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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 07/20/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 07/20/2026 have been fully considered. Applicant’s arguments and Examiner’s response are provided below.
Applicant argues that Gao does not disclose “a value of L” as part of the measurement configuration information, where L is related to a length of consecutive interference measurement resources.
Examiner’s response: This argument is moot in view of new ground of rejection presented in this office action and relies on a new reference Gao (US 2022/0286175 A1) that discloses a measurement configuration that associates a CMR with respective K resources of the IMR set in order (Gao [0249]).
Applicant argues that Gao does not disclose determining a bit’s value by comparing an average of interference strengths of that bit’s L resources directly to a threshold.
Examiner’s response: Gao teaches in ¶ [0069] determining interference and noise by calculating average power based on CMR(s) and IMR(s), wherein the power received from the IMR(s) is treated as interference. Gao further teaches in ¶ [0118] determining the interference contribution of a plurality of IMRs based on a linear average of received power over the resources of an IMR set. Gao also separately teaches threshold-based reporting based on interference measurements relative to a CMR in ¶ [0092-0094, 0144-0145]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply Gao’s disclosed threshold criterion to the disclosed averaged interference value when evaluating a group of IMRs, thereby providing a single representative interference value for the group and facilitating group-based bitmap reporting with reduced reporting overhead.
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.
Claims 1, 7, 9-10, 12 and 18, 24, 26 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GAO et al. (US 20210211176 A1) in view of GAO et al. (US 20220140960 A1) hereinafter GAO ‘960.
Regarding Claim 1,
GAO discloses “A communication method, comprising: receiving measurement configuration information from a network device, wherein the measurement configuration information is used to configure a channel measurement resource, a plurality of interference measurement resources” (See [0025] a wireless communication method generates, by a network node, a reporting configuration, where the reporting configuration indicates one or more channel measurement resource (CMR) groups or one or more interference measurement resource (IMR) groups, where the one or more CMR groups includes one or more CMRs, and where the one or more IMR groups includes one or more IMRs. The method transmits the reporting configuration to a communication node, and receives a report from the communication node after the transmitting of the reporting configuration); “and sending a bitmap to the network device, wherein the bitmap comprises a plurality of bits, each bit corresponds to interference measurement resources among the plurality of interference measurement resources” (See [0091] Scheme for indicating IR-beam(s) for one TR- beam: The DL resource indexes for IR-beams can be provided by the UE to the gNB in one report instance, directly. But, taking into account the plurality of IR- beams may be reported, for the sake of saving reporting overhead, the bitmap scheme can be used, and a list of one or more IMRs are reported and associated with one CMR, e.g., a bitmap for IMRs, the length of the bitmap may be determined by the UE based on the number of resources for CMR or IMR associated with the reporting configuration, and each bit position may be associated with each resource. [0117] the length of the bitmap may be determined by a number of resources for CMR groups or IMR groups associated with the reporting configuration. For instance, each bit position in the bitmap may be associated with each group) “and has a value indicating whether an average value of interference strengths of the interference measurement resources to the channel measurement resource is greater than a first threshold” (See [0092] Configurable threshold for indicating reporting identifiers of at least one CMR or at least one IMR or at least one CMR group or at least one IMR group: A threshold for one or more IMR (and similarly for one or more CMR) may be in terms of one or more RSRP. [0144] the one or more identifiers for the one or more IMRs, or the one or more CMRs, or the one or more IMR groups, or the one or more CMR groups are reported based on a rule-based threshold value associated with one or more reference signal received power (RSRP). [0145] the threshold value associated with one or more RSRP is based on one of following rules: the RSRP corresponding to at least one IMR is greater than or equal to the threshold value, a percentage of the RSRP corresponding to at least one IMR in reference to another RSRP of at least one CMR is greater than or equal to the threshold value. Note: GAO discloses sending a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap is associated with an IMR group, and indicates a value of “1” when the IMR is IR-beam, and “0” when the IMR is non- IR-beam, and the IR-beam determination is based on a threshold rule of whether IMR RSRP to CMR RSRP is greater than a threshold. GAO also teaches average RSRP of IMRs in a different embodiment in [0069] and the UE may determine interference and noise by calculating the average power according to the CMR(s) and the IMR(s), and [0118] where the additional noise and interference power contribution (in Watts) from one or more IMRs can be determined over all resources of IMR set, e.g., the linear average of the received power of all resource elements from the set).
