DETAILED ACTION
This Non-Final Office Action is in response to application number 18/773,383 filed on July 15th 2024. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-5,7-14,16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (WO 2024102558 A1) in view of Yerramalli et al. (KR 20230034235 A).
Regarding claims 1,10 and 18, Zhou et al. disclose a method of wireless communication performed by a network entity, the method comprising: transmitting, to a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE, a plurality of reference signals via a plurality of beams corresponding to a plurality of subbands; (Paragraph 0097] discloses “In 5G New Radio (NR) systems, particularly for above 6 GHz or mmWave systems, beamformed signals may be utilized for most downlink channels, including the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In addition, broadcast control information, such as the SSB, slot format indicator (SFI), and paging information, may be transmitted in a beam-sweeping manner to enable all scheduled entities (e.g., UEs) in the coverage area of a transmission and reception point (TRP) (e.g., a gNB) to receive the broadcast control information.” Paragraph 0098 discloses “base station (e.g., gNB) may generally be capable of communicating with UEs using transmit beams (e.g., downlink transmit beams) of varying beam widths. For example, a base station may be configured to utilize a wider beam when communicating with a UE that is in motion and a narrower beam when communicating with a UE that is stationary. The UE may further be configured to utilize one or more downlink receive beams to receive signals from the base station. In some examples, to select one or more downlink transmit beams and one or more downlink receive beams for communication with a UE, the base station may transmit a reference signal, such as an SSB or CSI-RS, on each of a plurality of downlink transmit beams in a beam-sweeping manner.” Paragraph 0078 and FIG 8B discloses “A set of continuous or discontinuous resource blocks may be referred to herein as a Resource Block Group (RBG), subband, or bandwidth part (BWP). A set of subbands or BWPs may span the entire bandwidth.”) communicating, with the first UE in a slot, a first communication via the first beam and the first subband; and communicating, with the second UE in the slot, a second communication via the first beam and the second subband (Paragraph 0084 discloses “The base station may then select one or more serving downlink beams (e.g., downlink transmit beams and downlink receive beams) for communication with the UE based on the beam measurement report.”):
Zhou et al. fail to explicitly disclose receiving, from the first UE, a first indicator of a first beam of the plurality of beams and a first subband of the plurality of subbands satisfying a first threshold; receiving, from the second UE, a second indicator of the first beam of the plurality of beams and a second subband of the plurality of subbands satisfying a second threshold, the second subband being different from the first subband;
However in an analogous art Yerramalli et al. teaches receiving, from the first UE, a first indicator of a first beam of the plurality of beams and a first subband of the plurality of subbands satisfying a first threshold; receiving, from the second UE, a second indicator of the first beam of the plurality of beams and a second subband of the plurality of subbands satisfying a second threshold, the second subband being different from the first subband (KR 20230034235 A Paragraph 0135 discloses “The UE 115-a may perform one or more beam management procedures based on the level of beam squint. In some cases, the subband-specific signaling 205 may include SSBs and CSI-RSs that the UE 115-a may use to perform one or more beam management procedures. In some examples, the base station communication beams 220 can be relatively narrower than the UE communication beams 215, and the base station 105-a is (eg, the base station 105-a and the UE 115-a) (based on the antenna port configurations of ) can use relatively more beams than the UE 115-a. In some examples, if the beam squint between the first subband and the second subband meets a first threshold beam squint value (eg, the beam sprint corresponds to a severe level of beam squint), the UE 115 -a) may perform the first set of beam management procedures. In some cases, the first set of beam management procedures may include a first beam management procedure, a second beam management procedure, and a third beam management procedure. In a first beam management procedure, the UE 115-a uses base station communication beams 220 used to transmit subband-specific signaling 205 (eg, SSBs) based on measuring the received SSBs. ), the first preferred UE communication beam 215 or both of the set of UE communication beams 215 used to receive subband-specific signaling 205. All can be selected. The UE 115-a may transmit a report 210 of preferred base station communication beam(s) 220 (eg, subband-specific preferred beams) to the base station 105-a. In the second beam management procedure, the UE 115-a selects a second preferred base station communication beam 220 of a subset of base station communication beams of the set of base station communication beams 220 based on measuring the received CSI-RSs. ), where the subset of base station communication beams may be based on the first preferred base station communication beam 220 . The UE 115-a may transmit a report 210 of the second preferred base station communication beam 220 to the base station 105-a. In a third beam management procedure, the UE 115-a may perform UE communication beam 215 refinement (eg, communication beam selection) per subband based on the received CSI-RSs.”);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou et al. to incorporate the teachings of Yerramalli et al., to implement receiving, from the first UE, a first indicator of a first beam of the plurality of beams and a first subband of the plurality of subbands satisfying a first threshold; in order to provide the base station with highly targeted information to optimize the network.
