DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, anycorrection of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground ofrejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would bethe same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 85 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
For claim 85, recites “the terminal device to perform continuing with maintenance of the antenna port correspondence for the next K slots in a case where there is the same level of correspondence between the antenna ports used for the reception of DL RS resources and the antenna ports used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device and the value of K is used as a timer indicative of validity of the antenna port correspondence”. It is not clear whether “K” is an integer or friction of number given to the slots and the value is used as a timer.
The limitation renders the claim indefinite.
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.
Claim(s) 73, and 91-92 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) as being anticipated by Park et al. (US 2022/0287020 A1).
Regarding claim 73, Park et al. teach a terminal device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform (Fig. 19, [0375, 0466-0467], a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit radio signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). Herein, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100x and the BS 200}. The wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. Operations related to transmission of uplink signals based on at least one of proposals 1/1-1/1-2) of the base station/UE according to the aforementioned embodiments may be stored in a memory 104 in the form of a command/program (e.g.: instruction, executable code) for driving at least one processor 102),
Park et al. teach transmitting, to a network device, information indicative of support of antenna port correspondence between antenna ports used for reception of downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) resources and antenna ports used for transmission of uplink (UL) reference signal resources at the terminal device (Fig 15, [0234, 0379, 0448], the UE may transmit UE capability information to the BS (S1510). The UE capability information may include UE capability information related to the Panel. (Note: “a “panel” may refer to a plurality “antenna ports” (or at least one antenna port), a “antenna port group” or an “uplink/downlink resource group (or set)”, see paragraph 234). As an example, the UE capability information may include the number of panels (groups) that the UE may support/information on whether simultaneous transmission based on multiple panels may be performed/information on the MPUE (Multi Panel UE) category (e.g.: refer to MPUE category), etc. For example, the UE may transmit UE capability information related to the aforementioned proposed method to the BS. The Spatial-Relation RS (reference signal) may be based on a downlink reference signal (DL RS) or an uplink reference signal (UL RS).
Park et al. teach receiving, from the network device, a request for use of the antenna port correspondence at the terminal device (Figs. 15 and 19, [0381, 0383-0384], the UE may receive RRC configuration information related to a panel and/or a beam from the BS (S1520). Herein, the RRC configuration information may include configuration information related to multi-panel-based transmission/configuration information related to UL. The operation of receiving RRC configuration information related to the panel and/or beam from the BS 200 by the UE 100. The UE may receive information for changing/updating panel-related information from the BS (S1530). Herein, the information may be transmitted through DCI and/or MAC-CE. In addition, as an example, the panel-related information may be changed/updated independently of the beam-related information),
Park et al. teach and transmitting, to the network device, a message indicating usage of the antenna port correspondence at the terminal device (Figs.15 and 19, [0387], the UE may perform UL transmission based on the information for changing/updating panel-related information and RRC configuration information (S1540). In other words, based on the information for changing/updating panel-related information and RRC configuration information, the UE may transmit a UL channel and/or UL RS to the BS based on the configured/changed/updated panel).
Regarding claim 91, Park et al. teach a network device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform (Fig. 19, [0375, 0466-0467], a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit radio signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). Herein, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100x and the BS 200}. The wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. Operations related to transmission of uplink signals based on at least one of proposals 1/1-1/1-2) of the base station/UE according to the aforementioned embodiments may be stored in a memory 104 in the form of a command/program (e.g.: instruction, executable code) for driving at least one processor 102),
Park et al. teach receiving, from a terminal device, information indicative of support of antenna port correspondence between the antenna ports used for reception of downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) resources and antenna ports used for transmission of uplink (UL) reference signal resources at the terminal device (Fig 15, [0234, 0379, 0448], the UE may transmit UE capability information to the BS (S1510). The UE capability information may include UE capability information related to the Panel. (Note: “a “panel” may refer to a plurality “antenna ports” (or at least one antenna port), a “antenna port group” or an “uplink/downlink resource group (or set)”, see paragraph 234). As an example, the UE capability information may include the number of panels (groups) that the UE may support/information on whether simultaneous transmission based on multiple panels may be performed/information on the MPUE (Multi Panel UE) category (e.g.: refer to MPUE category), etc. For example, the UE may transmit UE capability information related to the aforementioned proposed method to the BS. The Spatial-Relation RS (reference signal) may be based on a downlink reference signal (DL RS) or an uplink reference signal (UL RS).
