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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on 29 January 2024.
Claims 1-15 are under examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 20 January 2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1-3, and 9-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (US Publication 2021/0110261).
With respect to claim 1, Lee teaches A communication method, comprising:
determining a first decoder (Each of the UE 801 and the BS 802 may obtain information associated with the physical situation of the other thereof after the initial access 901 and 907, and may select one element from the set of autoencoder NNs in operations 902 and 908. That is, the UE and the BS may select an autoencoder NN having an appropriate structure among a plurality of autoencoder NNs defined/trained in advance based on the obtained information associated with the physical situation after the initial access, Paragraph 112) and a first bit sequence based on N decoders, wherein an input of the first decoder comprises the first bit sequence, (The UE may perform pre-processing 704 of an estimated downlink channel matrix H 703 so as to produce a new matrix {tilde over (H)}. The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report), Paragraph 106) an output of the first decoder comprises first channel information, where N is a positive integer; (The BS may obtain {tilde over (H)} by decoding the codeword vector received via a CSI receiver 707 using the Rx NN 708. The BS may obtain a downlink channel matrix H by performing post-processing 709 {tilde over (H)}. This scheme is capable of efficiently encoding information of a channel matrix using deep learning, and thus may be capable of transmitting more accurate channel information using a limited number of feedback bits, paragraph 106) and
sending first information that useable to indicate the first bit sequence. (The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report). Feedback may be performed periodically or aperiodically via a PUCCH or a PUSCH, paragraph 106)
With respect to claims 2 and 11, Lee teaches wherein a difference between the first channel information and second channel information is less than a first threshold, and the second channel information is obtained through measurement on a terminal device side. (UE may perform pre-processing 704 of an estimated downlink channel matrix H 703 so as to produce a new matrix {tilde over (H)}, Paragraph 106. The UE 801 may perform weight reporting in response to an aperiodic weight report request from the BS 802, or may perform weight reporting if the performance of an autoencoder NN, which performs shadow training, satisfies a predetermined condition. Here, the performance of the autoencoder NN may be defined using an index indicating the degree of a difference between an input and an output of the autoencoder NN. For example, the performance of the autoencoder NN may be defined using a mean squared error (MSE) value between an input and an output. Also, the predetermined condition may be, for example, the condition that the performance of an autoencoder NN is greater than or equal to a predetermined reference, that is, that the difference between an input and an output is less than a predetermined reference. Here, the predetermined reference may be a value determined in advance and input to the UE, or may be a value set arbitrarily by the UE, Paragraph 117)
With respect to claim 3, Lee teaches wherein the output of the first decoder in the N decoders estimates second channel information, the second channel information is obtained through measurement on a terminal device side, where N is greater than 1. (autoencoder NN including both a Tx NN and an Rx NN for shadow training, in addition to the Tx NN 805 disposed in the UE. According to an embodiment, the UE may use a downlink channel matrix H 803, which is estimated using a signal received from the BS, as learning data, and may continuously perform shadow training 810 associated with the entire autoencoder NN in operation 904. The signal received from the BS may include, for example, a CRS, a CSI-RS, a synchronization signal, a DMRS, and the like, but is not limited thereto. According to another embodiment, the UE 801 may receive, from the BS 802, a channel matrix estimated using a reference signal that the UE transmits to the BS 802, and may perform shadow training using the estimated channel matrix. The reference signal that the UE 801 transmits to the BS 802 may include, for example, an SRS and a DMRS, but is not limited thereto. That is, the UE 801 may continuously update connection weights of the autoencoder NN, prepared for shadow training, using a channel matrix estimated by the UE based on a signal (a CRS, a CSI-RS, a synchronization signal, a DMRS, . . . ) received from the BS 802 or a channel matrix estimated by the BS and received from the BS, as learning data, Paragraph 114)
