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
Applicant's arguments filed 7 April 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
On p. 2 para. 2-4, Applicant argues that Wang prior art uses a passive approach of “simply mapping the received signal into the delay-Doppler domain to prevent the Doppler shift”, since Wang uses Heisenberg transform, to resist (compensate) Doppler shift, whereas claim 1 actively performs the demodulation process using mathematical formulae & algorithms. Examiner contends that this is reading the specification into the claims as such distinction is not claimed (claim 1 language is too broad).
On p. 3 para. 1, Applicant argues that Wang “does not mention demodulating such that the fractional part of the Doppler shift is compensated”. Examiner contends that the Applicant is performing a piecemeal analysis for this argument.
On p. 3 para. 3, Applicant argues that Wigard para. 138 is directed to ‘roughly compensating, first, the large part of the actual Doppler shift using inaccurate initial Doppler information’, whereas the fractional-part compensation in claim 1 is directed to signal processing compensation of fraction part itself within the receiver demodulation process. Examiner again contends that such argument, esp. underscored above, is not in claim, and that claim 1 language is terse and broad, plus Examiner is ONLY using the fact of Wigard able to compensate the largest part (portion) of Doppler shift, equivalent to claimed “fractional part of the Doppler shift of a signal being compensated” in claim 1.
On p. 4 para. 1, Applicant argues in terms of different purposes of prior art invention: “Wigard’s compensation is in the nature of resucing an overall initial Doppler offset.. The present specification explains that the Doppler shif is divided into an integer part and a fractional part, and particularly seeks to solve a problem in which energy spreads into adjacent Doppler resources due to the fractional part.” Examiner contends that exposing different purposes between the instant application & prior art is irrelevant.
On p. 4 para. 2 to p. 5 para. 1, Applicant further argues that “Wigard’s compensation is closer to synchronization acquisition and access preparation before entry into the received-data modulation chain, rather than being performed within the received-data demodulation chain itself. Again, Examiner again contends that this argument is reading into the claim (from the specification of the prior art).
Nevertheless, Examiner renewed his search and found new (better) prior art for a stronger rejection in light of Applicant’s argument, and used below. It should be noted that other prior art can equally be used for rejection, such as Liu (US 2025/0263787) also describes a transmitter communicating with receiver for compensating channel estimation with Doppler spread and can equally map to much of the independent claims’ limitations: (eg. claim 8 mapping as follows:)
mapping data symbols to resources in a first two-dimensional domain (Liu para. 66, a mapper that receives data sequence and output a 2-dimensional arrangement of data symbols communication frame in the delay-Doppler domain),
spreading the data symbols to resources in a second two-dimensional domain so that a Doppler shift for the data symbols is compensated (Liu para. 66, a transformation unit that receives such 2-dimensional communication frame in the delay Doppler domain output from the mapper and output (spread to) a 2-dimensional arrangement of information symbols in the time-frequency domain)
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 1-3, 7-10, 13-16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 2023/0233787) in view of Xu (US 2025/0047543) and Miao (US 2022/0360320).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Xu describes a method of a receiver/receiver comprising a processor (fig. 2, UE 120 as receiver comprising a processor 280), wherein the processor causes the receiver to perform:
performing a demodulation process (para. 89, demodulator 520 performing mirrored, reverse process as that performed by transmitter in fig. 5A-5B); and
de-spreading the received signal for which the fractional part of the Doppler shift compensated from a first two-dimensional domain to a second two-dimensional domain (para. 87-91, OTFS decoder converts back from 2D time-frequency symbols 504 (first 2D domain) to delay-Doppler domain 506 (second 2D domain), a mirrored, reverse process as that performed by transmitter which spreads/converts the delay-Doppler domain 506 to time-frequency symbols 504).
Xu fails to further explicitly describe:
demodulation process so that a fractional part of a Doppler shift of a received signal is compensated.
Miao also describes doppler shift compensation (title), further describing:
terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication link (para. 20 & 28+).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the Doppler shift of Liu and Xu is to be compensated for a fractional part of Doppler shift as in Miao.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this ensures that the terminal side and the network side can jointly compensate for and eliminate the Doppler shift communication performance of a system cannot be ensured (Miao, para. 10).
Regarding claims 2 and 15, Xu described:
performing multi-carrier demodulation on multi-carrier symbols of the received signal (Xu fig. 5A-5B & para. 87-88, mirrored, reversed steps of modulator 514 modulating symbols in transmitting signal across M (sub)carriers).
de-mapping/obtaining spread data symbols from resources for the multi-carrier-demodulated multi-carrier symbols in the first two-dimensional domain (Xu fig. 5A-5B & para. 87-88, mirrored, reversed steps of mapping from 2-dimensional delay Doppler symbols 510 to time-frequency symbols 512 as part of OTFS in transmitting signal across M (sub)carriers).
