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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements submitted on November 21, 2024 and January 13, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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)(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 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kons et al. (Kons), U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2022/0086694.
Regarding claim 1, Kons discloses a method for channel information feedback, applied to a terminal device (UE/first wireless device), and comprising: receiving a first reference signal from a network device (base station/BS/second wireless device) (the BS may transmit reference signals to the UE) (0178); obtaining a first channel state matrix based on the first reference signal (estimating, by the first wireless device, from the receiving the reference signals, a covariance matrix based on a sparse representation of wireless channels between the one or more receiving antennas and the transmitter of the second wireless device) (0665); performing sampling (compression) on the first channel state matrix inherently based on a first sparse pattern, to obtain a sparse channel state matrix, wherein the first sparse pattern is configured by the network device (since the sparse pattern is inherently based on the number of antennas used by the BS/network device to transmit the reference signals) and the first sparse pattern is used for performing sampling on at least one dimension of the first channel state matrix (In typical implementations, these are extremely high dimensional vectors and that in practice some form of compression should be used. For example, principal component compression may be one compression technique used) (0285); and sending first channel information (feedback information) to the network device, wherein the first channel information indicates the sparse channel state matrix (CSI is fed back from the UE to BS through a feedback up-link channel.) (0544); see also 0140-0144 and 0156.
Regarding claim 6, Kons discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein dimensions of the first channel state matrix comprise at least one of an antenna dimension of the terminal device, an antenna dimension of the network device, a frequency domain dimension corresponding to the first reference signal, or a time domain dimension corresponding to the first reference signal; and the first sparse pattern indicates at least one of the following: an index of at least one antenna in the antenna dimension of the terminal device, an index of at least one antenna in the antenna dimension of the network device, inherently an index of at least one frequency domain unit in the frequency domain dimension, or an index of at least one time domain unit in the time domain dimension (a covariance matrix for the channel, R.sub.HH, can be constructed for any desired frequency, time and space instances. This can be applied for predicting the channel response in any one of these dimensions.) (0142).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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.
Regarding claim 2, the closest prior art of record, Kons, fails to suggest or render obvious, taken individually or collectively, a method or apparatus, as claimed as a whole, sending a second reference signal to the network device, wherein the second reference signal is used to train a neural network corresponding to the first sparse pattern, and the neural network is used to recover the first channel state matrix based on the sparse channel state matrix.
Regarding claims 3-5, they are indicated allowable based on their dependence from claim 2.
Claims 7-20 are allowed.
Regarding claims 7-20, the closest prior art of record, Kons, fails to suggest or render obvious, taken individually or collectively, a method or apparatus as claimed as a whole, sending a first reference signal to a terminal device; receiving first channel information from the terminal device, wherein the first channel information indicates a sparse channel state matrix, the sparse channel state matrix is obtained by performing sampling on at least one dimension of a first channel state matrix by using a first sparse pattern, and the first channel state matrix is determined based on the first reference signal; and processing the sparse channel state matrix through a neural network, to obtain a second channel state matrix, wherein the second channel state matrix is a recovery value of the first channel state matrix, and the neural network is trained by using data obtained by performing sampling based on the first sparse pattern, as explicitly claimed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yoo et al., U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0266787, discloses compressed measurement feedback using an encoder neural network.
Truong et al., U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2017/0126437, discloses a method and apparatus for downlink channel estimation in massive MIMO.
Ko et al., U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2015/0372740, discloses a method and apparatus for reporting channel state information in a wireless communication system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TEMICA M. BEAMER whose telephone number is (571)272-7797. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday; 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D. Anderson can be reached at 571-272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TEMICA M BEAMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646