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
This is response to Application 18/689,146 filed on 03/05/2024 in which claims 36-54 are presented for examination.
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)(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.
Claims 36-49 and 51-54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated Yuan (US 2021/0119674 A1).
1. Regarding claim 36, Yuan teaches a method performed by a network entity in a communications network (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0059] to [0072]), the
communication network including a plurality of network nodes communicatively coupled to the network entity via a cascaded topology, the method comprising:
transmitting scheduling information to a first network node of the plurality of network nodes, the scheduling information indicating user layers to be used for communication with a communication device (Figure 3 305; Paragraph [0065] and [0066] MU-MIMO scheduling);
receiving an indication of an intermediate beamforming weight from the first network node (Fig. 3, Paragraph [0062] to [0064] compressed matrix);
determining a part of a frequency-domain beamforming weight based on the indication of the intermediate beamforming weight (Fig 3 Paragraphs [0060] and [0067] partial precoding information); and
communicating with the communication device via the first network node using the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0069] to [0072] improved precoder information notification).
2. Regarding claim 37, Yuan teaches wherein receiving the indication of the intermediate beamforming weight comprises receiving an indication of a combined intermediate beamforming weight from the first network node, the combined intermediate beamforming weight being a combination of intermediate beamforming weights that are each associated with one of the plurality of network nodes (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0059] to [0072] Full precoding generation).
3. Regarding claim 38, Yuan teaches wherein the combined intermediate beamforming weight is a Hermitian matrix of size K X K, where K is a total number of user layers served by the network entity (Yuan, Paragraph [0043] Hermitian matrix).
4. Regarding claim 39, Yuan teaches wherein the indication of the combined intermediate beamforming weight is an indication of upper triangle components or lower triangle components of the Hermitian matrix (Yuan, Paragraphs [0062] and [0063] triangle components).
5. Regarding claim 40, Yuan teaches wherein determining the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight comprises:
determining a regularization factor based on the intermediate beamforming weight;
determining an identity matrix of size K X K, where K is a total number of user layers
served by the network entity (Yuan, Paragraph [0067] factor of 1 as regularization factor); and
determining the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight based on the inverse
of an addition of the intermediate beamforming weight and a multiplication of the identity matrix and regularization factor (Yuan, Figure 3 Paragraph [0062] correlation-relationship matrix generation).
6. Regarding claim 41, Yuan teaches, wherein communicating with the communication device
comprises:
determining an intermediate downlink (DL) signal based on DL data associated with the communication device and the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight, wherein determining the intermediate DL signal comprises determining a beamformed user-layer DL data stream based on a modulated symbol of a user layer associated with the communication device and based on the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight (Figure 3 Paragraph [0068] and [0069] UE scheduling); and
transmitting the intermediate DL signal to the first network node (Figure 3 Paragraph [0068] and [0069] UE scheduling).
7. Regarding claim 42, Yuan teaches wherein communicating with the communication device comprises:
receiving an intermediate uplink (UL) signal associated with the communication device
from the first network node (Paragraph [0068] and [0069] full precoding generation); and
determining a beamformed received signal associated with the communication device
based on the intermediate UL signal and the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight (Paragraph [0068] and [0069] full precoding generation).
8. Regarding claim 43, Yuan teaches wherein receiving the intermediate UL signal comprises:
receiving a combined intermediate UL signal from the first network node, the combined
intermediate UL signal being a combination of intermediate UL signals that are each associated with one of the plurality of network nodes; and
determining the intermediate UL signal based on the combined intermediate UL signal (Figure 3, Paragraph [0068] and [0069] full precoding generation).
9. Regarding claim 44, Yuan teaches a method performed by a first network node of a plurality of network nodes in a communications network (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0059] to [0072]), the plurality of network nodes being communicatively coupled to a first network entity via a cascaded topology, the method comprising:
receiving scheduling information from a second network entity in the communication
network indicating user layers to be used for communication with a communication device (Figure 3 305; Paragraph [0065] and [0066] MU-MIMO scheduling);;
determining an intermediate beamforming weight based on a channel estimate associated with a channel between the first network node and the communication device (Fig. 3, Paragraph [0062] to [0064] compressed matrix);;
transmitting an indication of the intermediate beamforming weight to the second network entity; determining a part of a frequency-domain beamforming weight based on the channel estimate (Fig 3 Paragraphs [0060] and [0067] partial precoding information); and communicating data between the second network entity and the communication device using the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0069] to [0072] improved precoder information notification).
10. Regarding claim 45, Yuan teaches wherein the intermediate beamforming weight comprises a
first intermediate beamforming weight, and
wherein transmitting the indication of the intermediate beamforming weight comprises:
receiving an indication of a second intermediate beamforming weight from a
second network node of the plurality of network nodes;
combining the first intermediate beamforming weight and the second intermediate
beamforming weight to form a combined intermediate beamforming weight; and
transmitting an indication of the combined intermediate beamforming weight to
the second network entity (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0059] to [0072] Full precoding generation).
11. Regarding claim 46, Yuan teaches, wherein the first intermediate beamforming weight, the second intermediate beamforming weight, and the combined intermediate beamforming weight are each a Hermitian matrix of size K X K, where K is a total number of user layers (Yuan, Paragraph [0043] Hermitian matrix).
