, 8, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Levinbook-Bai in view of Lee et al. (US 2021/0058207 A1, hereinafter “Lee”).
Regarding Claim 2, Levinbook-Bai teaches the method according to claim 1.
Bai further teaches, the data block comprises a data block at an end location of the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: A first set of the plurality of samples may comprises ... a second number of samples at an end of the sequence, see paragraph [0068]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Levinbook-Bai does not explicitly teach the data block comprises a data block replicated from a previous DFT-s-OFDM symbol adjacent to the DFT-s-OFDM symbol.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lee teaches the data block comprises a data block replicated from a previous DFT-s-OFDM symbol adjacent to the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Lee: the single carrier structure of DFT-s-OFDM may be exploited and the CP extension may be achieved by shifting the location of data symbols and reusing them in the previous and next DFT-s-OFDM symbols, see paragraph [0130] and Fig. 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 the invention of Levinbook-Bai to include the features as taught by Lee above in order to increase effective CP length and improve robustness (Lee: see paragraph [0123]).
Regarding Claims 8, Levinbook-Bai teaches the method according to claim 7.
Bai further teaches, the data block comprises a data block at an end location of the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: A first set of the plurality of samples may comprises ... a second number of samples at an end of the sequence, see paragraph [0068]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 7.
Levinbook-Bai does not explicitly teach the data block comprises a data block replicated from a previous DFT-s-OFDM symbol adjacent to the DFT-s-OFDM symbol.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lee teaches the data block comprises a data block replicated from a previous DFT-s-OFDM symbol adjacent to the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Lee: the single carrier structure of DFT-s-OFDM may be exploited and the CP extension may be achieved by shifting the location of data symbols and reusing them in the previous and next DFT-s-OFDM symbols, see paragraph [0130] and Fig. 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 the invention of Levinbook-Bai to include the features as taught by Lee above in order to increase effective CP length and improve robustness (Lee: see paragraph [0123]).
Regarding Claim 14, the limitations of claim 14 are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 2, and claim 14 is therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 3-4, 9-10, and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Levinbook-Bai in view of Bala et al. (US 2020/0213057 A1, hereinafter “Bala”).
Regarding Claim 3, Levinbook-Bai teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the initial location is a location that is of the reference signal in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol and that is determined based on the pattern parameter of the reference signal (Levinbook: In the case of ... DFT-S-OFDM ... the PTRS consists of groups (also sets, blocks, or chunks) of pre-defined QAM symbols which are inserted into the waveform at certain resource locations according to a pre-defined pattern in the pre-DFT time domain, see pg. 1 lines 18-22).
Bai further teaches, based on an initial location falling outside a location range of the data block, the target location is the initial location (Bai: The PT-RS may be inserted into the data transmission at locations different than the beginning and/or end samples in the pre-DFT sample sequence for a symbol, see paragraph [0061]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Levinbook-Bai does not explicitly teach based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, the target location is different from the initial location.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bala teaches based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, the target location is different from the initial location (Bala: reference symbols (RSs), for example a PT-RS used to estimate and track the phase noise, may be enabled (e.g., turned on) and transmitted on certain DFT inputs of specific DFT-s-OFDM symbols ... in a case where time samples n, n+1 are to carry the UCI, and the PT-RS is enabled for time sample n ... PT-RS may be transmitted on time sample n−1, see paragraph [0161]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Levinbook-Bai to include the features as taught by Bala above in order to prevent collision of UCI and PTRS (Bala: see paragraph [0161]).
Regarding Claim 4, Levinbook-Bai-Bala teaches the method according to claim 3.
Bai further teaches, a location of the reference signal within a second location range in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol remains unchanged, wherein the second location range represents another location range other than the location range of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: The PT-RS may be inserted into the data transmission at locations different than the beginning and/or end samples in the pre-DFT sample sequence for a symbol, see paragraph [0061]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Bala further teaches, based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, a location of the reference signal within a first location range in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol is re-determined based on the initial location, wherein the first location range represents the location range of the data block (Bala: in a case where time samples n, n+1 are to carry the UCI, and the PT-RS is enabled for time sample n ... PT-RS may be transmitted on time sample n−1, see paragraph [0161]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bala is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 3.
