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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 12/12/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s Argument: Applicant argues that Sun does not disclose or suggest that the frequency-domain density of the PT-RS is defined as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of PUSCH. Also, Sun does not disclose or suggest defining a presence of the PT-RS as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of PUSCH. Therefore, Sun does not disclose or suggest that “uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a frequency density parameter that defines a presence and frequency density of the PT-RS as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH.”
Examiner’s Response: The examiner respectfully disagrees. The examiner asserts that Sun discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a frequency density parameter that defines a presence and frequency density of the PT-RS as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH (see paragraphs 0045, 0078, 0117, 0137, 0160, and 0474). To be more specific, Sun discloses that the frequency-domain density of the PT-RS is defined as a function of the scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH (see paragraphs 0045, 0046, 0078 (“the frequency-domain density may be related to at least one of a bandwidth part (BP), a CP type, the user scheduled bandwidth, a subcarrier spacing, and an MCS.”), 117 (“determining a frequency-domain density of the PT-RS based on the currently active bandwidth part BP and a scheduled bandwidth BW”), 137 (“the frequency-domain density of the PT-RS is determined based on a currently scheduled bandwidth and the correspondence information”), 160, 0474 “the user scheduled bandwidth, on one or more symbols to which the other reference signal is mapped, a quantity of subcarriers to which the PT-RS is mapped on the one or more symbols may be calculated based on the frequency-domain density of the PT-RS and a bandwidth, on the one or more symbols, that can be used for PUSCH (or PDSCH) transmission. The calculated quantity of subcarriers is a required quantity of subcarriers to which the PT-RS is mapped within the bandwidth, on the one or more symbols, that can be used for PUSCH (or PDSCH) transmission.”), 0477 “… a subcarrier location to which the PT-RS is mapped within the bandwidth that can be used for PUSCH”, and 0479 “the PT-RS is evenly distributed within the bandwidth that can be used for PUSCH (or PDSCH) transmission.”). Sun also discloses defining a presence of the PT-RS as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of PUSCH (see paragraph 0474, this paragraph discloses that PT-RS is distributed within the bandwidth that can be used for PUSCH). Since Sun discloses that the PT-RS signal is distributed over the scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH, the position of the subcarriers and symbols of the PT-RS are defined related to this scheduled bandwidth. Therefore, the presence of the PT-RS is a function of the scheduled bandwidth in the sense that if bandwidth allocation changes, the locations where the reference signals appear also change accordingly. Therefore, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, and 20- 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Sun) (US 2020/0021470), Kim et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Kim) (WO 2021066625), and Kubota et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Kubota) (US 2017/0230869), further in view of Babaei (US 2021/0227451).
As to claim 1, Sun discloses a method of phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) signals transmission (see the abstract, Fig. 10, and paragraph 0018), comprising: receiving, by a user equipment (UE) (a terminal) from a base station (BS) (a network device, see paragraph 0341), one or more messages comprising uplink PT-RS configuration parameters (see Fig. 10, steps S201 and S203 and paragraph 0373); and transmitting, by the UE to the BS, PT-RS signals (see Fig. 10, step S205) via radio resources of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (see paragraphs 0428 and 0450) based on: the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters (see Fig. 10, steps S201, S203, and S205) and a PT-RS mapping process for mapping the generated PT-RS to the radio resources of the PUSCH (see paragraphs 0428 and 0450). Sun further discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a frequency density parameter that defines a presence and frequency density of the PT-RS as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH (see paragraphs 0045, 0078, 0117, 0137, 0160, and 0474). Sun discloses all the subject matters claimed in claim 1, except for a PT-RS sequence generation process for generating a PT-RS sequence, wherein the PT-RS sequence is based on a chirp signal with a time-varying frequency according to a chirp factor. Sun also does not disclose that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a time density transform precoding parameter defining a time density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) in an OFDM symbol level. Kim, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system for communicating PT-RS signals (see paragraph 559). Kim further discloses that a transmitter may generate a sequence used for PT-RS and then map the generated PT-RS sequence to a resource element and transmit the PTRS by mapping it to a time resource, a frequency resource, or a time and frequency resource (see paragraph 559). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to facilitate the message flow in the communication system. Sun and Kim disclose all the subject matters claimed in claim 1, except that the PT-RS sequence is based on a chirp signal with a time-domain varying frequency according to a chirp factor. Sun and Kim also do not disclose that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a time density transform precoding parameter defining a time density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) in an OFDM symbol level. Kubota, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system where a base station provides a UE with a configuration for an uplink reference signal to be transmitted by the UE (see paragraph 0134). Kubota further discloses that the uplink reference signal can be a chirp signal (see paragraphs 0134, 0139, 0156, and 0162). Kubota does not expressly disclose that the chirp signal has a time-domain varying frequency according to a chirp factor. However, inherently (by definition of the chirp signal) every chirp signal has a time-varying frequency according to a chirp factor. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun and Kim, as suggested by Kubota, in order to reduce the impact of noise in the reception of the reference signal in the communication system. Sun, Kim, and Kubota do not disclose that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a time density transform precoding parameter defining a time density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) in an OFDM symbol level. Babaei, in the same field of endeavor, discloses that in a communication system comprising a base station and a UE (see paragraph 0060), uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a time density transform precoding parameter defining a time density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) in an OFDM symbol level (see paragraph 0125). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, Kim, and Kubota, as suggested by Babaei, in order to reduce the impact of noise in the reception of the reference signal in the communication system.
