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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS statements filed to date have been considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 8, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al., US 2024/0007164, (“Zhang”), in view of Zhang et al., US 2019/0036581, (“Huawei”).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang teaches “A channel state information feedback method, wherein the method comprises:
obtaining a long-period reporting amount of a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) in channel state information, wherein the long-period reporting amount is used for determining N characteristic subspace beams, the N characteristic subspace beams comprise N1 characteristic subspace beams and N2 characteristic subspace beams, the N1 characteristic subspace beams are represented by a linear combination of M1 discrete Fourier transform (DFT) base vectors in a first group of DFT base vectors, and the N2 characteristic subspace beams are represented by a linear combination of M2 DFT base vectors in a second group of DFT base vectors, wherein each of N, N1, N2, M1, and M2 is a positive integer, and the long-period reporting amount comprises indication information of the M1 DFT base vectors, indication information of the M2 DFT base vectors, a linear combination coefficient of the M1 DF T base vectors, and a linear combination coefficient of the M2 DFT base vectors (paragraph no. 0165, “a first subset of length N3 frequency domain, FD, basis vectors of a discrete Fourier transform, the first subset comprising N basis vectors … where 1<=N<=N3 (Block S138); and a number M of FD basis vectors of a second subset of M FD basis vectors, the second subset being determined by the WD 22 from the first subset of FD basis vectors … where M<=N (Block S140) … receiving from the WD 22 a CSI report comprising at least one of (Block S146): an indication of a number of transmission layers (Block S148); an indication of a selection by the WD 22 of a subset of the NCSI-RS CSI-RS ports (Block S150); an indication of a selection by the WD 22 of M FD basis vectors out of the N FD basis vectors (Block S152); an indication of a set of linear combination coefficients associated with the selected subset of the CSI-RS ports and the selected M frequency domain basis vectors per transmission layer”; note that the first subset of N basis vector and second subset of M FD basis vectors are associated with beams, respectively; in one example, the number of transmission layers may be 2 which means that the above indications of M FD basis vectors and a set of linear combination coefficients are repeated for the second layer thus meeting/teaching the limitations “indication information of the M2 DFT base vectors” and “a linear combination coefficient of the M2 DFT base vectors”; see paragraph no. 0069 which discloses that the CSI report includes PMI); and
sending the long-period reporting amount of the PMI” (paragraph no. 0165, “receiving from the WD 22 a CSI report comprising at least one of …”).
Zhang does not teach that the CSI report is a “long-period reporting amount” as required by claim 1.
Huawei teaches transmitting a CSI report in a long-period reporting manner (see paragraph no. 0197).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Zhang by incorporating the teachings of Huawei to enable a wideband reporting manner for the CSI report, as suggested by Huawei in paragraph no. 0197. In addition, such a modification is further obvious since the specific reporting manner used by a UE is nothing more than the application of one of several ways of reporting the CSI report to the network.
Regarding independent claim 8 and 15, these independent claims are corresponding apparatus and computer readable medium claims of the method claim 1 and recite similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 1 applies with equal force to these independent claims and as further amplified below to highlight the minor differences between the claims.
Regarding independent claim 8, see Zhang, Fig. 9 for a “processor” (processor 86).
Regarding independent claim 15, see Zhang, Fig. 9 for a computer readable medium (memory 88).
Claim(s) 2, 9, and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang and Huawei as applied to claims 1, 8, 15 above, and further in view of Liu et al., US 2024/0292417, (“Liu”).
Regarding claims 2, 9, and 16, Zhang does not teach but Liu teaches “wherein the method further comprises:
receiving first projection quantization information, wherein the first projection quantization information comprises at least one of the following: first characteristic subspace beam grouping information, first DFT base vector selection range information, or first DFT base vector quantity information (the last alternative “first DFT base vector quantity information” is taught in paragraph no. 0259, “The network side device configures the UE with … a quantity of basis vectors in the DFT frequency-domain basis vector matrix Wf which is Mv=2”); and
determining the long-period reporting amount based on the first projection quantization information” (paragraph no. 0259, “It is assumed that the total quantity of non-zero coefficients of all layers fed back by the UE”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Zhang and Huawei by incorporating the teachings of Liu to improve the reporting of the CSI report by the UE.
Claim(s) 6, 13, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang and Huawei and Liu as applied to claims 2, 9, 16 above, and further in view of Noh et al., US 2019/0082435, (“Noh”).
Regarding claims 6, 13, and 20, Zhang does not teach but Noh teaches “wherein the first characteristic subspace beam grouping information comprises:
N and N1; or
N and a beam ratio B; or
N; or
N1 and N2” (paragraph no. 0117 discloses L: the number of beams for beamforming, in TypeII codebook which teaches the alternative “N” limitation).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Zhang, Huawei, and Liu by incorporating the teachings of Noh to improve the reporting of the CSI report by the UE.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, 10-12, 14, 17-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claims 3, 10, and 17, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the method further comprises: sending second projection quantization information, wherein the second projection quantization information comprises at least one of the following: second characteristic subspace beam grouping information, second DFT base vector selection range information, or second DFT base vector quantity information; and determining the long-period reporting amount based on the first projection quantization information and the second projection quantization information.”
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the method further comprises: determining a short-period reporting amount of the PMI, wherein the short-period reporting amount comprises a beam superposition coefficient, the long-period reporting amount and the short-period reporting amount are used for determining channel information or a precoding matrix, and the channel information or the precoding matrix is represented by linear superposition of the N characteristic subspace beams; and sending the short-period reporting amount of the PMI.”
Claims 5, 12, and 19 depend from claims 4, 11, and 18, respectively.
Regarding claims 7 and 14, the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest “wherein the first DFT base vector quantity information comprises:
Ml and a base vector quantity ratio δ; or
M1; or
M1 and M2.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WON TAE C. KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-1812. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/WON TAE C KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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