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 § 102
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 the appropriate ¶s 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 8-13, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0171243).
Regarding claim 1, Matsumura discloses
A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving, at a UE, a channel state information (CSI) report configuration message indicating a plurality of resources for channel measurement, wherein the plurality of resources for channel measurement comprises downlink reference signal (RS) resources from a serving cell and at least one non-serving cell, and the plurality of resources for channel measurement are configured (¶ [0103]: The RS (for example, an SSB) of the serving cell and the RS (for example, an SSB) of the non-serving cell may be configured in the same (one) CSI report configuration (CSI-ReportConfig) and the same CSI resource configuration (CSI-ResourceConfig). In other words, both the RS of the serving cell and the RS of the non-serving cell may be included in one CSI report configuration and one CSI resource configuration) for first layer RS received power measurement (¶ [0041]: The UE configured with the number of report target RS resources being one or more by the higher layer parameter (for example, an RRC parameter “nrofReportedRS”) included in the CSI report configuration information may include, in a beam report, one or more resource IDs for beam measurement and one or more measurement results (for example, a L1-RSRP(s)) corresponding to the resource ID(s) for each report configuration);
receiving transmission power information for synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) from the serving cell and the at least one non-serving cell (¶ [0143]: The transmission power of an SSB may be different for each of the serving cell and the non-serving cells);
conducting first layer RS received power measurements for the plurality of resources (¶ [0041]: The UE configured with the number of report target RS resources being one or more by the higher layer parameter (for example, an RRC parameter “nrofReportedRS”) included in the CSI report configuration information may include, in a beam report, one or more resource IDs for beam measurement and one or more measurement results (for example, a L1-RSRP(s)) corresponding to the resource ID(s) for each report configuration);
adjusting the first layer RS received power measurements for RSs transmitted from the at least one non-serving cell based on the transmission power information (¶ [0144]: Each RSRP offset is the difference between the RSRP value of the serving cell and the corresponding non-serving cell and may be calculated by “transmission power of an SSB of the serving cell—transmission power of an SSB of the non-serving cell.” The UE may add this RSRP offset to a measured L1-RSRP value and report the value obtained by the addition in a CSI report)); and
reporting a plurality of first layer RS received power measurements, wherein the plurality of first layer RS received power measurements comprises measurements from the serving cell and the at least one non-serving cell, the plurality of first layer RS received power measurements are reported in the same CSI report, and the CSI report comprises a cell identification (ID) and a RS index corresponding to each RS received power measurement of the plurality of first layer RS received power measurements (¶ [0139]: FIG. 9 is a diagram to show an example 6of RSRP reports in a CSI report of the serving cell and the non-serving cells. FIG. 9 is different from the examples in FIGS. 8A and 8B in that cell indices (serving cell index/non-serving cell index) are included. Note that the beam index may be an SSB index/CSI-RS resource index as in FIGS. 8A and 8B).
Regarding claim 9 referring to claim 1, Matsumura discloses A user equipment (UE), further comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to: … (Fig. 14 and 15).
Regarding claim 16 referring to claim 1, Matsumura discloses A processor for wireless communication, comprising: at least one controller coupled to with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to: … (Fig. 14 and 15).
Regarding claim 10, Matsumura discloses
A base station, comprises: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to (Fig. 13 and 15):
transmit a channel state information (CSI) report configuration message indicating a plurality of resources for channel measurement, wherein the plurality of resources for channel measurement comprises downlink reference signal (RS) resources from a serving cell and at least one non-serving cell, and the plurality of resources for channel measurement are configured (¶ [0103]: The RS (for example, an SSB) of the serving cell and the RS (for example, an SSB) of the non-serving cell may be configured in the same (one) CSI report configuration (CSI-ReportConfig) and the same CSI resource configuration (CSI-ResourceConfig). In other words, both the RS of the serving cell and the RS of the non-serving cell may be included in one CSI report configuration and one CSI resource configuration) for first layer RS received power measurement (¶ [0041]: The UE configured with the number of report target RS resources being one or more by the higher layer parameter (for example, an RRC parameter “nrofReportedRS”) included in the CSI report configuration information may include, in a beam report, one or more resource IDs for beam measurement and one or more measurement results (for example, a L1-RSRP(s)) corresponding to the resource ID(s) for each report configuration);
transmit transmission power information for synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) from the serving cell and the at least one non-serving cell (¶ [0143]: The transmission power of an SSB may be different for each of the serving cell and the non-serving cells); and
receive a report comprising a plurality of first layer RS received power measurements, wherein the plurality of first layer RS received power measurements comprises measurements from the serving cell and the at least one non-serving cell, the plurality of first layer RS received power measurements are reported in the same CSI report, and the CSI report comprises a cell identification (ID) and a RS index corresponding to each RS received power measurement of the plurality of first layer RS received power measurements (¶ [0139]: FIG. 9 is a diagram to show an example 6of RSRP reports in a CSI report of the serving cell and the non-serving cells. FIG. 9 is different from the examples in FIGS. 8A and 8B in that cell indices (serving cell index/non-serving cell index) are included. Note that the beam index may be an SSB index/CSI-RS resource index as in FIGS. 8A and 8B).
