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 .
This Office Action is in response to communications filed on 8/12/2024.
Claims 1-5 are pending and presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 8/12/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1, 4 & 5 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.
Regarding claim 1, this claim recites the limitations "estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna" and “deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in this claim. Claim 1 recites that a transmitting station and a receiving station include a plurality of antennas, but it is unclear which antenna is “the transmitting antenna”, which antenna is “the receiving antenna”, which antennas are “the number of transmit antennas”, and which antennas are “the number of receiving antennas”. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting these limitations in claim 1 as “A wireless communication system using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a number of transmitting antennas and a number of receiving antennas”, and “estimating channel information between each transmitting antenna and each receiving antenna” and “deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and a number of transmission signals”.
Claim 1 also recites “switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals based on the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal”.
Claim 1 also recites “performing in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. This claim recites forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, and thus it is not clear which arbitrary sub-array is “the sub-array”. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “performing in-phase combining using phase control for each selected receiving antenna using each arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal”.
Claim 1 also recites “the receiving station performs combining, separating, and demodulating the signals transmitted from the transmitting station”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “the receiving station performs combining, separating, and demodulating each signal transmitted from the transmitting station”.
Regarding claim 4, this claim recites the limitations “deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in this claim. Claim 4 recites that a transmitting station and a receiving station include a plurality of antennas, but it is unclear which antennas are “the number of transmit antennas”, and which antennas are “the number of receiving antennas”. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting the limitations in claim 4 as “A wireless communication method using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a number of transmitting antennas and a number of receiving antennas”, and “deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and a number of transmission signals”.
Claim 4 also recites “deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for the selected receiving antennas for all the combinations”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas for all combinations”.
Claim 4 also recites “performing in-phase combining by performing phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. This claim recites forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, and thus it is not clear which arbitrary sub-array is “the sub-array”. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “performing in-phase combining by performing phase control for each selected receiving antenna using each arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal”.
Regarding claim 5, this claim recites the limitation “deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation in claim 5 as “deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to a number of transmitting antennas, a number of receiving antennas and a number of transmission signals.
Claim 5 also recites “deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for the selected receiving antennas for all the combinations”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas for all combinations”.
Claim 5 also recites “parallelizing bit information into the number of transmission signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “parallelizing bit information into the number of transmission signals based on the transmission-side control information”.
Claim 5 also recites “modulating a bit string on the basis of the transmission-side control information and converting into an electrical signal”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “modulating a bit string on based on the transmission-side control information and converting into an electrical signal”.
Claim 5 also recites “selecting an antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information to switch an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals and configure a sub-array of an arbitrary shape”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “selecting an antenna based on the transmission-side control information to switch an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals and configure a sub-array of an arbitrary shape”.
Claim 5 also recites “controlling a phase coefficient so that in-phase combining is performed on a desired receiving antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “controlling a phase coefficient so that in-phase combining is performed on a desired receiving antenna based on the transmission-side control information”.
Claim 5 also recites “increasing a received SNR by performing signal combining on the basis of the channel information”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in this claim. For the purpose of this review, examiner is interpreting this limitation as “increasing a received SNR by performing signal combining based on the channel information”.
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 (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 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.
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.
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.
Claims 1, 2 & 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doron et al. (US 8411783)(herein after “Doron”) in view of Takano et al. (US 2020/0204219)(herein after “Takano”), and further in view of Endo et al. (JP 2003/168912)(herein after “Endo”) and Motozuka et al. (US 2020/0112388)(herein after “Motozuka”).
Regarding claim 1, Doron discloses a wireless communication system using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas (Col 3, lines 37-67 & col 4, lines 1-7 disclose wireless network (i.e. a wireless communication system) with a base station (i.e. transmitting station) and a mobile station (i.e. receiving station) with Ntx transmitting antennas and Nrx receiving antennas.), wherein at least one of the transmitting station and the receiving station performs:
estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna (Col 3, lines 37-43 & 56-67, and col 4, line 1-7 disclose estimating channel response matrices H (i.e. channel information) between Ntx transmit antennas and Nrx receive antennas.);
deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas (Col 3, lines 56-62 & col 4, lines 9-14 disclose a precoding matrix F that may be selected (i.e. derived) based on a standards based codebook, which is multiplied by an output from a MIMO encoder vector s so that a receive signal vector y results in optimal phase combining of Nstreams spatial streams over Ntx antennas for Nrx receive antennas (i.e. selected receiving antennas based on the selected precoding matrix F).);
calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix (Col 4, lines 50-67 & col 5 lines 1-5 disclose a metric I(F) for calculating capacity based on the channel matrix H and precoding matrix F.);
selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity (Col 5, lines 9-11 disclose selecting a precoding matrix F that maximizes the capacity metric I(F).); and
determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix (Col 3, lines 61-64 discloses that the precoder matrix F is of size Ntx x Nstreams, and thus the number of spatial streams (i.e. transmission-side control information) is determined from the size of the precoding matrix F that maximizes the capacity metric I(F).).
