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 .
DETAILED ACTION
a. Claims 1-30 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, are being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
b. This is a first action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 02/06/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/06/2024 and 05/28/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 of this title, 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.
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 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.
Claims 1-3, 6-15, 18-26, 28-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sony NPL “Further enhancement on multi-beam operation”, 3GPP R1-2106789, 2021-08-06 (hereinafter “Sony”), and in view of Bai et al. US Pub 2022/0361160 (hereinafter “Bai”).
Regarding claim 1
Sony discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (“Rel-17 TCI state as UE-dedicated reception” section 2.2) comprising:
obtain a first control signal (“TCI state update signaling/configuration mechanism(s) are used, e.g. with Rel-17 MAC-CE/DCI-based beam indication for Rel-17 joint/separate TCI” section 2.2) indicating a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (“unified TCI state” section 2.2), wherein the unified TCI state is associated with downlink data channel reception and downlink control channel reception (“Observation 2: From unified TCI state configuration aspects, CSI-RS and UE-dedicated PDCCH and PDSCH can share the same pool of unified TCI states.” Section 2.2); and
obtain a downlink reference signal (e.g. CSI-RS, DMRS) in accordance with the unified TCI state (“Proposal 3: From dynamic signaling perspective, support CSI-RS to share the same indicated TCI state(s) of Rel.17 as UE-dedicated PDCCH and PDSCH.” Section 2.2), and associated with satisfaction of a condition (multiple specific implementations of the term “condition” such as:
“o CSI-RS resources for CSI
o Some CSI-RS resources for BM, if so, which ones (e.g. aperiodic, repetition ‘ON’)
o CSI-RS for tracking
o DMRS(s) associated with non-UE-dedicated reception on PDSCH and all/subset of CORESETs”” section 2.2).
Sony does not specifically teach a user equipment (UE) comprising: a first interface configured to: obtain a first control signal indicating a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state.
In an analogous art, Bai discloses a user equipment (UE) (“The device 505 may be an example of aspects of a UE 115” in Fig. 5; [0142]) comprising:
a first interface (i.e. “communications manager 520” in Fig. 5; [0142]) configured to:
obtain a first control signal (“At 405, base station 105-e may transmit a TCI state indication to UE 115-e including an updated TCI state (e.g., a common TCI state, joint TCI state, unified TCI state). The TCI state indication may include an indication for UE 115-e to update a TCI state associated with a communications channel (e.g., a beam) between UE 115-e and base station 105-e. Base station 105-e may transmit the TCI state indication as (or within) a DCI message.” [0131]; Fig. 4) indicating a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (“the base station may transmit a first downlink control information (DCI) message including an indication of a TCI state (e.g., a unified TCI state, a common TCI state) which may configure the UE to use one or more common beams for communicating over uplink channels (e.g., physical uplink control channels (PUCCHs), physical uplink shared channels (PUSCHs)), uplink reference signals (e.g., sounding reference signals (SRSs)), downlink channels (e.g., physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs), physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs)), downlink reference signals (e.g., channel state information (CSI) reference signals (RSs)), or a combination thereof.” [0054]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Sony’s method for determining target reference signal for unified TCI state, to include Bai’s method for managing a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, in order to enable beam management procedure (Bai [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Bai’s method for managing a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state into Sony’s method for determining target reference signal for unified TCI state since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is further configured to:
Sony further discloses obtain a second control signal (“DCI-based beam indication” section 2.2 ) indicating a repetition status (i.e. “repetiton ON”, “repetition OFF”) of the downlink reference signal, wherein the repetition status satisfies the condition (“For CSI-RS for BM with repetition OFF, multiple DL Tx beams are to be measured by UE to select best K (<=4) beams.” and furthermore “NW may chance the beams of TRS, CSI-RS for CSI or even CSI-RS for BM with repetition ON, and CORESET(s) and PDSCH via single DCI.” Section 2.2).
