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
Claims 1, 12-13, 16, 27-28 have been amended. Claims 4-11, 19-26 have been cancelled. Claim 37-38 have been newly added for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on August 13, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant argued that Levitsky ‘828 fails to disclose or suggest “wherein the channel state information and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) are sent independently of each other, and wherein the method further comprises: sending second information to the network device, wherein the second information comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal resource indicator (CRI), the PMI, a rank indicator (RI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), or a layer indicator (LI).”
In response, the Examiner respectfully disagrees with the Applicant’s arguments because Levitsky ‘828 substantially discloses the disputed claim limitations as will be explained below.
In particular, Levitsky ‘828 discloses “wherein the method further comprises: sending second information to the network device, wherein the second information comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal resource indicator (CRI), the PMI, a rank indicator (RI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), or a layer indicator (LI).” The Applicant’s arguments concerning the underlined claim elements are not persuasive in view of the following paragraphs (section 0086-0087-CSI with respect to CQI, RI, PMI, 0113-0114, 0131-0136) in response to
“Furthermore, Levitsky fails to disclose "sending second information to the network device, wherein the second information comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal resource indicator (CRI), the PMI, a rank indicator (RI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), or a layer indicator (LI)," as recited in amended independent claim 1 (emphasis added). At best, Levitsky discloses a "UE [] may be configured to generate a CSF report based on the received and monitored CSI - RS resources, [and] [t]hus... may determine a value for a PMI, RI, CQI." However, generating a report containing separate values for PMI, RI, and CQI does not teach or suggest "sending second information to the network device," which comprises at least one of CRI, PMI, RI, CQI and LI. In fact, the 10 cited disclosure fails to mention sending CRI and LI at all. Thus, Levitsky fails to disclose at least the above-mentioned features, and therefore fails to anticipate claim 1.”
Moreover, the claim recites alternative language which means that the Examiner is required to select one of the alternative claimed elements to address.
With respect to the amended claim elements “wherein the channel state information and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) are sent independently of each other”, the Examiner has made a new ground of rejection to address the newly added claim elements.
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.
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 1-7, 11-13, 16-22, 26-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Levitsky et al (US 2021/0359828 A1) in view of Chen et al (US 2020/0178096 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Levitsky et al (US 2021/0359828 A1) discloses an information reporting method (see, the UE reported Doppler frequency for a downlink channel based on measurements, section 0046), executed by a terminal (see, the UE reports CSI in channel state feedback (section 0086-0087), and comprising: sending channel state information to a network device (see, the UE indicates its preferred reception parameters to the a base station in a channel state feedback report having different formats and include a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) field that conveys PMI, rank indicator (RI) field, CQI , section 0086-0087), wherein the channel state information (see, CSI, link quality characteristics, Doppler frequency , delay spread, section 0090-0091) comprises at least one of a time domain parameter (see, channel estimate that depends on a level of a correlation of channel in time and frequency, section 0096-0097) or a Doppler domain parameter (see, the UE determines a Doppler frequency for the downlink channel by measuring, Doppler metric estimation, section 0017-0020, 0025, 0201-0203-Doppler frequency based on measurements); and the method further comprising: sending second information to the network device, wherein the second information comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal resource indicator (CRI) (see, channel estimation using CSI-RS and CSI-IM resources, section 0084-0085), the PMI, a rank indicator (RI), a channel quality indicator (CQI) (see, the UE indicates its preferred reception parameters to the a base station in a channel state feedback report having different formats and include a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) field that conveys PMI, rank indicator (RI) field, CQI , section 0086-0087, 0113-0114), or a layer indicator (LI).
Levitsky ‘828 discloses all the claim limitations in the above rejection but fails to explicitly disclose: wherein the channel state information and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) are sent independently of each other.