It would have been obvious to a POSITA to apply the threshold criterion to the average interference value when evaluating an IMR group, thereby providing a single representative interference value for the group and facilitating group-based bitmap reporting with reduced reporting overhead.
GAO does not explicitly disclose the measurement configuration includes a value of L IMRs, where the L IMRs are consecutive in configuration order.
However, GAO ‘960 discloses “a value of L, and L is a positive integer greater than 1, and the L interference measurement resources are consecutive in configuration order among the plurality of interference measurement resources” (See Fig. 11B, [0273] The method 1150 includes, at step 1152, receiving, by a wireless device from a network node, a first resource configuration and a second resource configuration, the first resource configuration comprising one or more first resources related to channel measurement, the second resource configuration comprising one or more second resources related to interference measurement, and at least one first resource being associated with at least one second resource. [0118] the radio resource control (RRC) parameter of SINR reporting configuration is configured by gNB, and the at least one of CMR resource setting, NZP-IMR resource setting and ZP-IMR resource setting is associated with the SINR reporting configuration. [0245] In an example, there are a set of N CMR(s) and a set of M IMR(s) resources which are configured in the SINR reporting configuration, where M=NK and N, K and M are positive integers. One resource of the CMR set and respective K resources of the IMR set in order are associated). Thus, the transmitted first and second resource configurations configure CMR and IMR resources that form the resource arrangement of the SINR reporting configuration, wherein K defines the number of consecutive IMRs associated with a respective CMR.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the IMR groups of GAO according to the ordered IMR resource association taught by GAO ‘960, such that each CMR is associated with a respective number K of IMRs in order/ consecutive, and the motivation to so do would have been to provide an organized association of IMRs, thereby facilitating efficient measurement and reporting for groups of IMRs and saving overhead and UE complexity (GAO ‘960 [0247]).
Regarding claim 7,
GAO in view of GAO ‘960 discloses “The method of claim 1, wherein the first threshold is configured by using the measurement configuration information” (See GAO [0083] One or more threshold values may be sent by the gNB to the UE using a reporting configuration. [0092] Configurable threshold for indicating reporting identifiers of at least one CMR or at least one IMR or at least one CMR group or at least one IMR group: A threshold for one or more IMR (and similarly for one or more CMR) may be in terms of one or more RSRP or one or more SINR. The threshold can be configured by gNB).
Regarding claim 9,
GAO discloses “A communication method, comprising: sending measurement configuration information to a terminal device, wherein the measurement configuration information is used to configure a channel measurement resource, a plurality of interference measurement resources” (See [0025] a wireless communication method generates, by a network node, a reporting configuration, where the reporting configuration indicates one or more channel measurement resource (CMR) groups or one or more interference measurement resource (IMR) groups, where the one or more CMR groups includes one or more CMRs, and where the one or more IMR groups includes one or more IMRs. The method transmits the reporting configuration to a communication node, and receives a report from the communication node after the transmitting of the reporting configuration); “and receiving a bitmap from the terminal device, wherein the bitmap comprises a plurality of bits, each bit corresponds to interference measurement resources among interference measurement resources” (See [0091] Scheme for indicating IR-beam(s) for one TR- beam: The DL resource indexes for IR-beams can be provided by the UE to the gNB in one report instance, directly. But, taking into account the plurality of IR- beams may be reported, for the sake of saving reporting overhead, the bitmap scheme can be used, and a list of one or more IMRs are reported and associated with one CMR, e.g., a bitmap for IMRs, the length of the bitmap may be determined by the UE based on the number of resources for CMR or IMR associated with the reporting configuration, and each bit position may be associated with each resource. [0117] the length of the bitmap may be determined by a number of resources for CMR groups or IMR groups associated with the reporting configuration. For instance, each bit position in the bitmap may be associated with each group) “and has a value indicating whether an average value of interference strengths of the interference measurement resources to the channel measurement resource is greater than