Xu and Miao combined describe:
compensating for the fractional part of the Doppler shift for each of the spread data symbols to generate each spread data symbol for which the Doppler shift is compensated (Miao, para. 20 & 28+ terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication link).
Regarding claims 3 and 16, Xu describe:
wherein the performing of the demodulation process so that the fractional part of the Doppler shift of the received signal is compensated includes:
performing multi-carrier demodulation on multi-carrier symbols of the received signal (Xu fig. 5A-5B & para. 87-88, mirrored, reversed steps of modulator 514 modulating symbols in transmitting signal across M (sub)carriers);
Xu and Miao combined describe:
compensating for the fractional part of the Doppler shift for each of the multi-carrier-demodulated multi-carrier symbols to generate each multi-carrier symbol for which the fractional part of the Doppler shift is compensated (Xu fig. 5A-5B & para. 87-88, mirrored, reversed steps of the modulated symbols in (sub)carriers being compensated residually (fractional part, Miao para. 20 & 28+ terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication in communication link);
obtaining each spread data symbol for which the Doppler shift is compensated from resources for the multi-carrier symbols for which the fractional part of the Doppler shift is compensated in the first two-dimensional domain (Xu fig. 5A-5B & para. 87-88, mirrored, reversed steps of original Doppler delay symbols spread across M subcarriers N OFDM symbols before the modulated symbols in (sub)carriers being compensated residually (fractional part, Miao para. 20 & 28+ terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication in communication link).
Regarding claims 7 and 18, Xie and Miao combined describe:
wherein the first two-dimensional domain corresponds to a time-frequency domain, and the second two-dimensional domain corresponds to a delay-Doppler domain (Xu para. 66, mirror, reversed steps of: 1st a mapper that receives data sequence and output a 2-dimensional arrangement of data symbols communication frame in the delay-Doppler domain, then a transformation unit that receives such 2-dimensional communication frame in the delay Doppler domain output from the mapper and output (spread to) a 2-dimensional arrangement of information symbols in the time-frequency domain).
Regarding claim 8, Xu describes a method of a transmitter, comprising:
mapping data symbols to resources in a first two-dimensional domain (fig. 5B & para. 84, (para. 87, plurality of received delay-Doppler symbols 510 are placed in a M x N information block);
spreading the data symbols to resources in a second two-dimensional domain so that a Doppler shift for the data symbols is compensate (fig. 5A & 5B & para. 87-91, OTFS precoding transforms or converts the delay-Doppler symbols 510 to the time-frequency symbols 512, para. 90).
performing modulation on the spread data symbols (fig. 5A & 5B & para. 87-91, modulator 514 modulates output of delay-Doppler symbols 510 spreaded by the OTFS precoder 508, where OTFS precoding transforms or converts the delay-Doppler symbols 510 to the time-frequency symbols 512, para. 90).
Xu fails to further explicitly describe:
a fractional part of a Doppler shift of a received signal is compensated.
Miao also describes doppler shift compensation (title), further describing:
Doppler compensation reference information set so that doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication link (para. 20 & 28+).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the Doppler shift of Liu and Xu is to be compensated for a fractional part of Doppler shift as in Miao.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this ensures that the terminal side and the network side can jointly compensate for and eliminate the Doppler shift communication performance of a system cannot be ensured (Miao, para. 10).
Regarding claim 9, Xu describes:
performing preprocessing on the data symbols (Xu, para. 91, applying the FFT 524 to the input delay-Doppler symbols 510 at start of the OTFS Precoding at 508);
mapping the data symbols for which the Doppler shift is compensated to the resources in the second two-dimensional domain (Xu, fig. 5A & 5B & para. 90-91, OTFS precoding transforms or converts the delay-Doppler symbols 510 to the time-frequency symbols).
Xu and Miao combined describe:
compensating for the fractional part of Doppler shift for the preprocessed data (Miao para. 20 & 29+, terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication link).
Regarding claim 10, Xu describes:
performing preprocessing on the data symbols (Xu, para. 91, applying the FFT 524 to the input delay-Doppler symbols 510 at start of the OTFS Precoding at 508);
mapping the preprocessed data symbols to the resources in the second two-dimensional domain ((Xu, fig. 5A & 5B & para. 90-91, OTFS precoding transforms or converts the delay-Doppler symbols 510 to the time-frequency symbols).
Xu and Miao combined further describe:
compensating for the Doppler shift for the data symbols mapped to the resources in the second two-dimensional domain after the preprocessing (Miao para. 20 & 29+, terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that Doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication link).
