DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 1-12 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The claims recite a “set of elements”. Set of elements is not described anywhere in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for a patent.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-9, 11-12 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by Zhang (Pub No 20110141982)
Regarding claim 1,
Zhang teaches a communication method, comprising:
transmitting, by an eNode-B (eNB), scheduling information, the scheduling information indicating a first set of contiguous subcarriers and a second set of contiguous subcarriers; (interpreted as A UE may be scheduled for data transmission on multiple non-contiguous clusters of resources. Each cluster may include one or more resource blocks and may cover a set of contiguous subcarriers, see para [0007])
receiving, by the eNB, a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) sequence using the first set of contiguous subcarriers within a first symbol and the second set of contiguous subcarriers within the first symbol; and (interpreted as The UE may transmit a reference signal on the multiple non-contiguous clusters to enable channel estimation and data demodulation by a base station, see para [0007]. Also see symbol 3- clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers, fig. 3)
receiving, by the eNB, user data using the first set of contiguous subcarriers within a second symbol and the second set of contiguous subcarriers within the second symbol, (interpreted as user data in contiguous subcarriers of symbol 4, fig 3)
wherein:
the DM-RS sequence consists of a first set of elements and a second set of elements, the first set of contiguous subcarriers within the first symbol is used to receive the first set of elements, and (interpreted as The UE may transmit a reference signal on the multiple non-contiguous clusters to enable channel estimation and data demodulation by a base station, see para [0007]. Also see symbol 3- clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers, fig. 3)
the second set of contiguous subcarriers within the first symbol is used to receive the second set of elements. (interpreted as The UE may transmit a reference signal on the multiple non-contiguous clusters to enable channel estimation and data demodulation by a base station, see para [0007]. Also see symbol 3- clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers, fig. 3)
Regarding claim 7,
Zhang teaches a communication method, comprising:
generating, by a user equipment (UE), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) sequence;
receiving, by the UE, scheduling information, the scheduling information indicating a first set of contiguous subcarriers and a second set of contiguous subcarriers; (interpreted as A UE may be scheduled for data transmission on multiple non-contiguous clusters of resources. Each cluster may include one or more resource blocks and may cover a set of contiguous subcarriers, see para [0007])
transmitting, by the UE, the DM-RS sequence using the first set of contiguous subcarriers within a first symbol and the second set of contiguous subcarriers within the first symbol; and (interpreted as The UE may transmit a reference signal on the multiple non-contiguous clusters to enable channel estimation and data demodulation by a base station, see para [0007]. Also see DMRS symbol 3- clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers, fig. 3)
transmitting, by the UE, user data using the first set of contiguous subcarriers within a second symbol and the second set of contiguous subcarriers within the second symbol, wherein: (interpreted as user data in contiguous subcarriers of symbol 4, fig 3)
the DM-RS sequence consists of a first set of elements and a second set of elements, the first set of contiguous subcarriers within the first symbol is used to transmit the first set of elements, and the second set of contiguous subcarriers within the first symbol is used to transmit the second set of elements. (interpreted as The UE may transmit a reference signal on the multiple non-contiguous clusters to enable channel estimation and data demodulation by a base station, see para [0007]. Also see symbol 3- clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers, fig. 3)
Regarding claim 2 and 8,
Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first set of contiguous subcarriers and the second set of contiguous subcarriers are not contiguous. (interpreted as see symbol 3- clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers non-contiguous with each other, fig. 3)
Regarding claim 3 and 9,
Zhang teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the DM-RS sequence is a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence. (interpreted as The RS sequence(s) may be generated based on a computer-generated sequence, a Zadoff-Chu sequence, see para [0051])
Regarding claim 5 and 11,
Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, wherein a first number of the first set of contiguous subcarriers is M (being a positive integer) and a second number of the second set of contiguous subcarriers is N (being a positive integer), each of the M contiguous subcarriers of the first symbol comprises one of M elements (0, . . . , M−1) of the DM-RS sequence sequentially, and each of the N contiguous subcarriers of the second symbol comprises one of N elements (M, . . . , M+N−1) of the DM-RS sequence sequentially. (interpreted as The UE may transmit a reference signal on the multiple non-contiguous clusters to enable channel estimation and data demodulation by a base station, see para [0007]. Also see subcarriers 0 to k-1, symbol 3 and 10 - clusters 1, m, and M contiguous subcarriers, fig. 3)
Regarding claim 6 and 12,
Zhang teaches the method of claim 5, wherein M and N are determined based on the scheduling information. (interpreted as A scheduler 1284 may schedule UEs for downlink and/or uplink transmission and may provide allocations of resources (e.g., assignment of multiple non-contiguous clusters, RS sequences for demodulation reference signals, etc.) for the scheduled UEs, see para [0090] Also see subcarriers 0 to k-1, fig. 3)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, 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 negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 4 and 10 rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Zhang (Pub No 20110141982) further in view of Papasakellaroiu (Pub No 20090060004)
Regarding claim 4 and 10,
Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, however does not teach wherein when a length of the DM-RS sequence is equal to or greater than a length corresponding to three resource blocks (RBs), the DM-RS sequence is generated from an extended Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence, and when the length of the DM-RS sequence is shorter than the length corresponding to three resource blocks (RBs), the DM-RS sequence is generated using a computer-generated (CG)-constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence.
Papasakellaroiu teaches wherein when a length of the DM-RS sequence is equal to or greater than a length corresponding to three resource blocks (RBs), the DM-RS sequence is generated from an extended Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence, and when the length of the DM-RS sequence is shorter than the length corresponding to three resource blocks (RBs), the DM-RS sequence is generated using a computer-generated (CG)-constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence. (interpreted as ZC sequences for the generation of CAZAC-based sequences for allocations equal to or larger than 3 RBs and computer generated CAZAC sequences for allocations of 1 RB or 2 RBs, see para [0061])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the DMRS taught by Zhang with the ZC and CG based on RBs taught by Papasakellaroiu with the motivation begin the mitigate the sequence allocation problem resulting from the small number of available CAZAC-based sequences for the smaller RB allocations, CAZAC sequences constructed through computer searches can be used as a larger number of sequences can be obtained in this manner. (Papasakellaroiu para [0060])
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAO G NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7732. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10pm - 6:30pm.
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/BAO G NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2461
/HUY D VU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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