DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Claims 1-4, 7, 10-13, 16, 19, 22, 23, 25, 28 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Landis et al. (US 2021/0377813 A1, hereinafter “Landis”) in view of Landis (US 2022/0312276 A1, hereinafter “Landis’76”).
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Landis teaches a wireless communication device (e.g., UE 115a of fig. 4), comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors and storing processor-executable code that, when executed by the one or more processors (figs. 6-8, ¶ [0138], ¶ [0143]), is configured to cause the wireless communication device to: receive, from a transmitting device via a wireless channel between the wireless communication device and the transmitting device, one or more reference signals over a set of tones in the wireless channel (405 of fig. 4, ¶ [0101] At 405, UE 115-a may receive, one or more reference signals, which may be used by UE 115-a to determine signal quality across a set of frequency resources.); transmit, to the transmitting device, a tone report that indicates a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a signal/channel quality associated with the one or more reference signals that satisfy a threshold (410-425 of fig. 4, ¶ [0102], By performing signal quality measurements, UE 115-a may determine which frequency resources (e.g., which subcarriers) experience strong fading, have spurs, experience strong interference, distortion, or otherwise have poor signal quality. ¶ [0103], UE 115-a may select, for tone reservation, a set of frequency resources of the candidate frequency resources that have lower signal quality than at least one or more other frequency resources within the set of candidate frequency resources. ¶ [0105], ¶ [0106], UE 115-a may perform signal quality measurements at 410 on all of the candidate frequency resources, and may select for tone reservation from among the frequency resources that have at least the threshold signal quality (e.g., may select one or more frequency resources that have the lowest signal quality among those frequency resources with a signal quality that satisfies the threshold). ¶ [0107]-¶ [0109]), the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the signal/channel quality being below the threshold (fig. 4, ¶ [0108] At 420, UE 115-a may transmit a first report (e.g., a tone reservation report) that includes the indication of the selected (e.g., low signal quality) set of frequency resources for tone reservation for PAPR reduction. ¶ [0109], ¶ [0110], At 430, base station 105-a may transmit, and UE 115-a may receive, downlink information (e.g., data or control information) from the base station 105-a over the frequency resources that were not selected for tone reservation); receive, from the transmitting device a data transmission over a second subset of tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, that excludes one or more tones of the first subset tones (430 of fig. 4, ¶ [0110], UE 115-a may receive, downlink information (e.g., data or control information) from the base station 105-a over the frequency resources that were not selected for tone reservation); and receive, from the transmitting device, a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction signal over the one or more tones of the first subset of tones excluded from the second subset of tones (430 of fig. 4, ¶ [0110], UE 115-a may receive, over the frequency resources that were selected for tone reservation, one or more signals configured to reduce PAPR associated with the received information (e.g., to reduce a PAPR associated with a combination of the reserved frequency resources and the frequency resources used to carry the downlink information).
Landis does not explicitly teach transmit, to the transmitting device, a tone report that indicates a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a channel power associated with the one or more reference signals that is below a threshold, the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the channel power being below the threshold.
Landis’76 teaches determining a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a channel power associated with the one or more reference signals that is below a threshold, the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the channel power being below the threshold (¶ [0085], ¶ [0086], base station 105-a may be configured with a threshold for determining tone reservations, such as a power threshold (e.g., energy value). Base station 105-a may be configured to select all resource elements with a power (e.g., energy) below the power threshold. ¶ [0087], base station 105-a may determine a PAPR reducing signal to apply to each tone reservation location 240. ¶ [0089], base station 105-a may determine n tone reservation locations 240 based on the channel frequency response 220. Based on the optimization procedure, base station 105-a may determine to apply a PAPR reducing signal, C, to the n tone reservation locations 240 (e.g., input subcarriers 225, resource elements). Base station 105-a may apply the data signal, X, to the remaining resource elements (e.g., input subcarriers 225, non-tone reservation resource elements)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to transmit, to the transmitting device, a tone report that indicates a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a channel power associated with the one or more reference signals that is below a threshold, the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the channel power being below the threshold.
in the system of Landis. The motivation for doing this is a matter of design choice (¶ [0082], ¶ [0086] of Landis’76).
