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 .
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.
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) 1-3, 5, 7, 9-12, 14-16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 29-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abdelghaffar et al (US 20240048348) in view of Liu et al (US 20190253214).
As to claims 1 and 29 Abdelghaffar discloses an SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration, the method being applied to a terminal (Abdelghaffar ¶0102- last sentence- the techniques.. enable the UE 115 to adapt (e.g., downgrade or upgrade) the SRS antenna switching configuration), and an SRS transmission device for antenna switching configuration, comprising: a processor; and a memory configured to store instructions executable by the processor (Abdelghaffar ¶0007, ¶0141); wherein the processor is configured for: obtaining indication information, the indication information being used to indicate indicating antenna switching configuration related information (Abdelghaffar ¶0058- 6th sentence- the base station may configure SRS resources via an SRS resource indicator (SRI) or via implicit indication using MAC-CE or DCI. ¶103- a base station 105 may transmit a MAC-CE command to indicate which SRS resources within an SRS resource set may be activated or deactivated via a bitmap….the network may indicate different SRS antenna switching configurations directly (e.g., from 2T8R to 2T4R) using Layer 2 (L2) mechanisms (e.g., MAC-CE). That is, adaptation on the resource set level using Layer 1 (L1) (e.g., DCI) and L2 (e.g., MAC-CE) mechanisms may be beneficial.) , and the antenna switching configuration related information comprising a transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶0101- 1st sentence- a UE 115 may transmit SRS via a set of transmit antenna ports of the UE 115. The UE 115 may be configured to perform antenna switching, which may include using resources for antenna switching to transmit reference signals (e.g., SRSs)using different antenna ports of the UE 115); determining, based on the indication information, a SRS resource for sending the antenna switching configuration; and sending the SRS [[for]] corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration according to the SRS resource (Abdelghaffar ¶110- last two sentences- the base station 105-a may configure SRS resources 230 via an SRI or via implicit indication using MAC-CE or DCI. The UE 115-a may define a rule to determine which SRS resource sets 235 and SRS resources 230 to activate and deactivate).
Abdelghaffar though teaching an adaptive antenna switching configuration however is silent with regard to a target antenna switching configuration corresponding to the transmitting antenna port- as interpreted: the network scheduling to indicate that the SRS correspond to a ‘target’ antenna switching configuration. However in an analogous art Liu remedies this deficiency (Liu ¶0187- last sentence- Process 3700 then concludes at block 3730 where the scheduling entity 3600 generates an SRS configuration for the scheduled entity (e.g., scheduled entity 3800) based on the determination in which a default SRS configuration comprises configuring at least one of the at least four antennas to simultaneously support the SRS antenna switching and the UL MIMO communication).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Abdelghaffar with that of Liu for the purpose of potential power saving and efficient use of network resources (Abdelghaffar ¶102- last sentence).
As to claim 2 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the determining, based on the indication information, the target SRS resource for sending the target antenna switching configuration comprises: determining a target SRS resource set in first SRS resource sets, wherein the target SRS resource set comprises one or more SRS resources corresponding to an antenna switching configuration supported by the terminal, the first SRS resource sets are a plurality of SRS resource sets configured by a network for the terminal that correspond to different antenna switching configurations, and the SRS resource set corresponding to each of the antenna switching configurations comprises one or more SRS resources; and determining the target SRS resource for sending the target antenna switching configuration in the target SRS resource set based on the indication information (Abdelghaffar ¶0107- the UE 115-a may perform SRS antenna switching, which may involve the UE 115-a transmitting one or more SRSs to the base station 105-a over one or more transmit antenna ports. In some cases, the base station 105-a may transmit control signaling 215 via the communications link 205-a that may indicate a configuration for the UE 115-a to use in selecting one or more SRS resource sets (also referred to herein as resource sets) for a BWP for the UE 115-a. Each of the SRS resource sets may include reference signal resources (e.g., SRS resources) that correspond to one or more antenna ports 210 of the UE 115-a).