Doron fails to disclose but Takano teaches wherein at least one of the transmitting station and the receiving station includes a processor (Fig 4 & [0080] discloses that a base station 100 includes a processing unit 150. Fig 5 & [0088] disclose that a terminal apparatus 200 includes a processing unit 240.),
the processor performs:
deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals (Fig 11, [0117] disclose a base station notifying a terminal of N subarrays usable for multilayer MIMO and L combinations of subarrays in accordance with a number of antenna ports (e.g. antenna ports 1-8 for the first subarray, antenna ports 9-16 for the second subarray, etc.). [0122]-[0125] & [0138] discloses that the terminal determines and calculates a channel matrix for each combination of subarrays based on the a number of transmit and receive antennas (e.g. 64x8 channel matrices for the case of 64 base station transmit antennas and 8 terminal receive antennas), and for each combination of subarrays decides an RI that may be a layer number (i.e. number of transmission signals). Thus, the terminal determines all combinations of subarrays based on the number of transmit antennas, the number of receive antennas and the number of layers.);
wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations ([0123] discloses that the terminal determines a PMI (i.e. a precoding matrix) for each combination of subarrays for a decided RI (i.e. layer number).);
wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations ([0129] discloses that a base station decides a PMI (i.e. precoding matrix) for each combination of subarrays based on a channel matrix. Having a PMI for each combination of subarrays and a channel matrix for this the PMI are based is all that is needed to calculate channel capacity for all combinations using the capacity metric of Donor.); and
the transmitting station performs: switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal (Fig 28 & [0232]-[0233] disclose a smartphone with antennas for transmission and corresponding antenna switches for switching a connection destination of the corresponding antenna for transmission of wireless signals from wireless communication interface 912. [0227] & [0230] discloses that wireless communication interface 912 includes baseband processing for performing encoding and modulation (i.e. transmission-side control information) and RF circuitry to support the transmission of wireless signals according to the technologies disclosed (i.e. for transmitting subarrays as disclosed in fig 24 & [0190]).).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication system using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas, wherein the transmitting station or the receiving station performs: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna; deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas; calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix; selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity; and determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, as disclosed by Doron, and wherein at least one of the transmitting station and the receiving station includes a processor, the processor performs: deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals; wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations; wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations; and the transmitting station performs: switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, as taught by Takano. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network system where a processor in a base station and a UE is capable of estimating and notifying each other of a channel matrix for a MIMO antenna configuration with a number of transmit/receive antennas at the base station and a number of transmit/receive antennas at the UE so that all combinations of subarrays using the number of transmit/receive antennas at the base station and the UE and spatial transmission layers can be determined and evaluated for estimated capacity that could be delivered by each combination of subarrays based on a capacity metric using the channel matrix and precoding matrices for in-phasing combining of the signals transmitted on the number of transmitted antennas, in order to optimize capacity by selecting the subarray combination, across all subarray combinations, that maximizes the capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array.
Doron fails to disclose but Endo further teaches performing in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array ([0022] discloses a phase shift control device 27 that calculates an excitation phase value for in-phase combining of output signals of sub-arrays 23.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication system using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas and a processor, wherein the processor performs: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna; deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas; calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix; selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity; and determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, and the transmitting station performs: switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, as disclosed by Doron and Takano, wherein the transmitting station performs in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array, as further taught by Endo. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network system where a processor in a transmitting base station and a receiving UE is capable of selecting a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array and perform in-phase combining using a phase control device to weight the transmission of a sub-array for a given receive antenna in order to reduce grating lobes in the transmitted sub-array.
