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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on December 22, 2023 has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file.
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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-4, 6-11, 16-19 and 22 and are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ren et al (WO 2020/253517) in view of Wang et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0360472).
Regarding claim 1, Ren et al discloses a method carried out in a User Equipment (UE) (paragraph 39 [UE]), for facilitating joint channel estimation in a radio node (paragraph 39 [BS]) of a wireless network, the method comprising: obtaining radio configuration for a channel, identifying resources for Uplink (UL), transmission within a first frequency domain allocation (see at least paragraph 52 discloses BS transmits a message to UE; wherein the message is configuring transmission of DMRS bundling; also see fig. 7 [704]); transmitting, in reference signal resources associated with the radio configuration, a reference signal for use in the radio node for joint channel estimation (see at least paragraph 52 and fig. 7 [706] discloses BS receives frame from UE), wherein said reference signal resources comprise first reference signal resources within said first frequency domain allocation, and second reference signal resources outside said first frequency domain allocation to facilitate joint channel estimation (see at least paragraph 63 and 69 discloses first DMRS and second DMRS may be configured using frequency resources).
Ren et al fails to explicitly disclose reference signal resources to facilitate joint channel estimation over a transmission disruption within the first frequency domain allocation. However, in the same field of endeavor, Wang et al discloses reference signal resources to facilitate joint channel estimation over a transmission disruption within the first frequency domain allocation (see at least paragraph 82 discloses transmissions may be continuous or discontinuous time-frequency resources). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify to incorporate above mention feature as taught by Wang et al into the system of Ren et al, for purpose of perform joint channel estimation on DMRS and to support joint channel estimation as it is necessary to ensure phase consistency.
Regarding claim 2, Ren et al discloses receiving configuration of said reference signal resources from an access node of the wireless network (paragraph 52).
Regarding claim 3, Ren et al discloses determining configuration of at least said second reference signal resources based on the radio configuration of the channel (paragraph 52).
Regarding claim 4, Ren et al discloses receiving, from the radio node, an indication to the UE to transmit in the second reference signal resources (paragraph 52).
Regarding claim 6, Ren et al discloses said reference signal resources are allocated in a resource partition within a predetermined range to the transmission disruption (paragraph 69).
Regarding claim 7, Wang et al discloses said reference signal resources are pairwise allocated in resource partitions prior to and after the transmission disruption (paragraph 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, Wang et al discloses each pairwise allocated resource partitions are displaced by a frequency spacing (paragraph 40 and 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, Wang et al discloses said frequency spacing exceeds a coherence bandwidth for the channel (paragraph 40). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 10, Ren et al discloses said second reference signal resources are pairwise allocated within a predetermined frequency range (paragraph 69).
Regarding claim 11, Wang et al discloses said radio configuration allocates resources for UL transmission in one or more first resource blocks within the first frequency domain allocation, and one or more second resource blocks outside the first frequency domain allocation adjacent to the transmission disruption, wherein the one or more second resource blocks comprise said second resources for reference signal transmission (paragraph 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 16, Wang et al discloses the transmission disruption comprises a time gap devoid of resources allocated for UL transmission to the radio node (paragraph 40 and 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 17, Wang et al discloses the transmission disruption comprises a discontinuity of UL transmission configuration in the UE (paragraph 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 18, Wang et al discloses the discontinuity of UL transmission configuration comprises a change of one or more of transmit power, timing advance adjustment, or beam direction (paragraph 38). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 19, Wang et al discloses said transmission disruption is defined by said radio configuration (paragraph 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 22, Ren et al discloses a method carried out in a radio node (paragraph 39 [BS]) of a wireless network for facilitating joint channel estimation in communication with a User Equipment (UE) (paragraph 39 [UE]), the method comprising: providing, to the UE, radio configuration for a channel identifying resources for Uplink (UL), transmission within a first frequency domain allocation (see at least paragraph 52 discloses BS transmits a message to UE; wherein the message is configuring transmission of DMRS bundling; also see fig. 7 [704]); configuring the UE to transmit, in reference signal resources associated with the radio configuration, a reference signal for use in the radio node for joint channel estimation (see at least paragraph 52 and fig. 7 [706] discloses BS receives frame from UE), wherein said reference signal resources comprise first reference signal resources allocated within said first frequency domain allocation, and second reference signal resources outside said first frequency domain allocation to facilitate joint channel estimation (see at least paragraph 63 and 69 discloses first DMRS and second DMRS may be configured using frequency resources).
Ren et al fails to explicitly disclose reference signal resources to facilitate joint channel estimation over a transmission disruption within the first frequency domain allocation. However, in the same field of endeavor, Wang et al discloses reference signal resources to facilitate joint channel estimation over a transmission disruption within the first frequency domain allocation (see at least paragraph 82 discloses transmissions may be continuous or discontinuous time-frequency resources). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify to incorporate above mention feature as taught by Wang et al into the system of Ren et al, for purpose of perform joint channel estimation on DMRS and to support joint channel estimation as it is necessary to ensure phase consistency.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ren et al (WO 2020/253517) in view of Wang et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0360472) and further in view of Huang et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2023/0017463).
Regarding claim 5, Ren et al and Wang et al fail to explicitly disclose transmitting UE capability information to the wireless network, wherein said indication is received based on the UE capability information not identifying UE capability to maintain signal consistency over the transmission disruption. However, in the same field of endeavor, Huang et al discloses transmitting UE capability information to the wireless network, wherein said indication is received based on the UE capability information not identifying UE capability to maintain signal consistency over the transmission disruption (see at least paragraph 124 discloses transmitting UE capability information to gNB). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify to incorporate above mention feature as taught by Huang et al into the system of Ren et al and Wang et al, for purpose of using the capability information to determine a threshold for UE to identify whether consecutive transmissions are considered.
Claims 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ren et al (WO 2020/253517) in view of Wang et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0360472) and further in view of Yi et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0377778).
Regarding claim 12, Ren et al discloses said reference signal resources are pairwise allocated in resource partitions prior to and after the transmission disruption (paragraph 82), wherein each pairwise allocated resource partitions are displaced by a frequency spacing (paragraph 40 and 82). Same motivation as claim 1.
Ren et al and Wang et al fail to explicitly disclose wherein the frequency interval is one physical resource block (PRB). However, in the same field of endeavor, Yi et al discloses wherein the frequency interval is one physical resource block (PRB) (see at least paragraph 82). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify to incorporate above mention feature as taught by Yi et al into the system of Ren et al and Wang et al, for purpose of performing channel estimation using DMRS transmissions and may enhance DMRS channel estimation performance.
Regarding claim 13, Ren et al discloses the radio configuration identifies a first bandwidth part (BWP), comprising said first frequency domain allocation, the method further comprising: switching to a second BWP, having a center frequency in common with the first BWP, to allocate resources in said second resource blocks adjacent to the transmission disruption (paragraph 90). Same motivation as claim 12.
Regarding claim 14, Ren et al discloses receiving, from the radio node, control data for switching between the first and second BWPs dependent on resource block (paragraph 90). Same motivation as claim 12.
Regarding claim 15, Ren et al discloses the first frequency domain allocation has a bandwidth of one to two physical resource blocks (PRBs) (paragraph 82). Same motivation as claim 12.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure.
The following prior art are cited to show a method, which is considered pertinent to the claimed invention:
Yao et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2023/0216711) directed toward improving channel estimation.
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/LITON MIAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642