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 .
Claims 1-18 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS filed 12/15/23 has been considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
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, 8, and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim et al., US 2019/0281546, (“Lim”), in view of Jeon et al., US 2024/0187063, (“Jeon”) and Zeng et al., US 2021/0075691, (“Zeng”).
Regarding claim 1, Lim teaches “A method of a terminal (see, e.g., Fig. 10, Mobile device (e.g., UE) Operation), comprising:
receiving, from a base station, information on a measurement period for at least one channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) and a reporting period for transmitting at least one CSI (Fig. 10, step 1052; paragraph no. 0135, “As shown in FIG. 10 … the base station may operate to configure the timing of the CSI-RS transmissions, expected CSI reports and C-DRX periodicity to coordinate with the UE (1002). The base station may identify the timing of a first scheduled occurrence of a periodic (e.g. periodically transmitted or periodically scheduled) CSI report that is to be transmitted by the UE during the on-period of the UE (1004). For example, the base station may identify a time ‘x’ when a first CSI report is scheduled to be transmitted after the UE enters a C-DRX on-duration period. The base station may similarly identify the timing (for example, a time ‘y’) of the first periodic CSI-RS to be transmitted by the base station during the on-duration (1006)”; as best shown in Fig. 12, the base station implicitly configures the measurement period to the UE for an aperiodic CSI-RS occasion 1 during the early UE wake up period 1202 – the early UE wake up period 1202 is one example of a measurement period configured by the base station to the UE; as best shown in Fig. 12, the Periodic CSI Report 1 is transmitted at time “x” (1216) and the time “x” is a reporting period also implicitly configured by the base station to the UE; however, see below for an explicit teaching of a base station configuring a UE with a measurement period and a reporting period);
receiving the at least one CSI-RS during the measurement period (Fig. 10, step 1060; see Fig. 12 which shows the Aperiodic CSI-RS (Occasion 1) received during the early wake up period 1202 (“measurement period”) by the UE);
generating at least one measured CSI based on the at least one CSI-RS (Fig. 10, step 1060; the received CSI-RS is measured by the UE; see paragraph no. 0013, “If the timing of the transmission of the corresponding periodic CSI-RS falls outside the on-duration of the UE, the base station may assign and transmit an aperiodic CSI-RS to the UE at a point in time that coincides with the on-duration of the UE so that the UE may measure the CSI and transmit the periodic CSI report”);
transmitting the at least one measured CSI to the base station” (Fig. 12, Periodic CSI Report 1 is transmitted by the UE to the base station; see paragraph no. 0013, “If the timing of the transmission of the corresponding periodic CSI-RS falls outside the on-duration of the UE, the base station may assign and transmit an aperiodic CSI-RS to the UE at a point in time that coincides with the on-duration of the UE so that the UE may measure the CSI and transmit the periodic CSI report”).
While Lim implicitly teaches that the base station configures to the UE the “measurement period” and “reporting period,” Jeon teaches these limitations explicitly, see paragraph no. 0108, “The BS may perform channel estimation on the basis of the CSI received from the UE. At this time, in order to more accurately predict parameters required for channel estimation, the BS may configure CSI in a necessary scheme. The CSI configuration may include at least one of a CSI measurement configuration, a CSI reporting configuration, and a CSI-RS configuration. The BS may adaptively generate the CSI configuration according to a necessary channel estimation scheme and transmit the generated CSI configuration to the UE through RRC signaling.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lim by incorporating the teachings of Jeon to enable the base station to control the timing of both the measurement of the transmitted CSI-RS and the reporting of the associated CSI report by the UE, thereby improving the channel estimation of the downlink channel in the network and to better control the bandwidth allocation among the UEs in the cell which are transmitting CSI reports. In addition, Jeon further suggests the modification since it discloses that the base station may configure CSI in a necessary scheme in order to more accurately predict parameters required for channel estimation (see paragraph no. 0108).
Lim does not teach but Zeng teaches “generating at least one predicted CSI through a CSI prediction model based on the at least one CSI-RS and the at least one CSI” and “transmitting the at least one predicted CSI to the base station” (see Fig. 3 which shows a first device 305-a (e.g., UE) receiving a CSI-RS from a second device 305-b (e.g., base station) at step 315 and using a neural network model (steps 320-330) to predict CSI based on the received CSI-RS and measured CSI. The UE then transmits the predicted CSI to the base station at step 335; see paragraph nos. 0043, 0044, 0045, 0087, 0088, 0102-0105 for support) as recited in claim 1.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lim and Jeon by incorporating the teachings of Zeng to enable a device (such as a UE) to predict a link level performance of a channel for communicating with another device (such as a base station) using a trained neural network, as suggested by Zeng in paragraph no. 0043.
Regarding independent claim 12, this independent claim is a corresponding apparatus (i.e. UE) claim of the method claim 1 and recites similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 1 applies with equal force to this independent claim and as further amplified below to highlight the minor differences between the claims. See Fig. 3 of Lim for the claimed structural elements of the claim.
