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 office action is in response to the application filed on 03/14/2024.
Claims 1-10, 12-17, 19-20, 24-25 are currently pending.
Claims 11, 18, 21-23, 26-27 are canceled in a preliminary amendment.
Claims 1-10, 12, 14-17, 20, 24-25 are currently amended.
Claims 2, 6-8, 16-17 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims.
Claims 1, 3-5, 9-10, 12-15, 19-20, 24-25 are rejected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1, 3-5, 9-10, 12-15, 19-20, 24-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kexin Xiao et al (US 20230403118 A1) in view of Bingchao Liu et al (US 20230047048 A1).
For Claim 1, Xiao discloses a method for triggering a sounding reference signal (SRS) used for antenna switching (Xiao teaches, in ¶ 0064, an indication technique for indicating SRS resources within an SRS resource set that are allocated for SRS transmissions), performed by a network device, the method comprising:
receiving capability reporting information sent by a terminal device, wherein the capability reporting information is configured to represent an antenna switching configuration combination supported by the terminal device (Xiao teaches, in FIG. 6, that At 605, UE 115-e may transmit, to base station 105-e, a capability message indicating a first number of one or more transmit antennas supported by the UE for antenna switching); FIG. 6, that At 610, UE 115-e may receive, to base station 105-e, based at least in part on the capability message, a SRS configuration indicating a mapping between each SRS resource group for at least a subset of a plurality of SRS resource groups … UE 115-e may receive the SRS configuration indicating a number of configured ports for antenna switching and a number of configured ports for uplink transmission); and sending, based on the capability reporting information, SRS resource configuration information to the terminal device (Xiao teaches, in FIG. 6, that At 615, that UE 115-e may receive, from base station 105-e, a control message comprising a first bit sequence of the plurality of bit sequences indicating a first SRS resource group of the subset of the plurality of SRS resource groups based at least in part on the mapping).
Xiao fails to expressly disclose wherein the SRS resource configuration information comprises information for activating the SRS resource used for uplink SRS.
However, Liu, in analogous art, discloses wherein the SRS resource configuration information comprises information for activating the SRS resource used for uplink SRS (Liu teaches, in ¶ 0011, that the remote unit receives an activation command through a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI), wherein the activation command activates one or more SRS resources out of all the configured SRS resources within the one or more SRS resource sets used for antenna switching with the resource type set as aperiodic).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Xiao with the activation command taught in Liu. The motivation is so that the UE may only transmit the activated SRS resources, not all the configured SRS resources, when they are triggered [Liu: ¶ 0155].
For Claim 3, Xiao discloses a method, wherein the SRS is semi-persistent SRS, and sending, based on the capability reporting information, SRS resource configuration information to the terminal device comprises: sending, based on the capability reporting information, Medium Access Control Control Element, MAC CE, signaling to the terminal device to trigger the semi-persistent SRS (Xiao teaches, in ¶ 0121, that Base station 105-c may select a subset of the SRS resource groups from the full set of SRS resources group and may transmit an indication of the subset 415 to UE 115-c via a control message 410 aperiodically or semi-persistently, such as through RRC or MAC-CE signaling).
Xiao fails to expressly disclose wherein the MAC CE signaling is configured to simultaneously activate or deactivate a target SRS resource set.
However, Liu, in analogous art, discloses wherein the MAC CE signaling is configured to simultaneously activate or deactivate a target SRS resource set (Liu teaches, in ¶ 0079, that A semi-persistent SRS has a configured periodicity and slot offset in the same way as a periodic SRS. However, actual SRS transmission according to the configured periodicity and slot offset is activated and deactivated by means of MAC CE signaling).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Xiao with the activation command taught in Liu. The motivation is so that the UE may only transmit the activated SRS resources, not all the configured SRS resources, when they are triggered [Liu: ¶ 0155].
For Claim 4, Xiao discloses a method, wherein the target SRS resource set comprises an SRS resource set suitable for one or more usages, and wherein for the SRS resource set suitable for antenna switching, one or more SRS resource sets corresponding to certain antenna switching configuration can be activated (Xiao teaches, in ¶ 0093, Base station 105-a may configure UE 115-a with multiple SRS resources, which may be grouped into SRS resource sets depending on the use case or usage type (e.g., antenna switching, codebook-based, non-codebook based, beam management)).
For Claim 5, Xiao discloses a method, wherein the SRS is aperiodic SRS, and sending, based on the capability reporting information. SRS resource configuration information to the terminal device comprises: sending RRC signaling to the terminal device, wherein the RRC signaling is not configured with a triggering parameter for an aperiodic SRS resource (Xiao teaches, in ¶ 0121, Base station 105-c may select a subset of the SRS resource groups from the full set of SRS resources group and may transmit an indication of the subset 415 to UE 115-c via a control message 410 aperiodically or semi-persistently, such as through RRC or MAC-CE signaling). Liu also teaches, in ¶ 0015, that in case that the capability is 1T6R, 2 SRS resource sets are configured each with resource type set as aperiodic.
