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 .
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 (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.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 10 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos (US 2022/0039084 A1) in view of Zhang (US 2024/0007164 A1).
Manolakos teaches using channel sounding to determine dimensionality vectors of a wireless signal, and specifically teaches that the dimensionality vectors comprise frequency, time and space. See [0206] which teaches using a sounding reference signal (SRS) to perform amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency, time and space. See also Fig. 4A, recreated below, for an exemplary numerology which comprises a time domain vector along the x-axis and a frequency domain vector along the y-axis, which examiner is interpreting in light of the positioning determination (i.e. space dimension vector) discussed throughout, but for example in the Abstract and [0206].
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Regarding Claim 1, Manolakos discloses the below limitation(s): receiving, by a terminal device, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from a network device (Manolakos [0206] SRS supports uplink CSI acquisition for link adaptation and codebook based precoding for uplink MIMO, beam management, etc.);
performing channel sounding based on the CSI-RS ([0206] SRS can be used at the gNB to obtain detailed amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency, time, and space); and
([0206] teaches using SRS codebook-based precoding for uplink MIMO, but Manolakos does not explicitly teach feeding back CSI based on said precoding),
wherein the first codebook is determined based on one or more transmit- end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors that represent a channel, or the first codebook is determined based on the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more time-domain column vectors that represent the channel ([0206] SRS can perform amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency (e.g. frequency-domain column vectors), time (e.g. time-domain column vectors), and space (e.g. space-domain column vector)),
Manolakos does not disclose the below limitation(s): feeding back, by the terminal device, channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook,
the one or more transmit-end space- domain and frequency-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain, and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain.
In the same field of endeavor of determining dimensionality vectors of a wireless signal via channel sounding, Zhang does disclose the below limitation(s): feeding back, by the terminal device, channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook (Zhang [0254] UE receives a configuration and/or request from the network for CSI feedback using a type II port selection codebook and [0260]-[0265] UE transmits a CSI report message including one or more of … the selected CSI-RS port and the pair(s) of vectors in the spatial domain and the frequency domain associated with the selected CSI-RS ports, the corresponding linear combination coefficients, etc.),
the one or more transmit-end space- domain and frequency-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain ([0257] and [0261] transmit-end vectors comprise one or more pair(s) of vectors in the spatial and frequency domain, as well as a subset of ports for CSI-RS (i.e. space domain)), and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain ([0173] network node (i.e. receive-end) may transmit CSI-RS transmit CSI-RS over four CSI-RS ports associated with a spatial beam (i.e. space domain) and a time delay (i.e. time delay)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the teaching of Manolakos to include feeding back space, time, and frequency information as dimensionality vectors as taught by Zhang. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to feedback dimensionality vectors comprising space, time, and frequency in order to provide more granular resource assignment. Doing so improves the efficiency of resource assignment by allowing for smaller (spatially), shorter (temporally), and/or smaller (in frequency) signals. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Manolakos and Zhang to obtain the invention, as specified in the instant claim.
Regarding Claim 10, Manolakos discloses the below limitation(s): at least one processor; at least one memory configured to store a computer program (Manolakos Fig 3A device 302 comprising processing system 332 and memory 340; [0034] UE includes a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver) that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the communication apparatus to:
receive a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from a network device ([0206] SRS supports uplink CSI acquisition for link adaptation and codebook based precoding for uplink MIMO, beam management, etc.);
perform channel sounding based on the CSI-RS ([0206] SRS can be used at the gNB to obtain detailed amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency, time, and space); and
([0206] teaches using SRS codebook-based precoding for uplink MIMO, but Manolakos does not explicitly teach feeding back CSI based on said precoding),
wherein the first codebook is determined based on one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors that represent a channel, or the first codebook is determined based on the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more time-domain column vectors that represent the channel ([0206] SRS can perform amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency (e.g. frequency-domain column vectors), time (e.g. time-domain column vectors), and space (e.g. space-domain column vector)),
Manolakos does not disclose the below limitation(s): feed back channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook,
the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency- domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain, and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain.