Park et al. teach transmitting, to the terminal device, a request for use of the antenna port correspondence at the terminal device (Figs. 15 and 19, [0381, 0383-0384], the UE may receive RRC configuration information related to a panel and/or a beam from the BS (S1520). Herein, the RRC configuration information may include configuration information related to multi-panel-based transmission/configuration information related to UL. The operation of receiving RRC configuration information related to the panel and/or beam from the BS 200 by the UE 100. The UE may receive information for changing/updating panel-related information from the BS (S1530). Herein, the information may be transmitted through DCI and/or MAC-CE. In addition, as an example, the panel-related information may be changed/updated independently of the beam-related information),
Park et al. teach and receiving, from the terminal device, a message indicating usage of the antenna port correspondence information at the terminal device (Figs.15 and 19, [0387], the UE may perform UL transmission based on the information for changing/updating panel-related information and RRC configuration information (S1540). In other words, based on the information for changing/updating panel-related information and RRC configuration information, the UE may transmit a UL channel and/or UL RS to the BS based on the configured/changed/updated panel).
Regarding claim 92, Park et al. teach a method implemented at a terminal device comprising (Fig. 19, [0375, 0466-0467], a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit radio signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). Herein, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100x and the BS 200}. The wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. Operations related to transmission of uplink signals based on at least one of proposals 1/1-1/1-2) of the base station/UE according to the aforementioned embodiments may be stored in a memory 104 in the form of a command/program (e.g.: instruction, executable code) for driving at least one processor 102),
Park et al. teach transmitting, to a network device, information indicative of support of antenna port correspondence between antenna ports used for reception of downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) resources and antenna ports used for transmission of uplink (UL) reference signal resources at the terminal device (Fig 15, [0234, 0379, 0448], the UE may transmit UE capability information to the BS (S1510). The UE capability information may include UE capability information related to the Panel. (Note: “a “panel” may refer to a plurality “antenna ports” (or at least one antenna port), a “antenna port group” or an “uplink/downlink resource group (or set)”, see paragraph 234). As an example, the UE capability information may include the number of panels (groups) that the UE may support/information on whether simultaneous transmission based on multiple panels may be performed/information on the MPUE (Multi Panel UE) category (e.g.: refer to MPUE category), etc. For example, the UE may transmit UE capability information related to the aforementioned proposed method to the BS. The Spatial-Relation RS (reference signal) may be based on a downlink reference signal (DL RS) or an uplink reference signal (UL RS).
Park et al. teach receiving, from the network device, a request for use of the antenna port correspondence at the terminal device (Figs. 15 and 19, [0381, 0383-0384], the UE may receive RRC configuration information related to a panel and/or a beam from the BS (S1520). Herein, the RRC configuration information may include configuration information related to multi-panel-based transmission/configuration information related to UL. The operation of receiving RRC configuration information related to the panel and/or beam from the BS 200 by the UE 100. The UE may receive information for changing/updating panel-related information from the BS (S1530). Herein, the information may be transmitted through DCI and/or MAC-CE. In addition, as an example, the panel-related information may be changed/updated independently of the beam-related information),
Park et al. teach and transmitting, to the network device, a message indicating usage of the antenna port correspondence at the terminal device (Figs.15 and 19, [0387], the UE may perform UL transmission based on the information for changing/updating panel-related information and RRC configuration information (S1540). In other words, based on the information for changing/updating panel-related information and RRC configuration information, the UE may transmit a UL channel and/or UL RS to the BS based on the configured/changed/updated panel).
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) 74-75 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2022/0287020 A1) in view of Yuan et al. (US 2023/0247618 A1).
