DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 1-20 have been examined and are pending.
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
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.
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) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) in view of TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") in view of GAO (US 20190013983 A1)
In regards to claim 1, TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) teaches a method, comprising (TSAI teaches a method performed by a processor of an apparatus, the apparatus being a UE, see where it recites on [Page 4] "Note that the different functional modules and circuits can be implemented and configured by software, firmware, hardware, and any combination thereof. The function modules and circuits, when executed by the processors 193 and 173 (e.g., via executing program codes 190 and 170) , allow the network node 121 and the UE 110 to perform embodiments of the present invention."):
measuring, by a processor of an apparatus, at least one reference signal from a network node (See where it recites on [TSAI, Page 4] "Figure 3 illustrates one embodiment of a sequence flow of beam management procedure in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, in step 301, the UE 110 performs measurement on a set of reference signal (RS) resources from the network node 121..." );
and
transmitting, by the processor, a beam report to the network node, wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam (See where it recites on [TSAI, Page 5] "Next, in step 303, the UE 110 reports the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) or at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) in a reporting instance to the network node 121.").
The method of TSAI differs from that of claim 1, in that TSAI is silent on the following, wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus, and wherein the beam report comprises a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam configuration.
TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") teaches a beam configuration feature where a beam report implicitly indicates a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field ("[0139] In another embodiment, the codepoint in the TCI field reserved for implicit updates is extended to the multi-TRP scenario where a codepoint can be mapped to two TCI states (each TCI state associated with one of the TRPs). An example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 14 where codepoint 0 in the TCI field in DCI is reserved for implicit update. In this example, codepoint 0 is mapped to TCI state 3 initially. Then, the wireless communication device 812 sends a new beam report to the network where the beam report contains two beams associated with TCI states 6 and 9. Following the new beam report, TCI states 6 and 9 will be mapped to codepoint 0 implicitly. After the implicit update codepoint 0 can be used to schedule single PDCCH based multi-TRP transmission.").
Thus, based upon the teachings of TIDESTAV it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration of TSAI, by adopting use of a beam report indicating a reporting order, to thus arrive at wherein the beam report comprises a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) field. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to provide a benefit of additional flexibility for a beam configuration.
The combined teachings of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV further differ from claim 1, in that the combined teachings are silent on wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam configurations. GAO (US 20190013983 A1) teaches an apparatus, user terminal synchronizing a beam, in order to mitigate multi-path and doppler effects (“[0105] The most common synchronization approach for MIMO-OFDM systems may be to compensate for the time/frequency offsets of the received signals in the antenna domain using the same time/frequency adjustment parameters. With such synchronization approaches, the equivalent channel Doppler spreads may be linear with the carrier frequency, which may constitute the system bottleneck. With the above massive MIMO beam domain channel properties, the present disclosure proposes to transform the antenna domain signals into the beam domain and then perform synchronization of the beam domain signals over each beam individually, which may mitigate the channel multi-path effect and Doppler effect.
[0106] For downlink per-beam time/frequency synchronization as illustrated in FIG. 7, base stations may periodically transmit the synchronization signals to enable the user terminals to estimate the synchronization parameters in the beam domain. Each user terminal may firstly transform the received antenna domain signals into the beam domain using the beamforming module 701, estimate the time and frequency synchronization parameters of each beam individually based on the received synchronization signals using the per-beam time/frequency offset estimation module 702, and then utilize them to apply time and frequency adjustment to the signals in the downlink per-beam time/frequency offset adjustment module 703 over each receive beam, respectively. The synchronized beam domain signals may be further transmitted to the OFDM module 704… [0107] For uplink transmission as illustrated in FIG. 8, user terminals may utilize the estimates of the time and frequency offset parameters over all beams obtained in downlink per-beam time/frequency synchronization to perform uplink per-beam time/frequency synchronization. The beam domain signals may be outputted from the OFDM module 801. Each user terminal then may utilize the estimates of the time and frequency offset parameters obtained in the per-beam time/frequency offset estimation module 802 to apply time and frequency adjustment to the beam domain signals in the uplink per-beam time/frequency offset adjustment module 803, respectively. Finally, the synchronized beam domain signals may be transformed into the antenna domain using the beamforming module 804.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of GAO (US 20190013983 A1) it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration feature suggested by the combined teachings of TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) in view of TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") by adopting use of a synchronized beam, to arrive at feature wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus, and thus arrive at claim 1. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to take advantage of benefits yielded by use of synchronized beams such as mitigation of multi-path and doppler effects.