In the same field of endeavor of determining dimensionality vectors of a wireless signal via channel sounding, Zhang does disclose the below limitation(s): feed back channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook (Zhang [0254] UE receives a configuration and/or request from the network for CSI feedback using a type II port selection codebook and [0260]-[0265] UE transmits a CSI report message including one or more of … the selected CSI-RS port and the pair(s) of vectors in the spatial domain and the frequency domain associated with the selected CSI-RS ports, the corresponding linear combination coefficients, etc.),
the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency- domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain ([0257] and [0261] transmit-end vectors comprise one or more pair(s) of vectors in the spatial and frequency domain, as well as a subset of ports for CSI-RS (i.e. space domain)), and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain ([0173] network node (i.e. receive-end) may transmit CSI-RS transmit CSI-RS over four CSI-RS ports associated with a spatial beam (i.e. space domain) and a time delay (i.e. time delay)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the teaching of Manolakos to include feeding back space, time, and frequency information as dimensionality vectors as taught by Zhang. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to feedback dimensionality vectors comprising space, time, and frequency in order to provide more granular resource assignment. Doing so improves the efficiency of resource assignment by allowing for smaller (spatially), shorter (temporally), and/or smaller (in frequency) signals. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Manolakos and Zhang to obtain the invention, as specified in the instant claim.
Regarding Claim 19, Manolakos discloses the below limitation(s):A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non- transitory computer-readable storage medium stores computer-executable instructions, and when the computer-executable instructions are invoked by a computer (Manolakos Fig 3A device 302 comprising processing system 332 and memory 340; [0034] UE includes a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver), the computer-executable instructions are used to enable the computer to perform operations comprising:
receiving a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from a network device ([0206] SRS supports uplink CSI acquisition for link adaptation and codebook based precoding for uplink MIMO, beam management, etc.), and
performing channel sounding based on the CSI-RS ([0206] SRS can be used at the gNB to obtain detailed amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency, time, and space); and
([0206] teaches using SRS codebook-based precoding for uplink MIMO, but Manolakos does not explicitly teach feeding back CSI based on said precoding),
wherein the first codebook is determined based on one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors that represent a channel, or the first codebook is determined based on the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more time-domain column vectors that represent the channel ([0206] SRS can perform amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency (e.g. frequency-domain column vectors), time (e.g. time-domain column vectors), and space (e.g. space-domain column vector)),
Manolakos does not disclose the below limitation(s): feeding back channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook,
the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency- domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain, and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain.
In the same field of endeavor of determining dimensionality vectors of a wireless signal via channel sounding, Zhang does disclose the below limitation(s): feeding back channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook (Zhang [0254] UE receives a configuration and/or request from the network for CSI feedback using a type II port selection codebook and [0260]-[0265] UE transmits a CSI report message including one or more of … the selected CSI-RS port and the pair(s) of vectors in the spatial domain and the frequency domain associated with the selected CSI-RS ports, the corresponding linear combination coefficients, etc.),
the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency- domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain ([0257] and [0261] transmit-end vectors comprise one or more pair(s) of vectors in the spatial and frequency domain, as well as a subset of ports for CSI-RS (i.e. space domain)), and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain ([0173] network node (i.e. receive-end) may transmit CSI-RS transmit CSI-RS over four CSI-RS ports associated with a spatial beam (i.e. space domain) and a time delay (i.e. time delay)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the teaching of Manolakos to include feeding back space, time, and frequency information as dimensionality vectors as taught by Zhang. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to feedback dimensionality vectors comprising space, time, and frequency in order to provide more granular resource assignment. Doing so improves the efficiency of resource assignment by allowing for smaller (spatially), shorter (temporally), and/or smaller (in frequency) signals. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Manolakos and Zhang to obtain the invention, as specified in the instant claim.