Doron fails to disclose but Motozuka further teaches wherein the receiving station performs combining, separating, and demodulating the signals transmitted from the transmitting station (Fig 8 & [0136]-[0137] disclose a receiving unit 130 that include a combining unit 202, a MIMO signal separation unit 205, and data demodulators 204a and 204b for separating, then demodulating and then combining the signals received on antennas 211a and 211b from a transmitter (e.g. fig 2 and [0040]-[0041]).).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication system using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas and a processor, wherein the processor performs: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna; deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas; calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix; selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity; and determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, and the transmitting station performs: switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, wherein the transmitting station performs in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array, as disclosed by Doron and Takano and Endo, wherein the receiving station performs combining, separating, and demodulating the signals transmitted from the transmitting station, as further taught by Motozuka. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network system where a processor in a transmitting base station and a receiving UE is capable of selecting a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array and perform in-phase combining using a phase control device to weight the transmission of a sub-array for a given set of receive antenna, and the receiving UE can separate, demodulate and combine the signals received on the set of receive antennas in order to maximize a capacity or throughput of data received at the UE.
Regarding claim 2, Doron in view of Takano and Endo and Motozuka disclose the wireless communication system according to claim 1.
Doron discloses wherein a known pilot signal is used at the time of estimating the channel information (Col 3, lines 37-55 disclose pilot tones used for estimating channel response matrices for each pilot tone.).
Regarding claim 4, Doron discloses a wireless communication method using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas (Col 3, lines 37-67 & col 4, lines 1-7 disclose a method of approximating a capacity of a wireless network channel (i.e. a wireless communication method) with a base station (i.e. transmitting station) and a mobile station (i.e. receiving station) with Ntx transmitting antennas and Nrx receiving antennas.), comprising:
estimating channel information between a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna (Col 3, lines 37-43 & 56-67, and col 4, line 1-7 disclose estimating channel response matrices H (i.e. channel information) between Ntx transmit antennas and Nrx receive antennas.);
deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas (Col 3, lines 56-62 & col 4, lines 9-14 disclose a precoding matrix F that may be selected (i.e. derived) based on a standards based codebook, which is multiplied by an output from a MIMO encoder vector s so that a receive signal vector y results in optimal phase combining of Nstreams spatial streams over Ntx antennas for Nrx receive antennas (i.e. selected receiving antennas based on the selected precoding matrix F).);
calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix (Col 4, lines 50-67 & col 5 lines 1-5 disclose a metric I(F) for calculating capacity based on the channel matrix H and precoding matrix F.);
selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity (Col 5, lines 9-11 disclose selecting a precoding matrix F that maximizes the capacity metric I(F).); and
determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix (Col 3, lines 61-64 discloses that the precoder matrix F is of size Ntx x Nstreams, and thus the number of spatial streams (i.e. transmission-side control information) is determined from the size of the precoding matrix F that maximizes the capacity metric I(F).).
Doron fails to disclose but Takano teaches deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals (Fig 11, [0117] disclose a base station notifying a terminal of N subarrays usable for multilayer MIMO and L combinations of subarrays in accordance with a number of antenna ports (e.g. antenna ports 1-8 for the first subarray, antenna ports 9-16 for the second subarray, etc.). [0122]-[0125] & [0138] discloses that the terminal determines and calculates a channel matrix for each combination of subarrays based on the a number of transmit and receive antennas (e.g. 64x8 channel matrices for the case of 64 base station transmit antennas and 8 terminal receive antennas), and for each combination of subarrays decides an RI that may be a layer number (i.e. number of transmission signals). Thus, the terminal determines all combinations of subarrays based on the number of transmit antennas, the number of receive antennas and the number of layers.);
wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations ([0123] discloses that the terminal determines a PMI (i.e. a precoding matrix) for each combination of subarrays for a decided RI (i.e. layer number).);
wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations ([0129] discloses that a base station decides a PMI (i.e. precoding matrix) for each combination of subarrays based on a channel matrix. Having a PMI for each combination of subarrays and a channel matrix for this the PMI are based is all that is needed to calculate channel capacity for all combinations using the capacity metric of Donor.); and
switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal (Fig 28 & [0232]-[0233] disclose a smartphone with antennas for transmission and corresponding antenna switches for switching a connection destination of the corresponding antenna for transmission of wireless signals from wireless communication interface 912. [0227] & [0230] discloses that wireless communication interface 912 includes baseband processing for performing encoding and modulation (i.e. transmission-side control information) and RF circuitry to support the transmission of wireless signals according to the technologies disclosed (i.e. for transmitting subarrays as disclosed in fig 24 & [0190]).).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication method using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas, comprising: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna; deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas; calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix; selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity; and determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, as disclosed by Doron, and deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals; wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations; wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations; and switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, as taught by Takano. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network method where a base station and a UE are capable of estimating and notifying each other of a channel matrix for a MIMO antenna configuration with a number of transmit/receive antennas at the base station and a number of transmit/receive antennas at the UE so that all combinations of subarrays using the number of transmit/receive antennas at the base station and the UE and spatial transmission layers can be determined and evaluated for estimated capacity that could be delivered by each combination of subarrays based on a capacity metric using the channel matrix and precoding matrices for in-phasing combining of the signals transmitted on the number of transmitted antennas, in order to optimize capacity by selecting the subarray combination, across all subarray combinations, that maximizes the capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array.
