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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/10/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
Claim limitations “means for selecting”, and “means for transmitting”, have been interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because they use a generic placeholder “means for” coupled with functional language “selecting”, and “transmitting”, without reciting sufficient structure to achieve the function. Furthermore, the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier.
Since the claim limitations invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, claim 30 has been interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification that achieves the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant wishes to provide further explanation or dispute the examiner’s interpretation of the corresponding structure, applicant must identify the corresponding structure with reference to the specification by page and line number, and to the drawing, if any, by reference characters in response to this Office action.
If applicant does not intend to have the claim limitation(s) treated under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112 , sixth paragraph, applicant may amend the claim(s) so that it/they will clearly not invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, or present a sufficient showing that the claim recites/recite sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function to preclude application of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
For more information, see MPEP § 2173 et seq. and Supplementary Examination Guidelines for Determining Compliance With 35 U.S.C. 112 and for Treatment of Related Issues in Patent Applications, 76 FR 7162, 7167 (Feb. 9, 2011).
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 14, 15, 17, 20, 23-25, 28-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (US 20190123864).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a first device for wireless communication, comprising: a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory (FIG. 53B, apparatus or device configured for wireless communications; [0271]), configured to:
select a first time-frequency-angular resource that is identified in a time domain, in a frequency domain, and in an azimuth angle domain (apparatus can obtain a reference signal configuration, wherein the reference signal configuration comprises time and/or frequency resources allocated for a reference signal. The reference signal configuration may further comprise spatial resources allocated for the reference signal. CSI-RS ports are transmitted on elements in the vertical and horizontal axes of the array. A UE can be configured with multiple CSI processes—one associated with the azimuth CSI-RS resource and another associated with the elevation CSI-RS resource; [0023, 0096]); and
transmit a first communication using the first time-frequency-angular resource (apparatus can transmit the reference signal in accordance with the reference signal configuration, such that at least one device obtains information from the reference signal; [0023]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to sense candidate time-frequency-angular resources (if wider beams are used for beam sweeping, then beamforming training may form narrower beams and send the BF-RS with a subset of narrower beams (e.g., the narrower beams within the region of the wider beam for beam sweeping may be a good candidate of subset beams) to further train/refine the narrower beams for data transmissions. Subsets of beams may be adjusted/reconfigured based on movement of the UE; [0152]).
Regarding claim 14, Zhang discloses wherein the first time-frequency-angular resource further identifies an elevation angle (CSI-RS symbols transmitted on the transmit antenna elements in every column are precoded with the elevation beam weighting vector. Hence, for each elevation beam, only one CSI-RS port is assigned to the transmit antenna elements in one column. All the horizontal ports are used and different CSI-RS ports are used by different columns. Each column is precoded with a weighting vector to form the desired elevation beam; [0093]).
Regarding claim 15, Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select the first time-frequency-angular resource from a time-frequency-angular resource pool of time-frequency-angular resources (More than one group of 3D beams may be identified, wherein each group is comprised of 3D beams that are non-adjacent to one another, and each 3D beam within a group is sent to respective spot areas via the same antenna port. Further, based on the context information, the apparatus can define at least one null spot area within which no terminal is present, and the apparatus can assign no beam to the null spot area. In one example, based on the assignment of the one or more 3D beams, the apparatus identifies 3D beams that are adjacent to one another, and sends the 3D beams that are identified as adjacent to each other via different antenna ports; [0183]).
Regarding claim 17, Zhang discloses transmit or receive resource pool information that indicates one or more time-frequency-angular resources (More than one group of 3D beams may be identified, wherein each group is comprised of 3D beams that are non-adjacent to one another, and each 3D beam within a group is sent to respective spot areas via the same antenna port. Further, based on the context information, the apparatus can define at least one null spot area within which no terminal is present, and the apparatus can assign no beam to the null spot area. In one example, based on the assignment of the one or more 3D beams, the apparatus identifies 3D beams that are adjacent to one another, and sends the 3D beams that are identified as adjacent to each other via different antenna ports; [0183]).
Regarding claim 20, Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to transmit or receive a second communication using a second time-frequency-angular resource that overlaps with the first time-frequency-angular resource in one or two of the time domain, the frequency domain, or the azimuth angle domain (Turning now to CSI-RS Port Reuse for a Dynamic 3D Beam Spot System, FIG. 27 depicts an example of dynamic 3D beam spots. As used herein, a beam spot refers to a service coverage area under one or more beams (most are under one beam as shown in FIG. 27) and the beam spot areas may overlap; [0177]).
