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
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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, 2, 4, 14, and 17-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DUAN et al. (US 20210112498) in view of Gu et al. (WO 2022110217).
Regarding claims 1, 14, and 17-22, DUAN teaches reporting capability information of the terminal to a network side device, wherein the capability information comprises an antenna switching capability ([0096] The UE 704 may generate an antenna switching capability report and transmit the report to the base station 702 via an RRC connection request).
DUAN, however, does not teach the capability information comprises a maximum number of transmitted layers being greater than two. Gu teaches, in the middle of English translated version, The number of layers, for example, the maximum number of uplink MIMO layers of the CB type SRS supported by the terminal can be reported through the maxNumberMIMO-LayersCB-PUSCH information element. The possible values of maxNumberMIMO-LayersCB-PUSCH are as follows: oneLayer,twoLayers,fourLayers. … fourLayers indicates that the maximum number of uplink MIMO layers supported by the terminal is 4. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine with Gu since he allocation flexibility of SRS resources and the utilization rate of the SRS resources can be improved (Abstract, Gu).
Regarding claim 2, neither DUAN nor Gu expressly teaches wherein the maximum number of transmitted layers being three (3T). However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the maximum number of transmitted layers being three (3T), since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980).
Regarding claim 4, DUAN a switching principle of the antenna switching capability comprises uplink switching, downlink switching, or uplink and downlink switching, and wherein the uplink switching comprises dynamic switching of a transmitting antenna or port, the downlink switching comprises dynamic switching of a receiving antenna or port, and the uplink and downlink switching comprises dynamic switching of transmitting and receiving antennas or ports ([0057] The antenna switching capability may include at least a number of receive (RX) antenna ports of the UE 104 or a number of transmit (TX) chains of the UE 104 switchably coupled to two or more of the RX antenna ports).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DUAN et al. (US 20210112498) modified by Gu et al. (WO 2022110217), and further in view of Zhang et al. (US 20220174592).
Regarding claim 3, neither DUAN nor Gu expressly teaches wherein the capability information further comprises a maximum number of received layers being four (4R), or the maximum number of received layers being six (6R), or the maximum number of received layers being eight (8R). Zhang teaches [0061] reporting a maximum number of preferred UL and/or DL layers. Zhang further teaches a sequence in [0024] the UE may send a message to the gNB that includes a maximum MIMO layer preference information element, such as: MaxMIMO-LayerPreference-r16 reduced MaxMIMO-LayerFR1-DL-r16 INTEGER (1…8), where DL is downlink(=received). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine with Zhang in order to use various standards and protocols to transmit data between a base station and a wireless mobile device ([0002], Zhang).
15. (Canceled)
16. (Canceled)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9 and 10-13 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
KUANG et al. (WO 2020192782) discloses the network device receives the MIMO layer number information sent by the UE; wherein, The MIMO layer number information may include: the maximum value of the MIMO layer number expected by the UE, or the absolute value of the MIMO layer number expected by the UE.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EUNSOOK CHOI whose telephone number is (571)270-1822. The examiner can normally be reached on 8am-4:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached on 5712723940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/EUNSOOK CHOI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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