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
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 21 and 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ly et al. (US 2023/0370137 A1) and Elshafie et al. (US 2024/0322966 A1).
Regarding claims 21 and 27, Ly discloses:
a user equipment (UE) (fig.4 element 120) in a communication system (fig.4 depicts a wireless communications system, wherein a base station 110 and a base station 120 communicate over a wireless communications medium), the UE comprising:
a transceiver (fig.4 element 466); and
a processor (fig.4 element 480) coupled with the transceiver and configured perform:
a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (fig.1 depicts a user equipment element 120) in a communication system (fig.1 depicts a wireless communications system), the method comprising:
receiving, via higher layer signaling a first configuration of a channel state information (CSI) report (par.[0059] describes a CSI Report Configuration, which recites, in part, “For example, a network entity may configure a set of CSI-RS resources using a CSI reporting setting (e.g., a CSI report configuration), and the UE 120 may perform a channel measurement, an interference measurement, or the like based on the configured set of CSI-RS resources. In some aspects, the CSI-RS resources may include one or more of a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource for channel measurement………….. The CSI reporting setting may be RRC configured per bandwidth part (BWP),”) and a second configuration of a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resource set (par.[0059] which recites, in part, “and may configure one or more resource sets, each resource set including K.sub.S CSI-RS resources with the same number of CSI-RS ports.”),
wherein the first configuration includes a plurality of configurations for a plurality of subsets of CSI-RS antenna ports (par.[0059] describes the reporting setting comprising a plurality of resource sets, which correspond to CSI-RS ports, which is interpreted as CSI-RS antenna ports. Par.[0092] which recites, in part, “For example, if the configuration of the CSI report (e.g., a CSI reporting setting) includes M codebook configurations (e.g., M antenna port configurations) with K CSI-RS resources for performing CSI measurements (which, as described, may be a subset of the CSI-RS resources associated with the base antenna configuration),”);
determining, based on the first configuration and the second configuration, the CSI report for the plurality of configurations (par.[0059] which describes the RRC signaling comprising the Reporting configuration, and the reporting configuration comprising the one or more resource sets which must be used for measurement and are reported to the network); and
While the disclosure of Ly substantially discloses the claimed subject matter it does not disclose:
transmitting the CSI report for the plurality of configurations on a single physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Elshafie teaches:
transmitting the CSI report for the plurality of configurations on a single physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (par.[0032] which recites, in part, “the UE may be scheduled to report multiple CSI reports, where the UE may be configured to measure CSI-RS on aperiodic, periodic or semi-persistent resources” and par.[0079] which recites, in part, “In this regard, the base station may configure the UE, via a CSI report configuration, with a larger multi-CSI PUCCH resource, where several CSI reports can be multiplexed in the same PUCCH resource”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Ly with the disclosure of Elshafie. The motivation/suggestion would have been to reduce resource overhead by multiplexing multiple reports on a same physical uplink resource when a collision would have occurred.
Claim(s) 21-22, 27-28, 33-34, and 37-38, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704 A1) and Elshafie et al. (US 2024/0322966 A1).
Regarding claim 21 and 27, Hao discloses:
a user equipment (UE) (fig.4 element 120) in a communication system (fig.4 depicts a wireless communications system, wherein a base station 110 and a base station 120 communicate over a wireless communications medium), the UE comprising:
a transceiver (fig.4 element 466); and
a processor (fig.4 element 480) coupled with the transceiver and configured perform:
a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (fig.1 depicts a user equipment element 120) in a communication system (fig.1 depicts a wireless communications system), the method comprising:
receiving, via higher layer signaling (par.[0074] describes the higher-layer signaling) a first configuration of a channel state information (CSI) report (par.[0074] which describes the CSI reporting configuration, or otherwise known as a reporting “setting”) and a second configuration of a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resource set (par.[0074] which recites, in part, “ The CSI report configurations may be associated with CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both. The CSI report configuration configures CSI-RS resources (sometimes referred to as the ‘CSI-RS resource setting’) for measurement.”, par.[0089] explicitly disclose the resource set),
wherein the first configuration includes a plurality of configurations for a plurality of subsets of CSI-RS antenna ports (par.[0074] which recites, in part, “The network (e.g., a base station (BS), may configure UEs for CSI reporting. For example, the BS configures the UE with a CSI report configuration (sometimes referred to as a ‘CSI report setting’) or with multiple CSI report configurations………The CSI-RS resources provide the UE with the configuration of CSI-RS ports, or CSI-RS port groups, mapped to time and frequency resources (e.g., resource elements (REs)).” The CSI-RS ports being CSI-RS Antenna Ports being specifically utilized for reception or transmission of CSI-RS);
determining, based on the first configuration and the second configuration, the CSI report for the plurality of configurations (par.[0074] which describes the reporting configurations being associated with CSI-RS ports or port groups, wherein the ports or port groups correspond to specific resources); and
While the disclosure of Hao substantially discloses the claimed subject matter it does not disclose:
transmitting the CSI report for the plurality of configurations on a single physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Elshafie teaches:
transmitting the CSI report for the plurality of configurations on a single physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (par.[0032] which recites, in part, “the UE may be scheduled to report multiple CSI reports, where the UE may be configured to measure CSI-RS on aperiodic, periodic or semi-persistent resources” and par.[0079] which recites, in part, “In this regard, the base station may configure the UE, via a CSI report configuration, with a larger multi-CSI PUCCH resource, where several CSI reports can be multiplexed in the same PUCCH resource”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Hao with the disclosure of Elshafie. The motivation/suggestion would have been to reduce resource overhead by multiplexing multiple reports on a same physical uplink resource when a collision would have occurred.
