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 .
This office action is in response to the application serial number 18/902,186 filed on 09/30/2024.
Claims 1-8, 9-14, 15 are pending.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2-8, 9, 10-14, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganesan et al. ( US 20260082342, hereinafter, Ganesan’s 342) in view of Kothapalli et al. ( US 20260088874, hereinafter, Kothapalli’s 874 ), and further in view of Gonzalez Gonzalez et al. ( US 20240396592, hereinafter, Gonzalez’s 582 ).
Regarding to the claim 1, Ganesan’s 342 teaches a base station (BS), comprising:
an antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna ports (antenna array ) [see Paragraph 0080] [see Figure 11 and Figure 3] ;
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more computer-executable instructions for selecting a region (selecting near-field region or far-field region ) for a user equipment (UE) (one or more UEs can be configured with a threshold to select near-field or far-field beams, wherein the UE(s) within the threshold can search and detect for near-field beams and UE(s) above the threshold can search and detect for far-field beams ) [see Paragraph 0197] ;
at least one processor coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, and configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to:
transmit, to the UE, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration comprising a plurality of CSI-RS resource sets, each CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets identifying one or more resources for the near-field region or the far-fields region in the plurality of regions [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225];
selection region (near-field region, far field region) based on the set of one or more channel quality measurement , the selected region comprising one or more regions in the plurality of regions ( 0074] Depth of focus is an important metric for evaluating the attainability of the orthogonality of near-field array response vectors in the distance domain. From the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) perspective, when a user is located in the same direction but out of the depth of focus, the interference generated by beamformer f is relatively small. Consequently, a smaller depth of focus indicates better beam-focusing performance. ).
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach receive a set of one or more channel quality measurement reports from the UE, each channel quality measurement report in the set of channel quality measurement reports corresponding to a CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets.
Kothapalli’s 874, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches
receive a set of one or more channel quality measurement reports from the UE, each channel quality measurement report in the set of channel quality measurement reports corresponding to a CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets (the gNB sends a reference signal on all possible TX beams, the UE measures the received signal strength (e.g., equivalently, layer 1 (“L1”) reference signal received power (“RSRP”) and/or L1 signal-to-interference and noise ratio (“SINR”)) on all those beams and finds the beam providing a highest RSRP and/or SINR and reports back the best beam index to the gNB) [see Paragraph 0053] ;
select a beam for the UE based on the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, the selected beam comprising one or more beams in the plurality of beams [see Paragraph 0053].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ganesan’s 342 in view of Kothapalli’s 874 because Kothapalli’s 874 suggests that beam selection is an important and challenging problem, requiring novel and efficient solutions to enable the successful functioning of 5G NR cellular networks at mmWave frequencies.
However, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 do not explicitly teach define a plurality of unique non-overlapping VRs, each VR comprising a different non-overlapping subset of the plurality of antenna ports of the BS.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches define a plurality of unique non-overlapping VRs, each VR comprising a different non-overlapping subset of the plurality of antenna ports of the BS ( 0057] Consider an XL-MIMO system consisting of S sub-arrays, each equipped with N.sub.s antenna elements, such that the total number of antenna array elements is given by N=Σ.sub.s=1.sup.SN.sub.s, and let G∈C.sup.N×M be the effective channel matrix between the XL-MIMO array and M single-antenna users, which jointly depicts user activities, sub-array VRs, and the fading gains ) [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 2, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein the CSI-RS configuration further comprises a CSI-RS resource set configuration identifying one or more resources for all antenna ports in the plurality of antenna ports of the BS ( wherein the CSI-RS configuration further comprises a CSI-RS resource set configuration identifying one or more resources for all antenna ports in the plurality of antenna ports of the BS ) [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
Regarding to the claim 3, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein each channel quality measurement report comprises one of a channel quality indicator (CQI) or a signal to noise ratio (SINR) ([0141] In some embodiments, there may be separate UL wake up signal configurations for near-field and far-field SSB burst transmission. Accordingly, a gNB may determine whether a UE is located in the near-field or far-field region based on a received UL wakeup signal. In another implementation, depending on the received SINR or RSRP threshold or Timing Advance (TA) value at the gNB (e.g., estimated from the received request for on-demand SSB), the gNB may implicitly decide on the transmission of near-field or far-field SSB beams.)
Regarding to the claim 4, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 and Gonzalez’s 582 teach the limitations of the claim 1 above.
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach each VR corresponds to a two dimensional array of antenna ports in the plurality of antenna ports of the BS, the BS stores a list of supported VR dimensions identifying a plurality of VR dimensions supported by the BS, and defining the plurality of VRs comprises defining VRs having dimensions that are identified by the list of supported VR dimensions.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches each VR corresponds to a two dimensional array of antenna ports in the plurality of antenna ports of the BS, the BS stores a list of supported VR dimensions identifying a plurality of VR dimensions supported by the BS, and defining the plurality of VRs comprises defining VRs having dimensions that are identified by the list of supported VR dimensions
[see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 5, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 and Gonzalez’s 582 teach the limitations of the claim 1 above.