For Claim 9, Xiao discloses all of the claimed subject matter with the exception of wherein the MAC CE signaling is configured to activate or update values of some codepoints in some aperiodic SRS resource trigger lists configured by RRC.
However, Liu, in analogous art, discloses that the MAC CE signaling is configured to activate or update values of some codepoints in some aperiodic SRS resource trigger lists configured by RRC (Liu teaches, in ¶ 0159, that BWP ID: This field indicates a DL BWP for which the MAC CE applies as the codepoint of the DCI or UL bandwidth part indicator field. Liu teaches, in ¶ 0159, that S.sub.i: This field indicates the activate status of the (i+1).sup.th SRS resources. The S.sub.i field is set to 1 to indicate that the (i+1).sup.th SRS resource shall be activated).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Xiao with the activation command taught in Liu. The motivation is so that the UE may only transmit the activated SRS resources, not all the configured SRS resources, when they are triggered [Liu: ¶ 0155].
For Claim 10, Xiao discloses all of the claimed subject matter with the exception of triggering an SRS resource set suitable for one or more usages through an aperiodic SRS resource triggering request field of the DCI, wherein the usages comprise an antenna switching, and the SRS resource set suitable for one or more usages comprises one or more SRS resource sets corresponding to a certain antenna switching configuration or sending enhanced DCI23 to the terminal device, wherein the enhanced DCI23 is configured to indicate a triggering codepoint corresponding to the aperiodic SRS resource triggering request field, to trigger SRS of a group of terminal devices in enhanced manner; or sending user-grouped GC-DCI to the terminal device, wherein the GC-DCI is configured to indicate a triggering codepoint corresponding to the aperiodic SRS resource triggering request field, to trigger SRS of a group of terminal devices in enhanced manner.
However, Liu, in analogous art, discloses triggering an SRS resource set suitable for one or more usages through an aperiodic SRS resource triggering request field of the DCI, wherein the usages comprise an antenna switching, and the SRS resource set suitable for one or more usages comprises one or more SRS resource sets corresponding to a certain antenna switching configuration (Liu teaches, in ¶ 0162, that the SRS resource activation command may also be carried by a DCI field with an length-N bitmap, e.g. ‘S.sub.0,S.sub.1,...,S.sub.N-1,S.sub.N’, where N is the number of configured SRS resources within the SRS resource set configured with the same resourceType and associated with the same aperiodic SRS triggering state for antenna switching. Each bit, i.e. S.sub.n, indicates the activate status of the (n+1).sup.th SRS resources associated with the same aperiodic SRS triggering state for antenna switching with the SRS resource sets configured with the same resourceType) or sending enhanced DCI23 to the terminal device, wherein the enhanced DCI23 is configured to indicate a triggering codepoint corresponding to the aperiodic SRS resource triggering request field, to trigger SRS of a group of terminal devices in enhanced manner; or sending user-grouped GC-DCI to the terminal device, wherein the GC-DCI is configured to indicate a triggering codepoint corresponding to the aperiodic SRS resource triggering request field, to trigger SRS of a group of terminal devices in enhanced manner.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system taught in Xiao with the activation command taught in Liu. The motivation is so that the UE may only transmit the activated SRS resources, not all the configured SRS resources, when they are triggered [Liu: ¶ 0155].
For Claim 12, please refer to the rejection of Claim 1, above.
For Claims 13-15, please refer to the rejection of Claims 3-5, above.
For Claims 19-20, please refer to the rejection of Claims 9-10, above.
For Claim 24, please refer to the rejection of Claim 1, above.
For Claim 25, Xiao discloses a communication device, comprising a processor and a memory for storing a computer program, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory (Xiao teaches, in ¶ 0011, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communications at a UE) to cause the method according to claim 12 to be implemented (please refer to the rejection of Claim 1, above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 6-8, 16-17 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 2, 6-8, 16-17 are considered allowable because the prior art does not teach limitations including.
“wherein the SRS resource suitable for antenna switching is configured within the same Bandwidth Part, BWP, by using Radio Resource Control, RRC, signaling, the SRS resource suitable for antenna switching comprises a SRS resource set for different antenna switching configurations that the terminal device can support, and each antenna switching configuration corresponds to one or more SRS resource sets,” in addition to other claim limitations as recited in dependent claim 2.
“ sending, based on the capability reporting information, MAC CE signaling to the terminal device, wherein the MAC CE signaling is configured to activate or update the SRS resource suitable for antenna switching, and wherein one or more SRS resource sets are activated, and an entry value for writing a parameter in an aperiodic SRS resource trigger list for each SRS resource set is reconfigured, and wherein entry values for multiple SRS resource sets corresponding to the same antenna switching configuration of the terminal device are restricted to be the same,” in addition to other claim limitations as recited, in various permutations, in dependent claims 6, 16.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Go et al (US 20230275730 A1) is pertinent to a method of transmitting and receiving a sounding reference signal in a wireless communication system and a device.
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/MOHAMED A KAMARA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412