Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/835,157

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD, DISTRIBUTED ANTENNA SYSTEM AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION APPARATUS

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Aug 01, 2024
Priority
Feb 25, 2022 — nonprovisional of PCTJP2022008081
Examiner
HUANG, WEIBIN
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
89%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
5m
Est. Remaining
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 89% — above average
89%
Career Allowance Rate
582 granted / 655 resolved
+28.9% vs TC avg
Moderate +6% lift
Without
With
+5.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 5m
Avg Prosecution
38 currently pending
Career history
705
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.7%
-36.3% vs TC avg
§103
69.3%
+29.3% vs TC avg
§102
11.4%
-28.6% vs TC avg
§112
6.6%
-33.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 655 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 Status This office action is in response to the communication(s) filed on 08/01/2024. Claim(s) 1-4 is/are currently presenting for examination. Claim(s) 1, and 3-4 is/are independent claim(s). Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected. This action has been made NON-FINAL. 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)(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. Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US_20200195319_A1_Park. Regarding claim 1, Park teaches a wireless communication method in a distributed antenna system including a base station and a plurality of antennas that communicates with one or more terminal stations by spatial multiplexing according to control of the base station (Parkigures 7, 11, paragraph 91, spatial multiplexing), wherein the base station includes a precoder (Park paragraph 9, the precoder of the base station) configured to calculate, for each candidate terminal station, a partial weight matrix based on channel information acquired between a plurality of antennas of the candidate terminal station to be subjected to communication by spatial multiplexing using two or more antennas among the plurality of antennas and the two or more antennas used for the spatial multiplexing (Park figure 5, paragraph 101, “…the weight matrix functions to properly distribute the transmission information to antennas according to a transport channel condition…”, paragraph 102, “…matrix W is called a weight matrix or precoding matrix”, paragraph 104, “If spatial multiplexing is used, all the elements of the information vector s have different values because different signals are multiplexed and transmitted...”, and figure 7, paragraph 120, “According to the codebook-based precoding technique, a transmitting-end and a receiving-end share codebook information that includes a predetermined number of precoding matrixes according to a transmission rank, the number of antennas, and so on”, and paragraph 369, equation 16), and multiply a transmission signal for the candidate terminal station by the calculated partial weight matrix for the candidate terminal station (Park figures 7, paragraph 124, “…The transmitting-end that selects the precoding matrix may perform precoding in a manner of multiplying layer signals, of which number amounts to a transmission rank, by the selected precoding matrix and may transmit the precoded transmission signal via a plurality of antennas…”, and figure 11, the transmitter can be a eNB, and the receiver can be a UE), and the plurality of antennas transmits, to each candidate terminal station, the transmission signal for the candidate terminal station multiplied by the partial weight matrix for the candidate terminal station (Park figure 7, figure 7, paragraph 124, “…The transmitting-end that selects the precoding matrix may perform precoding in a manner of multiplying layer signals, of which number amounts to a transmission rank, by the selected precoding matrix and may transmit the precoded transmission signal via a plurality of antennas…”). Regarding claim 2, Park teaches the wireless communication method according to claim 1, wherein the base station determines the number of antennas to be used for the spatial multiplexing for the candidate terminal station (Park paragraph 120, “According to the codebook-based precoding technique, a transmitting-end and a receiving-end share codebook information that includes a predetermined number of precoding matrixes according to a transmission rank, the number of antennas, and so on”), and generates the partial weight matrix for the candidate terminal station based on the channel information between the determined number of antennas among the plurality of antennas of the candidate terminal station and the determined number of antennas among the plurality of antennas allocated to the candidate terminal station (Park figure 7, figure 7, paragraph 124, “…The transmitting-end that selects the precoding matrix may perform precoding in a manner of multiplying layer signals, of which number amounts to a transmission rank, by the selected precoding matrix and may transmit the precoded transmission signal via a plurality of antennas…”, and paragraph 124, “The transmitting-end that receives the feedback information from the receiving-end may select a specific precoding matrix from the codebook based on the received information. The transmitting-end that selects the precoding matrix may perform precoding in a manner of multiplying layer signals, of which number amounts to a transmission rank, by the selected precoding matrix and may transmit the precoded transmission signal via a plurality of antennas…”). Regarding claim 3, Park teaches the limitations as set forth in claim 1, and a distributed antenna system comprising: a base station; and a plurality of antennas that communicates with one or more terminal stations (Park figures 7 and 11). Regarding claim 4, Park teaches the limitations as set forth in claim 1, and a wireless communication device comprising: a base station; and a plurality of antennas that communicates with one or more terminal stations (Park figures 7 and 11). The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The reference US_20240235895_A1_Ahlander, teaches beamforming weight matrix W, which has size AxL, where A is the number of base station antennas and L is the number of transmission layers; and calculate beam weights for the first layer based on the established channel estimate (Ahlander figure 2, paragraph 14). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEIBIN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3695. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30AM - 6:00PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached at (571)272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /W.H/Examiner, Art Unit 2471 /SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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Prosecution Timeline

Aug 01, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 24, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
89%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+5.6%)
2y 5m (~5m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 655 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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