Park et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above. Park et al. do no expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 74, wherein the request comprises information on when to use the DL RS and UL RS antenna port correspondence at the terminal device, and/or the network device directly transmits the DL RS and UL RS antenna port correspondence information request if the network device has already received the information indicative of support of antenna port correspondence; regarding claim 75, wherein the antenna port correspondence indicates full correspondence in a case where the antenna ports used for reception of DL RS resources are the same antenna ports as being used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device.
Regarding claim 74, Yuan et al. teach wherein the request comprises information on when to use the DL RS and UL RS antenna port correspondence at the terminal device, and/or the network device directly transmits the DL RS and UL RS antenna port correspondence information request if the network device has already received the information indicative of support of antenna port correspondence (Fig, 4, [0125, 0127], an access network device sends a first TCI (transmission configuration information) to a terminal device, where the first TCI includes information about a first uplink reference signal and/or information about a first downlink reference signal. A spatial transmission filter corresponding to the first uplink reference signal is used for sending a plurality of uplink channels, and the first downlink reference signal and DMRSs of a plurality of downlink channels meet a QCL relationship; or a spatial transmission filter corresponding to the first uplink reference signal is used for receiving DMRSs of a plurality of downlink channels. Alternatively, the access network device may send information about an uplink reference signal to the terminal device, to indicate the terminal device to determine, by receiving a downlink reference signal associated with the uplink reference signal, that the DMRSs of the plurality of downlink channels and the downlink reference signal meet a QCL relationship).
Regarding claim 75, Yuan et al. teach wherein the antenna port correspondence indicates full correspondence in a case where the antenna ports used for reception of DL RS resources are the same antenna ports as being used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device (Fig, 4, [0151], according to an indication of the first TCI, the terminal device may determine a receive parameter of the PDCCH and the PDSCH based on a transmit parameter of the first uplink reference signal, or receive the PDCCH and the PDSCH through the spatial transmission filter used for sending the first uplink reference signal, or receive the PDCCH and the PDSCH by using QCL parameters/a QCL parameter of a same antenna port and/or a same antenna panel used for sending the first downlink reference signal).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Park et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Yuan et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of receiving request comprises information on when to use the DL RS and UL RS antenna port correspondence at the terminal device, and the antenna port correspondence indicates full correspondence in a case where the antenna ports used for reception of DL RS resources are the same antenna ports as being used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device. The motivation is to support an improved method to support a terminal device in performing beam failure detection in a common beam scenario (see [0006]).
Claim(s) 76-77, 79 and 81-82 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2022/0287020 A1) in view of Li et al. (US 2020/0044803 A1).
Park et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above.
Regarding claim 77, Park et al. teach wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network device to perform (Fig. 19, [0375, 0466-0467], a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit radio signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). Herein, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100x and the BS 200}. The wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. Operations related to transmission of uplink signals based on at least one of proposals 1/1-1/1-2) of the base station/UE according to the aforementioned embodiments may be stored in a memory 104 in the form of a command/program (e.g.: instruction, executable code) for driving at least one processor 102).
Park et al. teach transmitting, to the network device, information on which associated antenna ports are selected by considering the antenna port correspondence or without considering the antenna port correspondence and/or by considering which antenna ports are having non- correspondence (Figs. 14 and 19, [0366-0367], the UE panel may be adaptively controlled to a channel condition. As described above, the control signaling to change p=1 to p=0 may be transmitted based on the signal quality related to a change target panel. When an environment in which expected signal quality overall deteriorates during transmission from UE panel p=1 is sensed (e.g., by DL/UL beam management procedures and/or gNB's reception/measurements of UL signals), there is an effect that the base station can control to actually turn off (deactivate) the UE panel p=1 by transmitting the control signaling. The base station may transmit an independent control message (with a beam indication) to switch (e.g., fall-back) p=1 to p=0 (in unison) to the UE (through DCI and/or MAC-CE, etc.). In this connection, as in the above example, specific (default and/or fallback) beam-related information (e.g., spatial relation) to be applied to a plurality of PUCCH resources belonging to a specific UL resource (e.g., the PUCCH resource group #2) changed to p=0 may be required).
