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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4-8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al. (US 2020/0177252).
Regarding claim 1, Park discloses
A method comprising:
identifying an analog codebook having a plurality of beamformers (¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook);
identifying a digital codebook having a plurality of precoders (¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)); and
performing a transmit beam sweeping across the plurality of beamformers of the analog codebook (¶ [0267]: When the base station uses multiple analog beams, each UE may require different analog beams for their signal reception. Thus, for synchronization signals, system information, and paging, beam sweeping may be taken into consideration so that the multiple analog beams to be used by the base station in a particular subframe (SF) are changed for each symbol to allow every UE to have an opportunity to receive) by generating a beam management-reference signal (BM-RS) for transmission with a plurality of beam transmissions that respectively correspond to the plurality of beamformers (¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook),
wherein for a first beam transmission of the plurality of beam transmissions (¶ [0267]: [0267] When the base station uses multiple analog beams, each UE may require different analog beams for their signal reception. Thus, for synchronization signals, system information, and paging, beam sweeping may be taken into consideration so that the multiple analog beams to be used by the base station in a particular subframe (SF) are changed for each symbol to allow every UE to have an opportunity to receive), generating the BM-RS includes generating at least two orthogonal or pseudo-orthogonal BM-RS sequences (¶ [0141]: In order to measure a CSI-RS, a UE must be aware of information about the transmission subframe index of the CSI-RS for each CSI-RS antenna port of a cell to which the UE belongs, the location of a CSI-RS resource element (RE) time-frequency within a transmission subframe, and a CSI-RS sequence; ¶ [0142]: When one eNB transmits CSI-RSs for different antenna ports, it may orthogonally allocate the resources according to the FDM/TDM scheme by mapping the CSI-RSs for the respective antenna ports to different REs. Alternatively, the CSI-RSs for different antenna ports may be transmitted according to the CDM scheme for mapping the CSI-RSs to pieces of code orthogonal to each other; ¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0234]: Pseudo-random sequence generator parameter (n_ID)) for transmission across at least two radio-frequency (RF) chains (¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N) based on the at least two precoders of the plurality of precoders (¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)).
Regarding claim 18 referring to claim 1, Park discloses An apparatus comprising: a hybrid beamformer having a digital precoder, at least two a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) chains, and an analog beamformer; and processing circuitry coupled with the hybrid beamformer, the processing circuitry to: … (See the rejection for claim 1).
Regarding claim 4, Park discloses
further comprising: transmitting an indication of whether transmission of the BM-RS is with a single port or a plurality of ports (¶ [0141]: In order to measure a CSI-RS, a UE must be aware of information about the transmission subframe index of the CSI-RS for each CSI-RS antenna port of a cell to which the UE belongs, the location of a CSI-RS resource element (RE) time-frequency within a transmission subframe, and a CSI-RS sequence; ¶ [0142]: When one eNB transmits CSI-RSs for different antenna ports, it may orthogonally allocate the resources according to the FDM/TDM scheme by mapping the CSI-RSs for the respective antenna ports to different REs. Alternatively, the CSI-RSs for different antenna ports may be transmitted according to the CDM scheme for mapping the CSI-RSs to pieces of code orthogonal to each other; ¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0234]: Pseudo-random sequence generator parameter (n_ID)).
Regarding claim 5, Park discloses
further comprising: receiving, from a user equipment after performing the transmit beam sweeping, a report that includes a beam management (BM) metric, an analog beam index to identify one of the plurality of beamformers; and a digital beam index to identify one of the at least two precoders (¶ [0346]: if the beam gain is lower than or equal to a particular threshold, the UE may trigger CSI-RS port transmission for the selection codebook or report a beam index (e.g., the second best beam index) different from the beam index reported immediately before reference resource reception; ¶ [0348]: In beam sweeping, as the number of beams increases (i.e., as K, L, o1, and o2 increase), a larger number of OFDM symbols used for beam sweeping and/or more CSI-RS ports are required and the complexity of calculation by the UE increases much. If the total number of antenna elements or K*L is equal to the number of CSI-RSs supported in NR, the UE may measure channels and report the best analog beam and/or digital beam by using NP CSI-RS (i.e., through 1:1 element-to-port mapping)).
Regarding claim 6, Park discloses
further comprising: selecting a transmit beam based on the report (¶ [0351]: the UE may report the best analog beam index to the base station, and, with this, the base station may transmit, to the UE, N_ports CSI-RS using analog beamforming (corresponding to the analog beam index reported by the UE) for the second CSI-RS resource).
