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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 1/9/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-19 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 10-14 with respect to claims 1 and 14 have been considered but are moot upon a further consideration and a new ground of rejection made under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bahadori (US PGPub 2025/0219686).
Applicant's arguments regarding claim 10, filed on 1/9/2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument on pages 12-13 that Guo (Guo et al., Study on AI CSI Compression, IEEE draft, retrieved from https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/23/11-23-0290-01-aiml-study-on-ai-csi-compression.pptx, March 2023) fails to teach the limitation of claim 10, especially the limitation of “…obtaining a steering matrix based on the estimated channel; …”, the examiner cannot concur with the applicant because of the reasons described below.
Applicant argues that Guo fails to disclose whether the ‘V matrix’ corresponds to a steering matrix based on the estimated channel recited by claim 10.
On the contrary to the applicant’s arguments, the present claims fail to specify the function or the structure of ‘a steering matrix’. Without further details, ‘a steering matrix’ can be understood as a data in the format of a matrix used for steering or beamforming. Guo teaches the generation of V matrix at the STA by applying Givens rotation and feeds back the angles in the beamforming report frame (Guo, see slide 3). Therefore, V matrix is to be utilized for beam forming or steering at the AP side. Examiner suggests to further amend the claims to include the features of the steering matrix.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 10 recites limitations of “a first data” which is transmitted by a first electronic device to a second electronic device. However, the method of claim 10 fails to further specify the uses of “a first data” within the claim, thereby it is in doubt how the “a first data” contributes for reducing a feedback overhead of beamforming in a wireless communication system. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-9 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bahadori (US PGPub 2025/0219686).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Bahadori teaches a computer-implemented method performed by a first electronic device for reducing a feedback overhead of beamforming in a wireless communication system (Bahadori, see abstract and paragraph 0058, A wireless communications network transmits beamformed signals via compressed beamforming feedback. The embodiments may reduce the size of the feedback overhead), the computer-implemented method comprising:
transmitting a first data to a second electronic device (Bahadori, see paragraph 0031, the access point may begin the process by transmitting a null data packet (NDP) announcement frame [corresponding to a first data], used to gain control of the channel and identify the stations);
transmitting a data packet to the second electronic device (Bahadori, see paragraph 0031, The access point follows the NDP announcement frame with a NDP [corresponding to a data packet] for each spatial stream);
receiving a second data from the second electronic device (Bahadori, see paragraph 0054, the station 180 may generate the CSI based on the received signal 144 (705), and then generate, via a first NN (e.g., the head network 152 of FIG. 4 ), a compressed representation of beamforming feedback as a function of the CSI (710). The station 180 may then transmit the compressed representation 146 to the access point 110 via a wireless channel (715)), wherein the second data is obtained by the second electronic device using the first data and the data packet (Bahadori, see paragraph 0031, the claim recites that the first data and the data packet are used for obtaining the second data without detailing the specific way of using the first data and the data packet for obtaining the second data. Bahadori teaches that the access point transmits a NDP announcement frame followed by an NDP. Upon receipt of the NDP announcement frame followed by an NDP, each station estimates the channel matrix and generates channel state information and compressed beamforming matrix. Therefore, Bahadori teaches about obtaining compressed beamforming matrix [corresponding to the second data] using (or based on) the NDP announcement frame [corresponding to the first data] and the NDP [corresponding to the data packet]);
extracting a compressed steering matrix from the second data (Bahadori, see paragraph 0054, The access point 110 may then determine, via a second NN 114 (e.g., the tail network 154 of FIG. 4 ), the beamforming matrix as a function of the compressed representation (720));
obtain uncompressed steering matrix by using a decoder part of a neural network module, based on the extracted compressed steering matrix (Bahadori, see paragraphs 0040 and 0043, The compressed BF is sent to the access point 110 over the air (4), where it is fed to the tail model (5) to reconstruct the BF and generate the beamforming matrix (6). The tail model T decompresses the encoded BF to construct the BF Vi); and
transmitting, to the second electronic device, a third data via a radio signal beamformed based on the obtained uncompressed steering matrix (Bahadori, see paragraph 0054, Using the beamforming matrix, the controller 120 may update a beamforming configuration for the transceiver 112 for subsequent beamformed communications with the station 180, for example by replacing a previous beamforming matrix with the newly-generated beamforming matrix. The transceiver may then generate a subsequent beamformed signal 148 toward the receiver as a function of the beamforming matrix (725)).