Regarding claim 23, Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to enable use of time-frequency-angular resources based at least in part on a geographical area (A dynamic 3D beam system can refer to a system in which: (1) each 3D beam direction is dynamic and irregular; and (2) each dynamic 3D beam does not emit to the same direction. With respect to irregular and dynamic 3D beams, beam spots can be defined based on the UEs' geographical location information (e.g., see spots (S)1, S2, S3, etc. in FIG. 27). A beam spot refers to the service area wherein one or more beams cover; [0167]).
Regarding claim 24, Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to enable use of time-frequency-angular resources based at least in part on a network type or a network configuration (context information, for example, velocity, service type, schedule, data rate, etc., which is associated with a UE, may be used for configuring the fixed 3D beams (shown in FIG. 23) to optimize a radio access network's operations and resource allocations. As shown in FIG. 22, at 2205, a UE (UE1) may add context information through a radio connection request to the eNB 2202; [0171]).
Regarding claim 25, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 28, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 14.
Regarding claim 29, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 30, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claim(s) 3, 4, 16, 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20190123864) in view of Bayesteh et al. (US 20250097885).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang does not expressly disclose transmit reservation information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources reserved by the first device for sidelink communication.
In an analogous art, Bayesteh discloses transmit reservation information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources reserved by the first device for sidelink communication (configuration may include an initial direction in which to point the sensing reference signal. The initial direction in which to point the sensing reference signal may be obtained, by the T-TRP 170, based on the knowledge of an approximate position for the sensing node 1102 and an approximate position for the UE 110. The configuration may also include the details of the sensing reference signal, including the time/frequency resources, waveform type, details of the waveform configuration including numerology and a mapping function to be used when generating a time domain signal on the basis of a sensing profile ID. the position vector and the velocity vector may be expressed in polar coordinates, e.g., the velocity vector may be defined as v=(|v|, ϕ.sub.v, θ.sub.v), where |v| denotes the scalar velocity magnitude, ϕ.sub.v denotes the azimuth angle and θ.sub.v denotes zenith angle of the velocity vector; [0153]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Bayesteh into the system of Zhang in order to enable reusing of uplink transmission resources, thus realize a reduction in downlink sensing resource overhead (Bayesteh; [0007]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Zhang and Bayesteh, particularly Bayesteh discloses wherein the reservation information includes, for each reserved time-frequency-angular resource, a tuple that indicates a slot or symbol, a subchannel, and a beam centered at an absolute azimuth angle (configuration may include an initial direction in which to point the sensing reference signal. The initial direction in which to point the sensing reference signal may be obtained, by the T-TRP 170, based on the knowledge of an approximate position for the sensing node 1102 and an approximate position for the UE 110. The configuration may also include the details of the sensing reference signal, including the time/frequency resources, waveform type, details of the waveform configuration including numerology and a mapping function to be used when generating a time domain signal on the basis of a sensing profile ID. the position vector and the velocity vector may be expressed in polar coordinates, e.g., the velocity vector may be defined as v=(|v|, ϕ.sub.v, θ.sub.v), where |v| denotes the scalar velocity magnitude, ϕ.sub.v denotes the azimuth angle and θ.sub.v denotes zenith angle of the velocity vector; [0153]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Bayesteh into the system of Zhang in order to enable reusing of uplink transmission resources, thus realize a reduction in downlink sensing resource overhead (Bayesteh; [0007]).
Regarding claim 16, Zhang does not expressly disclose wherein the time-frequency-angular resource pool is a pool of time-frequency-angular resources for sidelink.
In an analogous art, Bayesteh discloses wherein the time-frequency-angular resource pool is a pool of time-frequency-angular resources for sidelink (cell may include both one or multiple downlink resources and one or multiple uplink resources. a cell may, instead or additionally, include one or multiple sidelink resources, including sidelink transmitting and receiving resources; [0090].
sensing system is typically separate from the communication system, it could be advantageous to gather the information using an integrated system, which reduces the hardware (and cost) in the system as well as the time, frequency or spatial resources needed to perform both functionalities. UE channel sub-space is a subset of the entire algebraic space, defined over the spatial domain, in which the entire channel from the TP to the UE lies; [0096, 0104]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Bayesteh into the system of Zhang in order to enable reusing of uplink transmission resources, thus realize a reduction in downlink sensing resource overhead (Bayesteh; [0007]).