With respect to claim 9, Lee teaches further comprising: sending second information useable to indicate the first decoder. (The BS 1002 may transmit, to the UE 1001, the weight of a Tx NN (weight report) among weights of the new entire autoencoder NN (Tx NN and Rx NN), updated via shadow training 1010, in operation 1105. According to an embodiment, the weight of the Tx NN may be transmitted to the UE 1001 via a downlink channel, for example, a PDCCH or a PD SCH, Paragraph 102)
With respect to claim 10, Lee teaches A communication method, comprising:
obtaining first information useable to indicate a first bit sequence; (The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report). Feedback may be performed periodically or aperiodically via a PUCCH or a PUSCH, paragraph 106) and
obtaining first channel information based on a first decoder and the first bit sequence, The UE may perform pre-processing 704 of an estimated downlink channel matrix H 703 so as to produce a new matrix {tilde over (H)}. The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report), Paragraph 106) wherein an input of the first decoder comprises the first bit sequence, and an output of the first decoder comprises the first channel information. (The BS may obtain {tilde over (H)} by decoding the codeword vector received via a CSI receiver 707 using the Rx NN 708. The BS may obtain a downlink channel matrix H by performing post-processing 709 {tilde over (H)}. This scheme is capable of efficiently encoding information of a channel matrix using deep learning, and thus may be capable of transmitting more accurate channel information using a limited number of feedback bits, paragraph 106)
With respect to claim 12, Lee teaches wherein the communication method further comprises: obtaining information that indicates the first decoder. (The BS 1002 may transmit, to the UE 1001, the weight of a Tx NN (weight report) among weights of the new entire autoencoder NN (Tx NN and Rx NN), updated via shadow training 1010, in operation 1105. According to an embodiment, the weight of the Tx NN may be transmitted to the UE 1001 via a downlink channel, for example, a PDCCH or a PD SCH, Paragraph 102)
With respect to claim 13, Lee teaches further comprising: sending second information useable to indicate N decoders, wherein the N decoders comprise the first decoder, where N is a positive integer. (The BS 1002 may transmit, to the UE 1001, the weight of a Tx NN (weight report) among weights of the new entire autoencoder NN (Tx NN and Rx NN), updated via shadow training 1010, in operation 1105. According to an embodiment, the weight of the Tx NN may be transmitted to the UE 1001 via a downlink channel, for example, a PDCCH or a PD SCH, Paragraph 102)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness
Claims 4-7, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US Publication 2021/0110261) in view of Namgoong et al. (US Publication 2022/0060235).
With respect to claim 4, Lee doesn’t teach further comprising: determining an (i+1)th to-be-optimized bit sequence based on an ith to-be-optimized bit sequence and a gradient descent algorithm, where i ranges from 1 to M−1, M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and an Mth to-be-optimized bit sequence is the first bit sequence
Namgoong teaches further comprising: determining an (i+1)th to-be-optimized bit sequence based on an ith to-be-optimized bit sequence and a gradient descent algorithm, where i ranges from 1 to M−1, M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and an Mth to-be-optimized bit sequence is the first bit sequence. (a negative variational lower bound function may correspond to a loss function associated with the autoencoder 520. Here, the negative ELBO given by custom-character.sub.w,θ,ϕ=−custom-character.sub.w,θ,ϕ (also known as variational free energy) may be used as a loss function in the training, and a stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm may be used to optimize the shared neural network parameters w, θ and ϕ. The conditioning variable c can be viewed as the client-specific parameters for the autoencoder 520. Thus, (−custom-character.sub.θ, ϕ(c)) can be viewed as a loss function for the autoencoder 520 when the conditioning network 510 provides the client-specific parameters of the autoencoder 520, Paragraph 101)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Lee with determining an (i+1)th to-be-optimized bit sequence based on an ith to-be-optimized bit sequence and a gradient descent algorithm, where i ranges from 1 to M−1, M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and an Mth to-be-optimized bit sequence is the first bit sequence as taught by Namgoong. The motivation for combining Lee and Namgoong is to be able to improve spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on the downlink (DL), using CP-OFDM and/or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM)) on the uplink (UL), as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
With respect to claim 5, Lee doesn’t teach wherein the positive integer M is a preset value.