a first threshold” (See [0092] Configurable threshold for indicating reporting identifiers of at least one CMR or at least one IMR or at least one CMR group or at least one IMR group: A threshold for one or more IMR (and similarly for one or more CMR) may be in terms of one or more RSRP. [0144] the one or more identifiers for the one or more IMRs, or the one or more CMRs, or the one or more IMR groups, or the one or more CMR groups are reported based on a rule-based threshold value associated with one or more reference signal received power (RSRP). [0145] the threshold value associated with one or more RSRP is based on one of following rules: the RSRP corresponding to at least one IMR is greater than or equal to the threshold value, a percentage of the RSRP corresponding to at least one IMR in reference to another RSRP of at least one CMR is greater than or equal to the threshold value. Note: GAO discloses sending a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap is associated with an IMR group, and indicates a value of “1” when the IMR is IR-beam, and “0” when the IMR is non- IR-beam, and the IR-beam determination is based on a threshold rule of whether IMR RSRP to CMR RSRP is greater than a threshold. GAO also teaches average RSRP of IMRs in a different embodiment in [0069] and the UE may determine interference and noise by calculating the average power according to the CMR(s) and the IMR(s), and [0118] where the additional noise and interference power contribution (in Watts) from one or more IMRs can be determined over all resources of IMR set, e.g., the linear average of the received power of all resource elements from the set).
It would have been obvious to a POSITA to apply the threshold criterion to the average interference value when evaluating an IMR group, thereby providing a single representative interference value for the group and facilitating group-based bitmap reporting with reduced reporting overhead.
GAO does not explicitly disclose the measurement configuration includes a value of L IMRs, where the L IMRs are consecutive in configuration order.
However, GAO ‘960 discloses “a value of L, and L is a positive integer greater than 1, and the L interference measurement resources are consecutive in configuration order among the plurality of interference measurement resources” (See Fig. 11B, [0273] The method 1150 includes, at step 1152, receiving, by a wireless device from a network node, a first resource configuration and a second resource configuration, the first resource configuration comprising one or more first resources related to channel measurement, the second resource configuration comprising one or more second resources related to interference measurement, and at least one first resource being associated with at least one second resource. [0118] the radio resource control (RRC) parameter of SINR reporting configuration is configured by gNB, and the at least one of CMR resource setting, NZP-IMR resource setting and ZP-IMR resource setting is associated with the SINR reporting configuration. [0245] In an example, there are a set of N CMR(s) and a set of M IMR(s) resources which are configured in the SINR reporting configuration, where M=NK and N, K and M are positive integers. One resource of the CMR set and respective K resources of the IMR set in order are associated). Thus, the transmitted first and second resource configurations configure CMR and IMR resources that form the resource arrangement of the SINR reporting configuration, wherein K defines the number of consecutive IMRs associated with a respective CMR.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the IMR groups of GAO according to the ordered IMR resource association taught by GAO ‘960, such that each CMR is associated with a respective number K of IMRs in order/ consecutive, and the motivation to so do would have been to provide an organized association of IMRs, thereby facilitating efficient measurement and reporting for groups of IMRs and saving overhead and UE complexity (GAO ‘960 [0247]).
Regarding claim 10,
GAO in view of GAO ‘960 discloses “The method of claim 9, the method further comprising: determining, based on the bitmap, an interference of one or more of the plurality of interference measurement resources to the channel measurement resource” (See GAO [0091] Scheme for indicating IR-beam(s) for one TR-beam: The DL resource indexes for IR-beams can be provided by the UE to the gNB in one report instance, directly. But, taking into account the plurality of IR-beams may be reported, for the sake of saving reporting overhead, the bitmap scheme can be used, and a list of one or more IMRs are reported and associated with one CMR, e.g., a bitmap for IMRs. [0117] For example, a value in one bit, e.g., “1”, may represent that the DL RS associated with the bit is IR-beam, otherwise, non-IR-beam. [0118] IR-beam determination can depend on the configured threshold. Note: Based on the bitmap provided by the UE to the gNB, the gNB can determine the interference of the one or more IMRs to the CMR).
