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 .
The Examiner thanks the Applicant for the well-prepared amendment. The Examiner appreciates the Applicant’s effort to carefully analyze the Office action, and make appropriate arguments and amendments.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 responded on March 05, 2026 are pending, claims 1, 7, 9, 15, and 17 are amended, claims 3-6, 8, 11-14, 16, 19, and 20 are canceled and claims 21-27 are new.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see pg. 12-13, filed March 05, 2026, with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued Gao’s equation is different than claim 1.
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recited in claim 1;
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in [0101] of Gao. Gao further discloses in [0051] Selected coefficient subset for each layer is indicated with KlNZ… bitmap, i1,7,l and [0053] The amplitude coefficients in W2,l are indicated by i 2,3,l (wideband) and i2,4,l (subband), and the phase coefficients in W2,l are indicated by i2,5,l.
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.
Claims 1-2, 7, 9-10, 15, 17-18, and 21-27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao et al. (US 2025/0266871 A1, Provisional application No. 63/397,521, filed on Aug. 12, 2022, hereinafter "Gao") in view of Kang et al. (US 2016/0149680 A1, hereinafter "Kang").
Regarding claim 1, Gao discloses a user equipment (UE) (Gao, Fig. 10) comprising:
a transceiver (Gao, Fig. 10 1012) configured to receive, via higher layer signaling, first configuration information about a channel state information (CSI) report and second configuration information on Ntrp≥1 CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resources (Gao, [0065, 0153-0154, 0180]configured by RRC (i.e. higher layer signaling) the network node 502 configures the UE with a Rel-16 or Rel-17 type-II codebook (CB) refinement for CJT CSI report, the configuration comprising NRS CSI-RS resources for channel measurement; where two CSI-RS resources (i.e. Ntrp≥1), CSI-RS #1 and CSI-RS #2, each containing a number of CSI-RS ports are configured and transmitted from two TRPs; The UE reports the CJT CSI in two Parts, i.e., Part 1 and Part 2),
a processor (Gao, Fig. 10 1002) operably coupled to the transceiver, the processor, based on the information, configured to: determine the CSI Part 2 for the CSI report based on omitting a portion of the CSI part 2 according to a priority order, wherein each reported element of i₂,4,l i₂,5,l and i₁,7,l is associated with a priority value Pri(l,i,f,r) for the priority order (Gao, [0140-0141, 0171] it may be determined and reported by the UE based certain criteria such as the received CSI-RS power; The coefficients and the bitmap are ordered according to their priority levels into different groups and a group with lower priority level is dropped first if needed; Part 2 comprises groups 1 and 2), wherein:, Pri (l,i,f,r) = 2⋅∑n=1NLϕ(n)⋅ υ ⋅π(f)+ υ (2⋅∑n=1r-1Lϕ(n)+ i)+ l, where: π(f) is a permutation function, Lr is a number of spatial-domain (SD) basis vectors associated with CSI-RS resource r ∈ {1,. . . , Ntrp}, υ is a number of layers, l=1,2,…,υ, i=0,1,…,2Lr-1, f=0,1,…,Mυ -1, Mυ is a number of frequency-domain (FD) basis vectors, and 1≤N≤Ntrp, wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit the CSI report including and the determined CSI Part 2 (Gao, [0067, 0101]
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is used to identify the number of information bits in Part 2. Part 1 shall be transmitted in its entirety before Part 2; [0111] CSI Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resources indexed by s (s=1,2, . . . , NRS) (i.e. CSI-RS resource index r) for channel measurement);
wherein i₂,₄,L is an amplitude coefficient indicator, wherein i₂,5,L a phase coefficient indicator, and wherein i₁,7,1 is a bitmap for non-zero coefficients associated with i₂,₄,I and i₂,5,l (Gao, [0051, 0053] Selected coefficient subset for each layer is indicated with KlNZ… bitmap, i1,7,l ;The amplitude coefficients in W2,l are indicated by i 2,3,l (wideband) and i2,4,l (subband), and the phase coefficients in W2,l are indicated by i2,5,l.).
Gao does not explicitly disclose ϕ(n) is a function to map an index n∈{1,…,N} to a CSI-RS resource index r∈{1,…,Ntrp}.
Kang from the same field of endeavor discloses ϕ(n) is a function to map an index n∈{1,…,N} to a CSI-RS resource index r∈{1,…,Ntrp} (Kang, [0197-0199] antenna port shuffling information may include 1) antenna port index shifting value, 2) reverse antenna port index ON/OFF, and 3) antenna port index permutation value or may be configured by a combination of the above 1), 2), and 3); the antenna port index shifting value is 2, port indexes corresponding to one to three antenna ports may be mapped as follows).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified CSI reporting disclosed by Gao and CSI-RS resource permutation disclosed by Kang with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve data transmission/reception efficiency and performance (Kang, [0067]).
Regarding claim 2, Gao discloses wherein the permutation function π(f) corresponds to π(f) =
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, where
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is a FD basis vector index, and N3 is a number of precoding matrices (Gao, [0182]
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).
Regarding claim 7, Gao discloses wherein the CSI part 2 includes a group G2, the group G2 includes
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lowest priority elements of i1, 7, l , min
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, lowest priority elements of i2, 4, l, and min
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lowest priority elements of i2, 5, l, (l=1, …,υ,), and wherein KNZ is a total number of the non-zero coefficients (Gao, table 4 part 2 group 2 [0081]
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)
Regarding claims 9-10, 15 and 26-27, these claims recite "a base station" (Gao, Fig. 11) that disclose similar steps as recited by the claims 1-2, 7 and 24-25, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-2, 7 and 24-25 as presented above.
Regarding claims 17-18 and 21-23, these claims recite "a method performed by a user equipment (UE)" that disclose similar steps as recited by the claims 1-2, 7 and 24-25, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-2, 7 and 24-25 as presented above.
Regarding claim 24, Gao discloses wherein:
the CSI part 2 includes a group G1, and
the group G1 includes
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highest priority elements of i1,7,l, max ( 0, [KNZ /2] - v ), highest priority elements of i2,4,l, and max ( 0, [KNZ /2] - v) highest priority elements of i2,5,l (Gao, [0081] table 4 part 2 group 1).
Regarding claim 25, Gao discloses wherein:
the first configuration information includes codebook configuration information,
the codebook configuration information includes codebook type information indicating a Type II coherent joint transmission (CJT) codebook (Gao, [0083] it has been agreed to support downlink Coherent Joint Transmission (CJT) from multiple Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs) by extending Rel-16 and Rel-17 enhanced type II codebook across multiple TRPs), and
the NTRP CSI-RS resources correspond to NTRP transmission and reception points (TRPs) associated with the Type II CJT codebook (Gao, [0095] Per-TRP/TRP group (port-group or resource) SD basis selection and joint (across N TRPs) FD basis selection. Example formulation (N=number of TRPs or TRP groups)).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUNA WEISSBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-3315. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:30pm.
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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