Regarding claim 79, Park et al. teach wherein the antenna port correspondence is non-correspondence in a case where there is a fallback mode where the antenna port correspondence between DL RS and UL RS antenna ports is unknown at the terminal device (Figs. 14 and 19, [0367], when the UE receives an instruction to change/update (all of) panels of PUCCH resources with specific p=1 among the PUCCH resources configured by the base station to p=0, PUCCH resource group#2 may be changed/updated. The panel before change/update (e.g., p=1, etc.) may be processed/defined/set as a “secondary panel.” In this connection, as described above, the operation of “switching (fall-backing) p=1 to p=0 (in unison)” may be defined/configured as a timer-based “panel deactivation” operation (timer-based panel deactivation). In addition, when the panel fallback operation based on a specific timer is applied (e.g., fallback to p=0), the beam-related information to be applied (e.g.: spatial relation, etc.) may be applied together with the SRI-based example operation. In other words, the timer-based operation proposed in proposal 1-2 may be applied in combination with the method of changing/updating panel-related information described in proposal 1 and/or proposal 1-1 described above).
Regarding claim 81, Park et al. teach wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform (Fig. 19, [0375, 0466-0467], a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit radio signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). Herein, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100x and the BS 200}. The wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. Operations related to transmission of uplink signals based on at least one of proposals 1/1-1/1-2) of the base station/UE according to the aforementioned embodiments may be stored in a memory 104 in the form of a command/program (e.g.: instruction, executable code) for driving at least one processor 102).
Park et al. teach transitioning in the fallback mode in a case where the terminal device determines that the antenna correspondence is suspended at the terminal device, wherein the fallback mode comprises a default antenna transmission mode where UL RS is virtualized into primary antenna port (Figs. 14 and 19, [0369, 0493], the panel before change/update (e.g., p=1, etc.) may be processed/defined/set as a “secondary panel.” In this connection, as described above, the operation of “switching (fall-backing) p=1 to p=0 (in unison)” may be defined/configured as a timer-based “panel deactivation” operation (timer-based panel deactivation. The UE panel may be adaptively controlled to a channel condition related to a panel. As a specific example, when a base station senses an environment in which the expected signal quality from the specific panel is deteriorated, the specific panel may be excluded from a configuration related to uplink transmission of a UE by transmitting the message. In other words, it is possible to obtain the same effect as substantially deactivating the corresponding panel through the message transmission
Regarding claim 82, Park et al. teach wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform (Fig. 19, [0375, 0466-0467], a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit radio signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). Herein, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100x and the BS 200}. The wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. Operations related to transmission of uplink signals based on at least one of proposals 1/1-1/1-2) of the base station/UE according to the aforementioned embodiments may be stored in a memory 104 in the form of a command/program (e.g.: instruction, executable code) for driving at least one processor 102).
Park et al. teach switching into the fallback mode in a case where the terminal device receives, from the network device, a Layer1 or Layer2 control message to suspend the antenna port correspondence information (Figs. 14 and 19, [0366], the UE panel may be adaptively controlled to a channel condition. As described above, the control signaling to change p=1 to p=0 may be transmitted based on the signal quality related to a change target panel. When an environment in which expected signal quality overall deteriorates during transmission from UE panel p=1 is sensed (e.g., by DL/UL beam management procedures and/or gNB's reception/measurements of UL signals), there is an effect that the base station can control to actually turn off (deactivate) the UE panel p=1 by transmitting the control signaling).
Park et al. do no expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 76, wherein the antenna port correspondence indicates partial correspondence in a case where only a subset of the antenna ports used for the reception of DL RS resources are virtualized to corresponding antenna ports as being used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device.
