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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pabst et al., US9,954,279 B1 and further in view of Nagaraja et al., US2018/0123648 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Pabst teaches An apparatus (Fig. 1 item 100; The test system 100) comprising: at least one antenna array, wherein the apparatus is configured for forming a plurality of communication beam patterns using the antenna array (col. 7 lines 27-38; the device under test 180 having antenna elements 181, 182, 183, 184 which makes up the antenna array which generate different radiation patterns if the single antenna elements 181, 182, 183, 184 are controlled accordingly.).
Pabst fails to teach the following recited limitations. However, Nagaraja teaches a memory having stored thereon beam related information unambiguously indicating at least one of the plurality of communication beam patterns as a predefined beam pattern (par. 0022; The apparatus may include a processor, memory in electronic communication with the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions may be operable to cause the processor to receive a request to measure a beamformed reference signal, receive a beamforming configuration indicating one or more beamforming options for measuring the beamformed reference signal.); an interface configured for receiving a signal indicating a request to form the predefined beam pattern (par. 0065; the base station 105-a may monitor active beams using measurements of signals such as a MRS, CSI-RS, or SYNC signals. To receive feedback from a reference signal, the base station 105-a may first send a measurement request to the UE 115-a.); wherein the apparatus is configured for forming the predefined beam pattern responsive to the signal using the beam related information (par. 0065; Upon receiving the measurement request, the UE 115-a may form a directional receiver beam pattern or may begin sweeping to locate the reference signal.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Pabst teachings and Nagaraja teachings in order to prevent the beamformed signal being blindly swept in multiple directions, which may result in measurement delays and inefficient use of resources (Nagaraja, par. 0005).
Regarding claim 2, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the apparatus is configured for forming the predefined beam pattern as a jittering beam pattern (col. 10 lines 60-62).
Regarding claim 3, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 2. Pabst further teaches wherein the apparatus is configured for obtaining the jittering bam pattern by applying a jitter to a signal used to excite an antenna structure or antenna array so as to generate jittering beam pattern (col. 6 lines 42-47).
Regarding claim 4, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern is a first of a plurality of predefined beam patterns, the plurality of predefined beam patterns being a subset of the plurality of communication beam patterns, wherein the apparatus is adapted to sequentially form the plurality of predefined beam patterns in a first relative position with respect to a measurement environment, wherein the apparatus is adapted to form the plurality of predefined beam patterns or a further plurality of predefined beam patterns in a changed second relative position with respect to the measurement environment (col. 10 lines 2-9).
Regarding claim 5, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern is a first predefined beam pattern of a plurality of predefined beam patterns, wherein a predefined sequence of predefined beam patterns is generated by the apparatus and measured with the apparatus (col. 6 lines 31-36).
Regarding claim 6, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern is a calibration beam pattern being one of the plurality of communication beam patterns (col. 5 lines 21-28).
Regarding claim 7, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches adapted to from the predefined beam pattern as a locked beam pattern by locking the beam pattern such that the apparatus maintains a relative orientation of the predefined beam pattern relative to a surface of the apparatus when changing a relative position of the apparatus with respect to a link antenna (col. 5 lines 29-37).
Regarding claim 8, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Nagaraja further teaches adapted for reading the beam related information from the memory and forming the predefined beam pattern according to the beam related information (par. 0030). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Pabst teachings and Nagaraja teachings in order to prevent the beamformed signal being blindly swept in multiple directions, which may result in measurement delays and inefficient use of resources (Nagaraja, par. 0005).
Regarding claim 9, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Nagaraja further teaches wherein the beam related information comprises at least one of a beam/beam sweep identifier; an information indicating one or a multitude of beam-related parameter for a transmission or reception beam to be applied to the antenna array or the associated baseband signal which is to be communicated using the antenna array; a beam polarization; a carrier frequency of the beam pattern; a beam correspondence flag; and a beam correspondence ID (par. 0027). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Pabst teachings and Nagaraja teachings in order to prevent the beamformed signal being blindly swept in multiple directions, which may result in measurement delays and inefficient use of resources (Nagaraja, par. 0005).
Regarding claim 10, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Nagaraja further teaches adapted to form the predefined beam pattern based on a signal received with the apparatus, the signal comprising information indicating at least one of: an activation time or a time duration of the predefined beam pattern; an activation time or a time duration of a beam sweep comprising the predefined beam pattern; a time at the apparatus or the measurement environment; an order of predefined beam patterns to be formed by the apparatus; and a Tx-Rx flag (par. 0016). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Pabst teachings and Nagaraja teachings in order to prevent the beamformed signal being blindly swept in multiple directions, which may result in measurement delays and inefficient use of resources (Nagaraja, par. 0005).
Regarding claim 11, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 10. Nagaraja further teaches wherein the signal indicates the beam related information (par. 0009). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Pabst teachings and Nagaraja teachings in order to prevent the beamformed signal being blindly swept in multiple directions, which may result in measurement delays and inefficient use of resources (Nagaraja, par. 0005).
Regarding claim 12, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern comprises at least one of a transmission beam and a reception beam (col. 7 lines 49-57).
Regarding claim 13, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern comprises at least one beam (col. 9 lines 44-48).
Regarding claim 14, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 13. Pabst further teaches wherein the apparatus is adapted to form the predefined beam pattern as a combined beam pattern based on a superpositioning of at least two beams; or wherein the apparatus is adapted to form the predefined beam pattern as a part of a combined beam pattern based on a superpositioning of the predefined beam pattern with at least one further beam (col. 9 lines 44-48).
Regarding claim 15, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 14. Pabst further teaches wherein the superpositioned beams are distinguishable for a measurement system or indistinguishable (col. 9 lines 44-48).
Regarding claim 16, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Nagaraja further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern is a first predefined beam pattern of a plurality of predefined beam patterns, wherein the apparatus is configured to sequentially form each of the plurality of predefined beam patterns, wherein the plurality of predefined beam patterns is arranged according to a predefined spatial pattern (par. 0055). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Pabst teachings and Nagaraja teachings in order to prevent the beamformed signal being blindly swept in multiple directions, which may result in measurement delays and inefficient use of resources (Nagaraja, par. 0005).
Regarding claim 17, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 16. Pabst further teaches wherein the pattern is at least one of: a regular or irregular pattern; a pattern in which the plurality of beams is arranged in an equidistant manner; a pattern that covers an azimuth or elevation angle range of the apparatus; and a pattern with one, two or a superposition of polarization components (col. 3 lines 11-15).
Regarding claim 18, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the predefined beam pattern is at least one of: a static beam pattern; a time variant beam pattern; a beam sweep (col. 3 lines 36-37).
Regarding claim 19, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein the apparatus is configured for forming the predefined beam pattern independently from a link antenna (col. 2 lines 56-58).
Regarding claim 20, Pabst and Nagaraja teach all the limitations in claim 1. Pabst further teaches wherein apparatus is configured to provide a beam configuration associated with the communication beam pattern, the beam configuration comprising a plurality of beam settings, each beam setting comprising at least one of: a unique beam setting identifier; a beam power; a beam gain; a beam directivity; a beam carrier frequency; a beam polarization; a beam direction; a beam bandwidth part; a beam usage; a list of values with the correspondent settings of the antenna arrays in Tx and/or Rx to form the beam; a beam correspondence flag; a beam correspondence ID (col. 2 lines 39-40).
Conclusion
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/AYODEJI O AYOTUNDE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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