In regards to claim 8, TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) teaches an apparatus, comprising (TSAI teaches an apparatus, a UE, comprising a transceiver and a processor coupled to the transceiver, see where it recites on [Page 4] "Similarly, for the UE 110, antenna 177 transmits and receives RF signals. RF transceiver module 176, coupled with the antenna, receives RF signals from the antenna, converts them to baseband signals and sends them to processor 173. The RF transceiver 176 also converts received baseband signals from the processor 173, converts them to RF signals, and sends out to antenna 177. Processor 173 processes the received baseband signals and invokes different functional modules and circuits to perform features in the UE 110. Memory 172 stores program instructions and data 170 to control the operations of the UE 110.". Note that for where the transceiver during operation wirelessly communicates with at least one network node, see below where TSAI teaches measuring at least one reference signal from the network node, and transmitting the beam report to the network node): a transceiver which, during operation, wirelessly communicates with at least one network node; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver such that, during operation, the processor performs operations comprising:
measuring at least one reference signal from the network node(See where it recites on [TSAI, Page 4] "Figure 3 illustrates one embodiment of a sequence flow of beam management procedure in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, in step 301, the UE 110 performs measurement on a set of reference signal (RS) resources from the network node 121..." );
and
transmitting, via the transceiver, a beam report to the network node, wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam (See where it recites on [TSAI, Page 5] "Next, in step 303, the UE 110 reports the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) or at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) in a reporting instance to the network node 121.").
The apparatus of TSAI differs from that of claim 8, in that TSAI is silent on the following, wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus, and wherein the beam report comprises a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam configuration.
TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") teaches a beam configuration feature where a beam report implicitly indicates a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field ("[0139] In another embodiment, the codepoint in the TCI field reserved for implicit updates is extended to the multi-TRP scenario where a codepoint can be mapped to two TCI states (each TCI state associated with one of the TRPs). An example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 14 where codepoint 0 in the TCI field in DCI is reserved for implicit update. In this example, codepoint 0 is mapped to TCI state 3 initially. Then, the wireless communication device 812 sends a new beam report to the network where the beam report contains two beams associated with TCI states 6 and 9. Following the new beam report, TCI states 6 and 9 will be mapped to codepoint 0 implicitly. After the implicit update codepoint 0 can be used to schedule single PDCCH based multi-TRP transmission.").
Thus, based upon the teachings of TIDESTAV it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration of TSAI, by adopting use of a beam report indicating a reporting order, to thus arrive at wherein the beam report comprises a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) field. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to provide a benefit of additional flexibility for a beam configuration.
The combined teachings of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV further differ from claim 8, in that the combined teachings are silent on wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam configurations. GAO (US 20190013983 A1) teaches an apparatus, user terminal synchronizing a beam, in order to mitigate multi-path and doppler effects (“[0105] The most common synchronization approach for MIMO-OFDM systems may be to compensate for the time/frequency offsets of the received signals in the antenna domain using the same time/frequency adjustment parameters. With such synchronization approaches, the equivalent channel Doppler spreads may be linear with the carrier frequency, which may constitute the system bottleneck. With the above massive MIMO beam domain channel properties, the present disclosure proposes to transform the antenna domain signals into the beam domain and then perform synchronization of the beam domain signals over each beam individually, which may mitigate the channel multi-path effect and Doppler effect.
