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 communication is response to claims filed on 02/22/24.
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement’s
4. The information disclosure statement(s) submitted on 02/22/24 & 06/13/24 have being considered by the examiner and made of record in the application file.
Priority
5. Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Drawing
6. The drawings filed on 02/22/24 are accepted by the examiner.
Specification
7. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it contains a legal phraseology “comprises” in line 5. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01(b). The form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as "means" and "said," should be avoided.
8. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it is longer than the maximum of 150 words. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
9. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
10. Claims 1-7 & 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
11. Claim 1, in part, recites, “….selecting, in the plurality of layers of DMRS port groups, a group including C DMRS ports to be used in a user equipment (UE), where C is a positive integer less than or equal to M…..” in lines 9-11. The limitation above fails to define “M”. It is not clear whether “M” is ports, DMRS signals, bits, code points, etc. Also, it is not clear where “M” ends (for example, …-10, 0, 10, 10000, ….infinity). The examiner suggest to define “M” as “a number of DMRS ports in DMRS port group is M, where M is a positive integer” and amend claim 2 to be consistent with claim 1.
12. Claim 19 is also rejected for the same reason as set forth above for claim 1.
13. Claims 2-7 & 20 are rejected for the same reasons as stated above by virtue of their dependency on a rejected based claim.
For the purpose of examination, examiner will interpret the claims as best understood.
Allowable Subject Matter
14. Claims 8-18 would be allowable once they are re-written to overcome the informalities set forth above.
15. Claims 1-7 & 19-20 would be allowable once they are re-written to overcome the informalities set forth above and the 112, 2nd paragraph rejection above.
16. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
17. Claims 1-20 are allowable over prior art since the prior art reference(s) taken individually or in combination fail to particularly disclose, fairly suggests, or render obvious the following italic limitations.
18. In claims 1 & 19: “representing each node of the generated plurality of layers of DMRS port groups by a code point, wherein each code point is comprised of a first subset of bits and a second subset of bits; selecting, in the plurality of layers of DMRS port groups, a group including C DMRS ports to be used in a user equipment (UE), where C is a positive integer less than or equal to M; identifying a code point corresponding to the selected DMRS port group” in combination with other limitations recited as specified in claims 1 & 19.
19. In claim 8: “obtaining a code point P which represents the selected DMRS port group, wherein the code point is determined as follows: if(C-1)≤M/2P=M.Math.(C-1)+s,elseP=M.Math.(M-C+1)+(N-1-s), where s is a start DMRS port index in the selected DMRS port group, s=0, 1, . . . , C−1; and signaling, to the UE, control information including the obtained code point” in combination with other limitations recited as specified in claim 8.
20. In claim 15: “obtaining a code point P which represents the selected DMRS port group, wherein the code point is determined by combinatorial coding as follows: P=.Math.i=0C-1.Math.M-piC-i.Math., where .Math.xy.Math.={(xy),x≥y0,x<y, (xy)=x!y!(x-y)! {p.sub.i} is an ordered set of indices p.sub.i of the selected DMRS port group, i=0, . . . , C−1, p.sub.i=1, 2, . . . , M; and signaling to the UE, control information including the obtained code point and C” in combination with other limitations recited as specified in claim 15.
21. In claims 1 & 19: Note that the first closest prior art REN (US 2019/0342062 A1) discloses a base station (See FIG. 43 & Para. 0532; an apparatus 390)/method in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising:
a memory (See FIG. 43 & Para. 0532; an apparatus 390 includes a memory 3902);
a transceiver (See FIG. 43 & Para. 0532; an apparatus 390 includes a communications interface 3903); and a controller (See FIG. 43 & Para. 0532; an apparatus 390 includes a processor 3901) coupled with the transceiver,
wherein the controller configured to:
generate a plurality of layers of DMRS port groups (See Para. 0383; generates DMRS indication information, where the DMRS indication information is generated based on DMRS ports in a QCL group available for a plurality of coordinating TRPs), wherein each node of the plurality of layers corresponds to a group of one or more DMRS ports (See Para. 0053; The DMRS configuration information table may further include at least one of a DMRS port quantity, a port index, sequence generation information, and a CDM type. Based on this, the quantized value of the quantity of transmission layers is added), and
wherein simultaneous transmission of a plurality of spatial multiple input multiple output (MIMO) layers for data transmission is supported by the base station, and wherein a different DMRS port is associated with each of the plurality of MIMO layers (See Para. 0128; To provide for greater data rates, two or more carriers can be aggregated and simultaneously transmitted to/from the same UE using carrier aggregation (CA). The aggregated carriers in CA may be referred to as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are a number of serving cells for the UE, one for a CC. The CCs may have three configurations in the frequency domain). However, REN fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
Note that the second closest prior art JANG (US 2025/0310053 A1) discloses signal, to the UE, control information including the identified code point (See Para. 0081 & 0100; receiving a MAC-CE from a base station at each code point of the TCI state field in the DCI format). However, JANG fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
