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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 09/06/2024.
Claims 1-3 and 5-20 are currently pending.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, 11 and 14-20 are rejected.
Claims 8-10 and 12-13 are objected to.
Claims 1 and 14-16 are independent claims.
- Claim Objection
6. Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: “CDM” in line 1 should be “Code-Division Multiplexing (CDM)”. Appropriate correction is required.
7. Claim 9 is objected to because of the following informalities: “DCI” should be “Downlink Control Information (DCI)”. Appropriate correction is required.
8. Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: “CDM” should be “Code-Division Multiplexing (CDM)”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
9. 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.
10. Claims 3 and 18 recite a number of limitations with “if” conditions. Examiner submits that “if” limitations do not positively claim the subject matter, thus, the claim fails to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter. Examiner respectfully suggests to change the “if” language to “when” or “in response to” to obviate this rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
11. 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.
12. 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 of this title, 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.
13. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
14. Claims 1-3, 5-7 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vicent Moles Cases et al. (US 2019/0215118 A1), hereinafter D1, in view of XI ZHANG et al. (US 2019/0182777 A1), hereinafter D2.
For claim 1, D1 teaches a user equipment (UE) (D1, Fig. 12), comprising:
at least one memory (D1, Fig. 12 item 1206); and
at least one processor (D1, Fig. 12 item 1204) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:
receive a configuration of Phase-Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) and configuration of Rel-18 Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for a data transmission (D1, paragraph 71 teaches a method of receiving a configuration message for a phase tracking reference signal, PT-RS, on a radio channel between a radio access node and a radio device is provided. The radio channel comprises a plurality of subcarriers in a physical resource block, PRB. A subset of the subcarriers in the PRB is allocated to a demodulation reference signal, DM-RS. The method comprises or triggers a step of receiving the configuration message from the radio access node. The configuration message comprises a bit field that is indicative of at least one subcarrier allocated to the PT-RS among the subset of subcarriers allocated to the DM-RS. See also Fig. 16a and paragraphs 134-135.), wherein the data transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission with more than six layers, or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission with more than four layers (D1, paragraph 354 teaches For digital and hybrid beamforming, both type 1 and type 2 can be used. With type 1 the power scaling for the PTRS ports is related with the number of PTRS ports in the SU-MIMO transmission (maximum 2 PTRS ports) while with type 2 the power scaling for PTRS ports is related with the number of PDSCH/PUSCH layers in the DMRS group in SU-MIMO (maximum 8 PDSCH layers and 4 PUSCH layers [6]).);
determine a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission (D1, paragraph 360 teach computing a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission. See also paragraph 412.).
D2 further teaches determine a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission (D2, Equations 3-6 and paragraphs 76-80 teach calculation of a relative power ratio of the PTRS to the PUSCH.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission taught in D2. Because both references teach DMRS and PTRS in the same technical field, D2 explicitly teaches determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission.
For claim 2, D1 and D2 further teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the PTRS transmission and (D1, Figs. 6-7 and paragraph 195 teach the mapping of the different DM-RS ports for DM-RS configuration types 1 and 2 for single front-loaded cases is shown. In some embodiments the PT-RS is not scheduled when using an orthogonal cover code for the DM-RS in the time domain, i.e., TD-OCC for the DM-RS. In such embodiments, the PT-RS is not transmitted when using DM-RS ports 1004 to 1007 for DM-RS configuration type 1 and ports 1006 to 1011 for DM-RS configuration type 2.).
For claim 3, D1 and D2 further teach the UE of claim 1, wherein for a number of layers of a PDSCH transmission with DMRS associated with a PTRS port with eight layers, an EPRE ratio is 9dB if an epre-Ratio is '00' (D1, tables 7-9 and paragraphs 353-370. D2, table 1. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with D2 to have wherein for a number of layers of a PDSCH transmission with DMRS associated with a PTRS port with eight layers, an EPRE ratio is 9dB if an epre-Ratio is '00'.).
For claim 5, D1 and D2 further teach the UE of claim 1, wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "00", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer full coherent codebook based PUSCH transmission, respectively (D1, tables 7-9 and paragraphs 353-370. D2, table 1. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with D2 to have wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "00", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer full coherent codebook based PUSCH transmission, respectively.).
For claim 6, D1 and D2 further teach the UE of claim 1, wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "01", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer PUSCH transmission, respectively (D1, tables 7-9 and paragraphs 353-370. D2, table 1. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with D2 to have wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "00", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer full coherent codebook based PUSCH transmission, respectively.).
For claim 7, D1 and D2 further teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to
receive a configuration for Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) that includes a first set of DMRS ports and a second set of DMRS ports, wherein the first set of DMRS ports comprises type 1 DMRS ports 0-7 or type 2 DMRS ports 0-11; and the second set of DMRS ports comprises type 1 DMRS ports 8-15 or type 2 DMRS ports 12-23 (D1, tables 5-6 and paragraph 340.); and
the processor further determines a second ratio between the EPRE of the data transmission and a third EPRE of DMRS transmission (D1, Fig. and paragraphs 359-364, 412-413 teach determines a second ratio between the EPRE of the data transmission and a third EPRE of DMRS transmission.).
