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 under 35 USC 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs 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.
3. Claims 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yao et al US Pat 11457414 B2.
4. Consider claim 1. Yao et al teaches an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: a processor; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor; and a memory (see col 3, lines 5-6 where the UE is a transceiver) communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the apparatus is configured to: receive, via the transceiver (see col 8, lines 61-63, an indication of a power spectral density for a sounding reference signal (SRS) (see col 9, lines 9-10); and transmit, via the transceiver, the SRS at a power level that is based on the power spectral density (see col 10, lines 8-10 and for power spectral density see col 40, lines 23-29).
5. Claim 17 is similar is scope to claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons.
6. Method claims 10 and 25 is rejected for the same reasons as apparatus claims 1 and 17 as the recited elements would perform the claimed steps.
7. For what is called for in apparatus claim 3 and corresponding method claim 12, see block 202 in fig 2 in combination with col 39, lines 27-33 of Yao et al.
8. For what is called for in apparatus claim 4 and corresponding method claim 13, see col 45 lines 50-63 of Yao et al.
9. Regarding claims 9, 24 and 30, Yao et al teaches (col 20, lines 21-23) the indication can be in the DCI communication.
10. For what is called for in claims 8, 16, 23 and 29, see col 10, lines 12-35 of Yao et al. where the further adjusting claimed reads on the “replacing” of the power lever parameters in Yao et al.
11. For what is called for in claim 18, 19 and 26, see col 7, lines 13-20 where the receiving mode reads on the claimed receiver “configuration (claim 18)” or “selection (claims 19 and 26)”
Claim rejections under 35 USC 103
12. 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.
The factual inquiries 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.
13. Claims 2, 11, 20 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao et al US Pat 11457414 B2 in view of Frank et al US20140126440 A1.
14. Regarding claims 2, 11, 20 and 27 although Yao teaches using the power spectral density for the SRS, he doesn’t explicitly state that it is expressed as one or more of power per resource block, power per resource element, or power per frequency unit as claimed. However, from the same field of endeavor, such is known in the art as taught by Frank et al. (see 0016 and 0026) which teaches these values to manage transmit power. It would have been obvious before the effective date, to use either these specific values as taught by Frank et al, in the calculations to provide a more efficient power control system needed for a dense cellular system.
15. Claims 5, 6, 14, 21, 22 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao et al US Pat 11457414 B2 in view of Liu US Pat 6760847 B1.
16. Regarding claims 5, 14, 21 and 28. Yao et al fails to teach storing a plurality of power spectral density values and selecting one value based on the indication received. Note, Yao et al does teach using the indicator to activate a set of SRS resources after receiving a power control parameter set. However, Liu teaches that its well known in the art to save power spectral density values for later recall. It would have been obvious, before the effective filing date to have the different values stored at the UE, rather than calculated, for faster recall when transmitting.
17. Regarding claims 6 and 22, Yao et al teaches (col 20, lines 21-23) the indication can be in the DCI communication.
18. Claims 1-6, 8-14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Guo US 2020/137592 A1 cited by applicant (hereafter Guo).
19. Consider claim 1. Guo teaches An apparatus for wireless communication (fig 3 and 0057), comprising: a processor (340); a transceiver (310) communicatively coupled to the processor; and a memory (360) communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the apparatus is configured to: receive, via the transceiver, an indication of a power spectral density for a sounding reference signal (SRS) (see 0005 and 0178); and transmit, via the transceiver, the SRS at a power level that is based on the power spectral density (0005).
20. Method claim 10 is rejected for the same reasons as apparatus claim 1, since the recited elements would perform the claimed steps.
21. For what is called for in apparatus claim 2 and similar method claim 11, see (0178) where the claimed power resource block reads on the physical resource block of Guo.
22. For what is called for in apparatus claim 3 and similar method claim 12, see (0181) where the claimed usage parameter reads on the power control parameter taught by Guo.
23. For what is called for in apparatus claim 4 and similar method claim 13, see (0179) of Guo which measures the pathloss PL from a downlink reference signal NR-SSS to execute the transmission.
24. For what is called for in apparatus claim 5 and similar method claim 14, see (0176) of Guo where the value of the bit field indicator reads on the storing and indication of the claimed power density values.
