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 .
1. This office action, in response to the response to election/restriction requirement received 2/3/2026, is a non-final office action.
Election/Restrictions
2. Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-20 and 29) in the reply filed on 2/3/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 21-28 and 30 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 2/3/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
3. Claims 1, 2, 4, 5 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cannon et al (US 2010/0091825) in view of Wang et al (US 2024/0430051).
Regarding claims 1 and 29, Cannon discloses a method and an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination (Paragraph 0052: the functions of the various components of the receive side 12 and the transmit side 14 may be implemented in discrete components or a functional blocks within a piece of executable code included in and/or operated by one or more digital signal processors (DSP) and/or machine readable instructions executed by a microprocessor.), is configured to:
obtain a first wideband signal having a continuous wideband bandwidth (Figure 3: input signal 42. Paragraph 0055: input 43 is divided and a portion sent to frequency upconverter 44 and to frequency downconverter 46. After passing through first filter 48, the output of the first filter 48 contains only half the bandwidth of the original bandwidth of the input 42, the upper half. After passing through second filter 52, the output of second filter 52 also contains only half of the original bandwidth of the input 42, the lower half. Therefore, the input 42 is a wideband signal.);
separate the first wideband signal into multiple narrowband segments, wherein the multiple narrowband segments each have a narrowband bandwidth less than the continuous wideband bandwidth and different frequency shifts (Figure 3: input signal 42. Paragraph 0055: input 43 is divided and a portion sent to frequency upconverter 44 and to frequency downconverter 46. Frequency upconverter 44 serves to center an upper portion of the bandwidth of the signal included in the input 42 over zero while the frequency down converter 46 centers a lower portion of the bandwidth over zero. After passing through first filter 48, the output of the first filter 48 contains only half the bandwidth of the original bandwidth of the input 42, the upper half. After passing through second filter 52, the output of second filter 52 also contains only half of the original bandwidth of the input 42, the lower half. Therefore, the input 42 is a wideband signal.); and
aggregate the set of processed segments to obtain a second wideband signal (Paragraph 0555: outputs 50 and 54 are subsequently received by interleaver 56, which interleaves the two outputs 50, 54 to create interleaved stage output signal 58.).
Cannon does not disclose perform multiple Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operations on the multiple narrowband segments to obtain a set of processed segments respectively corresponding to the multiple narrowband segments in paragraph 0055. Cannon does disclose performing a discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) operations on the multiple narrowband segments to obtain a set of processed segments respectively corresponding to the multiple narrowband segments in paragraph 0060. Paragraph 0060 discloses, referring to figure 6, a third implementation of the channelizer is illustrated. In the channelizer, each stage includes a down sampler 130, 132 coupled with a bandpass filter 134, 136 coupled to a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) module 138. Index markers 140, 142 assist in the separation of the various channels in wideband signal x[n] into various narrowband signals y[n] as individual channels. As shown in figure 3, the bandpass filters will filter the input signal so only a portion of the input signal bandwidth will be output from the filter. Figure 6 shows the output of the filters are each input to a DFT module. Figure 7 shows the deinterleaver for combining the outputs of the filters to form an output signal. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the DFT modules of the third implementation of the channelizer into the first implementation of the channelizer to be able to utilize the DFT computations in the DSP. This will allow the system to improve the effectiveness of the channelizer implementations, improving the effectiveness of the system.
Though Cannon does not disclose utilizing an FFT, an FFT is a more efficient and faster way of computing the DFT. Wang discloses utilizing a FFT at the terminal device as stated in paragraph 0080. If multiple FFT windows are applied to eliminate ISI at the terminal device 110-1 side, the measurement period can be related to the number of FFT windows as stated in paragraph 0080. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the clamed invention to replace the DFT of Cannon for an FFT of Wang since the FFT is a fast and efficient way of calculating a DFT.
Regarding claim 2, the combination discloses further comprising a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein to obtain the first wideband signal, the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to obtain the first wideband signal via the transceiver, and wherein there is no guard band located between the continuous wideband bandwidth of the first wideband signal (Cannon: paragraph 0005: a wide variety of systems and methods have been devised to allow for the transmission of data information across a telecommunication channel. That communication includes a modem. The composition of the signal to be received does not limit the recited apparatus to a particular structure. Therefore, the received signal having or not having a guard band does not limit the claim in terms of scope. In addition, Cannon does not recite using a guard band in the wideband signal.).
Regarding claim 4, the combination discloses wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: transmit, to a network entity, a wideband capability indicator that indicates a capability for performing the multiple FFT operations on the multiple narrowband segments to obtain the set of processed segments (Wang: claim 33: the terminal device transmits, to the network device, second capability information of the terminal device, wherein the second capability information indicates at least one of a first number of maximum supported Fast Fourier transform (FFT) windows. Paragraph 0154 and claim 14 discloses similar steps. Paragraph 0055 discloses sending a second configuration to the terminal from the network entity. Paragraph 0058 discloses sending a third configuration to the terminal from the network entity. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the transmission of capability information from the terminal to the network device of Wang into the apparatus of the combination of Cannon and Wang. The indication can inform the network device of the present status and can provide additional or updated configuration information to the terminal as needed to provide a more effective communication system.).
Regarding claim 5, the combination discloses wherein the capability comprises one or more of: a maximum continuous wideband bandwidth supported in downlink (DL) reception, uplink (UL) transmission, or a combination of the DL reception and the UL transmission, a maximum continuous narrowband bandwidth supported for the multiple narrowband segments supported for each of the multiple FFT operations in the DL reception, the UL transmission, or the combination of the DL reception and the UL transmission, or a maximum number of the multiple FFT operations supported in the DL reception, the UL transmission, or the combination of the DL reception and the UL transmission (Wang: claim 33: the terminal device transmits, to the network device, second capability information of the terminal device, wherein the second capability information indicates at least one of a first number of maximum supported Fast Fourier transform (FFT) windows.).
4. Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cannon et al (US 2010/0091825) in view of Wang et al (US 2024/0430051) further in view of Liu et al (US 2023/0275681).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Cannon and Wang discloses the apparatus as stated above. The composition of a signal to be received by the recited apparatus does not limit the recited apparatus to a particular structure. Therefore, the bandwidth of the signal to be received does not limit the claim in terms of scope. The combination does not disclose that each of the multiple FFT operations has a first input size that is less than or equal to 4096.
Liu discloses N is a fast Fourier transform (FFT) and the FFT size corresponding to 100 MHz is a size of 4096 in paragraph 0136. Using well known components or procedures reduce the cost and complexity of a circuit and method, improving the efficiency of a system. For this reason, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to implement an FFT using a typical size as disclosed in Liu in the apparatus of the combination of Cannon and Wang.
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 6-20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: None of the cited references disclose the limitations recited in claims 6 and 16.
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhu et al (US 2022/0085943) discloses the communication system shown in figures 15A and 15B. Paragraph 0240 discloses the UE could first indicate to their network their capability in applying one or multiple FFT windows/receive timings per RF chain/RC panel. The UE’s capability signaling could include the maximum number of FFT windows/receive timings that can be supported per RF chain/RX panel.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN M. BURD whose telephone number is (571)272-3008. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30 - 5:00.
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/KEVIN M BURD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 3/31/2026
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