Note that the third closest prior art DAVYDOV (US 2024/0322930 A1) discloses every node of the generated tree of DMRS port groups is represented by a code point. Every code point is comprised of a first subset of bits and a second subset of bits, wherein a number of bits in the first subset and a number of bits in the second subset are variable (See Para. 0230 & 0239). However, DAVYDOV fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
22. In claim 8: Note that the first closest prior art REN (US 2019/0342062 A1) discloses a method performed by a base station (See FIG. 43 & Para. 0532; an apparatus 390) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
selecting a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port group including C sequential DMRS port indices to be used in a user equipment (UE) from a total number M of sequential DMRS port indices available for being used in the UE, where C, M are positive integers, C≤M (See Para. 0383; generates DMRS indication information, where the DMRS indication information is generated based on DMRS ports in a QCL group available for a plurality of coordinating TRPs),
wherein each node of the plurality of layers corresponds to a group of one or more DMRS ports (See Para. 0053; The DMRS configuration information table may further include at least one of a DMRS port quantity, a port index, sequence generation information, and a CDM type. Based on this, the quantized value of the quantity of transmission layers is added); and
wherein simultaneous transmission of a plurality of spatial multiple input multiple output (MIMO) layers for data transmission is supported, and wherein a different DMRS port is associated with each of the plurality of MIMO layers (See Para. 0128; To provide for greater data rates, two or more carriers can be aggregated and simultaneously transmitted to/from the same UE using carrier aggregation (CA). The aggregated carriers in CA may be referred to as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are a number of serving cells for the UE, one for a CC. The CCs may have three configurations in the frequency domain). However, REN fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
Note that the second closest prior art JANG (US 2025/0310053 A1) discloses signaling, to the UE, control information including the obtained code point, (See Para. 0081 & 0100; receiving a MAC-CE from a base station at each code point of the TCI state field in the DCI format). However, JANG fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
Note that the third closest prior art DAVYDOV (US 2024/0322930 A1) discloses every node of the generated tree of DMRS port groups is represented by a code point. Every code point is comprised of a first subset of bits and a second subset of bits, wherein a number of bits in the first subset and a number of bits in the second subset are variable (See Para. 0230 & 0239). However, DAVYDOV fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
23. In claim 15: Note that the first closest prior art REN (US 2019/0342062 A1) discloses a method performed by a base station (See FIG. 43 & Para. 0532; an apparatus 390) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
selecting a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port group including C DMRS port indices to be used in a user equipment (UE) from a total number M of sequential DMRS port indices available for being used in the UE, where C, M are positive integers, C ≤ M (See Para. 0383; generates DMRS indication information, where the DMRS indication information is generated based on DMRS ports in a QCL group available for a plurality of coordinating TRPs);
wherein a different DMRS port is associated with each of a plurality of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) layers wherein simultaneous transmission of a plurality of spatial MIMO layers for data transmission is supported (See Para. 0128; To provide for greater data rates, two or more carriers can be aggregated and simultaneously transmitted to/from the same UE using carrier aggregation (CA). The aggregated carriers in CA may be referred to as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are a number of serving cells for the UE, one for a CC. The CCs may have three configurations in the frequency domain). However, REN fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed
Note that the second closest prior art JANG (US 2025/0310053 A1) discloses signaling, to the UE, control information including the obtained code point, (See Para. 0081 & 0100; receiving a MAC-CE from a base station at each code point of the TCI state field in the DCI format). However, JANG fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
Note that the third closest prior art DAVYDOV (US 2024/0322930 A1) discloses every node of the generated tree of DMRS port groups is represented by a code point. Every code point is comprised of a first subset of bits and a second subset of bits, wherein a number of bits in the first subset and a number of bits in the second subset are variable (See Para. 0230 & 0239). However, DAVYDOV fails to disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
24. Thus, neither REN, JANG nor DAVYDOV, individually or in combination disclose or render obvious the above italic limitations as claimed.
Conclusion
25. The prior art of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
A. Levitsky et al. 2021/0376898 A1 (Title: Demodulation reference signal configuration selection and reporting…) (See Abstract, Para. 0045-0047 & 0065-0066).
B. Wang et al. 2019/0349158 A1 (Title: Shared demodulation reference signal design for..) (See abstract, Para. 0005-0009 & 0020-0023).
C. Kwak et al. 2019/0068308 A1 (Title: DMRS port grouping method and apparatus for use in wireless cellular.. ) (See FIG. 1, Para. 0046, 0050 & 0160).
26. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEWALE A AMBAYE whose telephone number is (571)270-1076. The examiner can normally be reached M.F 6a.m.-2p.m..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on (571)272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MEWALE A AMBAYE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469