Regarding claims 2 and 15, Bahadori teaches wherein the first electronic device is a beamformer and the second electronic device is a beamformee in the wireless communication system (Bahadori, see paragraph 0029, The system 200 may be a MUMIMO system with the access point 110 as the beamformer, and a set I of Ns station 180 as beamformees).
Regarding claim 3, Bahadori teaches wherein the neural network module corresponds to an autoencoder, a convolutional neural network, or a transformer (Bahadori, see paragraph 0022, a deep neural network (DNN) model 150 is trained to map an estimated CSI matrix to the beamforming feedback (BF) 146 in a supervised manner. The DNN 150 is “split” into first and second NN models, referred to as a head model 152 and a tail model 154, respectively executed by the stations 180 (e.g., smartphones, laptops, and/or other computing devices, also referred to as receivers) and by the access point 110 (e.g., a wireless router, also referred to as the transmitter)).
Regarding claims 4, 16 and 17, Bahadori teaches wherein the data packet is a null data packet of the wireless communication system (Bahadori, see paragraph 0031, The access point follows the NDP announcement frame with a NDP [corresponding to a data packet] for each spatial stream),
wherein the second data comprises a beamforming (BF) action frame (Bahadori, see paragraph 0054, the station 180 may generate the CSI based on the received signal 144 (705), and then generate, via a first NN (e.g., the head network 152 of FIG. 4 ), a compressed representation of beamforming feedback as a function of the CSI (710). The station 180 may then transmit the compressed representation 146 to the access point 110 via a wireless channel (715)), and
wherein the BF action frame comprises a compressed beamforming report (CBR) field (Bahadori, see paragraph 0054, the station 180 may generate the CSI based on the received signal 144 (705), and then generate, via a first NN (e.g., the head network 152 of FIG. 4 ), a compressed representation of beamforming feedback as a function of the CSI (710). The station 180 may then transmit the compressed representation 146 to the access point 110 via a wireless channel (715)).
Regarding claims 5 and 18, Bahadori teaches wherein the first data comprises 1) a plurality of weighting coefficients of an encoder of the neural network module and 2) a plurality of scale factors of the encoder of the neural network module (Bahadori, see paragraph 0054, the station 180 may generate the CSI based on the received signal 144 (705), and then generate, via a first NN (e.g., the head network 152 of FIG. 4 ), a compressed representation of beamforming feedback as a function of the CSI (710). The station 180 may then transmit the compressed representation 146 to the access point 110 via a wireless channel (715)).
Regarding claims 6 and 19, Bahadori teaches further comprising:
obtaining a steering matrix (Bahadori, see paragraphs 0040 and 0043, The compressed BF is sent to the access point 110 over the air (4), where it is fed to the tail model (5) to reconstruct the BF and generate the beamforming matrix (6). The tail model T decompresses the encoded BF to construct the BF Vi);
training the neural network module, based on the obtained steering matrix, the neural network module comprising an encoder and a decoder (Bahadori, see paragraph 0033, the access point transmits a beamforming report poll (BRP) frame to retrieve the angles from each station); and
performing a neural network quantization on a plurality of weighting coefficients of the encoder and a plurality of scale factors of the encoder (Bahadori, see paragraph 0033, The angles are further quantized using bϕ∈{7, 9} bits for ϕ and bψ=bϕ−2 bits for ψ, to further reduce the channel occupancy),
wherein the first data comprises the plurality of weighting coefficients of the encoder and the plurality of scale factors of the encoder (Bahadori, see paragraph 0033, The quantized values—qϕ={0, . . . , 2bϕ−1} and qψ={0, . . . , 2bϕ−1}—are packed into a compressed beamforming frame (CBF)).