Regarding independent claim 8, Lim teaches “A method of a base station (see, e.g., Fig. 10, Base Station Operation), comprising:
transmitting, to a terminal, information on a measurement period for at least one channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) and a reporting period for transmitting at least one CSI to the base station (Fig. 10, step 1002; paragraph no. 0135, “As shown in FIG. 10 … the base station may operate to configure the timing of the CSI-RS transmissions, expected CSI reports and C-DRX periodicity to coordinate with the UE (1002). The base station may identify the timing of a first scheduled occurrence of a periodic (e.g. periodically transmitted or periodically scheduled) CSI report that is to be transmitted by the UE during the on-period of the UE (1004). For example, the base station may identify a time ‘x’ when a first CSI report is scheduled to be transmitted after the UE enters a C-DRX on-duration period. The base station may similarly identify the timing (for example, a time ‘y’) of the first periodic CSI-RS to be transmitted by the base station during the on-duration (1006)”; as best shown in Fig. 12, the base station implicitly configures the measurement period to the UE for an aperiodic CSI-RS occasion 1 during the early UE wake up period 1202 – the early UE wake up period 1202 is one example of a measurement period configured by the base station to the UE; as best shown in Fig. 12, the Periodic CSI Report 1 is transmitted at time “x” (1216) and the time “x” is a reporting period also implicitly configured by the base station to the UE; however, see below for an explicit teaching of a base station configuring a UE with a measurement period and a reporting period);
transmitting the at least one CSI-RS during the measurement period (Fig. 10, step 1010; see Fig. 12 which shows the Aperiodic CSI-RS (Occasion 1) transmitted during the early wake up period 1202 (“measurement period”) of the UE); and
receiving at least one measured CSI from the terminal” (Fig. 12, Periodic CSI Report 1 is transmitted by the UE to the base station; see paragraph no. 0013, “If the timing of the transmission of the corresponding periodic CSI-RS falls outside the on-duration of the UE, the base station may assign and transmit an aperiodic CSI-RS to the UE at a point in time that coincides with the on-duration of the UE so that the UE may measure the CSI and transmit the periodic CSI report”).
While Lim implicitly teaches that the base station configures to the UE the “measurement period” and “reporting period” of claim 8, Jeon teaches these limitations explicitly, see paragraph no. 0108, “The BS may perform channel estimation on the basis of the CSI received from the UE. At this time, in order to more accurately predict parameters required for channel estimation, the BS may configure CSI in a necessary scheme. The CSI configuration may include at least one of a CSI measurement configuration, a CSI reporting configuration, and a CSI-RS configuration. The BS may adaptively generate the CSI configuration according to a necessary channel estimation scheme and transmit the generated CSI configuration to the UE through RRC signaling.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lim by incorporating the teachings of Jeon to enable the base station to control the timing of both the measurement of the transmitted CSI-RS and the reporting of the associated CSI report by the UE, thereby improving the channel estimation of the downlink channel in the network and to better control the bandwidth allocation among the UEs in the cell which are transmitting CSI reports. In addition, Jeon further suggests the modification since it discloses that the base station may configure CSI in a necessary scheme in order to more accurately predict parameters required for channel estimation (see paragraph no. 0108).
Lim does not teach but Zeng teaches “transmitting the at least one predicted CSI to the base station” (see Fig. 3 which shows a first device 305-a (e.g., UE) receiving a CSI-RS from a second device 305-b (e.g., base station) at step 315 and using a neural network model (steps 320-330) to predict CSI based on the received CSI-RS and measured CSI. The UE then transmits the predicted CSI to the base station at step 335; see paragraph nos. 0043, 0044, 0045, 0087, 0088, 0102-0105 for support) as recited in claim 8.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lim and Jeon by incorporating the teachings of Zeng to enable a device (such as a UE) to predict a link level performance of a channel for communicating with another device (such as a base station) using a trained neural network, as suggested by Zeng in paragraph no. 0043.
Claim(s) 2, 9, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim, Jeon, and Zeng as applied to claims 1, 8, and 12 above, and further in view of Vitthaladevuni et al., US 2025/0392367, (“Qualcomm”).
Regarding claims 2, 9, and 13, Lim does not teach but Qualcomm teaches “compressing at least one predicted channel quality indicator (CQI) included in the at least one predicted CSI through a compression model of the terminal” (paragraph no. 0089, “Some techniques described herein provide frequency domain compression of CQI, RI, and/or PMI, such as by using an artificial neural network model”; the compressed CQI is included in the predicted CSI, see Fig. 7, step 750).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Lim, Jeon, and Zeng by incorporating the teachings of Qualcomm to enable compression and decompression of CSI, in the frequency domain, using a model such as an artificial neural network model, as suggested by Qualcomm in paragraph no. 0089. In addition, Qualcomm further suggests the modification in the disclosure “compression in the frequency domain may be beneficial relative to compression in other domains (such as the time domain) because a scheduler often schedules communications at the sub-band granularity, so frequency domain compression may provide satisfactory compression results for sub-band granularity scheduling, among other benefits” as disclosed in paragraph no. 0091.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7, 10-11, 14-18 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.
Regarding claims 3 and 14, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the at least one predicted CQI includes a CQI bitmap indicating presence or absence of a CQI for a prediction time point in a time region.”
Claims 5-6 and 16-17 depend from claims 3 and 14, respectively.
Regarding claims 4, 10, and 15, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the compressing of the at least one predicted CQI comprises: compressing CQIs predicted for a plurality of time points, the plurality of time points being or being not consecutive.”
Claim 7 depends from claim 4.
Claim 18 depends from claim 15.
Regarding claim 11, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the decompressing of the at least one predicted CQI comprises: receiving a portion of the predicted CQIs; and receiving a remaining portion of the predicted CQIs, excluding the portion of the predicted CQIs, from the terminal at an update time point set by the base station.”
Conclusion
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/WON TAE C KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2414