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 .
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.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-16 filed on November 09, 2023 are pending.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) and certified copy of paper required by 37 CFR 1.55 is received.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 09, 2023 and March 12, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner and an initialed and dated copy of the Applicant’s IDS form 1449 is attached to the instant Office Action.
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) 1-2, 4-6, 8-10, 12-14 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guan et al. (US 2025/0393050 A1, hereinafter "Guan") in view of Kim et al. (US 2025/0184997 A1, hereinafter "Kim") and Nilsson et al. (US 2024/0396692 A1, hereinafter "Nilsson").
Regarding claim 1, Guan discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (Guan, Fig. 2 120 (i.e. user equipment)), the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station (BS), configuration information associated with an uplink (UL), the configuration information including sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set information including a first SRS resource set and a second SRS resource set, and information for a configuration of simultaneous transmission across multi-panel (STxMP) (Guan, [0110, 0179, 0293] the network device transmits 210 a configuration of SRS transmission to the terminal device 120. In some embodiments, the SRS configuration may comprise two SRS resource sets; the network device 110 may transmit 410 an indication of STxMP to the terminal device 120; the terminal device 120 deployed with first and second panels (e.g., the panels 125-1 and 125-2) (i.e. at most two ports) receives an indication of simultaneous transmission over the first and second panels);
receiving, from the BS, downlink control information (DCI) (Guan, [0212] the number of DMRS CDM groups without data may be provided in “antenna ports” field in DCI); and
transmitting, based on the DCI (Guan, [0002] for UL single downlink control information (DCI) for MTRP operation).
Guan does not explicitly disclose receiving information indicating that at most two phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) ports are used for the UL, downlink control information (DCI) including association information between a PT-RS port and a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port and the PT-RS using a first PT-RS port and a second PT-RS port, according to the received configuration of the STxMP.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses receiving, from the BS, information indicating that at most two phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) ports are used for the UL, downlink control information (DCI) including association information between a PT-RS port and a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port (Kim, [0191, 0217] in an existing wireless communication system, up to two PTRSs may be supported by considering four partially-coherent/non-coherent antenna ports; a field indicating an antenna port in DCI may indicate at least one of NDI, RV or MCS for an additional codeword or may indicate extended information on PTRS-DMRS association or may indicate information on PTRS-DMRS association for an additional codeword); and
transmitting, based on the DCI, the PT-RS using a first PT-RS port and a second PT-RS port, according to the received configuration of the STxMP (Kim, [0176, 0192] a terminal may transmit a PUSCH to a network (e.g., to a base station) based on DCI; when performing PUSCH scheduling through DCI, the base station may indicate whether to transmit the corresponding PUSCH through STxMP, single panel, or M-TRP repetition PUSCH).
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 uplink configuration disclosed by Guan and uplink configuration disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve a probability of data reception through the same TB received from multiple TRPs in multiple slots (Kim, [0107]).
Guan in view of Kim does not explicitly discloses wherein the first PT-RS port is associated with at least one first DMRS port associated with the first SRS resource set, and the second PT-RS port is associated with at least one second DMRS port associated with the second SRS resource set.
Nilsson from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the first PT-RS port is associated with at least one first DMRS port associated with the first SRS resource set, and the second PT-RS port is associated with at least one second DMRS port associated with the second SRS resource set (Nilsson, [0086] DCI further comprises a first sounding reference signal, SRS, resource indicator associated with at least one of the first PUSCH transmission occasion and transmission of the first set of PUSCH layers, and a second SRS resource indicator associated with at least one of the second PUSCH transmission occasion and transmission of the second set of PUSCH layers… the DCI further comprises information about a first DMRS port associated to a first phase tracking reference signal, PTRS, and information about a second DMRS port associated to a second PTRS, wherein the first DMRS port and the first PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission and the second DMRS port and the second PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Nilsson’s system for uplink configuration parameters into Guan’s uplink configuration as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the data rate, latency, and/or power consumption (Nilsson, [0144]).
