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 .
D1 Nokia: Discussion on RRM L3 enhancements for multi Rx DL in FR2
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, 4-7, 9-16, 19, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim US 20250309952 in view of D1.
Regarding claim 1, 15, 16, an apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
receive a physical downlink shared channel with a plurality of layers from at least two network nodes (Here, N TPs transmit one PDSCH, but each TP transmits only some layers of multiple layers included in one PDSCH, [0112]);
receive at least one downlink control information, wherein the at least one downlink control information is configured to schedule at least one layer during a measurement window using, at least, a first transmission configuration indication and a second transmission configuration indication, wherein the first transmission configuration indication is associated with a first network node of the at least two network nodes, wherein the second transmission configuration indication is associated with a second network node of the at least two network nodes (Here, N TPs transmit one PDSCH, but each TP transmits only some layers of multiple layers included in one PDSCH, [0112], A CSI measurement window may refer to a time interval (or time unit(s)) during which a channel/interference may be measured for CSI calculation, [0252]);
during the measurement window, perform at least one measurement ([0252]).
Although Kim teaches a measurement window, the reference is silent on during the measurement window, perform receiving or transmission with the at least one layer, wherein a number of layers of the at least one layer is less than a number of layers of the plurality of layers received by the apparatus outside of the measurement window.
D1 teaches during the measurement window, perform receiving or transmission with the at least one layer (fig. 4b, 4c, observation 5). Although D1 does not explicitly state wherein a number of layers of the at least one layer is less than a number of layers of the plurality of layers received by the apparatus outside of the measurement window, it is certainly implied, in addition to (fig. 4b, 4c, observation 5), Proposal 5 D1 states, “scheduling restrictions apply when the UE is performing RRM measurements …, one symbol before and after the SSB symbols are not available for the UE to be scheduled, since one Rx the UE might be changing the spatial filter parameters while doing RRM measurements… Additionally, since the SMTC is the same for several UEs in the network, most of the UEs will be restricted to the same symbols and that leaves very small room for the network to schedule UEs”.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Kim by during the measurement window, perform receiving or transmission with the at least one layer, wherein a number of layers of the at least one layer is less than a number of layers of the plurality of layers received by the apparatus outside of the measurement window, as suggested by D1. This modification would benefit the system since simultaneously measuring and receiving data will efficiently use system resources.
Regarding claims 4, 19, wherein the at least one measurement is performed based on at least one of:
at least one synchronization signal burst,
at least one synchronization signal block measurement timing configuration,
at least one synchronization configuration,
at least one physical broadcast channel block measurement timing configuration,
at least one measurement timing configuration ([0252]),
at least one channel state information reference signal (Kim: CSI-RS, [0211]), or
at least one reference signal, other than the at least one channel state information reference signal, of which the apparatus is required to perform measurements.
Regarding claim 5, 20, wherein the at least one measurement is performed with a first receiver chain of the apparatus, wherein the receiving with the at least one layer is performed with a second receiver chain of the apparatus (D1: fig. 4b, 4c, Proposal 7).
Regarding claim 6, wherein the at least one non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least
to:
determine to use the first receiver chain to perform the at least one measurement; and
determine to use the second receiver chain to receive with the at least one layer (D1: fig. 4b, 4c, Proposal 7).
Regarding claim 7, wherein the physical downlink shared channel is received with the at least one layer from at least one of:
the first network node, or
the second network node (Kim: Here, N TPs transmit one PDSCH, but each TP transmits only some layers of
multiple layers included in one PDSCH, [0112]).
Regarding claim 9, wherein the at least two network nodes are non-collocated (Kim: fig. 7).
Regarding claim 10, wherein the apparatus is using single downlink control information scheduling (Meanwhile, a scheme in which one representative TP delivers scheduling information on data transmitted by itself and data transmitted by a different TP (i.e., a TP participating in NCJT) through one DCI is referred to as ‘single DCI based NCJT, [0112]).
Regarding claim 12, wherein the apparatus is operating in a non-single frequency network (Kim: FR1, FR2, [0078).
Regarding claim 13, wherein the apparatus is operating in a single frequency network (Kim: SDM, TDM, [0126]).
Regarding claim 14, wherein the at least one downlink control information is received from a same network node, of the at least two network nodes, as the physical downlink shared channel (As each of N TPs participating in NCJT transmission transmits DL grant DCI and a PDSCH to UE, UE receives N DCI and N PDSCHs from N TPs. Meanwhile, a scheme in which one representative TP delivers scheduling information on data transmitted by itself and data transmitted by a different TP (i.e., a TP participating in NCJT) through one DCI is referred to as ‘single DCI based NCJT’. Here, N TPs transmit one PDSCH, but each TP transmits only some layers of multiple layers included in one PDSCH, [0112]).
Claim(s) 2, 3, 17, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Kim and D1 as applied to claims 1 above, and further in view of Ang US 20160330782.
Regarding claims 2, 17, although D1 teaches layer reduction during the measurement window (Proposal 5), the reference does not explicitly state, transmit, to at least one of the at least two network nodes, an indication of support for layer reduction.
Ang teaches transmit, to at least one of the at least two network nodes, an indication of support for layer reduction ([0122]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of the combination by transmit, to at least one of the at least two network nodes, an indication of support for layer reduction during the measurement window, as suggested by Ang. This modification would benefit the system by enabling the UE to inform the network of its capabilities with respect to layer reduction.
Regarding claims 3, 18, indication of support for layer reduction during the measurement window comprises a capability indication (Ang: [0122]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
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/RONALD B ABELSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476