DETAILED ACTION
Claims 18-23 and 27 have been cancelled. Claim 24-26 have been amended. Claims 1-17 and 24-26 are pending.
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
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.
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) 1-5 and 24-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2019/0394664 A1 to Sun et al. (hereinafter “Sun”) and US 20210160022 A1 to Cha et al. (hereinafter “Cha”).
As per claim 1, Sun discloses a method for beam management, applied to a receiving apparatus (Abstract of Sun), the beam management method comprising: receiving beam reporting indication information sent by a transmitting apparatus (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059] In some optional embodiments, assuming the aforementioned beam report configuration parameter is the number of report beams, the beam management information configuration method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 3, includes the following steps. [0060] Step 301: configuring a beam management information in a beam management procedure, wherein the beam management information includes: the number of report beams which indicates a maximum number K of beams reported by the terminal in the downlink beam management procedure. [0061] The base station configures the number of report beams in the beam management information, to control the quantity of beams reported by the terminal. In this case, it is relatively easy to configure since the to-be-configured information in the downlink beam management information is merely the number of report beams. [0062] Step 302: transmitting the beam management information to the terminal.) and a plurality of test beams configured with reference signal resources (Fig. 3, [0059-0062] and [0064] Step 303: transmitting a first downlink transmission beam set to the terminal in a first downlink beam management procedure.); measuring a plurality of reference signal resources to obtain a plurality of pieces of beam measurement information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ); selecting target measurement information from the plurality of pieces of beam measurement information according to the beam reporting indication information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ); and sending the target measurement information to the transmitting apparatus (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ), such that the transmitting apparatus predicts an optimal beam result according to the target measurement information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0067] and [0070] Step 306: obtaining a second reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the second downlink transmission beam set. [0071] In the second downlink beam management procedure P-2, the terminal measures the downlink transmission beams transmitted by different TRPs by using the optimal downlink reception beam m, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.2, . . . , n.sub.2+k, from the second downlink transmission beam set and reports the K downlink transmission beams to the base station. [0072] Step 307: in a third downlink beam management procedure, selecting an optimal downlink transmission beam from the second reported beam set and transmitting the optimal downlink transmission beam to the terminal.).
Sun may not explicitly disclose, but Cha, which is in the same field of endeavor, discloses where the measurement beams are beam reference signals/resources (Cha [0093-0102]). The purpose of Cha is to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements (Cha [0001,0099]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Cha with Sun, to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements and selecting better beams (Cha [0001,0099,0214]).
As per claim 2, Sun and Cha disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the reference signal resource comprises at least one of: a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource; or a Synchronization Signal and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) Block (SSB) resource.
Sun may not explicitly disclose, but Cha, which is in the same field of endeavor, discloses wherein the reference signal resource comprises at least one of: a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource (Cha [0093-0102]); or a Synchronization Signal and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) Block (SSB) resource (Cha [0093-0102]). The purpose of Cha is to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements (Cha [0001,0099]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Cha with Sun, to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements and selecting better beams (Cha [0001,0099,0214]).
As per claim 3, Sun and Cha disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the beam reporting indication information comprises at least one of: indication information for indicating a number of pieces of beam measurement information to be reported (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059-0067,0070-0072]); indication information for indicating reporting of beam measurement information that satisfies a preset threshold condition, wherein the preset threshold condition comprises a preset quality threshold condition or a preset quality ratio threshold condition (Sun [0078-0081]); indication information for indicating reporting of beam measurement information that satisfies a preset neighborhood factor condition; indication information for indicating reporting of beam measurement information that satisfies a preset neighborhood subset index condition; or indication information for indicating reporting of beam measurement information from a plurality of dimensions (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059-0067,0070-0072]).
As per claim 4, Sun and Cha disclose the method of claim 3, wherein in response to the beam reporting indication information comprising the indication information for indicating the number of pieces of beam measurement information to be reported, the indication information for indicating the number of pieces of beam measurement information to be reported comprises at least one of: indication information for indicating an absolute number of pieces of beam measurement information to be reported (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059-0067,0070-0072,0078-0081]); or indication information for indicating a proportion coefficient of the beam measurement information to be reported (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059-0067,0070-0072,0078-0081]).
As per claim 5, Sun and Cha discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the beam measurement information comprises at least one of: received signal of the reference signal resource; Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP); Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ); Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR); Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR); or Channel State Information (CSI).
Sun may not explicitly disclose, but Cha, which is in the same field of endeavor, discloses received signal of the reference signal resource (Cha 0093-0102]); Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) (Cha [0100,0102]); Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ) (Cha [0200]); Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) (Cha [0143]); Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) (Cha [0143]); or Channel State Information (CSI) (Cha 0093-0102]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Cha with Sun, to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements and selecting better beams (Cha [0001,0099,0214]).
