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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 06/06/24 has been considered by the examiner and made of record in the application file.
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 1,2,4,5,6,7,11,15,16,17,18,19,29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ram et al. (US 20190373569, hereinafter Ram) in view of Yuan et al. (CN 112822697, hereinafter Yuan)
Regarding claim 1, Ram discloses a method in a first access point, AP, of processing signals from at least one user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving, for each of at least one other access point, information based on signals received at one or more antennas of the other access point from the at least one User Equipment, UE (Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1; An uplink transmission is a wireless signal transmitted from the UE toward the AP. Signals are received via antennas. A soft metric is information based on signals);
and processing the information based on the signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point to determine symbol estimates of symbols in the signals (Par. 88: Lines 10-12; AP1 processes the metrics received from AP2 together with its own decoding information to determine the transmitted date more accurately; A soft metric fundamentally involves symbols. It is a multi-bit value that measures the receiver’s confidence regarding the exact transmitted symbols before a hard decision is made. Decoding transmitted data requires which transmitted symbols most likely produces the received signal).
Ram does not disclose forwarding information identifying the symbol estimates to a processing node.
Yuan, however, discloses forwarding information identifying the symbol estimates to a processing node (Page 6: Lines 46-47; The CPU (processing node) receives a data symbol stream that is transmitted from the AP; Page 4: Lines 19-21; The AP sends MRC combined data symbols to the CPU, and the CPU uses those symbols to estimate the transmitted data symbols; Because the data symbol stream is used to estimate transmitted data symbols, the data symbol stream reasonably corresponds to information identifying symbol estimates).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram to forward the information identifying the symbol estimates determined by AP1 to a processing node, as taught by Yuan, in order to permit centralized processing of the symbol-related information and improve processing efficiency by leveraging the computational resources of the CPU for subsequent signal detection operations.
Regarding claim 2 as applied to claim 1, Ram discloses receiving signals at one or more antennas of the first access point from the a least one UE (Par. 88; Both AP1 and AP2 receive uplink transmissions from the STA; Because AP1 receives uplink transmission from the STA, AP1 receives signals at one or more antennas of the AP1);
wherein processing the signals from the at least one other access point to determine symbol estimated of the symbols in the signals comprises processing the signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point and the signals received at the one or more antennas of the first access point to determine the symbol estimates of the symbols in the antenna signals (Par. 88: Lines 6-12; AP2 processus the UE transmission and sends soft metrics to AP1. AP1 combines the soft metrics from AP2 with its own decoding results to decode the transmitted data).
Regarding claim 4 as applied to claim 1, Ram discloses receiving further signals at one or more antennas of the first access point from at least one further UE (Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1);
and sending information based on further signals to a further access point (Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1.
Ram teaches an AP receiving uplink transmissions from a STA and transmitting information derived from those transmissions to another AP. The soft metrics are information derived from the received uplink transmissions, and reporting the soft metrics to another AP corresponds to sending information based on the received signals to a further access point. Further, the disclosed operation is not dependent on any particular STA and is therefore reasonably applicable to an additional STA. Accordingly, STA1 reasonably corresponds to the claimed further UE because the reference teaches the recited functionality for a UE and would have been understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art to be equally applicable to another UE communicating with the AP.
Regarding claim 5 as applied to claim 4, Ram discloses wherein the at least one other access point includes the further access point (Par. 41: Lines 10-13; The APs are interconnected through a backbone network that allows them to both send and receive data and signaling information to and from one another; Par. 34: Lines 11-14; Cooperating APs exchange information over the backbone network to coordinate operation and share data).
Ram teaches that cooperating APs exchange information with one another over the backbone network, including metrics, synchronization information, control information, and data. Because the same APs participate in these information exchanges, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that the AP corresponding to the claimed other access point may also correspond to the claimed further access point. Accordingly, the reference teaches that the at least one other access point includes the further access point.
Regarding claim 6 as applied to claim 4, Yuan discloses a processing node but does not disclose receiving an indication of the further access point from the processing node.