Regarding Claim 20, Manolakos discloses the below limitation(s):A chip, wherein the chip is coupled to a memory, and is configured to read and execute program instructions stored in the memory (Manolakos Fig 3A device 302 comprising processing system 332 and memory 340; [0034] UE includes a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver), to perform operations comprising:
receiving a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from a network device ([0206] SRS supports uplink CSI acquisition for link adaptation and codebook based precoding for uplink MIMO, beam management, etc.), and
performing channel sounding based on the CSI-RS ([0206] SRS can be used at the gNB to obtain detailed amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency, time, and space); and
([0206] teaches using SRS codebook-based precoding for uplink MIMO, but Manolakos does not explicitly teach feeding back CSI based on said precoding),
wherein the first codebook is determined based on one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors that represent a channel, or the first codebook is determined based on the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency-domain column vectors and one or more time-domain column vectors that represent the channel ([0206] SRS can perform amplitude and phase estimates as a function of frequency (e.g. frequency-domain column vectors), time (e.g. time-domain column vectors), and space (e.g. space-domain column vector)),
Manolakos does not disclose the below limitation(s): feeding back channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook,
the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency- domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain, and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain.
In the same field of endeavor of determining dimensionality vectors of a wireless signal via channel sounding, Zhang does disclose the below limitation(s): feeding back channel state information (CSI) to the network device based on a first codebook (Zhang [0254] UE receives a configuration and/or request from the network for CSI feedback using a type II port selection codebook and [0260]-[0265] UE transmits a CSI report message including one or more of … the selected CSI-RS port and the pair(s) of vectors in the spatial domain and the frequency domain associated with the selected CSI-RS ports, the corresponding linear combination coefficients, etc.),
the one or more transmit-end space-domain and frequency- domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a transmit-end space domain and frequency domain ([0257] and [0261] transmit-end vectors comprise one or more pair(s) of vectors in the spatial and frequency domain, as well as a subset of ports for CSI-RS (i.e. space domain)), and
the one or more receive-end space-domain and time-domain column vectors indicate channel information in a combination of a receive-end space domain and time domain ([0173] network node (i.e. receive-end) may transmit CSI-RS transmit CSI-RS over four CSI-RS ports associated with a spatial beam (i.e. space domain) and a time delay (i.e. time delay)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the teaching of Manolakos to include feeding back space, time, and frequency information as dimensionality vectors as taught by Zhang. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to feedback dimensionality vectors comprising space, time, and frequency in order to provide more granular resource assignment. Doing so improves the efficiency of resource assignment by allowing for smaller (spatially), shorter (temporally), and/or smaller (in frequency) signals. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Manolakos and Zhang to obtain the invention, as specified in the instant claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-9 and 11-18 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: a thorough and complete search has been conducted and no prior art has been found that solely, or in any reasonable combination, reads on each element of the indicated claim(s). In particular, the language of Claim 2, namely “W = W1W2W3H”, overcomes previously cited prior art by performing a step not contemplated by the prior art. While determining the dimensionality of wireless signals via sensing is known in the art, as shown above, using the specific formula claimed to reduce the dimensionality vectors into a four dimensional precoded matrix was not taught by the art at the time of filing. Dependent Claim 11 recites at least the same novel subject matter and is objected to allow for at least the same reason(s). Dependent Claims 4-5, 7, 9, 13-14, 16 and 18 each depend upon either Claim 2 or Claim 11 and inherit the same novel subject matter discussed above, and are thus objected to allow for at least the same reason(s).
In particular, the language of Claim 3, namely “W = W1W4W5H”, overcomes previously cited prior art by performing a step not contemplated by the prior art. While determining the dimensionality of wireless signals via sensing is known in the art, as shown above, using the specific formula claimed to reduce the dimensionality vectors into a four dimensional precoded matrix was not taught by the art at the time of filing. Dependent Claim 12 recites at least the same novel subject matter and is objected to allow for at least the same reason(s). Dependent Claims 6, 8, 15 and 17 each depend upon either Claim 3 or Claim 12 and inherit the same novel subject matter discussed above, and are thus objected to allow for at least the same reason(s).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAWN D MILLER whose telephone number is (571)272-8599. The examiner can normally be reached M-TR 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles C Jiang can be reached at (571) 270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHAWN D MILLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412