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 .
This paper is responsive to the patent application filed November 19, 2023, as a continuation from PCT/CN2022/091470 filed May 7, 2022, claiming priority to Chinese patent application 202110550713.5 filed May 18, 2021.
Claims 1-18 are currently pending.
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 April 20, 2025 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
35 USC § 101 Analysis
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1 and 8 were analyzed under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention in claim 1 and 8 appears to be methods involving calculations that do not appear to be integrated into a practical application. However, the claim includes additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than a judicial exception because the solution is directed to an improvement for channel estimation. Should the applicant wish to strengthen the claims with regard to issues surrounding 35 USC 101, Examiner suggests adding language providing a practical application to the methods that do more than “determining .... information” as claimed in the respective preambles to claims 1 and 8.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 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.
Claim 7 and 18 are directed to, inter alia, “obtaining a distance between any two grids of at least two grids that have different serving cell identities and the at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum, wherein the distance is determined based on a quantity of overlapping cells, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell to the grid, and a distance measurement parameter; and combining, into one grid, two grids between which a distance is less than a specified threshold in the at least two grids that have different serving cell identities and at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum” which is not taught by the cited prior art either individually or in combination.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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 1-4, 8-15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat. Pub. to Alexei Vladimirovich Davydov et al. in view of US Pat. Pub. 20240040501 claiming priority to Chinese Pat. App. No. 202010763391.8 filed July 31, 2020 to Jingjing Yuan et al. (hereinafter Yuan) further in view of Hongxiang Xie, Feifei Gao, Shi Jin, Jun Fang and Ying Chang Liang, "Channel Estimation for TDD/FDD Massive MIMO Systems With Channel Covariance Computing," in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 4206-4218, June 2018, doi: 10.1109/TWC.2018.2821667 (hereinafter Xie).
Regarding claim 1, Davydov in view of Yuan and Xie teaches A method for determining radio channel multipath information for a server, (Davydov Fig. 5 illustrates multiple channels in multipath) the method comprising:
obtaining a plurality of pieces of first data, the first data comprising reference signal received powers of a plurality of downlink beams, [[a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity]]; (Davydov para. [0050]-[0055] teach obtaining data from a UE measuring RSRP values including “UE measures the power of multiple resource elements used to transmit the reference signal and takes an average of them” and “new set of RRM measurements are defined to convey information about the serving and interfering signal spatial structure considering multiple antennas at the UE and/or eNB. In some embodiments, the RSRP and RSRQ definitions are enhanced to include measurement and reporting of the multiple values for each target cell eNB.”
Davydov para. [0020] teaches a downlink grid that is provided including “Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements in the frequency domain and may represent the smallest quanta of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.” Examiner interprets the conveying of the grid data as identifying the grid.)
Davydov does NOT teach “a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity”.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches obtaining ... a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude, the grid data including RSRP, base station identification, grid direction angle. Yuan further teaches in Table 1 and paras. [0102]- [0105] that fields of the grid MR data which includes grid ECI which is a serving cell identification, and grid MR data grouped according to base station ID and direction angle data to allocate the grid MR data into a corresponding cell.
Yuan further teaches in para. [0091] that the data is split and “the frequency bands are combined two by two to determine whether there is a co-coverage cell based on the following conditions: if the distance between the longitudes and latitudes of the two cells is less than the seventh threshold, and the difference between the direction angles of the two cells is less than the eighth threshold.” Examiner maps a “co-coverage cell” identified in MR data of Yuan as a “power angular spectrum cell identity” in accordance with Applicant’s specification paras. [0105]-[0107] as “overlapping cells” because Yuan teach co-coverage cells.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach MR data, grid identity and power angular spectrum cell identity. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
determining a plurality of pieces of second data based on the plurality of pieces of first data, the second data comprising an eigenvalue of reference signal received powers of a plurality of downlink beams with a same grid identity, a same serving cell identity, and a same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data; (Davydov para. [0060]-[0061] teaches determining an eigenvalue of RSRP of the beams via creating the following matrix:
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Examiner interprets the enhanced RSRP for “a given cell” as the RSRP as equivalent to “a same grid identity, a same serving cell identity, and a same power angular spectrum cell identity”.)
