DETAILED ACTION
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.
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) 1-4, 8, 12-14, 17, 18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jin (US 20220353725) in view of Qin et al (US 20240275461).
As to claim 1 Jin discloses a method for assisting in reporting channel characteristic information, comprising: processing, by a terminal, first channel information into target channel characteristic information by using a first AI network model- target channel characteristic referred to as CSI Reporting or PMI information (Jin Fig.3 ¶0152- 1st – 3rd sentences- AI-based CSI feedback…..The terminal device measures a downlink reference signal to obtain downlink channel information. The downlink channel information is encoded by the encoder to obtain compressed codeword information that needs to be fed back to an air interface,.); and sending, by the terminal, the target channel characteristic information to a network side device (Jin ¶0152- 3rd sentence- and the compressed codeword information is fed back to the network device through a feedback link),
Jin however is silent in sending first information to the network side device, wherein the first information comprises at least one of first indication; wherein the first indication information indicates accuracy of second channel information recovered based on the target channel characteristic information or indicates information for assisting the network side device in determining the accuracy of the second channel information. However, in an analogous art Qin remedies this deficiency: (Qin Fig. 4, ¶0159- The terminal device sends the channel state feedback information to the network device. The network device decodes the received channel state feedback information. In the method shown in FIG. 4, the procedure of encoding and decoding the channel state information improves transmission accuracy of the channel state feedback information and improves a degree of matching between an MCS allocated by the network device to the terminal device and the channel); Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Jin with that of Qin for the purpose of reducing overhead an keeping channel recovery accurate.
As to claim 2 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the first indication information indicates: a representation parameter of the first channel information-representation parameter may be CQI, MCS, average delay spread, etc. (Qin ¶0103- 2nd sentence- The resource configuration information includes a modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS). The modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS) indicates a corresponding modulation and coding scheme with which the terminal device performs data transmission through a downlink channel
As to claim 3 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 2, further comprising: obtaining, by the terminal, the second channel information by using at least one of the following manners: recovering the second channel information by using a second AI network model based on the target channel characteristic information, wherein the second AI network model is related to a third AI network model used by the network side device, and the third AI network model is used to recover the second channel information based on the target channel characteristic information (Jin ¶0239- ¶0240- A third decoder is deployed on the network device side, and the third decoder is configured to decode the first information to obtain the third downlink channel information. Jin ¶0247- last sentence- When the network device side stores a plurality of sets of second decoders and/or third decoders, the network device compares the third downlink channel information respectively output by the plurality of sets of third decoders to obtain a proper output result, and select a decoder corresponding to the output result as a proper decoder); and precoding information of the first reference signal comprises the second channel information recovered by the network side device by using the third AI network model based on the target channel characteristic information (Qin ¶0153- last sentence- The network device then performs decoding by using the decoder to obtain key information of the downlink channel. The key information of the downlink channel may include precoding information of the downlink channel and/or rank information of the downlink channel, and quality information of the downlink channel.).
As to claim 4 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose method according to claim 3, further comprising: receiving, by the terminal, related information of the third AI network model from the network side device; and determining, by the terminal, the second AI network model based on the related information of the third AI network model (Jin ¶0239- ¶0240).
As to claim 8 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein before the sending, by the terminal, the first information to the network side device, the method further comprises: determining, by the terminal, the target assistance information by using a fourth AI network model based on second information (Jin ¶0177- 2nd sentence- The auxiliary information is any prior information that is used for channel reconstruction, is information specified in an existing protocol, or is prior information that assists in channel reconstruction), wherein the second information comprises at least one of the following: the first channel information; or the target channel characteristic information (Jin ¶0178- 1st and 2nd sentences- The first downlink channel information includes first downlink channel state information (CSI). The first downlink channel information obtained by the terminal device through measurement is channel observation information obtained by the terminal device based on a pilot delivered by the network device. The channel observation information is unprocessed full channel state information of a channel; the channel observation information is channel information processed by the terminal device (for example, an eigenvector matrix obtained by the terminal device by estimating a channel rank).
As to claim 12 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the terminal, first configuration information, wherein the first configuration information is used to configure a target uplink resource (Jin s210 of Fig.2, ¶0128-2nd sentence the network device sends channel measurement configuration information to the terminal device. The channel measurement configuration information notifies the terminal device to perform channel measurement (which further includes time for performing channel measurement), wherein the sending, by the terminal, the first information to the network side device comprises: sending, by the terminal, the first information to the network side device by using the target uplink resource (Jin ¶0128- last sentence- The terminal device obtains CSI. The terminal device needs to feed back the obtained CSI to the network device. In this case, the method process shown in FIG. 2 further includes 5240: The terminal device feeds back the CSI to the network device.)
As to claim 13 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the terminal, second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information carries target period information, wherein the sending, by the terminal, the first information to the network side device comprises: periodically sending, by the terminal, the first information to the network side device based on the target period information (Jin ¶0159- 2nd sentence- sending periodicities and/or sending occasions of the sub-information is the same or is different. A sending method is not limited in this application. The sending periodicities and/or the sending occasions of the sub-information is predetermined, for example, predetermined according to a protocol, or is configured by a transmit end device by sending configuration information to a receive end device).