Regarding claims 2, 11, and 17, Matsumura discloses
wherein the first layer RS received power measurements of RSs from the at least one non-serving cell are compensated with a difference between serving cell SSB transmit power and non-serving cell SSB transmit power (¶ [0144]: Each RSRP offset is the difference between the RSRP value of the serving cell and the corresponding non-serving cell and may be calculated by “transmission power of an SSB of the serving cell—transmission power of an SSB of the non-serving cell.” The UE may add this RSRP offset to a measured L1-RSRP value and report the value obtained by the addition in a CSI report)).
Regarding claims 3, 12, and 18, Matsumura discloses
wherein the downlink RS resources are SSBs (¶ [0186]: a downlink reference signal (DL-RS); ¶ [0187]: Note that an SS, an SSB, and so on may be also referred to as a “reference signal.”), the first layer RS received power measurements are synchronization signal RS received power measurements (¶ [0041]: The result of the channel quality measurement may include an L1-RSRP; ¶ [0187]: Note that an SS, an SSB, and so on may be also referred to as a “reference signal.”), and the RS index is SSB rank index (¶ [0141]: RS indices (SSB indices, CSI-RS resource indices)), and a report quantity is set to a SSB index RS received power (¶ [0044]: one of parameters defined as the report quantity information (such as cri-RSRP, ssb-Index-RSRP, and the like) is configured).
Regarding claims 4, 13, and 19, Matsumura discloses
wherein the downlink RS resources are CSI-RS resources (¶ [0186]: In the radio communication system 1, a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a positioning reference signal (PRS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), and so on may be communicated as the DL-RS), the first layer reference signal RS received power measurements are CSI-RS received power measurements (¶ [0030]: a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI); ¶ [0045]: a plurality of resource IDs for beam measurement (for example, SSBRIs and CRIs) and a plurality of measurement results (for example, L1-RSRPs) corresponding to the resource IDs for each report configuration.), the RS index in a CSI-RS resource indicator (¶ [0141]: RS indices (SSB indices, CSI-RS resource indices)), and a report quantity is set to a CSI-RS resource indicator RS received power (¶ [0044]: one of parameters defined as the report quantity information (such as cri-RSRP, ssb-Index-RSRP, and the like) is configured).
Regarding claim 8, Matsumura discloses
wherein the transmission power information comprises a non-serving cell SSB transmit power (¶ [0143]: The transmission power of an SSB may be different for each of the serving cell and the non-serving cells).
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 5 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0171243) in view of Xu et al. (US 2023/0142355).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Matsumura discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the cell identification ID has [log2(K) bits, and K is a number of cells with a downlink RS included in a corresponding CSI report configuration for channel measurement, however, it is noted that CSI-RS is communicated as DL-RS in ¶ [0186] of Matsumura. Xu from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses wherein the cell identification ID has [log2(K) bits, and K is a number of cells with a downlink RS included in a corresponding CSI report configuration for channel measurement (¶ [0116]: the types of CSI-RS information that may be made available to UEs in an RRC_CONNECTED state include: Non-Zero Power (NZP) CSI-RS (TRS), which may be used, e.g., for CSI reporting; ¶ [0132]: the SIB-x may be configured to carry one of a predefined set of CSI-RS/TRS resource information configurations. This approach may have the benefit of reducing signaling overhead, since the TRS resource indication could be selected from among predefined TRS resource configurations only. For example, there could be N (e.g., where N=16) sets of possible configurations predefined; ¶ [0133]: in the SIB, log2(N) bits could be used to indicate the TRS configuration. The QCL for the TRS may be the same as its corresponding SIB (or corresponding SSB), and the TRS sequence may be generated based on cell ID or other ID value explicitly indicated; ¶ [0139]: a UE can perform measurements on the CSI-RS/TRS and then take the measurements (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) / Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) measurements) into account for cell quality evaluation, i.e., for cell selection and/or re-selection purposes). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Matsumura by incorporating Xu’s log2(N) bits used to indicate the TRS configuration corresponding to cell ID and performing measurements on the CSI-RS/TRS to take RSRP measurements. The motivation would have been to provide improved User Equipment (UE) power performance in paging procedures (Xu ¶ [0005]).