[0106] For downlink per-beam time/frequency synchronization as illustrated in FIG. 7, base stations may periodically transmit the synchronization signals to enable the user terminals to estimate the synchronization parameters in the beam domain. Each user terminal may firstly transform the received antenna domain signals into the beam domain using the beamforming module 701, estimate the time and frequency synchronization parameters of each beam individually based on the received synchronization signals using the per-beam time/frequency offset estimation module 702, and then utilize them to apply time and frequency adjustment to the signals in the downlink per-beam time/frequency offset adjustment module 703 over each receive beam, respectively. The synchronized beam domain signals may be further transmitted to the OFDM module 704… [0107] For uplink transmission as illustrated in FIG. 8, user terminals may utilize the estimates of the time and frequency offset parameters over all beams obtained in downlink per-beam time/frequency synchronization to perform uplink per-beam time/frequency synchronization. The beam domain signals may be outputted from the OFDM module 801. Each user terminal then may utilize the estimates of the time and frequency offset parameters obtained in the per-beam time/frequency offset estimation module 802 to apply time and frequency adjustment to the beam domain signals in the uplink per-beam time/frequency offset adjustment module 803, respectively. Finally, the synchronized beam domain signals may be transformed into the antenna domain using the beamforming module 804.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of GAO (US 20190013983 A1) it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration feature suggested by the combined teachings of TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) in view of TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") by adopting use of a synchronized beam, to arrive at a feature wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus, and thus arrive at claim 8. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to take advantage of benefits yielded by use of synchronized beams such as mitigation of multi-path and doppler effects.
In regards to claim 15, TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) teaches a method, comprising (TSAI teaches a method performed by a processor of an apparatus, the apparatus being a network node, see where it recites on [Page 4] "Note that the different functional modules and circuits can be implemented and configured by software, firmware, hardware, and any combination thereof. The function modules and circuits, when executed by the processors 193 and 173 (e.g., via executing program codes 190 and 170) , allow the network node 121 and the UE 110 to perform embodiments of the present invention."):
transmitting, by a processor of a network node, at least one reference signal to a user equipment (UE) (See where it recites on [TSAI, Page 4] "Figure 3 illustrates one embodiment of a sequence flow of beam management procedure in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, in step 301, the UE 110 performs measurement on a set of reference signal (RS) resources from the network node 121..." );
receiving, by the processor, a beam report from the UE, wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam (See where it recites on [TSAI, Page 5] "Next, in step 303, the UE 110 reports the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) or at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) in a reporting instance to the network node 121.") and
The method of TSAI differs from that of claim 15, in that TSAI is silent on the following, wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus, and determining, by the processor, at least one codepoint of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) field according to a reporting order in the beam report. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam configuration.
TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") teaches a beam configuration feature where a beam report implicitly indicates a reporting order, and determining at least one codepoint of a TCI field according reporting order in the beam report ("[0139] In another embodiment, the codepoint in the TCI field reserved for implicit updates is extended to the multi-TRP scenario where a codepoint can be mapped to two TCI states (each TCI state associated with one of the TRPs). An example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 14 where codepoint 0 in the TCI field in DCI is reserved for implicit update. In this example, codepoint 0 is mapped to TCI state 3 initially. Then, the wireless communication device 812 sends a new beam report to the network where the beam report contains two beams associated with TCI states 6 and 9. Following the new beam report, TCI states 6 and 9 will be mapped to codepoint 0 implicitly. After the implicit update codepoint 0 can be used to schedule single PDCCH based multi-TRP transmission.").
Thus, based upon the teachings of TIDESTAV it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration of TSAI, by adopting use of a beam report indicating a reporting order, to thus arrive at determining, by the processor, at least one codepoint of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) field according to a reporting order in the beam report. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to provide a benefit of additional flexibility for a beam configuration.
The combined teachings of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV further differ from claim 15, in that the combined teachings are silent on wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam configurations. GAO (US 20190013983 A1) teaches an apparatus, user terminal synchronizing a beam, in order to mitigate multi-path and doppler effects (“[0105] The most common synchronization approach for MIMO-OFDM systems may be to compensate for the time/frequency offsets of the received signals in the antenna domain using the same time/frequency adjustment parameters. With such synchronization approaches, the equivalent channel Doppler spreads may be linear with the carrier frequency, which may constitute the system bottleneck. With the above massive MIMO beam domain channel properties, the present disclosure proposes to transform the antenna domain signals into the beam domain and then perform synchronization of the beam domain signals over each beam individually, which may mitigate the channel multi-path effect and Doppler effect.
