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 § 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) 1-2, 8-9, 14, 17-18 and 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Hong comprises the following features:
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, an apparatus for wireless communication at a first device, comprising:
one or more processors (See Fig. 3; 310 “Processor”);
one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors (See Fig. 3); and instructions stored in the one or more memories and executable by the one or more processors ([0073 and Fig. 3] “The processor 310 may execute at least one program command stored in at least one of the memory 320 and the storage device 360.”) to cause the apparatus to:
transmit or receive an indication of a joint beam management and channel state information (CSI) reporting scheme ([0178] “according to the configuration of the CSI measurement and CSI reporting scheme”) that identifies one or more measurement parameters ([0172] “In the example of FIG. 10, a CSI configuration window may be configured for beam information measurement or CSI measurement. When a CSI configuration window is configured, beam information measurement or CSI measurement operations may be performed based on the CSI configuration window.”) and one or more reporting parameters ([0144] “When reporting CSI, transmission of multiple BIs and BQIs may be possible, and in this case, the BQI may be configured as an RSRP or L1-RSRP for a corresponding beam.”);
receive a plurality of reference signals via a plurality of multi-port CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resources ([0138] “up to 2-port CSI-RS can be used”, and [0146] “if two or more ports are used for transmission in the same time resource”. However, Hong does not specifically describe about receiving RS via multi-port CSI-RS resources. This will be discussed in view of Hao.) in accordance with the one or more measurement parameters of the joint beam management and CSI reporting scheme ([0177] “In the example of FIG. 10, CSI measurement and CSI reporting may be performed using the DMRS or CSI-RS, which are reference signals for beam information measurement transmitted within the SL slot 1011”, and [0179] “the configuration and information for the pre-configured signals used for CSI measurement and CSI reporting, as well as for the two CSI reports, may be transmitted to the RX UE through SCI, PSSCH, or higher layer signaling such as a MAC-CE or RRC transmitted through a PSSCH, which is transmitted within the SL slot 1011.”); and
transmit, in accordance with the one or more reporting parameters of the joint beam management and CSI reporting scheme, a message that indicates a first plurality of reporting metrics associated with a first multi‑port CSI-RS resource of the plurality of multi-port CSI-RS resources ([0192] “In step S1140, the RX UE 1102 may transmit a CSI report #1 to the TX UE 1101 through the sidelink. The CSI report #1 may be a CSI report generated based on the CSI measured using the CSI-RS and DMRS received in step S1120.”, and [0144] “When reporting CSI, transmission of multiple BIs and BQIs may be possible, and in this case, the BQI may be configured as an RSRP or L1-RSRP for a corresponding beam.” Note that “associated with a first multi-port CSI-RS resource” will be discussed in view of Hao.).
It is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about multi-port CSI-RS resources. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Hao as follows;
via a plurality of multi-port CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resources ([Hao, 0080] “At 702, the BS may provide a UE (e.g., a UE 120 in the wireless communication network 100) with a CSI report configuration. The CSI report configuration is associated with one or more CSI-RS resources. Each CSI-RS resource includes a set of ports or port groups.”).
associated with a first multi-port CSI-RS resource ([Hao, 0087] “Based on the measurements, the UE may select one or more preferred CSI-RS resources. The UE may send a CSI report including CRI indicating the selected CSI-RS resources along with the PMI, RI, and CQI for the selected CSI-RS resources.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Hao in order to support various applications such that “to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level.” [Hao, 0004].
Regarding claim 17, it is an apparatus claim at a second device corresponding to the apparatus claim 1 in a reciprocal way, and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 20, it is a method claim corresponding to the method claim 1, and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim 2, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of reporting metrics comprise a rank indicator (RI) and a channel quality indicator (CQI) associated with the first multi‑port CSI-RS resource ([Hao, 0079] “The UE then can determine the rank (e.g., RI), codeword (e.g., PMI), and CQI (calculated using the RI and PMI) for each of the selected CSI-RS resources and/or port groups. The UE can report CRI, indicating the selected CSI-RS resources, along with the RI, PMI, and CQI in the CSI report.”).
Regarding claim 8, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
select a transmit or receive beam to use for communications with a second device based at least in part on measurement of the plurality of reference signals in accordance with the one or more measurement parameters of the joint beam management and CSI reporting scheme ([0230] “The TX UE 1101 may select a beam with the best BQI among the beams reported by the RX UE 1102 as a beam to be switched to. The selected beam may be either a beam currently in use for communication or a new beam.”).
