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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/15/26 and 8/30/24 is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1, 15-19, 21-27, 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al (Pub No: 2021/0281448) and further in view of ZTE: "SRI/TPMI Enhancement for Enabling 8 TX UL Transmission", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #109-e, R1-2203269, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, Mobile Competence Centre, 650, Route Des Lucioles, F-06921 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex, France, Vol. RAN WG1, No. e-Meeting, 20220509 - 20220520, 9 Pages, 29 April 2022, XP052152905, SRI/TPMI enhancement for enabling 8 TX UL transmission, page 4, paragraph 2.3 - page 7, as disclosed in the IDS.
As to claim 1, Li teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is configured (Li, [0010], a UE with memory and processor) to:
receive control signaling for an uplink (UL) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission (Li, [0007][0008][0004][0063][0067], the UE receives from the base station parameter/configuration signaling for uplink transmissions for MIMO communications); and
transmitting based on the control signaling (Lii, [0044], the UE transmits based on the configuration).
Li does not explicitly teach transmit the UL MIMO transmission precoded with an 8 port uplink MIMO precoder and a set of two or more antenna port groups.
However, ZTE teaches transmit the UL MIMO transmission precoded with an 8 port uplink MIMO precoder and a set of two or more antenna port groups (ZTE, Pg 5 L11-25, transmitting scheme for UL precoding matrix where 8-ports are divided into multiple port groups).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “UL MIMO transmission precoded with 8 port precoder and a set of two antenna groups” as taught by ZTE in the system of Li, so that it would be an enhancement for MIMO UL where simultaneous transmission across multiple panels would provide power control enhancements (ZTE, Pg. 1 Section 1).
As to claim 15, the combination of Li, ZTE and Nam teaches wherein a subset of the 8 Tx precoders are used according to a rank of the UL MIMO transmission (ZTE, Pg 6 Bullet 1-3, the 8Tx ports according to rank).
As to claim 16, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein multiple layers are transmitted with one or more groups of coherent antenna ports (ZTE, Pg 3 Bullet 3, multiple layers with the transmission that is coherent Pg. 5 L10-25).
As to claim 17, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein the one or more groups of coherent antenna ports includes a first subset of four coherent antenna ports and a second subset of four coherent antenna ports (ZTE, Pg 6 Bullet 2, two four partial coherent antenna ports (subsets)).
As to claim 18, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein the one or more groups of coherent antenna ports includes a first subset of two coherent antenna ports, a second subset of two coherent antenna ports, and a third subset of four coherent antenna ports (ZTE, Pg 4 Fig 4- Pg 5 L25, subset of four and 2 antenna ports).
As to claim 19, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein the one or more groups of coherent antenna ports includes a first subset of two coherent antenna ports, a second subset of two coherent antenna ports, a third subset of two coherent antenna ports, and a fourth subset of two coherent antenna ports (ZTE, Pg 4 Fig 4- Pg 5 L25, four subsets of 2 antenna ports).
As to claim 21, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is further configured to: receive an indication of an active antenna port group; and receive a TPMI and a rank indicator for the active antenna port group (ZTE, Section 2.3 and 2.3.1, indication for the port group and joint indication with TPMI and rank).
As to claim 22, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein a number of bits in a TPMI field for the 8 port UL MIMO transmission are reduced in comparison to a 4 port UL MIMO transmission (Li, [0090] additional bits used to indicate precoder TPMI corresponding to the number of ports. E.g. 4 vs 8).
As to claim 23, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein a precoder for each antenna port group is based on a codebook for a 2 port UL MIMO transmission or a 4 port UL MIMO transmission, wherein, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is further configured to: apply a scaling factor based on a number of antenna ports in a corresponding antenna port group to which the precoder is applied (Li, [0041], a weighting is applied to the precoder [0043] or 2port or 4port transmission).
As to claim 24, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit an indication of support for a coherency assumption for antenna port groups (ZTE, Introduction the TPMI indicator including coherence assumption).
As to claim 25, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein antenna ports from different antenna port groups are configured in a single sounding reference signal (SRS) resource (Li, [0043], each antenna port configuration with a SRS resource), each antenna port group having at least one of a different cyclic shift (ZTE, Pg 4 Option 2, the ports in the 8Tx have an additional phase offset).