As to claim 3 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 2, wherein the terminal is a terminal that supports transmitting antenna switching (Abdelghaffar ¶0107- 1st sentence- the UE 115-a may perform SRS antenna switching, which may involve the UE 115-a transmitting one or more SRSs to the base station 105-a over one or more transmit antenna ports); and the indication information indicates to adjust a current antenna switching configuration to the target transmitting antenna or target transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶0120- 1st sentence- the UE 115-a receives an indication of the number of transmit antennas or antenna ports and receive antennas or antenna ports it may use, the UE 115-a may use a set of rules for determining which SRS resource sets and SRS resources to activate and deactivate ); or wherein the terminal is a terminal that supports switching of transmitting antennas and/or receiving antennas; and the indication information indicates the target transmitting antenna or target transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration; or the indication information indicates the target antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶0109- 3rd – 6th sentence- In some cases, up to a predefined number of SRS resource sets (e.g., 2 SRS resource sets) may be configured for SRS sounding with antenna switching. Each port of an SRS resource may be sounded in each symbol. In some cases, the UE 115-a may be configured to use a number of transmit antennas as well as a number of receive antennas. The UE 115-a may use up to the number of transmit antennas to transmit signals and may use up to the number of receive antennas to receive signals. In some cases, the number of transmit antennas versus the number of receive antennas may be given by xTyR, where x may be equal to the number of transmit antennas and y may be equal to the number of receive antennas. For example, 2T4R may represent a UE 115-a having or being configured to use 2 transmit chains and 4 resources.).
As to claim 5 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the indication information indicates the target transmitting antenna or target transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶110- last two sentences- the base station 105-a may configure SRS resources 230 via an SRI or via implicit indication using MAC-CE or DCI. The UE 115-a may define a rule to determine which SRS resource sets 235 and SRS resources 230 to activate and deactivate, and may additionally or alternatively use antenna port mapping to determine which SRS resource sets 235 and SRS resources 230 to activate and deactivate); and wherein the indication information comprises at least one of a bitmap, an index and a codepoint that correspond to the target transmitting antenna or the target transmitting antenna port (Abdelghaffar ¶103- a base station 105 may transmit a MAC-CE command to indicate which SRS resources within an SRS resource set may be activated or deactivated via a bitmap. Abdelghaffar ¶112- 2nd and 3rd sentences- the base station 105-a may transmit a bitmap indication for activating SRS resource sets and SRS resources. In some cases, SRS resource sets may be activated or deactivated based on the bitmap, where each bit corresponds to an SRS resource set ID. In some cases, there may be a one-to-one mapping between a bit index and the SRS resource set IDs, which may be RRC configured),
As to claim 7 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the indication information indicates SRS resources corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration, and the SRS resources belong to one or more SRS resource sets (Abdelghaffar ¶112- 2nd and 3rd sentences- the base station 105-a may transmit a bitmap indication for activating SRS resource sets and SRS resources) and wherein the indication information comprises at least one of a bitmap, an index and a codepoint that correspond to the SRS resources corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶103- a base station 105 may transmit a MAC-CE command to indicate which SRS resources within an SRS resource set may be activated or deactivated via a bitmap).
As to claim 9 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 5, wherein the determining, based on the indication information, the target SRS resource for sending the target antenna switching configuration comprises: determining a target SRS resource set in a second SRS resource set, wherein the second SRS resource set is a set of SRS resources corresponding to the antenna switching configurations of all transmitting antennas (Abdelghaffar ¶104- 3rd sentence- In some cases, all SRS resources across all SRS resource sets may be bitmapped into N bits, where N is the number of SRS resources for a UE 115 with N antenna ports. In some cases, the base station 105 may configure SRS resources via an SRI or via implicit indication using MAC-CE or DCI. ); and determining the target SRS resource for sending the target antenna switching configuration in the target SRS resource set based on the indication information (Abdelghaffar ¶104- last sentence- The UE 115 may define a rule to determine which SRS resource sets and SRS resources to activate and deactivate, and may additionally or alternatively use antenna port mapping to determine which SRS resource sets and SRS resources to activate and deactivate).
As to claim 10 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the sending the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration comprises: activating and sending the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration; or determining and sending the SRS resources corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration based on received RRC signaling (Abdelghaffar ¶0116- the base station 105-a may configure SRS resources using an SRI (e.g., via codepoint). The base station 105-a may transmit an SRI codepoint to the UE 115-a, which may map to a table as shown in and described with reference to Table 2. In some cases, the table may be an RRC configured table of preconfigured (e.g., or otherwise indicated) mapping between bits and SRS resources); or switching to a bandwidth part comprising the target SRS resource, and sending the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration ( Abdelghaffar ¶0118-¶0119- the UE 115-a may use L1/L2 adaptation of antenna switching per BWP. …. the UE 115-a may receive an implicit indication of SRS resource sets and SRS resources. … the base station 105-a may indicate only the number of transmit antennas (e.g., xT) or the number of receive antennas (e.g., yR) in a MAC-CE or DCI. In some examples, if the UE 115-a has SRS switching capabilities (e.g., 4T4R, 2T4R, 2T2R, 1T2R, 1T1R), the base station 105-a may indicate the exact SRS switching mode to the UE 115-a.).