Regarding claims 22, 28, 34, and 38, Hao discloses:
wherein CSI-RS resources of the CSI-RS resource set correspond to each of the plurality of configurations (par.[0074] which recites, in part, “The CSI report configurations may be associated with CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both. The CSI report configuration configures CSI-RS resources (sometimes referred to as the ‘CSI-RS resource setting’) for measurement. The CSI-RS resources provide the UE with the configuration of CSI-RS ports, or CSI-RS port groups, mapped to time and frequency resources (e.g., resource elements (REs)).”).
Regarding claim 33 and 37, Hao discloses:
a base station (fig.4 element 110) in a communication system (fig.4 depicts a wireless communications system, wherein a base station 110 and a base station 120 communicate over a wireless communications medium), the UE comprising:
a transceiver (fig.4 element 430); and
a processor (fig.4 element 440 coupled with the transceiver and configured to perform:
a method performed by the base station (BS) (fig.1 depicts a user equipment element 110) in a communication system (fig.1 depicts a wireless communications system), the method comprising:
transmitting, via higher layer signaling (par.[0074] describes the higher-layer signaling) a first configuration of a channel state information (CSI) report (par.[0074] which describes the CSI reporting configuration, or otherwise known as a reporting “setting”) and a second configuration of a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resource set (par.[0074] which recites, in part, “ The CSI report configurations may be associated with CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement (CM), interference measurement (IM), or both. The CSI report configuration configures CSI-RS resources (sometimes referred to as the ‘CSI-RS resource setting’) for measurement.”, par.[0089] explicitly disclose the resource set),
wherein the first configuration includes a plurality of configurations for a plurality of subsets of CSI-RS antenna ports (par.[0074] which recites, in part, “The network (e.g., a base station (BS), may configure UEs for CSI reporting. For example, the BS configures the UE with a CSI report configuration (sometimes referred to as a ‘CSI report setting’) or with multiple CSI report configurations………The CSI-RS resources provide the UE with the configuration of CSI-RS ports, or CSI-RS port groups, mapped to time and frequency resources (e.g., resource elements (REs)).” The CSI-RS ports being CSI-RS Antenna Ports being specifically utilized for reception or transmission of CSI-RS);
determining, based on the first configuration and the second configuration, the CSI report for the plurality of configurations (par.[0074] which describes the reporting configurations being associated with CSI-RS ports or port groups, wherein the ports or port groups correspond to specific resources); and
While the disclosure of Hao substantially discloses the claimed subject matter it does not disclose:
receiving the CSI report for the plurality of configurations on a single physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Elshafie teaches:
receiving the CSI report for the plurality of configurations on a single physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) (par.[0032] which recites, in part, “the UE may be scheduled to report multiple CSI reports, where the UE may be configured to measure CSI-RS on aperiodic, periodic or semi-persistent resources” and par.[0079] which recites, in part, “In this regard, the base station may configure the UE, via a CSI report configuration, with a larger multi-CSI PUCCH resource, where several CSI reports can be multiplexed in the same PUCCH resource”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Hao with the disclosure of Elshafie. The motivation/suggestion would have been to reduce resource overhead by multiplexing multiple reports on a same physical uplink resource when a collision would have occurred.
Claim(s) 24, 30, 36, and 40, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704 A1) and Elshafie et al. (US 2024/0322966 A1) as applied to claim(s) 21, 27, 33, and 37, in view of Nimbalker et al. (WO 2024/172749 A1).
Regarding claims 24, 30, 36, and 40, the disclosure of Hao and Elshafie teaches the transmission of a reporting configuration comprising a plurality of resource sets to the mobile device as discussed above, but may not disclose:
wherein the first configuration includes power offset configurations for the CSI report associated with the configurations.
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Nimbalker teaches:
wherein the first configuration includes power offset configurations for the CSI report associated with the configurations (par.[0028] which recites, in part, “The CSI configuration associates a CSI trigger state with one or more power offset values and a set of one or more NZP-CSI-RS resources.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings Hao and Elshafie with the disclosure of Nimbalker. The motivation/suggestion would have been to facilitate configuring a UE to report CSI assuming the power offset for any of the aperiodic, semi-persistent, or periodic report.
Claim(s) 26 and 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (US 2021/0320704 A1) and Elshafie et al. (US 2024/0322966 A1) as applied to claim(s) 21, 27, 33, and 37, in view of Ibrahim et al. (US 2025/0293741 A1), which claims priority to provisional application dated 04/26/2022.
Regarding claims 26 and 32, the disclosure of Hao and Elshafie discloses the independent claims, but may not disclose:
wherein a number of subsets is associated with a capability of the UE for a CSI processing unit (CPU) associated with the CSI report.
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Ibrahim teaches:
wherein a number of subsets is associated with capability of the UE for a CSI processing unit (CPU) associated with the CSI report (par.[0097] which recites, in part, “A CSI processing unit (CPU) may be referred to as a minimum CSI processing unit and a WTRU (e.g., UE) may support one or more CPUs (e.g., N CPUs). A WTRU (e.g., UE) with N CPUs may estimate N CSI feedback calculations in parallel, wherein N may be a WTRU (e.g., UE) capability.”. That is, the UE is configured with CSI CPUs which provide for parallel CSI processing, which is considered a capability of the UE, but also a constraint on the amount of CSI can be processed., par.[0119,0129-0130]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Hao and Elshaffie with the disclosure of Ibrahim. The motivation/suggestion would have been to determine the amount of parallel CSI can be processed at the UE.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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JAMAAL HENSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2411
/JAMAAL HENSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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