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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huawei (On techniques aspects for network energy savings, 3GPP TSG-RAN WGl Meeting #111 Toulouse, France, November 14 - 18, 2022, cited in IDS) in view of Yu (20200396035).
Regarding claim 1, Huawei discloses an apparatus, comprising:
determine, based at least on a spatial pattern switching between at least two spatial patterns of a network device, one or more reference signal (RS) resources or RS occurrences from a plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences (section 4.1, the first approach may be implemented by configuring multiple CSI report config/resource corresponding to different spatial elements muting/switching patterns; to compensate changing CSI due to spatial pattern switching, the UE reports multiple CSIs for different spatial element muting/switching patterns; that is, the UE determines RS occurrences based on spatial pattern switching); and
transmit, to the network device, at least one report comprising one or more measurements based at least on the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences (Section 4.1, the UE measures and reports the multiple CSIs assuming different antenna port patterns; configuring multiple CSI report config/resource corresponding to different spatial elements muting/switching patterns).
Even though it is a common practice that a UE or gNb implicitly comprises a processor and memory to carry out the instructions, Huawei does not explicitly disclose the apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that carry out the instruction listed above.
Yu discloses the apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that carry out the instruction listed above (Yu, fig. 2).
Yu also discloses transmit, to the network device, at least one report comprising one or more measurements based at least on the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences (Yu, fig. 14, step 1416, [0138), terminal device 1430 may identify the repetition, out of all of the reference signal instances, that produced the highest radio measurement. Terminal device 1430 may then report this result back to network access node).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of energy saving as given by Huawei with the teachings of dynamically switching transmission patterns given by Yu. The motivation for doing so would have been to increase communication performance and reliability (Yu, [0042]).
Claims 12 and 19 are rejected similarly as claim 1.
Regarding claims 2, 13, discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences are associated with at least one of a channel state information (CSI) resource setting or a CSI report configuration (Section 4.1, configuring multiple CSI report config/resource corresponding to different spatial elements muting/switching patterns).
Regarding claims 3, 14, 20, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
wherein the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur after the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, BS can enable/update the shutdown pattern and dynamically indicate to UE, then UE measure accordingly); or
the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur after a time period from the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, BS can enable/update the shutdown pattern and dynamically indicate to UE, then UE measure accordingly); or
the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur before the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, the UE measures, possibly once, and reports the multiple CSIs assuming different antenna port patterns, then BS determines the accurate shutdown ports for UE); or
a part of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur before the spatial pattern switching and another part of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur after the spatial pattern switching.
Regarding claims 4, 15, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
receive, from the network device, information related to the spatial pattern switching, wherein the information indicates at least one of the following: the spatial pattern switching is applied when the information is received, the spatial pattern switching is applied after a time period when the information is received, or the spatial pattern switching is applied at a time instant or within a period of time (Section 4.1, configuring multiple CSI report config/resource corresponding to different spatial elements muting/switching patterns; BS can enable/update the shutdown pattern and dynamically indicate to UE, then UE measure accordingly; the UE measures, possibly once, and reports the multiple CSIs assuming different antenna port patterns, then BS determines the accurate shutdown ports for UE).
Regarding claims 5, 16, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
transmit, to the network device, an indication indicating at least one of the following:
the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur before the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, the UE measures, possibly once, and reports the multiple CSIs assuming different antenna port patterns, then BS determines the accurate shutdown ports for UE),
the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur after the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, BS can enable/update the shutdown pattern and dynamically indicate to UE, then UE measure accordingly); or
a part of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occurring before the spatial pattern switching and another part of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences occur after the spatial pattern switching.
Regarding claim 6, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the indication is comprised in uplink control information (section 4.1, the first approach may be implemented by configuring multiple CSI report config/resource corresponding to different spatial elements muting/switching patterns. Here, configuring the resource is control information) or uplink medium access control control element (Section 3.2, DE-specific MAC CE signaling would be exchanged between gNB and UEs to mute the symbols of the UE specific signals/channels), and/or is transmitted together with the one or more measurements.
Regarding claims 7, 17, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to: receive, from the network device, an indication indicating the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences to be determined by the apparatus from the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences (section 4.1, the first approach may be implemented by configuring multiple CSI report config/resource corresponding to different spatial elements muting/switching patterns; to compensate changing CSI due to spatial pattern switching, the UE reports multiple CSIs for different spatial element muting/switching patterns; that is, the UE determines RS occurrences based on spatial pattern switching).
Regarding claims 8, 18, Huawei and Yu disclose the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
obtain at least one rule for determining the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences from the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences (Section 3.2, the UE is configured with an ON duration within a C-DRX cycle via RRC dedicated configuration, here, the on duration can be considered as rule selecting resource; Section 4.2, two CSI reporting modes or rules can be configured by RRC, wherein mode 1 is for a UE to report X = 0, 1 or 2 single-TRP CSI(s) and one multi-TRP CSI, while mode 2 is for a UE to report one CSI which can be a single-TRP or multi-TRP CSI) , and the,
wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of the following:
the determination of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences are at least based at least on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring before the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, the UE measures, possibly once, and reports the multiple CSIs assuming different antenna port patterns, then BS determines the accurate shutdown ports for UE),
the determination of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences are at least based at least on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring after the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, BS can enable/update the shutdown pattern and dynamically indicate to UE, then UE measure accordingly),
the determination of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences are at least based on both a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring before the spatial pattern switching and another part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring after the spatial pattern switching,
the determination of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences are based at least on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring after a time period from the spatial pattern switching (Section 4.1, BS can enable/update the shutdown pattern and dynamically indicate to UE, then UE measure accordingly),
the determination of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences are at least based on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring before the spatial pattern switching, if a number of resource occasions corresponding to the part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences is greater than a threshold or a number of resource occasions corresponding to another part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring after the spatial pattern switching, or
the determination of the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences are at least based on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring after the spatial pattern switching, if a number of resource occasions corresponding to the part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences is greater than a threshold or a number of resource occasions corresponding to another part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring before the spatial pattern switching.
Regarding claim 9, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one report comprises a first report and a second report (Huawei, Section 4.1, Multiple CSI reports enhancement aims to enable UE reporting multiple CSIs in one CSI report/feedback, where each CSI result corresponds to a spatial elements muting pattern), wherein
the first report comprises one or more measurements based on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring after the spatial pattern switching and the second report comprises one or more measurements based on a part of the plurality of RS resources or RS occurrences occurring before the spatial pattern switching ( Yu, fig. 7, steps 710, 712, switching the pattern, then, performs measure, some measurements was performed before the switching, and some measurements are performed after the switching).
Regarding claim 10, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more RS resources or RS occurrences comprises at least one RS resources or RS occurrences corresponding to at least one CSI reference resource (Section 4.2, multiple NZP CSI-RS resources can be configured in a CSI-RS resource set).
Regarding claim 11, Huawei discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more measurements comprise CSI measurements and/or the RS comprises at least one of a CSI-RS, a synchronization signal block, SSB, a tracking reference signal, TRS, or a demodulation reference signal, DMRS (Section 4.1, CSI report/feedback includes CSI-RS configuration enhancement).
It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in most of the claims and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474