Regarding claim 26, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 3.
Claim(s) 6, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20190123864) in view of Xiaoxia et al. (US 20200084804).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang does not expressly disclose reserve time-frequency-angular resources in multiple directions of the azimuth angle domain in response to a determination that an absolute transmit beam direction for the first communication is not known by the first device.
In an analogous art, Xiaoxia discloses reserve time-frequency-angular resources in multiple directions of the azimuth angle domain in response to a determination that an absolute transmit beam direction for the first communication is not known by the first device (the channel is monitored in the first subset of the plurality of expected beam transmission directions within the discovery period before transmitting the subset of the plurality of discovery signals. In response to the sensing, the wireless communication device may transmit a channel reservation signal in the same direction as the sensing before transmitting the subset of discovery signals. In some embodiments, the wireless communication device can transmit the channel reservation signal concurrent with at least one of the subset of discovery signals using FDM, for example, as shown in the scheme 1000. In some embodiments, the monitoring in the second subset of the plurality of expected beam transmission directions may detect a transmission from another wireless communication device. Upon the detection, the wireless communication device may refrain from transmitting discovery signals in the second subset of the plurality of expected beam transmission directions; [0086]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Xiaoxia into the system of Zhang in order to improve the system performance and reduce the collisions and improve system resource utilization efficiency (Xiaoxia; [0030]).
Regarding claim 21, Zhang does not expressly disclose wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select a time-frequency-angular resource that does not intersect in a beam direction with another time-frequency-angular resource reserved by a second device.
In an analogous art, Xiaoxia discloses wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select a time-frequency-angular resource that does not intersect in a beam direction with another time-frequency-angular resource reserved by a second device (BS may optionally transmit a channel reservation signal 640 after performing the omnidirectional LBT 630 to avoid interference from nearby transmitters. The BS may transmit the channel reservation signal 640 over an omnidirectional transmission beam in a period 605. The period 605 may follow the period 604 without a time gap since the BS is not required to switch a beam direction between the omnidirectional LBT 630 and the omnidirectional transmission of the channel reservation signal 640. The BS may configure the antenna array elements to transmit in all directions, as shown by the omnidirectional transmission beam 613. The channel reservation signal 640 may include a predetermined preamble sequence; [0066]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Xiaoxia into the system of Zhang in order to improve the system performance and reduce the collisions and improve system resource utilization efficiency (Xiaoxia; [0030]).
Claim(s) 7-9, 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20190123864) in view of Hosseini et al. (US 20200367278).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang does not expressly disclose receive reservation information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources reserved by a second device for sidelink communication, wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select the first time-frequency-angular resource based at least in part on the reservation information.
In an analogous art, Hosseini discloses receive reservation information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources reserved by a second device for sidelink communication, wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select the first time-frequency-angular resource based at least in part on the reservation information (UE 115-b may be scheduled to transmit an uplink message in multiple spatial directions using a plurality of time and frequency resources. In some examples, UE 115-b (and in some cases UE 115-a) may be capable of transmitting simultaneous (in parallel or at least partially overlapping in time) uplink channels per serving cell. Base station 105-a may determine that UE 115-a is to employ URLLC (or other high priority communications) using resources that may interfere with some subset of the spatial directions associated with scheduled UE 115-b transmission (e.g., base station 105-a may determine that a subset of spatial directions to transmitted over by UE 115-b may interfere with UE 115-a URLLC during at least a portion of the plurality of time and frequency resources scheduled for the UE 115-b); [0121]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Hosseini into the system of Zhang in order to more effectively balance the performance and resource utilization of communications according to different priorities (Hosseini; [0007]).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang does not expressly disclose wherein the one or more processors are configured to transmit scheduling information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources scheduled by the first device for sidelink communication.
