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 .
This Office action is in response to the application filed on 04/16/2024.
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/08/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is considered by the examiner.
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 (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 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 1-2, 4-6 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by LI et al. (US 2025/0167852 A1).
As to claim 1, LI discloses the invention as claimed, including an apparatus (Fig. 2, 200), comprising:
at least one processor (Fig. 2, processors); and
at least one non-transitory memory (Fig. 2, memory) storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
determine at least one quantization parameter for controlling at least one characteristic of a quantization of at least one channel state information quantity (i.e., L1-RSRP, L1-SINR) (¶0059; ¶0120, “The UE may identify a differential RSRP/SINR measurement range referring to the weakest RSRP/SINR measurement reported in the most recent P/SP CSI report, where the differential RSRP/SINR measurement range may be based at least in part on a standard pre-definition or a network node pre-configuration”; ¶0130-¶0133; ¶0135, “determine the CMR-common quantized L1-RSRP/SINR measurement based at least in part on a quantization metric”; ¶0185, “determining the quantized CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement based at least in part on a quantization metric, wherein the quantization metric is based at least in part on one or more of a standard predefinition, a network node pre-configuration, a dynamic indication from the network node”; ¶0210, “The determination component 1708 may determine the quantized CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement based at least in part on a quantization metric”), wherein the at least one quantization parameter comprises at least one of:
a quantization step size,
a quantization step shift,
a minimum quantization range value,
a maximum quantization range value, a quantization range interval, or
a size of a selected set of quantization levels; indicate, to a user equipment, the at least one quantization parameter (¶0102, “measured by the UE during a specified time period), seven bits may be used to report a corresponding RSRP (in the range of [−140, −44] dBm with a 1 dBm step size). For remaining SSBRI(s) and/or CRI(s), four bits may be used to report a differential RSRP in the range of [0, −30] dB with a 2 dB step size and a reference to the L1-RSRP of the strongest SSBRI and/or CRI”; ¶0135, “one or more quantization metrics may be predefined, such as MMSE applied for a past time domain window length, MMSE applied only for a current reporting instance, and/or one or more choices of quantity of bits, dynamic range, and step size to quantize the CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement”); and
receive, from the user equipment, one or more reports of at least one channel state information quantity based on the at least one quantization parameter indicated by the apparatus to the user equipment (Fig. 7, 706; ¶0110, “the UE may receive, from the network node, a CSI report configuration. The UE may transmit, to the network node and based at least in part on the CSI report configuration, a CSI report…”; ¶0115, “As shown by reference number 706, the UE may transmit, to the network node, the AP CSI report based at least in part on the request. The AP CSI report may indicate L1-RSRP/SINR measurements of K CMRs”; ¶0116, “The UE may be further configured with the AP CSI report associated with the P/SP CSI report, whose report quantity includes at least L1-RSRP/SINR measurements of K CMRs, which may be different from the CMR IDs in a most recently reported P/SP CSI report. The UE may be dynamically triggered by the network node to report the AP CSI report”; ¶0132, “the UE may perform a CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR quantization and reporting, to the network node, for multiple CMRs. The UE may be configured, by the network node, with the CSI report with a report quantity that includes explicit L1-RSRP/SINR measurements with respect to K CMRs out of N total CMRs that are configured by the CSI resource setting associated with the CSI report”; ¶0135, “The UE may identify the quantization metric based at least in part on a triggered AP CSI and the quantization scheme associated with the AP CSI triggering configuration…the CSI report may indicate an additional report quantity which allows the UE to report the quantization metric that is used for the CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement reported in the same CSI report”).
As to claim 2, LI discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the at least one quantization parameter is determined based on prior knowledge, or the at least one quantization parameter is determined based, at least partially, on one or more previously received reports (¶0135, “The quantization metric may be based at least in part on a standard predefinition, a network node pre-configuration or a network node dynamic indication, and/or a UE indication. For the standard predefinition, one or more quantization metrics may be predefined, such as MMSE applied for a past time domain window length, MMSE applied only for a current reporting instance, and/or one or more choices of quantity of bits, dynamic range, and step size to quantize the CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement”).