As to claim 11 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the indication information comprises at least one of the following: a media access control-control element, downlink control information (Abdelghaffar ¶0119- the base station 105-a may indicate only the number of transmit antennas (e.g., xT) or the number of receive antennas (e.g., yR) in a MAC-CE or DCI , grant controller downlink control information, and radio resource control information (Abdelghaffar ¶0116. In some cases, the table may be an RRC configured table of preconfigured (e.g., or otherwise indicated) mapping between bits and SRS resources).
As to claim 12 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: reporting antenna switching configuration information, the antenna switching configuration information indicating one or a combination of the following: a target antenna switching configuration expected by the terminal; a transmitting antenna configuration or transmitting antenna port configuration expected by the terminal (Abdelghaffar ¶107- 1st sentence-the UE 115-a may perform SRS antenna switching, which may involve the UE 115-a transmitting one or more SRSs to the base station 105-a over one or more transmit antenna ports. Abdelghaffar ¶0109-the UE 115-a may be configured to use a number of transmit antennas as well as a number of receive antennas.); and a SRS resource configuration expected by the terminal; wherein the reporting the antenna switching configuration information comprises: reporting the antenna switching configuration information based on a media access control-control element(Abdelghaffar ¶0104- the base station 105 may configure the UE 115 for SRS antenna switching and may activate or deactivate the SRS resources with the bitmap using a MAC-CE (L2 signaling) or DCI),).
As to claim 14 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu discloses the The SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1, wherein the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration comprises one or more of a periodic SRS, an aperiodic SRS and a semi- persistent SRS (Abdelghaffar ¶0107- 4th sentence- The base station 105-a may configure the one or more SRS resource sets aperiodically, semi-persistently, or periodically for an active BWP of the UE 115-a).
As to claims 15 and 30 Abdelghaffar discloses an SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration, the method being applied to a network device and an SRS transmission device for antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar Fig. 13 ¶0180), comprising: a processor; and a memory configured to store instructions executable by the processor (Abdelghaffar ¶0027, ¶0180); wherein the processor is configured for: sending indication information, the indication information being used to indicate indicating antenna switching configuration related information (Abdelghaffar ¶103- a base station 105 may transmit a MAC-CE command to indicate which SRS resources within an SRS resource set may be activated or deactivated via a bitmap….the network may indicate different SRS antenna switching configurations directly (e.g., from 2T8R to 2T4R) using Layer 2 (L2) mechanisms (e.g., MAC-CE). That is, adaptation on the resource set level using Layer 1 (L1) (e.g., DCI) and L2 (e.g., MAC-CE) mechanisms may be beneficial.), and the antenna switching configuration related information comprising a transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶0101- 1st sentence- a UE 115 may transmit SRS via a set of transmit antenna ports of the UE 115. The UE 115 may be configured to perform antenna switching, which may include using resources for antenna switching to transmit reference signals (e.g., SRSs)using different antenna ports of the UE 115); and receiving the SRS of the antenna switching configuration (Abdelghaffar ¶101- 5th sentence- The UE 115 may support a number of antenna switching configurations (e.g., 2T4R, 1T4R, 1T2R) such that a base station 105 may configure multiple BWPs with different SRS configurations for use by the UE 115).
Abdelghaffar though teaching an adaptive antenna switching configuration however is silent with regard to a target antenna switching configuration corresponding to the transmitting antenna port- as interpreted: the network scheduling to indicate that the SRS correspond to a ‘target’ antenna switching. However in an analogous art Liu remedies this deficiency (Liu ¶0187- last sentence- Process 3700 then concludes at block 3730 where the scheduling entity 3600 generates an SRS configuration for the scheduled entity (e.g., scheduled entity 3800) based on the determination in which a default SRS configuration comprises configuring at least one of the at least four antennas to simultaneously support the SRS antenna switching and the UL MIMO communication). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Abdelghaffar with that of Liu for the purpose of potential power saving and efficient use of network resources (Abdelghaffar ¶102- last sentence).
As to claim 16 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 15, wherein the indication information indicates to adjust a current antenna switching configuration to the target transmitting antenna or target transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration(Abdelghaffar ¶0120- 1st sentence- the UE 115-a receives an indication of the number of transmit antennas or antenna ports and receive antennas or antenna ports it may use, the UE 115-a may use a set of rules for determining which SRS resource sets and SRS resources to activate and deactivate ); or
wherein the indication information indicates the target transmitting antenna or target transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration; or the indication information indicates the target antenna switching configuration(Abdelghaffar ¶0109= 3rd – 6th sentence- In some cases, up to a predefined number of SRS resource sets (e.g., 2 SRS resource sets) may be configured for SRS sounding with antenna switching. Each port of an SRS resource may be sounded in each symbol. In some cases, the UE 115-a may be configured to use a number of transmit antennas as well as a number of receive antennas. The UE 115-a may use up to the number of transmit antennas to transmit signals and may use up to the number of receive antennas to receive signals. In some cases, the number of transmit antennas versus the number of receive antennas may be given by xTyR, where x may be equal to the number of transmit antennas and y may be equal to the number of receive antennas. For example, 2T4R may represent a UE 115-a having or being configured to use 2 transmit chains and 4 resources).
