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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 received on 1/29/2024 have been examined, of which claims 1, 8 and 15 are independent.
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 2-4, 7, 9-11, 14, 15-20 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 2 and 9, each recites “measuring the CSI-RS based on the report configuration, wherein the measuring of the CSI-RS associated with the disabled antenna is not performed, and generating the measurement report of the CSI-RS according to result of the measuring of the CSI-RS”. The claim limits what is not measured, which does not positively recite what measurement is performed to generate the report.
Claim 3, 10 and 16, recite “the corresponding antenna port”, which is preceded by “each bit in the bit sequence corresponds to at least one antenna port”. In the instant of “at least one” is “more than one”, it is unclear, which antenna port is further limited.
Claim 4, 11 and 17 recites “the antenna ports”. In claims 4 and 11, the limitation is preceded by “one or more enabled or disabled antenna ports” and “plurality of antenna ports”, which makes it unclear, which antenna ports are further limited. In claim 17, the limitation is preceded by “a plurality of antenna ports”, which is unclear if the antenna ports refer to same limitation or different.
Claim 7, 14 and 20 recites “said one or more sub-configurations”, which is preceded by “list of sub-configurations”. It is unclear if they refer to same limitations or different. Further, claims recites “the DCI”, which has lack of antecedent basis in the claim.
Claim 15 recites “determining status for one or more antenna port subsets” and “transmitting report configuration with list of sub-configurations, each corresponding to one antenna port subset”. It is unclear how the above underlined limitations are related with each other, or if the one antenna port subset is part of the one or more antenna port subsets for which the status is determined. Claims 16-20 are rejected based on dependency.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-9, 11-15, 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ly et al. (US 20240357393).
Regarding claim 1, Ly teaches a method (fig 6-10; para 95: method performed by a UE, method allows a UE to provide a CSI report in response to a CSI report configuration accounting for a power savings mode of a base station), comprising:
receiving, by a processor of a communication apparatus (processor 359 of UE 350, fig 3), a report configuration from a network apparatus (steps 908-914, fig 9, steps 1002, 1006, 1008, fig 10; para 90: the base station 904 may transmit a CSI report configuration 908 to the UE 902, followed by a message 910 (e.g., a MAC-CE 912 or DCI 914) triggering the UE at block 915 to measure CSI in one or more channel measurement resource sets in the CSI report configuration 908), wherein the report configuration comprises a list of sub-configurations (fig 6-8; fig 7 showing non-power saving resource subset 710 and power saving resource subset 712), and wherein each sub-configuration corresponds to an antenna port subset which indicates one or more enabled or disabled antenna ports of a plurality of antenna ports of the network apparatus (para 96: CSI report configuration 702, 802, 908 may include one or more channel or interference measurement resource sets (e.g., single NZP CMR resource set 704 or multiple NZP CMR resource sets 804) supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports (e.g., based on power savings mode 906 of base station 904)); and
transmitting, by the processor, a measurement report of a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) based on the report configuration (steps 916, 918 in fig 9; para 90: the UE may then send a CSI report 916 to the base station including the measured CSI, in response to transmissions of CSI-RS 917 from the base station according to the CSI report configuration 908 and message 910).