Ram however discloses receiving an indication of the further access point from a processing node (Par. 54: Lines 3-7; The controller selects AP2 to cooperate with AP1 for communication with STA1; Par. 62: Lines 1-4; The controller selects AP2 to cooperate with AP1 and sends signaling information identifying the selected APs).
Regarding claim 7 as applied to claim 4, Ram discloses wherein the information based on the further signals comprises information identifying the further signals from the one or more antennas of the first access point (Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1).
The soft metrics are generated from the received uplink transmissions and characterize the contents of those received transmissions. Because the soft metrics indicate the receiver's assessment of the data represented by the received signals, they constitute information identifying the received signals.
Regarding claim 11 as applied to claim 1, Ram discloses wherein receiving, for each of one or more of the at least one other access point, the information based on signals received at one or more antennas of the other access point comprises receiving information identifying the signals from the one or more antennas of the other access point (Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1).
Soft metrics are derived directly from the received uplink signals and represent information regarding the received symbols contained in those signals. Accordingly, the soft metrics constitute information identifying the received signals from the antennas of the other access point.
Regarding claim 15 as applied to claim 1, Ram discloses wherein the at least one other access point comprises a group of access point serving the at least one UE (Par. 54: Lines 3-7; AP1 and AP2 are grouped together to provide DMIMO communications to the same STA).
Regarding claim 16 as applied to claim 15, Ram discloses wherein the group of access points includes the first access point (Par. 54: Lines 3-7; AP1 and AP2 are grouped together to provide DMIMO communications to the same STA; Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1).
Regarding claim 17 as applied to claim 1, Ram discloses wherein the signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point from the at least one UE comprise one or both pilot signals and data signals (Par. 88: Lines 8-10; AP2 (Access Point 2) receives uplink transmissions from STA1 (client station, i.e. UE), computes soft metrics from those received transmissions, and sends the soft metrics to AP1; Uplink transmissions correspond to data signals; Pilot signals were given no patentable weight due to the optional language “or”).
Regarding claim 18 as applied to claim 1, Ram does not disclose receiving, from at least one additional first access point, information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from at least one additional UE, wherein the information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from at least one additional UE is received simultaneously with forwarding information identifying the symbol estimates to a processing node.
Yuan, however, discloses receiving, from at least one additional first access point, information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from at least one additional UE (Page 5: Lines 31-34; A previous AP transmits user related data symbol information to another AP), wherein the information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from at least one additional UE is received simultaneously with forwarding information identifying the symbol estimates to a processing node (Page 5: Lines 31-34; The AP transmits user related data symbol streams received from a previous AP to the CPU; APs are operating within a chain where symbol related information is received from one AP and forwarded onward. Thus, the AP performs both receiving and forwarding as part of the same distributed processing operation corresponding to simultaneously receiving and sending).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram to receive, from an additional access point, information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from an additional UE while forwarding information identifying symbol estimates to a processing node, as taught by Yuan, in order to facilitate coordinated multi-user detection using symbol information collected across multiple access points while efficiently propagating the information through the distributed processing chain to the central processing node.
Regarding claim 19 as applied to claim 18, Ram does not disclose receiving, from at least one additional first access point, information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from at least one additional UE comprises receiving the information in a first time slot, and the method further comprises forwarding the information identifying the additional symbol estimates to the processing node in a second time slot after the first time slot.
Yuan, however, discloses wherein receiving, from at least one additional first access point, information identifying additional symbol estimates of symbols in signals from at least one additional UE comprises receiving the information in a first time slot, and the method further comprises forwarding the information identifying the additional symbol estimates to the processing node in a second time slot after the first time slot (Page 5: Lines 31-34; The AP transmits user related data symbol streams received from a previous AP to the CPU; APs are operating within a chain where symbol related information is received from one AP and forwarded onward; The information transmitted by a previous AP must be first received before it can be forwarded to a subsequent CPU. Accordingly, receipt of information occurs during an earlier time slot and forwarding occurs during a later time slot).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram to receive information identifying additional symbol estimates from an additional access point in a first time slot and forward the information identifying the additional symbol estimates to a processing node in a second time slot after the first time slot, as taught by Yuan, in order to facilitate orderly propagation of symbol-estimate information through the distributed processing chain while ensuring that information received from an upstream access point is available for subsequent forwarding and processing by the central processing node.
