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 09/06/2024 and 09/10/2024 were filed with the instant application for consideration. The submission 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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-18 and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (2) as being anticipated by Duan et al (US 2021/0112498 A1), hereinafter, “Duan”).
Regarding claim 1, Duan discloses: A method for reporting an antenna switching capability, performed by a terminal (Duan: fig 7 para [0096], where, the UE 704 (terminal) generate antenna switching capability report and transmit to the base station 702), comprising:
reporting indication information of the antenna switching capability to a network device (Duan: fig 7, para [0096]-[0098], where, the base station 702 equivalent to “network device”, where, “the UE 704 (terminal) generate antenna switching capability report and transmit to the base station 702)”);
wherein the indication information is configured to indicate that the terminal supports an antenna switching configuration of at most eight transmit antennas (Txs) (Duan: fig 4A, para [0083], where, “a UE having 8 RX antenna ports and a number (x) of TX chains switchably coupled to the RX antenna ports (xT8R) may require 8/x or 4/x SRS resource sets to sound all 8 antenna ports when transmitting 1 or 2 SRS resources, respectively, per SRS resource set”).
Regarding claim 21, the claim includes features identical to the subject matter mentioned in the rejection to claim 1 above. The claims are mere reformulation of claim 1 in order to define the generation and transmitting the UE capability of support antennal switching capability to the network device, and the rejection to claim 1 is applied hereto. Additionally, the claim includes a memory and a processor. However, Arora discloses the memory and the processor (Duan: fig 12, para [0138]).
Regarding claim 2, Duan discloses: The method according to claim 1, wherein the indication information comprises at least one of the following: a new antenna switching configuration (Duan: fig 8, para [0109], where, “the UE 804 may dynamically generate a new antenna switching capability report based on the change in active BWP. For example, the new report may be provided to the base station 802 via a subsequent RRC connection request”);
a first antenna switching configuration set corresponding to a Tx switch; and
a second antenna switching configuration set corresponding to the Tx or a receive antenna (Rx) switch.
Regarding claim 3, Duan discloses: wherein the new antenna switching configuration comprises eight Txs and eight Rxs (8T8R) (Duan: fig 4A, para [0083], where, “a UE having 8 RX antenna ports and a number (x) of TX chains switchably coupled to the RX antenna ports (xT8R) may require 8/x or 4/x SRS resource sets to sound all 8 antenna ports when transmitting 1 or 2 SRS resources, respectively, per SRS resource set”).
Regarding claim 4, Duan discloses: wherein the first antenna switching configuration set comprises the antenna switching configuration of n Txs and eight Rxs (nT8R), wherein n is a positive integer less than or equal to 8 (Duan: fig 4A, para [0083], where, “a UE having 8 RX antenna ports and a number (x) of TX chains switchably coupled to the RX antenna ports (xT8R) may require 8/x or 4/x SRS resource sets to sound all 8 antenna ports when transmitting 1 or 2 SRS resources, respectively, per SRS resource set”).
Regarding claim 5, Duan discloses: wherein the first antenna switching configuration set comprises a combination of one or more of the following antenna switching configurations, in response to the terminal supporting the antenna switching configuration of at most 8 Txs but not of 6 Txs: one transmit chain and eight receive chains 1T8R (Duan: fig 4A, para [0083], where, “the number of SRS resource sets (and UL slots) needed to sound each RX antenna port of a multi-antenna UE may depend, at least in part, on the number of RX antenna ports of the UE and the number of TX chains switchably coupled to the RX antenna ports”).
two transmit chains and eight receive chains 2T8R;
three transmit chains and eight receive chains 3T8R;
four transmit chains and eight receive chains 4T8R; and
eight transmit chains and eight receive chains 8T8R (Duan: fig 6A, para [0091], where, “a 6T6R or 8T8R configuration can be implemented by substituting N.sub.ap.sup.SRS=6 or 8, respectively, in Equation 1. It is noted that, existing 3GPP standards do not support cyclic shifts for N.sub.ap.sup.SRS >4”), wherein the transmit chain corresponds to a physical antenna or an antenna port (Duan: fig 6A, para [0090], where, the Tx chain corresponding to a physical port).
Regarding claims 6, 15 and 18, Duan discloses: wherein the first antenna switching configuration set further comprises a combination of one or more of the antenna switching configurations of six transmit chains and eight receive chains 6T8R, in response to the terminal supporting the antenna switching configuration of at most 8 Txs and also of 6 Txs (Duan: fig 6A-B, para [0094], where, includes 6 Tx chain and 8 Rx chain).