[0106] For downlink per-beam time/frequency synchronization as illustrated in FIG. 7, base stations may periodically transmit the synchronization signals to enable the user terminals to estimate the synchronization parameters in the beam domain. Each user terminal may firstly transform the received antenna domain signals into the beam domain using the beamforming module 701, estimate the time and frequency synchronization parameters of each beam individually based on the received synchronization signals using the per-beam time/frequency offset estimation module 702, and then utilize them to apply time and frequency adjustment to the signals in the downlink per-beam time/frequency offset adjustment module 703 over each receive beam, respectively. The synchronized beam domain signals may be further transmitted to the OFDM module 704… [0107] For uplink transmission as illustrated in FIG. 8, user terminals may utilize the estimates of the time and frequency offset parameters over all beams obtained in downlink per-beam time/frequency synchronization to perform uplink per-beam time/frequency synchronization. The beam domain signals may be outputted from the OFDM module 801. Each user terminal then may utilize the estimates of the time and frequency offset parameters obtained in the per-beam time/frequency offset estimation module 802 to apply time and frequency adjustment to the beam domain signals in the uplink per-beam time/frequency offset adjustment module 803, respectively. Finally, the synchronized beam domain signals may be transformed into the antenna domain using the beamforming module 804.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of GAO (US 20190013983 A1) it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration feature suggested by the combined teachings of TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) in view of TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") by adopting use of a synchronized beam, to arrive at the feature wherein the beam report indicates at least one beam which has been synchronized by the apparatus, and thus arrive at claim 15. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to take advantage of benefits yielded by use of synchronized beams such as mitigation of multi-path and doppler effects.
In regards to claim 2, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one beam in the beam report is indicated by at least one reference signal index or at least one TCI state index (See [TSAI, Page 5] where it recites, "In some implementations, the UE 110 reports the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) by a synchronization signal block resource indicator (SSBRI) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource indicator (CRI) in the reporting instance. In some implementations, the UE 110 reports the at least one TCI state in the reporting instance by at least one TCI identification of the at least one TCI state. In other words, the reporting instance may include the at least one TCI identification of the at least one TCI state.").
In regards to claim 9, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO the apparatus of claim 8, wherein the at least one beam in the beam report is indicated by at least one reference signal index or at least one TCI state index(See [TSAI, Page 5] where it recites, "In some implementations, the UE 110 reports the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) by a synchronization signal block resource indicator (SSBRI) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource indicator (CRI) in the reporting instance. In some implementations, the UE 110 reports the at least one TCI state in the reporting instance by at least one TCI identification of the at least one TCI state. In other words, the reporting instance may include the at least one TCI identification of the at least one TCI state.").
In regards to claim 16, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggest the method of claim 15, wherein the at least one beam in the beam report is indicated by at least one reference signal index or at least one TCI state index(See [TSAI, Page 5] where it recites, "In some implementations, the UE 110 reports the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) by a synchronization signal block resource indicator (SSBRI) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource indicator (CRI) in the reporting instance. In some implementations, the UE 110 reports the at least one TCI state in the reporting instance by at least one TCI identification of the at least one TCI state. In other words, the reporting instance may include the at least one TCI identification of the at least one TCI state.").
In regards to claim 3, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 2, wherein an association between a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal index and a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state index is determined according to a quasi-co-location (QCL) configuration in the TCI state or a radio resource control (RRC) configuration (See [TSAI, Fig. 4A-4B] which shows an association between a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal index and a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state determined according to a RRC configuration and also by a QCL configuration in the TCI state respectively, Also see [TSAI, Page 6] "Figure 4A illustrates one embodiment of an association between the at least one RS resource and the at least one TCI state in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, a first TCI state of the at least one TCI state is associated with a first RS resource of the at least one RS resource (i.e., a first beam of the at least one beam) by a configuration transmitted from the network node 121. In other words, the configuration indicates the association between the first TCI state and the first RS resource (i.e., the first beam) . In some implementations, the configuration may be a higher layer configuration (e.g., an RRC configuration). Figure 4B illustrates one embodiment of an association between the at least one RS resource and the at least one TCI state in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, a first RS resource of the at least one RS resource is a direct spatial-QCL source RS of a first TCI state of the at least one TCI state. For example, the first RS resource is a CSI-RS directly recorded in QCL-TypeD information of the first TCI state.").
