DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 21-22, 25, 29-30, 31-32, 35, and 39-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (US 20160344463 A1).
Considering claim 21, Kim teaches a method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising:
receiving configuration information related to hybrid beamforming (HBF) processing (S1305, Fig.13, [0131]);
determining a channel matrix associated with a sub-band (Fig.6, [0076]);
deriving one or more HBF precoders using the channel matrix (Fig.6-7, [0076], [0127] beamforming precoder), wherein the HBF precoders are associated with the at least one constraint ([0111] a parameter α, a PMI for a digital beamforming) related to processing performance or feedback overhead ([0070]-[0072] determines a precoding matrix index (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and a channel quality indicator (CQI). The user equipment feeds back a channel state information (CSI) containing the PMI, CQI and/or RI to the base station);
determining a preferred HBF type based on a preconfigured set of parameters associated with the configuration information related to HBF processing ([0111]), wherein the preferred HBF type is a unity magnitude HBF type, a codebook based HBF type, or a Vandermonde constrained HBF type (tables 3-5, Fig. 8-13, [0111] parameter, [0135]-[0141] Based on the effective range… set from a codebook); and
reporting, based on a first configuration related to HBF processing and the at least one constraint ([0111] a parameter α…) related to processing performance or feedback overhead associated with each of the plurality of HBF types (Fig.8-13, [0070]-[0072] user equipment feeds back a channel state information (CSI) containing the PMI, CQI and/or RI to the base station), to a base station HBF information related to the preferred HBF type and associated parameters, wherein the HBF information indicates one or more of the preferred HBF Type, a HBF precoder associated with the preferred HBF type (Based on the effective range… set from a codebook), or an effective rank associated with the preferred HBF type (Tables 3-5, Fig.8-13, [0070]-[0072], [0111], [0135]-[0141]).
Considering claim 31, Kim teaches a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) ([0147] processor 23), the WTRU comprising: a processor configured to:
receive configuration information related to hybrid beamforming (HBF) processing (S1305, Fig.13, [0131]);
determine a channel matrix associated with a sub-band (Fig.6, [0076]);
derive one or more HBF precoders using the channel matrix (Fig.6-7, [0076], [0127] beamforming precoder), wherein the HBF precoders are associated with the at least one constraint ([0111] a parameter α, a PMI for a digital beamforming) related to processing performance or feedback overhead ([0070]-[0072] determines a precoding matrix index (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and a channel quality indicator (CQI). The user equipment feeds back a channel state information (CSI) containing the PMI, CQI and/or RI to the base station);
determine a preferred HBF type based on a preconfigured set of parameters associated with the configuration information related to HBF processing ([0111]), wherein the preferred HBF type is a unity magnitude HBF type, a codebook based HBF type, or a Vandermonde constrained HBF type (tables 3-5, Fig. 8-13, [0111] parameter, [0135]-[0141] Based on the effective range… set from a codebook); and
report, based on a first configuration related to HBF processing and the at least one constraint ([0111] a parameter α…) related to processing performance or feedback overhead associated with each of the plurality of HBF types (Fig.8-13, [0070]-[0072] user equipment feeds back a channel state information (CSI) containing the PMI, CQI and/or RI to the base station), to a base station HBF information related to the preferred HBF type and associated parameters, wherein the HBF information indicates one or more of the preferred HBF Type, a HBF precoder associated with the preferred HBF type (Based on the effective range… set from a codebook), or an effective rank associated with the preferred HBF type (Tables 3-5, Fig.8-13, [0070]-[0072], [0111], [0135]-[0141]).
Considering claims 22, 32, Kim teaches wherein the configuration information related to HBF processing comprises one or more of a payload size for reporting HBF-related information, a number of layers, a PRG size, a HBF Type, or an effective rank (Fig.13, [0070]-[0076]).
Considering claims 25, 35, Kim teaches wherein the configuration information is first configuration information, the method further comprising: receiving a second configuration in response to the HBF information (Fig.13, [0132] base station transmits the first reference signal through an analog beamforming [S1310]), wherein the second configuration comprises information related to the preferred HBF type or another HBF type (Fig.8-13, [0111], [0071]-[0072], [0132]); and performing HBF processing based on the second configuration (Fig.8-13, [0134]-[0141]).
Considering claims 29, 39, Kim teaches deriving the first configuration related to HBF processing based on one or more measurements made by the WTRU (Fig.8-13, [0070]-[0072]).
Considering claims 30, 40, Kim teaches wherein the at least one constraint related to processing performance or feedback overhead comprises a measured angle (Fig.8-13, [0070]-[0072], [0135]-[0141]).
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 23-24, 33-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 20160344463 A1) in view of Shim et al. (US 20210288704 A1).
Considering claims 23, 33, Kim teaches wherein the reporting to the base station further comprises reporting based precoder derived from one or more measurements made by the WTRU ([0070]-[0072]).
Kim do not clearly teach a Vandermonde.
Shim teaches a Vandermonde ([0229]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filling date of the application to provide above teaching of Shim to Kim, in order to improve signal to noise ratio (SNR) and/or signal to interference noise ratio (SINR) or to improve a given communication link.
Considering claims 24, 34, Kim and Shim further teach wherein the Vandermonde based precoder is derived from among a plurality of Vandermonde based precoders ([0229]-[0230]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 26-28 and 36-38 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 KHAI MINH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7923. The examiner can normally be reached 6-3.
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/KHAI M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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