However, Chen et al (US 2020/0178096 A1) from a similar field of endeavor (see, CSI reporting mode without PMI or CSI reporting mode with PMI based on the information bit included in RRC signaling, section 0044) discloses: wherein the channel state information (section 0032-0033,0044-0045-then UE based on first indication information, the UE determines the CSI reporting mode without the PMI and feeds back the estimates CQI to the network device) and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) are sent independently of each other (see, CSI reporting mode with the PMI, section 0044-0045, 0056).
In view of the above, it 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 to implement the channel information reporting mode based on the received bit indication information as taught by Chen ‘096 into the Dopler frequency reporting based on measurements on the DL signal of Levitsky ‘828. The motivation would have been to prevent inaccurate CQI estimation as suggested in section 0042.
Regarding claim 2, Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the Doppler domain parameter (see, Doppler frequency, Doppler metric, section 0090-0091, 0017-0020, 0025) comprises at least one of: a Doppler shift (see, Doppler shift, section 0212); a shift coefficient for the Doppler shift; a Doppler spread (see, Doppler spread, section 0212); or a first spread coefficient for the Doppler spread.
Regarding claim 3, Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the time domain parameter comprises at least one of: a Doppler delay; a first delay coefficient for the Doppler delay; an average delay; a second delay coefficient for the average delay; a delay spread (see, delay spread based on measuring the tracking reference signal, downlink channel estimate, section 0043, 0077); or a second spread coefficient for the delay spread.
Regarding claim 12 (Currently Amended), Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 1, further comprising: sending the channel state information to the network device after sending the second information to the network device (see, the UE may generate one or more channel matrices based on different combinations of tested PMIs and rank hypothesis, section 0132-0136) and in case that a preset condition is met (see, CQI that is a better of channel conditions, section 0087-0088).
Regarding claim 13 (Currently Amended), Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 12, wherein the preset condition comprises at least one of: at least one of the CRI or the RI being unchanged; or it not being time (see, the Doppler frequency is reported by the UE semi-persistent or aperiodically, including deactivating of reporting using MAC-CE, section 0196-0198), to send at least one of the CRI, the PMI, the RI, the CQI (section 0086-0087-CSI in terms of CQI, RI, PMI, 0113-0114, 0131-0136), or the LI.
Regarding claim 16 (Currently Amended), Levitsky ‘828 discloses an information (see, CSI that includes a PMI, rank indicator, CQI, section 0086, 0078-the base station determines a channel estimate for uplink channel between the base station and the UE) receiving method (see, the base station receives channel state feedback (CSF) report/CSI report from the UE, section 0086-0087), executed by a network device (0076-0078-the base station determines a channel estimate for uplink channel between the base station and the UE, transmits reference signals from which the UE determines channel estimate or channel conditions) and comprising: receiving channel state information sent by a terminal (see, the UE indicates its preferred reception parameters to the a base station in a channel state feedback report having different formats and include a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) field that conveys PMI, rank indicator (RI) field, CQI , section 0086-0087), wherein the channel state information (see, CSI, link quality characteristics, Doppler frequency , delay spread, section 0090-0091 comprises at least one of a time domain parameter (see, channel estimate that depends on a level of a correlation of channel in time and frequency, section 0096-0097) or a Doppler domain parameter (see, the UE determines a Doppler frequency for the downlink channel by measuring, Doppler metric estimation, section 0017-0020, 0025, 201-0203-Doppler frequency based on measurements), and the method further comprising: receiving second information sent by the terminal (see, Doppler metric for the downlink channel is periodic or aperiodic, section 0007-008, 0024-00025), wherein the second information comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal resource indicator (CRI), the PMI, a rank indicator (RI), a channel quality indicator (CQI) (see, the UE indicates its preferred reception parameters to the a base station in a channel state feedback report having different formats and include a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) field that conveys PMI, rank indicator (RI) field, CQI , section 0086-0087), or a layer indicator (LI).
Levitsky ‘828 discloses all the claim limitations in the above rejection but fails to explicitly disclose: wherein the channel state information and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) are sent independently of each other.