Regarding claim 12,
GAO discloses “A communication apparatus, comprising: a transceiver configured to” (See Fig. 8): “receive measurement configuration information from a network device, wherein the measurement configuration information is used to configure a channel measurement resource, a plurality of interference measurement resources” (See [0025] a wireless communication method generates, by a network node, a reporting configuration, where the reporting configuration indicates one or more channel measurement resource (CMR) groups or one or more interference measurement resource (IMR) groups, where the one or more CMR groups includes one or more CMRs, and where the one or more IMR groups includes one or more IMRs. The method transmits the reporting configuration to a communication node, and receives a report from the communication node after the transmitting of the reporting configuration); “send a bitmap to the network device, wherein the bitmap comprises a plurality of bits, each bit corresponds to interference measurement resources among the plurality of interference measurement resources” (See [0091] Scheme for indicating IR-beam(s) for one TR- beam: The DL resource indexes for IR-beams can be provided by the UE to the gNB in one report instance, directly. But, taking into account the plurality of IR- beams may be reported, for the sake of saving reporting overhead, the bitmap scheme can be used, and a list of one or more IMRs are reported and associated with one CMR, e.g., a bitmap for IMRs, the length of the bitmap may be determined by the UE based on the number of resources for CMR or IMR associated with the reporting configuration, and each bit position may be associated with each resource. [0117] the length of the bitmap may be determined by a number of resources for CMR groups or IMR groups associated with the reporting configuration. For instance, each bit position in the bitmap may be associated with each group) “and has a value indicating whether an average value of interference strengths of the L interference measurement resources to the channel measurement resource is greater than a first threshold” (See [0092] Configurable threshold for indicating reporting identifiers of at least one CMR or at least one IMR or at least one CMR group or at least one IMR group: A threshold for one or more IMR (and similarly for one or more CMR) may be in terms of one or more RSRP. [0144] the one or more identifiers for the one or more IMRs, or the one or more CMRs, or the one or more IMR groups, or the one or more CMR groups are reported based on a rule-based threshold value associated with one or more reference signal received power (RSRP). [0145] the threshold value associated with one or more RSRP is based on one of following rules: the RSRP corresponding to at least one IMR is greater than or equal to the threshold value, a percentage of the RSRP corresponding to at least one IMR in reference to another RSRP of at least one CMR is greater than or equal to the threshold value. Note: GAO discloses sending a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap is associated with an IMR group, and indicates a value of “1” when the IMR is IR-beam, and “0” when the IMR is non- IR-beam, and the IR-beam determination is based on a threshold rule of whether IMR RSRP to CMR RSRP is greater than a threshold. GAO also teaches average RSRP of IMRs in a different embodiment in [0069] and the UE may determine interference and noise by calculating the average power according to the CMR(s) and the IMR(s), and [0118] where the additional noise and interference power contribution (in Watts) from one or more IMRs can be determined over all resources of IMR set, e.g., the linear average of the received power of all resource elements from the set).
It would have been obvious to a POSITA to apply the threshold criterion to the average interference value when evaluating an IMR group, thereby providing a single representative interference value for the group and facilitating group-based bitmap reporting with reduced reporting overhead.
GAO does not explicitly disclose the measurement configuration includes a value of L IMRs, where the L IMRs are consecutive in configuration order.
However, GAO ‘960 discloses “a value of L, and L is a positive integer greater than 1, and the L interference measurement resources are consecutive in configuration order among the plurality of interference measurement resources” (See Fig. 11B, [0273] The method 1150 includes, at step 1152, receiving, by a wireless device from a network node, a first resource configuration and a second resource configuration, the first resource configuration comprising one or more first resources related to channel measurement, the second resource configuration comprising one or more second resources related to interference measurement, and at least one first resource being associated with at least one second resource. [0118] the radio resource control (RRC) parameter of SINR reporting configuration is configured by gNB, and the at least one of CMR resource setting, NZP-IMR resource setting and ZP-IMR resource setting is associated with the SINR reporting configuration. [0245] In an example, there are a set of N CMR(s) and a set of M IMR(s) resources which are configured in the SINR reporting configuration, where M=NK and N, K and M are positive integers. One resource of the CMR set and respective K resources of the IMR set in order are associated). Thus, the transmitted first and second resource configurations configure CMR and IMR resources that form the resource arrangement of the SINR reporting configuration, wherein K defines the number of consecutive IMRs associated with a respective CMR.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the IMR groups of GAO according to the ordered IMR resource association taught by GAO ‘960, such that each CMR is associated with a respective number K of IMRs in order/ consecutive, and the motivation to so do would have been to provide an organized association of IMRs, thereby facilitating efficient measurement and reporting for groups of IMRs and saving overhead and UE complexity (GAO ‘960 [0247]).