Regarding claim 76, Li et al. teach wherein the antenna port correspondence indicates partial correspondence in a case where only a subset of the antenna ports used for the reception of DL RS resources are virtualized to corresponding antenna ports as being used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device (Fig. 2, [0161], TDD system includes a terminal device and a network device, and the terminal device includes N antenna ports. A receive channel is configured for each of the N antenna ports and may be used to receive downlink data and a downlink reference signal, and the N antenna ports form a second antenna port set that may also be referred to as a receive antenna port set Sr={1, 2, . . . , N}. A quantity of transmit channels of the terminal device is less than a quantity N of receive channels, and only n of the N antenna ports may be used to send uplink data and an uplink reference signal, and form a first antenna port set that may also be referred to as a transmit antenna port set St, where n<N, and the first antenna port set is a proper subset of the second antenna port set. The network device includes M antenna ports, and the M antenna ports may be used to receive the uplink data and the uplink reference signal, or send the downlink data and the downlink reference signal).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Park et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Li et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of indicating partial correspondence in a case where only a subset of the antenna ports used for the reception of DL RS resources are virtualized to corresponding antenna ports as being used for the transmission of UL RS resources at the terminal device. The motivation is to support an improved method for improving accuracy of the channel state information and reduces feedback overheads for the channel state information (see [0012]).
Claim(s) 83 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2022/0287020 A1) in view of Go et al. (US 2022/0166468 A1).
Park et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above. Park et al. do no expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 83, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform: signaling, to the network device, the antenna port correspondence semi-statically or dynamically.
Regarding claim 83, Go et al. teach wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform (Fig. 1, [0028], one or more instructions executable by one or more processors are configured to cause a UE to transmit UE capability information related to a plurality of panels, to receive configuration information related to reporting of CSI, to receive a downlink reference signal (DL RS) based on the configuration information, and to transmit CSI related to a measurement result for the DL RS),
Go et al. teach signaling, to the network device, the antenna port correspondence semi-statically or dynamically (Fig. 1, [0258], UE may report the information related to the panel to the BS in the form of a UE capability. Further, the UE may also transmit the information related to the panel to the BS through semi-static or dynamic reporting. The BS may receive the information related to the panel from the UE to perform a specific control signaling of the panel unit, and may configure and/or indicate the related operation of the UE).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Park et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Go et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of signaling, to the network device, the antenna port correspondence semi-statically or dynamically. The motivation is to support an improved method for reporting channel state information in a wireless communication system (see [0001]).
Claim(s) 84 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2022/0287020 A1) in view of Zhou et al. (US 2020/0314664 A1).
Park et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above. Park et al. do no expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 84, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform: determining the antenna port correspondence between UL and DL antenna ports associated with corresponding resources, before transmitting, to the network device, the antenna port correspondence.
Regarding claim 84, Zhou et al. teaches wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform (Fig. 3, [0228], A node (e.g. wireless device, base station, AMF, SMF, UPF, servers, switches, antennas, and/or the like) may comprise one or more processors, and memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors causes the node to perform certain processes and/or functions. Example embodiments may enable operation of single-carrier and/or multi-carrier communications. Other example embodiments may comprise a non-transitory tangible computer readable media comprising instructions executable by one or more processors to cause operation),
Zhou et al. teaches determining the antenna port correspondence between UL and DL antenna ports associated with corresponding resources, before transmitting, to the network device, the antenna port correspondence (Figs. 1 and 30, [0434, 0436, ], wireless device may correctly determine a transmission beam for PUSCH based on a DCI format, SRI configuration on PUCCH resources, RRC state, and/or whether a default beam is configured for the PUSCH. Based on the specified determination method, the wireless device and the base station align on uplink transmission beam and therefore increase uplink throughput and reduce transmission latency. The wireless device receives from a base station one or more RRC messages comprising configuration parameters of a cell, the configuration parameters comprising: first configuration parameters of downlink reference signals, and second configuration parameter indicating that a default beam is used for transmissions via a PUSCH. The wireless device receives a DCI indicating PUSCH resources for an uplink transport block. The wireless device determines, that a first spatial relation information is associated with at least one of the downlink reference signals, based on at least one of: the DCI being of DCI format 0_0, the wireless device being in a RRC connected mode, the second configuration parameter indicating that the default beam is used for transmission via the PUSCH, and spatial relation information for PUCCH resources not being provided. The wireless device transmits, via the PUSCH resources, the uplink transport block according to the first spatial relation information).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Park et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Zhou et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of determining the antenna port correspondence between UL and DL antenna ports associated with corresponding resources, before transmitting, to the network device, the antenna port correspondence. The motivation is to support an improved method for wireless device and the base station align on uplink transmission beam and therefore increase uplink throughput and reduce transmission latency (see [0434]).