Regarding claim 3
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 2,
Sony further discloses wherein the repetition status satisfies the condition by the repetition status indicating a lack of repetition for the downlink reference signal (“For CSI-RS for BM with repetition OFF, multiple DL Tx beams are to be measured by UE to select best K (<=4) beams. For this use case, it seems the indication of M (only M = 1 supported) beams is not efficient.” Section 2.2).
Regarding claim 6
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is further configured to:
Sony further discloses obtain a second control signal (“DCI-based beam indication” section 2.2 ) indicating a type of the downlink reference signal, wherein the condition is satisfied based at least in part on the type of the downlink reference signal (“o CSI-RS resources for CSI
o Some CSI-RS resources for BM, if so, which ones (e.g. aperiodic, repetition ‘ON’)
o CSI-RS for tracking
o DMRS(s) associated with non-UE-dedicated reception on PDSCH and all/subset of CORESETs”” section 2.2).
Regarding claim 7
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 6,
Bai further discloses wherein the type of the downlink reference signal satisfies the condition by the type being a cell-specific reference signal (“The base station 105 may transmit a reference signal (e.g., a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS)), which may be precoded or unprecoded.” [0086]).
Regarding claim 8
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 6,
Sony further discloses wherein the type of the downlink reference signal satisfies the condition by the type being a periodic or semi-persistent reference signal that is for channel state information acquisition (“we find that the TCI state ID configured for periodic and aperiodic CSI-RS or activated for semi-persistent CSI-RS is also from the same pool of TCI states per DL BWP” section 2.2).
Regarding claim 9
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Bai further discloses wherein the condition is satisfied based at least in part on whether the downlink reference signal is associated with a configured TCI state (“the UE 115 may receive an indication, be configured with, or otherwise determine which types of downlink and/or uplink communications (e.g., PDSCH, PDCCH, PUSCH, PUCCH, CSI-RS, SRS, DMRS) the UE 115 may perform over a beam 215 associated with an indicated common TCI state. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 105 may transmit the TCI state indication to the UE 115 via UE-specific resources. Specifically, in some cases, the base station 105 may transmit the indication via a layer 1 (L1) unicast message (e.g., a DCI message) to indicate an updated (or active) common TCI state.” [0093]).
Regarding claim 10
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 9,
Sony further discloses wherein the downlink reference signal lacking an association with the configured TCI state satisfies the condition (“On Rel.17 unified TCI framework, for any DL RS that does not share the same indicated Rel-17 TCI state(s) as UE-dedicated reception on PDSCH and for UE-dedicated reception on all or subset of CORESETs in a CC, but can be configured as a target DL RS of a Rel-17 DL TCI (hence the Rel-17 DL TCI state pool), discuss and down-select by RAN1#106-e (August 2021) between the following two alternatives:
• Alt1. Rel-15/16 TCI state update signaling/configuration mechanism(s) are reused to update/configure the Rel-17 TCI state
• Alt2. Rel-17 TCI state update signaling/configuration mechanism(s) are used, e.g. with Rel-17 MAC-CE/DCI-based beam indication for Rel-17 joint/separate TCI” section 2.2).
Regarding claim 11
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is further configured to:
Sony further discloses obtain an indication of timing resources (“Whether joint TCI may include UL specific parameter(s) such as UL PC/timing parameters, PL RS, panel-related indication, etc. and if it is included, it is used only for UL transmission of the DL and UL transmissions to which the joint TCI is applied” section 2.3) for at least one of a downlink data channel or a downlink control channel associated with the unified TCI state (“For common TCI state ID update and activation to provide common QCL information at least for UE-dedicated PDCCH/PDSCH and/or common UL TX spatial filter(s) at least for UE-dedicated PUSCH/PUCCH across a set of [configured] CCs/BWPs” section 2.4), wherein the condition is satisfied based at least in part on whether the downlink reference signal at least partially overlaps the timing resources (“ Alt1. Utilize the joint TCI to include references for both DL and UL beams
Alt2. Utilize two separate TCI states, one for DL and one for UL. The TCI state for the DL is the same as agreed in 1a. The TCI state for the UL can be newly introduced.