Namgoong teaches wherein the positive integer M is a preset value. (a negative variational lower bound function may correspond to a loss function associated with the autoencoder 520. Here, the negative ELBO given by custom-character.sub.w,θ,ϕ=−custom-character.sub.w,θ,ϕ (also known as variational free energy) may be used as a loss function in the training, and a stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm may be used to optimize the shared neural network parameters w, θ and ϕ. The conditioning variable c can be viewed as the client-specific parameters for the autoencoder 520. Thus, (−custom-character.sub.θ, ϕ(c)) can be viewed as a loss function for the autoencoder 520 when the conditioning network 510 provides the client-specific parameters of the autoencoder 520, Paragraph 101)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Lee with determining an (i+1)th to-be-optimized bit sequence based on an ith to-be-optimized bit sequence and a gradient descent algorithm, where i ranges from 1 to M−1, M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and an Mth to-be-optimized bit sequence is the first bit sequence as taught by Namgoong. The motivation for combining Lee and Namgoong is to be able to improve spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on the downlink (DL), using CP-OFDM and/or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM)) on the uplink (UL), as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
With respect to claim 6, Lee teaches wherein an objective function of the gradient descent algorithm is useable to indicate a difference between i.sup.th channel information and second channel information, the second channel information is obtained through measurement on a terminal device side, the input of the first decoder comprises the i.sup.th to-be-optimized bit sequence, and the output of the first decoder comprises the i.sup.th channel information. (The UE 801 may perform weight reporting in response to an aperiodic weight report request from the BS 802, or may perform weight reporting if the performance of an autoencoder NN, which performs shadow training, satisfies a predetermined condition. Here, the performance of the autoencoder NN may be defined using an index indicating the degree of a difference between an input and an output of the autoencoder NN. For example, the performance of the autoencoder NN may be defined using a mean squared error (MSE) value between an input and an output. Also, the predetermined condition may be, for example, the condition that the performance of an autoencoder NN is greater than or equal to a predetermined reference, that is, that the difference between an input and an output is less than a predetermined reference. Here, the predetermined reference may be a value determined in advance and input to the UE, or may be a value set arbitrarily by the UE, Paragraph 117)
With respect to claim 7, Lee teaches further comprising: encoding second channel information based on an encoder corresponding to the first decoder, thereby determining a first to-be-optimized bit sequence, wherein the encoder is configured to encode channel information thereby obtaining a bit sequence, wherein the second channel information is obtained through measurement on a terminal device side. (The autoencoder NN may be configured to include an input layer, an output layer, and one or more hidden layers, and the autoencoder NN may be defined based on the number of layers, the number of nodes for each layer, and the connection weight between nodes. The connection weight is a value indicating the relationship between nodes, and may be, for example, a real number. The value of each node may be calculated based on the value of another node that is connected to the corresponding node in the NN and a connection weight associated with other nodes. Hereinafter, a “weight” is a connection weight, unless otherwise noted, Paragraph 102)
With respect to claim 14, Lee teaches A communication apparatus, (UE, Figure 19) comprising:
determining a first decoder (Each of the UE 801 and the BS 802 may obtain information associated with the physical situation of the other thereof after the initial access 901 and 907, and may select one element from the set of autoencoder NNs in operations 902 and 908. That is, the UE and the BS may select an autoencoder NN having an appropriate structure among a plurality of autoencoder NNs defined/trained in advance based on the obtained information associated with the physical situation after the initial access, Paragraph 112) and a first bit sequence based on N decoders, wherein an input of the first decoder comprises the first bit sequence, (The UE may perform pre-processing 704 of an estimated downlink channel matrix H 703 so as to produce a new matrix {tilde over (H)}. The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report), Paragraph 106) an output of the first decoder comprises first channel information, where N is a positive integer; (The BS may obtain {tilde over (H)} by decoding the codeword vector received via a CSI receiver 707 using the Rx NN 708. The BS may obtain a downlink channel matrix H by performing post-processing 709 {tilde over (H)}. This scheme is capable of efficiently encoding information of a channel matrix using deep learning, and thus may be capable of transmitting more accurate channel information using a limited number of feedback bits, paragraph 106) and
sending first information that useable to indicate the first bit sequence. (The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report). Feedback may be performed periodically or aperiodically via a PUCCH or a PUSCH, paragraph 106)
Lee doesn’t teach comprising a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store non-transitory instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory instructions thereby causing the apparatus to perform operating.
