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 § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticpated by ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773 with foreign app. CN 202210611900.4 filed on 05/31/2022).
Regarding claims 1, 10, 19, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches a user equipment (UE) (par. 93, 94, 95, UE), comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code (par. 93, 94, 95, UE); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the UE (par. 93, 94, 95, UE) to:
measure a channel state information reference signal using a candidate UE beam from a set of candidate UE beams (par. 93, 94, 95, the first UE may measure one or more of the downlink candidate beams, to obtain the first measurement result), wherein the measuring comprises measuring a spectral efficiency associated with the candidate UE beam (par. 93, 94, 95, 102, The measurement result includes, for example, RSRP, RSRQ, or an SINR…N first measurement results, N pieces of spectral efficiency information, or the like); and
transmit a measurement report indicating an effective reference signal received power associated with the candidate UE beam (par. 93, 94, 95, 97, 102, The measurement result includes, for example, RSRP, RSRQ, or an SINR…N first measurement results, N pieces of spectral efficiency information, or the like…all measurement results sent by the first UE to the access network device belong to the first measurement result), wherein the effective reference signal received power is calculated using the spectral efficiency associated with the candidate UE beam (par. 88, 93, 94, 95, 102, The measurement result includes, for example, RSRP, RSRQ, or an SINR…N first measurement results, N pieces of spectral efficiency information, or the like…all measurement results sent by the first UE to the access network device belong to the first measurement result).
Regarding claims 3, 12, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: receive a control signal configuring a plurality of candidate beams for inclusion in the measurement report (par. 93, 97, the access network device may indicate an identifier of a to-be-measured candidate beam to the first UE…the access network device sends identifiers of the M candidate beams to the first UE, so that the first UE can measure the M candidate beams), wherein each candidate beam of the plurality of candidate beams is associated with a spectral efficiency value. (par. 97, 102, the access network device may indicate an identifier of a to-be-measured candidate beam to the first UE…the access network device sends identifiers of the M candidate beams to the first UE, so that the first UE can measure the M candidate beams…the first information may include spectral efficiency information of the first UE on the N candidate beams, and the access network device may determine the spectral efficiency information of the first UE on the N candidate beams based on information such as the first measurement result of measuring the N candidate beams by the first UE and/or load information of the N candidate beams).
Regarding claims 4, 13, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 3, wherein, to transmit the measurement report (par. 93, 94, 95, 97, 102, The measurement result includes, for example, RSRP, RSRQ, or an SINR…N first measurement results, N pieces of spectral efficiency information, or the like…all measurement results sent by the first UE to the access network device belong to the first measurement result), the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: transmit, via the measurement report, an indication of a plurality of effective reference signal received powers associated with the plurality of candidate beams (par. 93, 94, 95, 97, 102, The measurement result includes, for example, RSRP, RSRQ, or an SINR…N first measurement results, N pieces of spectral efficiency information, or the like…all measurement results sent by the first UE to the access network device belong to the first measurement result).
Regarding claims 9, 18, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the channel state information reference signal comprises an acquisition channel state information reference signal (par. 54, The downlink beam includes, for example, a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) beam and/or a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block (SSB) beam).
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 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.
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.
Claim(s) 2, 5, 6, 8, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773 with foreign app. CN 202210611900.4 filed on 05/31/2022) in view of LAGHATE et al. (US 20220286882).
Regarding claims 2, 11, 20, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the effective reference signal received power associated with the candidate UE beam, a quantity of resource elements, or any combination thereof (par. 52, 76, 93, RSRP, RSRQ, or an SINR).
However, ZHANG does not teach calculated using a subcarrier spacing value.
But, LAGHATE et al. (US 20220286882) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the effective reference signal received power is further calculated using a subcarrier spacing value associated with the candidate UE beam, a quantity of resource elements, or any combination thereof (par. 61, 62, 111, 129, 242, each frame may include a variable number of slots, and the number of slots may depend on subcarrier spacing…the measurement report may include an SNR or spectral efficiency measurement made using the candidate UE beam or a previous SNR or spectral efficiency measurement made using the serving UE beam, or any combination thereof; SNR=Psignal/Pnoise in the slot).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LAGHATE in the system of ZHANG to calculate the effective reference signal received power.
The motivation would have been to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support beam selection using channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) acquisition resources (LAGHATE par. 4).
Regarding claims 5, 14, ZHANG does not teach the UE of claim 1, wherein, to measure the spectral efficiency, the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: measure the spectral efficiency separately for each rank of one or more ranks associated with the candidate UE beam.