Davydov does NOT teach determining, based on the plurality of pieces of second data, a power angular spectrum from an antenna in a power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data, the power angular spectrum cell comprising a cell in which a downlink beam received by a terminal device located in the grid is located, and the power angular spectrum comprising a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid.
In the analogous art of 3GPP MIMO wireless communications, Xie teaches determining, based on the plurality of pieces of second data, a power angular spectrum from an antenna in a power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data, the power angular spectrum cell comprising a cell in which a downlink beam received by a terminal device located in the grid is located, and the power angular spectrum comprising a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid. (Xie page 4207, second column, Section II A. “System Model” teaches determining a power angular spectrum (PAS) by considering a ray-tracing based channel model wherein each user is expressed with a ray from a AOA and “specific array geometries” which Examiner maps to power angular spectrum cell identities. Xie page 4209 Section C. “Inferring Downlink CCMs from Uplink CCMs” teaches that the PAS of uplink and downlink channels are reciprocal therefore Xie teaches determining a power angular spectrum from the antenna to a “grid” described in Xie page 4207, second column, third paragraph as “For example, the whole spatial space is often discretized evenly into M blocks, each with the width of 2/πM ,and then the basis vectors could be chosen as the columns of an M × M DFT matrix when ULA is deployed at BS. In this case, the continuous power angular spectrum PAS function in (3) should be approximated by M discrete expansion coefficients, denoted as {Sl} for l = 0, 1, . . .,M − 1.” which teaches a grid. The power angular spectrum for “a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid” is taught by Xie, page 4211, second column first – fourth paragraphs which teaches that an updated angle information helps to monitor the motion of users and when two users’ angular distance becomes smaller than a threshold, and for PAS and accurate estimation of “the continuous PAS .... we should first determine enough discrete angles of interest ... and estimate corresponding instantaneous channel gains” which Examiner maps to a propagation path from antenna to grid.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Xie with Davydov. Each of Xie and Davydov are in the field of wireless communications and each address channel state information and MIMO. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Xie with Davydov in order to overcome the “prohibitive computational complexity of MIMO systems” as taught by Xie page 4206, second column first paragraph.
Regarding claim 2, Davydov teaches The method according to claim 1, wherein the grid identity is of a grid comprised in beam space, the beam space is determined based on reference signal received powers of a plurality of uplink beams, and the beam space corresponds to one or more cells. (Davydov para. [0060] teaches a grid comprised in beam space as follows:
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Davydov para. [0061] teaches that the grid R is a beam space based on RRM measurements of a cell including RSRP beam data of cells.)
Regarding claim 3, Davydov does NOT teach The method according to claim 1, wherein the grid identity is of a grid in geographic space, the geographic space is determined based on latitude and longitude information of the terminal device corresponding to a case that the terminal device measures the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams in one or more cells, and the geographic space corresponds to the one or more cells.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches wherein the grid identity is of a grid in geographic space, the geographic space is determined based on latitude and longitude information of the terminal device corresponding to a case that the terminal device measures the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams in one or more cells, and the geographic space corresponds to the one or more cells. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude with RSRP and geographic space corresponding to one or more cells).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach a grid in geographic space. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Regarding claim 4, Davydov teaches The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the plurality of pieces of second data based on the plurality of pieces of first data comprises:
obtaining the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams with the same grid identity, the same serving cell identity, and the same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data; (Davydov para. [0020] teaches a downlink grid that is provided including “Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements in the frequency domain and may represent the smallest quanta of resources that currently can be allocated.)
and
determining the eigenvalue of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams with the same grid identity, the same serving cell identity, and the same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data, wherein the eigenvalue is any one of:
an average value of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams, a median of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams, or a mode of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams.(Davydov teaches in para. [0061] that the eigval(A) operation calculates the eigenvalues for the square matrix A and that it is an averaging function across reference signal resource elements. Therefore, Davydov teaches “an average value of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams”.)