Namgoong teaches comprising a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store non-transitory instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory instructions thereby causing the apparatus to perform operating. (a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for wireless communication includes one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a client, Paragraph 10)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Lee with a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store non-transitory instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory instructions thereby causing the apparatus to perform operating as taught by Namgoong. The motivation for combining Lee and Namgoong is to be able to improve spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on the downlink (DL), using CP-OFDM and/or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM)) on the uplink (UL), as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
With respect to claim 15, Lee teaches A communication apparatus, (the BS of the disclosure may include a BS processor 1801, a BS receiver 1802, and a BS transmitter 1803, figure 18) comprising:
obtaining first information useable to indicate a first bit sequence; (The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report). Feedback may be performed periodically or aperiodically via a PUCCH or a PUSCH, paragraph 106) and
obtaining first channel information based on a first decoder and the first bit sequence, The UE may perform pre-processing 704 of an estimated downlink channel matrix H 703 so as to produce a new matrix {tilde over (H)}. The Tx NN 705 may convert the pre-processed output matrix {tilde over (H)} into a codeword vector. The codeword vector is converted into a signal in a form that is transmissible via a CSI transmitter 706, and may be fed back to the BS (CSI report), Paragraph 106) wherein an input of the first decoder comprises the first bit sequence, and an output of the first decoder comprises the first channel information. (The BS may obtain {tilde over (H)} by decoding the codeword vector received via a CSI receiver 707 using the Rx NN 708. The BS may obtain a downlink channel matrix H by performing post-processing 709 {tilde over (H)}. This scheme is capable of efficiently encoding information of a channel matrix using deep learning, and thus may be capable of transmitting more accurate channel information using a limited number of feedback bits, paragraph 106)
Lee doesn’t teach a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store non-transitory instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory instructions thereby causing the apparatus to perform operating comprising:
Namgoong teaches a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store non-transitory instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory instructions thereby causing the apparatus to perform operating (non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for wireless communication includes one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a server, Paragraph 11)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Lee with a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store non-transitory instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory instructions thereby causing the apparatus to perform operating as taught by Namgoong. The motivation for combining Lee and Namgoong is to be able to improve spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on the downlink (DL), using CP-OFDM and/or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM)) on the uplink (UL), as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US Publication 2021/0110261) in view of Namgoong et al. (US Publication 2022/0060235) further in view of Lindbom et al. (US Publication 2024/0202542).
With respect to claim 8, Lee and Namgoong don’t teach wherein the first to-be-optimized bit sequence is randomly determined.
Lindbom teaches wherein the first to-be-optimized bit sequence is randomly determined. (The weights of the trainable target decoder may (pre-training phase) be either randomly initialized or initialized with the weights from the source decoder if they share the same architecture. The trained AE is used for a new scenario for CSI compression, Paragraph 85)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Lee and Namgoong with the first to-be-optimized bit sequence is randomly determined as taught by Lindbom. The motivation for combining Lee, Namgoong, and Lindbom is to be able to improve spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on the downlink (DL), using CP-OFDM and/or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM)) on the uplink (UL), as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ren et al. (US Publication 2025/0226870) discloses the terminal device may feedback current channel information to the network device when the feedback mode configured by using the configuration information is a first mode. The terminal device may alternatively feeds back predicted channel information to the network device when the feedback mode configured by using the configuration information is a second mode. System performance is therefore improved by the method described in this application because channel information feedback requirements in different scenarios can be met. In particular, a problem that data transmission performance deteriorates because channel information expires in a moving scenario can be resolved by feeding back the predicted channel information.
Li et al. (US Publication 2025/0141514) discloses pre-processing original channel information to generate first channel information including a plurality of first channel information components; performing compression coding according to at least one first channel information component of the first channel information to generate second channel information; and feeding back-channel state information including at least the second channel information. Further provided in the present disclosure are a terminal, a base station, and a computer-readable storage medium.
Any inquiry concerning this communication from the examiner should be directed to ABDULLAHI AHMED whose telephone number is (571) 270-3652. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Khalid Kassim can be reached on 571-270-3370. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDULLAHI AHMED/Examiner, Art Unit 2475