Doron fails to disclose but Endo further teaches performing in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array ([0022] discloses a phase shift control device 27 that calculates an excitation phase value for in-phase combining of output signals of sub-arrays 23.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication method using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas, comprising: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna; deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas; calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix; selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity; determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix; switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal, as disclosed by Doron and Takano, and performing in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array, as further taught by Endo. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network method where a transmitting base station and a receiving UE are capable of selecting a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array and perform in-phase combining using a phase control device to weight the transmission of a sub-array for a given receive antenna in order to reduce grating lobes in the transmitted sub-array.
Doron fails to disclose but Motozuka further teaches combining, separating, and demodulating the signals transmitted from the transmitting station (Fig 8 & [0136]-[0137] disclose a receiving unit 130 that include a combining unit 202, a MIMO signal separation unit 205, and data demodulators 204a and 204b for separating, then demodulating and then combining the signals received on antennas 211a and 211b from a transmitter (e.g. fig 2 and [0040]-[0041]).).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication method using a transmitting station and a receiving station including a plurality of antennas, comprising: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna; deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas; calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix; selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity; and determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix; switching an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals on the basis of the transmission-side control information and forming an arbitrary sub-array corresponding to each signal; performing in-phase combining using phase control on the desired receiving antenna using the sub-array, as disclosed by Doron and Takano and Endo, and combining, separating, and demodulating the signals transmitted from the transmitting station, as further taught by Motozuka. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network method where a transmitting base station and a receiving UE are capable of selecting a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array and perform in-phase combining using a phase control device to weight the transmission of a sub-array for a given set of receive antenna, and the receiving UE can separate, demodulate and combine the signals received on the set of receive antennas in order to maximize a capacity or throughput of data received at the UE.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doron et al. (US 8411783)(herein after “Doron”) in view of Takano et al. (US 2020/0204219)(herein after “Takano”) and Endo et al. (JP 2003/168912)(herein after “Endo”) and Motozuka et al. (US 2020/0112388)(herein after “Motozuka”), as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Sogabe et al. (US 6349119)(herein after “Sogabe”).
Regarding claim 3, Doron in view of Takano and Endo and Motozuka disclose the wireless communication system according to claim 1.
Doron fails to disclose but Sogabe further teaches wherein geometric estimation is used at the time of estimating the channel information (Col 2, lines 12-23 disclose geometrically estimating channels between a transmitter and receiver).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the wireless communication system according to claim 1, as disclosed by Doron in view of Takano and Endo and Motozuka, wherein geometric estimation is used at the time of estimating the channel information, as further taught by Sogabe. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless network system where a transmitting base station and a receiving UE are capable of selecting a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric based on estimating a channel matrix of the transmit-receive paths between the base station and UE using geometric estimation in order to reduce pilot signal overhead and computational complexity in performing estimation of the channel matrix.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doron et al. (US 8411783)(herein after “Doron”) in view of Takano et al. (US 2020/0204219)(herein after “Takano”) and further in view of Endo et al. (JP 2003/168912)(herein after “Endo”) and Motozuka et al. (US 2020/0112388)(herein after “Motozuka”) and Budampati et al. (US 2005/0201349)(herein after “Budampati”).