As to claim 4, LI discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one quantization parameter is indicated via a channel state information report configuration (¶0130, “The CSI report configuration may indicate one or more parameters that configure the UE to transmit a CSI report. The one or more parameters may be related to transmitting L1-RSRP/SINR measurements associated with CMRs, which may be indicated in the CSI report”; ¶0135, “identify the quantization metric based at least in part on a triggered AP CSI and the quantization scheme associated with the AP CSI triggering configuration”).
As to claims 5 and 14, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth in claim 1 above. In addition, LI discloses an apparatus, comprising:
receive, from a network entity, at least one quantization parameter for controlling at least one characteristic of a quantization of at least one channel state information quantity (¶0130, “the UE may receive, from the network node, a CSI report configuration. The CSI report configuration may indicate one or more parameters that configure the UE to transmit a CSI report. The one or more parameters may be related to transmitting L1-RSRP/SINR measurements associated with CMRs, which may be indicated in the CSI report”; ¶0135, “The quantization metric may be based at least in part on a standard predefinition, a network node pre-configuration or a network node dynamic indication, and/or a UE indication”), wherein the at least one quantization parameter comprises at least one of:
a quantization step size,
a quantization step shift,
a minimum quantization range value,
a maximum quantization range value,
a quantization range interval, or
a size of a selected set of quantization levels (¶0102, “measured by the UE during a specified time period), seven bits may be used to report a corresponding RSRP (in the range of [−140, −44] dBm with a 1 dBm step size). For remaining SSBRI(s) and/or CRI(s), four bits may be used to report a differential RSRP in the range of [0, −30] dB with a 2 dB step size and a reference to the L1-RSRP of the strongest SSBRI and/or CRI”; ¶0135, “one or more quantization metrics may be predefined, such as MMSE applied for a past time domain window length, MMSE applied only for a current reporting instance, and/or one or more choices of quantity of bits, dynamic range, and step size to quantize the CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement”);
determine at least one quantized channel state information quantity based, at least partially, on the at least one quantization parameter (¶0120, “The UE may identify a differential RSRP/SINR measurement range referring to the weakest RSRP/SINR measurement reported in the most recent P/SP CSI report, where the differential RSRP/SINR measurement range may be based at least in part on a standard pre-definition or a network node pre-configuration”; ¶0132-¶0133; ¶0135, “determine the CMR-common quantized L1-RSRP/SINR measurement based at least in part on a quantization metric”; ¶0185, “determining the quantized CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement based at least in part on a quantization metric, wherein the quantization metric is based at least in part on one or more of a standard predefinition, a network node pre-configuration, a dynamic indication from the network node”; ¶0210, “The determination component 1708 may determine the quantized CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement based at least in part on a quantization metric”); and
transmit, to the network entity, one or more reports of the at least one quantized channel state information quantity (Fig. 7, 706; ¶0110, “the UE may receive, from the network node, a CSI report configuration. The UE may transmit, to the network node and based at least in part on the CSI report configuration, a CSI report…”; ¶0115, “As shown by reference number 706, the UE may transmit, to the network node, the AP CSI report based at least in part on the request. The AP CSI report may indicate L1-RSRP/SINR measurements of K CMRs”; ¶0116, “The UE may be further configured with the AP CSI report associated with the P/SP CSI report, whose report quantity includes at least L1-RSRP/SINR measurements of K CMRs, which may be different from the CMR IDs in a most recently reported P/SP CSI report. The UE may be dynamically triggered by the network node to report the AP CSI report”; ¶0132, “the UE may perform a CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR quantization and reporting, to the network node, for multiple CMRs. The UE may be configured, by the network node, with the CSI report with a report quantity that includes explicit L1-RSRP/SINR measurements with respect to K CMRs out of N total CMRs that are configured by the CSI resource setting associated with the CSI report”; ¶0135, “The UE may identify the quantization metric based at least in part on a triggered AP CSI and the quantization scheme associated with the AP CSI triggering configuration…the CSI report may indicate an additional report quantity which allows the UE to report the quantization metric that is used for the CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement reported in the same CSI report”).
