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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 8-9 recite “Part 1 CSI” and “Part 2 CSI” are unclear. “Part 1 CSI” and “Part 2 CSI” should be defined for clarifying.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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.
Claims 1-7, 10-12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kim et al (hereinafter “Kim”), US Pub. 2016/0006549 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Kim discloses a method for enabling a user equipment (UE) to receive a downlink signal from an eNB including a plurality of antenna ports in a wireless communication system. The UE (fig. 12, p. [0215]: a UE serves as the transmission device 10 on uplink and as the receiving device 20 on downlink) comprising: at least one transceiver (transmitter 13 and receiver 23); and at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver (processors 11 and 21 coupled to transceivers 13 and 23), wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive, through the at least one transceiver, configuration information related to a channel state information (CSI) report from a network (p. [0123]-[0124]: receiving CSI transmission request control signal); receive, through the at least one transceiver, at least one CSI-reference signal (CSI-RS) from the network based on the configuration information (p. [0009]-[0010] receiving reference signal according to a precoded reference signal configuration composing the plurality of antenna ports. The precoded reference signal may include at least part of resources for a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) configurable for the UE); and transmit, through the at least one transceiver, at least one CSI report to the network based on the at least one CSI-RS, wherein the at least one CSI report includes indication information for a port group related to a strongest power among a plurality of port groups (p. [0013]: reporting the at least one of measured received power values may be performed for antenna groups each of which is composed of two or more antenna ports. [0015], [0017]: the UE may further include transmitting, to the eNB, information about an antenna group having the highest received power value of the reference signal according to the antenna group levels).
Regarding claims 2 and, Kim discloses the indication information for the port group related to the strongest power is reported as being layer-specific or layer-common (p. [0182]: the UE may select an antenna port group to be reported in consideration of capacity that can be obtained with the corresponding antenna port group rather than RSRP. In this case, the UE calculates the capacity in consideration of multi-layer data transmission from a plurality of antenna ports in the antenna port group).
Regarding claim 3, Kim discloses wherein: at least one of information on an allowable power of each of the plurality of port groups, or information on a power ratio between the plurality of port groups is provided from the network (p. [0188]: the UE may be assigned one reference antenna port group for all grouping levels. When an (m_0)-th antenna port group of an (I_0)-th grouping level of an (r_0)-th RRM-RS is designated as the reference antenna group for the UE. The UE may report RSRP when an RSRP difference exceeds the predetermined threshold as represented by Equation 16).
Regarding claim 4, Kim discloses wherein the power ratio between the plurality of port groups is at least one of: a power ratio between a maximum power CSI-RS resource and a next maximum power CSI-RS resource; a power ratio between two specific CSI-RS resources; a power ratio between a first port group and a second port group for one specific CSI-RS resource; or a ratio between a first value based on a strongest coefficient indicator (SCI) for the first port group and a second value based on a SCI for the second port group (p. [0185]: the UE may select an antenna port group with high RSRP per grouping level and report the selected antenna port group. Otherwise, the UE may compare RSRPs of antenna port groups of different levels and report information (i.e. antenna grouping level, antenna group index, etc.) on an antenna port group having highest RSRP. To compare RSRPs of antenna port groups of different antenna grouping levels, a predetermined offset may be applied to RSRP of the antenna port group of each level).
Regarding claim 5, Kim discloses wherein: for each of the plurality of port groups, at least one of a number of non-zero coefficients, or a maximum value of the non-zero coefficients is provided from the network (p. [0011]: selected received power value(s) ranging between a predetermined threshold and the maximum value from among the measured received power values for the plurality of antenna ports).
Regarding claim 6, Kim discloses wherein: CSI for a port group corresponding to a power less than or equal to a predetermined threshold is omitted from the at least one CSI report (p. [0011]: selected received power value(s) ranging between a predetermined threshold and the maximum value; p. [0012]: selected received power value(s) ranging between a predetermined threshold and the power value; i.e. received power value less than or equal to a predetermined threshold is omitted).
