DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to an amendment filed on 04/01/2026.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 04/01/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-20 are pending
Claims 1, 3-6, 8, 11, 13-16 and 18 are amended
Claims 1-20 remain rejected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-9 and 11-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marinier et al. (US 20200145079 A1), hereinafter referenced as Marinier, in view of KHIEM VAN CAI (US 20160211898 A1), hereinafter referenced as Cai.
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Marinier teaches a system (Para. [0001]-Marinier discloses Systems and Methods for Beamformed Uplink Transmission. Para. [0009]-Marinier discloses Systems and methods disclosed ... provide support for a large number of antenna elements at the UE side used in 5G NR as compared to legacy systems ... beam-based NR systems and methods disclosed herein reduce reliance on continuous transmissions of common downlink reference signals in order to achieve energy efficiency and spectrum efficiency) comprising:
a beam-forming antenna configured to transmit beams in a plurality of beam directions (Para. [0028-0029]-Marinier discloses beamforming techniques comprise digital, analog, and hybrid beamforming. For digital beamforming, each antenna element may have a dedicated RF chain, including RF processing and ADC/DAC ... Analog beamforming may apply one RF chain for a number of antenna elements that constitute a Phase Antenna Array (PAA). Each antenna element may use a phase shifter to set a phase-only weight for beamforming and steering of the antenna pattern of the PAA. Para ... The RF chain may be switched to one PAA at a time to use a single RF chain with multiple PAAs to provide broad coverage by using one beam at a different direction and time instance. [0049]-Marinier discloses a UE may maintain one beam for each beam process. Such a beam may be selected initially and updated as part of a beam selection procedure. A beam selection procedure determines a beam that results in the best propagation channel (e.g., by maximizing received signal power for a given transmission power) for a given beam or antenna applied to another UE (e.g., a network node)); and
a node of a cellular communication network, the node coupled to the beam- forming antenna and configured to: for each beam direction of at least a portion of the plurality of beam directions, determine a usage requirement (Para. [0223]-Marinier discloses a directional reciprocity calculation may be between, for example, AoA and AoD {corresponding to device usage}. Para. [0215-0216]-Marinier discloses UE may determine a beam class, a beam group, and a beam to use for uplink transmission based on measurement of one or multiple downlink beams by using at least one of the following exemplary embodiments: quality/spatial/energy metrics, periodicity, downlink control/data/reference signal transmissions, single-stage measurements, or multi-stage measurements ... Beam spatial information measurements may be based on angle of arrival (AoA). Para. [0073-0074]-Marinier discloses independent Configurations and Example Usage Scenarios … Each beam process may be configured or associated with independent control channel configurations for maximum flexibility. For example, the control sub-band or resource set may be configured differently between different beam processes, which may be useful in scenarios where they are associated to geographically separated TRPs which use different resources for control channels to better coordinate interference. Para. [0026]-Marinier discloses the channel propagation characteristics and the very high data throughput for 5G NR cellular systems may call for using beamforming on all physical layer signals and channels including those for broadcast and common purpose, and for focusing on beam-based or beam-centric procedures) and
select a selected beam direction of the at least the portion of the plurality of beam directions according to aggregations of the usage requirement and the priority of each UE within each beam direction (Para. [0222-0225]-Marinier discloses a linkage of beam class for measurement and for transmission may be included in a beam process. In some exemplary embodiments, a UE may select an uplink beam of the same beam class as the ones used for measurement. For example, a selected uplink beam may have a similar beam width, beam center direction, or beam space ... UE may select an uplink beam from a beam class with a beam center direction calculation based on estimated AoA {corresponding to device usage} information of a downlink measurement and on beam width … UE may set a beam-specific power for a selected beam based on a measurement and other configurations including: expected power offset associated with measured beam class signaled by the network, uplink channel type and service intended for an uplink transmission, priority and the maximum limit of a selected beam class);
causing the beam-forming antenna to point in the selected beam direction (Para. [0261]-Marinier discloses the UE 602 may periodically estimate the antenna array's orientation change and update the local coordinate system that may be the reference for the beam direction. Para. [0236]-Marinier discloses the procedure may increase spectral efficiency for a single user. In avoiding uplink transmission interference, the network may evaluate, for example, uplink beam sounding results from all UEs that may transmit to the same TRP and select a beam and beam class for each UE so that the transmit beam of one UE may have a null toward the main lobe direction of the transmit beam of the co-scheduled UE); and
transmitting data to each UE within the selected beam direction using the beam-forming antenna (Para. [0203]-Marinier discloses UE may determine a beam class to use for transmission, based on transmission data. For example, a UE may be configured to use one or more beam classes for control information (such as RRC signaling or RACH accesses) and one or more beam classes for data transfer. Para. [0041]-Marinier discloses a beam class refers to beams that share at least on characteristic, such as beam width or beam solid angle. A higher beam class refers to a higher level of directivity, while a lower beam class refers to a lower level of directivity. Para. [0190]-Marinier discloses beam classes may exhibit different coverage levels. Typically, the more directional the beam, the better the coverage in a specific direction. Fig. 4, Para. [0157]-Marinier discloses UE 402 may initiate a random access procedure based on measurements taken on a signature sequence and/or a mobility reference signal and based on a random access configuration that may be broadcasted. A UE 402 may randomly select a signal, such as a preamble among a preamble group. In some exemplary embodiments, the preamble group may be dependent on a beamforming capability of a UE 402 ... the transmission of the preamble may use a beam if a UE 402 may determine one for measurements taken on available signals).
