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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/13/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1-3, 6-7, 10-12, 15-16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al. (US 2022/0345266) in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2023/0057080).
Regarding Claim 1, Zheng teaches a method, comprising:
receiving, by a terminal device, first indication information, wherein the first indication information is for determining a quantity of layers to be scheduled corresponding to each frequency domain unit in a plurality of frequency domain units, or is for determining a quantity of layers to be scheduled corresponding to each frequency domain unit group in one or more frequency domain unit groups ([0125] the downlink control signaling contains at least one of the following information: ... frequency domain resource allocation, ... multiple sub-band SRS resource indications, a wideband SRS resource indication, an indication of the number of transmission layers, an SRS resource group indication, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port indication or a DMRS sequence initialization indication; [0131] The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by at least one of the following information: the SRS resource indication in the first DCI, the indication of the number of transmission layers in the first DCI, the DMRS port indication in the first DCI or the multiple sub-band SRS resource indications in the second DCI),
wherein one frequency domain unit group comprises one or more frequency domain units, one frequency domain unit comprises one or more frequency domain resources ([0104] FIG. 2 which is a schematic diagram of SRS resources of an uplink reference signal, the i-th SRS resource group and an (i+1)-th SRS resource group exist and contain the Mi SRS resources and Mi+1 SRS resources, respectively, and a frequency domain range occupied by each SRS resource is shown in the figure. w(k,i,j) denotes precoding of a j-th SRS resource in the i-th SRS resource group on a k-th uplink sub-band. The UE calculates w(k,i,j) according to the downlink channel information acquired by the downlink reference signal associated with the i-th SRS resource group (i.e., each SRS resource group has multiple uplink sub-bands, and each sub-band has multiple SRS resources)), and
the one or more frequency domain resources in the frequency domain unit have a same quantity of layers to be scheduled ([0146] In a specific example, if the SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 1010 and the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the SRS resource indication in the first DCI, it indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2 and a first SRS resource and a third SRS resource in the SRS resource group are selected (i.e., first SRS resource and the third SRS resource have same number of layers of 2)); and
determining, by the terminal device based on the first indication information, a quantity of layers to be scheduled that are on frequency domain resources used by the terminal device for data transmission ([0125] the downlink control signaling contains at least one of the following information: ... frequency domain resource allocation, ... multiple sub-band SRS resource indications, a wideband SRS resource indication, an indication of the number of transmission layers, an SRS resource group indication, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port indication or a DMRS sequence initialization indication; [0131] The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by at least one of the following information: the SRS resource indication in the first DCI, the indication of the number of transmission layers in the first DCI, the DMRS port indication in the first DCI or the multiple sub-band SRS resource indications in the second DCI).
However, Zheng does not teach wherein at least two of the frequency domain resources for data transmission have different quantities of layers to be scheduled.
In an analogous art, Khoshnevisan teaches at least two of the frequency domain resources for data transmission have different quantities of layers to be scheduled ([0139] DCI 410 may indicate selected SRS resource sets using a respective field in the DCI 410 or using one or more bits (e.g., MSBs) of an SRI field of the DCI. ... In some cases, SRS resource sets may be configured such that sets of transmission occasions of the uplink transmission may be associated with a different number of layers (e.g., SRS resources). Each set of transmission occasions may be associated with some antenna ports, and the antenna ports may be different for each set of transmission occasions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined Khoshnevisan’s method with Zheng’s methos so that the UE may transmit the uplink transmission to the base station using the indicated ports, the indicated uplink beams, and based on the SRS resources. The uplink transmission may have improved transmission diversity and quality by transmitting the uplink transmission using different beams to different TRPs (Khoshnevisan [0142]).
Regarding Claim 2, the combination of Zheng and Khoshnevisan, specifically Zheng teaches the first indication information comprises a first bitmap, one bit in the first bitmap corresponds to one frequency domain unit, and the bit is for determining a quantity of layers to be scheduled that are in the frequency domain unit corresponding to the bit ([0193] (1) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 10000001, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2; [0194] (2) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 11001001, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 4; [0195] (3) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 11111111, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 8. All the SRS resources are selected, and the second DCI does not exist; [0196] (4) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 11000000/00110000, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2).