Regarding claim 9, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a sidelink CSI reporting medium access control‑control element (MAC-CE) indicating the first plurality of reporting metrics associated with the first multi-port CSI‑RS resource ([0225] “the RX UE 1102 may transmit a CSI report to the TX UE 1101 through the sidelink. Here, the CSI report may include CSI and may be transmitted using a PSSCH or a MAC-CE of the PSSCH transmitted by the RX UE 1102 to the TX UE 1101.”).
Regarding claim 14, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of reference signals are received in accordance with a multi-port receive beam sweeping scheme ([0188] “the TX UE 1101 may transmit the CSI-RS by sweeping the transmission beams.”).
Regarding claim 18, the apparatus of claim 17, wherein the plurality of reference signals are transmitted using a plurality of transmit beams of the second device in accordance with a multi‑port beam sweeping pattern ([0188] “the TX UE 1101 may transmit the CSI-RS by sweeping the transmission beams.”).
Claim(s) 3 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Zhu et al. (US 2025/0023694, “Zhu”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 3, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about a second CSI report. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Zhu as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message further indicates a second plurality of reporting metrics associated with a second multi‑port CSI-RS resource of the plurality of multi‑port CSI-RS resources ([Zhu, 0211] “The UE could report in the same CSI reporting instance/CSI report a resource set indicator with ‘0’ indicating the first CSI resources set and ‘1’ indicating the second CSI resource set., ”, and [Zhu, 0216] “The UE could report in the same CSI reporting instance/CSI report a resource set indicator with ‘0’ indicating the first CSI resources set and ‘1’ indicating the second CSI resource set.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Zhu in order to flexibly accommodate various services/applications with different requirements such that “The BS includes a transceiver configured to transmit a first configuration for a first set of RS resources configured in a CSI resource setting, transmit a second configuration for a second set of RS resources” [Zhu, 0006].
Claim(s) 4 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Zhou et al. (US 2021/0320702, “Zhou”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 4, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about indicating a quantity of resources. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Zhou as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more reporting parameters indicate a quantity of multi-port CSI-RS resources for which the first device is to provide reporting metrics ([Zhou, 0075] “the CSI report configuration including the report quantity parameter set to a CSI reference signal (RS) resource indicator SINR (cri-SINR) is associated with configured non-zero-power (NZP) CSI reference signal (RS) resources in a corresponding NZP-CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Zhou in order to improve transmission speed and flexibility such that “for both interference and noise on a channel, may be used by the network entity to configure channel measurement resources and provide the network entity with additional information to help manage inter-cell interference.” [Zhou, 0025].
Claim(s) 5 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Hwang et al. (US 2022/0394722, “Hwang”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 5, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about a frequency range. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Hwang as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises a sidelink user equipment (UE) operating ([0059 and Fig. 1] “The V2V communications supported by the communication system 140 may be performed based on sidelink communication technologies (e.g. Proximity Based Services (ProSe) and Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technologies, and the like).”) in Frequency Range 2 (FR2) ([Hwang, 0159] “the SL CSI-RS is transmitted, information related to a frequency range (e.g., the number of RBs, the number of subchannels, etc.) and/or start subcarrier index information.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Hwang in order to effectively support V2X communications such that “mapping a first SL CSI-RS related to a first physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) to a first resource domain; and transmitting, to the second device, the first SL CSI-RS in the first resource domain” [Hwang, 0016].
Claim(s) 6 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Cheraghi et al. (US 2020/0403746, “Cheraghi”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 6, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about CRI. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Cheraghi as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive an indication of a CSI-RS resource identifier (CRI) associated with a transmit beam of a second device from which the plurality of reference signals are received, wherein the transmit beam of the second device correspond to the first multi-port CSI-RS resource ([Cheraghi, 0005] “A channel state feedback procedure may include a first device (e.g., a user equipment (UE)) receiving a set of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) from a second device (e.g., a base station) and transmitting a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) report to the second device including, for example, channel conditions for the reference signals received at the first device. In some examples, the first device may select a CRI from the set of received CSI-RS resources, for example, to use for scheduling a transmission (e.g., during beam forming).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Cheraghi in order to develop a common protocol for multi-technologies of wireless communications such that “after detecting a CSI report triggering event, selecting a subset of CSI-RS resources from a set of CSI-RS resources” [Cheraghi, 0007].