Marinier fails to explicitly teach priority of each user equipment (UE).
However, Cai teaches a priority of each user equipment (UE) within each beam direction (Para. [0160]-Cai discloses the RRH or EPC returns an exemplary set of frequency sub-units ... The beam assignment can be based on one or more of a number of factors including distance, direction, mismatch parameters, interference issues, cost, priority of user, data needed, past history of transmissions using beam N, etc. Fig. 9, Para. [0163]-Cai discloses the system can, for example, not only select a frequency and a direction, but based on some other parameters such as data transmission amount, weather conditions, user priority, type of data (e.g., email versus voice call), usage and/or performance of other sub-bands, channel characteristics, etc., the system can select a sub-band bandwidth for a respective beam);
select a selected beam direction of the at least the portion of the plurality of beam directions according to aggregations of the usage requirement and the priority of each UE within each beam direction (Fig. 9, Para. [0163]-Cai discloses the system can, for example, not only select a frequency and a direction, but based on some other parameters such as data transmission amount, weather conditions, user priority, type of data (e.g., email versus voice call), usage and/or performance of other sub-bands, channel characteristics, etc., the system can select a sub-band bandwidth for a respective beam. Para. [0026]-Cai discloses the selected frequency sub-unit is preferably chosen based at least in part on one or more factors related to the above user activity and application chosen for which data will be transmitted. These factors can include one or more of the following parameters: ... a priority of the user of the second device, and a priority associated with the data (e.g., a phone call having a higher priority than a texting application). Other parameters in any combination are also contemplated. Para. [0125]-Cai discloses one or more of the following parameters can be used to make the types of decisions discussed above relative to creating and assigning frequency sub-units for beamforming communications: ... a data amount or type, a priority of a user, relative priorities of different users, available power for compensation techniques in the system for achieving beamforming, cost in money for operating the system or for individual users, energy efficiency issues, changing conditions in the system after a frequency sub-unit assignment is made, consideration of newly added receiving devices to a cell, time of day considerations, atmospheric considerations, relative requirements regarding data needs for different devices, a chosen application causing data to be received on a device, a priority of a chosen application relative to other applications receiving data in the system, a system-based policy, a user policy, and so forth).
Marinier and Cai are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of communication system, dealing with beamforming.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the Marinier to incorporate the teachings of Cai on beamforming systems, with a motivation for beam direction based on user priorities, and guarantee increased throughput, (Marinier, Para. [0005]).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the usage requirement includes an amount of buffered data (Para. [0195]-Marinier discloses UE may be configured to indicate to the network (for example, UCI) when repetition over multiple beams is called for (for example, when a UE has data in its retransmission buffer to retransmit over multiple beams)).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the priority of each UE is a function of past usage and channel conditions (Para. [0065]-Marinier discloses beam process is associated to at least one control channel configuration from which the UE 402 determines resources on which to attempt decoding downlink control information ... At least one parameter used for deriving at least one search space (or set of candidates) for instances of the control channel within the at least one control resource set ... The at least one search space may be defined in terms of at least control channel elements, resource element groups, sets of time symbols, and/or subset of physical resource blocks within a control resource set ... there may be more than one configured such subset, which may be selected based on an activity state or priority associated to the beam process. Para. [0081-0082]-Marinier discloses a periodicity for the subset of scheduling units when a control channel is monitored for the beam process. For example, priority may be given to the beam process that has the largest periodicity ... The latest reported channel state indication for each beam process. For example, priority may be given to the beam process for which the channel quality indication was the highest).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the node is further configured to: for each UE, calculate a spectral usage metric as a function of the priority and the usage requirement of each UE (Fig. 4, Para. [0078-0082]-Marinier discloses UE 402 may apply a prioritization rule between beam processes based on at least one of the following criteria: ... A configured priority associated to each beam process. Para. [0010]-Marinier discloses the UE maintains one beam process per beam and/or point ... Power, timing, channel state information may be specific to a beam process. A beam process may be established as part of a random access procedure in which resources may be provisioned in a random access response. A UE may monitor link qualities that are specific to beam process and may declare link failure of beam process based on individual or aggregated beam qualities);