Regarding claim 29, the rejection of claim 1 addresses the limitations presented in claim 29. Therefore, the limitations of claim 29 have been addressed.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ram et al. (US 20190373569, hereinafter Ram) in view of Yuan et al. (CN 112822697, hereinafter Yuan) in further view of Chen et al. (WO 2020181991, hereinafter Chen) in further view of Yukawa (US 20200344763)
Regarding claim 3 as applied to claim 1, Ram in view of Yuan discloses the invention of claim 1 but does not disclose wherein receiving the information based on signals received at one or more antennas of the at least one other access point comprises receiving information for a plurality of other access points simultaneously over a plurality of fronthaul segments connected to a first access point.
Chen, however, discloses an AP receiving information for a plurality of other access points over a plurality of fronthaul segments connected to the first access point (Page 7: Lines 41-42; The first AP receives data from other APs; Page 7: Lines 34-35; Multiple Aps are interconnected through wired Ethernet or optical-fiber communication links).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram in view of Yuan to receive information for a plurality of other access points over a plurality of fronthaul segments connected to the first access point, as taught by Chen, in order to improve coordination and information exchange among multiple distributed MIMO access points through known communication links interconnecting the access points.
Ram in view of Yuan in further view of Chen does not disclose simultaneous transmission of the information from the plurality of other access points to the access point.
Yukawa, however, discloses the ability for a plurality of APs to perform simultaneous communication (Par. 18: Lines 3-5; A plurality of APs are able to perform simultaneous communication).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram in view of Yuan and Chen such that the information is received from a plurality of other access points simultaneously, as taught by Yukawa, in order to support coordinated distributed MIMO communications among multiple access points operating in parallel and thereby improve communication efficiency and coordination between the participating access points.
Claims 8,12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ram et al. (US 20190373569, hereinafter Ram) in view of Yuan et al. (CN 112822697, hereinafter Yuan) in further view of Frenger et al. (WO 2021040591, hereinafter Frenger)
Regarding claim 8 as applied to claim 4, Ram in view of Yuan discloses forwarding information between APs but does not disclose wherein the information based on the further signals comprises information identifying antenna signals from the one or more antennas of the first access point combined with weights based on channel responses between each of the at least one further UE and each of the one or more antennas of the first access point.
Frenger, however, discloses information identifying antenna signals from one or more antennas combined with weights based on channel responses between at least one UE and the one or more antennas, wherein channel estimates (CSI) are obtained from pilot signals transmitted by the UEs and received radio signals are combined using a combining vector calculated from the channel estimates (Page 3: Lines 3-6; The receiver processes the received radio signals using a combined vector and shared to the next APU; The received radio signals corresponds to a signal received at the antennas of the AP. A combining vector corresponds to weights; Page 4: Lines 26-27; Channel estimates are obtained from UE pilot signal; The system obtains CSI from UE pilot signals, calculates a combined vector, applies the combining vector to received radio signals, generates output data streams, and forwards the resulting data streams to another processing unit).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram in view of Yuan to utilize channel-estimate-based combining of received antenna signals, as taught by Frenger, such that the information forwarded between access points comprises information identifying antenna signals combined with weights based on channel responses. Doing so would have improved the accuracy and reliability of the information exchanged between the access points by incorporating known channel-aware signal processing techniques that account for channel conditions when generating the forwarded information.
Regarding claim 12 as applied to claim 1, Ram in view of Yuan does not disclose wherein receiving, for each of one or more of the at least one other access point, the information based on signals received at one or more antennas of the other access point comprises:
receiving information identifying the signals received at the one or more antennas of the other access point combined with weights based on channel responses between each of the at least one UE and each of the one or more antennas of the other access point (Page 3: Lines 3-6; The receiver processes the received radio signals using a combined vector and shared to the next APU; The received radio signals corresponds to a signal received at the antennas of the AP. A combining vector corresponds to weights; Page 4: Lines 26-27; Channel estimates are obtained from UE pilot signal; The system obtains CSI from UE pilot signals, calculates a combined vector, applies the combining vector to received radio signals, generates output data streams, and forwards the resulting data streams to another processing unit).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram in view of Yuan to utilize channel-estimate-based combining of received antenna signals, as taught by Frenger, such that the information forwarded between access points comprises information identifying antenna signals combined with weights based on channel responses. Doing so would have improved the accuracy and reliability of the information exchanged between the access points by incorporating known channel-aware signal processing techniques that account for channel conditions when generating the forwarded information.
