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 . Claims 1-9, 11-20 are pending.
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.
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 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NPL “FAPI and nFAPI Specifications” (hereinafter referred to as Small Cell Forum) in view of Zhang et al. (US# 2020/0196316 hereinafter referred to as Zhang) and Dinan et al. (US# 2018/0279229 hereinafter referred to as Dinan).
RE Claim 13, Small Cell Forum discloses a method for an O-DU functional application platform interface (FAPI) (See Small Cell Forum Title) comprising:
requesting, by an O-DU L2 layer, a sub band correlation information for a group of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resources in a time instance (See Small Cell Forum pg. 57 – Measurement.request indicates in second line of the table “Measurement period in ms”, the measurements only can happen when there is transmission/reception, “This message is sent by the VNG when the PHY is in the RUNNING state”).
Small Cell Forum does not specifically disclose one or more other groups of SRS resources in another time instance with a GroupId parameter.
However, Zhang teaches of one or more other groups of SRS resources in another time instance (See Zhang [0057], [0079], [0081], [0091] – scheduling request for resources on different time resources).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to implement the FAPI interface in an O-RAN system, as disclosed in Small Cell Forum, comprising one or more other groups of SRS resources in another time instance, as taught in Zhang. One is motivated as such in order to improve spectral efficiency, improve services, and better integrating with other open standards (See Zhang Background; Summary).
Small Cell Forum, modified by Zhang, does not specifically disclose sending the request message comprising a GroupId parameter.
However, Dinan teaches of sending the request message comprising a GroupId parameter (See Dinan [0142] – request message including Group ID & TTI duration/numerology).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to implement the FAPI interface in an O-RAN system, as disclosed in Small Cell Forum, modified by Zhang, further comprising sending the request message comprising a GroupId parameter, as taught in Dinan. One is motivated as such in order to improve network communication efficiency and throughput (See Dinan [0157], [0172]).
RE Claim 14¸ Small Cell Forum, modified by Zhang and Dinan, discloses a method, as set forth in claim 13 above, further comprising: sending the sub-band correlation information as an array for all requested correlations over all sub-bands (See Small Cell Forum pg. 58 – Table 2-32 – data structure containing the received interference power measurement for each physical RB) as indicated in a sub-band bitmap parameter in a single message (See Zhang [0104], [0107]-[0111] – indicating sub-band correlation information using bitmap).
RE Claim 15, Small Cell Forum, modified by Zhang and Dinan, discloses a method, as set forth in claim 13 above, further comprising: performing, by the 0-DU L2 layer, a user pairing for a Multiple User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU MIMO) transmission over Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) of a corresponding sub band based on the sub-band correlation information (See Zhang [0097], [0101]-[0102], [0108] – using sub-band correlation information for resource mapping).
RE Claim 16, Small Cell Forum, modified by Zhang and Dinan, discloses a method, as set forth in claim 14 above, further comprising: performing, by the 0-DU L2 layer, a user pairing for a Multiple User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU MIMO) transmission over Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) of a corresponding sub band based on the sub-band correlation information (See Zhang [0097], [0101]-[0102], [0108] – using sub-band correlation information for resource mapping).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9, 11-12, 17-20 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: Prior art teaches of a FAPI interface in an O-RAN system (See Small Cell Forum), comprising requesting, by an O-DU L2 layer, a TTI request message for sub-band correlation information over SRS resources (See Small Cell Forum), the sub-band correlation information including a sub-band size for the sub-band correlation information, from an O-DU L1 layer (See Small Cell Forum); and sending, by the O-DU L1 layer, the sub-band correlation information computed over the SRS resources to the O-DU L2 layer (See Small Cell Forum). In addition, prior art teaches of the sub-band correlation information including a sub-band bitmap parameter that can be bitmap of subband sets (See Zhang), an Open RAN system with correlation matrices (See Narashima Swamy), and indicating an MxM correlation matrix (See Guo). However, prior art does not specifically disclose, nor would it have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine to produce:
“a method for a FAPI interface in an O-RAN system comprising:
An OPEN-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU);
An OPEN-RAN Distributed Unit (O-DU);
The method comprising;
requesting, by an O-DU L2 layer, a transmission time interval (TTI) request message for sub-band correlation information over Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resources, the sub-band correlation information including a sub-band bitmap parameter, and a sub-band size for the sub-band correlation information, from an O-DU L-1 layer; and
sending, by the O-DU L1 layer, the sub-band correlation information computed over the SRS resources to the O-DU L2 layer, wherein the sub-band correlation information includes a User Equipment (UE) correlation matrix C[M*M], M being a number of configured SRS resources for connected UEs in a cell”, as claimed (emphasis added).
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/30/2025 have been fully considered.
Regarding Claims 1-9, 11-12, 17-20, see Allowable Subject Matter section above.
Regarding Claims 13-16, the instant claims were not amended to include the subject matter of independent claims 1 and 17, only to correct minor informalities. In addition, there does not appear to be arguments regarding the prior art rejections for claims 13-16. Therefore Claims 13-16 remain rejected under the same grounds as previously presented (See Claims 13-16 above).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Steve R Young whose telephone number is (571)270-7518. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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, Chirag G Shah can be reached at (571) 272-3144. 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.
/STEVE R YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477