for each beam direction of the at least the portion of the plurality of beam directions, aggregate the spectral usage metrics for the UEs within each beam direction to obtain an aggregated spectral usage metric for each beam direction (Para. [0091]-Marinier discloses the use of different beam processes (e.g., with beams in different directions) for control or data reception on the one hand, and data transmission on the other. Fig. 4, Para. [0078-0082]-Marinier discloses UE 402 may apply a prioritization rule between beam processes based on at least one of the following criteria: ... A configured priority associated to each beam process. Para. [0010]-Marinier discloses the UE maintains one beam process per beam and/or point ... Power, timing, channel state information may be specific to a beam process. A beam process may be established as part of a random access procedure in which resources may be provisioned in a random access response. A UE may monitor link qualities that are specific to beam process and may declare link failure of beam process based on individual or aggregated beam qualities); and
select the selected beam direction as having a highest aggregated spectral usage metric of the at least the portion of the plurality of beam directions (Para. [0222-0225]-Marinier discloses a linkage of beam class for measurement and for transmission may be included in a beam process. In some exemplary embodiments, a UE may select an uplink beam of the same beam class as the ones used for measurement. For example, a selected uplink beam may have a similar beam width, beam center direction, or beam space ... UE may select an uplink beam from a beam class with a beam center direction calculation based on estimated AoA information of a downlink measurement and on beam width … UE may set a beam-specific power for a selected beam based on a measurement and other configurations including: expected power offset associated with measured beam class signaled by the network, uplink channel type and service intended for an uplink transmission, priority and the maximum limit of a selected beam class).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the node is further configured to: for each UE, calculate a spectral usage metric as a function of the priority and the usage requirement of each UE (Fig. 4, Para. [0078-0082]-Marinier discloses UE 402 may apply a prioritization rule between beam processes based on at least one of the following criteria: ... A configured priority associated to each beam process. Para. [0010]-Marinier discloses the UE maintains one beam process per beam and/or point ... Power, timing, channel state information may be specific to a beam process. A beam process may be established as part of a random access procedure in which resources may be provisioned in a random access response. A UE may monitor link qualities that are specific to beam process and may declare link failure of beam process based on individual or aggregated beam qualities);
for each beam direction of the at least the portion of the plurality of beam directions: select a shortlist of UEs within each beam direction based on the spectral usage metrics thereof (Para. [0009]-Marinier discloses support for a large number of antenna elements at the UE side used in 5G NR ... efficient selection of pre-coding weights for UE reception and transmission. Para. [0040]-Marinier discloses beam may be used to mean a set of pre-coding weights or co-phasing weights applied to antenna elements in user equipment (UE) or network equipment (e.g., transmission or reception point) for transmission or reception. The term beam may also refer to an antenna or radiation pattern resulting from the application of such pre-coding weights or to at least one reference signal transmitted while applying the set of pre-coding weights to the antenna elements; at least one sequence used for the generation of the at least one reference signal. Other references include to a set of properties associated to this antenna pattern, such as a gain, directivity, beam width, beam direction (with respect to a plane of reference) in terms of azimuth and elevation, peak to side lobe ratio or to at least one antenna port associated to such an antenna pattern);
aggregate the spectral usage metrics for the shortlist to obtain an aggregated spectral usage metric for each beam direction (Fig. 4, Para. [0078-0082]-Marinier discloses UE 402 may apply a prioritization rule between beam processes based on at least one of the following criteria: ... A configured priority associated to each beam process. Para. [0010]-Marinier discloses the UE maintains one beam process per beam and/or point ... Power, timing, channel state information may be specific to a beam process. A beam process may be established as part of a random access procedure in which resources may be provisioned in a random access response. A UE may monitor link qualities that are specific to beam process and may declare link failure of beam process based on individual or aggregated beam qualities); and
select the selected beam direction as having a highest aggregated spectral usage metric of the at least the portion of the plurality of beam directions (Para. [0222-0225]-Marinier discloses a linkage of beam class for measurement and for transmission may be included in a beam process. In some exemplary embodiments, a UE may select an uplink beam of the same beam class as the ones used for measurement. For example, a selected uplink beam may have a similar beam width, beam center direction, or beam space ... UE may select an uplink beam from a beam class with a beam center direction calculation based on estimated AoA information of a downlink measurement and on beam width … UE may set a beam-specific power for a selected beam based on a measurement and other configurations including: expected power offset associated with measured beam class signaled by the network, uplink channel type and service intended for an uplink transmission, priority and the maximum limit of a selected beam class).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 5 and the method of claim 15 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the node is further configured to select the shortlist UEs within each beam direction as both of (a) having highest aggregated spectral usage metrics of the UEs within each beam direction (Para. [0222-0225]-Marinier discloses a linkage of beam class for measurement and for transmission may be included in a beam process. In some exemplary embodiments, a UE may select an uplink beam of the same beam class as the ones used for measurement. For example, a selected uplink beam may have a similar beam width, beam center direction, or beam space ... UE may select an uplink beam from a beam class with a beam center direction calculation based on estimated AoA information of a downlink measurement and on beam width … UE may set a beam-specific power for a selected beam based on a measurement and other configurations including: expected power offset associated with measured beam class signaled by the network, uplink channel type and service intended for an uplink transmission, priority and the maximum limit of a selected beam class) and
