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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 22, 23-25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 40 and 41 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) or (a)(2) as being anticipated by Jung (U.S. 2025/0365122)
With respect to Claim 1, Jung teaches an apparatus for wireless communication (¶ 0079, “a device 602 (e.g., an apparatus) that supports sub-band based full duplex operation in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure,”) comprising:
at least one memory comprising computer-executable instructions (¶ 0079, “such as a processor 604, a memory 606, a transceiver 608, and an I/O controller 610.”)
and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions (¶ 0079, “such as a processor 604, a memory 606, a transceiver 608, and an I/O controller 610.”)
and cause the apparatus to:
obtain a configuration indicating subband-based reference signal (RS) resources (¶ 0007, “he information for the full duplex UL sub-band further includes one or more UL configurations, and the one or more UL configurations include at least one of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), configured grant (CG) PUSCH, sounding reference signal (SRS), or random access channel (RACH) configuration”)l
measure, within at least one downlink subband or at least one uplink subband in at least one subband full duplex (SBFD) symbol (¶ 0015, “from the interference measurement, resource elements of the CLI resource overlapping in frequency with the full duplex UL sub-band; the CLI measurement configuration includes a plurality of measurement frequency bands.”);
at least one of a cross link interference (CLI) caused by a network entity or a channel between the apparatus and the network entity (¶ 0062, “CLI-RSSI can be defined as linear average of the total received power (e.g., in Watt) observed in configured OFDM symbols of a configured measurement time resource(s), in a configured measurement bandwidth from all sources, such as including co-channel serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise, etc.”)
wherein the measurement is based on at least one RS of the RS resources indicated in the configuration (¶ 0072, “multiple CLI measurement slots configured within a measurement periodicity have the same configuration for measurement symbols, e.g. a starting symbol and the number of symbols within a slot for measurement. Alternatively or additionally, each of multiple CLI measurement slots configured within a measurement periodicity have a separate configuration for measurement symbols, e.g. a starting symbol and the number of symbols within a slot for measurement”) ; and
perform one or more actions after measuring the CLI or the channel (¶ 0025, “The UE can then perform CLI measurement using the multiple time instances, and can generate interference information (e.g., a measurement report) based on the CLI measurement.”)
With respect to Claim 2, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprise reporting at least one metric based on the CLI or the channel measurement (¶ 0025, “The UE can then perform CLI measurement using the multiple time instances, and can generate interference information (e.g., a measurement report) based on the CLI measurement.”)
With respect to Claim 3, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement comprises measurement of at least one CLI metric; the at least one CLI metric comprises a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measured within the at least one uplink subband; and the measurement of the at least one CLI metric is based on a reference signal via the at least one downlink subband (¶ 0062, “CLI-RSSI can be defined as linear average of the total received power (e.g., in Watt) observed in configured OFDM symbols of a configured measurement time resource(s), in a configured measurement bandwidth from all sources, such as including co-channel serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise, etc.”)
With respect to Claim 4, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement comprises measurement of at least one CLI metric; the at least one CLI metric comprises at least one of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measured within the at least one downlink subband or RS received power (RSRP) measured within the at least one downlink subband; and the measurement of the at least one CLI metric is based on a reference signal via the at least one downlink subband (¶ 0062, “CLI-RSSI can be defined as linear average of the total received power (e.g., in Watt) observed in configured OFDM symbols of a configured measurement time resource(s), in a configured measurement bandwidth from all sources, such as including co-channel serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise, etc.”)
With respect to Claim 5, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement comprises measurement of the channel within the at least one uplink subband, based on an RS output from the network entity in the at least one downlink subband (¶ 0040, “UE 104 receives the configuration information 120 and uses the configuration information 120 to perform a configuration process 122 for configuring and performing full-duplex related operation (e.g., full-duplex DL and UL operation, UL transmission on a full duplex UL sub-band, or DL reception on a full duplex DL sub-band) by the UE 104. Further, the UE 104 performs interference measurement 124 (e.g., CLI measurement) using interference configuration received as part of the configuration information 120.”)