As to claim 6, Sun discloses that the one or more received messages comprise a PT-RS uplink config information element defining the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters (see Fig. 10, S203 and paragraphs 0393 and 0429, see also paragraphs 0027, 0039, 0210-0211, 0227, 0230, 0250, 0253, 0402, and 0411).
As to claim 8, Babaei further discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a parameter defining a maximum number of uplink PT-RS ports (see paragraphs 0125). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, Kim, and Kubota, as suggested by Babaei, and include the number of uplink PT-RS ports in the configuration information in order to optimize the performance of the communication system by improving signal quality and data throughput.
As to claim 10, Kim discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a resource element offset parameter defining a subcarrier offset for uplink PT-RS (see paragraphs 0422, 0454, 0520 and 0548). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to increase the performance of the communication system.
As to claim 12, Sun discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a time density parameter defining a presence and time density of the PT-RS as a function of modulation and coding scheme (MCS) (see paragraphs 0045, 0116, 0134, 0210, 0211, 0227, and 0429).
As to claim 14, Kim discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise one or more parameters defining whether the uplink PT-RS is configured with a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform (see paragraphs 422 and 454). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to increase the performance of the communication system.
As to claim 16, Kim discloses that the radio resources of the PUSCH are associated with a cell in frequency range 2 (FR2) (see paragraphs 117-119 and 0160). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to increase the performance of the communication system.
As to claim 17, Babaei discloses receiving a downlink control information (DCI) comprising an uplink grant (see paragraph 0077) defining the radio resources of the PUSCH for transmission of an uplink transport block (see paragraphs 0077 and 0208). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, Kim, Kubota, as suggested by Babaei, in order to optimize the performance of the communication system.
As to claim 20, Kim discloses that the PT-RS sequence generation process comprises generating the PT-RS sequence based on a first process if transform precoding is not enabled and based on a second process if transform precoding is enabled (see paragraphs 416 and 425). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to increase the performance of the communication system.
As to claim 21, Kim discloses that the PT-RS sequence generation process comprises generating values of the PT-RS sequence for different subcarriers that the PT-RS sequence is mapped to (see paragraphs 416-419). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to increase the performance of the communication system.
As to claim 22, Sun discloses that the PT-RS mapping process comprises mapping the PT-RS to different resource elements within the radio resources of a PUSCH (see paragraph 0452). The limitations regarding PT-RS sequence generating and sequence mapping are disclosed by reference Kim as explained in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun, Kim, Kubota, and Babaei, further in view of Zhang et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Zhang) (US 2019/0140729).
As to claim 9, Sun, Kim, Kubota, and Babaei disclose all the subject matters claimed in claim 9, except that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a parameter indicating an uplink PT-RS boosting factor per PT-RS port. Zhang, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system where a PT-RS signal is transmitted (see the abstract). Zhang further discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a parameter indicating an uplink PT-RS boosting factor per PT-RS port (see Figs. 8 and 9 and paragraphs 0056, 0105, and 0106). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, Kim, Kubota, and Babaei, as suggested by Zhang, to optimize the performance of the communication system by improving signal quality.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun, Kim, Kubota, and Babaei, further in view of Kim et al. (WO 2021251510).