Regarding Claim 9, Levinbook-Bai teaches the method according to claim 7, wherein the initial location is a location that is of the reference signal in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol and that is determined based on the pattern parameter of the reference signal (Levinbook: In the case of ... DFT-S-OFDM ... the PTRS consists of groups (also sets, blocks, or chunks) of pre-defined QAM symbols which are inserted into the waveform at certain resource locations according to a pre-defined pattern in the pre-DFT time domain, see pg. 1 lines 18-22).
Bai further teaches, based on an initial location falling outside a location range of the data block, the target location is the initial location (Bai: The PT-RS may be inserted into the data transmission at locations different than the beginning and/or end samples in the pre-DFT sample sequence for a symbol, see paragraph [0061]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 7.
Levinbook-Bai does not explicitly teach based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, the target location is different from the initial location.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bala teaches based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, the target location is different from the initial location (Bala: reference symbols (RSs), for example a PT-RS used to estimate and track the phase noise, may be enabled (e.g., turned on) and transmitted on certain DFT inputs of specific DFT-s-OFDM symbols ... in a case where time samples n, n+1 are to carry the UCI, and the PT-RS is enabled for time sample n ... PT-RS may be transmitted on time sample n−1, see paragraph [0161]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Levinbook-Bai to include the features as taught by Bala above in order to prevent collision of UCI and PTRS (Bala: see paragraph [0161]).
Regarding Claim 10, Levinbook-Bai-Bala teaches the method according to claim 9.
Bai further teaches, a location of the reference signal within a second location range in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol remains unchanged, wherein the second location range represents another location range other than the location range of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: The PT-RS may be inserted into the data transmission at locations different than the beginning and/or end samples in the pre-DFT sample sequence for a symbol, see paragraph [0061]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 7.
Bala further teaches, based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, a location of the reference signal within a first location range in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol is re-determined based on the initial location, wherein the first location range represents the location range of the data block (Bala: in a case where time samples n, n+1 are to carry the UCI, and the PT-RS is enabled for time sample n ... PT-RS may be transmitted on time sample n−1, see paragraph [0161]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bala is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 9.
Regarding Claim 15, Levinbook-Bai teaches the apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the initial location is a location that is of the reference signal in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol and that is determined based on the pattern parameter of the reference signal (Levinbook: In the case of ... DFT-S-OFDM ... the PTRS consists of groups (also sets, blocks, or chunks) of pre-defined QAM symbols which are inserted into the waveform at certain resource locations according to a pre-defined pattern in the pre-DFT time domain, see pg. 1 lines 18-22).
Bai further teaches, based on an initial location falling outside a location range of the data block, the target location is the initial location (Bai: The PT-RS may be inserted into the data transmission at locations different than the beginning and/or end samples in the pre-DFT sample sequence for a symbol, see paragraph [0061]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 13.
Levinbook-Bai does not explicitly teach based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, the target location is different from the initial location.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bala teaches based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, the target location is different from the initial location (Bala: reference symbols (RSs), for example a PT-RS used to estimate and track the phase noise, may be enabled (e.g., turned on) and transmitted on certain DFT inputs of specific DFT-s-OFDM symbols ... in a case where time samples n, n+1 are to carry the UCI, and the PT-RS is enabled for time sample n ... PT-RS may be transmitted on time sample n−1, see paragraph [0161]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Levinbook-Bai to include the features as taught by Bala above in order to prevent collision of UCI and PTRS (Bala: see paragraph [0161]).
Regarding Claim 16, Levinbook-Bai-Bala teaches the apparatus according to claim 15.
Bai further teaches, a location of the reference signal within a second location range in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol remains unchanged, wherein the second location range represents another location range other than the location range of the data block in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol (Bai: The PT-RS may be inserted into the data transmission at locations different than the beginning and/or end samples in the pre-DFT sample sequence for a symbol, see paragraph [0061]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bai is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 13.
Bala further teaches, based on the initial location falling within the location range of the data block, a location of the reference signal within a first location range in the DFT-s-OFDM symbol is re-determined based on the initial location, wherein the first location range represents the location range of the data block (Bala: in a case where time samples n, n+1 are to carry the UCI, and the PT-RS is enabled for time sample n ... PT-RS may be transmitted on time sample n−1, see paragraph [0161]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Bala is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 15.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHILLIP J EGAN KEARNS whose telephone number is 571-272-4869. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-6 EST.
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/P.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/SHARMIN CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416