Regarding claim 18,
Gao in view of GAO ‘960 discloses “The communication apparatus of claim 12, wherein the first threshold is configured by using the measurement configuration information” (See GAO [0083] One or more threshold values may be sent by the gNB to the UE using a reporting configuration. [0092] Configurable threshold for indicating reporting identifiers of at least one CMR or at least one IMR or at least one CMR group or at least one IMR group: A threshold for one or more IMR (and similarly for one or more CMR) may be in terms of one or more RSRP or one or more SINR. The threshold can be configured by gNB).
Regarding claims 24, 26 and 28,
GAO in view of GAO ‘960 discloses claim 24 of “The method of claim 1”, claim 26 of “The method of claim 9”, and claim 28 of “The communication apparatus of claim 12”, “wherein the measurement configuration information indicates multiple interference measurement resource sets including the plurality of interference measurement resources” (See GAO ‘960, [0245] In an example, there are a set of N CMR(s) and a set of M IMR(s) resources which are configured in the SINR reporting configuration, where M=NK and N, K and M are positive integers. One resource of the CMR set and respective K resources of the IMR set in order are associated), “each interference measurement resource set includes L consecutive interference measurement resources and corresponds to one of the plurality of bits” (See GAO [0117] the length of the bitmap may be determined by a number of resources for CMR groups or IMR groups associated with the reporting configuration. For instance, each bit position in the bitmap may be associated with each group).
GAO teaches a reporting configuration including IMR groups and a bitmap whose length is determined according to the number of IMR groups associated with the reporting configuration, wherein each bit position of the bitmap is associated with a respective IMR group. GAO ‘960 further teaches a reporting configuration where each CMR is associated respective K IMRs in order (consecutive). Thus, when the ordered K-resource grouping of GAO’ 960 is applied to GAO’s IMR groups, the measurement configuration provides multiple IMR groups, each comprising L ordered/ consecutive IMRs corresponding to a respective bit of GAO’s bitmap.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the IMR groups of GAO according to the ordered IMR resource association taught by GAO ‘960, such that each CMR is associated with a respective number K of IMRs in order/ consecutive, and the motivation to so do would have been to provide an organized association of IMRs, thereby facilitating efficient measurement and reporting for groups of IMRs and saving overhead and UE complexity (GAO ‘960 [0247]).
Claims 23, 25 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GAO et al. (US 20210211176 A1) in view of GAO et al. (US 20220140960 A1) hereinafter GAO ‘960, and further in view of Hao et al. (US 20210297121 A1).
Regarding claims 23, 25 and 27,
GAO in view of GAO ‘960 discloses claim 23 of “The method of claim 1”, claim 25 of “The method of claim 9”, and claim 27 of “The communication apparatus of claim 12”, but does not explicitly disclose that the IMRs are sorted according to a resource index value sequence.
However, Hao discloses “wherein the L interference measurement resources are L consecutive interference measurement resources sorted according to a resource index value sequence” (See [0099] base station may transmit a bitmap to UE to indicate the categorization of the ports used to transmit on IMRs 510, where the order of the bits in the bitmap follows the order of the indexes of the IMRs 510 or the order of the indexes of the ports used to transmit on IMRs 510). Thus, Hao teaches arranging the IMRs according to a resource index value sequence.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to arrange the consecutive IMRs of the combination of GAO and GAO ‘960, according to their resource indexes, as taught by Hao, in order to provide a consistent mapping between bitmap positions and IMRs, thereby facilitating efficient resource identification and reporting.
Conclusion
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/SALMA AYAD/Examiner, Art Unit 2462 /YEMANE MESFIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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