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 .
The examiner has determined that the claims in this case are not subject to a restriction.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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, 6, 8-10, 12-13, 16, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ibrahim et al. (2024/0,121,648).
For claim 1, Ibrahim teaches a method (abstract, background, summary and claims) of wireless communication (Para 31) of a user equipment (UE) (Para 32), comprising:
receiving a sounding reference signal (SRS) (Para 99) configuration (Para 46, 108, 115) from a base station (Para 34); and
transmitting a sounding reference signal (SRS) (Para 108) within a guard band (GB) (Para 75) frequency range (Para 42) in a frequency band (para 43) during a subband (sic) full-duplexing (SBFD) time unit (Paras 45-46, 56) based on the SRS configuration (Para 99).
For claim 6, Ibrahim teaches that the UE generates an SRS sequence for transmission within the GB frequency range, the SRS sequence being mapped to SRS resources (Para 172) configured by the SRS configuration and capable of being repeated over multiple symbols (Paras 49-50, 83).
For claim 8, Ibrahim teaches that a GB is non-contiguous (Para 58) in a frequency domain and comprises the GB frequency range and another frequency range (Paras 73, 81), wherein the UE is configured to perform SRS transmission in the GB frequency range and in the another (sic) frequency range (Paras 42-44).
For claim 9, Ibrahim teaches a method (abstract, background, summary and claims) of wireless communication (Para 31) of a user equipment (UE) (Para 32), comprising:
receiving a sounding reference signal (SRS) reference signal (Para 99) received power (RSRP) measurement (Para 115) configuration (Para 46, 108, 115) from a base station (Para 34);
performing SRS-RSRP measurements (Para 115) based on the received SRS-RSRP measurement configuration (Para 118) within a guard band (GB) (Para 75) in a frequency band (Para 42) during a subband full-duplexing (SBFD) time unit (Paras 45-46, 56); and
reporting SRS-RSRP measurement results to the base station (Para 99).
For claim 10, Ibrahim teaches that the SRS-RSRP measurement configuration indicates more than one symbol for performing the SRS-RSRP measurements (Paras 49-50, 83).
For claim 12, Ibrahim teaches that the GB comprises non-contiguous frequency resources and wherein performing the SRS-RSRP measurements comprises:
performing a first SRS-RSRP measurement on an SRS resource in a first portion of the GB (Paras 84-85);
performing a second SRS-RSRP measurement on the SRS resource in a second portion of the GB (Para 86, 102); and
combining results of the first and second SRS-RSRP measurements (Para 99).
For claim 13, Ibrahim teaches that the GB comprises contiguous frequency resources and wherein performing the SRS-RSRP measurements comprises:
performing a first SRS-RSRP measurement on a first SRS resource in the GB (Paras 84-85),
the method further comprising: performing a second SRS-RSRP measurement on a second SRS resource in another GB in the frequency band (Paras 86, 105).
For claim 14, Ibrahim teaches a method (abstrtact, background, summary and claims) of wireless communication (Para 31) of a user equipment (UE) (Para 32), comprising:
receiving, from a base station (Para 34), a configuration (Para 46, 108, 115) indicating one or more resource block (RB) groups (Para 165) within an uplink subband of a subband full-duplexing (SBFD) time unit (Paras 45-46, 56) over which cross-link interference (CLI) measurements are to be performed (Para 46);
performing the CLI measurements within the uplink subband on the indicated one or more RB groups during the SBFD time unit (Paras 84-86); and
reporting results of the CLI measurements to the base station, the results including one or more RB group indices to indicate the one or more RB groups on which CLI was measured (Para 99).
For claim 16, Ibrahim teaches that the results comprises indices of one or more RBs, in an RB group, on which the measured CLI exceeds a predefined threshold (Paras 136, 145).
For claim 18, Ibrahim teaches that reporting the results further comprises: reporting time and frequency locations at which CLI measurements were performed (Para 73).
For claim 19, Ibrahim teaches that the time location indicates a time unit in which CLI was measured (Para 84).
For claim 20, Ibrahim teaches that the frequency locations indicate a specific resource block in which CLI was measured (Paras 145-147).
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.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ibrahim as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Xiong et al. (2025/0,226,899).
For claim 2, Ibrahim does not expressly disclose that the SRS configuration specifies a frequency range in which the SRS is to be transmitted. Xiong teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that includes that the SRS configuration specifies a frequency range in which the SRS is to be transmitted (Paras 110-111). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Xiong in order to provide improvements to resource allocation (Para 4).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ibrahim and Xiong as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Joseph et al. (11,765,737).
For claim 3, Ibrahim does not disclose that the frequency range contains an integer number of resource blocks (RBs) within the GB that are other than multiples of four for RB allocation. Joseph teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that includes that the frequency range contains an integer number of resource blocks (RBs) (col. 8, lines 5-30) within the GB that are other than multiples of four for RB allocation (col. 15, line 20 – col. 16, line 5; RB can be multiples of 2). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Joseph in order to provide improvements to the handling of wireless networks (col. 1, lines 35-67).
Claim(s) 4, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ibrahim as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Xu et al. (12,455,871).
For claim 4, Ibrahim does not expressly disclose the limitations. Xu teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) wherein the SRS configuration specifies a comb factor for the SRS transmission (col. 11, lines 20-67), the comb factor determining a frequency domain resource sharing interval among multiple UEs (col. 23, line 65 – col. 24, line 25). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Xu in order to provide improvements to managing CLI in uplink/downlink interference (col. 1, lines 40-65).
For claim 15, Xu teaches that for each RB group (col. 18, lines 25-55), an index of an RB (col. 24, lines 30-65) with a highest CLI among the RBs of that RB group (col. 24, line 65 – col. 25, line 30).
Claim(s) 5, 11, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ibrahim as applied to claims 1, 8 above, and further in view of Ibrahim (2)(2023/0,146,833).
For claim 5, Ibrahim does not expressly disclose the limitations. Ibrahim (2) teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that includes receiving, from the base station, a higher layer parameter (Paras 40, 61) that indicates a specific set of time units (Paras 57-59) in which an SRS transmission within the GB frequency range (Paras 77-79) are to be skipped (paras 101, 115). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Ibrahim in order to provide improvements to CLI (Paras 32-34).
For claim 11, Ibrahim (2) teaches skipping SRS-RSRP measurements (paras 101, 115) for a time unit (Paras 57-59) where GB resources are not available (Paras 77-79) based on an indication received from the base station via a higher layer parameter (Paras 40, 61).
For claim 17, Ibrahim (2) teaches further comprising: receiving an indication from the base station (Paras 40, 61) to skip CLI measurements for one or more time units (paras 101, 115).
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ibrahim as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (12,425,906).
For claim 7, Ibrahim does not expressly disclose the limitation. Kim teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) and further teaches a GB comprises the GB frequency range and is contiguous in a frequency domain (col. 18, lines 30-40; col. 19, line 55 – col. 20, line 25), wherein the UE is configured to perform SRS transmission in the GB frequency range (col. 18, line 60 – col. 19, line 55). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Kim in order to provide improvements to power consumption (col. 1, lines 55-65).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELVIN H POLLACK whose telephone number is (571)272-3887. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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/MELVIN H POLLACK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445