Claim(s) 89-90 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2022/0287020 A1) in view of Sakhnini et al. (US 2022/0182272 A1).
Park et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above. Park et al. do no expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 89, wherein the DL RS resources comprise a demodulation reference signal, (DMRS) for data/control, or phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), or non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZP-CSI- RS) for channel information acquisition or NZP-CSI-RS for frequency and time tracking or NZP-CSI-RS for beam management (BM); regarding claim 90, wherein the DL RS resources comprise a demodulation reference signal, (DMRS) for data/control, or phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), or non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZP-CSI- RS) for channel information acquisition or NZP-CSI-RS for frequency and time tracking or NZP-CSI-RS for beam management (BM).
Regarding claim 89, Sakhnini et al. teach wherein the DL RS resources comprise a demodulation reference signal, (DMRS) for data/control, or phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), or non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZP-CSI- RS) for channel information acquisition or NZP-CSI-RS for frequency and time tracking or NZP-CSI-RS for beam management (BM) (Figs. 2-3, [0103], the first subset of information bits 310 and the second subset of information bits 315 may each include 16 bits. Based on each bit value for the first subset of information bits 310, the base station 105 may activate a downlink reference signal resource (e.g., a CSI-RS resource, a DMRS resource). For each bit value one “1” for the first subset of information bits 310, the base station 105 may activate a respective TCI state and transmit, to the UE 115, a downlink reference signal (e.g., a CSI-RS, a DMRS) on a respective downlink references signal resource (e.g., a CSI-RS resource, a DMRS resource). Otherwise, for each bit value zero “0” for the first subset of information bits 310, the base station 105 may not activate a respective TCI state and not transmit, to the UE 115, a downlink reference signal (e.g., a CSI-RS, a DMRS) on a respective downlink references signal resource (e.g., a CSI-RS resource, a DMRS resource)).
Regarding claim 90, Sakhnini et al. teach wherein the UL RS resources comprise includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) or demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for data/control or phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) or preamble of physical random access channel (PRACH) (Fig. 2, [0105], the UE 115 may perform one or more of the above operations when conveying information bits to the base station 105 or another UE 115. For example, the UE 115 may activate an uplink reference signal resource (e.g., an SRS resource, an SL-RS resource, a PRACH resource). For example, for each bit value one “1” for the first subset of information bits 310, the UE 115 may activate a respective TCI state and transmit, to the base station 105, an uplink reference signal (e.g., an SRS, a DMRS, a PRACH) on a respective uplink references signal resource (e.g., an SRS resource, a DMRS resource, a PRACH resource). Otherwise, for each bit value zero “0” for the first subset of information bits 310, the UE 115 may not activate a respective TCI state and not transmit, to the base station 105, an uplink reference signal (e.g., an SRS, a DMRS, a PRACH) on a respective uplink references signal resource (e.g., an SRS resource, a DMRS resource, a PRACH resource)).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Park et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Sakhnini et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of using DL RS resources comprise a demodulation reference signal, (DMRS) for data/control, and UL RS resources comprise includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) or demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for data/control or phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) or preamble of physical random access channel (PRACH). The motivation is to support an improved method for including multi-mode reference signal based information using index modulation (see [0001]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 78, 80 and 85-88 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.
Examiner’s Comments
The following is examiner’s comments about claim 85. The claims would be allowable if the 112 rejections, as set forth in this office action above, is overcome.
Conclusion
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/SYED M BOKHARI/ Examiner, Art Unit 2473
5/8/2026
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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