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 § 103
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 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 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.
Claims 1, 3-5, 7-8, 13, 15-20 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20060209979 A1 (Sandell et al.) (hereinafter Sandell) in view of US 20210014095 A1 (Ly et al.) (hereinafter Ly).
In re claims 1 and 13, Sandell discloses a testing device (Claim 12, “An apparatus for tracking frequency offset for a MIMO receiver receiving a plurality of channels on different carrier frequencies”) and a method (Fig. 8, [0013], “In general terms the present invention provides an improved method of tracking receiver frequency offsets in a receiver for MIMO systems”) implemented by the testing device that is configured to communicate with a wireless device, the testing device comprising:
processing circuitry configured to: measure a plurality of channel responses associated with a plurality of subcarriers in a plurality of time slots, the plurality of channel responses being from the wireless device (Claim 12, “means for estimating a frequency shift between received symbols on each of a plurality of said carriers”. Claim 13, “wherein said frequency shift means comprises means for determining a phase rotation between two or more symbols on each said plurality of carriers”. [0046], “In a system with M transmitting and N receiving antennas, the input-output relation on subcarrier k at time t and time t+1 can be written as ...where, Фk is the phase difference between xk in rk,t and rk, t+1“ (Фk corresponds to the subcarrier k));
determine a plurality of phase offsets, each one of the plurality of phase offsets corresponding to a phase offset between the measured channel response in a first time slot and the measured channel response in a reference time slot over a respective one of plurality of subcarriers, the first time slot being part of the plurality of time slots (Claim 13, “An apparatus according to claim 12 wherein said frequency shift means comprises means for determining a phase rotation between two or more symbols on each said plurality of carriers”. [0046], “In a system with M transmitting and N receiving antennas, the input-output relation on subcarrier k at time t and time t+1 can be written as ...where, Фk is the phase difference between xk in rk,t and rk, t+1“ (Фk corresponds to the subcarrier k)); and
determine a composite phase offset value based on the plurality of phase offsets (Claim 12, “means for determining a quality parameter for each said frequency shift estimate; means for calculating said frequency offset dependent on said carrier frequency shifts weighted depending on their respective quality parameters”. [0055], “To maximize the benefits of a least squares fit, the SNReq of each subcarrier is preferably used as this allows individual estimates to be weighted”. [0059], “In an alternative embodiment, a reduced complexity technique ignores the sampling clock offset α and only estimates the carrier frequency offset” (see equation for β)).
Sandell does not explicitly disclose the plurality of channel responses being from the wireless device.
Ly discloses the plurality of channel responses being from the wireless device (Fig.6:115-b, [0014], “The method may include determining, for a UE, a DMRS bundling configuration for one or more physical shared channels; transmitting, to the UE, an indication of the DMRS bundling configuration; receiving, from the UE based on transmitting the indication, an indication of a UE capability for DMRS bundling for the one or more physical shared channels; and transmitting, to the UE based on receiving the indication of the UE capability, DCI”. [0005], “The UE may bundle DMRSs associated with a physical shared channel that is repeated over multiple TTIs or repeated over multiple slots”. [0007], “The UE may transmit an uplink transmission to the base station based on the determination of whether to maintain or alter DMRS bundling, and in some examples, the uplink transmission may include one or more of the one or more physical shared channels or one or more associated DMRSs. The UE may bundle the DMRSs or may not bundle the DMRSs (for example, maintain or alter one or more phase continuity or coherence properties) based on determining whether to maintain DMRS bundling” (channel responses from the wireless device)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sandell with Ly to provide a method and apparatus for testing channel responses from a wireless device system for coherence transmission related to joint channel estimation to be able to perform cross slot channel filtering. The advantage of doing so is to reduce transmission delays, reduce overhead and improve system performance.
In re claims 3 and 15, the combination discloses the testing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 13, wherein Ly discloses the method further comprising determining a wireless device transmission coherence performance based on the composite phase offset value ([0037], “A user equipment (UE) may bundle multiple references signals, such as demodulation reference signals (DMRSs), for example, in a time domain by coherently transmitting the DMRSs in one or more transmission time intervals (TTIs) or by coherently transmitting the DMRS in one or more slots”. [0053], “Each frame may include multiple consecutively numbered subframes or slots, and each subframe or slot may have the same duration”. [0097], “The UE 115-a may bundle the DMRSs 225 associated with a physical shared channel 230 that is repeated over multiple slots or TTIs (for example, to increase reliability), or may bundle the DMRSs 225 associated with one or more physical shared channels 230 carrying different TBs (for example, to increase throughput). The UE 115-a may maintain one or more coherence properties across the bundled DMRSs 225 to bundle the DMRSs 225”. [0093], “...As a result of the improvement achieved by a base station 105 in channel estimation and DMRS detection or processing by maintaining phase continuity across multiple consecutive DMRSs, the overall reliability and coverage of wireless communication may be improved” (the carrier frequency offset being dependent on the phase difference is a measure of coherence between consecutive slots)).