12. Regarding claim 47, Yuan teaches wherein the indication of the first intermediate beamforming weight, the indication of the second intermediate beamforming weight, and the indication of the combined intermediate beamforming weight are each an indication of upper triangle components or lower triangle components of their respective Hermitian matrix (Yuan, Paragraphs [0062] and [0063] triangle components).
13. Regarding claim 48, Yuan teaches, wherein receiving the scheduling information comprises receiving an indication of user layers to be transmitted in the next transmission time interval, and
wherein communicating the data comprises:
receiving an intermediate downlink (DL) signal from the second network entity;
generating a beamformed DL signal based on the intermediate DL signal and the
part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight (Figure 3 Paragraph [0068] and [0069] UE scheduling); and
transmitting the beamformed DL signal to the communication device (Figure 3 Paragraph [0068] and [0069] UE scheduling).
14. Regarding claim 49, Yuan teaches wherein receiving the intermediate DL signal comprises
receiving a user layer downlink data stream to be transmitted to the communication device (Figure 3 session data flow), and
wherein generating the beamformed DL signal comprises:
extracting user-layer in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data from the user layer
downlink data stream based on the scheduling information; and
generating the beamformed DL signal based on the user-layer IQ data and the part
of the frequency-domain beamforming weight (Figure 3 Paragraph [0068] and [0069] scheduling and precoding information notification; full precoding generation).
15. Regarding claim 51, Yuan teaches wherein receiving the scheduling information comprises
receiving an indication of user layers to be received in the next transmission time interval, and wherein communicating the data comprises:
receiving an uplink (UL) signal from the communication device;
generating an intermediate UL signal based on the UL signal and the part of the
frequency-domain beamforming weight (Figure 3, Paragraph [0043] Hermitian matrix); and transmitting the intermediate UL signal to the second network entity (Paragraph [0068] and [0069] full precoding generation).
16. Regarding claim 52, Yuan teaches further comprising:
responsive to receiving the scheduling information, transmitting the scheduling
information to a second network node of the plurality of network nodes,
wherein the intermediate UL signal is a first intermediate UL signal (Fig. 3 UE scheduling), and
wherein transmitting the intermediate UL signal to the second network entity comprises:
receiving a second intermediate UL signal from the second network node;
combining the first intermediate UL signal and the second intermediate UL signal
to form a combined intermediate UL signal (Fig. 3 Scheduling and Precoding Information notification); and
transmitting the combined intermediate UL signal to the second network entity (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0059] to [0072] Full precoding generation).
17. Regarding claim 53, Yuan teaches a network entity in a communications network (Figure 3), the network entity comprising:
processing circuitry; and
memory coupled to the processing circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are
executable by the processing circuitry to cause the network entity to:
transmit scheduling information to a first network node of the plurality of network nodes, the scheduling information indicating user layers to be used for communication with a communication device (Figure 3 305; Paragraph [0065] and [0066] MU-MIMO scheduling);
receive an indication of an intermediate beamforming weight from the first network node (Fig. 3, Paragraph [0062] to [0064] compressed matrix);
determine a part of a frequency-domain beamforming weight based on the indication of the intermediate beamforming weight (Fig 3 Paragraphs [0060] and [0067] partial precoding information); and
communicate with the communication device via the first network node using the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight (Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0069] to [0072] improved precoder information notification).
18. Regarding claim 54, Yuan teaches a first network node in a communications network (Fig. 3), the first network node
comprising:
processing circuitry; and memory coupled to the processing circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are
executable by the processing circuitry to cause the first network node to:
receiving scheduling information from a second network entity in the communication
network indicating user layers to be used for communication with a communication device (Figure 3 305; Paragraph [0065] and [0066] MU-MIMO scheduling);;
determining an intermediate beamforming weight based on a channel estimate associated with a channel between the first network node and the communication device (Fig. 3, Paragraph [0062] to [0064] compressed matrix);;
transmitting an indication of the intermediate beamforming weight to the second network entity; determining a part of a frequency-domain beamforming weight based on the channel estimate (Fig 3 Paragraphs [0060] and [0067] partial precoding information); and communicating data between the second network entity and the communication device using the part of the frequency-domain beamforming weight Fig. 3 Paragraphs [0069] to [0072] improved precoder information notification).
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.
Claim 50 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan (US 2021/0119674 A1) in view of Herschfelt et al. (US 2022/0286172 A1).
19. Regarding claim 50, Yuan does not explicitly disclose further comprising:
responsive to receiving the scheduling information, transmitting the scheduling
information to a second network node of the plurality of network nodes; and
responsive to receiving the intermediate DL signal, transmitting the intermediate DL
signal to the second network node.
Herschfelt teaches responsive to receiving the scheduling information, transmitting the scheduling information to a second network node of the plurality of network nodes; and responsive to receiving the intermediate DL signal, transmitting the intermediate DL signal to the second network node (Paragraph [0042] multi-stage distributed beamforming; relays the signal by beamforming to the receiver).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide responsive to receiving the scheduling information, transmitting the scheduling information to a second network node of the plurality of network nodes; and responsive to receiving the intermediate DL signal, transmitting the intermediate DL signal to the second network node as taught by Herschfelt in the system of Yuan for increased range, data rate and robustness see Paragraph [0042] of Herschfelt.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Raghothaman et al. (US 2021/0243840 A1)
Dai et al. (US 2014/0293904 A1)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIANE LEE LO whose telephone number is (571)270-1952. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8 am - 5 pm.
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/DIANE L LO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466