Regarding claim 7, Park discloses
wherein the digital codebook is a co-phasing based (¶ [0353]: Digital Codebook; ¶ [0354]: In the New RAT, LTE codebooks or class A codebook may be re-used. Such codebooks have a dual-stage structure, and examples of this structure include Rel-10 8Tx, Rel-12 4Tx, Rel-13 12Tx, 16Tx, Rel-14 20-, 24-, 28-, and 32Tx codebooks. In the dual-stage structure (i.e., W=W1*W2), W1 serves to determine a specific number of beam groups with the long-term/wideband characteristics, and W2 serves to select beams within a beam group with the short-term/subband characteristics, determined as W1, and perform co-phasing under an X-pol antenna situation; ¶ [0357]: the present invention proposes to configure a 2-port codebook of rank 1 and rank 2 using 8-PSK for co-phasing).
Regarding claim 8, Park discloses
further comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), an indication of the digital codebook (¶ [0353] Proposal 2) Digital Codebook; ¶ [0363]: the base station may inform the UE of specific information corresponding to the a value and/or ϕ.sub.n co-phasing size by RRC or pre-agree with the UE).
Regarding claim 10, Park discloses
A method comprising:
identifying a digital codebook having a plurality of precoders (¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)); and
identifying an analog codebook having a plurality of beamformers (¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook);
receiving, as a part of a transmit beam sweeping operation (¶ [0267]: When the base station uses multiple analog beams, each UE may require different analog beams for their signal reception. Thus, for synchronization signals, system information, and paging, beam sweeping may be taken into consideration so that the multiple analog beams to be used by the base station in a particular subframe (SF) are changed for each symbol to allow every UE to have an opportunity to receive), a plurality of beam transmissions that transmit a beam management-reference signal (BM-RS) wherein the plurality of beam transmission respectively correspond to the plurality of beamformers (¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook) and, for a first beam transmission of the plurality of beam transmissions (¶ [0267]: [0267] When the base station uses multiple analog beams, each UE may require different analog beams for their signal reception. Thus, for synchronization signals, system information, and paging, beam sweeping may be taken into consideration so that the multiple analog beams to be used by the base station in a particular subframe (SF) are changed for each symbol to allow every UE to have an opportunity to receive), the device is to receive at least two orthogonal or pseudo-orthogonal BM-RS sequences (¶ [0141]: In order to measure a CSI-RS, a UE must be aware of information about the transmission subframe index of the CSI-RS for each CSI-RS antenna port of a cell to which the UE belongs, the location of a CSI-RS resource element (RE) time-frequency within a transmission subframe, and a CSI-RS sequence; ¶ [0142]: When one eNB transmits CSI-RSs for different antenna ports, it may orthogonally allocate the resources according to the FDM/TDM scheme by mapping the CSI-RSs for the respective antenna ports to different REs. Alternatively, the CSI-RSs for different antenna ports may be transmitted according to the CDM scheme for mapping the CSI-RSs to pieces of code orthogonal to each other; ¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0234]: Pseudo-random sequence generator parameter (n_ID)) based on at least two precoders, respectively (¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2));
determining a beam management (BM) metric by jointly performing an analog beam measurement and digital channel estimation (¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0351]: for efficient use of the codebook, the base station may transmit NP CSI-RS in K*L ports in the first CSI-RS resource according to the UE's analog codebook feedback period, assuming that the same analog beam applies to every port. In this case, the UE may report the best analog beam index to the base station, and, with this, the base station may transmit, to the UE, N_ports CSI-RS using analog beamforming (corresponding to the analog beam index reported by the UE) for the second CSI-RS resource. The UE may give report/feedback (i.e., digital codebook feedback) to the base station about the RI, PMI and/or CQI for/corresponding to N_ports. The aforementioned two resources (i.e., the first and second CSI-RS resources) may have different periods and/or offsets. If collision occurs between the two resources, the resource for analog beamforming (i.e., the resource for determining an analog beam; the first CSI-RS resource in the above example) has a higher priority level), wherein the BM metric is associated with a beam transmission of the plurality of beam transmissions (¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook) and a precoder of the at least two plurality of precoders (¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)); and
generating, for transmission, a report that includes a first index (¶ [0346]: if the beam gain is lower than or equal to a particular threshold, the UE may trigger CSI-RS port transmission for the selection codebook or report a beam index (e.g., the second best beam index) different from the beam index reported immediately before reference resource reception; ¶ [0351]: for efficient use of the codebook, the base station may transmit NP CSI-RS in K*L ports in the first CSI-RS resource according to the UE's analog codebook feedback period, assuming that the same analog beam applies to every port. In this case, the UE may report the best analog beam index to the base station, and, with this, the base station may transmit, to the UE, N_ports CSI-RS using analog beamforming (corresponding to the analog beam index reported by the UE) for the second CSI-RS resource) associated with the beam transmission (¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook) and a second index (¶ [0346]: if the beam gain is lower than or equal to a particular threshold, the UE may trigger CSI-RS port transmission for the selection codebook or report a beam index (e.g., the second best beam index) different from the beam index reported immediately before reference resource reception; ¶ [0351]: The UE may give report/feedback (i.e., digital codebook feedback) to the base station about the RI, PMI and/or CQI for/corresponding to N_ports) associated with the precoder (¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)).