Regarding claim 8, Davydov in view of Yuan and Xie teaches A method for determining radio channel multipath information for a radio access network device (Davydov Fig. 5 illustrates multiple channels in multipath), the method comprising:
receiving reference signal received powers of a plurality of downlink beams from a terminal device; (Davydov para. [0050]-[0055] teach receiving data from a UE measuring RSRP values)
and
determining a plurality of pieces of first data, the first data comprising the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams, (Davydov teaches in paras. [0050]-[0055] “UE measures the power of multiple resource elements used to transmit the reference signal and takes an average of them” and “new set of RRM measurements are defined to convey information about the serving and interfering signal spatial structure considering multiple antennas at the UE and/or eNB. In some embodiments, the RSRP and RSRQ definitions are enhanced to include measurement and reporting of the multiple values for each target cell eNB.” ) [[ a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity,]] the plurality of pieces of first data are used to determine a plurality of pieces of second data, the second data comprising an eigenvalue of reference signal received powers of a plurality of downlink beams with a same grid identity, a same serving cell identity, and a same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data, (Davydov teaches in para. [0060]-[0061] calculating an eigenvalue based on the RSRP measurement for cells as follows:
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Davydov does NOT teach a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches obtaining ... a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude, the grid data including RSRP, base station identification, grid direction angle. Yuan further teaches in Table 1 and paras. [0102]- [0105] that fields of the grid MR data which includes grid ECI which is a serving cell identification, and grid MR data grouped according to base station ID and direction angle data to allocate the grid MR data into a corresponding cell.
Yuan further teaches in para. [0091] that the data is split “the frequency bands are combined two by two to determine whether there is a co-coverage cell based on the following conditions: if the distance between the longitudes and latitudes of the two cells is less than the seventh threshold, and the difference between the direction angles of the two cells is less than the eighth threshold.” Examiner maps a “co-coverage cell” identified in MR data of Yuan as a “power angular spectrum cell identity” in accordance with Applicant’s specification paras. [0105]-[0107] as “overlapping cells”.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach MR data, grid identity and power angular spectrum cell identity. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Davydov does NOT teach the plurality of pieces of second data are used to determine a power angular spectrum from an antenna in a power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data, the power angular spectrum cell comprising a cell in which a downlink beam received by the terminal device located in the grid is located, and the power angular spectrum comprising a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid.
In the analogous art of 3GPP MIMO wireless communications, Xie teaches the plurality of pieces of second data are used to determine a power angular spectrum from an antenna in a power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data, the power angular spectrum cell comprising a cell in which a downlink beam received by the terminal device located in the grid is located, and the power angular spectrum comprising a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid. (Xie page 4207, second column, Section II A. “System Model” teaches determining a power angular spectrum (PAS) by considering a ray-tracing based channel model wherein each user is expressed with a ray from a AOA and “specific array geometries” which Examiner maps to power angular spectrum cell identities. Xie page 4209 Section C. “Inferring Downlink CCMs from Uplink CCMs” teaches that the PAS of uplink and downlink channels are reciprocal therefore Xie teaches determining a power angular spectrum from the antenna to a “grid” described in Xie page 4207, second column, third paragraph as “For example, the whole spatial space is often discretized evenly into M blocks, each with the width of 2/πM ,and then the basis vectors could be chosen as the columns of an M × M DFT matrix when ULA is deployed at BS. In this case, the continuous PAS function in (3) should be approximated by M discrete expansion coefficients, denoted as {Sl} for l = 0, 1, . . .,M − 1.” which teaches a grid. The power angular spectrum for “a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid” is taught by Xie, page 4211, second column first – fourth paragraphs which teaches that an updated angle information helps to monitor the motion of users and when two users’ angular distance becomes smaller than a threshold, and for PAS and accurate estimation of “the continuous PAS .... we should first determine enough discrete angles of interest ... and estimate corresponding instantaneous channel gains” which Examiner maps to a propagation path from antenna to grid.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Xie with Davydov. Each of Xie and Davydov are in the field of wireless communications and each address channel state information and MIMO. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Xie with Davydov in order to overcome the “prohibitive computational complexity of MIMO systems” as taught by Xie page 4206, second column first paragraph.
