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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment to the claims filed on 07/10/2026 complies with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.121(c) and has been entered. Claims 1, 7 and 20 are amended. Claims 5, 8, 13, 18-19, 22, 24, 26 and 29-30 are cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks with respect to the independent claims filed 07/10/2026 (hereinafter Resp.) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Applicant is advised that should Amended Claim 1 be found allowable, Claim 11 will be objected to under 37 CFR 1.75 as being a substantial duplicate thereof. Here, Amended Claim 1 requires historical averages that must be calculated over a predetermined time frame as one of ordinary skills in the art would readily appreciate.
When two claims in an application are duplicates or else are so close in content that they both cover the same thing, despite a slight difference in wording, it is proper after allowing one claim to object to the other as being a substantial duplicate of the allowed claim. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
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.
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.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6-7, 9-11, 15-17, 20-21, 23, 25, and 27-28, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morishige et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2023/0344528 (hereinafter Morishige), and further in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.0-v07.00 Technical Specification, O-RAN Alliance Working Group 4, "Management Plane Specification," published October 2021 (hereinafter O-RAN.WG4.MP).
Regarding Amended Claim 1, Morishige teaches a method performed by a radio unit for semi-blindly interrupting traffic signals wherein the radio unit is separate from a scheduling entity (“The communication apparatus includes a physical layer (PHY) processing unit 801, a plurality of antenna elements 802 to 805, and a control unit 806” – See [¶0167] and Fig. 8, whereby “[t]he PHY processing unit 801 performs, according to an instruction given from the control unit 806, respective processes of generating a transmission signal, mapping, extracting a reception signal, and demapping” – See [¶0168] and “The PHY processing unit 801 corresponds to a calibration unit that calibrates phases and amplitudes of beams formed by the antenna elements 802 to 805, upon transmission and reception of a signal” – See [¶0169] while “The control unit 806 controls timing on transmission and reception, allocation of time resources, frequency resources, and code resources, transmission power, and a phase value and an amplitude value for the antenna elements” – See [¶0168] i.e., functions as a scheduler separated by the radio unit through an interface as shown in Fig. 8), the method comprising:
monitoring one or more traffic signals received from the scheduling entity over an interface (“the control unit 806 may set a correction value for a phase and an amplitude of the transmission system by handling the timing to execute calibration as the timing with which the transmission system does not transmit data for communication with the corresponding apparatus” – See [¶0182] and “The PHY processing unit 801 maps calibration RSs (may be hereinafter referred to as "cal-RSs") . . . using a predetermined antenna element according to an instruction given from the control unit 806” – See [¶0171] the scheduler “providing a subframe for calibration and transmitting RSs for calibration (cal-RSs) on the subframe” – See [¶0291], e.g., “sets one or more subframes included in subframes having no data to be transmitted or scheduled to calibration-specific subframes” – See [¶0293] and “It is easy to provide the PHY processing unit with a function of detecting the presence or absence of data to be transmitted” – See [¶0304], i.e., to monitor for traffic and for cal-RSs)
predicting traffic levels in one or more time slots of the one or more traffic signals (“data may not be transmitted during a predetermined duration including the set calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶376] whereby “The predetermined duration may be . . . semi-statically or dynamically determined by a base station” – See [¶0377], i.e., could be predicted)
injecting a traffic interruption in a time slot with a low predicted traffic level (“In the presence of a subframe having no data to be transmitted or scheduled, the base station mutes, on the subframe, the signal and the CH to be transmitted irrespective of transmission data” – See [¶0360] and “When the signal and the CH are not transmitted, the cal-RSs can be mapped to symbols to which the signal and the CH are to be mapped, thus enabling increase in the resource for cal-RSs” – See [¶0361] i.e., a traffic interruption is injected even “when cal-RSs overlap a signal and a CH to be transmitted irrespective of transmission data, the cal-RSs may be preferentially mapped to the resource” – See [¶0364]).
However, Morishige does not teach predicting traffic levels based on historical averaged measurements of the monitored traffic signals.
