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 .
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.
1. Claims1-3, 5, 7-8, 12-14, 17, 19-20 and 41- 43 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (2023/0086334) in view Lee (US 2023/0275726).
2. As per claim 1, Chen teaches a method for transmitting information, performed by a network device, comprising: receiving beam information of at least one receiving beam transmitted by a terminal (Chen, ¶0018 “… beam information …” Furthermore, it is well-known in the art at the time of the invention to communicate beam information for the benefit of improving antenna gain and enhancing network capacity and spectral efficiency -see Lee US 2023/0275726 for example ¶0008-0013).Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Chen and Lee as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to communicate beam information for the benefit of improving antenna gain and enhancing network capacity and spectral efficiency
3. Claim 41 and 43 are similarly analyzed as claim 1 for obviousness reasons discussed above.
4. As per claim 2, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the beam information comprises at least one of an identifier of the receiving beam (Chen, ¶0130 “… beam identification information…”), a value of a first azimuth angle, an identifier of the first azimuth angle, a value of a second azimuth angle, an identifier of the second azimuth angle, a total number of receiving beams, a total number of first azimuth angles, a total number of second azimuth angles, an identifier of an antenna panel, or a total number of antenna panels (Chen, ¶0158 0161-0162 “… azimuth … “).
5. As per claim 3, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the identifier of the antenna panel is determined by using a maximum number of ports supporting a sounding reference signal (SRS); or the identifier of the antenna panel is determined by using an identifier of an SRS resource (Lee, ¶0357 “… SRS …”).
6. As per claim 5, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein the beam information of the one or more receiving beams corresponding to the one or more reference signals comprises at least one of an identifier of the receiving beam, a value of a first azimuth angle, an identifier of the first azimuth angle, a value of a second azimuth angle, an identifier of the second azimuth angle, or an identifier of an antenna panel (Chen, ¶0144); and the measurement report at least comprises pieces of beam information of the receiving beams corresponding to N reference signals, and the pieces of beam information of the receiving beams corresponding to the N reference signals are different, wherein N is a positive integer greater than 1 (Chen, ¶0144).
6. (canceled)
7. As per claim 7, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving terminal capability information reported by the terminal, wherein the terminal capability information comprises the beam information of the at least one receiving beam (Lee, ¶0468).
8. As per claim 8, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 7, wherein the beam information comprises at least one of a total number of receiving beams, a total number of first azimuth angles, a total number of second azimuth angles, a total number of antenna panels, a value of a first azimuth angle, or a value of a second azimuth angle (Lee, ¶0463 0461).
9. As per claim 12, Chen teaches a method for transmitting information, performed by a terminal, comprising: transmitting beam information of at least one receiving beam to a network device (Chen, ¶0018 “… beam information …”).
10. Claim 42 is similarly analyzed as claim 12 for obviousness reasons discussed above.
11. As per claim 13, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein the beam information comprises at least one of an identifier of the receiving beam, a value of a first azimuth angle, an identifier of the first azimuth angle, a value of a second azimuth angle, an identifier of the second azimuth angle, a total number of receiving beams, a total number of first azimuth angles, a total number of second azimuth angles, an identifier of an antenna panel, or a total number of antenna panels (Chen, ¶0158 0161-0162 “… azimuth … “).
12. As per claim 14, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 13, wherein the identifier of the antenna panel is determined by using a maximum number of ports supporting an SRS; or the identifier of the antenna panel is determined by using an identifier of an SRS resource (Lee, ¶0357).
13. As per claim 17, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 16, wherein the beam information of the one or more receiving beams-corresponding to the one or more reference signals comprises at least one of an identifier of the receiving beam, a value of a first azimuth angle, an identifier of the first azimuth angle, a value of a second azimuth angle, an identifier of the second azimuth angle, or an identifier of an antenna panel (Chen, ¶0144); and the measurement report at least comprises pieces of beam information of the receiving beams corresponding to N reference signals, and the pieces of beam information of the receiving beams corresponding to the N reference signals are different, wherein N is a positive integer greater than 1 (Chen, ¶0144).
18. (canceled)
14. As per claim 19, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 12, further comprising: transmitting terminal capability information to the network device, wherein the terminal capability information comprises the beam information of the at least one receiving beam (Lee, ¶0468).
15. As per claim 20, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 19, wherein the beam information comprises at least one of a total number of receiving beams, a total number of first azimuth angles, a total number of second azimuth angles, a total number of antenna panels, a value of a first azimuth angle, or a value of a second azimuth angle (Lee, ¶0463 0461).
16. Claims 4, 9 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (2023/0086334) in view Lee (US 2023/0275726), and further in view of Onggosanusi (US 2021/0399783).
17. As per claim 4, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 1 (see claim 1). While Chen in view of Lee doesn’t explicitly mention, Onggosanusi teaches further comprising: receiving a measurement report of at least one reference signal transmitted by the terminal, wherein the measurement report comprises at least one of an identifier of one or more reference signals, layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP) corresponding to the one or more reference signals, a layer 1 signal to interference plus noise ratio (L1-SINR) corresponding to the one or more reference signals, or beam information of one or more a receiving beams corresponding to the one or more reference signals (Onggosanusi, ¶0094). Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Chen, Lee and Onggosanusi as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to communicate such parameters for the benefit of optimized beam selection and/or improving antenna gain and enhancing network capacity and spectral efficiency
18. As per claim 9, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 1, further comprising: determining signal quality of other reference signals other than at least one reference signal based on signal quality of the at least one reference signal and the beam information of the at least one receiving beam reported by the terminal, wherein the signal quality comprises L1-RSRP or an L1-SINR (Onggosanusi, ¶0094).
19. As per claim 15, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 12, further comprising: transmitting a measurement report of at least one reference signal to the network device, wherein the measurement report comprises at least one of an identifier of the one or more reference signals, L1-RSRP corresponding to the one or more reference signals, an L1-SINR corresponding to the one or more reference signals, or beam information of one or more receiving beams corresponding to the one or more reference signals (Onggosanusi, ¶0094).
20. As per claim 16, Chen in view of Lee teaches the method according to claim 15, wherein a measurement result comprises at least one of the identifier of the one or more reference signals, the L1-RSRP corresponding to the one or more reference signals, the L1-SINR corresponding to the one or more reference signals, or the beam information of the one or more receiving beams corresponding to the one or more reference signals (Onggosanusi, ¶0094).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 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
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ZEWDU A. KASSA
Examiner
Art Unit 2637
/ZEWDU A KASSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635