Regarding claim 9, Davydov does NOT teach The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises: sending the grid identity to the terminal device, the grid identity indicating the terminal device to measure and report the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams upon change of the grid identity.
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE wireless communications, Yuan teaches sending the grid identity to the terminal device, the grid identity indicating the terminal device to measure and report the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams upon change of the grid identity. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude, the grid data including RSRP, base station identification, grid direction angle. Yuan further teaches in Table 1 and paras. [0102]- [0105] that fields of the grid MR data which includes grid ECI which is a serving cell identification, and grid MR data grouped according to base station ID and direction angle data to allocate the grid MR data into a corresponding cell. Yuan further teaches in para. [0082] the grid MR data is from drive test data” the radio sense type data and the user perception type data can be extracted from the network management database, and the MR data comprising the longitude and latitude reported by the user terminal can be obtained from the northbound file interface of OMC (Operation and Maintenance Center). For example, the MR data is MRO_MDT (Maintenance, Repair & Operations; Minimization Drive Test data” therefore the grid identity would be changed and RSRP data within the drive test data would change as well.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach a longitude and latitude with grid data. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Regarding claim 10, Davydov teaches The method according to claim 8, wherein the grid identity is of a grid comprised in beam space, the beam space is determined based on reference signal received powers of a plurality of uplink beams, and the beam space corresponds to one or more cells. (Davydov para. [0060] teaches a grid comprised in beam space as follows:
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Davydov para. [0061] teaches that the grid R is a beam space based on RRM measurements of a cell including RSRP beam data of cells.)
Regarding claim 11, Davydov does NOT teach The method according to claim 8, wherein the grid identity is of a grid in geographic space, the geographic space is determined based on latitude and longitude information of the terminal device corresponding to a case that the terminal device measures the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams in one or more cells, and the geographic space corresponds to the one or more cells.
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE wireless communications, Yuan teaches wherein the grid identity is of a grid in geographic space, the geographic space is determined based on latitude and longitude information of the terminal device corresponding to a case that the terminal device measures the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams in one or more cells, and the geographic space corresponds to the one or more cells. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude with RSRP and geographic space corresponding to one or more cells).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach a grid in geographic space. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Regarding claim 12, Davydov in view of Yuan and Xie teaches A server, (Davydov teaches in para. [0040] that either UE 200 or the eNB 300 may be a mobile device and may be a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability), comprising:
a memory storing instructions; (Davydov para. [0042] teaches that UE 200 or eNB 300 includes a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media)
and at least one processor in communication with the memory, the at least one processor configured, upon execution of the instructions, (Davydov para. [0042] teaches UE 200 or eNB 300 includes a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations) to perform the following steps:
obtaining a plurality of pieces of first data, the first data comprising reference signal received powers of a plurality of downlink beams, [[a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity]]; (Davydov para. [0050]-[0055] teach obtaining data from a UE measuring RSRP values including “UE measures the power of multiple resource elements used to transmit the reference signal and takes an average of them” and “new set of RRM measurements are defined to convey information about the serving and interfering signal spatial structure considering multiple antennas at the UE and/or eNB. In some embodiments, the RSRP and RSRQ definitions are enhanced to include measurement and reporting of the multiple values for each target cell eNB.”
Davydov para. [0020] teaches a downlink grid that is provided including “Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements in the frequency domain and may represent the smallest quanta of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.” Examiner interprets the conveying of the grid data as identifying the grid.