Regarding claim 2, Guan discloses wherein the DCI further includes a first SRS resource indicator (SRI) field associated with the first SRS resource set, and a second SRI field associated with the second SRS resource set (Guan, [0082] the DCI comprises one or more SRI fields. A SRI field may indicate one power control configuration (e.g., SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl) comprised in the configuration of PUSCH transmission. As indicated by reference sign 152, the one or more SRI fields may comprise a first SRI indicating a first SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl and a first SRS resource and a second SRI indicating SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl and a second SRS resource).
Regarding claim 4, Guan does not explicitly disclose wherein the association information includes first information indicating a DMRS port used for the first PT-RS port among the at least one first DMRS port and second information indicating a DMRS port used for the second PT-RS port among the at least one second DMRS port.
Nilsson from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the association information includes first information indicating a DMRS port used for the first PT-RS port among the at least one first DMRS port and second information indicating a DMRS port used for the second PT-RS port among the at least one second DMRS port (Nilsson, [0086] the DCI further comprises information about a first DMRS port associated to a first phase tracking reference signal, PTRS, and information about a second DMRS port associated to a second PTRS, wherein the first DMRS port and the first PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission and the second DMRS port and the second PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Nilsson’s system for uplink configuration parameters into Guan’s uplink configuration as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the data rate, latency, and/or power consumption (Nilsson, [0144]).
Regarding claim 5, Guan discloses a method performed by a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system (Guan, Fig. 2 110 (i.e. base station)), the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), configuration information associated with an uplink (UL), the configuration information including sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set information including a first SRS resource set and a second SRS resource set, and information for a configuration of simultaneous transmission across multi-panel (STxMP) (Guan, [0110, 0179, 0293] the network device transmits 210 a configuration of SRS transmission to the terminal device 120. In some embodiments, the SRS configuration may comprise two SRS resource sets; the network device 110 may transmit 410 an indication of STxMP to the terminal device 120; the terminal device 120 deployed with first and second panels (e.g., the panels 125-1 and 125-2) (i.e. at most two ports) receives an indication of simultaneous transmission over the first and second panels);
transmitting, to the UE, downlink control information (DCI) (Guan, [0212] the number of DMRS CDM groups without data may be provided in “antenna ports” field in DCI); and
receiving, based on the DCI (Guan, [0002] for UL single downlink control information (DCI) for MTRP operation).
Guan does not explicitly disclose transmitting information indicating that at most two phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) ports are used for the UL, downlink control information (DCI) including association information between a PT-RS port and a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port and the PT-RS using a first PT-RS port and a second PT-RS port, according to the received configuration of the STxMP.
Kim from the same field of endeavor discloses transmitting, to the UE, information indicating that at most two phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) ports are used for the UL, downlink control information (DCI) including association information between a PT-RS port and a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port (Kim, [0191, 0217] in an existing wireless communication system, up to two PTRSs may be supported by considering four partially-coherent/non-coherent antenna ports; a field indicating an antenna port in DCI may indicate at least one of NDI, RV or MCS for an additional codeword or may indicate extended information on PTRS-DMRS association or may indicate information on PTRS-DMRS association for an additional codeword); and
receiving, based on the DCI, the PT-RS based on a first PT-RS port and a second PT-RS port, according to the received configuration of the STxMP (Kim, [0176, 0192] a terminal may transmit a PUSCH to a network (e.g., to a base station) based on DCI; when performing PUSCH scheduling through DCI, the base station may indicate whether to transmit the corresponding PUSCH through STxMP, single panel, or M-TRP repetition PUSCH).
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 uplink configuration disclosed by Guan and uplink configuration disclosed by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve a probability of data reception through the same TB received from multiple TRPs in multiple slots (Kim, [0107]).
Guan in view of Kim does not explicitly discloses wherein the first PT-RS port is associated with at least one first DMRS port associated with the first SRS resource set, and the second PT-RS port is associated with at least one second DMRS port associated with the second SRS resource set.