25. For what is called for in claim 6, see (0189) of Guo.
26. For what is called for in apparatus claim 8 and similar method claim 16, see (0118) of Guo in which after it receives the indication including the proper power level adjustment for the Tx beam, transmits and further adjusts (after measuring the quality) the beam.
27. For what is called for in claim 9, see (0189) of Guo where the high layer signaling is part of the downlink signal.
28. Claims 17-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo US 2020/137592 A1 in view of Volker et al US 2011/136484 A1 cited by applicant.
29. Regarding claim 17, Guo teaches an apparatus for wireless communication (fig 2 and 0048), comprising: a processor (225); a communication interface (fig 2 (210a-n) communicatively coupled to the processor; and a memory (230) communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the apparatus is configured to: transmit, to a user equipment (UE) via the communication interface, an indication of a power spectral density for a sounding reference signal (SRS) (see 0006 and 0178); Gou fails to teach receiving, from an uplink (UL) receive point via the communication interface, an indication of a measured power of the SRS received by the UL receive point; and transmit, to the UE via the communication interface, an UL transmitter configuration based on the indication of the measured power of the SRS. However, Volker, from the same field of endeavor teaches such (see fig 2A, 0066 and 0080). It would have been obvious, before the effective date, to add the additional measurement teaches of Volker in order to increase the cell usage in a densely coverage area.
30. Method claim 25 is rejected for the same reasons as apparatus claim 17 since the recited elements would perform the claimed steps.
31. For what is called for in claims 18, 19 and 26 see fig 2A, 0076 and 0078 of Volker where step 220 reads on claim 18 and step 250 reads on the selection of the UE after the measured difference that is stated in both claim 19 and 26.
32. For what is called for in claims 20 and 27, see the rejections of claim 2 and 11 above as it relates to Guo.
33. For what is called for in claims 21 and 28, see the rejections of claims 5 and 14 above as it relates to Guo.
34. For what is called for in claims 22, 24 and 30, see the rejections of claims 6 and 9 above as it relates to Guo.
35. For what is called for in claim 23 and 29, see the rejection of claim 8 and 16 above as it relates to Guo.
36. Claims 7 and 15 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.
The prior art of record fails to teach or make obvious maintaining an SRS closed loop power control adjustment state, wherein the SRS closed loop power control adjustment state is an offset in an uplink power level calculation for one or more other sounding reference signals; and one or more of determine the power level for the SRS independent of the SRS closed loop power control adjustment state, or reset the SRS closed loop power control adjustment state to zero before determining the power level for the SRS as stated in dependent claims 7 and 15.
37. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Li WO 2017166249 A1 teaches Receiving, by the UE, a configuration message sent by the base station, where the configuration message includes at least one set of SRS parameter information, where the at least one set of SRS parameter information is used to configure the SRS sent by the UE in the first time period; the UE determines corresponding SRS parameter information in at least one set of SRS parameter information. The configuration message is used to configure the SRS sent by the UE in the first time period.
Koshnevisan US 20220353031 A1 teaches receiving a control signal triggering the UE to transmit sounding reference signals of a sounding reference signal resource set from a base station (BS). The sounding reference signal resource set is provided for spanning multiple transmission time intervals. A configuration information comprising timing information is received for transmission of the sounding reference signals relative to a timing of receipt of the control signal from BS. The configuration information indicates respective transmission time intervals of the transmission time intervals for transmitting each sounding reference signal of the sounding reference signals. The sounding reference signals of the sounding reference signal resource set is transmitted based on the received configuration information.
Li CN 109819455 A teaches a method for uplink , user terminal and base station, the method comprising: S1, SRS improving uplink power spectral density sent by the user terminal after measuring, obtaining all of the SINR value in a measurement period; S2, the SINR value of said all assigning the average and adjusting, until the average SINR value and assigning the adjusted convergence to the initial error rate IBLER pre-set S3, based on the SINR value of the adjusted average and assignment.
41. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CURTIS A KUNTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7499. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th from 530am to 3pm and Fri from 530am to 10am.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D Anderson, can be reached at telephone number 5712724177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CURTIS A KUNTZ/Primary examiner, Art Unit 2646