Claims 6 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0171243) in view of Zhou et al. (US 2023/0337208).
Regarding claim 6, Matsumura discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the cell identification ID of the serving cell is 0, the at least one non-serving cell comprises only one non-serving cell, and the cell ID of the one non-serving cell is 1. Zhou ¶0068 Zhu from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses that a UE enters connected mode on a serving cell having a PCI (example: PCI 0) and subsequently measures and reports Layer-3 metrics for neighboring PCIs (example: PCI 1 to PCI 6). Zhou thus discloses an ordered listing of neighboring PCIs and the use of sequential PCI values beginning at 0 for the serving cell and 1 for the first neighboring cell. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Matsumura by adopting Zhou’s PCI ordering convention so that the serving cell is identified as 0 and the first/prioritized neighboring cell is identified as 1. A POSITA would have been motivated to make this modification to reduce UE processing and signaling overhead and to improve UE power performance during paging and measurement by minimizing the number of neighbors the UE must monitor. Limiting the set of non-serving cells to a single prioritized neighbor (the first neighbor, i.e., PCI 1) is a predictable, results-effective design choice and a routine optimization of the number of monitored neighbors in light of Zhou’s disclosure of an ordered neighbor list. The proposed modification requires only routine implementation of an indexing convention and does not necessitate structural changes to Matsumura’s measurement framework, thus a POSITA would have had a reasonable expectation of success in applying Zhou’s PCI ordering to Matsumura.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0171243) in view of Zhu et al. (US 2022/0216904; Provisional Application No. 63/174,351 filed on 4/13/2021 is cited for claim mapping).
Regarding claim 7, Matsumura discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the cell identification ID is based on an order of appearance in a corresponding channel state information CSI report configuration for channel measurement. Zhu from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses wherein the cell identification ID is based on an order of appearance in a corresponding CSI report configuration for channel measurement (provisional page 36: the UE would also need to indicate to the network the number of the dynamically selected non-serving cells (i.e., M_nsc) and/or which M_nsc non-serving cells out of the total N_nsc non-serving cells (e.g., in form of their PCI values/indices of entries in a list of PCI values/other higher layer signaling index values) the reported BM-RI pairs/beam qualities are associated with. The UE could also report to the network the number of resource indicators/beam metrics L_nsc (1
≤
L_nsc
≤
K_nsc) for the selected M_nsc non-serving cells and/or a set of size M_nsc with each entry in the set corresponding to the number of BM-RI pairs/beam qualities (including the resource indicators and their corresponding/associated beam metrics) for a different non-serving cell from the selected M_nsc non-serving cells. The UE could be higher layer configured/indicated by the network (e.g., via the higher layer parameter CSI-ReportConfig) the total/maximum number of resource indicators/beam metrics allowed to be reported for the non-serving cell(s) (i.e., K_nsc) based on certain UE' s capability signaling/report. For instance, the candidate values for K_nsc could be 4, 8 or 16). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Matsumura by incorporating Zhu’s of identifying cells by indices corresponding to entries in a higher‑layer CSI report list (CSI‑ReportConfig). The motivation would have been to provide improvements in radio interface efficiency and coverage (Zhu provisional page 1).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0171243) in view of Xu et al. (US 2023/0142355), Zhou et al. (US 2023/0337208), and Zhu et al. (US 2022/0216904; Provisional Application No. 63/174,351 filed on 4/13/2021 is cited for claim mapping).
