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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
IDS has been considered.
Drawings is/are accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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)(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, 5, 11, 8, 18, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2023/0136464).
As to claims 1, 11:
Wang discloses:
An apparatus having circuitry to perform a method, the method comprising: receiving, at a user equipment device (UE) (¶0031, UE having processor and memory and transceiver to communicate with a base station, i.e. a TRP) from a transmission and reception point (TRP), an uplink CSI measurement configuration (See at least Abstract, ¶0035, 0039, 0040, 0044, the UE to receive configuration information from a network node (TRP/base station) wirelessly and transmit SRS based on that configuration)
including a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource configuration indicating one or more of SRS resource randomization configurations of a cyclic shift, a comb offset, and a time domain orthogonal cover code (TD-OCC); (¶0039, configuration includes information for indicating hopping or randomization of a transmission comb of the SRS among SRS resources, ¶0040, 0043, 0053, randomization comb offset etc.)
and transmitting SRSs in a sequence of symbols, according to the SRS resource configuration, wherein the SRSs are determined according to the one or more of SRS resource randomization configurations of the cyclic shift, the comb offset, and the TD-OCC, values of the one or more of SRS resource randomization configurations being randomized symbol-by-symbol according to at least one of a cell-specific identity (IDcell) and a UE-specific identity (IDue). (See at least ¶0035, claim 1, the UE transmits the SRS according to the received configuration/rules. See at least 0040-0043, 0050-0053, 0039, at least the comb offset is explicitly obtained based on symbol or slot index and cell ID or UE ID. The variation is characterized as a randomization process per ¶0039)
As to claims 5, 15:
Wang discloses all limitations of claim 1/11, wherein the SRS resource configuration indicates the SRSs are determined by the configuration of the comb offset, and the values of the comb offset for different symbols are determined based on a symbol index and one of the cell-specific identity (IDcell) and the UE-specific identity (IDue). (See at least ¶0035, claim 1, of Wang - the UE transmits the SRS according to the received configuration/rules. See at least 0040-0043, 0050-0053, 0039, at least the comb offset is explicitly obtained based on symbol or slot index and cell ID or UE ID. The variation is characterized as a randomization process per ¶0039)
As to claims 8 and 18:
Wang discloses all limitations of claim 5/15, wherein the values of the comb offset for different symbols are determined to achieve a uniform resource element distribution across a frequency domain. (It is noted that claims 8 and 18 are silent on both the specific algorithm to achieve said uniform result as well they lack the objective standard for what constitute “uniform distribution”, for example how close the values must stay within to be considered inside the uniform bound, or disparity tolerance value etc. See ¶0042, 0052, the comb offset formular as shown is designed with nSRS to increase across success symbols and takes the result Ktc , the comb offset cycles sequentially through the same randomizations scheme, the cycling inherently spreads SRS transmissions across different combs over successive symbol. ¶0040-0043, comb offset is updated as a function of symbol/slot index with the same randomization scheme. This movement produces an uniform occupation of RF resources across the combs. )
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
Claim(s) 2, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2023/0136464) in view of Chang et al. (WO 2017/116491).
As to claims 2, 12:
Wang discloses all limitations of claim 1/11, wherein the SRS resource configuration indicates the SRSs are determined by the configuration of the cyclic shift, (See ¶0042-0043, cyclic shift and its maximum values are used to determine parameters of the configuration), Wang however is silent on the values of the cyclic shift for different symbols are determined based on a symbol index and at least one of the cell-specific identity (IDcell) and the UE-specific identity (IDue).
In a related field of endeavor, Chang, however, discloses configuration for reference signal, in at least page 16, lines 5-20, wherein “processing circuitry is configured to apply a cyclic shift value on modulated symbols defined as a function of physical cell ID, virtual cell ID, symbol index, slot index, or frame index, or a combination thereof”.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing time of the invention that the cyclic shift of Wang can be determined in such a manner disclosed in Chang discussed above. This implementation is standard in the industry for several known benefits such as avoidance of persistent collision usually encountered by fixed/inflexible cyclic shift, and adaptive avoidance of interference on specific shifts.
Claim(s) 9, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2023/0136464) in view of Xiong et al. (WO 2017/087022).
As to claims 9, 19:
Wang discloses all limitations of claim 1/11, however is silent on SRS resource configuration indicates the SRSs are determined by the configuration of the TD-OCC and the TD-OCC applied to the SRS sequences are determined based on a TD-OCC index u that depends on the cell-specific identity (IDcell) or the UE-specific identity (IDue)
In a related field of endeavor, Xiong, however, discloses configuration for reference signal, in at least page 20, line 5-20, wherein “wherein OCC hopping is applied on each modulated symbol and antenna port, wherein an OCC hopping partem is defined as function of physical cell ID, virtual cell ID, symbol index, slot index, or frame index, or a combination thereof”.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing time of the invention that the SRS of Wang can be determined in such a manner disclosed in Xiong discussed above. This implementation is standard in the industry for several known benefits such as minimization of interference, i.e. each UE of different cells are effectively assigned a different OCC sequence.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, and 20 is/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 references of record disclose configuration of SRS configuration resources as applied in the discussion above, however do not disclose, among other things, the specific formulas for determining values of the cyclic shift , comb offset, and OCC as shown in claims 3, 13, 6, 16, 10, and 20. Dependent claims 4, 7, 14, and 17 inherit the limitations of their respective base claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liu (US 2020/0028638) - Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for sounding reference signal (SRS) resource configuration enhancements. A method generally includes receiving, from the network, a message comprising sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration information, wherein the SRS configuration information comprises configuration information for a first SRS resource set and configuration information for a second SRS resource set and transmitting at least one SRS according to the received SRS configuration information.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUAN M HUA whose telephone number is (571)270-7232. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30-6:30.
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/QUAN M HUA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
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