In re claims 4 and 16, the combination discloses the testing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 13, wherein Sandell discloses wherein the determining of the composite phase offset value includes selecting a maximum absolute phase offset value over all demodulation reference signal (DMRS) subcarriers ([0009], “A subset of these subcarriers is then selected which has a channel response above a certain threshold. A maximum likelihood estimate of the residual frequency estimate is then obtained using only these sub-carriers”. [0011], “An example of frequency offset tracking estimation in a MIMO system is described in ..."Maximum Likelihood Tracking Algorithms for MIMO-OFDM").
In re claims 5 and 17, the combination discloses the testing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 13, wherein Sandell discloses wherein the determining of the composite phase offset value includes calculating a root mean square of maximum phase offset values for each of the plurality of time slots ([0008], “As is known, a least squares line fit can be performed to obtain a best estimate for the two offsets, and this leads to the following estimates for the two offset components” (See equations for least square line fit includes calculating root mean square values)).
In re claims 7 and 19, the combination discloses the testing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 13, wherein Sandell discloses wherein the plurality of subcarriers are associated with a phase offset measurement ([0046], “In a system with M transmitting and N receiving antennas, the input-output relation on subcarrier k at time t and time t+1 can be written as ...where, Фk is the phase difference between xk in rk,t and rk, t+1“ (Фk corresponds to the subcarrier k)).
In re claims 8 and 20, the combination discloses the testing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 13, wherein Ly discloses wherein the plurality of time slots are within a time domain window for bundling demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (Fig. 6:605, [0097], “The UE 115-a may bundle the DMRSs 225 associated with a physical shared channel 230 that is repeated over multiple slots or TTIs (for example, to increase reliability), or may bundle the DMRSs 225 associated with one or more physical shared channels 230 carrying different TBs (for example, to increase throughput)”).
In re claim 18, the combination discloses the method of claim 13, wherein Sandell discloses wherein the determining of the composite phase offset value includes determining a percentile ranking of the phase offsets of the plurality of time slots, the composite phase offset value corresponding to a phase offset value associated with a predefined percentile ranking ([0014], “These phase rotation estimates for each channel are then weighted according to their accuracy or quality (i.e., their error variance) before being combined in a calculation (e.g., least squares line fit) to determine the frequency offset estimate for the receiver itself. By weighting the various frequency offsets apparent from each pilot sub-carrier, its contribution to the overall receiver frequency offset can be modified depending on how accurate each sub-carrier or channel frequency offset estimation appears”. [0042], “However the least squares line fit or mean squared error (MSE) implicitly assumes that all observations, i.e. the estimated frequency shift on each subcarrier, have equal importance. But in a frequency selective channel, some subcarriers can be attenuated by fading and should consequently not contribute as much to the estimate”. [0043], “The embodiments provide a method of weighting the frequency offset estimates (phase rotations between adjacent received symbols) for each measured channel (pilot sub-carrier) according to a quality parameter of that channel; which corresponds to the accuracy of the channel frequency offset estimation. Thus, sub-carriers that are highly attenuated due to fading for example are given less weight than those which are strongly received” (ranked according to weights)).
In re claim 22, the combination discloses the method of claim 13, wherein Ly discloses the method further comprising reporting at least one of the wireless device transmission coherence performances and the composite phase offset value ([0108], “In some examples, the capability indication 210 may be included in a UE capability report transmitted to the base station 105-a. The capability indication 210 may provide information indicating one or more capabilities of the UE 115-a to support DMRS bundling configuration 205, or may otherwise indicate to the base station 105-a the capabilities of the UE 115-a to be able to support, or not support, one or more aspects of DMRS bundling”. [0110], “The UE 115-a may bundle the DMRSs 225 or may not bundle the DMRSs 225 (for example, maintain or alter one or more phase continuity or other coherence properties) based on determining whether to maintain DMRS bundling”).
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SWATI JAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-0699. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri (830 am - 530 pm).
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, Pan Yuwen can be reached on 571-272-7855. 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.
/SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649
Prosecution Insights