O-RAN.WG4.MP “specifies the management plane protocols used over the fronthaul interface linking the O-RU (O-RAN 14 Radio Unit) with other management plane entities, that may include the O-DU (O-RAN Distributed Unit)” – See §1.1, at page 11. Like Fig. 8 in Morishige, O-RAN.WG4.MP specifically discloses the Fronthaul functional split between the radio unit and the scheduler (part of the O-DU) in Figure 1, at page 17, reproduced hereinafter:
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Also, like Morishige, O-RAN.WG4.MP teaches the radio unit monitoring traffic from the scheduler – See, e.g., § 4.7.2, at page 50 (“The O-RU shall monitor operation of its reception window, monitoring the arrival of packets received over the fronthaul interface relative to the earliest and latest allowable times” pointing to “Annex B.2 for information on reception window counters”). Annex B of O-RAN.WG4.MP discloses in a table statistics collected at the O-RU indicating 3GPP TS 28.552 V17.4.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Management and orchestration; 5G performance measurements (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 28.552) for specific measurements and further indicating in Annex B.1.1, at page 167-168, that “[w]hen configured by the NETCONF client, the O-RU captures value of monitored parameters. Then the O-RU calculates x = f(s), where f(s) is a function selected for specific statistics instance” where “where f is a function selected for specific parameter,” e.g., a historical average of DL physical resources blocks (PRB) utilization as specified in §5.1.1.2.5, 3GPP TS 28.522, at page 32, whereby the “mean DL PRB used for data traffic” is defined as “Each measurement is obtained as the average number (arithmetic mean)
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of all PRBs used for DL data traffic transmission per S-NSSAI and per PLMN ID during a time period T.”
Thus, Morishige and O-RAN.WG4.MP each teaches a radio unit and a scheduling unit separated by an interface whereby the radio unit monitors traffic from the scheduling unit to detect subframes with low or no data traffic wherein calibration signals are injected. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the method of measuring the average DL PRB utilization as taught in O-RAN.WG4.MP referencing 3GPP TS 28.522 could have been combined with the traffic monitoring taught in Morishige to detect the subframes where the cal-RSs are to be injected because the O-RU could be instructed to maintain the historical averages by a management system, as shown in Figure 1 of O-RAN.WG4.MP supra. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the addition through techniques known in the art. Finally, the addition achieves the predictable result of using a standardized framework for managing the radio unit to predict traffic levels in one or more time slots of the one or more traffic signals based on historical averaged measurements of the monitored traffic signals as taught in O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Therefore, Amended Claim 1 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 2, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Morishige further the method of claim 1 further comprising predicting traffic levels in one or more frequency bandwidth parts of the one or more traffic signals (“the signals and the CHs to be transmitted irrespective of transmission data” are “periodically or intermittently scheduled” such as “SS and a PBCH” – See [¶0342] whereby “the communication terminal synchronizes slot timing and frame timing by a primary synchronization signal (P-SS) and a secondary synchronization signal (S-SS)” – See [¶0141] whereby, as taught in § 22.4.1.2.3, 3GPP TS 36.300 V16.3.0 (2020-09); “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 36.300), included by reference in Morishige – See [¶0055], “For an NR cell, the following load related information should be supported which consists of: Radio resource usage (per-SSB-area PRB usage: DL/UL/SUL GBR PRB usage . . DL/UL/SUL total PRB usage, and DL/UL/SUL scheduling PDCCH CCE usage)” – See 3GPP TS 36.300, at page 298; furthermore, 3GPP TS 36.300 also references 3GPP TS 38.300 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage 2 (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.300) teaching bandwidth parts (BWP) and Cell Defining SSB, concepts related to NR, whereby Annex B.2, at page 143-144, specifies “multiple SSBs in a carrier, identifying two different cells (NCGI = 5, associated to SSB1, and NCGI = 6, associated to SSB3) with overlapping BWPs, and where RRM measurements can be configured to be performed by the UE on each of the available SSBs, i.e. SSB1, SSB2, SSB3 and SSB4” as shown in Figure B.2-1 reproduced hereinafter)
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Therefore, Claim 2 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 3, dependent from Claim 2, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 2 wherein injecting a traffic interruption further comprises injecting in a frequency bandwidth part with a low predicted traffic level (“the base station determines the presence or absence of a subframe having no data to be transmitted (may be hereinafter referred to as ‘non-transmission-data subframe’ . . . per a plurality of subframes,” and “[w]hen the absence of the non-transmission-data subframe is determined, the processes will be put on hold until the presence of the nontransmission-data subframe is determined” – See [¶0326]; furthermore “[i]n the presence of a subframe having no data to be transmitted or scheduled, a base station does not transmit, on the subframe, the signal and the CH to be transmitted irrespective of transmission data” – See [¶0343], i.e., the traffic signals discussed in Regarding Claim 2 supra are interrupted in a nontransmission-data subframe of the specified dl-bandwidth/active BWP).