• Alt 2-1: The UL TCI state is taken from the same pool of TCI states as the DL TCI state
• Alt 2-2: The UL TCI state is taken from another pool of TCI states than the DL TCI state
Note: The resulting beam indication directly refers to the associated source RS(s)” section 2.3).
Regarding claim 12
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 11,
Sony further discloses wherein the downlink reference signal at least partially overlapping in time (“Whether joint TCI may include UL specific parameter(s) such as UL PC/timing parameters, PL RS, panel-related indication, etc. and if it is included, it is used only for UL transmission of the DL and UL transmissions to which the joint TCI is applied” section 2.3) with at least one of the downlink data channel or the downlink control channel satisfies the condition (“For common TCI state ID update and activation to provide common QCL information at least for UE-dedicated PDCCH/PDSCH and/or common UL TX spatial filter(s) at least for UE-dedicated PUSCH/PUCCH across a set of [configured] CCs/BWPs” section 2.4).
Regarding claim 13
Sony discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a network entity (i.e. “NW” Observation 2, section 2.2), comprising:
Bai discloses a first interface (“The communications manager 920 may support wireless communications at a base station” [0190]; Fig. 9) configured to:
output, to a user equipment (UE), a first control signal indicating a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the unified TCI state is associated with downlink data channel transmission and downlink control channel transmission; and
output, to the UE, a downlink reference signal in accordance with the unified TCI state, and associated with satisfaction of a condition (as afore-mentioned in claim 1 discussion).
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 13 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 1. Therefore apparatus claim 13 corresponds to apparatus claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 14
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first interface is further configured to: output a second control signal indicating a repetition status of the downlink reference signal, wherein the repetition status satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 14 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 2. Therefore apparatus claim 14 corresponds to apparatus claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 2 rejection above.
Regarding claim 15
The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the repetition status satisfies the condition by the repetition status indicating a lack of repetition for the downlink reference signal.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 15 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 3. Therefore apparatus claim 15 corresponds to apparatus claim 3 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 3 rejection above.
Regarding claim 18
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first interface is further configured to:
output a second control signal indicating a type of the downlink reference signal, wherein the condition is satisfied based at least in part on the type of the downlink reference signal.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 18 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 6. Therefore apparatus claim 18 corresponds to apparatus claim 6 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 6 rejection above.
Regarding claim 19
The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the type of the downlink reference signal satisfies the condition by the type being a cell-specific reference signal.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 19 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 7. Therefore apparatus claim 19 corresponds to apparatus claim 7 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 7 rejection above.
Regarding claim 20
The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the type of the downlink reference signal satisfies the condition by the type being a periodic or semi-persistent reference signal that is for channel state information acquisition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 20 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 8. Therefore apparatus claim 20 corresponds to apparatus claim 8 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 8 rejection above.
Regarding claim 21
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the condition is satisfied based at least in part on whether the downlink reference signal is associated with a configured TCI state.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 21 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 9. Therefore apparatus claim 21 corresponds to apparatus claim 9 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 9 rejection above.
Regarding claim 22
The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the downlink reference signal lacking an association with the configured TCI state satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 22 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 10. Therefore apparatus claim 22 corresponds to apparatus claim 10 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 10 rejection above.
Regarding claim 23
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first interface is further configured to:
output an indication of timing resources for at least one of a downlink data channel or a downlink control channel associated with the unified TCI state, wherein the condition is satisfied based at least in part on whether the downlink reference signal at least partially overlaps the timing resources.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 23 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 11. Therefore apparatus claim 23 corresponds to apparatus claim 11 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 11 rejection above.
Regarding claim 24
The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the downlink reference signal at least partially overlapping in time with at least one of the downlink data channel or the downlink control channel satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 24 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 12. Therefore apparatus claim 24 corresponds to apparatus claim 12 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 12 rejection above.
Regarding claim 25
A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving a first control signal indicating a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the unified TCI state is associated with downlink data channel reception and downlink control channel reception; and
receiving a downlink reference signal in accordance with the unified TCI state, and associated with satisfaction of a condition.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 25 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 1. Therefore method claim 25 corresponds to apparatus claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 26
The method of claim 25, further comprising: receiving a second control signal indicating a repetition status of the downlink reference signal, wherein the repetition status satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 26 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 2. Therefore method claim 26 corresponds to apparatus claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 2 rejection above.