Regarding claim 11, Park discloses
wherein the report further includes the BM metric (¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0351]: for efficient use of the codebook, the base station may transmit NP CSI-RS in K*L ports in the first CSI-RS resource according to the UE's analog codebook feedback period, assuming that the same analog beam applies to every port. In this case, the UE may report the best analog beam index to the base station, and, with this, the base station may transmit, to the UE, N_ports CSI-RS using analog beamforming (corresponding to the analog beam index reported by the UE) for the second CSI-RS resource. The UE may give report/feedback (i.e., digital codebook feedback) to the base station about the RI, PMI and/or CQI for/corresponding to N_ports. The aforementioned two resources (i.e., the first and second CSI-RS resources) may have different periods and/or offsets. If collision occurs between the two resources, the resource for analog beamforming (i.e., the resource for determining an analog beam; the first CSI-RS resource in the above example) has a higher priority level).
Regarding claim 13, Park discloses
wherein, for individual beam transmissions of the plurality of beam transmissions, the method comprises: estimating at least two channels between at least two radio frequency (RF) chains of the device and a receiver based on the at least two precoders (¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0348]: In beam sweeping, as the number of beams increases (i.e., as K, L, o1, and o2 increase), a larger number of OFDM symbols used for beam sweeping and/or more CSI-RS ports are required and the complexity of calculation by the UE increases much. If the total number of antenna elements or K*L is equal to the number of CSI-RSs supported in NR, the UE may measure channels and report the best analog beam and/or digital beam by using NP CSI-RS (i.e., through 1:1 element-to-port mapping; ¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)).
Regarding claim 14, Park discloses
further comprising: calculating a plurality of BM metrics corresponding to the plurality of beam transmissions and the at least two precoders; and selecting the BM metric from the plurality of BM metrics based on the BM metric being a largest of the plurality of BM metrics (¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0348]: In beam sweeping, as the number of beams increases (i.e., as K, L, o1, and o2 increase), a larger number of OFDM symbols used for beam sweeping and/or more CSI-RS ports are required and the complexity of calculation by the UE increases much. If the total number of antenna elements or K*L is equal to the number of CSI-RSs supported in NR, the UE may measure channels and report the best analog beam and/or digital beam by using NP CSI-RS (i.e., through 1:1 element-to-port mapping; ¶ [0353] Digital Codebook; ¶ [0366] To apply the aforementioned 2-port codebooks to a unified framework of the dual-stage structure, W1 (matrix) may be assumed as a square matrix (I), and the codebooks of Table 4 or Table 5 may be applied as W2 (matrix) (i.e., W=W1*W2=1*W2)).
Regarding claim 16, Park discloses
wherein the digital codebook is a co-phasing based codebook or a discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-based codebook (¶ [0353]: Digital Codebook; ¶ [0354]: In the New RAT, LTE codebooks or class A codebook may be re-used. Such codebooks have a dual-stage structure, and examples of this structure include Rel-10 8Tx, Rel-12 4Tx, Rel-13 12Tx, 16Tx, Rel-14 20-, 24-, 28-, and 32Tx codebooks. In the dual-stage structure (i.e., W=W1*W2), W1 serves to determine a specific number of beam groups with the long-term/wideband characteristics, and W2 serves to select beams within a beam group with the short-term/subband characteristics, determined as W1, and perform co-phasing under an X-pol antenna situation; ¶ [0357]: the present invention proposes to configure a 2-port codebook of rank 1 and rank 2 using 8-PSK for co-phasing).