With respect to Claim 7, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement comprises measurement of the channel within the at least one downlink subband, based on: an RS output from the network entity across the at least one downlink subband and the at least one uplink subband (¶ 0040, “UE 104 receives the configuration information 120 and uses the configuration information 120 to perform a configuration process 122 for configuring and performing full-duplex related operation (e.g., full-duplex DL and UL operation, UL transmission on a full duplex UL sub-band, or DL reception on a full duplex DL sub-band) by the UE 104. Further, the UE 104 performs interference measurement 124 (e.g., CLI measurement) using interference configuration received as part of the configuration information 120.”)
With respect to Claim 8, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement comprises measurement of the channel within the at least one downlink subband, based on an RS output from the network entity in the at least one downlink subband (¶ 0040, “UE 104 receives the configuration information 120 and uses the configuration information 120 to perform a configuration process 122 for configuring and performing full-duplex related operation (e.g., full-duplex DL and UL operation, UL transmission on a full duplex UL sub-band, or DL reception on a full duplex DL sub-band) by the UE 104. Further, the UE 104 performs interference measurement 124 (e.g., CLI measurement) using interference configuration received as part of the configuration information 120.”)
With respect to Claim 10, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the SBFD symbol is configured with at least two non-contiguous downlink subbands with at least an uplink subband and guard bands in between; and the configuration indicates separate RS resources for each of the downlink subbands, or information regarding a non-contiguous RS resource across the downlink subbands (¶ 0010, “where the CLI resource includes at least one of a plurality of measurement occasions within a measurement periodicity or a plurality of non-contiguous measurement frequency bands; and performing interference measurement on the CLI resource.”)
With respect to Claim 12, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the information regarding the non-contiguous RS resource comprises an RS resource allocation that spans the downlink subbands; and the one or more processors are further configured to derive the non-contiguous RS resource by excluding frequency resources outside of the downlink subbands (¶ 0077, “two CLI measurement bandwidths for a CLI resource can be configured in a non-contiguous manner such that the full duplex UL sub-band 402 is excluded from the two CLI measurement bandwidths.”)
With respect to Claim 13, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises a distributed unit (DU) and the configuration is obtained from a central unit (CU) (¶ 0035, “For example, a network entity 102 may include one or more of a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a radio unit (RU), a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) (e.g., a Near-Real Time RIC (Near-RT RIC), a Non-Real Time RIC (Non-RT RIC)), a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) system, or any combination thereof.”)
With respect to Claim 22, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one transceiver configured to receiving the configuration, wherein the apparatus is configured as a network entity (¶ 0029, “one or more of the network entities 102 described herein may be or include or may be referred to as a network node, a base station, a network element, a radio access network (RAN), a base transceiver station, an access point, a NodeB, an eNodeB (eNB), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), or other suitable terminology.”)
With respect to Claim 40, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one transceiver configured to receiving the configuration, transmit the at least one RS, and receive the report, wherein the apparatus is configured as a network entity (¶ 0029, “one or more of the network entities 102 described herein may be or include or may be referred to as a network node, a base station, a network element, a radio access network (RAN), a base transceiver station, an access point, a NodeB, an eNodeB (eNB), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), or other suitable terminology.”)
Regarding Claims 23-25, 27-28, 30, 31 the apparatus for wireless communications corresponds to the apparatus for wireless communications of claims 1-4, 7, 10, 12,13 and are rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 41 the apparatus for wireless communications corresponds to the apparatus for wireless communications of claim 1 and are rejected accordingly.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 6 and 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung (U.S. 2025/0365122) in Ardah (U.S. 2025/0247732)
With respect to Claim 6, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 5, Jung fails to explicitly teach wherein the one or more actions comprise receive nulling based on the measurement of the channel within the at least one uplink subband.
Ardah teaches wherein the one or more actions comprise receive nulling based on the measurement of the channel within the at least one uplink subband (¶ 0069, “Other solutions to handle SI and CLI include the use of different antenna panels for DL and UL communications, coordinate scheduling spatial domain, advance receivers, beam nulling, UL and DL power control, etc.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Ardah with the invention of Jung in order to better mitigate CLI as interference is undesirable in communications.
Regarding Claims 26, the apparatus for wireless communications corresponds to the apparatus for wireless communications of claims 6, and are rejected accordingly.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung (U.S. 2025/0365122) in view of Fu et al. (U.S. 2025/0226868), hereinafter Fu.