Therefore, Claim 3 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 4, dependent from Claim 1, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein injecting a traffic interruption comprises injecting at least one of a test signal and a period of silence (“the base station sets the subframe detected [as nontransmission-data subframe] to a calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶0327] and “maps RSs for calibration (cal-RSs) of the transmission antenna element for calibration to a calibration-specific subframe,” i.e., test signals are transmitted to/from the calibrated antenna element, whereby “Cal-RSs of a plurality of antenna elements may be mapped to one calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶0318] as shown in FIGS. 22, 23, 24, and 25, wherein “possible positions of cal-RSs 1602, 1606, 1610, and 1614 may be defined in advance” – See [¶0286]; see also Fig. 21, wherein, for antenna elements that are not calibrated “during a duration in which the cal-RSs 1302 are to be transmitted by the first antenna element is the null 1307, whereas normal OFDM symbols 1305 are transmitted in the remaining portions” – See [¶0263], i.e., a period of silence is injected during the calibration-specific subframe, as decided by the base station).
Therefore, Claim 4 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 6, dependent from Claim 1, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring comprises measuring traffic utilization (the base station detects “subframe whose data to be transmitted or scheduled is smaller than or equal to a predetermined amount of data” – See [¶0334] whereby “the predetermined amount of data is set, for example, according to a load of a base station” – See [¶0335] and “[t]he base station controls the transmission timing of data to enable a calibration-specific subframe to be set with the necessary timing of calibration” – See [¶0336]) and mapping it to an average physical resource block (PRB) utilization table with dimensions of at least time and frequency (e.g., “Part (a) of FIG. 19 illustrates an example of mapping in the transmission data of the first antenna element” – See [¶0282] wherein “the first antenna element transmits cal-RSs 1402 that are localized in a first slot 1403 and a first subframe 1404, and transmits normal OFDM symbols 1401 in the remaining portions” – See [¶0273; see also the PRB map of Figs. 21 and 22, “when cal-RSs overlap the other CHs or the other RSs, the cal-RSs may be preferentially arranged” – See [¶0289] if “a signal and a CH for which the subframe where they are scheduled is determined in advance, and a signal and a CH to be periodically or intermittently scheduled” – See [¶0342], and “FIG. 34 illustrates an example of mapping cal-RSs to the PDSCH region 6004. Cal-RSs 6006 of a first antenna element #1, cal-RSs 6007 of a second antenna element #2, cal-RSs 6008 of a third antenna element #3, and cal-RSs 6009 of a fourth antenna element #4 are mapped to the PDSCH region 6004. PDSCHs 6010 are mapped to the other symbols” – See [¶0499] and “The base station can transmit the cal-RSs 6006 to 6009, the PDSCHs, the PDCCH, and the CRSs 6005 on the same subframe. Thus, calibration is possible during the data communication with the UE” – See [¶0500]). Furthermore, Morishige teaches mapping traffic to physical resource block (PRB) utilization table with dimensions of at least time and frequency, in Figs. 19-27 and 34-41, e.g., “In the example of FIG. 19, the first antenna element transmits cal-RSs 1402 that are localized in a first slot 1403 and a first subframe 1404, and transmits normal OFDM symbols 1401 in the remaining portions” – See [¶0273] and “Since the entire frequency domain is used herein, response characteristics at each frequency can be calculated” – See [¶0274]; furthermore, “FIG. 36 illustrates an example configuration of a subframe when cal-RSs are mapped to an MBSFN region. The horizontal axis represents a time t, and the vertical axis represents a frequency fin FIG. 36. FIG. 36 illustrates an example in the LTE” – See [¶0510] and other traffic, e.g., “The CRSs 6105 are mapped to the non-MBSFN region 6203. A PDCCH and a PCFICH, etc. are mapped to the non-MBSFN region 6203. A PMCH and a PDSCH can be mapped to the MBSFN region 6204.”
Although Morishige does not teach mapping measurements to an average physical resource block (PRB) utilization table, Annex B of O-RAN.WG4.MP discloses statistics functions, including reference to 3GPP TS 28.522, specifying at page 32 the “mean DL PRB used for data traffic” measurements, as explained in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra.
Therefore, Claim 6 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Amended Claim 7, dependent from Claim 6, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 6 wherein the monitoring comprises mapping at least one of downlink traffic and uplink traffic (“The base station may determine in advance a radio link to be calibrated” e.g., “the DL. Here, when there is no data to be scheduled in a DL subframe, the DL subframe is set to a calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶0295] and “when a base station that supports the TDD sets a radio link to be calibrated to the DL, it can execute calibration without influence of interference caused by uplink transmission performed by a UE being served by a cell having an antenna to be calibrated and by a UE being served by another cell or another base station” – See [¶0296], i.e., monitoring comprises mapping at least one of downlink subframe traffic as a calibration-subframe).
