DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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
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 1-14 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grossmann et al. (US 2023/0421220 A1).
Consider claims 1, 18 and 19:
Grossmann discloses a channel information feedback method (see paragraphs 0037-0042, where Grossmann describes a method for a user equipment (UE) to provide feedback about a MINO channel in a wireless communication system; see Fig. 5 and paragraph 0183, where Grossmann describes that the UE includes a microprocessor that is configured to execute computer program instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium), comprising:
determining a target basic vector, wherein the target basic vector is a basic vector which conforms to a vector configuration rule (see paragraph 0056, where Grossmann describes that the UE obtains a second basis set of P basis vectors; see paragraph 0065, where Grossmann describes that the P is a number of antenna ports configured to the UE; Examiner’s note: each basis vector in the P basis vectors is considered a target basis vector);
determining vector identification bits (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the UE uses bits in a bit-map to identify P’ basis vectors selected from the P basis vectors, Examiner’s note: the P basis vectors are considered a row of basis vectors);
determining an extended vector according to the target basic vector and the vector identification bits (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that UE selects P’ basis vectors from the P basis vectors based on the bit-map, each bit in the bit-map may be associated with one basis vector of the P basis vectors, a ‘1’ in the bit-map may indicate that the associated basis vector is selected; Examiner’s note: a selected basis vector is considered an extended vector);
constructing a codebook according to the extended vector (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that a selected basis vector is selected as a vector of a precoding matrix; see paragraph 0011, where Grossmann describes that a set of precoding matrices is a codebook); and
performing channel information feedback by using the codebook (see paragraph 0130, where Grossmann describes that the UE sends a channel state information (CSI) report which comprises the selected basis vectors; see paragraph 0024, where Grossmann describes that the CSI reporting is a feedback which is codebook-based).
Grossmann does not explicitly disclose: the above vector identification bits are vector row identification bits.
However, Grossmann teaches “Each bit in the bitmap may be associated with one basis vector of the second basis set.” (see paragraph 0127). That is, Grossmann’s bits are used to identify basis vectors. Grossmann further teaches that the identified basis vectors are represented as a row of basis vectors (see paragraph 0132).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to state that the above vector identification bits are vector row identification bits, in order to have better description of the vector identification bits.
Consider claim 2:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 1 above. Grossmann discloses: before determining the target basic vector, the method further comprises: determining a basic vector set according to the vector configuration rule (see paragraph 0056, where Grossmann describes that the UE obtains a second basis set of P basis vectors; see paragraph 0065, where Grossmann describes that the P is a number of antenna ports configured to the UE), wherein the basic vector set comprises at least one basic vector, and determining the target basic vector comprises: selecting a basic vector from the basic vector set as the target basic vector (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that UE selects P’ basis vectors from the P basis vectors based on a bit-map).
Consider claim 3:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 2 above. Grossmann discloses: the vector configuration rule comprises: dimension information of basic vectors (see paragraph 0056, where Grossmann describes that the UE obtains a second basis set of P basis vectors, thus, a dimension of P), generation rule information of the basic vectors (see paragraph 0073, where Grossmann describes that the second basis set of P basis vectors may be defined by an identity matrix of size P×P), and information of the number of the basic vectors in the basic vector set (see paragraph 0073, where Grossmann describes that each basis vector from the second basis set is associated with a single antenna port).
Consider claim 4:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 1 above. Grossmann discloses: the vector row identification bits comprise at least one of: basic vector row identification bits or extended vector row identification bits (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the bits in the bit-map identify P’ basis vectors).
Consider claim 5:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 4 above. Grossmann discloses: the basic vector row identification bits indicate an index of a selected row of the target basic vector, and the extended vector row identification bits indicate an index of a selected row of the extended vector (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that a bit in the bit-map identifies a basis vector in the P’ basis vectors; see paragraph 0132, where Grossmann describes that the P’ basis vectors are represented by {PS , PS +1, …, PS +P’-1}).
Consider claim 6:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 4 above. Grossmann discloses: determining the vector row identification bits comprises: determining the basic vector row identification bits according to a bitmap signaling; or determining the basic vector row identification bits according to a basic-vector-row (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the UE uses bits in a bit-map to identify P’ basis vectors selected from the P basis vectors, a ‘1’ in the bit-map may indicate that the associated basis vector is selected, and a ‘0’ in the bit-map may indicate that the associated basis vector is not selected).
Consider claim 7:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 6 above. Grossmann discloses: the basic-vector-row-identification-bit mapping function is configured by a base station (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the bit-map is included in the CSI report; see paragraph 0060, where Grossmann describes that the CSI report is configured by a base station).
Consider claim 8:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 6 above. Grossmann discloses: the basic-vector-row-identification-bit variable is formed by one element or a plurality of different elements, an element is an integer, and the plurality of different elements are consecutive integers or non-consecutive integers (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that a bit in the bit-map can take the value of ‘1’ or ‘0’).
Consider claim 9:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 6 above. Grossmann discloses: determining the basic vector row identification bits according to a group of basic-vector-row-identification-bit variables and one basic-vector-row-identification-bit mapping function (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that each bit in the bit-map can take the value of ‘1’ or ‘0’ and that a bit-map includes a group of bits).
Consider claim 10:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 4 above. Grossmann discloses: the extended vector row identification bits are determined according to a bitmap signaling; or the extended vector row identification bits are determined according to an extended-vector-row-identification-bit variable and an extended-vector-row-identification-bit mapping function (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the UE uses bits in a bit-map to identify P’ basis vectors selected from the P basis vectors, a ‘1’ in the bit-map may indicate that the associated basis vector is selected, and a ‘0’ in the bit-map may indicate that the associated basis vector is not selected).
Consider claim 11:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 10 above. Grossmann discloses: the extended-vector-row-identification-bit mapping function is configured by a base station (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the bit-map is included in the CSI report; see paragraph 0060, where Grossmann describes that the CSI report is configured by a base station).
Consider claim 12:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 10 above. Grossmann discloses: the extended-vector-row-identification-bit variable is formed by one element or a plurality of different elements, an element is an integer, and the plurality of different elements are consecutive integers or non-consecutive integers (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that a bit in the bit-map can take the value of ‘1’ or ‘0’).
Consider claim 13:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 10 above. Grossmann discloses: determining the extended vector row identification bits according to a group of extended-vector-row-identification-bit variables and one extended-vector-row-identification-bit mapping function (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that each bit in the bit-map can take the value of ‘1’ or ‘0’ and that a bit-map includes a group of bits).
Consider claim 14:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 1 above. Grossmann discloses: determining the extended vector according to the target basic vector, basic vector row identification bits, and a type of the basic vector row identification bits, wherein the vector row identification bits comprises the basic vector row identification bits (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that UE selects P’ basis vectors from the P basis vectors based on the bit-map, each bit in the bit-map may be associated with one basis vector of the P basis vectors, a ‘1’ in the bit-map may indicate that the associated basis vector is selected).`
Consider claim 17:
Grossmann discloses the method of claim 1 above. Grossmann discloses: the vector row identification bits are capable of being dynamically adjusted with time (see paragraph 0127, where Grossmann describes that the bits in the bit-map are used to select basis vectors for a precoding matrix; see paragraph 0016, where Grossmann describes that the precoding matrix is updated for the next transmission time interval).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15 and 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Li et al. (US 2022/0123806 A1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIHONG YU whose telephone number is (571)270-5147. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am-6:00 pm EST Monday-Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah S. Wang can be reached at (571)272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LIHONG YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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