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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on 11/30/2023.
Claims 1-20, 26 and 28 are amended.
Claim 21-25, 27 and 29-38 are cancelled.
The IDSs filed on 11/30/2023 and 12/1/2023 have been considered.
Claims 1-20, 27 and 28 have been examined and rejected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16, 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.
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. The following title is suggested: “Dynamically adapting beamforming resolution”.
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 1-15, 19, 26 and 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hessler (US 20200022009 A1, from IDS).
Regarding Claim 1, Hessler discloses a method
performingsee para 45, The wireless device estimating module for generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates; also see 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR); determining, each of the candidatesthe radio channel (see paras 45-46, The wireless device may be adapted for, and/or comprise an estimating module for, and/or the method may comprise generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates/i.e., list of candidate precoders, with a frequency density/i.e., frequency domain resolution, according to frequency variation, e.g. a coherence estimate as determined/i.e., the channel state … by calculating one or more precoders, e.g. frequency/time selective pre-coders/i.e., representing list of candidates on a frequency domain, based on the frequency limitation or selection device, e.g. the interpolating filter, and/or the channel state information and/or measurement report, in particular channel/precoder estimates. The method may further comprise, and/or the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s; see para 58, estimate of the SINR; also see para 107, a precoder is represented by a matrix and/or comprises weights for controlling different antenna elements of a subarray for beamforming); and
performing(see paras 45-46, the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s/i.e., representing precoder weights for beamforming; see para 107), wherein the frequency domain resolutionassociated loss(see 46, by calculating one or more precoders, e.g. frequency/time selective pre-coders/i.e., representing list of candidates on a frequency domain, based on the frequency limitation or selection device, e.g. the interpolating filter, and/or the channel state information and/or measurement report, in particular channel/precoder estimates. The method may further comprise, and/or the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s; see para 58, estimate of the SINR; also see para 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR; also see para 61, transmitting CSI reports including information about at least of both said coherence and channel/pre-coder information).
Hessler does not specify the limitation “bit error rate BER”. However, it teaches at para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to specify BER since it is already estimation SINR (see Hessler, para 58).
Regarding Claim 2, Hessler discloses the methodcomputation(see para 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR. These two parameters are used to calculate an “estimated optimal” filter. This filter is wide in frequency domain (short in time domain) if the coherence bandwidth is wide. The filter is also made wider if the estimated SINR is low due to that you want to gain processing gain by making the filter wider).
Hessler does not specify the limitation “bit error rate BER”. However, it teaches at para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to specify BER since it is already estimation SINR (see Hessler, para 58).
Regarding Claim 3, Hessler discloses the method(see para 45, The wireless device may be adapted for, and/or comprise an estimating module for, generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates with a frequency density/i.e. frequency domain resolution, according to frequency variation/i.e., representing a loss as the channel varies, e.g. a coherence estimate as determined; and para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR).
Hessler does not specify the limitation “bit error rate BER”. However, it teaches at para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to specify BER since it is already estimation SINR (see Hessler, para 58).
Regarding Claim 4, Hessler discloses the method(see para 45, The wireless device may be adapted for, and/or comprise an estimating module for, and/or the method may comprise generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates with a frequency density according to frequency variation, e.g. a coherence estimate as determined. … wireless device may include, and/or the wireless device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting one or more measurement reports, e.g. CSI reports, which may include sampling information, e.g. information about the coherence bandwidth and/or delay-spread, and/or channel/pre-coder information, e.g. CQI and/or PMI).
Regarding Claim 5, Hessler discloses the methodof claim 1, wherein the greatest(see para 58, the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel/i.e., frequency domain resolution, and an estimate of the SINR. These two parameters are used to calculate an “estimated optimal” filter. This filter is wide in frequency domain (short in time domain) if the coherence bandwidth is wide. The filter is also made wider if the estimated SINR is low/i.e., representing reduced computational complexity, due to that you want to gain processing gain by making the filter wider. Examiners Note: computational complexity threshold is a design choice and any threshold to represent computational complexity, such as for example SINR threshold can be defined).