Therefore, Claim 7 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Claim 1, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring comprises mapping traffic at one or more layers and summing mapping to assess allocation for all layers (“solving a problem with requiring a long time to transmit the same number of cal-RSs when mapping of the cal-RSs for each of the antenna elements for calibration” – See [¶0258] using “a method for arranging reference signals for calibration (cal-RSs) in the same subframe in an antenna element that transmits the cal-RSs” – See [¶0259], e.g., “the first antenna element transmits the cal-RSs 1302 with the second and third OFDM symbols in the example of FIG. 17, transmitting cal-RSs of another antenna element using the fourth and fifth OFDM symbols in the same slot or the same subframe” – See [¶0265] and/or “transmitting the cal-RSs at a part of the frequencies through the first antenna element and transmitting the cal-RSs at a different frequency through another antenna element are also effective” – See [¶0267]; “[t]he third embodiment discloses arranging RSs for calibration, and other CHs or other RSs in the same subframe” – See [¶0493] whereby “after mapping a physical downlink shared channel to a physical downlink shared channel region, the base station may replace the symbols to which cal-RSs are mapped with the cal-RSs. The base station does not transmit the physical downlink shared channel on the symbols to which the cal-RSs are mapped” – See [¶0495] e.g., “FIG. 34 illustrates an example of mapping cal-RSs to the PDSCH region 6004. Cal-RSs 6006 of a first antenna element #1, cal-RSs 6007 of a second antenna element #2, cal-RSs 6008 of a third antenna element #3, and cal-RSs 6009 of a fourth antenna element #4 are mapped to the PDSCH region 6004. PDSCHs 6010 are mapped to the other symbols” – See [¶0499] and whereby FIG. 34 is a subframe mapping of multiple antenna-ports PRB/resource allocations for downlink transmissions summed up for all layers and whereby the mapping between antenna-ports, layers and allocated physical resources in downlink transmissions is further explained in §6.3, 3GPP TS 36.211 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical channels and modulation (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 36.211), referenced by Morishige and specifying physical aspects of synchronization signals and downlink control channels, stating, at page 109 that “[t]he number of layers
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is less than or equal to the number of antenna ports
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used for transmission of the physical channel” using spatial multiplexing done according to Table 6.3.3.2-1, and, at page 115, that “[t]he mapping to resource elements
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on antenna port
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not reserved for other purposes shall be in increasing order of first the index
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over the assigned physical resource blocks and then the index
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, starting with the first slot in a subframe,” i.e., starting from left corner up on frequency and right in symbols/time in Fig. 34)
Although Morishige does not explicitly teach assessing resource allocation for all layers §6.3, 3GPP TS 36.211 shows in Figure 6.3-1, at page 107, reproduced hereinafter, an overview of physical channel processing, including each layer going to the antenna ports.
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the present application that each antenna element taught by Morishige could be mapped to an antenna port as in 3GPP technical specifications and sum the mapping to assess allocation for all layers to arrive at the present invention.
Therefore, Claim 9 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 10, dependent from Claim 1, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein predicting traffic levels includes predicting the time and frequency location of control signals (e.g., as shown in Fig. 34, “[i]n one subframe, the first 3 symbols form a PDCCH region 6003,” i.e., control signals, “and the subsequent 11 symbols form a PDSCH region 6004,” i.e., data transmission signals – See [¶0497] wherein “CRSs 6005 are mapped over the PDCCH region 6003 and the PDSCH region 6004. A PDCCH and a PCFICH, etc. are mapped to the PDCCH region 6003. PDSCHs are mapped to the PDSCH region 6004” – See [¶0498])
and weighting the control signals as corresponding to a higher traffic level than other traffic when determining if a predicted traffic level is low enough for injection of the test signal (although “calibration is possible during the data communication with the UE” – See [¶0500] “The base station may not map a physical downlink shared channel to a slot or a subframe to which cal-RSs are mapped” – See [¶0501], e.g., “FIG. 35 illustrates an example of mapping cal-RSs to the PDSCH region 6104 without mapping a PDSCH” – See [¶0505] wherein control signals corresponding to a higher traffic level (e.g. higher priority) are not “muted” so “CRSs 6105 are mapped over the PDCCH region 6103 and the PDSCH region 6104. A PDCCH and a PCFICH, etc. are mapped to the PDCCH region 6103” – See [¶0504]).