(b) having an aggregated usage requirement at least equal to X*M*N, where X is a value greater than 1, M is a number of time steps, and N is a number of slots available for transferring data per time step using the beam-forming antenna (Para. 0058]-Marinier discloses a beam process for data transmission/reception may be associated with time domain resources including, for example, time unit, block of symbols, sub-frames, slots and frames. Para. [0065-0070]-Marinier discloses a beam process is associated to at least one control channel configuration from which the UE 402 determines resources on which to attempt decoding downlink control information. The configuration may include at least one of the following: [0066] At least one control resource set, control sub-band, or control time symbols within a scheduling unit such as a slot, mini-slot, or subframe ... at least one search space {set of all the time symbols and mini-slots, that makes up the slots} may be defined in terms of at least control channel elements, resource element groups, sets of time symbols ... At least one parameter used to determine a subset of possible scheduling units (e.g., slots) in which downlink control information transmitted using the beam process may be present, such as period and offset in units of slot (or mini-slot)).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 6 and the method of claim 16 respectively,
Marinier further teaches X is greater than or equal to 2 (Para. 0078]-Marinier discloses there may be overlap {corresponding to a multiplier and hence the parameter X} between resources used by different beam processes … For example, this may occur if the UE 402 is only capable of receiving using at most N beam processes at a given time (where N may correspond to, e.g., a number of RF chains in the UE receiver implementation), and there is overlap in the time domain between control channel candidates of more than N beam processes in a given slot. Para. [0065-0070]-Marinier discloses a beam process is associated to at least one control channel configuration from which the UE 402 determines resources on which to attempt decoding downlink control information. The configuration may include at least one of the following: [0066] At least one control resource set, control sub-band, or control time symbols within a scheduling unit such as a slot, mini-slot, or subframe ... at least one search space {set of all the time symbols and mini-slots, that makes up the slots} may be defined in terms of at least control channel elements, resource element groups, sets of time symbols ... At least one parameter used to determine a subset of possible scheduling units (e.g., slots) in which downlink control information transmitted using the beam process may be present, such as period and offset in units of slot (or mini-slot)).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 6 and the method of claim 16 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the slots are physical resource blocks (PRB) (Para. [0065-0068]-Marinier discloses beam process is associated to at least one control channel configuration from which the UE 402 determines resources ... The configuration may include at least one of the following: [0066] At least one control resource set, control sub-band, or control time symbols within a scheduling unit such as a slot, mini-slot, or subframe ... The at least one search space may be defined in terms of at least control channel elements, resource element groups, sets of time symbols, and/or subset of physical resource blocks within a control resource set).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 respectively,
Marinier further teaches the beam-forming antenna is an analog beam-forming antenna (Para. [0029]-Marinier discloses analog beamforming may apply one RF chain for a number of antenna elements that constitute a Phase Antenna Array (PAA). Each antenna element may use a phase shifter to set a phase-only weight for beamforming and steering of the antenna pattern of the PAA).
Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marinier et al. (US 20200145079 A1), hereinafter referenced as Marinier, in view of KHIEM VAN CAI (US 20160211898 A1), hereinafter referenced as Cai, and further in view of CHANSYUN DAVID YANG (US 20240072157 A1), hereinafter referenced as Yang.
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Marinier in view of Cai teaches the system of claim 9 and the method of claim 19 respectively,
Marinier fails to teach the beam-forming antenna is a millimeter wave beam-forming antenna.
However, Yang teaches the beam-forming antenna is a millimeter wave beam-forming antenna (Fig. 3, Para. [0017]-Yang discloses the antenna system 310 may be a millimeter wave beamforming antenna system).
Marinier and Yang are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication system, dealing with beamforming antenna systems.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the Marinier in view of Cai to incorporate the teachings of Yang on beamforming systems, with a motivation for millimeter wave beam-forming antenna, and guarantee increased throughput, (Marinier, Para. [0005]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the new reference (KHIEM VAN CAI (US 20160211898 A1)) being used in the current rejection.
Conclusion
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/OO/
Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/NICHOLAS A JENSEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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