Regarding Claim 6, Hessler discloses the method(see para 58, the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel/i.e., frequency domain resolution, and an estimate of the SINR. These two parameters are used to calculate an “estimated optimal” filter. This filter is wide in frequency domain (short in time domain) if the coherence bandwidth is wide. The filter is also made wider if the estimated SINR is low/i.e., representing reduces computational complexity, due to that you want to gain processing gain by making the filter wider).
Regarding Claim 7, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the loss in terms of the BER depending on the channel state of the radio channel defines a lower limit on the frequency domain resolution(Examiners Note: Using BRI consistent with the specification the above limitation has been interpreted to mean: determining a frequency limitation, e.g. by generating an interpolation filter based on sampling information of the coherence bandwidth properties. Based on this interpretation, see para 46,
the wireless device maybe adapted for determining a frequency limitation, e.g. by generating an interpolation filter based upon said sampling information of the coherence bandwidth properties … by calculating one or more precoders, e.g. frequency/time selective pre-coders, based on the frequency limitation, e.g. the interpolating filter, and/or the channel state information; also see para 58).
Regarding Claim 8, Hessler discloses the methodof claim 1, wherein a current hardware load or a predicted hardware cosfrequency domain resolution in the list that are less than the upper limit; and the resolution(see para 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR. These two parameters are used to calculate an “estimated optimal” filter. This filter is wide in frequency domain (short in time domain) if the coherence bandwidth is wide/i.e., upper limit on the frequency domain resolution. The filter is also made wider if the estimated SINR is low due to that you want to gain processing gain by making the filter wider).
Regarding Claim 9, Hessler discloses the method of claim 8, wherein the frequency domain resolution(see para 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR. These two parameters are used to calculate an “estimated optimal” filter/i.e., frequency domain resolution candidates between upper limit and lower limit or optimum estimate.
Regarding Claim 10, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the method(see para 42, The transmitter may be considered to represent a wireless precoding device, whereas the receiver may be considered to represent a wireless device. In specific examples, the transmitter may be a network node (e.g., eNodeB), the receiver a terminal. However, the roles may be reversed, e.g. if a terminal is adapted for precoding. Indeed, both devices may be able to take both roles, in similar process, depending on which device prepares the measurement report and which device uses precoding at a given point in time and/or for specific transmissions), and
wherein the beamformed transmission uses a downlink on the radio channel from the base station(see para 107, A precoder may represent a beamforming configuration, in particular a mapping for a signal to a plurality of antenna elements, in particular for beamforming and/or MIMO operation. It may be considered that a precoder is represented by a matrix and/or comprises weights for controlling different antenna elements of a subarray for beamforming; also based on para 42, beamforming transmission can be done in both the downlink and uplink).
Regarding Claim 11, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1,wherein the method(see para 28, A wireless precoding device may be any device adapted for precoding. A wireless precoding device may comprise and/or be connected or connectable, e.g. to utilize for transmitting based on precoding, a multi-antenna array. A wireless precoding device may in particular be implemented as network node, e.g. a radio node and/or base station), and wherein the beamformed transmission(see para 107, A precoder may represent a beamforming configuration, in particular a mapping for a signal to a plurality of antenna elements, in particular for beamforming and/or MIMO operation. It may be considered that a precoder is represented by a matrix and/or comprises weights for controlling different antenna elements of a subarray for beamforming; also based on para 42, beamforming transmission can be done in both the downlink and uplink).
Regarding Claim 12, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1,wherein the determiningor the control message being indicative of the selected frequency domain resolution.
(Examiners Note: Using BRI consistent with the specification, the limitation “the control message being indicative of the selected frequency domain resolution” has been interpreted to mean: “The control message (CSI) including channel coherence and precoder information”. Based on this interpretation, see para 61, FIG. 1., a method for communicating channel state information from a wireless device, including receiving a (e.g., reverse link or downlink) reference signal; performing a measurement (e.g. frequency variation like coherence bandwidth or delay-spread) estimate on the said reference signal; generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates with a frequency density according to the said measurement; transmitting CSI reports including information about at least of both said coherence and channel/pre-coder information/i.e., control message sent to the base station with the selected frequency domain resolution; also see para 17.