Therefore, Claim 10 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 11, dependent from Claim 1, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring comprises averaging resource utilization over a predetermined time frame (“The base station controls the transmission timing of data to enable a calibration-specific subframe to be set with the necessary timing of calibration” – See [¶0366] and “determines the presence or absence of a subframe having no data to be transmitted (may be hereinafter referred to as ‘non-trans mission-data subframe’) . . . per a plurality of subframes” – See [¶0326]). Furthermore, the averages measured/calculated as specified in Annex B.1.1, 3GPP TS 28.552 referenced by O-RAN.WG4.MP are defined specifically over a period of time, as explained in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra.
Therefore, Claim 11 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 16, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein if the test signal can be injected only on certain PRBs, then the predicting is based at least in part on a two-dimensional map of PRB utilization, wherein the two dimensions comprise time and frequency (“the control unit 806 may limit frequencies at which calibration is to be executed to a part of the frequencies, that is, to a sub-band” – See [¶0183] and Fig. 10, wherein each “calibration RS mapping unit 904 maps (inserts) cal-RSs to be transmitted with the timing and at the frequency that are instructed by the control unit 9411, to the transmission data given from the [ ] transmission data generating unit 903” – See [¶0215], i.e., “arranging reference signals for calibration (cal-RSs) in the same subframe in an antenna element that transmits the cal-RSs” – See [¶0259], i.e., on certain PRBs in two-dimensional map of PRB utilization, wherein the two dimensions comprise time and frequency as shown in FIG. 17, which “illustrates example mapping in transmission data of a first antenna element” and “FIG. 18 illustrates example mapping in transmission data of a second antenna element to an n-th antenna element. The horizontal axis represents a time t, and the vertical axis represents a frequency in FIGS. 17 and 18. In FIGS. 17 and 18, a reference "1306" denotes a resource block” – See [¶0260]).
Therefore, Claim 16 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 17, dependent from Amended Claim 1, further teaches the method of claim 1 wherein if the test signal must be injected on full carrier bandwidth, then the predicting is based at least in part on a one-dimensional projection of full PRB utilization map onto time dimension (to avoid “overlaps with those of the other CHs or the other RSs” – See [¶0280], “in FIG. 20, special mapping of not transmitting a part of CRSs 1503 on a subframe for transmitting cal-RSs 1502 is provided for the first antenna element. Normal OFDM symbols 1501 are transmitted in the remaining portions” – See [¶0282] and “transmitting a null 1506 is provided for the second antenna element to the n-th antenna element” – See [¶0283] and Fig. 21 wherein “the cal-RSs can be arranged, for example, only between the first OFDM symbol and the third OFDM symbol” – See [0286], e.g., on a full OFDM symbol, hence the predicting is based at least in part on a one-dimensional projection of full PRB utilization map onto time dimension).
Therefore, Claim 17 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Amended Claim 20, Morishige teaches a method performed by a radio unit for inserting a traffic interruption wherein the radio unit is separate from a scheduling unit, the method comprising: monitoring one or more traffic signals received from the scheduling unit over an interface, as shown in Fig. 8 and explained in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra;
predicting a PRB utilization by analyzing a control signal region of the one or more traffic signals (“detect a subframe having no data to be transmitted or scheduled” – See [¶0299] or “a subframe whose data to be transmitted or scheduled is smaller than or equal to a predetermined amount of data. With a small amount of data, calibration can be preferentially executed” – See [¶0334], e.g., subframes with “a signal and a CH to be periodically or intermittently scheduled” including “SS and a PBCH” – See [¶0342] which are predicted based on standardized configurations sent by the scheduler on the broadcast control channel BCH – See, e.g., 5.2.4 3GPP TS 38.300, stating, at page 29 that “Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB) consists of primary and secondary synchronization signals (PSS, SSS), each occupying 1 symbol and 127 subcarriers, and PBCH spanning across 3 OFDM symbols and 240 subcarriers, but on one symbol leaving an unused part in the middle for SSS as show in Figure 5.2.4-1”; see also [¶0339](“Examples of the signal and the CH to be transmitted irrespective of transmission data include a synchronization signal required for initial search by a UE, a broadcast information transmission CH, and a control CH, etc. Examples of the signal and the CH in the LTE include an SS, a PBCH, and a PDCCH”) and Figs 34-35 ,wherein cell-specific RSs “CRSs 6105 are mapped over the PDCCH region 6103 and the PDSCH region 6104” – See [¶0504] at predetermined positions on the PRB time-frequency map)
based on historical averaged measurements of the monitored traffic signals, as explained in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra;
selecting a time when injection of the traffic interruption will result in minimal harm to the one or more traffic signals (“The base station detects the necessary timing of calibration. The timing may be detected by, for example, the control unit” – See [¶0367] and “[t]he necessary timing of calibration may or may not come within the subframe to which these signals and CHs are not mapped. If not, transmission of these signals and CHs may be stopped and a calibration-specific subframe may be set” – See [¶0373] and “[u]ntil completion of the calibration, the base station does not transmit data. Transmission of the data may be held” – See [¶0374] whereby “Setting the predetermined duration as short as possible can reduce a delay in transmitting data. Furthermore, it is possible to resume earlier the transmission of a signal and a CH to be transmitted irrespective of transmission data and to minimize losses in the synchronization and the control process in the UEs being served” – See [¶0376], i.e., selecting a time when injection of the traffic interruption will result in minimal harm to the one or more traffic signals); and
injecting the traffic interruption at the selected time (“data may not be transmitted during a predetermined duration including the set calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶0376]).
