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 .
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/17/2024 and 3/18/2026 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 § 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.
Claims 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0022206 (hereinafter Ibrahim) in view of R4-1909601 “On scheduling restrictions for SRS-RSRP CLI-RSSI measurements” (hereinafter Ericsson).
Regarding claims 1, 11, 21 and 26, Ibrahim teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: a transceiver for wireless communication; a memory; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and the memory (FIG. 1 and [0047] details UE with these standard hardware components), wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: receive, from a network entity, a downlink (DL) signal using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) window ([0043]-[0047]; [0064]-[0068] details UE receives DL signal(s) and CLI; “FFT window”; OFDM); receive a cross link interference (CLI) signal ([0087]-[0068] and [0078]-[0080] details CLI, etc.); and transmit, to the network entity, a CLI measurement report based on the CLI signal ([0071] details UE may report a CLI measurement, an SI measurement).
Ibrahim does not explicitly teach in the same FFT window.
However, Ibrahim teaches in the same FFT window ([0064][0067]-[0068]: details the underlying technical principle of using a single FFT window to process multiple superimposed signals, specifically disclosing the use of the "same FFT window" for processing self-interference and CLI signals when their timings align. While Ibrahim suggests using separate FFT windows for DL and CLI signals in certain scenarios, it attributes this separation solely to a timing advance offset between the uplink/CLI timing and the downlink timing. A skilled person would recognize that this offset is a variable network condition rather than an immutable hardware constraint; in standard deployment scenarios where the timing advance is negligible (e.g., small cells or zero-TA conditions), the DL signal would naturally align with the CLI timing within the cyclic prefix).
Consequently, applying the single-window processing technique already taught in Ibrahim to the DL signal in such aligned scenarios would be a straightforward and obvious implementation of the receiver's existing capabilities to optimize processing resources, without providing any unexpected technical effect. Starting from the teaching of Ibrahim, a skilled person seeking to solve the problem of resource optimization would recognize that the "same FFT" technique already taught in Ibrahim (for SI+CLI) is equally applicable to DL+CLI. Extending the Ibrahim single-window processing to the DL signal in these conditions is a straightforward application of the receiver's existing capabilities to a broader set of aligned signals.
Also, Ericsson teaches the DL and CLI signals in the same FFT window (Section 2: details For CLI-RSSI measurements, there is in our view no point of using a different measurement window than provided when basing it on DL timing, as there is no known signal to detect and track. Hence for this case we do not see a need for additional scheduling restrictions. Proposal 2: For CLI-RSSI measurements, no scheduling restrictions are needed for OFDM symbol(s) immediately before the CLI-RSSI measurement window. (X=0)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ibrahim to incorporate the teachings of Ericsson and include in the same FFT window of Ericsson with Ibrahim. Doing so would improve measurement performance (Ericsson, section 2: Discussion).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Ibrahim teaches wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: determine a timing difference between the DL signal and the CLI signal; and determine to receive the DL signal and the CLI signal using the same FFT window when the timing difference is less than a predetermined threshold ([0067]-[0068] details determining timing offsets; verifying that two signals align within the Cyclic Prefix is a mandatory technical prerequisite for processing them in a single FFT window).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Ibrahim teaches wherein the CLI measurement report comprises an indicator that indicates whether or not CLI measurement is performed on the CLI signal ([0063][0070]-[0074]: details UE may report a CLI measurement, an SI measurement).
Regarding claims 4, 14, 22 and 27, Ibrahim teaches wherein: the DL signal comprises at least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a channel state information (CSI) reference signal; and the CLI signal comprises a sounding reference signal (SRS) ([0064][0067]-[0068]: details receiving PDCCH, PDSCH, and CSI-RS, etc.).
Regarding claims 5, 15, 23 and 28, Ibrahim teaches wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: receive the DL signal in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) using resources rate-matched or punctured around the CLI signal based on a priority rule associated with the DL signal and the CLI signal ([0070]-[0076]: details puncturing/rate-matching to handle resource overlap).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Ibrahim teaches wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: receive, for the network entity, DL control information indicating a first resource for receiving the DL signal and a second resource for receiving the CLI signal, wherein the first resource and the second resource are not overlapped in a frequency domain ([0070]-[0076]: details puncturing/rate-matching to handle resource overlap).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Ibrahim teaches wherein the first resource and the second resource are separated by a guard band ([0058]-[0059]: details employing guard bands in frequency division configurations).
Regarding claims 8, 18, Ibrahim teaches wherein the DL signal comprises a channel state information (CSI) reference signal, and the processor and the memory are further configured to: transmit a CSI report of the CSI reference signal based on a priority rule that indicates respective priorities of the CSI reference signal and the CLI signal ([0070]-[0074]: details prioritizing signals which implies the use of priority rules).
Regarding claims 9, 19, 24 and 29, Ibrahim teaches wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: determine to transmit the CSI report when a collision between the CSI reference signal and the CLI signal is less than a predetermined threshold in terms of configured resources ([0063]: details handling conflicts by dropping receptions).
Regarding claims 10, 20, 25 and 30, Ibrahim teaches wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: determine to transmit the CLI measurement report when a collision between the CSI reference signal and the CLI signal is less than a predetermined threshold in terms of configured resources ([0063]: details handling conflicts by dropping receptions).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Karjalainen (US 11,800,390) details cross-link interference measurements for NR.
Wang (US 11,303,367) details interference measurement in NR communication systems.
Xu (US 11,277,213) details cross-link interference measurement transmission schemes.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jasper Kwoh whose telephone number is (408)918-7644. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm Pacific.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JASPER KWOH/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2415
Prosecution Insights