`Regarding claims 2 and 11, Zhou et al. disclose he method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting a UE capability indicator request; and receiving, from at least one of the first UE or the second UE, a UE capability indicator indicating support for subband reporting (Paragraph 0162 discloses “According to some aspects, an SBFD pattern may include a plurality of subbands, each of the plurality of subbands having a different center frequency. An application time may be configured to a wireless communication device by the network entity. The wireless communication device may report its capability to the network entity. The network entity may configure the wireless communication device with a certain application time based on the wireless communication device’s capability. According to some examples, the network entity may transmit, and the wireless communication device may receive, a configuration allocating the application time. The configuration may be based on a capability of the wireless communication device.”).
Regarding claims 3,12 and 19, Zhou et al. disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the first UE and the second UE, a first configuration and a second configuration, respectively, each configuration including at least one of: identifiers associated with the plurality of beams; time and frequency resources of the plurality of reference signals; a value of the first threshold or a value of the second threshold; bandwidth of the first subband and bandwidth of the second subband; or a report associated with measurements of the plurality of reference signals (Paragraph 0104 discloses “ The UE 602 may be configured to scan the plurality of CSI- RS transmit beams 606a–606h on the plurality of receive beams 608a–608e. The UE 602 may then perform beam measurements (e.g., RSRP, SINR, etc.) of the received CSI-RSs on each of the receive beams 608a–608e to determine the respective beam quality of each of the CSI-RS transmit beams 606a–606h as measured on each of the receive beams 608a–608e.”).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Zhou et al. disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the first UE, a first measurement report associated with the plurality of reference signals; and receiving, from the second UE, a second measurement report associated with the plurality of reference signals, wherein the first measurement report and the second measurement report comprise at least one of: a reference signal received power (RSRP) of a first subset of the plurality of reference signals having a highest RSRP; a signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a second subset of the plurality of reference signals having a highest SINR; or a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of a third subset of the plurality of reference signals having a highest RSSI (Paragraph 0110 discloses “In addition to L1 measurement report, the UE 602 can further utilize the beam reference signals to estimate the channel quality of the channel between the network entity 604 and the UE 602. For example, the UE 602 may measure the SINR of each received CSI-RS and generate a CSI report based on the measured SINR. The CSI report may include, for example, a channel quality indicator (CQI), rank indicator (RI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and/or layer indicator (LI). The scheduling entity may use the CSI report to select a rank for the scheduled entity, along with a precoding matrix and a MCS to use for future downlink transmissions to the scheduled entity.”).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Zhou et al. disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the first UE based on the first indicator, downlink control information scheduling first resources associated with the first communication; and transmitting, to the second UE based on the second indicator, downlink control information scheduling second resources associated with the second communication, wherein (Paragraph 0084 discloses “In an example of cellular communication over a cellular carrier via a Uu interface, for a DL transmission, the scheduling entity (e.g., a network entity) may allocate one or more REs 406 (e.g., within the control region 412) to carry DL control information including one or more DL control channels, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), to one or more scheduled entities (e.g., UEs). The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI) including but not limited to power control commands (e.g., one or more open loop power control parameters and/or one or more closed loop power control parameters), scheduling information, a grant, and/or an assignment of REs for DL and UL transmissions.” Whereby paragraph 0098 discloses “The UE may measure the reference signal received power (RSRP) on each of the downlink transmit beams using one or more downlink receive beams on the UE and transmit a beam measurement report to the base station indicating the RSRP of each of the measured downlink transmit beams. The base station may then select one or more serving downlink beams (e.g., downlink transmit beams and downlink receive beams) for communication with the UE based on the beam measurement report.”): the first resources indicate the slot, the first beam, and the first subband; and the second resources indicate the slot, the first beam, and the second subband.