As to claim 19, Sun, Kim, Kubota, and Babaei disclose all the subject matters claimed in claim 19, except that a first density of the PT-RS signals in the frequency domain is sparser than a second density of the PT-RS signals in the time domain. Kim et al., in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system where a PT-RS is transmitted between two communication devices (see paragraph 236). Kim et al. further discloses that a first density of the PT-RS signals in the frequency domain is sparser than a second density of the PT-RS signals in the time domain (see paragraph 236). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, Kim, Kubota, and Babaei, as suggested by Kim et al., in order to optimize the performance of the communication system and reduce the effect of noise in the communication system.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun, Kim, and Kubota, further in view of Enescu et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Enescu) (PHY Layer, Mihai Enescu; Youngsoo Yuk; Fred Vook; Karri Ranta‐aho; Jorma Kaikkonen; Sami Hakola; Emad Farag; Stephen Grant; Alexandros Manolakos, 5G New Radio: A Beam-based Air Interface, Published in 2020, Publisher: Wiley).
As to claim 11, Sun discloses a method of phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) signals transmission (see the abstract, Fig. 10, and paragraph 0018), comprising: receiving, by a user equipment (UE) (a terminal) from a base station (BS) (a network device, see paragraph 0341), one or more messages comprising uplink PT-RS configuration parameters (see Fig. 10, steps S201 and S203 and paragraph 0373); and transmitting, by the UE to the BS, PT-RS signals (see Fig. 10, step S205) via radio resources of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (see paragraphs 0428 and 0450) based on: the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters (see Fig. 10, steps S201, S203, and S205) and a PT-RS mapping process for mapping the generated PT-RS to the radio resources of the PUSCH (see paragraphs 0428 and 0450). Sun further discloses that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a frequency density parameter that defines a presence and frequency density of the PT-RS as a function of a scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH (see paragraphs 0045, 0078, 0117, 0137, 0160, and 0474). Sun discloses all the subject matters claimed in claim 11, except for a PT-RS sequence generation process for generating a PT-RS sequence, wherein the PT-RS sequence is based on a chirp signal with a time-varying frequency according to a chirp factor. Sun also does not disclose that the uplink PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a sample density parameter defining sample density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform (DFT) spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), pre-DFT, defining a set of thresholds that indicate dependency between presence of PT-RS and scheduled bandwidth of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Kim, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system for communicating PT-RS signals (see paragraph 559). Kim further discloses that a transmitter may generate a sequence used for PT-RS and then map the generated PT-RS sequence to a resource element and transmit the PTRS by mapping it to a time resource, a frequency resource, or a time and frequency resource (see paragraph 559). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, as suggested by Kim, in order to facilitate the message flow in the communication system. Sun and Kim disclose all the subject matters claimed in claim 11, except that the PT-RS sequence is based on a chirp signal with a time-domain varying frequency according to a chirp factor. Sun and Kim also do not disclose that the PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a sample density parameter defining sample density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform (DFT) spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), pre-DFT, defining a set of thresholds that indicate dependency between presence of PT-RS and scheduled bandwidth of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Kubota, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system where a base station provides a UE with a configuration for an uplink reference signal to be transmitted by the UE (see paragraph 0134). Kubota further discloses that the uplink reference signal can be a chirp signal (see paragraphs 0134, 0139, 0156, and 0162). Kubota does not expressly disclose that the chirp signal has a time-domain varying frequency according to a chirp factor. However, inherently (by definition of the chirp signal) every chirp signal has a time-varying frequency according to a chirp factor. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun and Kim, as suggested by Kubota, in order to reduce the impact of noise in the reception of the reference signal in the communication system. Sun, Kim, and Kubota do not disclose that the PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a sample density parameter defining sample density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform (DFT) spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), pre-DFT, defining a set of thresholds that indicate dependency between presence of PT-RS and scheduled bandwidth of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Enescu, in the same field of endeavor, discloses that the PT-RS configuration parameters comprise a sample density parameter defining sample density of PT-RS for discrete frequency transform (DFT) spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) (see page 223, lines 7-8 and 18-20, page 224, lines 15-17, and page 227, last 10 lines), pre-DFT (see page 225, section 3.9.3.3), defining a set of thresholds that indicate dependency between presence of PT-RS and scheduled bandwidth of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (see pages 225-227, section 3.9.3.3, and table 3.26, Nrb,I thresholds). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Sun, Kim, and Kubota, as suggested by Enescu, in order to reduce the impact of noise and make the data handling more efficient.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEILA MALEK whose telephone number is (571)272-8731. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.
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LEILA . MALEK
Examiner
Art Unit 2632
/LEILA MALEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632