DETAILED ACTION
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claims 12 and 26 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Acronyms should be expanded at least once when first used in the claim set.
Claims 12 and 26 use acronym BWP without expanding it at least once in the claim set.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 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.
Claims 1-4, 12, 14, 19-21, 26, 29 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jiang et al. (US-PGPUB 2024/0098534).
Regarding claim 1, Jiang teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories [Fig. 7, 709]; one or more transceivers [Fig. 7, 701]; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources, wherein a waveform of the one or more SRS resources is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) compatible frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) waveform [Para 198-207, SRS resource is transmitted using OFDM FMCW waveform].
Regarding claim 2, Jiang teaches a configuration of the one or more SRS resources is based on one or more capabilities of the UE [Para 198-207, SRS resource configuration is determined based on other signal and UE parameters].
Regarding claims 3 and 20, Jiang teaches one or more capabilities of the UE indicate: whether the UE supports OFDM compatible FMCW waveforms, whether the UE supports multiplexing between FMCW transmissions and OFDM transmissions, whether the UE supports OFDM compatible FMCW transmission with different comb offsets in different symbols, whether the UE supports gap symbols between SRS symbols, or any combination thereof [Para 198-213, capability is determined based on type of supported waveform, subcarrier spacing etc.]
Regarding claims 4 and 21, Jiang teaches the one or more capabilities indicate that the UE supports OFDM compatible FMCW waveforms, and the one or more capabilities further indicate one or more types of OFDM compatible FMCW waveforms the UE supports [Para 198-207, type of OFDM FMCW waveform supported is determined].
Regarding claims 12 and 26, Jiang teaches the one or more SRS resources are transmitted: over a larger BWP than a baseband BWP of the UE, or during one or more measurement gaps for SRS transmission [Para 198-207, SRS transmission is done during measurement gaps].
Regarding claim 14, Jiang teaches the one or more SRS resources comprise at least two SRS resources, the at least two SRS resources occupy the same OFDM resources, and the at least two SRS resources are Doppler-division multiplexed on the same OFDM resources [Para 208-213].
Regarding claim 19, Jiang teaches a network entity, comprising: one or more memories [Fig. 8, 805]; one or more transceivers [Fig. 8, 801]; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to a user equipment (UE), a request for capabilities of the UE related to transmission of sounding reference signal (SRS) resources by the UE [Para 197-207, sends configuration information for UE’s capability information]; and receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the UE, one or more capabilities of the UE in response to the request, wherein the one or more capabilities of the UE indicate whether the UE supports an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) compatible frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) waveform for the transmission of SRS resources [Para 198-207, SRS resource is transmitted using OFDM FMCW waveform].
Regarding claim 29, Jiang teaches a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: transmitting one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources, wherein a waveform of the one or more SRS resources is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) compatible frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) waveform [Para 198-207, SRS resource is transmitted using OFDM FMCW waveform].
Regarding claim 30, Jiang teaches a method of communication performed by a network entity, comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a request for capabilities of the UE related to transmission of sounding reference signal (SRS) resources by the UE [Para 197-207, sends configuration information for UE’s capability information]; and receiving from the UE, one or more capabilities of the UE in response to the request, wherein the one or more capabilities of the UE indicate whether the UE supports an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) compatible frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) waveform for the transmission of SRS resources [Para 198-207, SRS resource is transmitted using OFDM FMCW waveform].
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 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang et al. (US-PGPUB 2024/0098534) in view of Li et al. (US-PGPUB 2024/0310508).
Regarding claim 11, Jiang teaches a UE as discussed in rejection of claim 2.
However, Jiang does not teach receiving, via the one or more transceivers, from a network entity, a request for the one or more capabilities; and transmitting, via the one or more transceivers, to the network entity, the one or more capabilities of the UE in response to the request.
Li teaches receiving, via the one or more transceivers, from a network entity, a request for the one or more capabilities; and transmitting, via the one or more transceivers, to the network entity, the one or more capabilities of the UE in response to the request [Para 367-380].
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention communicate capability information so that appropriate functionality can be provided based on capability information.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-10, 13, 15-18, 22-25, 27 and 28 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Manolakos et al. (USPN 11,121,739) teaches receiving a sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration that indicates an allocation of less than all subcarriers of a sounding bandwidth to SRS per orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol in a respective frequency hop for frequency hop from a network entity. A first multiple OFDM symbols are transmitted with SRS across all subcarriers of a first sounding bandwidth associated with the first frequency hop in a first frequency hop in accordance with the SRS configuration.
Manolakos et al. (USPN 10,454,644) teaches receiving information of sounding reference signal (SRS) patterns by a user equipment (UE). Rate matching parameters are generated by the UE based on the information. An uplink signal is transmitted by the UE based on the generated rate matching parameters, where the uplink signal comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal.
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/Chandrahas B Patel/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464