In regards to claim 10, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the apparatus of claim 9, wherein an association between a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal index and a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state index is determined according to a quasi-co-location (QCL) configuration in the TCI state or a radio resource control (RRC) configuration(See [TSAI, Fig. 4A-4B] which shows an association between a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal index and a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state determined according to a RRC configuration and also by a QCL configuration in the TCI state respectively, Also see [TSAI, Page 6] "Figure 4A illustrates one embodiment of an association between the at least one RS resource and the at least one TCI state in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, a first TCI state of the at least one TCI state is associated with a first RS resource of the at least one RS resource (i.e., a first beam of the at least one beam) by a configuration transmitted from the network node 121. In other words, the configuration indicates the association between the first TCI state and the first RS resource (i.e., the first beam) . In some implementations, the configuration may be a higher layer configuration (e.g., an RRC configuration). Figure 4B illustrates one embodiment of an association between the at least one RS resource and the at least one TCI state in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, a first RS resource of the at least one RS resource is a direct spatial-QCL source RS of a first TCI state of the at least one TCI state. For example, the first RS resource is a CSI-RS directly recorded in QCL-TypeD information of the first TCI state.").
In regards to claim 17, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 16, wherein an association between a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal index and a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state index is determined according to a quasi-co-location (QCL) configuration in the TCI state or a radio resource control (RRC) configuration(See [TSAI, Fig. 4A-4B] which shows an association between a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal index and a TCI state corresponding to the TCI state determined according to a RRC configuration and also by a QCL configuration in the TCI state respectively, Also see [TSAI, Page 6] "Figure 4A illustrates one embodiment of an association between the at least one RS resource and the at least one TCI state in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, a first TCI state of the at least one TCI state is associated with a first RS resource of the at least one RS resource (i.e., a first beam of the at least one beam) by a configuration transmitted from the network node 121. In other words, the configuration indicates the association between the first TCI state and the first RS resource (i.e., the first beam) . In some implementations, the configuration may be a higher layer configuration (e.g., an RRC configuration). Figure 4B illustrates one embodiment of an association between the at least one RS resource and the at least one TCI state in accordance with one novel aspect. In particular, a first RS resource of the at least one RS resource is a direct spatial-QCL source RS of a first TCI state of the at least one TCI state. For example, the first RS resource is a CSI-RS directly recorded in QCL-TypeD information of the first TCI state.").
In regards to claim 4, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 2, wherein the at least one codepoint of the TCI field is mapped to the at least one reference signal index or the at least one TCI state index according to the reporting order in the beam report. TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") teaches a beam configuration feature where a beam report implicitly indicates a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field, wherein the at least one code point of the TCI field is mapped to a TCI state index according to the reporting order ("[0139] In another embodiment, the codepoint in the TCI field reserved for implicit updates is extended to the multi-TRP scenario where a codepoint can be mapped to two TCI states (each TCI state associated with one of the TRPs). An example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 14 where codepoint 0 in the TCI field in DCI is reserved for implicit update. In this example, codepoint 0 is mapped to TCI state 3 initially. Then, the wireless communication device 812 sends a new beam report to the network where the beam report contains two beams associated with TCI states 6 and 9. Following the new beam report, TCI states 6 and 9 will be mapped to codepoint 0 implicitly. After the implicit update codepoint 0 can be used to schedule single PDCCH based multi-TRP transmission.").
Thus, based upon the teachings of TIDESTAV it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration suggested by the combined teachings of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO, by adopting use of a beam report indicating a reporting order to map a codepoint of a TCI field to a TCI state index, to thus arrive at the method of claim 2, wherein the at least one codepoint of the TCI field is mapped to the at least one reference signal index or the at least one TCI state index according to the reporting order in the beam report. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to provide a benefit of additional flexibility for a beam configuration.
In regards to claim 11, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one codepoint of the TCI field is mapped to the at least one reference signal index or the at least one TCI state index according to the reporting order in the beam report. TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") teaches a beam configuration feature where a beam report implicitly indicates a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field, wherein the at least one code point of the TCI field is mapped to a TCI state index according to the reporting order ("[0139] In another embodiment, the codepoint in the TCI field reserved for implicit updates is extended to the multi-TRP scenario where a codepoint can be mapped to two TCI states (each TCI state associated with one of the TRPs). An example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 14 where codepoint 0 in the TCI field in DCI is reserved for implicit update. In this example, codepoint 0 is mapped to TCI state 3 initially. Then, the wireless communication device 812 sends a new beam report to the network where the beam report contains two beams associated with TCI states 6 and 9. Following the new beam report, TCI states 6 and 9 will be mapped to codepoint 0 implicitly. After the implicit update codepoint 0 can be used to schedule single PDCCH based multi-TRP transmission.").