With respect to Claim 9, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 1, Jung fails to explicitly teach wherein the configuration further indicates a timing offset, relative to a symbol boundary, to apply when measuring the at least one of the CLI or the channel.
Fu teaches wherein the configuration further indicates a timing offset, relative to a symbol boundary, to apply when measuring the at least one of the CLI or the channel (¶ 0167, “K.sub.offset is an offset parameter configured by higher layers, μ.sub.DL is a downlink subcarrier spacing configuration, and μ.sub.K.sub.offset is a subcarrier spacing configuration with K.sub.offset of value 0 (e.g., for frequency range 1)).”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Fu to apply offsets to CSI.
Claim(s) 11 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung (U.S. 2025/0365122) in view of Xiong et al. (U.S. 2025/0226898), hereinafter Xiong.
With respect to Claim 11, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is configured to measure RS in only one of the downlink subbands
Xiong teaches the apparatus is configured to measure RS in only one of the downlink subbands (¶ 0124, “the first gNB may transmit the CLI-RS in accordance with the CLI-RS resource and measurement configuration in one or more DL subbands for SBFD operation (element 7010).”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Xiong in order to allow the device to determine how many subbands to do measurements on as it reduces power consumption.
Regarding Claims 29, the apparatus for wireless communications corresponds to the apparatus for wireless communications of claims 11, and are rejected accordingly.
Claim(s) 14-19, 21 and 32-37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung (U.S. 2025/0365122) in view of Agarwal et al. (W.O. 2025/134156), hereinafter Agarwal.
With respect to Claim 14, Jung teaches the apparatus of claim 13, Jung fails to explicitly teach wherein the RS resources indicated in the configuration comprise channel state information RS (CSI-RS) measurement resources; and the one or more processors are further configured to measure at least one of CLI or a channel based on the CSI-RS measurement resources.
Agarwal teaches wherein the RS resources indicated in the configuration comprise channel state information RS (CSI-RS) measurement resources; and the one or more processors are further configured to measure at least one of CLI or a channel based on the CSI-RS measurement resources (¶ 0017, “the method comprises receiving by the at least one node, one of at least one of at least one first CSI-RS resource configuration for channel measurements for SBFD symbols and at least one second CSI-RS resource configuration for the channel measurements for non-SBFD (NSBFD) symbols, or at least one third CSI-RS resource configuration for the channel measurement common for both the SBFD symbols and NSBFD symbols.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal in order to use CSI-RS symbols to measure resources as CSI-RS resources are well known within the 3GPP networking system as a way to measure the resources.
With respect to Claim 15, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 14, Jung fails to explicitly teach wherein the configuration indicates separate CSI-RS resources for SBFD symbols and non-SBFD symbols.
Agarwal teaches wherein the configuration indicates separate CSI-RS resources for SBFD symbols and non-SBFD symbols. (¶ 0017, “the method comprises receiving by the at least one node, one of at least one of at least one first CSI-RS resource configuration for channel measurements for SBFD symbols and at least one second CSI-RS resource configuration for the channel measurements for non-SBFD (NSBFD) symbols, or at least one third CSI-RS resource configuration for the channel measurement common for both the SBFD symbols and NSBFD symbols.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal in order to use CSI-RS symbols to measure resources as CSI-RS resources are well known within the 3GPP networking system as a way to measure the resources.
With respect to Claim 16, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 14, Jung fails to explicitly teach wherein the configuration indicates a common CSI-RS resource for both SBFD symbols and non-SBFD symbols; and the one or more processors are further configured to derive, from the common CSI-RS resource, one or more CSI-RS resources for at least one of CLI or channel measurement for SBFD symbols.
Agarwal teaches wherein the configuration indicates a common CSI-RS resource for both SBFD symbols and non-SBFD symbols; and the one or more processors are further configured to derive, from the common CSI-RS resource, one or more CSI-RS resources for at least one of CLI or channel measurement for SBFD symbols (¶ 0017, “the method comprises receiving by the at least one node, one of at least one of at least one first CSI-RS resource configuration for channel measurements for SBFD symbols and at least one second CSI-RS resource configuration for the channel measurements for non-SBFD (NSBFD) symbols, or at least one third CSI-RS resource configuration for the channel measurement common for both the SBFD symbols and NSBFD symbols.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal in order to use CSI-RS symbols to measure resources as CSI-RS resources are well known within the 3GPP networking system as a way to measure the resources.