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Zhou et al. disclose the method of claim 1, wherein: the first communication comprises a first downlink communication and the second communication comprises a second downlink communication; or the first communication comprises a first uplink communication and the second communication comprises a second uplink communication (Paragraph 0109 discloses “The network entity 604 may then select one or more transmit beams on which to communicate downlink control information and/or user data traffic to the UE 602. In some examples, the selected transmit beam(s) have the highest RSRP.”).
Regarding claim 8, Zhou et al. disclose he method of claim 1.
Zhou et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are the same;
However in an analogous art Yerramalli et al. teaches wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are the same (KR 20230034235 A Paragraph 0133 discloses “The UE 115-a may be configured with one or more threshold beam squint values.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou et al. to incorporate the teachings of Yerramalli et al., wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are the same; in order to ensure fairness in Multi User Scheduling.
Regarding claims 9 and 17, Zhou et al. disclose the method of claim 1.
Zhou et al fail to explicitly disclose wherein the first indicator satisfying the first threshold includes the first indicator being greater than or equal to the first threshold and the second indicator satisfying the second threshold includes the second indicator being greater than or equal to the second threshold;
However in an analogous art Yerramalli et al. teaches wherein the first indicator satisfying the first threshold includes the first indicator being greater than or equal to the first threshold and the second indicator satisfying the second threshold includes the second indicator being greater than or equal to the second threshold (KR 20230034235 A Paragraph 0133 discloses “If the beam squint is greater than the threshold beam squint value, the UE 115-a uses the first UE communication beam 215-a to communicate in the first subband and the second UE to communicate in the second subband. Communication beam 215-b may be selected. That is, if the difference in signal measurements between a pair of subbands in a carrier bandwidth satisfies a threshold beam squint value, the UE 115-a may perform beamforming (eg, communication beam selection) per subband. there is. Additionally or alternatively, if the beam squint is less than the threshold beam squint value, then the UE 115-a will communicate on the first UE communication beam 215 on the first subband and second subband to save power.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou et al. to incorporate the teachings of Yerramalli et al., wherein the first indicator satisfying the first threshold includes the first indicator being greater than or equal to the first threshold and the second indicator satisfying the second threshold includes the second indicator being greater than or equal to the second threshold; in order to ensure that cell throughput is maximized.
Claims 6,15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (WO 2024102558 A1) in view of Yerramalli et al. (KR 20230034235 A) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zhu et al. (US 12659011 B2).
Regarding claims 6,15 and 20, Zhou et al. disclose The method of claim 1.
Zhou et al. fail to explicitly disclose further comprising: transmitting, to the first UE and the second UE, a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) that maps an identifier of the first beam to an identifier of the first subband and a second TCI that maps the identifier of the first beam to an identifier of the second subband, respectively;
However in an analogous art Zhu et al. teaches further comprising: transmitting, to the first UE and the second UE, a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) that maps an identifier of the first beam to an identifier of the first subband and a second TCI that maps the identifier of the first beam to an identifier of the second subband, respectively (US 12659011 B2 Paragraph 220 discloses “In one example, the UE 116 could receive from the network 130, via higher layer RRC signaling/parameter and/or MAC CE command and/or dynamic DCI based signaling, a bitmap of length N.sub.tx with each bit position/entry in the bitmap corresponding to a TX frequency subband configured/indicated according to one more examples described herein. If a bit position/entry in the bitmap is set to ‘1’ (or ‘0’), the corresponding TX frequency subband is used/active—for the indicated TCI state—for frequency-selective beam indication for FSBM. The bitmap could comprise more than one bit positions/entries set to ‘1’ (or ‘0’) indicating that more than one configured/indicated TX frequency subbands can be used/active—for the indicated TCI state—for frequency-selective beam indication for FSBM. ”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhou et al. to incorporate the teachings of Zhu et al., to implement transmitting, to the first UE and the second UE, a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) that maps an identifier of the first beam to an identifier of the first subband and a second TCI that maps the identifier of the first beam to an identifier of the second subband, respectively; in order to provide the base station with highly targeted information to optimize the network.
Conclusion
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/Samuel Dilan Rutnam/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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