Regarding claim 13, Xu and Miao combined describe:
wherein the first two-dimensional domain corresponds to a time-frequency domain, and the second two-dimensional domain corresponds to a delay-Doppler domain (Xu para. 66, mirror, reversed steps of: 1st a mapper that receives data sequence and output a 2-dimensional arrangement of data symbols communication frame in the delay-Doppler domain, then a transformation unit that receives such 2-dimensional communication frame in the delay Doppler domain output from the mapper and output (spread to) a 2-dimensional arrangement of information symbols in the time-frequency domain).
Claims 4, 6, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu and Miao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wang (US 2024/0163140).
Regarding claims 4 and 17, Xu and Miao combined fail to further explicitly describe:
receiving a reference signal from a transmitter; and estimating the fractional part of the Doppler shift based on the reference signal, wherein in the performing of the demodulation process so that the fractional part of the Doppler shift of the received signal is compensated, the receiver compensates for the fractional part of the Doppler shift by using the estimated fractional part of the Doppler shift.
Wang also describes wireless transmission from transmitter to receiver (fig. 1), further describing:
receiving a reference signal from a transmitter; and estimating the fractional part of the Doppler shift based on the reference signal, wherein in the performing of the demodulation process so that the fractional part of the Doppler shift of the received signal is compensated, the receiver compensates for the fractional part of the Doppler shift by using the estimated fractional part of the Doppler shift (Wang, para. 8-11, receive end channel estimates in delay-Doppler domain based on a received delay-time domain pilot sequence (reference signal) to obtain a channel correlation parameter, and performing, by the receive end, delay-time domain symbol detection on the received signal based on the channel correlation parameter).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the receiver for estimating & compensating Doppler shift in Xu and Miao to be sent a reference signal as in Wang.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this ensures performance of OTFS in high-Speed movement scenario (Wang, para. 4).
Regarding claim 6, Xie and Miao combined describe:
obtaining data symbols by de-mapping de-spread data symbols from resources in the second two-dimensional domain (Xu fig. 5A-5B & para. 87-88, mirrored, reversed steps of original Doppler delay symbols spread across M subcarriers N OFDM symbols);
Xie and Miao combined fails to further explicitly describe:
performing channel estimation on the data symbols in a delay-Doppler domain;
performing channel equalization on the data symbols based on the channel estimation.
Wang also describes wireless transmission from transmitter to receiver (fig. 1), further describing:
performing channel estimation on the data symbols in a delay-Doppler domain (Wang, para. 17, performing channel estimation in delay-Doppler domain by yielding a channel correlation parameter) and
performing channel equalization on the data symbols based on the channel estimation (Wang, para. 17, using the yielded channel correlation parameter to apply & obtain the received symbols in delay-time domain).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the receiver in Xu and Miao to perform channel estimation & channel equalization after channel estimation as in Wang.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this ensures performance of OTFS in high-Speed movement scenario (Wang, para. 4).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu in view of Miao as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Wigard (US 2022/0173799).
Regarding claim 11, Xu describe:
wherein in the spreading of the data symbols to resources in the second two-dimensional domain so that the Doppler shift for the data symbols is compensated, the transmitter compensates for the Doppler shift by using the estimated Doppler shift (Xu fig. 5A & 5B & para. 90-91, modulator 514 modulates output of delay-Doppler symbols 510 spreaded by the OTFS precoder 508, where OTFS precoding transforms or converts the delay-Doppler symbols 510 to the time-frequency symbols 512, para. 90).
Xu and Miao combined describe:
a fractional part of a Doppler shift of a received signal is compensated (Miao para. 20 & 29+, terminal receives Doppler compensation reference information set so that Doppler shift [of received signal] is compensated for a residual (fractional) part of Doppler shift for the communication link).
Xu and Miao combined fail to further explicitly describe:
receiving a reference signal from a receiver; and
estimating the Doppler shift based on the reference signal
Wigard also describes Doppler shift compensation (title), further describing:
receiving a reference signal from a receiver (Wigard, para. 153, transmitting network node receives feedback from receiving UE for better [estimated] information at the next transmit opportunity in relation with Doppler shift, para. 120); and
estimating the Doppler shift based on the reference signal (Wigard, para. 153, transmitting network node receives feedback from receiving UE for better [estimated] information at the next transmit opportunity in relation with Doppler shift, para. 120),
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the transmitter in Xu and Miao combined to receive a reference signal from the receiver for estimating the Doppler shift as in Wigard.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this shortens the acquisition and access times for the UE (Wigard, para. 138).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WARNER WONG whose telephone number is (571)272-8197. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am - 3:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached at 571-272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
Prosecution Insights