Davydov does NOT teach “a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity”.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches obtaining ... a grid identity, a serving cell identity, and a power angular spectrum cell identity. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude, the grid data including RSRP, base station identification, grid direction angle. Yuan further teaches in Table 1 and paras. [0102]- [0105] that fields of the grid MR data which includes grid ECI which is a serving cell identification, and grid MR data grouped according to base station ID and direction angle data to allocate the grid MR data into a corresponding cell.
Yuan further teaches in para. [0091] that the data is split “the frequency bands are combined two by two to determine whether there is a co-coverage cell based on the following conditions: if the distance between the longitudes and latitudes of the two cells is less than the seventh threshold, and the difference between the direction angles of the two cells is less than the eighth threshold.” Examiner maps a “co-coverage cell” identified in MR data of Yuan as a “power angular spectrum cell identity” in accordance with Applicant’s specification paras. [0105]-[0107] as “overlapping cells”.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach MR data, grid identity and power angular spectrum cell identity. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
determining a plurality of pieces of second data based on the plurality of pieces of first data, the second data comprising an eigenvalue of reference signal received powers of a plurality of downlink beams with a same grid identity, a same serving cell identity, and a same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data; (Davydov para. [0060]-[0061] teaches determining an eigenvalue of RSRP of the beams via creating the following matrix:
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Examiner interprets the enhanced RSRP for “a given cell” as the RSRP as equivalent to “a same grid identity, a same serving cell identity, and a same power angular spectrum cell identity”.)
and
Davydov does NOT teach determining, based on the plurality of pieces of second data, a power angular spectrum from an antenna in a power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data, the power angular spectrum cell comprising a cell in which a downlink beam received by a terminal device located in the grid is located, and the power angular spectrum comprising a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid.
In the analogous art of 3GPP MIMO wireless communications, Xie teaches determining, based on the plurality of pieces of second data, a power angular spectrum from an antenna in a power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data, the power angular spectrum cell comprising a cell in which a downlink beam received by a terminal device located in the grid is located, and the power angular spectrum comprising a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid. (Xie page 4207, second column, Section II A. “System Model” teaches determining a power angular spectrum (PAS) by considering a ray-tracing based channel model wherein each user is expressed with a ray from a AOA and “specific array geometries” which Examiner maps to power angular spectrum cell identities. Xie page 4209 Section C. “Inferring Downlink CCMs from Uplink CCMs” teaches that the PAS of uplink and downlink channels are reciprocal therefore Xie teaches determining a power angular spectrum from the antenna to a “grid” described in Xie page 4207, second column, third paragraph as “For example, the whole spatial space is often discretized evenly into M blocks, each with the width of 2/πM ,and then the basis vectors could be chosen as the columns of an M × M DFT matrix when ULA is deployed at BS. In this case, the continuous PAS function in (3) should be approximated by M discrete expansion coefficients, denoted as {Sl} for l = 0, 1, . . .,M − 1.” which teaches a grid. The power angular spectrum for “a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid” is taught by Xie, page 4211, second column first – fourth paragraphs which teaches that an updated angle information helps to monitor the motion of users and when two users’ angular distance becomes smaller than a threshold, and for PAS and accurate estimation of “the continuous PAS .... we should first determine enough discrete angles of interest ... and estimate corresponding instantaneous channel gains” which Examiner maps to a propagation path from antenna to grid.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Xie with Davydov. Each of Xie and Davydov are in the field of wireless communications and each address channel state information and MIMO. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Xie with Davydov in order to overcome the “prohibitive computational complexity of MIMO systems” as taught by Xie page 4206, second column first paragraph.
Regarding claim 13, Davydov teaches The server according to claim 12, wherein the grid identity is of the grid comprised in beam space, the beam space is determined based on reference signal received powers of a plurality of uplink beams, and the beam space corresponds to one or more cells. (Davydov para. [0060] teaches a grid comprised in beam space as follows:
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Davydov para. [0061] teaches that the grid R is a beam space based on RRM measurements of a cell including RSRP beam data of cells.)
