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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, 9-10, 13, 16 and 19-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hormis (US 20200358501) in view of Hwang (US 20100210227).
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 1/16/19/20/21/22, Hormis teaches A signal delay method ([Fig.2], Repeater 205), comprising:
generating a target spatial filter ([0068], “Beamforming, which may also be referred to as spatial filtering.” And [0140], “the repeater 205 retransmits the signal via directional beamforming at the first antenna array of the repeater 205 to the base station 105.”) according to received indication information ([0144], “a first set of filter coefficients from plurality of sets of available filter coefficients for a digital filter.”) ... and
relaying a signal ([0140], “the repeater 205 retransmits the signal via directional beamforming at the first antenna array of the repeater 205 to the base station 105.”) between a first network element ([Fig.13], UE 115) and a second network element ([Fig.13], BS 105) through the target spatial filter ([0140], “directional beamforming at the first antenna array.”).
However, Hormis does not specifically disclose wherein the indication information is used to indicate a coefficient of M spatial filters, and M is an integer greater than 1.
In an analogous art, Hwang discloses wherein the indication information is used to indicate a coefficient of M spatial filters ([0029], “receives a beamforming coefficient from the beamforming coefficient operator 108 to provide the same to the beamforming coefficient multipliers 124-1, 124-2, 124-3, and 124-4.”), and M is an integer greater than 1 ([0029], “coefficient multipliers 124-1, 124-2, 124-3, and 124-4.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Hormis to specify a coefficient as taught by Hwang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to apply a same beamforming coefficient to multiple beams.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 9, Hwang teaches wherein the indication information comprises the M spatial filters ([0029], “receives a beamforming coefficient from the beamforming coefficient operator 108 to provide the same to the beamforming coefficient multipliers 124-1, 124-2, 124-3, and 124-4.”), and M is an integer greater than 1 ([0029], “coefficient multipliers 124-1, 124-2, 124-3, and 124-4.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Hormis to specify a coefficient as taught by Hwang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to apply a same beamforming coefficient to multiple beams.
Regarding claim(s) 10, Hormis teaches wherein the indication information is further used to indicate a generation mode of the target spatial filter ([0068], “Beamforming, which may also be referred to as spatial filtering.” And [0140], “the repeater 205 retransmits the signal via directional beamforming at the first antenna array of the repeater 205 to the base station 105.”).
Regarding claim(s) 13, Hwang teaches wherein a coefficient of each spatial filter of M spatial filters is a real number ([0029], “receives a beamforming coefficient from the beamforming coefficient operator 108 to provide the same to the beamforming coefficient multipliers 124-1, 124-2, 124-3, and 124-4.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Hormis to specify a coefficient as taught by Hwang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to apply a same beamforming coefficient to multiple beams.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hormis in view of Hwang, and further in view of Fang (20200226724)
Regarding claim(s) 7, Fang teaches performing processing on each spatial filter of M spatial filters according to a coefficient of the each spatial filter of M spatial filters, wherein the M spatial filters that have been processed jointly constitute the target spatial filter ([0079], “The weights of spatial filters in a decoder of decoder module 154 may be adjusted jointly with weights of an encoder of encoder module 146 or separately from the weights of an encoder of encoder module.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Hormis to specify a coefficient as taught by Fang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to apply weights of spatial filters.
Regarding claim(s) 8, Fang teaches wherein generating the target spatial filter of M spatial filters according to the received indication information comprises: combining the M spatial filters according to a coefficient of each spatial filter of M spatial filters, so as to obtain the target spatial filter ([0079], “The weights of spatial filters in a decoder of decoder module 154 may be adjusted jointly with weights of an encoder of encoder module 146 or separately from the weights of an encoder of encoder module.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the claim invention to have modified the method of Hormis to specify a coefficient as taught by Fang. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to apply weights of spatial filters.
.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6, 11-12 and 14-15 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.
Conclusion
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/ZHIREN QIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2411