As per claim 17, Sun discloses a method for beam management, applied to a transmitting apparatus (Sun Abstract), the beam management method comprising: sending, to a receiving apparatus, beam reporting indication information and a plurality of test beams configured with a plurality of reference signal resources (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059] In some optional embodiments, assuming the aforementioned beam report configuration parameter is the number of report beams, the beam management information configuration method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 3, includes the following steps. [0060] Step 301: configuring a beam management information in a beam management procedure, wherein the beam management information includes: the number of report beams which indicates a maximum number K of beams reported by the terminal in the downlink beam management procedure. [0061] The base station configures the number of report beams in the beam management information, to control the quantity of beams reported by the terminal. In this case, it is relatively easy to configure since the to-be-configured information in the downlink beam management information is merely the number of report beams. [0062] Step 302: transmitting the beam management information to the terminal. [0064] Step 303: transmitting a first downlink transmission beam set to the terminal in a first downlink beam management procedure.); receiving target measurement information sent by the receiving apparatus, wherein the target measurement information is selected by the receiving apparatus from a plurality of pieces of beam measurement information according to the beam reporting indication information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ), and the beam measurement information is obtained by the receiving apparatus by measuring the plurality of reference signal resources (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ); and predicting an optimal beam result according to the target measurement information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station.).
Sun may not explicitly disclose, but Cha, which is in the same field of endeavor, discloses where the measurement beams are beam reference signals/resources (Cha [0093-0102]). The purpose of Cha is to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements (Cha [0001,0099]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Cha with Sun, to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements and selecting better beams (Cha [0001,0099,0214]).
As per claim 24, Sun discloses a user apparatus (Sun Figs. 17 and 18), comprising: at least one processor (Sun Figs. 17 and 18); and at least one memory, configured for storing at least one program (Sun Figs. 17 and 18), wherein the at least one program, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform a method for beam management, applied to a receiving apparatus (Sun Figs. 3, 17 and 18), the beam management method comprising: receiving beam reporting indication information sent by a transmitting apparatus (Sun Fig. 3 and [0059] In some optional embodiments, assuming the aforementioned beam report configuration parameter is the number of report beams, the beam management information configuration method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 3, includes the following steps. [0060] Step 301: configuring a beam management information in a beam management procedure, wherein the beam management information includes: the number of report beams which indicates a maximum number K of beams reported by the terminal in the downlink beam management procedure. [0061] The base station configures the number of report beams in the beam management information, to control the quantity of beams reported by the terminal. In this case, it is relatively easy to configure since the to-be-configured information in the downlink beam management information is merely the number of report beams. [0062] Step 302: transmitting the beam management information to the terminal.) and a plurality of test beams configured with reference signal resources (Fig. 3, [0059-0062] and [0064] Step 303: transmitting a first downlink transmission beam set to the terminal in a first downlink beam management procedure.); measuring a plurality of reference signal resources to obtain a plurality of pieces of beam measurement information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ); selecting target measurement information from the plurality of pieces of beam measurement information according to the beam reporting indication information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ); and sending the target measurement information to the transmitting apparatus (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0065] and [0066] Step 304: obtaining a first reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or a terminal optimal downlink reception beam transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set. [0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the terminal receives the beams in the first downlink transmission beam set by using different downlink reception beams, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.1, . . . , n.sub.1+k, as optimal transmission beams and determines the terminal optimal downlink reception beam m. The terminal may report the first reported beam set containing the K optimal downlink transmission beams and/or the terminal optimal downlink reception beam to the TRP of the base station. ), such that the transmitting apparatus predicts an optimal beam result according to the target measurement information (Sun Fig. 3, 4, [0059-0067] and [0070] Step 306: obtaining a second reported beam set containing K optimal downlink transmission beams transmitted by the terminal after the terminal has received and measured the beams in the second downlink transmission beam set. [0071] In the second downlink beam management procedure P-2, the terminal measures the downlink transmission beams transmitted by different TRPs by using the optimal downlink reception beam m, selects K downlink transmission beams, e.g. n.sub.2, . . . , n.sub.2+k, from the second downlink transmission beam set and reports the K downlink transmission beams to the base station. [0072] Step 307: in a third downlink beam management procedure, selecting an optimal downlink transmission beam from the second reported beam set and transmitting the optimal downlink transmission beam to the terminal.).
Sun may not explicitly disclose, but Cha, which is in the same field of endeavor, discloses where the measurement beams are beam reference signals/resources (Cha [0093-0102]). The purpose of Cha is to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements (Cha [0001,0099]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Cha with Sun, to transmitting/receiving reference signals for beam measurements and selecting better beams (Cha [0001,0099,0214]).
As per claim 25, Sun discloses a base station (Sun Fig. 14 and [0154-0155]), comprising: at least one processor (Sun Fig. 14 and [0154-0155]); and at least one memory (Sun Fig. 14 and [0154-0155]), configured for storing at least one program, wherein the at least one program, when executed by the at least one processor (Sun Fig. 14 and [0154-0155]), causes the at least one processor to perform the beam management method of claim 17 (see claim 17).
As per claim 26, Sun discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing a processor-executable program which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method of claim 1 (See claim 1 and Figs 17 and 18).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-16 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FAIYAZKHAN GHAFOERKHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7161. The examiner can normally be reached Flex.
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FAIYAZKHAN GHAFOERKHAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2476
/FAIYAZKHAN GHAFOERKHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
Prosecution Insights