But LAGHATE et al. (US 20220286882) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches measure the spectral efficiency separately for each rank of one or more ranks associated with the candidate UE beam (par. 130, the UE 415 may process the measured spectral efficiency for serving beam selection purposes. For example, at 450 the UE 415 may perform filtering, biasing, or thresholding for a first rank and second rank of the measurement as part of reselecting the serving beam. In some cases, the UE 415 may select a serving beam (e.g., reselect the serving beam to a candidate UE beam from the set of candidate UE beams) based on the measured, filtered, biased, or thresholder spectral efficiencies of the candidate beams).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LAGHATE in the system of ZHANG to measure the spectral efficiency.
The motivation would have been to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support beam selection using channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) acquisition resources (LAGHATE par. 4).
Regarding claims 6, 15, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: select a first serving UE beam for measuring the channel state information reference signal (fig. 2, par. 73, 78, 79, 93, 94, 95, 97, 102, 110, the access network device selects K UEs from the UEs served by the first beam…load of the candidate beam is less than the load of the first beam (or load of the candidate beam is less than a sixth threshold). Load of a beam may be measured by using the first parameter); and the spectral efficiency associated with the candidate UE beam (fig. 2, par. 78, 93, 94, 95, 97, 102, a first measurement result obtained by the first UE by measuring a downlink reference signal carried on the N candidate beams).
However, ZHANG does not explicitly teach select the candidate UE beam as a second serving UE beam based at least in part on the spectral efficiency associated with the candidate UE beam.
But, LAGHATE et al. (US 20220286882) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches select the candidate UE beam as a second serving UE beam based at least in part on the spectral efficiency associated with the candidate UE beam (par. 121, the UE 415 may select a serving UE beam and a set of candidate UE beams for measuring a CSI-RS based on the set of SSB … the UE 415 may select a UE beam associated with an SSB which has a highest RSRP measurement of the set of SSB measurements for the serving UE beam.).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LAGHATE in the system of ZHANG to measure select the candidate UE beam.
The motivation would have been to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support beam selection using channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) acquisition resources (LAGHATE par. 4).
Regarding claims 8, 17, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: wherein measuring the spectral efficiency comprises measuring the spectral efficiency on the set of time resources (par. 19, 50, 93, 106, time-frequency resources…Available resource information of one candidate beam is, for example, a proportion of a remaining available resource on the candidate beam to a total resource of the candidate beam. In addition, an “available resource” of one candidate beam refers to a resource that is on the candidate beam and that can be used by a UE migrated to the candidate beam. It may be understood that there are N first measurement results, N pieces of spectral efficiency information, or the like. In other words, the first information includes the foregoing information about each of the N candidate beams).
However, ZHANG does not explicitly teach identify a set of time resources for the channel state information reference signal.
But, LAGHATE et al. (US 20220286882) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches identify a set of time resources for the channel state information reference signal (par. 7, identifying a set of time resources for the CSI-RS based on one or more previous CSI-RS configurations, measuring the CSI-RS based on the set of time resources using a candidate UE beam from the set of candidate UE beams, and transmitting, to an access network entity, a measurement report based on measuring the CSI-RS using the candidate UE beam or a last CSI-RS measurement on the serving UE beam, or both).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LAGHATE in the system of ZHANG to identify a set of time resources.
The motivation would have been to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support beam selection using channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) acquisition resources (LAGHATE par. 4).
Claim(s) 7, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773 with foreign app. CN 202210611900.4 filed on 05/31/2022) in view of ZHU et al. (US 20250358664).
Regarding claims 7, 16, ZHANG et al. (US 20250097773) teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: transmit a capability report indicating a capability of the UE (par. 107, the first information may include the information about whether the first UE is capable of sharing a transmission resource with another UE on the N candidate beams).
However, ZHANG does not teach a capability of the UE to support transmission of the measurement report indicating the effective reference signal received power.
But, ZHU et al. (US 20250358664) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches transmit a capability of the UE to support transmission of the measurement report indicating the effective reference signal received power (par. 6, 7, transmitting, in a capability signaling of the UE, an indication of support for a SSB or a CSI-RS for event evaluation or measurement reporting for UEI reporting).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by ZHU in the system of ZHANG to transmit a capability of the UE to support transmission of the measurement report.
The motivation would have been to trigger conditions and report formats for event-driven reporting and improve throughput (ZHU par. 3, 4).
Conclusion
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/THINH D TRAN/for /Thinh Tran/, Patent Examiner of Art Unit 2466 09/04/2026