Therefore, Amended Claim 20 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 21, dependent from Amended Claim 20, Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP further teaches the method of claim 20 wherein injecting the traffic interruption has the same limitation as recited in Claim 4 with the same language. Because Claim 4 and Amended Claim 20 are obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP, Claim 21 is also obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 23, dependent from Amended Claim 20, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 20 wherein predicting a PRB utilization includes at least one of:
predicting there is no downlink traffic in a PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) (“base station provides a subframe on which nothing is transmitted . . . referred to as a ‘complete blank subframe (CBS)’” – See [¶0400] whereby the CBS may be predicted, e.g., because “the CBS is periodically caused to occur” – See [¶0404]),
wherein the injecting is performed in empty downlink symbols if no downlink traffic in the PDSCH is predicted (“Upon determining to execute calibration, the base station sets the CBS to a calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶0413] and “maps cal-RSs of a transmission antenna for calibration to the set calibration-specific subframe, and transmits the cal-RSs on the subframe” where “[m]any resources can be used for calibration” because “other signals and CHs of the cal-RSs are not mapped to the CBS” – See [¶0414]).
Therefore, Claim 23 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 25, dependent from Amended Claim 20, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 20 wherein predicting a PRB utilization includes
predicting there is downlink traffic in a PDSCH and uplink traffic in a PUSCH (e.g., as shown in Fig. 34, the PDCCH region 6003 may carry a DCI scheduling DL transmission on symbols in PDSCH region 6004, and, in case there are also UL symbols in the PRB, allocating resources for a PUSCH, i.e., DL and UL traffic is predicted and the resource allocations are known; see also § 5.5, 3GPP TS 36.300 stating, at page 73, that “[a] UE may simultaneously receive or transmit on one or multiple CCs depending on its capabilities . . . with each CC limited to a maximum of 110 Resource Blocks in the frequency domain using the Rel-8/9 numerology”) and
wherein the injecting is performed elsewhere than downlink and uplink symbols corresponding to the analyzed control signal region if downlink traffic and uplink traffic are predicted (“The base station may map the cal-RSs with the symbol timing different from that of a synchronization signal, a physical broadcast channel, or the other RSs” – See [¶0502], and “FIG. 34 illustrates an example of mapping cal-RSs to the PDSCH region 6004. Cal-RSs 6006 of a first antenna element #1, cal-RSs 6007 of a second antenna element #2, cal-RSs 6008 of a third antenna element #3, and cal-RSs 6009 of a fourth antenna element #4 are mapped to the PDSCH region 6004. PDSCHs 6010 are mapped to the other symbols” – See [¶0499]; because “not only shifting the time but also using a different orthogonal code is effective to enable the cal-RSs for each of the antenna elements” – See [¶0266] so “the time required for calibration can be shortened” – See [¶0279]).
Therefore, Claim 25 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 27, dependent from Amended Claim 20, Morishige further teaches the method of claim 20 wherein the radio unit performs the injection at layer one (e.g., at layer one, “the PHY processing unit that is a calibration unit arranges the cal-RSs in positions where the other reference signals or the other physical channels of a subframe are not arranged” – See [¶0290]) and the scheduling unit operates at layer three (e.g., the parameters for scheduling a “complete blank subframe (CBS)” may be set at “(1) The RRC” – See [¶0410] and “example subjects that detect a subframe having no data to be transmitted or scheduled” – See [¶0299] comprise “[t]he RRC recognizes, through the DRX, a subframe on which data is not transmitted or scheduled” – See [¶0306], i.e., layer three operations; see also Figure 1 O-RAN.WG4.MP reproduced in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra, showing the O-RU acting at physical layer to maintain the RF chain).