In an analogous art, Hosseini discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to transmit scheduling information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources scheduled by the first device for sidelink communication (From SRI, a UE receiving the ULPI may know which beams to use and which beams are preempted for the indicated time and frequency resources (e.g., which panel, precoder, etc., should be preempted based on what panel, precoder, etc., correspond to the SRI point indicated by the ULPI). In examples where the relationship between the sub-sequence directly to the beams/panels/precoders/SRS resources being preempted is defined, the second subset of the bit sequence may indicate one or more beam index/panel index/precoder index/SRS resource index. In the example where the second subset for spatial domain preemption includes 2 bits, bit values of ‘00,’ ‘01,’ ‘10,’ and ‘11’ may be used to indicate one of four different indices corresponding to a set of beam indices, precoder indices, etc., where the relationship defining the set of beam indices, precoder indices, etc. may be indicated via RRC signaling. In some examples, the first subset of the bit sequence may include or indicate a bitmap of the ULPI associated with a set of communication resources in the time domain and frequency domain (and a receiving UE may determine whether at least a portion of uplink resources allocated to the receiving UE corresponds to one or more of the subsets of the communication resources for which cancellation applies, as indicated by the bitmap); [0140]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Hosseini into the system of Zhang in order to more effectively balance the performance and resource utilization of communications according to different priorities (Hosseini; [0007]).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang does not expressly disclose receive scheduling information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources scheduled by a second device for sidelink communication, wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select the first time-frequency-angular resource based at least in part on the scheduling information.
In an analogous art, Hosseini discloses receive reservation information that indicates time-frequency-angular resources reserved by a second device for sidelink communication, wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to select the first time-frequency-angular resource based at least in part on the reservation information (UE 115-b may be scheduled to transmit an uplink message in multiple spatial directions using a plurality of time and frequency resources. In some examples, UE 115-b (and in some cases UE 115-a) may be capable of transmitting simultaneous (in parallel or at least partially overlapping in time) uplink channels per serving cell. Base station 105-a may determine that UE 115-a is to employ URLLC (or other high priority communications) using resources that may interfere with some subset of the spatial directions associated with scheduled UE 115-b transmission (e.g., base station 105-a may determine that a subset of spatial directions to transmitted over by UE 115-b may interfere with UE 115-a URLLC during at least a portion of the plurality of time and frequency resources scheduled for the UE 115-b); [0121]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Hosseini into the system of Zhang in order to more effectively balance the performance and resource utilization of communications according to different priorities (Hosseini; [0007]).
Regarding claim 27, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 7.
Claim(s) 10, 11-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20190123864) in view of Karjalainen et al. (US 20230025326).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang does not expressly disclose wherein the first time-frequency-angular resource identifies, in the azimuth angle domain, a beamwidth in a beam direction of an azimuth angle.
In an analogous art, Karjalainen discloses wherein the first time-frequency-angular resource identifies, in the azimuth angle domain, a beamwidth in a beam direction of an azimuth angle (in order to enable basic beam-based operation (e.g., control and data information delivery, coarse/fine time frequency tracking), a network may configure the UE to measure SSB resources from two TRPs, i.e. TRP #1 and TRP #2, and report related L1-RSRP values and SSB indices. the network can configure NZP-CSI-RS resources associated with TX beams with narrower beam widths in spatial domain, i.e., sub-beams of SSB beams, for further TX and RX beam refinement. To ease identification of further refined TX and RX beams, prior identified resources are used as Quasi-Co-Location sources in a spatial domain for NZP-CSI-RS resources. it may not be beneficial to use TX sub-beams of SSBs for rank enhancements. It is also noted that a single UE antenna panel is only able to direct RX beam into a one spatial direction (combination of azimuth and elevation) at a time, leading also to restrictions to enhance the transmission rank in single or multi-TRP deployment scenario with multi-beam transmission).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Karjalainen into the system of Zhang in order to enables an enhanced beam reporting criteria that imposes a UE to report measured CSI resource that do not share same spatial resources (Karjalainen; [0108]).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Zhang and Karjalainen, particularly Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors, to transmit or receive the first communication, are configured to transmit or receive the first communication using a beam, in the beam direction, that occupies a threshold amount of the beamwidth (BF-RS may be allocated at the beginning of each beam sweeping period and distributed proportionately across the bean sweeping duration. In an example, the BF-RS may be predefined to use subband allocation. A given BF-RS RE/port may require k (where k is a fraction of a RE or one or more REs) REs (e.g., antennas) per beam. Different beams may use different antenna ports when transmitting at the same time. If different beams are transmitted at different times, the same antenna port may be used. In another example, the BF-RS may also use multiple REs/multiple antenna ports per beam. In this case, the number of REs and ports may be configured. It will be understood that FIGS. 16A and 16B show an example BF-RS allocation, but the BF-RS of a beam may be allocated with multiple REs per symbol per beam, or may be allocated with the entire subband REs per symbol per beam; [0122]).