DETAILED OFFICE 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 action is responsive to the communication received February 22nd, 2024. Claims 1-35 have been entered and are presented for examination.
Priority
Application 18/685,803 is a 371 of PCT/CN2021/128885 (11/05/2021) and claims benefit of PCT/CN2021/124247 (10/16/2021).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on February 22nd, 2024, July 14th, 2025, and September 23rd, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 7, 12, 14, 31, 33-35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Rahman et al. (US 2019/0253181).
Regarding claims 1, 33-35, Rahman et al. discloses a method of wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: generating a non-precoding matrix indicator (PMI)-based channel state information (CSI) report (paragraphs 0111, 0211, 0231-0232 [ReportQuantity is set to “CRI/RI/CQI”; aperiodic CSI feedback; UE transmits, to the BS, the appended WB CSI over an uplink channel]), wherein the non-PMI-based CSI report includes a rank indicator (RI) (paragraphs 0111, 0211, 0231-0232 [ReportQuantity is set to “CRI/RI/CQI”; aperiodic CSI feedback; UE transmits, to the BS, the appended WB CSI over an uplink channel]), wherein generating the non-PMI-based CSI report includes determining a first bit- width for the RI (paragraph 0130 [Since the payloads of both CRI and RI are fixed (e.g. via higher layer configuration) and hence can take only one value, the payloads don't contribute to the value of N, and only CQI determines N since it can be two values: 4 bits if RI corresponds to rank <=4 and 8 bits if RI corresponds to rank >4.]); and transmitting, to a base station, the non-PMI-based CSI report that includes the RI having the first bit-width (paragraphs 0111, 0211, 0231-0232 [ReportQuantity is set to “CRI/RI/CQI”; aperiodic CSI feedback; UE transmits, to the BS, the appended WB CSI over an uplink channel]).
Regarding claim 2, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses receiving, from the base station, a CSI reporting configuration having a report quantity field with a value of "cri-ri-cqi;" (paragraphs 0111, 0211, 0231-0232 [ReportQuantity is set to “CRI/RI/CQI”; aperiodic CSI feedback; UE transmits, to the BS, the appended WB CSI over an uplink channel]) and wherein generating the non-PMI-based CSI report comprises generating the non- PMI-based CSI report responsive to the report quantity field having the value of "cri-ri- cqi" (paragraphs 0111, 0211, 0231-0232 [ReportQuantity is set to “CRI/RI/CQI”; aperiodic CSI feedback; UE transmits, to the BS, the appended WB CSI over an uplink channel]).
Regarding claim 3, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a number of allowable ranks or rank pairs (paragraph 0120 [N.sub.max is the maximum WB CSI payload (bits) that can be reported based on the set of allowed rank values (via higher layer rank restriction signaling). In other words, N.sub.max and N.sub.CSI are determined by considering only the set of rank values that are allowed via rank restriction]).
Regarding claim 5, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a total number of different allowable ranks across all resources (paragraph 0120 [N.sub.max is the maximum WB CSI payload (bits) that can be reported based on the set of allowed rank values (via higher layer rank restriction signaling). In other words, N.sub.max and N.sub.CSI are determined by considering only the set of rank values that are allowed via rank restriction]).
Regarding claim 7, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a maximum number of allowable ranks across all resources (paragraph 0120 [N.sub.max is the maximum WB CSI payload (bits) that can be reported based on the set of allowed rank values (via higher layer rank restriction signaling). In other words, N.sub.max and N.sub.CSI are determined by considering only the set of rank values that are allowed via rank restriction]).
Regarding claim 12, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a maximum allowable rank or rank pair (paragraph 0120 [N.sub.max is the maximum WB CSI payload (bits) that can be reported based on the set of allowed rank values (via higher layer rank restriction signaling). In other words, N.sub.max and N.sub.CSI are determined by considering only the set of rank values that are allowed via rank restriction]).
Regarding claim 14, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a maximum allowable rank across all resources (paragraph 0120 [N.sub.max is the maximum WB CSI payload (bits) that can be reported based on the set of allowed rank values (via higher layer rank restriction signaling). In other words, N.sub.max and N.sub.CSI are determined by considering only the set of rank values that are allowed via rank restriction]).
Regarding claim 31, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1 and further discloses wherein generating the non-PMI-based CSI report is responsive to the base station refraining from configuring the UE with a "pmi- FormatIndicator" parameter, or the base station configuring the UE with the "pmi- FormatIndicator" parameter set to "widebandPMI" (paragraph 132 [When higher layer parameter ReportQuantity is set to “CRI/RI/i1” and higher layer parameter PMI-FormatIndicator=widebandPMI indicating WB PMI reporting]), or the UE ignoring the "pmi- FormatIndicator" parameter.
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.
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 non-obviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rahman et al. (US 2019/0253181) in view of Singh et al. (US 2023/0275636).
Regarding claim 32, Rahman et al. discloses all the recited subject matter in claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose wherein generating the non-PMI-based CSI report is responsive to the base station refraining from configuring the UE with a "codebookConfig" or "codebookConfig-r16" parameter, or the UE ignoring the "codebookConfig" or "codebookConfig-r16" parameter.