Regarding Claim 13, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1,wherein the determiningor the control message being indicative of the selected frequency domain resolution
(Examiners Note: Using BRI consistent with the specification, the limitation “the control message being indicative of the selected frequency domain resolution” has been interpreted to mean: “The control message (CSI) including channel coherence and precoder information”. Based on this interpretation, see para 61, FIG. 1., a method for communicating channel state information from a wireless device, including receiving a (e.g., reverse link or downlink) reference signal; performing a measurement (e.g. frequency variation like coherence bandwidth or delay-spread) estimate on the said reference signal; generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates with a frequency density according to the said measurement; transmitting CSI reports including information about at least of both said coherence and channel/pre-coder information/i.e., control message received by the base station with the selected frequency domain resolution; also see para 17.
Regarding Claim 14, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1,wherein the performing of at least one of the beamformed transmission(see para 61, FIG. 1., a method for communicating channel state information from a wireless device, including receiving a (e.g., reverse link or downlink) reference signal; performing a measurement (e.g. frequency variation like coherence bandwidth or delay-spread) estimate on the said reference signal; generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates with a frequency density according to the said measurement; transmitting CSI reports including information about at least of both said coherence and channel/pre-coder information/i.e., control message received by the base station with the selected frequency domain resolution).
Regarding Claim 15, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the performing of at least one of the beamformed transmission(see para 17, The sample determining device may be adapted for determining a sample density in frequency, and/or a number of samples/i.e., list of candidates, for one or more frequency ranges. There may be different sample densities for different frequency ranges covered by a measurement report/i.e., control message received by the base station. For a given number of bits available for a measurement report, the sample density (or number of samples) determines how many bits are available for each sample, such that the resolution of the report (quality of information for each sample) is dependent on the density/number… and adapting the information quality. Sampling information and/or a measurement report may pertain to one or more different reference signaling, e.g. reference signaling utilising different precoders/i.e., the beamforming weights).
Regarding Claim 19, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the losses of the BER associated with the candidates of the frequency domain resolution in the list are computed based on at least one of the channel state of the radio channel (see para 61, FIG. 1., a method for communicating channel state information from a wireless device, including receiving a (e.g., reverse link or downlink) reference signal; performing a measurement (e.g. frequency variation like coherence bandwidth or delay-spread) estimate on the said reference signal; generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates with a frequency density according to the said measurement; transmitting CSI reports including information about at least of both said coherence and channel/pre-coder information), a
Hessler does not specify the limitation “bit error rate BER”. However, it teaches at para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to specify BER since it is already estimation SINR (see Hessler, para 58).
Regarding Claim 26, Hessler discloses a user equipment (UE) for performing at least one of a beamformed transmission and a beamformed reception on a radio channel, the UE configured to communicate with a base station or with a radio device functioning as a gateway, the UE comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry (see FIG. 4., para 65) configured to:
perform a channel estimation of the radio channel, a result of the channel estimation being indicative of a channel state of the radio channel (see para 45, The wireless device estimating module for generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates; also see 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR);
determine a list of candidates for a frequency domain resolution of beamforming weights, each of the candidates being associated with a loss in terms of a bit error rate, BER, depending on the channel state(see paras 45-46, The wireless device may be adapted for, and/or comprise an estimating module for, and/or the method may comprise generating channel and/or pre-coder estimates/i.e., list of candidate precoders, with a frequency density/i.e., frequency domain resolution, according to frequency variation, e.g. a coherence estimate as determined/i.e., the channel state … by calculating one or more precoders, e.g. frequency/time selective pre-coders/i.e., representing list of candidates on a frequency domain, based on the frequency limitation or selection device, e.g. the interpolating filter, and/or the channel state information and/or measurement report, in particular channel/precoder estimates. The method may further comprise, and/or the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s; see para 58, estimate of the SINR; also see para 107, a precoder is represented by a matrix and/or comprises weights for controlling different antenna elements of a subarray for beamforming); and
perform at least one of the beamformed transmission and the beamformed reception using the beamforming weights computed(see paras 45-46, the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s/i.e., representing precoder weights for beamforming; see para 107), wherein the frequency domain resolution(see 46, by calculating one or more precoders, e.g. frequency/time selective pre-coders/i.e., representing list of candidates on a frequency domain, based on the frequency limitation or selection device, e.g. the interpolating filter, and/or the channel state information and/or measurement report, in particular channel/precoder estimates. The method may further comprise, and/or the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s; see para 58, estimate of the SINR; also see para 58, When performing an estimate on the receiver side (in this example, the terminal or UE side), the UE needs to estimate the coherence bandwidth (delay spread) of the channel and an estimate of the SINR; also see para 61, transmitting CSI reports including information about at least of both said coherence and channel/pre-coder information).