For claim 14, D1 teaches a base station (D1, Fig. 11), comprising:
at least one memory (D1, Fig. 11 item 1006); and
at least one processor (D1, Fig. 11 item 1004) coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to:
transmit a configuration of Phase-Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) and configuration of Rel-18 Demodulation Reference Signal DMRS) for a data transmission (D1, paragraph 71 teaches a method of receiving a configuration message for a phase tracking reference signal, PT-RS, on a radio channel between a radio access node and a radio device is provided. The radio channel comprises a plurality of subcarriers in a physical resource block, PRB. A subset of the subcarriers in the PRB is allocated to a demodulation reference signal, DM-RS. The method comprises or triggers a step of receiving the configuration message from the radio access node. The configuration message comprises a bit field that is indicative of at least one subcarrier allocated to the PT-RS among the subset of subcarriers allocated to the DM-RS. See also Fig. 16a and paragraphs 134-135.), wherein the data transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission with more than six layers, or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission with more than four layers (D1, paragraph 354 teaches For digital and hybrid beamforming, both type 1 and type 2 can be used. With type 1 the power scaling for the PTRS ports is related with the number of PTRS ports in the SU-MIMO transmission (maximum 2 PTRS ports) while with type 2 the power scaling for PTRS ports is related with the number of PDSCH/PUSCH layers in the DMRS group in SU-MIMO (maximum 8 PDSCH layers and 4 PUSCH layers [6]).);
determine a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission (D1, paragraph 360 teach computing a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission. See also paragraph 412.).
D2 further teaches determine a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission (D2, Equations 3-6 and paragraphs 76-80 teach calculation of a relative power ratio of the PTRS to the PUSCH.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission taught in D2. Because both references teach DMRS and PTRS in the same technical field, D2 explicitly teaches determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission.
For claim 15, D1 teaches a user method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving a configuration of Phase-Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) and configuration of Rel-18 Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for a data transmission (D1, paragraph 71 teaches a method of receiving a configuration message for a phase tracking reference signal, PT-RS, on a radio channel between a radio access node and a radio device is provided. The radio channel comprises a plurality of subcarriers in a physical resource block, PRB. A subset of the subcarriers in the PRB is allocated to a demodulation reference signal, DM-RS. The method comprises or triggers a step of receiving the configuration message from the radio access node. The configuration message comprises a bit field that is indicative of at least one subcarrier allocated to the PT-RS among the subset of subcarriers allocated to the DM-RS. See also Fig. 16a and paragraphs 134-135.), wherein the data transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission with more than six layers, or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission with more than four layers (D1, paragraph 354 teaches For digital and hybrid beamforming, both type 1 and type 2 can be used. With type 1 the power scaling for the PTRS ports is related with the number of PTRS ports in the SU-MIMO transmission (maximum 2 PTRS ports) while with type 2 the power scaling for PTRS ports is related with the number of PDSCH/PUSCH layers in the DMRS group in SU-MIMO (maximum 8 PDSCH layers and 4 PUSCH layers [6]).);
determining a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission (D1, paragraph 360 teach computing a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission. See also paragraph 412.).
D2 further teaches determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission (D2, Equations 3-6 and paragraphs 76-80 teach calculation of a relative power ratio of the PTRS to the PUSCH.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission taught in D2. Because both references teach DMRS and PTRS in the same technical field, D2 explicitly teaches determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission.
For claim 16, D1 teaches a processor for wireless communication (D1, Fig. 12) comprising:
at least one controller (D1, Fig. 12 item 1204) coupled with at least one memory (D1, Fig. 12 item 1206) and configured to cause the processor to:
receive a configuration of Phase-Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) and configuration of Rel-18 Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for a data transmission (D1, paragraph 71 teaches a method of receiving a configuration message for a phase tracking reference signal, PT-RS, on a radio channel between a radio access node and a radio device is provided. The radio channel comprises a plurality of subcarriers in a physical resource block, PRB. A subset of the subcarriers in the PRB is allocated to a demodulation reference signal, DM-RS. The method comprises or triggers a step of receiving the configuration message from the radio access node. The configuration message comprises a bit field that is indicative of at least one subcarrier allocated to the PT-RS among the subset of subcarriers allocated to the DM-RS. See also Fig. 16a and paragraphs 134-135.), wherein the data transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission with more than six layers, or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission with more than four layers (D1, paragraph 354 teaches For digital and hybrid beamforming, both type 1 and type 2 can be used. With type 1 the power scaling for the PTRS ports is related with the number of PTRS ports in the SU-MIMO transmission (maximum 2 PTRS ports) while with type 2 the power scaling for PTRS ports is related with the number of PDSCH/PUSCH layers in the DMRS group in SU-MIMO (maximum 8 PDSCH layers and 4 PUSCH layers [6]).);
determine a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission (D1, paragraph 360 teach computing a ratio between an Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) of a PTRS transmission and an EPRE of the PDSCH transmission. See also paragraph 412.).