As to claim 14 Jin discloses a method for restoring channel characteristic information, comprising: obtaining, by a network side device, first information from a terminal, and obtaining target channel characteristic information from the terminal, wherein the first information comprises at least one of first indication information (Jin ¶0149- 2nd sentence- The network device end reconstructs an original sparse channel matrix based on a feedback value. The CSI feedback method is based on an architecture of an automatic encoder and a decoder; Fig.3 ¶0152- 1st – 3rd sentences- AI-based CSI feedback…. The terminal device measures a downlink reference signal to obtain downlink channel information. The downlink channel information is encoded by the encoder to obtain compressed codeword information that needs to be fed back to an air interface,.); and sending, by the terminal, the target channel characteristic information to a network side device (Jin ¶0152- 3rd sentence- and the compressed codeword information is fed back to the network device through a feedback link);
Jin however is silent wherein the first indication information indicates accuracy of second channel information recovered based on the target channel characteristic information or indicates information for assisting the network side device in determining the accuracy of the second channel information, However in an analogous art Qin remedies this deficiency: (Qin Fig. 4, ¶0159- The terminal device sends the channel state feedback information to the network device. The network device decodes the received channel state feedback information. In the method shown in FIG. 4, the procedure of encoding and decoding the channel state information improves transmission accuracy of the channel state feedback information and improves a degree of matching between an MCS allocated by the network device to the terminal device and the channel); Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Jin with that of Qin for the purpose of reducing overhead an keeping channel recovery accurate.
As to claim 17 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 14, wherein the first indication information indicates: a representation parameter of first channel information-representation parameter may be CQI, MCS, average delay spread, etc. (Qin ¶0103- 2nd sentence- The resource configuration information includes a modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS). The modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS) indicates a corresponding modulation and coding scheme with which the terminal device performs data transmission through a downlink channel).
As to claim 18 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 17, further comprising: sending, by the network side device, related information of the third AI network model to the terminal, wherein the terminal recovers the second channel information by using a second AI network model based on the target channel characteristic information, and the second AI network model corresponds to the third AI network model(Jin ¶0239- ¶0240- A third decoder is deployed on the network device side, and the third decoder is configured to decode the first information to obtain the third downlink channel information. Jin ¶0247- last sentence- When the network device side stores a plurality of sets of second decoders and/or third decoders, the network device compares the third downlink channel information respectively output by the plurality of sets of third decoders to obtain a proper output result, and select a decoder corresponding to the output result as a proper decoder. ; or precoding, by the network side device, a first reference signal based on the second channel information, and sending the precoded first reference signal to the terminal. (Qin ¶0153- last sentence- The network device then performs decoding by using the decoder to obtain key information of the downlink channel. The key information of the downlink channel may include precoding information of the downlink channel and/or rank information of the downlink channel, and quality information of the downlink channel).
As to claim 20 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 14, further comprising: sending, by the network side device, first configuration information to the terminal, wherein the first configuration information is used to configure a target uplink resource (Jin s210 of Fig.2, ¶0128-2nd sentence the network device sends channel measurement configuration information to the terminal device. The channel measurement configuration information notifies the terminal device to perform channel measurement (which further includes time for performing channel measurement),, wherein the obtaining, by the network side device, the first information from the terminal comprises: obtaining, by the network side device, the first information from the terminal by using the target uplink resource (Jin ¶0128- last sentence- The terminal device obtains CSI. The terminal device needs to feed back the obtained CSI to the network device. In this case, the method process shown in FIG. 2 further includes 5240: The terminal device feeds back the CSI to the network device.)
Claim(s) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jin in view of Qin and further in view of Wang et al (US 20230155702).
As to claim 5 the combined teachings of Jin and Qin disclose the method according to claim 2, however silent wherein the correlation measure between the first channel information and the second channel information comprises at least one of the following: a correlation parameter of channel matrices corresponding to the first channel information and the second channel information respectively; a correlation parameter obtained after the channel matrices corresponding to the first channel information and the second channel information respectively are mapped to a target transform domain, wherein the target transform domain comprises at least one of an angle delay domain or a delay Doppler domain; However in an analogous art Wang remedies this deficiency: Wang ¶0570- ¶0571- the long-term statistical characteristic of the target channel may include at least one of the following: a rank value, a large-scale characteristic, a channel covariance matrix, a channel correlation matrix,… The large-scale characteristic of the channel may be one or more of the following: a delay spread, a Doppler spread, a Doppler shift, an average gain, an average delay, an angle of arrival, an angle of arrival spread, an angle of departure, an angle of departure spread, a spatial RX parameter, and a spatial correlation.) Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the combined teachings of Jin and Qin with that of Wang for the purpose of reducing overhead and determining channel recovery accuracy.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 7, 9-11, 15, 16, and 19 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.
Tian et al (WO 2023092310)- Information Processing Method, Model Generation Method and Devices.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DERRICK V ROSE whose telephone number is (571)270-7460. The examiner can normally be reached 9am- 6pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, YEMANE MESFIN can be reached at 571-272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DERRICK V ROSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
Prosecution Insights