As to claim 6, LI discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one quantization parameter is received via a channel state information report configuration (¶0130, “the UE may receive, from the network node, a CSI report configuration. The CSI report configuration may indicate one or more parameters that configure the UE to transmit a CSI report. The one or more parameters may be related to transmitting L1-RSRP/SINR measurements associated with CMRs, which may be indicated in the CSI report”; ¶0135, “The quantization metric may be based at least in part on a standard predefinition, a network node pre-configuration or a network node dynamic indication, and/or a UE indication”).
As to claim 12, LI discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the one or more reports comprise at least one of: an average value of the at least one channel state information quantity, a minimum value of a range for the at least one channel state information quantity, or a maximum value of a range for the at least one channel state information quantity (¶0102, “the reporting may include physical layer (L1)-RSRP reporting. In some cases, for a strongest SSBRI (e.g., an SSBRI corresponding to a signal strength and/or quality that is greater than the signal strength and/or quality of any other SSBRI that is measured by the UE during a specified time period), seven bits may be used to report a corresponding RSRP (in the range of [−140, −44] dBm with a 1 dBm step size)”).
As to claim 13, LI discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one memory stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: transmit, to the network entity, a request for a channel state information report configuration (Figs. 7-8; ¶0067, “a UE (e.g., UE 120) includes means for receiving, from a network node, a CSI report configuration; and/or means for transmitting, to the network node and based at least in part on the CSI report configuration, a CSI report that indicates: an explicit L1-RSRP/SINR measurement for each of K CMRs, wherein the K CMRs are configured by a CSI resource setting associated with the CSI report; and/or a quantized CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement associated with multiple K1 CMRs, wherein the K1 CMRs are different than the K CMRs, wherein a time domain beam prediction is based at least in part on the CSI report”; ¶0130, “As shown by reference number 802, the UE may receive, from the network node, a CSI report configuration. The CSI report configuration may indicate one or more parameters that configure the UE to transmit a CSI report”).
As to claim 15, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth in claim 6 above.
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.
Claims 3, 10-11 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 2025/0167852 A1), in view of Karjalainen et al. (US 2020/0336194 A1).
As to claims 3 and 10-11, LI does not specifically disclose transmit, to the user equipment, a reference offset parameter associated with the selected set of quantization levels, wherein the reference offset parameter is for controlling the at least one characteristic of the quantization of the at least one channel state information quantity; transmit, to the network entity, a recommended value for the at least one quantization parameter or for at least one reference offset parameter.
However, Karjalainen discloses transmit, to the user equipment, a reference offset parameter associated with the selected set of quantization levels, wherein the reference offset parameter is for controlling the at least one characteristic of the quantization of the at least one channel state information quantity; and transmit, to the network entity, a recommended value for the at least one quantization parameter or for at least one reference offset parameter (¶0062, “determining a quantized power offset for each RSRP value with respect to the reference power/RSRP value. For example, two bits may be used to indicate a power offset of four possible power offsets (0, 1, 2 and 3), with respect to the reference power/RSRP value”; ¶0063-¶0067; ¶0070, “element 1 includes a reference (e.g., maximum) RSRP of −54 dBm, and then the power offset values of 3, 0, 1, 2, 3, which correspond (based on element 2) to: SSB-20, CRI-7, CRI-9, CRI-5, CRI-2”; ¶0076, “a 2-bit power offset value (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3) is assigned to each of the RSRP values of the SSB and CSI-RS resources for resource pair 1, to indicate the measured power/RSRP of each resource with respect to a reference RSRP, for example. For joint beam reporting, the network has configured the number of quantization bits, n=2, for this example. As a result of this, the following quantization RSRP levels are obtained: −54, −62.66, −71.33 and −80 dBm”; ¶0091, “The amount of quantization levels is defined as: Q=2n where n is the number of bits for quantization levels leading to Q−1 different power steps”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LI to include transmit, to the user equipment, a reference offset parameter associated with the selected set of quantization levels, wherein the reference offset parameter is for controlling the at least one characteristic of the quantization of the at least one channel state information quantity; transmit, to the network entity, a recommended value for the at least one quantization parameter or for at least one reference offset parameter, as taught by Karjalainen because it would optimize the quantization scale for current channel conditions (Karjalainen; ¶0062-¶0067; ¶0076; ¶0091).