Regarding claim 5, discloses wireless communication, comprising:
estimating channel information between a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna (Col 3, lines 37-43 & 56-67, and col 4, line 1-7 disclose estimating channel response matrices H (i.e. channel information) between Ntx transmit antennas and Nrx receive antennas.),
deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for the selected receiving antennas (Col 3, lines 56-62 & col 4, lines 9-14 disclose a precoding matrix F that may be selected (i.e. derived) based on a standards based codebook, which is multiplied by an output from a MIMO encoder vector s so that a receive signal vector y results in optimal phase combining of Nstreams spatial streams over Ntx antennas for Nrx receive antennas (i.e. selected receiving antennas based on the selected precoding matrix F).), and
calculating a channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix (Col 4, lines 50-67 & col 5 lines 1-5 disclose a metric I(F) for calculating capacity based on the channel matrix H and precoding matrix F.),
selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity (Col 5, lines 9-11 disclose selecting a precoding matrix F that maximizes the capacity metric I(F).),
determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix (Col 3, lines 61-64 discloses that the precoder matrix F is of size Ntx x Nstreams, and thus the number of spatial streams (i.e. transmission-side control information) is determined from the size of the precoding matrix F that maximizes the capacity metric I(F).).
Doron fails to disclose but Takano teaches wherein the wireless communication is by a wireless communication device comprising one or more circuitry (Fig 5 & [0088] discloses a terminal apparatus 200 with an antenna unit 210, a wireless communication unit 220, a storage unit 230 and a processing unit 240 (i.e. wireless communication circuitry).), the circuitry performs:
deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas, and the number of transmission signals (Fig 11, [0117] disclose a base station notifying a terminal of N subarrays usable for multilayer MIMO and L combinations of subarrays in accordance with a number of antenna ports (e.g. antenna ports 1-8 for the first subarray, antenna ports 9-16 for the second subarray, etc.). [0122]-[0125] & [0138] discloses that the terminal determines and calculates a channel matrix for each combination of subarrays based on the a number of transmit and receive antennas (e.g. 64x8 channel matrices for the case of 64 base station transmit antennas and 8 terminal receive antennas), and for each combination of subarrays decides an RI that may be a layer number (i.e. number of transmission signals). Thus, the terminal determines all combinations of subarrays based on the number of transmit antennas, the number of receive antennas and the number of layers.),
selecting an antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information to switch an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals and configure a sub-array of an arbitrary shape (Fig 28 & [0232]-[0233] disclose a smartphone with antennas for transmission and corresponding antenna switches for switching a connection destination of the corresponding antenna for transmission of wireless signals from wireless communication interface 912. [0227] & [0230] discloses that wireless communication interface 912 includes baseband processing for performing encoding and modulation (i.e. transmission-side control information) and RF circuitry to support the transmission of wireless signals according to the technologies disclosed (i.e. for transmitting subarrays of an arbitrary shape as disclosed in fig 24 & [0190]). [0205] discloses that the subarray for each terminal apparatus may be selected.),
wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations ([0123] discloses that the terminal determines a PMI (i.e. a precoding matrix) for each combination of subarrays for a decided RI (i.e. layer number).);
wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations ([0129] discloses that a base station decides a PMI (i.e. precoding matrix) for each combination of subarrays based on a channel matrix. Having a PMI for each combination of subarrays and a channel matrix for this the PMI are based is all that is needed to calculate channel capacity for all combinations using the capacity metric of Donor.);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication comprising: estimating channel information between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna, deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas, calculating channel capacity from the channel information and the precoding matrix, selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity, and determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, as disclosed by Doron, wherein the wireless communication is by a wireless communication device comprising one or more circuitry, wherein the circuitry performs: deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations in accordance with the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas and the number of transmission signals, and selecting an antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information to switch an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals and configure a sub-array of an arbitrary shape, wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations, wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations, as taught by Takano. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless communication device, such as a UE, capable of estimating, and notifying a base station of a channel matrix for a MIMO antenna configuration with a number of transmit/receive antennas at the base station and a number of transmit/receive antennas at the UE so that all combinations of subarrays using the number of transmit/receive antennas at the base station and the UE and spatial transmission layers can be determined and evaluated for estimated capacity, that could be delivered by each combination of subarrays based on a capacity metric using the channel matrix and optimal precoding matrices for in-phasing combining of the signals transmitted on the number of transmitted antennas, in order to optimize capacity by selecting the subarray combination, across all subarray combinations, that maximizes the capacity metric and transmitting across the transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of the layers of signals to be transmitted to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array.