Thus, based upon the teachings of TIDESTAV it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration suggested by the combined teachings of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO, by adopting use of a beam report indicating a reporting order to map a codepoint of a TCI field to a TCI state index, to thus arrive at the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one codepoint of the TCI field is mapped to the at least one reference signal index or the at least one TCI state index according to the reporting order in the beam report. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to provide a benefit of additional flexibility for a beam configuration.
In regards to claim 18, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 16, wherein the at least one codepoint of the TCI field is mapped to the at least one reference signal index or the at least one TCI state index according to the reporting order in the beam report. TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") teaches a beam configuration feature where a beam report implicitly indicates a reporting order to determine at least one codepoint of a TCI field, wherein the at least one code point of the TCI field is mapped to a TCI state index according to the reporting order ("[0139] In another embodiment, the codepoint in the TCI field reserved for implicit updates is extended to the multi-TRP scenario where a codepoint can be mapped to two TCI states (each TCI state associated with one of the TRPs). An example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 14 where codepoint 0 in the TCI field in DCI is reserved for implicit update. In this example, codepoint 0 is mapped to TCI state 3 initially. Then, the wireless communication device 812 sends a new beam report to the network where the beam report contains two beams associated with TCI states 6 and 9. Following the new beam report, TCI states 6 and 9 will be mapped to codepoint 0 implicitly. After the implicit update codepoint 0 can be used to schedule single PDCCH based multi-TRP transmission.").
Thus, based upon the teachings of TIDESTAV it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam configuration suggested by the combined teachings of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO, by adopting use of a beam report indicating a reporting order to map a codepoint of a TCI field to a TCI state index, to thus arrive at the method of claim 16, wherein the at least one codepoint of the TCI field is mapped to the at least one reference signal index or the at least one TCI state index according to the reporting order in the beam report. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to provide a benefit of additional flexibility for a beam configuration.
In regards to claim 5, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 4, wherein the beam report is a latest beam report sent by the apparatus or is a beam report which has been confirmed by the network node (See TSAI [Page 6] "In some implementations, the response in response to the reporting instance may be a downlink control information (DCI) with an indication. In particular, the DCI may indicate a toggled value in a new beam indicator field. For example, the new beam indicator field of the previous DCI is ‘0’ . When the network node 121 is aware of the reporting instance, the network node 121 transmits a DCI with the new beam indicator field ‘1’ to the UE 110.").
In regards to claim 19, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 18, wherein the beam report is a latest beam report sent by the UE or is a beam report which has been confirmed by the network node (See TSAI [Page 6] "In some implementations, the response in response to the reporting instance may be a downlink control information (DCI) with an indication. In particular, the DCI may indicate a toggled value in a new beam indicator field. For example, the new beam indicator field of the previous DCI is ‘0’ . When the network node 121 is aware of the reporting instance, the network node 121 transmits a DCI with the new beam indicator field ‘1’ to the UE 110.").
In regards to claim 12, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the apparatus of claim 11, wherein the beam report is a latest beam report sent by the apparatus or is a beam report which has been confirmed by the network node (See TSAI [Page 6] "In some implementations, the response in response to the reporting instance may be a downlink control information (DCI) with an indication. In particular, the DCI may indicate a toggled value in a new beam indicator field. For example, the new beam indicator field of the previous DCI is ‘0’ . When the network node 121 is aware of the reporting instance, the network node 121 transmits a DCI with the new beam indicator field ‘1’ to the UE 110.").
In regards to claim 6, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a beam indication through a downlink control information (DCI) from the network node, wherein the beam indication indicates a serving TCI state associated with one codepoint of the TCI field (See, [TSAI, Page 6] where it recites, "In some implementations, the UE 110 may transmit an acknowledgement to the network node 121 in response to the response of the reporting instance, and the UE 110 may apply the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) or the at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) to DL reception, UL transmission or both DL reception and UL transmission. In some implementations, the least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource may be mapped to a TCI codepoint of a DCI field by a specified rule. The specified rule may be indicated by a higher layer configuration (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) configuration) .").
