DETAILED ACTION
This office action is responsive to communications filed on April 14, 2026. Claim 1 has been amended. Claims 2-20 have been canceled. Claim 1 is pending in the application.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abdelghaffar et al. (US 2025/0240142) in view of Zhang et al. (US 2021/0266887).
Regarding Claim 1, Abdelghaffar teaches an apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor, and at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (“The device 1305 may be an example of or include the components of a device 1005, a device 1105, or a base station 105 as described herein … The device 1305 may include … a memory 1330, code 1335, a processor 1340” – See [0237]; “The memory 1330 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 1335 including instructions that, when executed by the processor 1340, cause the device 1305 to perform various functions described herein” – See [0240]), cause the apparatus at least to:
select a mapping, for demodulation reference signals for one or more transmissions on a channel, using mapping information defined for transmission ranks higher than four, the mapping information that has having ports assigned for the demodulation reference signals mapped to different codewords and to different code division multiplexing groups (“For example, a UE may transmit control signaling indicating that it is capable of communicating in accordance with new DMRS port mapping configurations, and a base station may indicate (e.g., via radio resource control (RRC) signaling) a DMRS port mapping configuration in response to the control signaling. In such cases, the DMRS port mapping configuration may define mappings between codewords and DMRS ports corresponding to a respective CDM group for each antenna port field value” – See [0047]; “At 520, the UE 505 may receive, from the base station 510, first control signaling that indicates a DMRS port mapping configuration” – See [0164]; “DMRS port mapping configurations for DMRS Type 1 with two codewords may be further illustrated in Table 4” – See [0094]; See also Table 4; The UE selects the mapping configuration received from the base station in step 520. The mapping relates to DMRS (demodulation reference signals) using ranks 5-8 (ranks higher than four), wherein DMRS ports are mapped to codewords 0 and 1 (different codewords) in different CDM (code division multiplexing) groups);
receive signaling indicating a transmission rank for the one or more transmissions, wherein the selected mapping is applicable to a plurality of different transmission ranks greater than four (“At 525, the UE 505 may receive, from the base station 510, second control signaling that indicates an antenna port field value included within the set of antenna port field values associated with the DMRS port mapping configuration” – See [0168]; See also Table 4; The UE receives signaling indicating an antenna port field value for the transmissions, wherein each antenna port field value corresponds to a rank. For example, antenna port field value 0 corresponds to rank 5, antenna port field value corresponds to rank 6, antenna port field value corresponds to rank 7, and so on); and
distribute layers over the code division multiplexing groups, wherein the distributing layers over the code division multiplexing groups comprises performing layer-to-code division multiplexing group mapping, where layers are distributed across different code division multiplexing groups in an ascending or cyclic manner (As shown in Table 4, the different layers/ports are distributed to the CDM group for codeword 0 and the CDM group for codeword 1),
wherein the selected mapping is for demodulation reference signal ports for the channel and has a plurality of possible code division multiplexing groups comprising two or three code division multiplexing groups, and the information maps individual demodulation reference signal ports to corresponding codewords (“CDM group 0, and CDM group 1” – See [0100]; See also Table 4; As shown in Table 4, there are two CDM groups: 0 and 1. The information in Table 4 maps DMRS ports to corresponding codewords. In a first example, ports 0 and 1 are mapped to codeword 0 and ports 2, 3, and 4 are mapped to codeword 1),
wherein the mapping information maps individual demodulation reference signal ports to corresponding codewords, and maps individual demodulation reference signal ports to unique combinations of a code division multiplexing group index, a frequency division-orthogonal cover code index, and a time division-orthogonal cover code index selected from a plurality of such combinations (“DMRS ports within a CDM group are orthogonalized via FD-OCC and TD-OCC, where DMRS ports in different CDM groups are independent of one another. For example, DMRS ports 0, 1, 4, and 5 corresponding to CDM group 0 may be orthogonal to one another via FD-OCC and TD-OCC” – See [0096]; See Tables 4 and 14; The individual DMRS ports are mapped to unique combinations of CDM group index. In a first example, DMRS ports (0, 1) are mapped to CDM group index (0, 0) and DMRS ports (2, 3, 4) are mapped to CDM group index (1, 1, 0). Furthermore, the DMRS ports are mapped to unique combinations of CDM group/frequency division orthogonal cover codes/time division orthogonal cover codes as shown in Table 14), and