Regarding Claim 3, the combination of Zheng and Khoshnevisan, specifically Zheng teaches for one frequency domain resource in the frequency domain resources for data transmission, a quantity of layers to be scheduled that are on the frequency domain resource is a quantity of layers to be scheduled that is determined based on a bit corresponding to a first frequency domain unit; and the first frequency domain unit comprises the frequency domain resource ([0193] (1) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 10000001, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2; [0194] (2) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 11001001, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 4; [0195] (3) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 11111111, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 8. All the SRS resources are selected, and the second DCI does not exist; [0196] (4) The SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 11000000/00110000, which indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2).
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Zheng and Khoshnevisan, specifically Zheng teaches determining, by the terminal device based on the quantity of layers to be scheduled that are on the frequency domain resources for data transmission, a demodulation reference signal port in the frequency domain resources for data transmission, wherein demodulation reference signal ports in at least two of the frequency domain resources for data transmission are different ([0131] The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by at least one of the following information: the SRS resource indication in the first DCI, the indication of the number of transmission layers in the first DCI, the DMRS port indication in the first DCI; [0156] It is assumed that three DMRS ports are selected by the DMRS port indication in the first DCI and the SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 1000. If the second DCI does not exist or fails to be monitored, the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the SRS resource indication in the first DCI to be 1. A first SRS resource in the SRS resource group is selected, and a DMRS port used by the uplink transmission channel is one of the DMRS ports based on the DMRS port indication in the first DCI. If the second DCI exists and is successfully monitored, the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel may be determined in one of the following manners: the number of DMRS ports based on a first DMRS port indication or the multiple sub-band SRS resource indications in the second DCI. The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the number of DMRS ports based on the first DMRS port indication. If the number of transmission layers in the preceding example is 3, each sub-band SRS resource indication in the second DCI must indicate three SRS resources, and the DMRS ports used by the uplink transmission channel are all the DMRS ports based on the DMRS port indication in the first DCI. The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the multiple sub-band SRS resource indications in the second DCI. For example, if each sub-band SRS resource indication in the second DCI indicates two SRS resources, it indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2 and DMRS ports in the two layers of the uplink transmission channel correspond to two of the DMRS ports based on the DMRS port indication in the first DCI, respectively).
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of Zheng and Khoshnevisan, specifically Zheng teaches for one frequency domain resource for data transmission, a demodulation reference signal port in the frequency domain resource is a first demodulation reference signal port, and a quantity of first demodulation reference signal ports is the same as a quantity of layers to be scheduled that are on the frequency domain resource ([0131] The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by at least one of the following information: the SRS resource indication in the first DCI, the indication of the number of transmission layers in the first DCI, the DMRS port indication in the first DCI; [0156] It is assumed that three DMRS ports are selected by the DMRS port indication in the first DCI and the SRS resource indication in the first DCI is 1000. If the second DCI does not exist or fails to be monitored, the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the SRS resource indication in the first DCI to be 1. A first SRS resource in the SRS resource group is selected, and a DMRS port used by the uplink transmission channel is one of the DMRS ports based on the DMRS port indication in the first DCI. If the second DCI exists and is successfully monitored, the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel may be determined in one of the following manners: the number of DMRS ports based on a first DMRS port indication or the multiple sub-band SRS resource indications in the second DCI. The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the number of DMRS ports based on the first DMRS port indication. If the number of transmission layers in the preceding example is 3, each sub-band SRS resource indication in the second DCI must indicate three SRS resources, and the DMRS ports used by the uplink transmission channel are all the DMRS ports based on the DMRS port indication in the first DCI. The number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is determined by the multiple sub-band SRS resource indications in the second DCI. For example, if each sub-band SRS resource indication in the second DCI indicates two SRS resources, it indicates that the number of layers of the uplink transmission channel is 2 and DMRS ports in the two layers of the uplink transmission channel correspond to two of the DMRS ports based on the DMRS port indication in the first DCI, respectively).
Regarding Claim 10, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 11, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2.
Regarding Claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 3.
Regarding Claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 6.
Regarding Claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 7.
Regarding Claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, 8-9, 13-14 and 17-18 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Huang et al. (US 2021/0351884) teaches uplink transmission method.
Shi et al. (US 2018/0367274) teaches method for transmitting pilot signals.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YU-WEN CHANG whose telephone number is (408)918-7645. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00am-5:00pm PT.
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/YU-WEN CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413