In regards to claim 13, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to perform operations comprising: receiving, via the transceiver, a beam indication through a downlink control information (DCI) from the network node, wherein the beam indication indicates a serving TCI state associated with one codepoint of the TCI field(See, [TSAI, Page 6] where it recites, "In some implementations, the UE 110 may transmit an acknowledgement to the network node 121 in response to the response of the reporting instance, and the UE 110 may apply the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) or the at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) to DL reception, UL transmission or both DL reception and UL transmission. In some implementations, the least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource may be mapped to a TCI codepoint of a DCI field by a specified rule. The specified rule may be indicated by a higher layer configuration (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) configuration) .").
In regards to claim 20, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggests the method of claim 15, further comprising: transmitting, by the processor, a beam indication through a downlink control information (DCI) to the UE, wherein the beam indication indicates a serving TCI state associated with one codepoint of the TCI field (See, [TSAI, Page 6] where it recites, "In some implementations, the UE 110 may transmit an acknowledgement to the network node 121 in response to the response of the reporting instance, and the UE 110 may apply the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) or the at least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource (i.e., the at least one beam) to DL reception, UL transmission or both DL reception and UL transmission. In some implementations, the least one TCI state associated with the at least one RS resource may be mapped to a TCI codepoint of a DCI field by a specified rule. The specified rule may be indicated by a higher layer configuration (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) configuration) .").
In regards to claim 7, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO suggest the method of Claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the processor, a serving TCI state according to the beam report in an event that only one beam is indicated in the beam report (Note that with respect to the interpretation of the limitation, determining, by the processor, a serving TCI state according to the beam report in an event that only one beam is indicated in the beam report, that the broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met. For example, assume a method claim requires step A if a first condition happens and step B if a second condition happens. If the claimed invention may be practiced without either the first or second condition happening, then neither step A or B is required by the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim. If the claimed invention requires the first condition to occur, then the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim requires step A. If the claimed invention requires both the first and second conditions to occur, then the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim requires both steps A and B. See Ex parte Schulhauser, Appeal 2013-007847 (PTAB April 28, 2016) for an analysis of contingent claim limitations in the context of both method claims and system claims. Thus, with respect to claim 7, the combination of TSAI in view TIDESTAV in view of GAO is believed to suggest claim 7, for the same reasons explained with respect to claim 1, as the claimed invention can be practiced according to claim 1, without the condition of only one beam being indicated in the beam report being met).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSAI (WO 2022148420 A1) in view of TIDESTAV ("US 20230421340 A1") in view of GAO (US 20190013983 A1) in view of MATSUMURA (US 20210297850 A1)
In regards to claim 14, the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO is silent on the apparatus of Claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to perform operations comprising: determining a serving TCI state according to beam report in an event that only one beam is indicated in the beam report. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving beam management.
MATSUMURA supports a beam management feature determining a serving TCI state according to a beam report in an event that only one beam is indicated in a beam report (“[0060] Incidentally, thus far, in Rel-15 NR, a method of beam management (BM) has been under study. In the beam management, an operation in which beam selection is performed based on L1-RSRP reported by the UE has been under study…[0085] The minimum value of the capability number is 1, and thus the gNB, may invariably configure N to 1. The UE may assume that N is invariably 1 regardless of the capability number. The UE may assume that N_max and N are invariably 1 regardless of the capability number. When the beam selected by the gNB is reported by using higher layer signaling, the gNB configures a single beam for the UE, and hence N may be invariably 1. In this case, the UE only needs to report the measurement value of the single beam, and thus overhead of the beam report can be reduced.”)
Thus, based upon the teachings of MASTUMURA it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the beam management feature suggested by the combination of TSAI in view of TIDESTAV in view of GAO, by determining a serving TCI state according to beam report in an event that only one beam is indicated in the beam report, as similarly seen in MATSUMURA in order to provide a benefit of reduced overhead during communication of a beam report.
Conclusion
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/TARELL A HAMPTON/Examiner, Art Unit 2476
/PETER P CHAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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