Therefore, Claim 27 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Regarding Claim 28, Morishige teaches, in Figs. 4 and 8, a radio unit (“The E-UTRAN is composed of one or a plurality of base stations 203, provided that a control protocol for the user equipment 202 such as a radio resource control (RRC), and user planes such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC), or physical layer (PHY) are terminated in the base station 203” – See [¶0119]) comprising, a processor; and a memory having stored thereon a computer program (“When the communication apparatus is a base station, the communication apparatus may start calibration according to an instruction from a maintenance management apparatus in high layer” – See [¶0176]; furthermore, “[t]he base station may include the instruction information in information on the signals for calibration or information on a calibration-specific subframe” – See [¶0474]; in addition, “control data from the protocol processing unit 403, and the user data and the control data from the EPC communication unit 401 and the communication with another base station unit 402 are stored in a transmission data buffer unit 404” – See [¶0133]) which, when executed on the processor (“A series of processes by the base station 203 is controlled by a control unit 411” and “the control unit 411 is connected to the individual units 401 to 410” – See [¶0135] whereby the control unit “controls timing on transmission and reception, allocation of time resources, frequency resources, and code resources, transmission power, and a phase value and an amplitude value for the antenna elements” – See [¶0168]), causes the processor to carry out the method according to claim l, as explained in Regarding Claim 1 supra.
Therefore, Claim 28 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
In sum, Claims 1-4, 6-7, 9-11, 15-17, 20-21, 23, 25, and 27-28, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP.
Claims 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Mohsin et al., “On Analyzing Beamforming Implementation in O-RAN 5G”; Electronics. 2021; 10(17):2162; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10172162 (hereinafter Moshin).
Regarding Claim 12, dependent from Claim 6, although O-RAN.WG4.MP teaches O-RAN architecture in Figure 1, supra, and Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP further teaches the method of claim 6 wherein the monitoring further comprises the base station predicting calibration subframes based on average physical resource block (PRB) utilization, Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP does not teach analyzing ORAN (open radio access network) C-plane message content about at least one of PRB allocation and beamforming index information.
Moshin teaches a channel-information-based beamforming method within the O-RAN architecture, as shown in Figure 1, at page 3, with interfaces mapped to 3GPP specifications, as shown in Figure 2, at page 5, and includes by reference O-RAN technical specifications. Moshin discloses that in O-RAN architecture, C-Plane and U-Planes are part of the Open Fronthaul Interface1 between the O-DU and the O-RU, as shown in Figure 5, at page 8, and states that “the signal received in the time domain by the O-RU is digitally conversed, FFT-processed, and IQ-sampled in the frequency domain. Then, the signal will access the O-DU through resource element demapping” hence “performing resource element mapping/demapping on the O-DU side” – See id.. Moshin further describes at page 10- 11, the main contents of a C-Plane message, whereby a C-Plane message has a second layer, “the application layer including required fields for control and synchronization,” e.g., “Scheduling Commands” indicating UL/DL scheduling information and “Beamforming Commands” indicating, e.g., a beam index, as shown in Table 1; furthermore, “there are more than eight section in C-plane,” each with “a set of parameters that carry the data between O-DU and O-RU” whereby “parameters are managed by M-Plane and can specify the packet size of the C-pane based on the used section from O-DU and O-RU, as shown in Table 2,” e.g., Section Type 0 concerns “Unused Resource Blocks or symbols in Downlink or Uplink” that could be “[u]sed for indicating idle or guard periods from O-DU to O-RU,” Section Type 1 concerns “Most DL/UL radio channels” similar to slot level DL/UL preconfigured scheduling in 3GPP frames, and Type 5 concerns “UE scheduling information.”
Thus, Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP and Moshin each discloses methods for efficient MIMO transmissions using management interfaces adopted by O-RAN. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the step of monitoring MIMO traffic to predict TTIs with low traffic level in view of performing antenna calibration, as taught in Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP could be improved with analyzing C-plane message content about scheduling and unused resources, as taught in Moshin, because setting a calibration-specific subframe as taught by Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP requires prediction of physical resource allocation in each subframe using information about scheduled traffic. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the improvement through techniques known in the art. Finally, the substitution achieves the predictable result of using specified parameters in C-Plane messages containing certain Section Types in an O-RAN architecture as taught in Moshin and O-RAN.WG4.MP, in addition to 3GPP control information such as DCI scheduling transmitted on PDCCH, as taught in Morishige.