Regarding claim 14, Matsumura discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of wherein the cell identification ID has [log2(K) bits, and K is a number of cells with a downlink RS included in a corresponding CSI report configuration for channel measurement, however, it is noted that CSI-RS is communicated as DL-RS in ¶ [0186] of Matsumura. Xu from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses wherein the cell identification ID has [log2(K) bits, and K is a number of cells with a downlink RS included in a corresponding CSI report configuration for channel measurement (¶ [0116]: the types of CSI-RS information that may be made available to UEs in an RRC_CONNECTED state include: Non-Zero Power (NZP) CSI-RS (TRS), which may be used, e.g., for CSI reporting; ¶ [0132]: the SIB-x may be configured to carry one of a predefined set of CSI-RS/TRS resource information configurations. This approach may have the benefit of reducing signaling overhead, since the TRS resource indication could be selected from among predefined TRS resource configurations only. For example, there could be N (e.g., where N=16) sets of possible configurations predefined; ¶ [0133]: in the SIB, log2(N) bits could be used to indicate the TRS configuration. The QCL for the TRS may be the same as its corresponding SIB (or corresponding SSB), and the TRS sequence may be generated based on cell ID or other ID value explicitly indicated; ¶ [0139]: a UE can perform measurements on the CSI-RS/TRS and then take the measurements (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) / Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) measurements) into account for cell quality evaluation, i.e., for cell selection and/or re-selection purposes). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Matsumura by incorporating Xu’s log2(N) bits used to indicate the TRS configuration corresponding to cell ID and performing measurements on the CSI-RS/TRS to take RSRP measurements. The motivation would have been to provide improved User Equipment (UE) power performance in paging procedures (Xu ¶ [0005]).
Matsumura in view of Xu discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of the cell identification ID of the serving cell is 0, the at least one non-serving cell comprises only one non-serving cell, and the cell ID of the one non-serving cell is 1. Zhou ¶0068 Zhu from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses that a UE enters connected mode on a serving cell having a PCI (example: PCI 0) and subsequently measures and reports Layer-3 metrics for neighboring PCIs (example: PCI 1 to PCI 6). Zhou thus discloses an ordered listing of neighboring PCIs and the use of sequential PCI values beginning at 0 for the serving cell and 1 for the first neighboring cell. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Matsumura in view of Xu by adopting Zhou’s PCI ordering convention so that the serving cell is identified as 0 and the first/prioritized neighboring cell is identified as 1. A POSITA would have been motivated to make this modification to reduce UE processing and signaling overhead and to improve UE power performance during paging and measurement by minimizing the number of neighbors the UE must monitor. Limiting the set of non-serving cells to a single prioritized neighbor (the first neighbor, i.e., PCI 1) is a predictable, results-effective design choice and a routine optimization of the number of monitored neighbors in light of Zhou’s disclosure of an ordered neighbor list. The proposed modification requires only routine implementation of an indexing convention and does not necessitate structural changes to Matsumura’s measurement framework, thus a POSITA would have had a reasonable expectation of success in applying Zhou’s PCI ordering to Matsumura in view of Xu.
Matsumura in view of Xu and Zhou discloses all the subject matter of the claimed invention with the exception of the cell identification ID is based on an order of appearance in a corresponding channel state information CSI report configuration for channel measurement. Zhu from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses the cell identification ID is based on an order of appearance in a corresponding CSI report configuration for channel measurement (provisional page 36: the UE would also need to indicate to the network the number of the dynamically selected non-serving cells (i.e., M_nsc) and/or which M_nsc non-serving cells out of the total N_nsc non-serving cells (e.g., in form of their PCI values/indices of entries in a list of PCI values/other higher layer signaling index values) the reported BM-RI pairs/beam qualities are associated with. The UE could also report to the network the number of resource indicators/beam metrics L_nsc (1
≤
L_nsc
≤
K_nsc) for the selected M_nsc non-serving cells and/or a set of size M_nsc with each entry in the set corresponding to the number of BM-RI pairs/beam qualities (including the resource indicators and their corresponding/associated beam metrics) for a different non-serving cell from the selected M_nsc non-serving cells. The UE could be higher layer configured/indicated by the network (e.g., via the higher layer parameter CSI-ReportConfig) the total/maximum number of resource indicators/beam metrics allowed to be reported for the non-serving cell(s) (i.e., K_nsc) based on certain UE' s capability signaling/report. For instance, the candidate values for K_nsc could be 4, 8 or 16). Therefore, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the teaching of Matsumura in view of Xu and Zhou by incorporating Zhu’s of identifying cells by indices corresponding to entries in a higher‑layer CSI report list (CSI‑ReportConfig). The motivation would have been to provide improvements in radio interface efficiency and coverage (Zhu provisional page 1).
Conclusion
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/JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
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