Claim(s) 7 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Liu et al. (US 2024/0146372, “Liu”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 7, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about a receiving beam. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Liu as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of reference signals are received using a fixed multi-port receive beam of the first device ([Liu, 0227] “Because the network device sends a plurality of CSI-RS s in a same beam direction, the terminal device may perform receive beam training of the terminal device in the plurality of time units by using the N antenna ports of the CSI-RSs, to determine a receive beam used by the terminal device to perform communication with the network device.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Liu in order to improve accuracy of obtaining channel information such that “The network device sends reference signals to a terminal device by using a plurality of antenna unit groups, where at least two antenna unit groups in the plurality of antenna unit groups belong to one antenna port” [Liu, 0007].
Claim(s) 10 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Jagyasi et al. (US 2025/0323689, “Jagyasi”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 10, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about bits of CRI. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Jagyasi as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a quantity of bits that indicate a CSI-RS resource identifier (CRI) associated with the first multi-port CSI-RS resource ([Jagyasi, 0174] “the number of bits for a CRI in a CSI report.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Jagyasi in order to improve accuracy of obtaining channel information such that “The WTRU may receive measurement configuration information (e.g., from a network device, such as a base station), wherein the measurement configuration information may indicate at least a first measurement resource and a second measurement resource (e.g., in the same measurement resource set or different measurement resource sets).” [Liu, 0007].
Claim(s) 15 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Svendsen et al. (US 2022/0416877, “Svendsen”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 15, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about a request for RS. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Svendsen as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit a request for a second device to transmit reference signals in accordance with a beam repetition pattern, wherein the plurality of reference signals are received in accordance with the request ([Svendsen, 0118] “the user device will request y number of CSI-RS signals with repetition ‘ON’, where y could equal the number of configurable beams on that array.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Svendsen in order to improve beam switching such that “to initiate beam switching to reconfigure the beam alignment at said receiver based, at least in part, on a signal power (e.g. RSRP) of the received downlink reference signal” [Svendsen, 0003].
Claim(s) 16 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Sanguanpuak et al (US 2024/0235704, “Sanguanpuak”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 16, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about a beam sweeping and selecting a beam. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Sanguanpuak as follows;
the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
perform a multi-port receive beam sweeping procedure based at least in part on reception of the plurality of reference signals in accordance with the one or more measurement parameters of the joint beam management and CSI reporting scheme ([Sanguanpuak, 0032] “P3 (UE beam sweeping): the gNB uses the optimal or best gNB transmit narrow beam selected from P2 to transmit multiple CSI-RSs (multiple narrow or CSI-RS beams) while the UE sweeps through a set of UE receive narrow beams to refine the UE beam direction.”); and
update a receive beam of the first device based at least in part on a result of the multi-port receive beam sweeping procedure ([Sanguanpuak, 0032] “The UE can make a selection of the best UE receive narrow beam based on the RSRP measurements and communicate the results to gNB.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Sanguanpuak in order to reduce overhead in wireless networks such that “A method performed by a user equipment can include predicting, for at least one beam received from an uplink node” [Sanguanpuak, 0005].
Claim(s) 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong et al. (US 2026/0012957, “Hong”) in view of Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704, “Hao”) and further in view of Qi et al. (US 2024/0107473, “Qi”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Hong unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 19, it is noted that while disclosing measuring CSI-RS, Hong does not specifically teach about transmitting RSs using a beam. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Qi as follows;
the apparatus of claim 17, wherein the plurality of reference signals are transmitted using a first transmit beam of the second device in accordance with a multi‑port fixed beam repetition pattern ([Qi, 0060] “The SSB pattern includes an SSB repetition for a single transmission beam”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Hong by using the features of Qi in order to be adaptive for various wireless network protocols such that “Each SSB includes a defined pattern for the transmission of the PSS, SSS and PBCH that includes master information blocks (MIBs). The pattern includes empty REs that is also called zero power REs.” [Qi, 0003].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 11, 12 and 13 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The claims contain the following underlined features which, when combined with other features of the claim, prior art of record failed to anticipate or render obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application was filed:
Regarding claim 11, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
receive hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback for the message indicating the first plurality of reporting metrics associated with the first multi‑port CSI-RS resource; and
update a receive beam of the first device after a threshold quantity of milliseconds has elapsed with respect to reception of the HARQ‑ACK feedback.
Regarding claim 12, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
receive a second message comprising a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) associated with a transmit beam of a second device from which the plurality of reference signals are received; and
transmit hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback for the second message in accordance with the joint beam management and CSI reporting scheme.
Claim 13 depends from claim 12 and thus are allowed for the same reason stated above for claim 12.
Conclusion
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/HARRY H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411