Therefore, Claim 12 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP and further in view Moshin.
Regarding Claim 14, dependent from Claim 6, Moshin further teaches the method of claim 6 wherein the monitoring further comprises analyzing ORAN U-plane data (e.g., at page 10, for C-Plane messages, “some sections define the characteristics of the U-plane” whereby ORAN-WG4.CUS, referenced by Moshin, describes at page 167-169, parameters for scheduled DL/UL data transmission, including, e.g., PRB related fields). Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the step of monitoring MIMO traffic to predict TTIs with low traffic level in view of performing antenna calibration, as taught in Morishige in view of Huang could be improved with analyzing U-plane message content about scheduling physical resources for UL/DL data transmission, as taught by Moshin, motivated by the same reasons as explained in Regarding Claim 12 supra.
Therefore, Claim 14 is obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP and further in view Moshin.
In sum, Claims 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as obvious over Morishige in view of O-RAN.WG4.MP and further in view Morishige.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Huang et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0014932 discloses a method and a device for efficiently supporting multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) in a communication system using an open radio access network (O-RAN);
Yang et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0227856 discloses predicted traffic pattern, for one or more time intervals of the wireless communication device;
Chen et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0246700 discloses method and device for beam selection using calculation of best beam and UE resource utilization factor;
Hadani et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0268964 discloses localization and auto-calibration and feature map generation that is subsequently used for scheduling transmissions in a wireless network;
Inoue et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0183209 discloses calibration of a plurality of antennae;
Malik et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0029345 discloses UE may calibrate a wireless transceiver chain on different sets of resources;
Sung et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0336295 discloses O-DU transmits a C-Plane message including a section description that specifies common PRB information associated with a plurality of RSs;
Wang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0140669 discloses PRB utilization rate;
Wang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0422587 discloses O-RAN based performance optimization and configuration;
Zhao et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0276431 discloses determining configuration information for cooperative scheduling on traffics in overlapped beam coverage areas associated with a plurality of base stations, including prediction methods using PRB utilization rate;
ORAN Alliance, “O-RAN Fronthaul Working Group Control, User and Synchronization Plane Specification”, version ORAN-WG4.CUS.0-v07.00 published October 2021, available online: o-ran.org/specifications;
ORAN Alliance, “O-RAN Working Group 2: AI/ML Workflow Description and Requirements”; O-RAN.WG2.AIML-v01.02; Technical Report; Available online: o-ran.org/specifications;
ORAN Alliance, “O-RAN Working Group 1 Use Cases Detailed Specification”; O-RAN.WG1.Use-Cases-Detailed-Specification-v06.00”;
ORAN Alliance, “O-RAN Alliance Working Group 4 Management Plane Specification”; O-RAN.WG4.MP.0-v07.00; Technical Specification; Available online: o-ran.org/specifications;
3GPP TS 36.300 V16.3.0 (2020-09); “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (Release 16)”;
3GPP TS 38.300 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage 2 (Release 16)”;
3GPP TS 36.211 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical channels and modulation (Release 16)”;
3GPP TS 36.331 V16.6.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release 16)”;
3GPP TS 36.101 V17.3.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 28.552 V17.4.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Management and orchestration; 5G performance measurements (Release 17)”;
3GPP TSG-RAN WG4 Meeting # 100-e; R4-2115030; Title: “Email discussion summary for [100-e][130] NR_RF_FR2_req_enh2_Part_2”; Source: Moderator (Apple), August 2021;
3GPP TSG RAN WG4 meeting: 101-e, Title: “DRAFT Meeting Report”; Agenda Item: 8.4.3 (UL gaps for self-calibration and monitoring), November 21, 2021;
3GPP TSG-RAN WG4 Meeting #101-e, R4-2119962, Title: “WF on FR2 enhancement part 2: UL gaps,” Source: Apple, November 2021.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/L.G.G./Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1 Moshin cites to, Technical Specification: “O-RAN Fronthaul Working Group Control, User and Synchronization Plane Specification”, version ORAN-WG4.CUS.0-v07.00 published October 2021, available online: o-ran.org/specifications (hereinafter ORAN-WG4.CUS) further describing C-Plane and U-Plane protocol architecture, at page 61, and in detail, C/U-Plane protocol elements.
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