Regarding claim 20, Park discloses
wherein the processing circuitry is further to: receive a report that includes a beam management (BM) metric, an analog beam index to identify one of the plurality of beamformers; and a digital beam index to identify one of the at least two precoders (¶ [0346]: if the beam gain is lower than or equal to a particular threshold, the UE may trigger CSI-RS port transmission for the selection codebook or report a beam index (e.g., the second best beam index) different from the beam index reported immediately before reference resource reception; ¶ [0348]: In beam sweeping, as the number of beams increases (i.e., as K, L, o1, and o2 increase), a larger number of OFDM symbols used for beam sweeping and/or more CSI-RS ports are required and the complexity of calculation by the UE increases much. If the total number of antenna elements or K*L is equal to the number of CSI-RSs supported in NR, the UE may measure channels and report the best analog beam and/or digital beam by using NP CSI-RS (i.e., through 1:1 element-to-port mapping)); and
select a transmit beam based on the report (¶ [0351]: the UE may report the best analog beam index to the base station, and, with this, the base station may transmit, to the UE, N_ports CSI-RS using analog beamforming (corresponding to the analog beam index reported by the UE) for the second CSI-RS resource).
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 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 3, 9, 12, 15, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2020/0177252) in view of Vieira et al. (US 2023/0403063).
Regarding claims 3, 15, and 19, Park discloses
further comprising: … the BM-RS to generate the at least two orthogonal or pseudo-orthogonal BM-RS sequences (¶ [0141]: In order to measure a CSI-RS, a UE must be aware of information about the transmission subframe index of the CSI-RS for each CSI-RS antenna port of a cell to which the UE belongs, the location of a CSI-RS resource element (RE) time-frequency within a transmission subframe, and a CSI-RS sequence; ¶ [0142]: When one eNB transmits CSI-RSs for different antenna ports, it may orthogonally allocate the resources according to the FDM/TDM scheme by mapping the CSI-RSs for the respective antenna ports to different REs. Alternatively, the CSI-RSs for different antenna ports may be transmitted according to the CDM scheme for mapping the CSI-RSs to pieces of code orthogonal to each other; ¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0234]: Pseudo-random sequence generator parameter (n_ID)).
Park discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of applying an orthogonal cover code (OCC) or a space frequency block coding (SFBC) to the BM-RS. Vieira from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses applying an orthogonal cover code (OCC) or a space frequency block coding (SFBC) (¶ [0158]: Orthogonal Cover Code) to the BM-RS (¶ [0045] In general, as an alternative or addition, the UE (or feedback radio node) and BS (or signaling radio node) may conduct different parts of the signal processing operations that need to take place in order to estimate the best BS beam. A sequence of possible processing steps or actions are described below, which may be performed by a receiver or transmitter based on measurements on beams of the training codebook (when they are received); if processing is performed by the transmitter, it may be on measurement reporting and/or data representative of the measurements, e.g. transmitted by the receiver. In general, measurements on training beams may pertain to one or more beam signaling characteristics, in particular signal strength and/or signal quality, e.g. SIR, SINR, RSSP, RSPQ, EPRE, SNR, etc.; It may be assumed that a receiver can determine such, e.g. based on beam parameters (e.g., for transmission power) and/or signaling in the beam, e.g. reference signaling like synchronisation signaling (e.g. SSB and/or PSS and/or SSS and/or PBCH and/or CSI-RS or other forms of reference signaling).). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Park by estimate best beam based on measurements (e.g., SIR, SINR, RSSP, RSPQ, EPRE, SNR, etc.) on beams of training codebook and signaling in the beam, e.g. reference signaling like synchronisation signaling (e.g. SSB and/or PSS and/or SSS and/or PBCH and/or CSI-RS or other forms of reference signaling applied by OCC, etc. of Vieira The motivation would have been to provide improved approaches of handling beam selection (Vieira ¶ [0003]).