Regarding claim 8, Ly teaches a communication apparatus (UE 350, fig 3; UE 902, fig 9, fig 12), comprising:
a transceiver (receiver, transceiver 354, fig 3; RF transceiver 1222, fig 12) which, during operation, wirelessly communicates with at least one network apparatus (fig 12; para 121: the cellular baseband processor 1204 communicates through the cellular RF transceiver 1222 with the UE 104 and/or BS 102/180); and
a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver (cellular baseband processor 1204, fig 12; processor 359, fig 3) such that, during operation, the processor performs operations (para 121: the software, when executed by the cellular baseband processor 1204, causes the cellular baseband processor 1204 to perform the various functions described) comprising:
receiving, via the transceiver (fig 3, 12), a report configuration from the network apparatus (steps 908-914, fig 9, steps 1002, 1006, 1008, fig 10; para 90: the base station 904 may transmit a CSI report configuration 908 to the UE 902, followed by a message 910 (e.g., a MAC-CE 912 or DCI 914) triggering the UE at block 915 to measure CSI in one or more channel measurement resource sets in the CSI report configuration 908), wherein the report configuration comprises a list of sub-configurations (fig 6-8; fig 7 showing non-power saving resource subset 710 and power saving resource subset 712), and wherein each sub-configuration corresponds to an antenna port subset which indicates one or more enabled or disabled antenna ports of a plurality of antenna ports of the network apparatus (para 96: CSI report configuration 702, 802, 908 may include one or more channel or interference measurement resource sets (e.g., single NZP CMR resource set 704 or multiple NZP CMR resource sets 804) supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports (e.g., based on power savings mode 906 of base station 904)); and
transmitting, via the transceiver, a measurement report of a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) based on the report configuration (steps 916, 918 in fig 9; para 90: the UE may then send a CSI report 916 to the base station including the measured CSI, in response to transmissions of CSI-RS 917 from the base station according to the CSI report configuration 908 and message 910).
Regarding claim 15, Ly teaches a method (fig 6-9, 11; para 90: fig. 9 illustrates an example 900 of a call flow between a UE 902 and a base station 904 operating in a power savings mode 906), comprising:
determining, by a processor of a network apparatus (processor 375, fig 3), an enabled or disabled status of a plurality of antenna ports for one or more antenna port subsets (para 113: at 1102, the base station sends a CSI report configuration to a UE, where the CSI report configuration includes one or more measurement resource sets supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports); and
transmitting, by the processor, a report configuration to a communication apparatus (steps 908-914, fig 9, steps 1002, 1006, 1008, fig 10; para 90: the base station 904 may transmit a CSI report configuration 908 to the UE 902, followed by a message 910 (e.g., a MAC-CE 912 or DCI 914) triggering the UE at block 915 to measure CSI in one or more channel measurement resource sets in the CSI report configuration 908), wherein the report configuration comprises a list of sub-configurations (fig 6-8; fig 7 showing non-power saving resource subset 710 and power saving resource subset 712), and wherein each sub-configuration corresponds to one antenna port subset (para 96: CSI report configuration 702, 802, 908 may include one or more channel or interference measurement resource sets (e.g., single NZP CMR resource set 704 or multiple NZP CMR resource sets 804) supporting deactivation of base station antenna ports (e.g., based on power savings mode 906 of base station 904)).
Regarding claim 2 and 9, Ly further teaches
measuring, by the processor, the CSI-RS based on the report configuration (para 91: each resource subset 710, 712 may be associated with index 714, and the base station 904 may dynamically indicate in the message 910 (e.g., in the MAC-CE 912 or DCI 914) the index (or indices) of one or more of the resource subsets in which the UE may perform CSI measurements at block 915), wherein the measuring of the CSI-RS associated with said one or more disabled antenna ports is not performed (para 80: referring to FIG. 5, if the base station is operating in the power savings mode (e.g., TRP 502 has deactivated one or more of its configured antenna panels 504 or sub-panels for CSI-RS), the base station may transmit CSI-RS from its active (not de-activated) antenna ports in power saving resources associated with 8 antenna ports for the UE to measure CSI); and
generating, by the processor, the measurement report of the CSI-RS according to a result of the measuring of the CSI-RS (para 91: The UE 902 may then include in the CSI report 916, or in multiple CSI reports including CSI report 916 and a second CSI report 918, a resource identifier 920 (e.g., CRI 716) associated with the best resource (e.g., highest SINR) in the indicated resource subset(s)).