Regarding claim 7, Kim discloses wherein: the omitted CSI is at least one of a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), a rank indicator (RI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block resource indicator (SSBRI), a layer indicator (LI), or a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) (p. [0117]-[0119]: a user equipment (UE) reports channel state information (CSI) to a base station (BS) and CSI refers to information indicating quality of a radio channel (or a link) formed between the UE and an antenna port. For example, the CSI includes a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), etc.)
Regarding claim 10, Kim discloses wherein: CSI for a first port group among the plurality of port groups is included in the at least one CSI report (p. [0178]-[0182]: report CSI-RS bases on antenna port group), CSI for a port group corresponding to a power less than or equal to the predetermined threshold among at least one remaining port group is omitted from the at least one CSI report (p. [0011]: selected received power value(s) ranging between a predetermined threshold and the maximum value; p. [0012]: selected received power value(s) ranging between a predetermined threshold and the power value; i.e. received power value less than or equal to a predetermined threshold is omitted).
Regarding claim 11, Kim discloses wherein: the port group corresponds to a cell, a TRP (p. [0177]: When the UE reports an RRM-RS based RSRP measurement result to the eNB, the eNB may detect the approximate position of the UE and signal configuration of a precoded CSI-RS transmitted to the position to the UE such that the UE can measure the CSI-RS and feedback CSI (RI, PMI, CQI, etc.) for PDSCH scheduling. Upon reception of reports on RSRP measurement results based on RRM-RSs transmitted from a plurality of cells, the eNB may determine a target cell to which the corresponding UE will be handed over and a precoded CSI-RS to be configured for the UC in the target cell on the basis of the RSRP measurement results), a panel, a CORESET pool, a SSB, a beam (p. [0178]: When a 4-port CSI-RS is configured in order to enable the corresponding UE to transmit a maximum of 4 data streams or to perform optimal beam switching according to fading variation on the basis of the RSRP measurement result of FIG. 8, a 4-port CSI-RS in the same direction as beam directions of RRM-RS ports 13, 24, 25 and 26 having high RSRP), or a TCI state.
Regarding claim 14, Kim discloses a method for enabling a user equipment (UE) to receive a downlink signal from a BS (eNB) including a plurality of antenna ports in a wireless communication system. The BS (fig. 12, p. [0215]: an eNB serves as the transmission device 10 on uplink and as the receiving device 20 on downlink) comprising: at least one transceiver (transmitter 13 and receiver 23); and at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver (processors 11 and 21 coupled to the transceivers 13 and 23), wherein the at least one processor is configured to: transmit, through the at least one transceiver, configuration information related to a channel state information (CSI) report to a terminal (p. [0123]-[0124]: UE receives CSI transmission request control signal); transmit, through the at least one transceiver, at least one CSI-reference signal (CSI-RS) to the terminal based on the configuration information (p. [0009]-[0010] UE receives reference signal according to a precoded reference signal configuration composing the plurality of antenna ports. The precoded reference signal may include at least part of resources for a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) configurable for the UE); and receive, through the at least one transceiver, at least one CSI report based on the at least one CSI-RS from the terminal, wherein the at least one CSI report includes indication information for a port group related to a strongest power among a plurality of port groups (p. [0013]: reporting the at least one of measured received power values may be performed for antenna groups each of which is composed of two or more antenna ports. [0015], [0017]: the UE may further include transmitting, to the eNB, information about an antenna group having the highest received power value of the reference signal according to the antenna group levels).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-9 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Park et al, WO 2025/0112681 A1, discloses a method and device for transmitting and receiving port group-based channel state information in a wireless communication system.
Rahman MD Saifur et al, KR 2019/0077521, discloses a method of a user equipment (UE) for channel state information (CSI) feedback in an advanced communication system is provided. The method includes receiving, from a base station (BS), CSI setup information reporting a broadband cyclic CSI including a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and a relative power indicator (RPI) based on a linear combination.
Baligh Mohammadhadi et al, WO 2017/193973 A1, discloses systems and methods of assigning channel state information-reference symbol (CSI-RS) ports to user equipment.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAI D HOANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3184. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30 am-18:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached at (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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THAI HOANG D.
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/THAI DINH HOANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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