DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 § 112
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
3. Claims 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the first beam set" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
4. 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.
5. Claims 1-8, 11-17, 22, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Cao (US 20230189237, hereinafter referred to as Cao).
Re claim 1, Cao teaches a beam selection method (Fig. 11, Abstract), performed by an access network device (Network side device/gNB/eNB, Par 0003) and comprising:
(i) receiving a beam measurement result of a reference beam sent by a terminal device (group based beam quality reporting) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0039-0040, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0069, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0092);
(ii) acquiring beam characteristic information of a receive beam used by the terminal device (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0057, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0093); and
(iii) determining a target beam set (determining group beam indicator) according to the beam measurement result (group based beam quality report) and the beam characteristic information (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0094).
Claim 22 recites a communication device performing the steps recited in claim 1 and thereby, is rejected for the reasons discussed above with respect to claim 1. Cao further teaches that the communication device (network side device/gNB) comprises a processor and a memory storing computer program to be executed by a processor (Fig. 14, Par 0112-0115).
Re claims 2, 12, Cao teaches to send first beam indication information (downlink reference signal resource configuration information) to the terminal device; and acquiring the beam characteristic information of the receive beam (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams) used by the terminal device according to the first beam indication information (downlink reference signal resource configuration information), wherein the first beam indication information comprises at least one of: beam angle of direction information (downlink reference signal resource configuration information indicates downlink beam direction; RS resource set to antenna panel information indicates the direction of downlink beam); half-power beam width; or quasi-co-location QCL information (Fig. 5-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0039-0041, Par 0044-0046, Par 0055, Par 0069, Par 0072, Par 0077, Par 0086, Par 0088-0092).
Re claims 3, 13, Cao teaches to send a first radio resource control RRC signaling to the terminal device, wherein the first RRC signaling comprises the first beam indication information (RRC signaling providing downlink reference signal resource configuration information) (Fig. 4, Par 0039-0040, Par 0044, Par 0053, Par 0060, Par 0070, Par 0081, Par 0086).
Re claims 4, 14, Cao teaches to send channel state information CSI resource configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the CSI resource configuration information comprises the first beam indication information (CSI-RS resource configuration) (Fig. 4-7, Fig. 11, Par 0003, Par 0039-0040, Par 0044, Par 0069).
Re claims 5, 15, Cao teaches to receive second beam indication information sent by the terminal device (group based beam quality reporting); and acquire the beam characteristic information of the receive beam used by the terminal device according to the second beam indication information (acquiring receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams from the group based beam quality reporting, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID), wherein the second beam indication information (group based beam quality reporting) comprises at least one of: beam angle of direction information (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams provide the direction of RX beams); half-power beam width; or quasi-co-location QCL information (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0039-0040, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0057, Par 0069, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0093).
Re claims 6, 16, Cao teaches to receive first uplink control information UCI signaling sent by the terminal device (receiving group based beam quality reporting), wherein the first UCI signaling comprises the second beam indication information (group based beam quality reporting includes receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams from the group based beam quality reporting, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0039-0040, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0057, Par 0069, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0093).
Re claims 7, 17, Cao teaches to receive CSI sent by the terminal device (group based beam quality report), wherein the CSI comprises the second beam indication information (group based beam quality reporting includes receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams from the group based beam quality reporting, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0039-0040, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0057, Par 0069, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0093).
Re claim 8, Cao teaches to determine the first beam set (determining group beam indicator) by a beam prediction model according to the beam measurement result (group based beam quality report) and the beam characteristic information (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0094).
Re claim 11, Cao teaches a beam selection method (Fig. 11, Abstract), performed by a terminal device (UE, Fig. 11) and comprising:
(i) sending a beam measurement result of a reference beam (group based beam quality reporting) to an access network device (Network side device/gNB/eNB, Par 0003, Fig. 11) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0039-0040, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0069, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0092);
(ii) determining beam characteristic information of a used receive beam (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0057, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0093); and
(iii) the beam characteristic information (receive beam ID, Rx beam set receiving specific Tx beams, UE antenna panel ID used to receive the Tx beams, panel ID indicating SRS resource set ID) and the beam measurement result (group based beam quality report) are used for determining a target beam set (determining group beam indicator) (Fig. 6-7, Fig. 11-12, Par 0049-0052, Par 0054, Par 0075-0079, Par 0086, Par 0088-0094).
Claim 25 recites a communication device performing the steps recited in claim 11 and thereby, is rejected for the reasons discussed above with respect to claim 11. Cao further teaches that the communication device (UE) comprises a processor and a memory storing computer program (Fig. 16, Par 0129-0132).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
7. Claims 9-10 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Park et al (US 20220166480 A1, hereinafter referred to as Park).
Re claims 9, 18, Cao does not explicitly disclose that in response to the target beam set comprising a target downlink transmit beam, sending a downlink signal to the terminal device on the target downlink transmit beam.
Park teaches that in response to the target beam set comprising a target downlink transmit beam (determining a beam for downlink transmission), sending a downlink signal to the terminal device on the target downlink transmit beam (receiving downlink data) (Fig. 12, Fig. 16-17, Par 0172-0179, Par 0197, Par 0371-0376).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cao by including the step that in response to the target beam set comprising a target downlink transmit beam, sending a downlink signal to the terminal device on the target downlink transmit beam, as taught by Park for the purpose of efficiently transmitting and receiving data in a wireless communication system, as taught by Park (Par 0005-0007).
Re claim 10, Cao does not explicitly disclose that in response to the target beam set comprising a target uplink receive beam, receiving an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the target uplink receive beam.
Park teaches that in response to the target beam set comprising a target uplink receive beam (determining a beam for uplink reception), receiving an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the target uplink receive beam (receiving uplink data) (Fig. 14-15, Fig. 18, Par 0228-0232, Par 0387-0392).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cao by including the step that in response to the target beam set comprising a target uplink receive beam, receiving an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the target uplink receive beam, as taught by Park for the purpose of efficiently transmitting and receiving data in a wireless communication system, as taught by Park (Par 0005-0007).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARUN UR R CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)270-3895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B Yao can be reached at 5712723182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HARUN CHOWDHURY/Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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