Claims 9,13,14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ram et al. (US 20190373569, hereinafter Ram) in view of Yuan et al. (CN 112822697, hereinafter Yuan) in further view of Frenger et al. (WO 2021040591, hereinafter Frenger) in further view of Seok et al. (US 20210314879, hereinafter Seok)
Regarding claim 9 as applied to claim 8, Ram in view of Yuan in further view of Frenger does not disclose sending information identifying a magnitude of a vector representing the antenna signals to the further access point.
Seok, however, discloses sending information identifying a magnitude of a vector representing the antenna signals to the further access point (Par. 8: Lines 11-15; The AP measures RSSI for received transmissions, creates a report containing the RSSI values, and sends the report to another AP; RSSI identifies the received signal strength or power level of a received antenna signal where the signal strength corresponds to the magnitude of a signal vector).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram in view of Yuan in further view of Frenger to send information identifying a magnitude of a vector representing the antenna signals to the further access point, as taught by Seok, in order to provide additional signal-quality information regarding the received antenna signals to the receiving access point, thereby enabling more informed signal processing, interference management, and communication coordination between the access points.
Regarding claim 13 as applied to claim 12, the rejection of claim 9 discloses the limitations of claim 13. Therefore, the limitations of claim 13 has been addressed.
Regarding claim 14 as applied to 13, Ram discloses processing the information based on signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point to determine symbol estimates of symbols in the antenna signals (as disclosed in the rejection of claim 1).
Ram in view of Yuan in view of Frenger does not disclose wherein processing the information based on signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point to determine symbol estimates of symbols in the antenna signals comprises processing the information based on the signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point and the information identifying a magnitude of a vector representing the antenna signals to determine symbol estimates of symbols in the antenna signals.
Seok, however, discloses sending information identifying a magnitude of a vector representing the antenna signals to the further access point (Par. 8: Lines 11-15; The AP measures RSSI for received transmissions, creates a report containing the RSSI values, and sends the report to another AP; RSSI identifies the received signal strength or power level of a received antenna signal where the signal strength corresponds to the magnitude of a signal vector).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ram in view of Yuan and Frenger to process the information based on the signals received at the one or more antennas of the at least one other access point together with information identifying a magnitude of a vector representing the antenna signals, as taught by Seok, when determining symbol estimates of symbols in the antenna signals, in order to improve the accuracy and reliability of symbol estimation by incorporating signal-strength information indicative of the quality of the received signals into the estimation process.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ram et al. (US 20190373569, hereinafter Ram) in view of Yuan et al. (CN 112822697, hereinafter Yuan) in further view of Frenger et al. (WO 2021040591, hereinafter Frenger)
Regarding claim 10 as applied to claim 4, the rejection of claim 7 as applied to claim 4 addresses the limitation “sending information identifying signals received at the one or more antennas of the first access point.” The rejection of claim 8 as applied to claim 4 addresses the limitation “sending information identifying signals received at the one or more antennas of the first access point combined with weights based on channel responses between each of the at least one further UE and each of the one or more antennas of the first access point.”
The applied references teach transmitting the recited information regardless of the relative number of UEs and antennas. Therefore, the disclosed transmissions encompass the claimed scenario in which the number of UEs is greater than the number of antennas, since the recited information would still be transmitted under that operating condition.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FABIAN BOTELLO whose telephone number is (571)272-4439. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:30 pm.
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, Wesley Kim can be reached at 571-272-7867. 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.
/FABIAN BOTELLO/Examiner, Art Unit 2648
/WESLEY L KIM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2648
Prosecution Insights