Regarding claim 14, Davydov does NOT teach The server according to claim 12, wherein the grid identity is of the grid in geographic space, the geographic space is determined based on latitude and longitude information of the terminal device corresponding to a case that the terminal device measures the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams in one or more cells, and the geographic space corresponds to the one or more cells.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches wherein the grid identity is of the grid in geographic space, the geographic space is determined based on latitude and longitude information of the terminal device corresponding to a case that the terminal device measures the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams in one or more cells, and the geographic space corresponds to the one or more cells. (Yuan teaches in Fig. 1 and paras. [0047] – [0050] processing MR data to create grid MR data with a square with predetermined range of longitude and latitude with RSRP and geographic space corresponding to one or more cells as shown in Table 1:
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).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach a grid in geographic space. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Regarding claim 15, Davydov teaches The server according to claim 12, wherein the determining the plurality of pieces of second data based on the plurality of pieces of first data comprises: obtaining the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams with the same grid identity, (Davydov para. [0061] teaches that the grid R is a beam space based on RRM measurements of a cell including RSRP beam data of cells) the same serving cell identity, and the same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data; (Davydov para. [0020] teaches a downlink grid that is provided including “Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements in the frequency domain and may represent the smallest quanta of resources that currently can be allocated.)
and
determining the eigenvalue of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams with the same grid identity, the same serving cell identity, and the same power angular spectrum cell identity in the plurality of pieces of first data, wherein the eigenvalue is any one of:
an average value of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams, a median of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams, or a mode of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams.(Davydov teaches in para. [0061] that the eigval(A) operation calculates the eigenvalues for the square matrix A and that it is an averaging function across reference signal resource elements. Therefore, Davydov teaches “an average value of the reference signal received powers of the plurality of downlink beams”.)
Regarding claim 17, Davydov does NOT teach The server according to claim 16, wherein the process is further configured to execute the instructions, to perform: combining grids that have different serving cell identities and at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches combining grids that have different serving cell identities and at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum. In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches combining grids that have different serving cell identities and at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum. (Yuan para. [0018] teaches combining grids based on grid MR data according to longitude and latitude of each grid MR data of each cell obtained by the cell classification. Yuan teaches in para. [0091] that the data of “the frequency bands are combined two by two to determine whether there is a co-coverage cells.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach combining grids. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Claims 5, 6 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Davydov in view of Yuan and Xie, further in view of US Pat. Pub. 20150326297 to Sven Petersson and Fredrik Athley (hereinafter Petersson) and US Pat. Pub. 20210083737 to Veronique Capdevielle et al. (hereinafter Capdevielle).
Regarding claim 5, Davydov does NOT teach The method according to claim 4, wherein the determining, based on the plurality of pieces of second data, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data comprises:
determining a beam gain of each beam in the power angular spectrum cell based on an antenna gain of the power angular spectrum cell and an antenna port weight of each beam in the power angular spectrum cell;
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE wireless communications, Capdevielle teaches determining a beam gain of each beam in the power angular spectrum cell based on an antenna gain of the power angular spectrum cell and [[an antenna port weight of each beam]] in the power angular spectrum cell. (Capdevielle teaches in para. [0031] teaches a grid of beams (GoB) is characterized by an average reward as a function of a spatial unit in a region of interest and where a radio gain of a beam B over the spatial element derived from RSRP for the B and spatial element is a traffic density, which Examiner maps to determining a gain based on angular spectrum cell because the RSRP identifies the cell.)
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art to combine Capdevielle with Davydov to teach beam gain. Each of Davydov and Capdevielle are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Davydov and Capdevielle to teach beam gain and ensure coverage and optimal beamforming gain and received signal power across all users in the cell as taught in Capdevielle para. [0030].
Neither Davydov nor Capdevielle teach that the beam gain is determined based on an antenna port weight of each beam.
