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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filled on 05/05/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1, 14-16 are amended.
Claims 1-20 are pending
Response to Arguments
Applicant arguments filed on 05/05/2026 have been fully considered and but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection(s)
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 nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park to (US20210050890) in view of HUAWEI ET AL: "Codebook based transmission for UL MIMO", 3GPP DRAFT; R1-1718237, 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (3GPP) from IDS
Regarding claims 1,14,15,16 Park teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:( [0698] discloses one or more processors 102 may control one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more memories 104 to receive the UL scheduling information/precoding related information and one or more transceivers 106 may receive the UL scheduling information/precoding related information to the UE) receive a codebook configuration from a network, wherein the codebook configuration corresponds to an enhanced uplink (UL) codebook-based transmission, the wherein a
codebook associated with the codebook configuration corresponds to a transmit precoding matrix information (TPMI), the TPMI corresponds to uplink transmission, and the TPMI corresponds to at least one layer;( [0697] The UE may receive, from the BS, UL scheduling information/precoding related information (S125). As an example, the precoding related information may include information on SRI/TPMI/TRI/MCS) transmit a set of sounding reference signals (SRSs);( [0316] i) When Spatial_Relation_Info is configured for all SRS resources in the SRS resource set, the UE transmits the SRS with the beam indicated by the BS) receive the TPMI via a downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, ( [0466] The UE receives, from the BS, DCI for downlink scheduling (i.e., including scheduling information of the PUSCH) on the PDCCH ) wherein the DCI is received on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a combination thereof, ([0662] Discloses receive downlink control information (DCI) for determining a precoding matrix, which is applied to transmission of the uplink signal, from a base station. [0466] The UE receives, from the BS, DCI for downlink scheduling (i.e., including scheduling information of the PUSCH) on the PDCCH )) and and receive a subset of codebook parameters corresponding to the TPMI in a second stage DCI,([0521] Discloses the DCI format 0_1 may be mapped to one of the indexes in Table 26 below based on the value of ‘codebookSubset’ which is the higher layer parameter configured from the BS by the UE) wherein the second stage DCI is received in the PDCCH, the PDSCH, or a combination thereof([0455] When the UE detects a PDCCH including DCI format 1_0 or 1_1, the UE decodes the PDSCH according to the indication by the corresponding DCI), though, Park teaches two different format of the DCI ([0473] DCI format 0_0 or DCI format 0_1), it does not explicitly teach decomposing DCI into a first stage DCI and a second stage DCI; wherein the subset of codebook parameters is distinct from at least a portion of codebook parameters indicated in the first stage DCI
However, "Codebook based transmission for UL MIMO" teaches decomposing DCI into a first stage DCI and a second stage DCI; (page 7, last paragraph "Two-stage DCI can be introduced to resolve the issue. First stage DCI indicates the resource allocation and second stage DCI indicates the subband TPMI for the allocated PRBs."); and wherein the subset of codebook parameters is distinct from at least a portion of codebook parameters indicated in the first stage DCI(page 7, last paragraph "second stage DCI indicates the subband TPMI for the allocated PRBs."; page 8 first paragraph, "so that UE will further get knowledge of the corresponding payload size of subband TPMI in the second stage DCI as shown in Figure 4"; page 9, 3rd and 4th paragraphs, "Proposal 6: Support Alt 1, i.e., subband PMIs for allocated PRBs, with two- stage DCI for indicating subband TPMI. For two-stage codebook structure, two- stage signaling mechanism can also be considered. W1 is indicated by the first stage DCI and W2 is signaled in the second stage DCI."; page 10, proposal 7,
"Proposal 7: For two-stage codebook based UL MIMO transmission, a two-
stage DCI structure should be supported to indicate PMI for frequency selective
precoding. Wideband W1 is indicated in the first stage DCI and subband W2 is
indicated in the second stage DCI.")
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to enable the system of Park include decomposing DCI into a first stage DCI and a second stage DCI; wherein the subset of codebook parameters is distinct from at least a portion of codebook parameters indicated in the first stage DCI, as suggested by "Codebook based transmission for UL MIMO." This modification would benefit the system to reliably convey control information.
Regarding claims 2,17 Park teaches wherein a bandwidth part of the PUSCH comprises a plurality of sub-bands, and different transmit precoders are applied to different sub-bands within the bandwidth part([0534],[0535] …when the UE performs PUSCH transmission in activated UL BWP(b) of carrier f of serving cell c by using a parameter set configuration based on index j and a PUSCH power control adjustment state based on index l, the UE may determine PUSCH transmission power P.sub.PUSCH,b,f,c(i,j,q.sub.d,l) (dBm) in a PUSCH transmission opportunity i)
Regarding claims 3, 18 Park teaches wherein a sub-band is not configured if a higher-layer parameter corresponding to a precoder transform is configured([0460] When P′ is determined as wideband, the UE does not predict that the PDSCH is scheduled to non-contiguous PRBs and the UE may assume that the same precoding is applied to the allocated resource).