D2 further teaches determine a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission (D2, Equations 3-6 and paragraphs 76-80 teach calculation of a relative power ratio of the PTRS to the PUSCH.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission taught in D2. Because both references teach DMRS and PTRS in the same technical field, D2 explicitly teaches determining a PUSCH to PTRS power ratio of the PUSCH transmission.
For claim 17, D1 and D2 further teach the processor of claim 16, wherein the PTRS transmission and DMRS transmission with Time Division Orthogonal Cover Code (TD-OCC) are not occurring simultaneously (D1, Figs. 6-7 and paragraph 195 teach the mapping of the different DM-RS ports for DM-RS configuration types 1 and 2 for single front-loaded cases is shown. In some embodiments the PT-RS is not scheduled when using an orthogonal cover code for the DM-RS in the time domain, i.e., TD-OCC for the DM-RS. In such embodiments, the PT-RS is not transmitted when using DM-RS ports 1004 to 1007 for DM-RS configuration type 1 and ports 1006 to 1011 for DM-RS configuration type 2.).
For claim 18, D1 and D2 further teach the processor of claim 16, wherein for a number of layers of a PDSCH transmission with DMRS associated with a PTRS port with eight layers, an EPRE ratio is 9dB if an epre- Ratio is '00' (D1, tables 7-9 and paragraphs 353-370. D2, table 1. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with D2 to have wherein for a number of layers of a PDSCH transmission with DMRS associated with a PTRS port with eight layers, an EPRE ratio is 9dB if an epre-Ratio is '00'.).
For claim 19, D1 and D2 further teach the processor of claim 16, wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "00", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer full coherent codebook based PUSCH transmission, respectively (D1, tables 7-9 and paragraphs 353-370. D2, table 1. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with D2 to have wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "00", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer full coherent codebook based PUSCH transmission, respectively.).
For claim 20, D1 and D2 further teach the processor of claim 16, wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "01", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dBand 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer PUSCH transmission, respectively (D1, tables 7-9 and paragraphs 353-370. D2, table 1. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 with D2 to have wherein for a value of a parameter for configuring a power boosting factor for each PTRS port of the PUSCH transmission being "00", the PUSCH to PTRS power ratio is 7dB, 7.78dB, and 9dB for 5-layer, 6-layer, and 8-layer full coherent codebook based PUSCH transmission, respectively.).
15. Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vicent Moles Cases et al. (US 2019/0215118 A1), hereinafter D1, in view of XI ZHANG et al. (US 2019/0182777 A1), hereinafter D2 and Haitong SUN et al. (US 2025/0247188 A1), hereinafter D3.
For claim 11, D1 and D2 teach all the limitations of parent claim 7. D1 and D2 do not explicitly teach for DMRS type 1, up to four CDM groups are supported; and for DMRS type 2, up to six CDM groups are supported.
However, D3 explicitly teaches for DMRS type 1, up to four CDM groups are supported; and for DMRS type 2, up to six CDM groups are supported (D3, Figs. 7a, 7c and paragraphs 63 and 69 teach for DMRS type 1, up to four CDM groups are supported; and for DMRS type 2, up to six CDM groups are supported.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught in D1 and D2 with for DMRS type 1, up to four CDM groups are supported; and for DMRS type 2, up to six CDM groups are supported taught in D3. Because all the references teach DMRS type 1 and 2, D3 explicitly teaches for DMRS type 1, up to four CDM groups are supported; and for DMRS type 2, up to six CDM groups are supported.
Allowable Subject Matter
16. Claims 8-10 and 12-13 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
17. Claims 8-10 and 12-13 are considered allowable because the prior art does not teach limitations including:
"wherein for DMRS type 1, up to two CDM groups are supported; and for DMRS type 2, up to three CDM groups are supported; and DMRS ports within each CDM group include two subgroups of DMRS ports occupying different REs; and the receiver further receives a flag for each CDM group indicating whether using a second subgroup of DMRS ports in the CDM group for power boosting of a scheduled DMRS transmission in DMRS ports of a first subgroup is enabled or not" in dependent claim 8.
"wherein, for DMRS type 1, a second ratio is -4.77dB and -6dB when number of CDM groups without data is 3 and 4, respectively; and for DMRS type 2, the second ratio is -6dB, -7dB, and -7.78dB when number of CDM groups without data is 4, 5, and 6, respectively" in dependent claim 12.
Conclusion
18. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILL W LIN whose telephone number is (571)272-8749. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang can be reached at 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILL W LIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