However, Chen et al (US 2020/0178096 A1) from a similar field of endeavor (see, CSI reporting mode without PMI or CSI reporting mode with PMI based on the information bit included in RRC signaling, section 0044) discloses: wherein the channel state information (section 0032-0033,0044-0045-then UE based on first indication information, the UE determines the CSI reporting mode without the PMI and feeds back the estimates CQI to the network device) and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) are sent independently of each other (see, CSI reporting mode with the PMI, section 0044-0045, 0056).
In view of the above, it 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 to implement the channel information reporting mode based on the received bit indication information as taught by Chen ‘096 into the Dopler frequency reporting based on measurements on the DL signal of Levitsky ‘828. The motivation would have been to prevent inaccurate CQI estimation as suggested in section 0042.
Regarding claim 17, Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 16, wherein the Doppler domain parameter (see, Doppler frequency, Doppler metric, section 0090-0091, 0017-0020, 0025) comprises at least one of: a Doppler shift (see, Doppler shift, section 0212); a shift coefficient for the Doppler shift; a Doppler spread (see, Doppler spread, section 0212); or a first spread coefficient for the Doppler spread.
Regarding claim 18, Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 16, wherein the time domain parameter comprises at least one of: a Doppler delay; a first delay coefficient for the Doppler delay; an average delay; a second delay coefficient for the average delay; a delay spread (see, delay spread based on measuring the tracking reference signal, downlink channel estimate, section 0043, 0077); or a second spread coefficient for the delay spread.
Regarding claim 27 (Currently Amended), Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 16, further comprising: receiving the channel state information to the network device after sending the second information to the network device (see, the UE may generate one or more channel matrices based on different combinations of tested PMIs and rank hypothesis, section 0132-0136) and in case that a preset condition is met (see, CQI that is a better of channel conditions, section 0087-0088).
Regarding claim 28 (Currently Amended), Levitsky ‘828 discloses the method according to claim 27, wherein the preset condition comprises at least one of: at least one of the CRI or the RI being unchanged; or it not being time (see, the Doppler frequency is reported by the UE semi-persistent or aperiodically, including deactivating of reporting using MAC-CE, section 0196-0198 to send at least one of the CRI, the PMI, the RI, the CQI (section 0086-0087-CSI in term of CQI, RI, PMI, 0113-0114, 0131-0136), or the LI.
Regarding claim 37 (New), Levitsky ‘828 as modified by Chen ‘096 discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein sending the channel state information to the network device comprises: sending the channel state information based on a broadband to the network device (Chen, the mobile phone is configured with wireless broadband Internet access, section 0105, noted: by being configured with broadband access means the mobile terminal/UE can send its estimated CQI/CSI to the network device using broadband access).
Regarding claim 38 (New), Levitsky ‘828 as modified by Chen ‘096 discloses the method according to claim 16, wherein receiving the channel state information sent by the terminal comprises: receiving the channel state information based on a broadband sent by the terminal (Chen, the mobile phone is configured with wireless broadband Internet access, section 0105, noted: by being configured with broadband access means the mobile terminal/UE can send its estimated CQI/CSI to the network device using broadband access).
In view of the above, it 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 to implement the channel information reporting mode based on the received bit indication information as taught by Chen ‘096 into the Dopler frequency reporting based on measurements on the DL signal of Levitsky ‘828. The motivation would have been to prevent inaccurate CQI estimation as suggested in section 0042.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Park et al (US 2016/0128037 A1) discloses determination of Doppler shift, CSI-RS process that has an independent CSI feedback configuration, the independent CSI feedback information represents a feedback mode (e.g., RI, PMI, CQI) and transmission order of CSIs (section 0109, 0215-0216, 0258, 0283-0288, 0292-0308).
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CANDAL ELPENORD whose telephone number is (571)270-3123. The examiner can normally be reached 9 am -6 pm M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B Yao can be reached at 571 272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CANDAL ELPENORD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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