Regarding claim 7, Bahadori teaches wherein the obtaining of the steering matrix comprises obtaining a steering matrix from a legacy beamforming procedure (Bahadori, see paragraph 0003, To correctly beamform transmissions, MU-MIMO requires access points (APs) to periodically collect channel state information (CSI) from each connected station (station) to beamform the transmissions. According to the IEEE 802.11 standard, the beamforming feedback (BF) is constructed by (i) measuring the CSI through pilot signals and (ii) computing the BF through singular value decomposition (SVD)).
Regarding claim 8, Bahadori teaches wherein the performing of the neural network quantization comprises:
maintaining a single-precision floating-point format of the plurality of weighting coefficients of the encoder (Bahadori, see paragraph 0033, the access point transmits a beamforming report poll (BRP) frame to retrieve the angles from each station);
quantizing the plurality of scale factors of the encoder (Bahadori, see paragraph 0033, The angles are further quantized using bϕ∈{7, 9} bits for ϕ and bψ=bϕ−2 bits for ψ, to further reduce the channel occupancy); and
quantizing the plurality of weighting coefficients of the encoder (Bahadori, see paragraph 0033, The quantized values—qϕ={0, . . . , 2bϕ−1} and qψ={0, . . . , 2bϕ−1}—are packed into a compressed beamforming frame (CBF)).
Regarding claim 9, Bahadori teaches wherein the quantized weighting coefficients of the encoder are integers (Bahadori, see paragraph 0057, the size of the compressed BF report is BMR=8×Nt+Na×S×(bϕ+bψ)/2 where Na denotes the number of Givens angles. Values bϕ and bψ are the number of bits required for the angle quantization).
Claims 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo (Guo et al., Study on AI CSI Compression, IEEE draft, retrieved from https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/23/11-23-0290-01-aiml-study-on-ai-csi-compression.pptx, March 2023).
Regarding claim 10, Guo teaches a computer-implemented method performed by a second electronic device for reducing a feedback overhead of beamforming in a wireless communication system (Guo, see slide 2 and slide 4, introduce a new vector quantization variational autoencoder (VQ-VAE) method for CSI compression resulting in improved overhead reduction and throughput gain), the computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a first data from a first electronic device (Guo, see slide 4, Beamformer and beamformee need to exchange the store neural network models);
receiving a data packet from the first electronic device (Guo, see slide 3, The AP initiates the sounding sequence by transmitting the NDPA frame followed by a NDP which is used for the generation of V matrix at the STA);
estimating a channel between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, based on the received data packet (Guo, see slide 3, The AP initiates the sounding sequence by transmitting the NDPA frame followed by a NDP which is used for the generation of V matrix at the STA);
obtaining a steering matrix based on the estimated channel (Guo, see slide 3, The AP initiates the sounding sequence by transmitting the NDPA frame followed by a NDP which is used for the generation of V matrix at the STA);
compressing the obtained steering matrix by using the first data and by using an encoder of a neural network module, and putting the compressed steering matrix in a field of a data frame (Guo, see slide 3 and slide 5, Input of NN could be the V matrix or the angles after Givens rotation. The STA applies Givens rotation on the V matrix and feeds back the angels in the beamforming report frame); and
transmitting the data frame to the first electronic device (Guo, see the picture on slide 6, transmitting the BF action frame).
Regarding claim 11, Guo teaches wherein the first data comprises 1) a plurality of weighting coefficients of the encoder of the neural network module and 2) a plurality of scale factors of the encoder of the neural network module (Guo, see slide 4, AI solutions: use neural network adopted two autoencoders to compress two types of angles after Givens rotation separately).
Regarding claim 12, Guo teaches wherein the data packet is a null data packet of the wireless communication system (Guo, see the picture on slide 6, NDP).
Regarding claim 13, Guo teaches further comprising receiving, from the first electronic device, a third data via a radio signal beamformed based on the steering matrix (Guo, see slide 6 and the picture, the beamformed data is transmitted in response to receiving the BF frame).
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 CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R. Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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