DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 29, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on November 29, 2023. These drawings are acceptable.
Claim Objections
Claim 13 is objected to because of the following informalities: incorrectly state claim 8 “The resource management apparatus of claim 8”, Whereas claim 8 “A resource management method.” Appropriate correction is required.
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 non-obviousness.
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, 2, 8, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Alkhateeb et al. (hereinafter “Alkhateeb”, US2022/0190890) in view of Takeda et al. (hereinafter “Takeda”, US2023/0180146).
Regarding claim 1, 8, and 15 Alkhateeb discloses a resource management method to be processed by a resource management apparatus in a cell-free massive MIMO network system (i.e., systems, methods, and articles of manufacture (collectively, the “system”) for a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with a wireless fronthaul network), as described in paragraph [0004]), and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions, (i.e., the CPU apparatus further comprises a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as described in claim13), and comprising:
a transceiver configured to receive communication information from access points distributed on a fronthaul network of the cell-free massive MIMO network system; (i.e., CPU apparatus comprising: a plurality of antenna elements; a transceiver coupled with the plurality of antenna elements and configured for the data communication via the at least one AP, as described in paragraph Claim 11).
a memory configured to store one or more instructions; (i.e., CPU apparatus further comprises a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, as described in claim 13).
a processor configured to execute the one or more instructions stored in the memory wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
control the transceiver to allocate transmission power information based on the communication information, (i.e., a central processing unit (CPU) may jointly determine the fronthaul and cell-free massive MIMO transmission parameters including, e.g., access link power allocation parameters, as described in paragraph [0024]),… and transmit the transmission power information and the access point scheduling information to the access points (i.e., the methods may include transmitting, via the first group of APs, data to other UEs in data communication with the first group of AP, as described in paragraph [0006]),
wherein, the processor is configured to receive data of a user terminal based on the access point scheduling information; and decode the received data. (i.e., each AP 108 may receive and decode the CPU signal received by its high-frequency transceiver, as described in paragraph [0044]).
Alkhateeb discloses all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor Takeda discloses set access point scheduling information based on the transmission power information (i.e., the base station may schedule uplink transmissions across frequency bands according to a power headroom level., as described in paragraph [0049]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Takeda into the invention of Alkhateeb in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Regard to claim 2 Alkhateeb discloses the resource management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions include an algorithm for allocating the transmission power information and scheduling the access point scheduling information, (i.e., the system discussed herein may adopt various algorithms, as described in paragraph [0051]), and
wherein the processor is configured to implement the algorithm to allocate the transmission power information (i.e., a central processing unit (CPU) may jointly determine the fronthaul and cell-free massive MIMO transmission parameters including, e.g., access link power allocation parameters, as described in paragraph [0024]).
Alkhateeb discloses all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor, Takeda discloses: set access point scheduling information (i.e., the base station may schedule uplink transmissions across frequency bands according to a power headroom level., as described in paragraph [0049]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Takeda into the invention of Alkhateeb in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Claims 3, and 4, 10, 11, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Alkhateeb et al. (hereinafter “Alkhateeb”, US2022/0190890) in view of Takeda et al. (hereinafter “Takeda”, US2023/0180146), and further in view of Giuseppe Caire (hereinafter “Caire”, "On the ergodic rate lower bounds with applications to massive MIMO", and the IEEE Trans. wireless Communications, vol.17, no.5, pp.3258-3268; 2017.10.25. disclosure).
Regard to claim 3, 10, and 17 Alkhateeb and Takeda disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor, Caire discloses the resource management apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to calculate a lower bound on an Ergodic transmission rate without channel hardening through the algorithm, (i.e., It is apparent from (24) that the “hardening” of the useful signal coefficient gk,k is not needed in order to obtain a large ergodic rate, as long as the coherence block T is not too small., as described in CONCLUDING REMARKS ) and
Alkhateeb also disclosed allocate the transmission power information based on the calculated lower bound. (i.e., a central processing unit (CPU) may jointly determine the fronthaul and cell-free massive MIMO transmission parameters including, e.g., access link power allocation parameters, as described in paragraph [0024]),
Regard to claim 4, 11, and 18 Alkhateeb and Takeda disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor, Caire discloses the resource management apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor is configured to obtain the lower bound on the Ergodic transmission rate in a closed-form expression. (i.e, (closed-form or easily evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation) for the ergodic rate of the users in a MU-MIMO system with any form of linear precoding., as described in CONCLUDING REMARKS)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Caire into the teaching of Alkhateeb and Takeda in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Claims 6, 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Alkhateeb et al. (hereinafter “Alkhateeb”, US2022/0190890) in view of Takeda et al. (hereinafter “Takeda”, US2023/0180146), and further in view of Koike-Akino et al. (hereinafter “Koike-Akino”, US20120/163433).
Regard to claim 6, 13, and 20 Alkhateeb and Takeda disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor, Koike-Akino discloses the resource management apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to set the access point scheduling information by setting a local optimum based on the transmission power information. (i.e., Two methods are described to perform the local optimization over each subset of parameters, as described in paragraph [0029]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Koike-Akino into the teaching of Alkhateeb and Takeda in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Claims 7, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Alkhateeb et al. (hereinafter “Alkhateeb”, US2022/0190890.) in view of Takeda et al. (hereinafter “Takeda”, US2023/0180146), and further in view of KIM et al. (hereinafter “KIM”, US20210/028830).
Regard to claim 7, and 14 Alkhateeb and Takeda disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor, KIM discloses the resource management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication information includes at least one of location information of the user terminal, information on a channel estimation scheme of the access point, and maximum transmission power. (i.e., Another aspect of the disclosure is to provide an apparatus and method for allocating power to a terminal by using location information, as described in paragraph [0010]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of KIM into the teaching of Alkhateeb and Takeda in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Claims 9, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Alkhateeb et al. (hereinafter “Alkhateeb”, US2022/0190890.) in view of Takeda et al (hereinafter “Takeda”, US2023/0180146), and further in view of Kim et al. (hereinafter “Kim”, US11223396).
Regard to claim 9, and 16 Alkhateeb and Takeda disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
In a similar endeavor, Kim discloses the resource management method of claim 8, wherein the device data is generated by transmitting data by the user terminal based on the transmission power information. (i.e., [0077] in FIG. 6, the base station may transmit a data signal to the terminals according to the allocated transmission power, as described in paragraph [0077]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Kim into the teaching of Alkhateeb and Takeda in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5, 12, and 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC M. VO whose telephone number is (571)272-9854. The examiner can normally be reached T-F; 7:30 - 5:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kathy Wang-Hurst can be reached at 571-270-5371. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Eric M. Vo/ Examiner, Art Unit 2644
/KATHY W WANG-HURST/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2644