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE wireless communications, Petersson teaches beam gain is determined based on an antenna port weight of each beam. ” (Petersson teaches in para. [0058] “For example, port weights may be used to adapt the beam pattern. The method may thus comprise an optional step S108a of applying respective port weights to respective physical antenna ports of the antenna array 1”)
Davydov does NOT teach determining a target path strength based on the beam gain of the each beam in the power angular spectrum cell and the second data;
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE Petersson teaches determining a target path strength based on the beam gain of the each beam in the power angular spectrum cell and the second data. (Petersson teaches in para. [0065] reports from a wireless terminal 61 may be used to determine the direction to the dominant propagation path to this wireless terminal 61. This direction may then be used to determine port weights as in step S108a that adapts the beam forming in step S106 to point in this direction. The precoding matrix indicator reports used to determine the path include angular information per Petersson para. [0061].)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Petersson with Davydov to teach beam gain based on antenna port weight of each beam. Each of Davydov and Petersson are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Davydov with Petersson in order to perform efficient beam forming and improved spatial reuse giving high spectral efficiency as taught in Petersson para. [0009]-[0010].
and
Davydov does NOT teach determining, based on the target path strength, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell indicated by the power angular spectrum cell identity to the grid indicated by the grid identity.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Xie teaches based on the target path strength, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell indicated by the power angular spectrum cell identity to the grid indicated by the grid identity. (Xie page 4207, second column, Section II A. “System Model” teaches determining a power angular spectrum (PAS) by considering a ray-tracing based channel model wherein each user is expressed with a ray from a AOA and “specific array geometries” which Examiner maps to power angular spectrum cell identities. Xie page 4209 Section C. “Inferring Downlink CCMs from Uplink CCMs” teaches that the PAS of uplink and downlink channels are reciprocal therefore Xie teaches determining a power angular spectrum from the antenna to a “grid” described in Xie page 4207, second column, third paragraph as “For example, the whole spatial space is often discretized evenly into M blocks, each with the width of 2/πM ,and then the basis vectors could be chosen as the columns of an M × M DFT matrix when ULA is deployed at BS. In this case, the continuous PAS function in (3) should be approximated by M discrete expansion coefficients, denoted as {Sl} for l = 0, 1, . . .,M − 1.” which teaches a grid. The power angular spectrum for “a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid” is taught by Xie, page 4211, second column first – fourth paragraphs which teaches that an updated angle information helps to monitor the motion of users and when two users’ angular distance becomes smaller than a threshold, and for PAS and accurate estimation of “the continuous PAS .... we should first determine enough discrete angles of interest ... and estimate corresponding instantaneous channel gains” which Examiner maps to a propagation path from antenna to grid.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Xie with Davydov. Each of Xie and Davydov are in the field of wireless communications and each address channel state information and MIMO. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Xie with Davydov in order to overcome the “prohibitive computational complexity of MIMO systems” as taught by Xie page 4206, second column first paragraph.
Regarding claim 6, Davydov does NOT teach The method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:
combining grids that have different serving cell identities and at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Yuan teaches combining grids that have different serving cell identities and at least one same power angular spectrum cell identity in the power angular spectrum. (Yuan para. [0018] teaches combining grids based on grid MR data according to longitude and latitude of each grid MR data of each cell obtained by the cell classification. Yuan teaches in para. [0091] that the data of “the frequency bands are combined two by two to determine whether there is a co-coverage cells.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Davydov with Yuan to teach combining grids. Each of Davydov and Yuan are in the field of wireless communications and MIMO communications and RSRP parameters. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Yuan with Davydov to achieve energy saving in 5G MIMO networks as taught in Yuan para. [0003].
Regarding claim 16, Davydov does NOT teach The server according to claim 15, wherein the determining, based on the plurality of pieces of second data, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell indicated by each power angular spectrum cell identity in the second data to a grid indicated by each grid identity in the second data comprises:
determining a beam gain of each beam in the power angular spectrum cell based on an antenna gain of the power angular spectrum cell and an antenna port weight of each beam in the power angular spectrum cell;
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE wireless communications, Capdevielle teaches determining a beam gain of each beam in the power angular spectrum cell based on an antenna gain of the power angular spectrum cell and [[an antenna port weight of each beam]] in the power angular spectrum cell. (Capdevielle teaches in para. [0031] teaches a grid of beams (GoB) is characterized by an average reward as a function of a spatial unit in a region of interest and where a radio gain of a beam B over the spatial element derived from RSRP for the B and spatial element is a traffic density, which Examiner maps to determining a gain based on angular spectrum cell because the RSRP identifies the cell.)