Regarding claim 28
A method for wireless communication at a network entity, comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a first control signal indicating a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the unified TCI state is associated with downlink data channel transmission and downlink control channel transmission; and
transmitting, to the UE, a downlink reference signal in accordance with the unified TCI state, and associated with satisfaction of a condition.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 28 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 13. Therefore method claim 28 corresponds to apparatus claim 13 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 13 rejection above.
Regarding claim 29
The method of claim 28, further comprising: transmitting a second control signal indicating a repetition status of the downlink reference signal, wherein the repetition status satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 29 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 14. Therefore method claim 29 corresponds to apparatus claim 14 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 14 rejection above.
Regarding claim 30
The method of claim 28, further comprising: transmitting a second control signal indicating a triggering offset associated with the downlink reference signal, wherein the triggering offset satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 30 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 16. Therefore method claim 30 corresponds to apparatus claim 16 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 16 rejection above.
Claims 4, 5, 16, 17, and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sony, in view of Bai, and further in view of Samsung NPL “Moderator summary for multi-beam enhancement: proposal categorization”, 3GPP R1-2006985, Aug 17-28, 2020 (hereinafter “Samsung”).
Regarding claim 4
Sony, as modified by Bai, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is further configured to:
Sony further discloses obtain a triggering offset associated with the downlink reference signal (“For L1/L2 inter-cell mobility, it seems straight-forward to define L1 events by using L1 metric, e.g. L1-RSRP or L1-SINR. For example, one L1 event could be defined as when the quality of NSC is better than current NS with an offset. Once such newly defined L1 event happens, UE triggers corresponding L1 reporting which contains RS from NSC and corresponding L1 metric.” Section 2.2), wherein the triggering offset satisfies the condition (“When the triggering condition of those L3 events satisfied, UE reports to NW and then possibly triggers L3 handover procedure.” Section 3.2).
Sony and Bai do not specifically teach obtain a second control signal indicating a triggering offset associated with the downlink reference signal.
In an analogous art, Samsung discloses obtain a second control signal indicating a triggering offset associated with the downlink reference signal (“DCI based triggering of RSs” Intel, section 4.3 and also “combination of DCI triggering + MAC-CE” item 3.1, section 4.3)
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Sony’s method for determining target reference signal for unified TCI state, as modified by Bai, to include Samsung’s dynamic common TCI state update signaling, in order to enable DCI-based beam indication/repetition (Samsung, section 4.3). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Samsung’s dynamic common TCI state update signaling into Sony’s method for determining target reference signal for unified TCI state since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 5
Sony, as modified by Bai and Samsung, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 4,
Samsung further discloses wherein the triggering offset satisfies the condition by the triggering offset being less than a time duration associated with a beam switching capability of the UE (“• From a signalling perspective, configuration of TCI states can follow that of spatial relation info for PUCCH, SRS, and PUSCH to support dynamic beam switching
• Introduce more dynamic TCI configuration for periodic reference signals such as CSI-RS.” AT&T, Appendix A).
Regarding claim 16
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first interface is further configured to: output a second control signal indicating a triggering offset associated with the downlink reference signal, wherein the triggering offset satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 16 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 4. Therefore apparatus claim 16 corresponds to apparatus claim 4 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 4 rejection above.
Regarding claim 17
The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the triggering offset satisfies the condition by the triggering offset being less than a time duration associated with a beam switching capability of the UE.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 17 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 5. Therefore apparatus claim 17 corresponds to apparatus claim 5 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 5 rejection above.
Regarding claim 27
The method of claim 25, further comprising: receiving a second control signal indicating a triggering offset associated with the downlink reference signal, wherein the triggering offset satisfies the condition.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 27 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 4. Therefore method claim 27 corresponds to apparatus claim 4 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 4 rejection above.
Conclusion
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411