As to claim 18 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 15, wherein the indication information is used to indicate indicates the target transmitting antenna or target transmitting antenna port used for the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration(Abdelghaffar ¶110- last two sentences- the base station 105-a may configure SRS resources 230 via an SRI or via implicit indication using MAC-CE or DCI. The UE 115-a may define a rule to determine which SRS resource sets 235 and SRS resources 230 to activate and deactivate, and may additionally or alternatively use antenna port mapping to determine which SRS resource sets 235 and SRS resources 230 to activate and deactivate).;; and wherein the indication information comprises at least one of a bitmap, an index and a codepoint that correspond to the target transmitting antenna or the target transmitting antenna port(Abdelghaffar ¶103- a base station 105 may transmit a MAC-CE command to indicate which SRS resources within an SRS resource set may be activated or deactivated via a bitmap. Abdelghaffar ¶112- 2nd and 3rd sentences- the base station 105-a may transmit a bitmap indication for activating SRS resource sets and SRS resources. In some cases, SRS resource sets may be activated or deactivated based on the bitmap, where each bit corresponds to an SRS resource set ID. In some cases, there may be a one-to-one mapping between a bit index and the SRS resource set IDs, which may be RRC configured),.
As to claim 20 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 15, wherein the indication information indicates SRS resources corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration, and the SRS resources belong to one or more SRS resource sets(Abdelghaffar ¶112- 2nd and 3rd sentences- the base station 105-a may transmit a bitmap indication for activating SRS resource sets and SRS resources); and wherein the indication information comprises at least one of a bitmap, an index and a codepoint that correspond to the SRS resources corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration(Abdelghaffar ¶103- a base station 105 may transmit a MAC-CE command to indicate which SRS resources within an SRS resource set may be activated or deactivated via a bitmap)..
As to claim 22 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 15, wherein the method further comprises further comprising: sending radio resource control (RRC) signaling, wherein the RRC signaling indicates SRS resources corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration(Abdelghaffar ¶0116- the base station 105-a may configure SRS resources using an SRI (e.g., via codepoint). The base station 105-a may transmit an SRI codepoint to the UE 115-a, which may map to a table as shown in and described with reference to Table 2. In some cases, the table may be an RRC configured table of preconfigured (e.g., or otherwise indicated) mapping between bits and SRS resources).
As to claim 24 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 15, wherein the method further includes further comprising: obtaining antenna switching configuration information reported by a terminal, the antenna switching configuration information being used to indicate indicating
a transmitting antenna configuration or transmitting antenna port configuration expected by the termina(Abdelghaffar ¶107- 1st sentence-the UE 115-a may perform SRS antenna switching, which may involve the UE 115-a transmitting one or more SRSs to the base station 105-a over one or more transmit antenna ports. Abdelghaffar ¶0109-the UE 115-a may be configured to use a number of transmit antennas as well as a number of receive antennas.); and a SRS resource configuration expected by the terminal (Abdelghaffar ¶0107- the base station 105-a may transmit control signaling … that may indicate a configuration for the UE 115-a to use in selecting one or more SRS resource sets (also referred to herein as resource sets) for a BWP for the UE 115-a. Each of the SRS resource sets may include reference signal resources (e.g., SRS resources) that correspond to one or more antenna ports 210 of the UE 115-a. The base station 105-a may configure the one or more SRS resource sets aperiodically, semi-persistently, or periodically for an active BWP of the UE 115-a.).
As to claim 26 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 15, wherein the SRS corresponding to the target antenna switching configuration comprises one or more of a periodic SRS, an aperiodic SRS and a semi- persistent SRS(Abdelghaffar ¶0107- 4th sentence- The base station 105-a may configure the one or more SRS resource sets aperiodically, semi-persistently, or periodically for an active BWP of the UE 115-a).
As to claim 31 the combined teachings of Abdelghaffar and Liu disclose a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when being executed by a processor of a terminal, cause the terminal to perform the SRS transmission method for antenna switching configuration according to claim 1 (Abdelghaffar ¶0009, ¶0175- 2nd sentence).
Conclusion
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/DERRICK V ROSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462