Regarding claims 19 and 25, Landis teaches a wireless communication device (e.g., base station 105a of fig. 4), comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors and storing processor-executable code that, when executed by the one or more processor (figs. 9-12, ¶ [0165], ¶ [0170), is configured to cause the wireless communication device to: transmit, to a receiving device via a wireless channel between the wireless communication device and the receiving device, one or more reference signals over a set of tones in the wireless channel (405 of fig. 4, ¶ [0101] At 405, base station 105-a may transmit, and UE 115-a may receive, one or more reference signals, which may be used by UE 115-a to determine signal quality across a set of frequency resources); receive, from the receiving device, a tone report that indicates a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a signal/channel quality associated with the one or more reference signals that satisfy a threshold (410-425 of fig. 4, ¶ [0102], By performing signal quality measurements, UE 115-a may determine which frequency resources (e.g., which subcarriers) experience strong fading, have spurs, experience strong interference, distortion, or otherwise have poor signal quality. ¶ [0103], UE 115-a may select, for tone reservation, a set of frequency resources of the candidate frequency resources that have lower signal quality than at least one or more other frequency resources within the set of candidate frequency resources. ¶ [0105], ¶ [0106], UE 115-a may perform signal quality measurements at 410 on all of the candidate frequency resources, and may select for tone reservation from among the frequency resources that have at least the threshold signal quality (e.g., may select one or more frequency resources that have the lowest signal quality among those frequency resources with a signal quality that satisfies the threshold). ¶ [0107]-¶ [0109]), the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the signal/channel quality being below the threshold (fig. 4, ¶ [0108] At 420, UE 115-a may transmit a first report (e.g., a tone reservation report) that includes the indication of the selected (e.g., low signal quality) set of frequency resources for tone reservation for PAPR reduction. ¶ [0109], ¶ [0110], At 430, base station 105-a may transmit, and UE 115-a may receive, downlink information (e.g., data or control information) from the base station 105-a over the frequency resources that were not selected for tone reservation); transmit, to the receiving device a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction signal over the one or more tones of the first subset of tones excluded from a second subset of tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, that excludes one or more tones of the first subset of tones (430 of fig. 4, ¶ [0110], base station may transmit, and UE 115-a may receive, over the frequency resources that were selected for tone reservation, one or more signals configured to reduce PAPR associated with the received information (e.g., to reduce a PAPR associated with a combination of the reserved frequency resources and the frequency resources used to carry the downlink information); and transmit, to the receiving device a data transmission over a second subset of tones (430 of fig. 4, ¶ [0110], At 430, base station 105-a may transmit, and UE 115-a may receive, downlink information (e.g., data or control information) from the base station 105-a over the frequency resources that were not selected for tone reservation).
Landis does not explicitly teach receive, from the receiving device, a tone report that indicates a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a channel power associated with the one or more reference signals that is below a threshold, the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the channel power being below the threshold.
Landis’76 teaches determining a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a channel power associated with the one or more reference signals that is below a threshold, the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the channel power being below the threshold (¶ [0085], ¶ [0086], base station 105-a may be configured with a threshold for determining tone reservations, such as a power threshold (e.g., energy value). Base station 105-a may be configured to select all resource elements with a power (e.g., energy) below the power threshold. ¶ [0087], base station 105-a may determine a PAPR reducing signal to apply to each tone reservation location 240. ¶ [0089], base station 105-a may determine n tone reservation locations 240 based on the channel frequency response 220. Based on the optimization procedure, base station 105-a may determine to apply a PAPR reducing signal, C, to the n tone reservation locations 240 (e.g., input subcarriers 225, resource elements). Base station 105-a may apply the data signal, X, to the remaining resource elements (e.g., input subcarriers 225, non-tone reservation resource elements)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to receive, from the receiving device, a tone report that indicates a first subset tones, of the set of tones in the wireless channel, having a channel power associated with the one or more reference signals that is below a threshold, the first subset of tones being indicated as candidate tones for exclusion from data transmission in accordance with the channel power being below the threshold.
in the system of Landis. The motivation for doing this is a matter of design choice (¶ [0082], ¶ [0086] of Landis’76).