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Zhang and Karjalainen, particularly Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors, to transmit or receive the first communication, are configured to transmit or receive the first communication using a beam, in the beam direction, that does not occupy a threshold amount of the beamwidth (with respect to a particular UE or a group of UEs, an NR Node or TRP may choose beams 1, 2, 3 and 4 (B1, B2, B3, B4) to do beamforming training for data transmissions. It will be understood that while FIGS. 17A and 17B show an example BF-RS allocation for beamforming training, the BF-RS of a beam may be allocated with multiple REs per symbol per beam, allocated for the entire subband of REs per symbol per beam as desired. In another example, the beam for data transmissions may have a different beam width (e.g., more narrow) as compared to the initial access beam.; [0125]).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Zhang and Karjalainen, particularly Zhang discloses wherein the one or more processors, to transmit or receive the first communication, are configured to transmit or receive the first communication using a beam that occupies a threshold amount of multiple beamwidths (based on the location information associated with each of the plurality of UEs, the eNB 3302 can form a wide beam, for instance a first wide beam, that is sent to an area within a cell. Multiple Tier 1 beams may be received by each of the UEs. Stated another way, each UE may receive or detect a plurality of wide beams. At 4206, each UE calculate the channel state information associated with each of these beams (the detected wide beams). Based on the channel state information, the UE may select an optimal Tier 1 (wide) beam from the plurality of wide beams; [0197]).
Claim(s) 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20190123864) in view of Pan et al. (US 20190357159).
Regarding claim 18, Zhang does not expressly disclose wherein the one or more processors are configured to transmit or receive start information that indicates a starting angular resource for beam sweeping.
In an analogous art, Pan discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to transmit or receive start information that indicates a starting angular resource for beam sweeping (example of a multi stage WTRU hierarchical beam sweep 2100. An alternative to the single stage exhaustive beam sweep method shown in FIG. 20 is a multi-stage hierarchical approach 2100. A search may be started with wide beams covering relatively large angular regions in a first stage and then gradually decreasing the angular search space and width of beams used in later stages. This gradual decrease may be applied at the TRP only, WTRU only, or both the TRP and WTRU simultaneously. For illustrative purposes an example of a three-stage hierarchical WTRU beam sweep is shown in FIG. 21. In this example, the WTRU 2102 is using four arrays, each of which covers its angular region using 12 beams; [0188]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Pan into the system of Zhang in order to improve performance and increase efficiency by allowing the reduction or even full removal of the DMRS within the SS bandwidth (Pan; [0118]).
Regarding claim 19, Zhang does not expressly disclose transmit or receive beam sweep information that indicates a beam sweep pattern of angular resources.
In an analogous art, Pan discloses transmit or receive beam sweep information that indicates a beam sweep pattern of angular resources (FIG. 16 is an illustration 1600 of an exemplary combination of digital and analog beam forming shown in time domain. Suppose there are n.sub.1 patterns in digital beam sweeping MIMO schemes, and n.sub.2 patterns in analog beam sweeping schemes. The total of n.sub.1.Math.n.sub.2 combinations for cycling may be supported; [0179]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Pan into the system of Zhang in order to improve performance and increase efficiency by allowing the reduction or even full removal of the DMRS within the SS bandwidth (Pan; [0118]).
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20190123864) in view of He et al. (US 20180310323).
Regarding claim 22, Zhang does not expressly disclose wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to prioritize time-frequency resources that are available in the time domain, the frequency domain, and the azimuth angle domain.
In an analogous art, He discloses wherein the one or more processors, to select the first time-frequency-angular resource, are configured to prioritize time-frequency resources that are available in the time domain, the frequency domain, and the azimuth angle domain (a scenario shown in FIG. 4a is used as an example. If first spatial resources indicated by the response signal sent by the UE1 include the beam 2 and the beam 9, and first spatial resources indicated by the response signal sent by the UE2 include the beam 3 and the beam 9, the base station determines, among the first spatial resources indicated by each response signal, a first spatial resource that belongs to a resource set with a highest priority; [0171-0172]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by He into the system of Zhang in order to efficiently provide wireless communications by reducing system overheads in a narrow beam coverage scenario caused by sending radio signals by each beam for providing services for a user equipment (He; [0008]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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.
Reddy et al. (US 20210135815), “SSB ENHANCEMENTS FOR FINE TIME-FREQUENCY ESTIMATION IN NR.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OUSSAMA ROUDANI whose telephone number is (571)272-4727. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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