wherein for individual ranks, a set of demodulation reference signal ports is split into two subsets corresponding to two codewords, the demodulation reference signal ports in each subset being assigned to at least two different code division multiplexing groups, with the ports either being evenly split between the code division multiplexing groups or one code division multiplexing group being assigned one more port than another (“CDM group 0, and CDM group 1” – See [0100]; See also Table 4; As shown in Table 4, for each of the ranks, the DMRS ports are split into two different CDM groups (i.e., CDM group for Codeword 0 and CDM group for Codeword 1). For mappings with an even number of DMRS ports (e.g., six or eight), the DMRS ports are split evenly between the two CDM groups. In one example with six DMRS ports, DMRS ports 0, 1, and 2 are respectively mapped to CDM group 0, 0, and 1, while DMRS ports 3, 4, and 6 are respectively mapped to CDM group 1, 0, and 1. Thus, three DMRS ports are mapped to CDM group 0 and three DMRS ports are mapped to CDM group 1. For mappings with an odd number of DMRS ports (e.g., five or seven), the DMRS ports are split such that one CDM group is assigned one more DMRS port than the other CDM group. In an example with five DMRS ports, three DMRS ports are assigned to CDM group 0 and two DMRS ports are assigned to CDM group 1),
wherein the mapping associates demodulation reference signal port indices with code division multiplexing group indices, frequency-division orthogonal cover code indices, and time-division orthogonal cover code indices using a frequency-division orthogonal cover code length of four (“The FD-OCC sequence length value may be 4, 6, 8, etc. (e.g., N=4, 6, 8)” – See [0133]; As shown in Table 14, the DMRS ports are associated with CDM group indices, frequency-division orthogonal cover code indices, and time-division orthogonal cover code indices, wherein the frequency-division orthogonal cover code has a length of four).
Although Abdelghaffar implies that the demodulation reference signals are transmitted on the channel (“Techniques described by FIG. 5 are applicable for uplink communication from the UE to the multi-TRP, where each DMRS CDM group is assigned to a specific TRP for uplink data communication” – See [0181]), Abdelghaffar does not explicitly teach transmitting the demodulation reference signals on the channel.
However, Zhang teaches transmitting the demodulation reference signals on the channel (“The signaling may be transmitted by the UE in uplink … Transmitting of signaling on a channel may in particular be based on a general configuration pertaining to the channel, e.g. a PUSCH configuration. Transmitting signaling may comprise transmitting associated reference signaling, e.g. sounding reference signaling and/or in particular demodulation reference signaling like DMRS” – See [0008]; “PUSCH DMRS sequence generation may be considered—DMRS is transmitted together with PUSCH to assist the data decoding at the eNB” – See [0031]; The UE transmits the DMRS on/with the PUSCH/physical uplink shared channel).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abdelghaffar to include transmitting the demodulation reference signals on the channel. Motivation for doing so would be to provide reference signals with the uplink data which are used to assist uplink data decoding at the base station (See Zhang, [0031]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on April 14, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. On page 2 of the remarks, Applicant argues “The cited and applied prior art does not teach or suggest at least the features recited in amended independent claim 1.” Applicant’s arguments fail to comply with 37 CFR 1.111(b) because they amount to a general allegation that the claims define a patentable invention without specifically pointing out how the language of the claims patentably distinguishes them from the references. In response to the amended limitations, the Examiner relies upon the newly-cited Zhang reference and has cited additional passages from Abdelghaffar in addition to the portions of Abdelghaffar that were cited in regard to the previous dependent claims.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Scott M Sciacca whose telephone number is (571)270-1919. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday, 7:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. EST.
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/SCOTT M SCIACCA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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