With respect to Claim 17, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 16, Jung fails to explicitly teach wherein the common CSI-RS resources comprises a contiguous CSI-RS resource; and the one or more CSI-RS resources, derived from the contiguous CSI-RS resource, comprise non-contiguous CSI-RS resources.
Agarwal teaches wherein the common CSI-RS resources comprises a contiguous CSI-RS resource; and the one or more CSI-RS resources, derived from the contiguous CSI-RS resource, comprise non-contiguous CSI-RS resources (¶ 0004, “The SBFD active time resource can be contiguous or non-contiguous. The time resource granularity can be at symbol level, at slot level or resource type within a slot.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal in order to use CSI-RS symbols to measure resources as CSI-RS resources are well known within the 3GPP networking system as a way to measure the resources.
With respect to Claim 18, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 17, Jung teaches wherein in order to derive the non-contiguous CSI-RS resources, the one or more processors are further configured to at least one of: exclude, from the contiguous CSI-RS resource, frequency resources outside of the at least one downlink subband; or include frequency resources within the at least one uplink subband (¶ 0077, “two CLI measurement bandwidths for a CLI resource can be configured in a non-contiguous manner such that the full duplex UL sub-band 402 is excluded from the two CLI measurement bandwidths.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal in order to use CSI-RS symbols to measure resources as CSI-RS resources are well known within the 3GPP networking system as a way to measure the resources.
With respect to Claim 19, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 14, Jung teaches wherein measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in at least one non-SBFD symbol based on the CSI-RS measurement resources comprises at least one of: measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in at least one non-SBFD symbol configured as a flexible symbol; measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in at least one non-SBFD symbol configured as a downlink symbol; or measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in at least one non-SBFD symbol configured as an uplink symbol (¶ 0008, “the full duplex UL sub-band including a time resource and a frequency resource for UL transmission on symbols configured as one or more of DL symbols or flexible symbols based at least in part on the semi-static DL and UL configuration.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal in order to use CSI-RS symbols to measure resources as CSI-RS resources are well known within the 3GPP networking system as a way to measure the resources.
With respect to Claim 21, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 14, Jung teaches wherein measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in flexible symbols is based on a CSI-RS measurement resource that spans the at least one uplink subband and the at least one downlink subband and a rule that allows reception of CSI-RS in a downlink symbol (¶ 0008, “the full duplex UL sub-band including a time resource and a frequency resource for UL transmission on symbols configured as one or more of DL symbols or flexible symbols based at least in part on the semi-static DL and UL configuration.”
Regarding Claims 32-37, the apparatus for wireless communications corresponds to the apparatus for wireless communications of claims 14-19 and 21, and are rejected accordingly.
Claim(s) 20, 38 and 39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung (U.S. 2025/0365122) in view of Agarwal et al. (W.O. 2024/134156), hereinafter Agarwal in view of Awadin et al. (U.S. 2024/0283603), hereinafter Awadin.
With respect to Claim 20, Jung in view of Agarwal teaches the apparatus of claim 14, Jung in view of Agarwal fails to explicitly teach wherein measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in flexible symbols is based on a CSI-RS measurement resource that spans the at least one uplink subband and the at least one downlink subband
Adawin teaches wherein measurement of at least one of CLI or a channel in flexible symbols is based on a CSI-RS measurement resource that spans the at least one uplink subband and the at least one downlink subband (¶ 0155, “More specifically, a UE may not expect the same CSI-RS port to span an SBFD symbol and a non-SBFD symbol. Accordingly, to provide a gNB with more flexibility, the same CSI-RS port may span SBFD and non-SBFD symbols with the assumption that the gNB uses the same antenna element.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing of the application to combine the invention of Jung with the invention of Agarwal and Awadin in order to provide additional flexibility to allow the CSI-RS to span the entirety of the frame as discussed in ¶ [0155].
Regarding Claims 38 and 39, the apparatus for wireless communications corresponds to the apparatus for wireless communications of claims 20, and are rejected accordingly.
Conclusion
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/ANGELA NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2446