Regarding claim 4, 11 and 17, Ly further teaches wherein each sub-configuration comprises an indication of codebook subset restriction corresponding to the antenna ports (para 76-77: all resources in a resource set may be associated with a same number of transmission antenna ports. For example, each of the N resources in NZP CMR resource set n 610 (including NZP CMR resource n1 616 and NZP CMR resource n2 622) may be associated with 32 CSI-RS antenna ports according to Table 2 above (Type 1 multiple panel PMI codebook)).
Regarding claim 5, 12 and 18, Ly further teaches wherein the report configuration is received from the network apparatus (or transmitted) through a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (para 90: the base station 904 may transmit a CSI report configuration 908 (e.g., CSI report configuration 702 of FIG. 7 or CSI report configuration 802 of FIG. 8) to the UE 902; para 88: a configuration from the base station (e.g., in the CSI report configuration 802 or in another RRC message).
Regarding claim 6, 13 and 19, Ly further teaches receiving (or transmitting), by the processor (or via the transceiver), an indication to select one or more sub-configurations from the network apparatus (or to the communication apparatus) via a downlink control information (DCI) or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) (para 90: the base station 904 may transmit a CSI report configuration 908 (e.g., CSI report configuration 702 of FIG. 7 or CSI report configuration 802 of FIG. 8) to the UE 902, followed by a message 910 (e.g., a MAC-CE 912 or DCI 914) triggering the UE at block 915 to measure CSI in one or more channel measurement resource sets in the CSI report configuration 908 (e.g., single NZP CMR resource set 704 in FIG. 7 or multiple NZP CMR resource sets 804 in FIG. 8)).
Regarding claim 7, 14 and 20, Ly further teaches wherein a trigger state corresponding to said one or more sub-configurations is initiated using a request field in the DCI (para 70: when CSI-RS and CSI reports are scheduled semi-persistently or aperiodically, the base station may trigger or activate CSI reporting on PUCCH via a MAC CE, or on PUSCH via a DCI; fig 6-11; para 90: the base station 904 may transmit a CSI report configuration 908 (e.g., CSI report configuration 702 of FIG. 7 or CSI report configuration 802 of FIG. 8) to the UE 902, followed by a message 910 (e.g., a MAC-CE 912 or DCI 914) triggering the UE at block 915 to measure CSI in one or more channel measurement resource sets in the CSI report configuration 908 (e.g., single NZP CMR resource set 704 in FIG. 7 or multiple NZP CMR resource sets 804 in FIG. 8)).
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.
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims, the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 3, 10 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ly et al. (US 20240357393) in view of Wang et al. (US 20250351068)
Regarding claim 3, 10 and 16, Ly teaches the limitations of the parent claim.
Ly teaches base station dynamically indicating whether the base station is transmitting CSI-RS in power saving resources or non-power saving resources, but fails to teach the bitmap for antenna configuration. Wang is directed to the indication information used for energy-saving of the network device (para 141).
Wang further teaches wherein each sub-configuration comprises a bitmap parameter (para 12: the antenna port indication information is bitmap indication information), the bitmap parameter comprises a bit sequence, each bit in the bit sequence corresponds to at least one antenna port, and wherein a predefined bit value of the bit indicates that the corresponding antenna port is disabled for the corresponding sub-configuration (para 262-267: a bitmap may be used to carry the antenna port muting and/or availability information (that is, the antenna port indication information is the bitmap indication information), the base station may notify the terminal of the mapping relationship between the bitmap and the antenna port, “0” is used to indicate that the availability of the corresponding port is “unavailable”, and “1” is used to indicate that the availability of the corresponding port is “available”, the UE may consider that the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the antenna port indicated as “unavailable” or “muting” by the dynamic signaling does not exist or is punctured). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine dynamic antenna port configuration for CSI-RS as taught by Ly with bitmap indication of antenna port for CSI-RS transmission as taught by Wang for the benefit of reducing the indication signaling overhead as taught by Wang in para 315.
Conclusion
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/RINA C PANCHOLI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 12/30/2025