Regarding claims 7, 13, 16 and 18, Duan discloses: wherein the second antenna switching configuration set comprises an antenna switching configuration of mTkR, wherein m and k are both positive integers less than or equal to 8 (Duan: fig 6A-B, para [0094], where, “The symbol configuration 600B may correspond to an SRS resource that may support UEs having 8 RX antenna ports switchably coupled to 8 TX chains (8T8R)”).
Regarding claims 8-9, 12, 14 and 17, Duan discloses: wherein the second antenna switching configuration set comprises a combination of one or more of the following antenna switching configurations, in response to the terminal supporting the antenna switching configuration of at most 8 Txs but not of 6 Txs (Duan: fig 6A-B, para [0094], where, “The symbol configuration 600B may correspond to an SRS resource that may support UEs having 8 RX antenna ports switchably coupled to 8 TX chains (8T8R)”): one transmit chain and one receive chain 1T1R;
one transmit chain and two receive chains 1T2R;
one transmit chain and four receive chains 1T4R;
one transmit chain and six receive chains 1T6R;
one transmit chain and eight receive chains 1T8R;
two transmit chains and two receive chains 2T2R;
two transmit chains and four receive chains 2T4R;
two transmit chains and six receive chains 2T6R;
two transmit chains and eight receive chains 2T8R;
three transmit chains and four receive chains 3T4R;
three transmit chains and six receive chains 3T6R;
three transmit chains and eight receive chains 3T8R;
four transmit chains and four receive chains 4T4R;
four transmit chains and six receive chains 4T6R;
four transmit chains and eight receive chains 4T8R; and
eight transmit chains and eight receive chains 8T8R (Duan: fig 6A-B, para [0094], where, “The symbol configuration 600B may correspond to an SRS resource that may support UEs having 8 RX antenna ports switchably coupled to 8 TX chains (8T8R)”); wherein the transmit chain corresponds to the physical antenna or the antenna port (Duan: fig 6A, para [0090], where, the Tx chain corresponding to a physical port).
Regarding claim 10, Duan discloses: A method for reporting an antenna switching capability, performed by a network device (Duan: fig 7 para [0096], where, the UE 704 (terminal) generate antenna switching capability report and transmit to the base station 702), comprising: receiving indication information of the antenna switching capability reported by a terminal (Duan: fig 7, para [0096]-[0098], where, the base station 702 equivalent to “network device”, where, “the UE 704 (terminal) generate antenna switching capability report and transmit to the base station 702)”);
wherein the indication information is configured to indicate that the terminal supports an antenna switching configuration of at most eight transmit antennas (Txs) (Duan: fig 4A, para [0083], where, “a UE having 8 RX antenna ports and a number (x) of TX chains switchably coupled to the RX antenna ports (xT8R) may require 8/x or 4/x SRS resource sets to sound all 8 antenna ports when transmitting 1 or 2 SRS resources, respectively, per SRS resource set”).
Regarding claim 11, Duan discloses: wherein the indication information comprises at least one of the following: a new antenna switching configuration; a first antenna switching configuration set corresponding to a Tx switch (Duan: fig 4A-B, para [0081], where, the first antenna switch is corresponding to Tx Switch); and a second antenna switching configuration set corresponding to the Tx or a receive antenna (Rx) switch (Duan: fig 4A-B, para [0081], where, the second antenna switching is corresponding to Rx switch).
Regarding claim 22, Duan discloses: A network, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing computer programs executable by the processor (Duan: fig 3, para [0068], where, “The controller/processor 359 can be associated with a memory 360 that stores program codes and data. The memory 360 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller/processor 359 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the EPC 160. The controller/processor 359 is also responsible for error detection using an ACK and/or NACK protocol to support HARQ operations”), wherein perform the method for reporting an antenna switching capability according to claim 10 (Duan: fig 7, para [0096]-[0098], where, the base station 702 equivalent to “network device”, where, “the UE 704 (terminal) generate antenna switching capability report and transmit to the base station 702)”).
Conclusion
Prior Art considered but not used: Nilsson et al (US 2015/0215024 A1), “NODE IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM WITH SWITCHABLE ANTENNA FUNCTIONS”.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NIZAM U AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-9561. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fry, 7:00 AM-6:00 PM PST.
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/NIZAM U AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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