Regarding claims 9 and 17, Park discloses
wherein the BM-RS … (¶ [0226] Definition of CSI(Channel-State Information)—Reference Signal(CSI-RS); ¶ [0265]: FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a hybrid beamforming structure from the perspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 15, the number of digital beams is L, and the number of analog beams is N; ¶ [0328]: In an analog beam selection codebook, particular N_A analog beamforming beams (e.g., the N_A value may be set to L*O_1TXRU*K*O_2TXRU or set/defined to a specific value the base station informs the UE of) may be mapped to N_A CSI-RS ports (or specific ports for analog beamforming), and the UE may report a (selected) PMI using a port selection codebook).
Park discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the BM-RS is a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) or a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) demodulation reference signal (DMRS). Vieira from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses wherein the BM-RS is a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) or a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (¶ [0045] In general, as an alternative or addition, the UE (or feedback radio node) and BS (or signaling radio node) may conduct different parts of the signal processing operations that need to take place in order to estimate the best BS beam. A sequence of possible processing steps or actions are described below, which may be performed by a receiver or transmitter based on measurements on beams of the training codebook (when they are received); if processing is performed by the transmitter, it may be on measurement reporting and/or data representative of the measurements, e.g. transmitted by the receiver. In general, measurements on training beams may pertain to one or more beam signaling characteristics, in particular signal strength and/or signal quality, e.g. SIR, SINR, RSSP, RSPQ, EPRE, SNR, etc.; It may be assumed that a receiver can determine such, e.g. based on beam parameters (e.g., for transmission power) and/or signaling in the beam, e.g. reference signaling like synchronisation signaling (e.g. SSB and/or PSS and/or SSS and/or PBCH and/or CSI-RS or other forms of reference signaling).). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Park by estimate best beam based on measurements (e.g., SIR, SINR, RSSP, RSPQ, EPRE, SNR, etc.) on beams of training codebook and signaling in the beam, e.g. reference signaling like synchronisation signaling (e.g. SSB and/or PSS and/or SSS and/or PBCH and/or CSI-RS or other forms of reference signaling of Vieira. The motivation would have been to provide improved approaches of handling beam selection (Vieira ¶ [0003]).
Regarding claim 12, Park discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the BM metric is a reference signal receive power (RSRP) value or a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) value. Vieira from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses wherein the BM metric is a reference signal receive power (RSRP) value or a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) value (¶ [0045] In general, as an alternative or addition, the UE (or feedback radio node) and BS (or signaling radio node) may conduct different parts of the signal processing operations that need to take place in order to estimate the best BS beam. A sequence of possible processing steps or actions are described below, which may be performed by a receiver or transmitter based on measurements on beams of the training codebook (when they are received); if processing is performed by the transmitter, it may be on measurement reporting and/or data representative of the measurements, e.g. transmitted by the receiver. In general, measurements on training beams may pertain to one or more beam signaling characteristics, in particular signal strength and/or signal quality, e.g. SIR, SINR, RSSP, RSPQ, EPRE, SNR, etc.; It may be assumed that a receiver can determine such, e.g. based on beam parameters (e.g., for transmission power) and/or signaling in the beam, e.g. reference signaling like synchronisation signaling (e.g. SSB and/or PSS and/or SSS and/or PBCH and/or CSI-RS or other forms of reference signaling).). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Park by estimate best beam based on measurements (e.g., SIR, SINR, RSSP, RSPQ, EPRE, SNR, etc.) on beams of training codebook and signaling in the beam, e.g. reference signaling like synchronisation signaling (e.g. SSB and/or PSS and/or SSS and/or PBCH and/or CSI-RS or other forms of reference signaling of Vieira. The motivation would have been to provide improved approaches of handling beam selection (Vieira ¶ [0003]).
Allowable Subject Matter
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Claim 21 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Haustein et al. (US 2023/0043847) discloses “Embodiments described herein relate to analog beamforming techniques as well as to digital beamforming techniques and, in particular, to hybrid beamforming techniques;” (¶ [0041]), “FIGS. 12C and 12D show schematic representations of hybrid beamformers in which analogue beamformers 84.sub.1 to 84.sub.4, 84.sub.1 and 84.sub.2 respectively are connected to a subset of antenna elements only but, therefore, more than one analogue beamformer is used” (¶ [0203]) and “the stream 1 may also be provided to panel 2 such that in step C panel 1 and panel 2 use a digital precoder or beamformer 82 distrivbuting stream 1 between beamforming networks 84.sub.1 and 84.sub.2 for creating two separate beams from panels 1 and 2 superimposing into a joint beam in the far field” (¶ [0206]).Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
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