Regarding claims 4,19 Park teaches wherein the codebook comprises codebook parameters corresponding to a rank indicator, a set of spatial beams, a set of frequency domain basis indices, a set of coefficients for each layer corresponding to a distinct pair of a spatial beam of the set of spatial beams and a frequency-domain basis index of the set of frequency-domain basis indices, a set of one or more bitmaps for one or more layers corresponding to the indices of non-zero valued codebook coefficients, an index corresponding to a strongest coefficient for each layer, an indication of a total number of non-zero coefficients, or some a combination thereof;( [0697] The UE may receive, from the BS, UL scheduling information/precoding related information (S125). As an example, the precoding related information may include information on SRI/TPMI/TRI/MCS)
Regarding claims 5,20 Park teaches wherein the codebook parameters are partitioned based on a reporting method into: a first partition corresponding to codebook parameters reported via higher-layer parameters; a second partition corresponding to codebook parameters reported via DCI scheduling PUSCH carried on PDCCH; a third partition corresponding to codebook parameters reported via DCI scheduling PUSCH carried on PDSCH; a fourth partition corresponding to codebook parameters reported via MAC CE; or a combination thereof([0540] Discloses the parameters and/or information may be configured or indicated through a higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE), etc.) and/or DCI).
Regarding claim 6, Park teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to configure reception of the codebook with up to two precoder matrix indicators (PMIs)ok subset, one specific TPMI among TPMIs 7 to 21 other than TPMI 6 of rank 2 is added to the codebook subset, and one specific TPMI among TPMIs 2 to 6 other than TPMI 1 of rank 3 is added to the codebook subset to configure a new codebook subset)
Regarding claim 7¸ Park teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to configure a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) codepoint corresponding to two TCI states, ([0276] The UE may be RRC-configured with a list for a maximum of M candidate Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states at least for a purpose of Quasi Co-location (QCL) indication. Here, the M may be 64.[0277] Each TCI state may be configured as one RS set. One of DL RS types including)
Wherein the two TCI states comprise quasi-co-location (QCL) information corresponding to spatial relations for different downlink (DL) reference signals (RSs), ([0276] The UE may be RRC-configured with a list for a maximum of M candidate Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states at least for a purpose of Quasi Co-location (QCL) indication. Here, the M may be 64.[0277] Each TCI state may be configured as one RS set. One of DL RS types including)and the DL RSs are included in spatial relation information of SRS corresponding to the set of SRSs([0279] Initialization/update of the ID of the DL RS(s) in the RS set used for the purpose of the spatial QCL may be at least performed through explicit signaling)
Regarding claim 8, Park teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE further to configure reception of the codebook with two SRS resource sets with a usage value that is set to indicate an enhanced codebook-based transmission.( [0470] ..configured SRS resources in an SRS resource set associated with higher layer parameter ‘usage’ may be indicated by an SRS resource indicator field. Further, ‘spatialRelationInfo’ may be configured for each SRS resource and a value of ‘spatialRelationInfo’ may be one of {CRI, SSB, and SRI}..[0471] Two transmission schemes, i.e., codebook based transmission and non-codebook based transmission are supported for PUSCH transmission)
Regarding claim 9, Park teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to configure reception of the codebook with an SRS resource indicator (SRI) that indicates multiple SRS resource identifiers (IDs) .( [0470] … configured SRS resources in an SRS resource set associated with higher layer parameter ‘usage’ may be indicated by an SRS resource indicator field. Further, ‘spatialRelationInfo’ may be configured for each SRS resource and a value of ‘spatialRelationInfo’ may be one of {CRI, SSB, and SRI})
Regarding claim 10, Park teaches wherein the codebook configuration comprises a higher-layer parameter corresponding to a transmission configuration ‘txConfig’ in a PUSCH configuration information element (IE) that takes on one of at least three values corresponding to a non-codebook based transmission, a codebook based transmission, and an enhanced codebook based transmission([0472] i) When higher layer parameter ‘txConfig’ is set to ‘codebook’, the UE is configured to the codebook based transmission. On the contrary, when higher layer parameter ‘txConfig’ is set to ‘nonCodebook’).
Regarding claim 11 Park teaches, wherein the codebook configuration comprises a first higher-layer parameter that indicates a codebook type in a PUSCH configuration IE, and a presence of the first higher-layer parameter is conditioned on a presence of a second higher-layer parameter corresponding to a transmission configuration ‘txConfig’ in a PUSCH configuration IE that is set to a codebook based transmission( [0473] discloses When the UE is configured with the higher layer parameter ‘txConfig’ set to ‘codebook’, at least one SRS resource is configured in the UE. An SRI indicated in slot n is associated with most recent transmission of the SRS resource identified by the SRI and here, the SRS resource precedes PDCCH (i.e., slot n) carrying the SRI).
Regarding claim 12, Park teaches wherein the DCI corresponds to a DCI format that includes at least one field corresponding to parameters of the codebook,([0521] Discloses the DCI format 0_1 may be mapped to one of the indexes in Table 26 below based on the value of ‘codebookSubset’ which is the higher layer parameter configured from the BS by the UE) .
Regarding claim 13 Park teaches wherein the codebook comprises a ‘precoding information and number of layers’ field that is: reserved; or padded with a number of bits having values equal to zero([0521] discloses a value of the precoding and number of layers field included in the DCI format 0_1 may be mapped to one of the indexes in Table 26 below based on the value of ‘codebookSubset’ which is the higher layer parameter configured from the BS by the UE)
Cited prior arts not relied upon on current office-action.
US 20220141803 A1: discloses a method and device for determining a codebook subset and a user equipment.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZEWDU A BEYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7157. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-6:00.
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, Huy D Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ZEWDU A BEYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
Prosecution Insights