As to claims 19-20, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth in claims 10-11 above, respectively.
Claims 7-9 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 2025/0167852 A1), in view of Wang et al. (US 2023/0006793 A1).
As to claims 7, 9, 16 and 18, LI does not specifically disclose determine a time domain correlation between two or more channel state information reference signals; quantize an amplitude of at least one time correlation function coefficient obtained from the two or more channel state information reference signals using the determined set of quantization levels.
However, Wang discloses determine a time domain correlation between two or more channel state information reference signals; and quantize an amplitude of at least one time correlation function coefficient obtained from the two or more channel state information reference signals using the determined set of quantization levels (Fig. 5; Figs. 8-9; ¶0007, “determines a first CSI reference slot for measurement and a second CSI reference slot for computation from the CSI-RS configuration information. The second CSI reference slot occurs after the first CSI reference slot in time domain. The UE measures CSI reference signals (CSI-RS) of a downlink channel that is received before the first CSI reference slot for measurements”; ¶0027, “UE is configured to compute CSI based on one single occasion or multiple occasions of CSI-RS over configured CSI reference resource, e.g., a group of downlink frequency domain and time domain resource blocks…In the time domain, the CSI reference resource is defined by a single downlink slot or special subframe to which the derived CQI value relates”; ¶0032; ¶0033, “UE is configured to compute CSI based on multiple occasions of CSI-RS measured no later than SLOT (n-nCSI_ref), the UE can consider time domain correlation of the multiple occasions of CSI-RS to predict the CSI in SLOT (n+K). In addition, the UE is configured with a CSI computation period (e.g., across multiple slots) with a whole period and multiple non-overlapping subperiods, which can exploit time-domain correlation”; ¶0034; ¶0040-¶0041; ¶0088, “select L-strongest resources has following options for selecting a strongest resource pair out of L pairs: There may be multiple (e.g., 3) ways to select the best/strongest resource pair to report: 1) SSB-only: UE selects L-strongest (L≤K) resource pairs in terms of measured SSB L1-RSRP values and their corresponding resource indicators/indices”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of LI to include determine a time domain correlation between two or more channel state information reference signals; quantize an amplitude of at least one time correlation function coefficient obtained from the two or more channel state information reference signals using the determined set of quantization levels, as taught by Wang because it would reduce feedback overhead and improve estimation accuracy (Wang; ¶0033-¶0034).
As to claims 8 and 17, LI discloses wherein determining the at least one quantized channel state information quantity further comprises the at least one memory stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: determine a set of quantization levels based, at least partially, on at least one of the at least one quantization parameter (¶0102, “measured by the UE during a specified time period), seven bits may be used to report a corresponding RSRP (in the range of [−140, −44] dBm with a 1 dBm step size). For remaining SSBRI(s) and/or CRI(s), four bits may be used to report a differential RSRP in the range of [0, −30] dB with a 2 dB step size and a reference to the L1-RSRP of the strongest SSBRI and/or CRI”; ¶0135, “one or more quantization metrics may be predefined, such as MMSE applied for a past time domain window length, MMSE applied only for a current reporting instance, and/or one or more choices of quantity of bits, dynamic range, and step size to quantize the CMR-common L1-RSRP/SINR measurement”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
LI et al. (US 2025/0167854), Zheng et al. (US 2011/0165846), LONG et al. (US 2025/0211298) disclose method and system for using non-uniform channel quantization for a feedback-based communication system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUNGWON CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3960. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5:30PM.
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/JUNGWON CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454 June 5, 2026
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