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the tone report indicates one or more channel measurements that include received energy associated with the first subset of tones
tones, signal to noise ratio (SNR) associated with the first subset of tones, or channel capacity associated with the first subset of tones (Landis: ¶ [0102], Based on performing the measurements, UE 115-a may determine a level of interference, an amount of channel fading, a received signal power, an extent of harmonic distortion, or any combination thereof).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the tone report includes a list of resource indices that correspond to the first subset of tones (Landis: fig. 4, ¶ [0103]. ¶ [0104], ¶ [0105], In some examples, UE 115-a may report up to a fixed number of selected frequency resources (e.g., the UE 115-a may be configured to select and indicate a fixed number of frequency resources for tone reservation). ¶ [0108]).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the tone report indicates one or more frequency clusters that include the first subset of tones (Landis: ¶ [0106], ¶ [0107]).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the tone report is transmitted via uplink control information (UCI), a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), or a radio resource control (RRC) message.
Landis’76 teaches wherein the report is transmitted via uplink control information (UCI), a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), or a radio resource control (RRC) message (¶ [0091], UE 115-a may transmit the report via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) signaling, or uplink control information (UCI) signaling).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to transmit the tone report via UCI, a MAC-CE, or an RRC message in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to further improve industrial applicability.
Regarding claims 22 and 28, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 19, wherein the tone report includes a list of resource indices that correspond to the first subset of tones (Landis: fig. 4, ¶ [0103]. ¶ [0104], ¶ [0105], In some examples, UE 115-a may report up to a fixed number of selected frequency resources (e.g., the UE 115-a may be configured to select and indicate a fixed number of frequency resources for tone reservation). ¶ [0108]).
Regarding claims 23 and 29, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 19, wherein the tone report indicates one or more frequency clusters that include the first subset of tones (Landis: ¶ [0106], ¶ [0107]).
8. Claims 5, 14, 24 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Landis in view of Landis’76 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pezeshki et al. (US 2022/0255694 A1, hereinafter “Pezeshki”).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the tone report includes a differential report that indicates changes between tones indicated by a previous tone report and the first subset of tones.
Pezeshki teaches wherein the report includes a differential report that indicates changes between previous report and the one or more candidate (¶ [0068], the differential reporting technique may also be utilized over the time domain. For example, the receiving device 404 may indicate in the report for the transmitting device 402 that the EPRE value for the RS may be increased or decreased by a certain amount (i.e., the receiving device 404 may indicate a difference) with respect to the previous EPRE value in an immediately preceding time instance. ¶ [0059], ¶ [0064]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to utilize a differential report that indicates changes between tones indicated by a previous tone report and the first subset of tones in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to reduce communication overhead (¶ [0059] of Pezeshki).
Regarding claims 24 and 30, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 19.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the tone report includes a differential report that indicates changes between tones indicated by a previous candidate tone report and the first subset of tones.
Pezeshki teaches wherein the report includes a differential report that indicates changes between previous report and the one or more candidate (¶ [0068], the differential reporting technique may also be utilized over the time domain. For example, the receiving device 404 may indicate in the report for the transmitting device 402 that the EPRE value for the RS may be increased or decreased by a certain amount (i.e., the receiving device 404 may indicate a difference) with respect to the previous EPRE value in an immediately preceding time instance. ¶ [0059], ¶ [0064]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to utilize a differential report that indicates changes between tones indicated by a previous tone report and the first subset of tones in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to reduce communication overhead (¶ [0059] of Pezeshki).
9. Claims 6 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Landis in view of Landis’76 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Vitthaladevuni et al. (2022/0284282 A1, hereinafter “Vitthaladevuni”).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the processor- executable code, when executed by the one or more processors, is configured to further cause the wireless communication device to: perform entropy encoding on the tone report prior to transmission to the transmitting device.