Nilsson from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the first PT-RS port is associated with at least one first DMRS port associated with the first SRS resource set, and the second PT-RS port is associated with at least one second DMRS port associated with the second SRS resource set (Nilsson, [0086] DCI further comprises a first sounding reference signal, SRS, resource indicator associated with at least one of the first PUSCH transmission occasion and transmission of the first set of PUSCH layers, and a second SRS resource indicator associated with at least one of the second PUSCH transmission occasion and transmission of the second set of PUSCH layers… the DCI further comprises information about a first DMRS port associated to a first phase tracking reference signal, PTRS, and information about a second DMRS port associated to a second PTRS, wherein the first DMRS port and the first PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission and the second DMRS port and the second PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Nilsson’s system for uplink configuration parameters into Guan’s uplink configuration as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the data rate, latency, and/or power consumption (Nilsson, [0144]).
Regarding claim 6, Guan discloses wherein the DCI further includes a first SRS resource indicator (SRI) field associated with the first SRS resource set, and a second SRI field associated with the second SRS resource set (Guan, [0082] the DCI comprises one or more SRI fields. A SRI field may indicate one power control configuration (e.g., SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl) comprised in the configuration of PUSCH transmission. As indicated by reference sign 152, the one or more SRI fields may comprise a first SRI indicating a first SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl and a first SRS resource and a second SRI indicating SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl and a second SRS resource).
Regarding claim 8, Guan does not explicitly disclose wherein the association information includes first information indicating a DMRS port used for the first PT-RS port among the at least one first DMRS port and second information indicating a DMRS port used for the second PT-RS port among the at least one second DMRS port.
Nilsson from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the association information includes first information indicating a DMRS port used for the first PT-RS port among the at least one first DMRS port and second information indicating a DMRS port used for the second PT-RS port among the at least one second DMRS port (Nilsson, [0086] the DCI further comprises information about a first DMRS port associated to a first phase tracking reference signal, PTRS, and information about a second DMRS port associated to a second PTRS, wherein the first DMRS port and the first PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission and the second DMRS port and the second PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Nilsson’s system for uplink configuration parameters into Guan’s uplink configuration as modified by Kim with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve the data rate, latency, and/or power consumption (Nilsson, [0144]).
Regarding claims 9-10, 12-14 and 16, these claims recite "a user equipment" and "a base station" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 1-2, 4-6 and 8, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-2, 4-6 and 8 as presented above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 7, 11 and 15 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.
Claims 3, 7, 11 and 15 are potentially allowable over the prior art of record Guan et al. (US 2025/0393050 A1, hereinafter "Guan") in view of Kim et al. (US 2025/0184997 A1, hereinafter "Kim") and Nilsson et al. (US 2024/0396692 A1, hereinafter "Nilsson") as applied to the claim above.
Regarding claims 3, 7, 11 and 15, Guan discloses wherein usage of each of the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set is configured to a non-codebook (Guan, [0110] two SRS resource sets may be configured with parameter “usage” set to “noncodebook”),
Nilsson discloses wherein each of the first SRS resource set and the second SRS resource set includes information on at least one SRS resource including information on a PT-RS port associated with each of the at least one SRS resource (Nilsson, [0086] DCI further comprises a first sounding reference signal, SRS, resource indicator associated with at least one of the first PUSCH transmission occasion and transmission of the first set of PUSCH layers, and a second SRS resource indicator associated with at least one of the second PUSCH transmission occasion and transmission of the second set of PUSCH layers… the DCI further comprises information about a first DMRS port associated to a first phase tracking reference signal, PTRS, and information about a second DMRS port associated to a second PTRS, wherein the first DMRS port and the first PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission and the second DMRS port and the second PTRS are associated to the first PUSCH transmission).
Guan in view of Kim and Nilsson fails to teach alone or in combination "wherein, in case two PT-RS ports are used and the STxMP is configured, the information on the PT-RS port associated with each of the at least one SRS resource is ignored".
Conclusion
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415