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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 5 and 7-10 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 Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Huang et al (hereinafter “Huang”), US Pub. 2022/0329289.
Regarding claims 1, 7 and 9, Huang discloses a distributed base station system of a wireless communication network. The distributed base station system (fig. 1) comprises a first communication device connected to a second communication device via an interface (fig. 1 and 5-6: a remote radio unit (RRU) 120 connected to a base band unit (BBU) 110 over fronthaul interface 140), wherein base station functions are distributed between the first communication device and the second communication device (fig. 1, abstract: the method performed by a distributed base station system of a wireless communication network. The distributed base station system comprises a base band unit, (BBU) and a remote radio unit, (RRU) connected to each other over a fronthaul link) the second communication device including a beamforming weight calculation unit and a channel estimation unit (fig. 6-7, the BBU comprise beamform weight calculation unit 564 and a channel estimation unit 558); the first communication device (fig. 9 shows details of the RRU 120 of fig. 1) comprising one or more memories storing instructions (fig. 9, a memory 704 stores computer program 705) and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions (fig. 9, a processing circuit 703 configured to execute the program 705) to: transmit, to the second communication device via the interface, information related to a reference signal to be transmitted from a terminal device (fig. 3, step 302: the RRU receives reference signal from UEs; step 304: sending the reference signal to the BBU); receive, via the interface, a channel estimation value related to a channel between the terminal device and the second communication device, being calculated by the second communication device by using a reception reference signal associated with information related to the reference signal (fig. 3, step 308, p. [0043]: the RRU receives, from the BBU, information of first beamforming weights W1 calculated from the first reference signal that the RRU sent to the BBU); and determine a resource to be allocated to communication with the terminal device, based on the channel estimation value (fig. 6, p. [0068]: a scheduler uses the channel estimations stored in the memory to determine how to schedule the UEs. For example, which UEs are to send in the next slot, how resource elements are allocated to these UEs, which UEs are scheduled to the same resource elements for Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), what modulation and coding schemes these UEs will use, etc.)
Regarding claims 2, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19, Huang discloses wherein the information related to the reference signal includes at least one of a pattern of the reference signal and information necessary for calculating the pattern of the reference signal (fig. 2 step 212 and fig. 3, step 310 determining signal ỹ based on beamforming weights W1 and uplink signals y from UEs at N antennas).
Regarding claims 3, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20, Huang discloses wherein the information necessary for calculating the pattern includes at least one of a symbol number of a time axis slot being a start position of a time axis in the reference signal ([0033]: these first beamforming weights are calculated based on channel estimation on a first reference signal sent from the UEs at an earlier time point), a frequency start position of the reference signal, a bandwidth of the reference signal, a transmission comb number, a hopping coefficient, a cyclic shift number, a ZC code length, and a sequence coefficient ([0009] and [0065]: The BBU calculates the beamforming weights (or coefficients) based on the channel estimation).
Regarding claim 4, Huang discloses wherein the first communication device is a distributed unit (DU) constituting a base station, and the second communication device is a radio unit (RU) constituting the base station (fig. 1 and abstract: The distributed base station system comprises a BBU and a RRU connected to each other over a fronthaul).
Regarding claims 5, 8, and 10 Huang discloses a second communication device connected to a first communication device via an interface (fig. 1 and 5-6: a remote radio unit (RRU) 120 connected to a base band unit (BBU) 110 over fronthaul interface 140) and to which, wherein base station functions are distributed between the first communication device and the second communication device (fig. 1 and abstract: The distributed base station system comprises a BBU and a RRU connected to each other over a fronthaul), the second communication device comprising one or more memories storing instructions and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions (fig. 10, BBU system 800 comprises a memory 804 storing computer program 805, and a processing circuit 803 configured to execute the computer program 805) to: receive, from the first communication device via the interface, information related to a reference signal to be transmitted from a terminal device (fig. 4, step 402: the BBU receives from the RRU 120, a first reference signal that the RRU has received from a number of UEs) and calculate a channel estimation value related to a channel between the terminal device and the second communication device by using a reception reference signal associated with information related to the reference signal (figures 6 and 7, p. [0068]: The channel estimation unit 558 performs channel estimation based on the received SRS. The SRS is extracted from the UEs by the RRU); and calculate, based on the calculated channel estimation value, a beamforming weight to be used for communication with the terminal device (figures 6 and 7, p. [0068]: The BBU comprises a beamforming weights calculation unit 564 that calculates beamforming weights W from the channel estimation).
Regarding claim 6, Huang discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the instructions to compress the channel estimation value and transmit the compressed channel estimation value to the first communication device (p. [0036], [0044], [0050], [0052], [0071] and [0077]: the first beamforming weights can be compressed more to reduce the required data rate for transferring the first beamforming weights over the FH from the BBU to the RRU).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
YOSHIOKA et al, WO 2018131299 A1, discloses a user terminal and a wireless communication method.
HALBAUER et al, EP 2869477 A1, discloses a transmitter method for supporting a determination of a set of beamforming weights by a receiver method.
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 THAI D HOANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3184. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30 am-18:30pm.
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, Asad Nawaz can be reached at (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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THAI HOANG D.
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/THAI DINH HOANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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