However, Singh et al. discloses wherein generating the non-PMI-based CSI report is responsive to the base station refraining from configuring the UE with a "codebookConfig" or "codebookConfig-r16" parameter, or the UE ignoring the "codebookConfig" or "codebookConfig-r16" parameter (paragraph 0036 [ If UE is configured with codebookConfig-r16 it shall ignore the codebookConfig (without suffix) field]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the UE could ignore the codebookConfig since codebookConfig-r16 defines the pre-coder codebook which may specify rank restriction and/or pre-coder subset restriction.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 6, 8-11, 13, 15-30 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.
The prior art of record does not disclose:
wherein RI codepoints map to ranks in increasing order with codepoint zero mapped to a lowest rank per resource or
wherein RI codepoints map to allowable ranks across all resources in increasing order with codepoint zero mapped to a lowest rank across all resources or
wherein RI codepoints map to ranks in increasing order with codepoint zero mapped to a lowest rank of a resource reported via a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) or
wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a maximum allowable rank across all resources and a minimum allowable rank across all resources or
wherein RI codepoints map to allowable ranks across all resources in increasing order with codepoint zero mapped to a lowest rank across all resources (dependent on object claim 9) or
wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width based on a difference between the maximum allowable rank across all resources and the minimum allowable rank across all resources (dependent on object claim 9) or
wherein RI codepoints map to ranks in increasing order with codepoint zero mapped to rank 1 or
wherein RI codepoints map to ranks in increasing order with codepoint zero mapped to rank 1 and a highest codepoint mapped to the maximum allowable rank across all resources or
wherein determining the first bit-width of the RI comprises calculating the first bit-width as a function of a number of ports per CSI- reference signal (CSI-RS) resource or
wherein the non-PMI-based CSI report further comprises a layer indicator (LI) having a second bit-width, wherein generating the non- PMI-based CSI report further comprises calculating the second bit-width of the LI as a function of a reported value of rank or a number of ports per CSI-RS resource or
wherein the non-PMI-based CSI report further comprises a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) having a third bit-width, wherein generating the non-PMI-based CSI report further comprises calculating the third bit-width of the CRI as a function of a number of CSI-RS resources or
wherein, for uplink control information (UCI) transmission on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with wide-band CSI, a UCI packing order for the non-PMI-based CSI report comprises one part with a mapping order of: a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI); the RI; zero-padding bits; and a wide-band channel quality indicator (CQI) for a first transport block or
wherein the mapping order further comprises a layer indicator (LI) located between the RI and the zero-padding bits (dependent on object claim 19) or
wherein the mapping order comprises the LI only when the UE is configured by the base station to include the LI in the non-PMI-based CSI report (dependent on object claim 20) or
wherein the mapping order further comprises a wide-band CQI for a second transport block, wherein the wide-band CQI for the second transport block is located in the mapping order subsequent to the wide-band CQI for the first transport block (dependent on object claim 19) or
wherein the wide-band CQI for the second transport block is included in the mapping order only for ranks greater than four (dependent on object claim 22) or
wherein, for uplink control information (UCI) transmission on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with wide-band CSI, a UCI packing order for the non-PMI-based CSI report comprises one part in which one or more PMI information fields are omitted or
wherein, for uplink control information (UCI) transmission on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with wide-band CSI, a UCI packing order for the non-PMI-based CSI report comprises one part with a number of zero padding bits, wherein the zero padding bits keep a total payload size invariant or
wherein, for uplink control information (UCI) transmission on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with sub-band CSI or for UCI transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) with wide-band or sub-band CSI, a UCI packing order for the non-PMI-based CSI report comprises two parts; wherein a first payload size of a first part of the non-PMI-based CSI report is invariant; and wherein a second payload size of a second part of the non-PMI-based CSI report depends on one or more values reported in the first part of the non-PMI-based CSI report or
wherein the first part of the non-PMI-based CSI report has a mapping order of: a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI); the RI; a wide-band channel quality indicator (CQI) for a first transport block; and a sub-band differential CQI for the first transport block (dependent on object claim 26) or
wherein the second part of the non-PMI-based CSI report has a mapping order of: one or more wide-band terms; and one or more sub-band terms (dependent on object claim 9) or
wherein the one or more wide-band terms comprise: a wide-band CQI for a second transport block, wherein the wide-band CQI for the second transport block is included in the mapping order only for ranks greater than four; and a layer indicator (LI), wherein the one or more sub-band terms comprise: one or more even sub-band terms; and one or more odd sub-band terms, wherein each one of the one or more even sub-band terms and the one or more odd sub-band terms comprises a sub-band CQI for the second transport block (dependent on object claim 28) or
wherein, for uplink control information (UCI) transmission on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with sub-band CSI or for UCI transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) with wide-band or sub- band CSI, a UCI packing order for the non-PMI-based CSI report comprises two parts in which one or more PMI fields are omitted.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE whose telephone number is (571)270-3937. The examiner can normally be reached 4pm-11:30pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at (571)270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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