Vitthaladevuni teaches perform entropy encoding on the tone report prior to transmission to the transmitting device (fig. 2, ¶ [0095], UE 115-a may then perform the differential encoder operation, the entropy encoder operation, or both before sending the further encoded, quantized, and compressed dataset to base station 105-a).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to perform entropy encoding on the tone report prior to transmission to the transmitting device in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to further reduce a quantity of bits in the transmission (¶ [0091] of Vitthaladevuni).
10. Claims 8, 9, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Landis in view of Landis’76 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Gao et al. (US 2025/0055530 A1, hereinafter “Gao”).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the tone report is transmitted periodically.
Gao teaches a report is transmitted periodically (¶ [0141], the network device 110 may configure the terminal device 120 to report the CSI report associated with a set of capability parameters periodically).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to transmit the tone report periodically in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to utilize conventional techniques in the art.
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 1.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the processor- executable code, when executed by the one or more processors, is configured to further cause the wireless communication device to: receive, from the transmitting device, a request for tone reporting, wherein the tone report is transmitted in response to the request.
Gao teaches receive, from the transmitting device, a request for reporting, wherein the report is transmitted in response to the request (¶ [0141], Alternatively, in some other embodiments, the network device 110 also may transmit a message to trigger the terminal device 120 to report an aperiodic CSI report associated with a set of capability parameters.).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to transmit the tone report in response to the request from the transmitting device in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to utilize conventional techniques in the art.
Regarding claims 20 and 26, Landis in view of Landis’76 teaches the wireless communication device of claim 19.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the processor- executable code, when executed by the one or more processors, is configured to further cause the wireless communication device to: receive, from the receiving device during an association process, tone reporting capabilities associated with the receiving device; and transmit, to the receiving device, a tone reporting configuration message that indicates tone parameters that correspond to the one or more channel measurements, the tone report, or a combination thereof.
Gao teaches receive, from the receiving device during an association process, reporting capabilities associated with the receiving device; and transmit, to the receiving device, a reporting configuration message that indicates one or more parameters that correspond to the one or more channel measurements, the report, or a combination thereof (fig. 2, ¶ [0125], the terminal device 120 transmits 210 capability-related information to the network device. ¶ [0128], ¶ [0140], the network device 110 also may transmit 220 the related configuration to the terminal device 120. In one example embodiment, the related configuration may be generated based on the capability-related information received from the terminal device 120. ¶ [0141], [0141] In some embodiments, the network device 110 may configure the terminal device 120 to report the CSI report associated with a set of capability parameters periodically. ¶ [0157].)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to receive, from the receiving device during an association process, tone reporting capabilities associated with the receiving device, and to transmit, to the receiving device, a tone reporting configuration message that indicates tone parameters that correspond to the one or more channel measurements, the tone report, or a combination thereof in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 to enable efficient reporting (¶ [0144] of Gao).
Regarding claims 21 and 27, Landis in view of Landis’76 and Gao teaches the wireless communication device of claim 20.
Landis does not explicitly teach wherein the first subset of tone parameters include tone selection criteria, a maximum number of tones, a maximum number of frequency clusters, a maximum number of layers, a report granularity, one or more entropy encoder parameters, or a combination thereof.
Gao teaches wherein the one or more parameters include tone selection criteria, a maximum number of tones, a maximum number of frequency clusters, a maximum number of layers, a report granularity, one or more entropy encoder parameters, or a combination thereof (¶ [0315], at least one set of capability parameters comprising at least one of the following: identity information of the set of capability parameters, a maximum number of SRS ports, a coherent type, a maximum number of uplink layers, a maximum number of downlink layers, a maximum number of RS ports, a maximum number of codewords, or a maximum number of MIMO layers).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include in the first subset of tone parameters a tone selection criteria, a maximum number of candidate tones, a maximum number of frequency clusters, a maximum number of layers, a report granularity, one or more entropy encoder parameters, or a combination thereof in the system of Landis in view of Landis’76 and Gao to enable efficient reporting (¶ [0144] of Gao).
Response to Arguments
11. Applicant’s arguments filed on August 7, 2026 have been considered but are moot in view of new ground(s) of rejection
Conclusion
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANDISH RANDHAWA whose telephone number is (571)270-5650. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday (9 AM-7 PM).
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/MANDISH K RANDHAWA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
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