Hessler does not specify the limitation “bit error rate BER”. However, it teaches at para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to specify BER since it is already estimation SINR (see Hessler, para 58).
Regarding Claim 28, Hessler discloses a base station for performing at least one of a beamformed transmission and a beamformed reception on a radio channel, the base station(see FIG. 5., para 66, base station; see para 27 and para 42, transmitter or precoding device or eNodeB) is operable to:
perform a channel estimation of the radio channel, a result of the channel estimation being indicative of a channel state(see para 43, the transmitter in its pre-coder selection algorithms will use knowledge about the properties of at least the frequency and time domain properties of the radio channel for the estimation);
determine a list of candidates(see para 46, The wireless precoding device/i.e., base station, may be adapted for, and/or comprise receiving a measurement report, e.g. a CSI-report, which may include channel state information, e.g. channel/pre-coder estimates, e.g. CQI and/or PMI, and/or receiving sampling information, e.g. in the measurement report or separate therefrom. The sampling information may indicate e.g. (implicitly or explicitly) coherence bandwidth (and/or delay-spread) properties, e.g. of samples and/or used for determining samples in the report. Thus, the sampling information may be considered representative for the sampling determining device used for preparing the measurement report … The method may further comprise, and/or the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s/i.e., beamforming weight of candidates; see para 58, estimate of the SINR; also see para 107, a precoder is represented by a matrix and/or comprises weights for controlling different antenna elements of a subarray for beamforming); and
perform at least one of the beamformed transmission and the beamformed reception using the beamforming weights computed(see para 46, the wireless precoding device may be adapted for, and/or comprise a transmitting module for, transmitting signaling, e.g. data or data signaling, using the determined precoder/s; para 14, channel/precoder estimates, e.g. CQI and/or PMI and/or RI).
Hessler does not specify the limitation “bit error rate BER”. However, it teaches at para 58, a wireless device estimates SINR.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to specify BER since it is already estimation SINR (see Hessler, para 58), and also based on the KSR rationale, applying a known technique to a known device (method, or product) ready for improvement to yield predictable results
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hessler in view of Jin (US 20120328033 A1).
Regarding Claim 17, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1, but does not disclose details regarding: the channel estimation is based on reference signals that are spaced apart in the frequency domain of the radio channel, and wherein the beamforming weights are computed for frequency domain windows based on the reference signals in the respective frequency domain window.
In the same field of endeavor, Jin teaches this limitation: see para 19, The channel estimates (channel state information) from received Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) symbols of the received uplink signals are grouped into segments or groups. For each segment, a sliding window along the frequency domain is used to compute the downlink beamforming weights from the channel station information for neighboring segments.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to include computing beamforming weights in frequency domain windows, as taught by Jin, the motivation being, full spatial information for all of the antennas of the client device can be derived using the extraction of the full spatial information accomplished by jointly examining the spatial information carried over multiple frequency bins (subcarriers) of the received uplink signals (see Jin, para 19).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hessler in view of Frenne (US 20210143964 A1).
Regarding Claim 20, Hessler discloses the method of claim 1, but does not disclose details regarding: the inverse of the frequency domain resolution corresponds to an integer multiple of a physical resource block, PRB, optionally to an even multiple of a PRB or to a power of two of a PRB.
In the same field of endeavor, Frenne teaches this limitation: see para 125, the communication device determines an inverse frequency density based on a number of scheduled resource blocks specified in the information. In one embodiment, the processing circuitry (of the communication device) may determine the inverse frequency density based on half of the number of scheduled resource blocks.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Hessler, to include inverse frequency domain resolution, as taught by Frenne, the motivation being, to adapt to phase noise characteristics of the transmitter and receiver (see Frenne, para 20).
Conclusion
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/DEEPA BELUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472