As to claim 26, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein antenna ports from different antenna port groups are configured with different sounding reference signal (SRS) resources (ZTE, Pg 6 L 1-12, port groups correspond to SRS resources).
As to claim 27, Li teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a network node, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the memory (Li, [0004-0007], a base station with memory and processor), the at least one processor is configured to:
output for transmission control signaling for an uplink (UL) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission (Li, [0007][0008][0004][0063][0067], the UE receives from the base station parameter/configuration signaling for uplink transmissions for MIMO communications); and
obtain the UL MIMO transmission based on the control signaling (Lii, [0044], the BS receives based on the configuration).
Li does not explicitly teach a UL MIMO transmission precoded with an 8 port uplink MIMO precoder and a set of two or more antenna port groups (ZTE, Pg 5 L11-25, transmitting scheme for UL precoding matrix where 8-ports are divided into multiple port groups).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “UL MIMO transmission precoded with 8 port precoder and a set of two antenna groups” as taught by ZTE in the system of Li, so that it would be an enhancement for MIMO UL where simultaneous transmission across multiple panels would provide power control enhancements (ZTE, Pg. 1 Section 1).
As to claim 29, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches wherein, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is further configured to: output for transmission an indication of an active antenna port group; and output for transmission a TPMI and a rank indicator for the active antenna port group (ZTE, Section 2.3 and 2.3.1, indication for the port group and joint indication with TPMI and rank).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li and ZTE as applied to claims above, and further in view of Nammi (Pub No: 2013/0315284).
As to claim 2, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches a 8 port precoder for UL MIMO transmission (ZTE, Pg 5 L11-25).
The combination does not explicitly teach wherein the precoder is based on a rank of the MIMO transmission, a single precoder being provided for each of rank 5, rank 6, rank 7, or rank 8 of MIMO precoder.
However, Nammi teaches (Nammi, [0024], a MIMO system precoder based on rank for each 5, 6, 7, 8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “precoder for each rank” as taught by Nammi in the system of Li and ZTE, so that it would significantly increase system capacity (Nammi [0003]).
Claims 9, 12, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li and ZTE as applied to claims above, and further in view of Nam et al (Pub No: 2013/0308715).
As to claim 9, the combination of Li and ZTE teaches the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder (ZTE, Pg 5 L11-25).
The combination does not explicitly teach is based on a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) codebook with an oversampling factor of 2 and having co-phasing.
However, Nam teaches based on a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) codebook with an oversampling factor of 2 and having co-phasing (Nam, [0164]-[0188], an 8-port MIMO precoder based on DFT vectors with oversampling 2 [00242] and co-phasing).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “based on DFT oversampling and co-phasing” as taught by Nam in the system of Li and ZTE, because it is a well-known type of 8TX codebook (Nam, [0164]).
As to claim 12, the combination teaches the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder (ZTE, Pg 5 L11-25).
The combination does not specifically teach wherein the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder is based on a codebook that is optimized for spatially uncorrelated channels.
However, Nam teaches the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder is based on a codebook that is optimized for spatially uncorrelated channels (Nam, [0164]-[0188], the 8 port precoder is based on a code book for low correlated channels).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “a codebook and optimization” as taught by Nam in the system of Li and ZTE, because it is a well-known type of 8TX codebook (Nam, [0164]).
As to claim 14, the combination teaches the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder (ZTE, Pg 5 L11-25).
The combination does not specifically teach the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder is based on an 8 Tx precoders that are based on co-phasing a precoder for a less than 8 antenna ports.
However, the 8 port uplink MIMO precoder is based on an 8 Tx precoders that are based on co-phasing a precoder for a less than 8 antenna ports. (Nam, [0164]-[0188], the 8 port precoder is based on a code book for less than 8 port co-phasing).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to provide “a codebook and optimization” as taught by Nam in the system of Li and ZTE, because it is a well-known type of 8TX codebook (Nam, [0164]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8, 10, 11, 13, 20, 28 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 (Pub No: 2020/0083939) Fig 7-11.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AFSHAWN M TOWFIGHI whose telephone number is (571)270-7296. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM -5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian N Moore can be reached at 571-272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AFSHAWN M TOWFIGHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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