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art to combine Capdevielle with Davydov to teach beam gain. Each of Davydov and Capdevielle are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Davydov and Capdevielle to teach beam gain and ensure coverage and optimal beamforming gain and received signal power across all users in the cell as taught in Capdevielle para. [0030].
Neither Davydov nor Capdevielle teach that the beam gain is determined based on an antenna port weight of each beam.
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE wireless communications, Petersson teaches beam gain is determined based on an antenna port weight of each beam. (Petersson teaches in para. [0058] “For example, port weights may be used to adapt the beam pattern. The method may thus comprise an optional step S108a of applying respective port weights to respective physical antenna ports of the antenna array 1”)
Davydov does NOT teach determining a target path strength based on the beam gain of the each beam in the power angular spectrum cell and the second data;
In the analogous art of 3GPP LTE Petersson teaches determining a target path strength based on the beam gain of the each beam in the power angular spectrum cell and the second data. (Petersson teaches in para. [0065] reports from a wireless terminal 61 may be used to determine the direction to the dominant propagation path to this wireless terminal 61. This direction may then be used to determine port weights as in step S108a that adapts the beam forming in step S106 to point in this direction. The precoding matrix indicator reports used to determine the path include angular information per Petersson para. [0061].)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Petersson with Davydov to teach beam gain based on antenna port weight of each beam. Each of Davydov and Petersson are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Davydov with Petersson in order to perform efficient beam forming and improved spatial reuse giving high spectral efficiency as taught in Petersson para. [0009]-[0010].
and
Davydov does NOT teach determining, based on the target path strength, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell indicated by the power angular spectrum cell identity to the grid indicated by the grid identity.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, Xie teaches based on the target path strength, the power angular spectrum from the antenna in the power angular spectrum cell indicated by the power angular spectrum cell identity to the grid indicated by the grid identity. (Xie page 4207, second column, Section II A. “System Model” teaches determining a power angular spectrum (PAS) by considering a ray-tracing based channel model wherein each user is expressed with a ray from a AOA and “specific array geometries” which Examiner maps to power angular spectrum cell identities. Xie page 4209 Section C. “Inferring Downlink CCMs from Uplink CCMs” teaches that the PAS of uplink and downlink channels are reciprocal therefore Xie teaches determining a power angular spectrum from the antenna to a “grid” described in Xie page 4207, second column, third paragraph as “For example, the whole spatial space is often discretized evenly into M blocks, each with the width of 2/πM ,and then the basis vectors could be chosen as the columns of an M × M DFT matrix when ULA is deployed at BS. In this case, the continuous PAS function in (3) should be approximated by M discrete expansion coefficients, denoted as {Sl} for l = 0, 1, . . .,M − 1.” which teaches a grid. The power angular spectrum for “a path angle and path strength of a propagation path from the antenna to the grid” is taught by Xie, page 4211, second column first – fourth paragraphs which teaches that an updated angle information helps to monitor the motion of users and when two users’ angular distance becomes smaller than a threshold, and for PAS and accurate estimation of “the continuous PAS .... we should first determine enough discrete angles of interest ... and estimate corresponding instantaneous channel gains” which Examiner maps to a propagation path from antenna to grid.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to have combined Xie with Davydov. Each of Xie and Davydov are in the field of wireless communications and each address channel state information and MIMO. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Xie with Davydov in order to overcome the “prohibitive computational complexity of MIMO systems” as taught by Xie page 4206, second column first paragraph.
Conclusion
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/MARGARET MARIE ANDERSON/Examiner, Art Unit 2412
/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412