Doron fails to disclose but Endo further teaches controlling a phase coefficient so that in-phase combining is performed on a desired receiving antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information ([0022] discloses a phase shift control device 27 that calculates an excitation phase value (i.e. a phase coefficient) for in-phase combining of output signals of sub-arrays 23 based on a target beam scanning angle instruction (i.e. transmission-side control information) from a device.);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication comprising: estimating channel information between a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna, deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for the selected receiving antennas, and calculating a channel capacity for all combinations from the channel information and the precoding matrix, selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity, determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas, and the number of transmission signals, selecting an antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information to switch an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals and configure a sub-array of an arbitrary shape, wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations, wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations, as disclosed by Doron and Takano, and controlling a phase coefficient so that in-phase combining is performed on a desired receiving antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information, as further taught by Endo. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless communication that selects a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric and transmits across transmit antennas of a selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of layers of signals to be sent to transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array and a target beam scanning angle and perform in-phase combining to weight the transmission of the selected sub-array based on excitation phase values for a given receive antenna in order to reduce grating lobes in the transmitted sub-array.
Doron fails to disclose but Motozuka further teaches of performing signal combining on the basis of the channel information (Fig 8 & [0136]-[0137] disclose a receiving unit 130 that include a combining unit 202, for combining the signals received, separated (through separation unit 205) and demodulated on antennas 211a and 211b from a transmitter (e.g. fig 2 and [0040]-[0041]). [0141] discloses that the separation unit 205 may include a channel estimation circuit, so that the demodulated signals received by the combining unit 202 from the separation unit 205 would be based on the channel information that is part of the channel estimation circuit.), and
separating interfering signals (Fig 8, [0136]-[0137] & [0141] disclose a separation unit 205 that performs a MIMO signal separation process (i.e. separating interfering signals).);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication comprising: estimating channel information between a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna, deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for the selected receiving antennas, and calculating a channel capacity for all combinations from the channel information and the precoding matrix, selecting an optimal precoding matrix which maximizes the channel capacity, determining transmission-side control information from the optimal precoding matrix, deriving all combinations of sub-array configurations according to the number of transmitting antennas, the number of receiving antennas, and the number of transmission signals, selecting an antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information to switch an output destination of a single or a plurality of signals and configure a sub-array of an arbitrary shape, wherein deriving a precoding matrix which allows in-phase combining for selected receiving antennas is for all the combinations, wherein calculating channel capacity is for all combinations, and controlling a phase coefficient so that in-phase combining is performed on a desired receiving antenna on the basis of the transmission-side control information, as disclosed by Doron and Takano and Endo, and performing signal combining on the basis of the channel information, and separating interfering signals, as further taught by Motozuka. The motivation to do so would have been to have a wireless communication capable of selecting a subarray combination that maximizes a capacity metric and transmitting multiple MIMO streams across transmit antennas of the selected subarray combination by switching a connection destination of layers of signals to be sent to the transmit antennas associated with the selected sub-array and perform in-phase combining to weight the transmission of the selected sub-array for a given set of receive antenna, and D/A converting the combined signal based on control information indicating the number of MIMO streams, and receiving, separating, demodulating and combining the signals, received on the set of receive antennas in order to maximize a capacity or throughput of data received.
Doron fails to disclose but Budampati further teaches wherein performing signal combining increases a received SNR ([0007] discloses that diversity combining techniques (i.e. signal combining) may be used to increase SNR.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a wireless communication comprising performing signal combining, as disclosed by Doron and Takano and Endo and Motozuka, wherein performing signal combining increases a received SNR, as further taught by Budampati. The motivation to do so would be to increase the SNR of a received data stream by coherently combining multiple separated and demodulated substreams received through MIMO techniques in order to improve throughput of the received and combined data stream.
Conclusion
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Son et al. (US 9287958) discloses a Method and Apparatus for Processing Feedback Information in Wireless Communication System Supporting Beamforming.
Buljore et al. (US 7254184) discloses Wireless Communication Using Multi-transmit Multi-receive Antenna Arrays.
Wu et al. (TW 2017/40694) discloses a System and Selecting Method for Flexible Allocations of Antenna Sub-arrays in Multiple Input Multiple Output Systems.
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/JAMES P SEYMOUR/Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/PAO SINKANTARAKORN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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