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach wherein: the selected VR comprises a combination of one or more adjacent VRs in the plurality of VRs, and dimensions of the selected VR is one of the plurality of VR dimensions identified by the list of supported VRs.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches wherein: the selected VR comprises a combination of one or more adjacent VRs in the plurality of VRs, and dimensions of the selected VR is one of the plurality of VR dimensions identified by the list of supported VRs [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 6, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 and Gonzalez’s 582 teach the limitations of the claim 1 above.
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach wherein: the UE is a first UE, the VR is a first VR, the first VR comprising a combination of two or more adjacent VRs in the plurality of VRs, and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to: select the first VR for the first UE and one or more UEs other than the first UE.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches wherein: the UE is a first UE, the VR (Visibility Region) is a first VR, the first VR comprising a combination of two or more adjacent VRs in the plurality of VRs, and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to: select the first VR for the first UE (User 1 channel) and one or more UEs (User m Channel) other than the first UE (User 1 channel) [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 7, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 and Gonzalez’s 582 teach the limitations of the claim 1 above.
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach wherein: selecting the VR for the UE comprises selecting only one VR in the plurality of VRs, the UE is a first UE, the selected VR is a first VR, and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to: select the first VR for the first UE and one or more UEs other than the first UE.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches wherein: selecting the VR for the UE comprises selecting only one VR in the plurality of VRs, the UE is a first UE, the selected VR is a first VR, and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to: select the first VR for the first UE and one or more UEs other than the first UE [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 8, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 and Gonzalez’s 582 teach the limitations of the claim 1 above.
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach wherein: the antenna ports of the BS antenna are arranged in a two dimensional array, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to: assign a number to each of the plurality of VRs in an order determined based on a horizontal position of the VR or a vertical position of the VR in the two dimensional array of the antenna ports of the BS antenna, and the assigned numbers of the VRs are for use by the UE to: determine a dimension of the VR of the UE; and determine a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) for the selected VR of the UE based on the dimension of the VR of the UE.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches wherein: the antenna ports of the BS antenna are arranged in a two dimensional array, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the BS to: assign a number to each of the plurality of VRs in an order determined based on a horizontal position of the VR or a vertical position of the VR in the two dimensional array of the antenna ports of the BS antenna, and the assigned numbers of the VRs are for use by the UE to: determine a dimension of the VR of the UE; and determine a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) for the selected VR of the UE based on the dimension of the VR of the UE [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 9, Ganesan’s 342 teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more computer-executable instructions for receiving a region (near-field region , far-field region ) from a base station (BS) comprising an antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna ports (antenna array ) [see Paragraph 0080] [see Figure 11 and Figure 3]; and
at least one processor coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, and configured to execute the one or more computer-executable instructions to cause the UE to:
receive, from the BS, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225] , wherein:
the CSI-RS comprises a plurality of CSI-RS resource sets [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225],
each CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets identifying one or more resources for a region in a plurality of regions such near-field region , far-field region ) [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach generate a set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, each channel quality measurement report in the set of channel quality measurement reports corresponding to a CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets; transmit the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS.
Kothapalli’s 874, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches generate a set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, each channel quality measurement report in the set of channel quality measurement reports corresponding to a CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets; transmit the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS (the gNB sends a reference signal on all possible TX beams, the UE measures the received signal strength (e.g., equivalently, layer 1 (“L1”) reference signal received power (“RSRP”) and/or L1 signal-to-interference and noise ratio (“SINR”)) on all those beams and finds the beam providing a highest RSRP and/or SINR and reports back the best beam index to the gNB) [see Paragraph 0053];
receive, from the BS, a region for use by the UE selected based on the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, the selected beam comprising one or more beams in the plurality of beams [see Paragraph 0053].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ganesan’s 342 in view of Kothapalli’s 874 because Kothapalli’s 874 suggests that beam selection is an important and challenging problem, requiring novel and efficient solutions to enable the successful functioning of 5G NR cellular networks at mmWave frequencies.
However, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 do not explicitly teach identifying one or more resources for a VR in a plurality unique non-overlapping VRs, and each VR in the plurality of VRs comprising a different subset of the plurality antenna ports of the BS.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches identifying one or more resources for a VR in a plurality unique non-overlapping VRs, and each VR in the plurality of VRs comprising a different subset of the plurality antenna ports of the BS ( 0057] Consider an XL-MIMO system consisting of S sub-arrays, each equipped with N.sub.s antenna elements, such that the total number of antenna array elements is given by N=Σ.sub.s=1.sup.SN.sub.s, and let G∈C.sup.N×M be the effective channel matrix between the XL-MIMO array and M single-antenna users, which jointly depicts user activities, sub-array VRs, and the fading gains ) [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Regarding to the claim 10, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein: in a case that receiving the CSI-RS configuration from the BS is periodic: transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS comprises periodically transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS, in a case that receiving the CSI-RS configuration from the BS is periodical or semi-persistent: transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS comprises one of (1) periodically transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS or (2) semi-persistently transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS, and in a case that receiving the CSI-RS configuration from the BS is aperiodic: transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS comprises one of (1) periodically transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS, (2) semi-persistently transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS, or (3) aperiodically transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
Regarding to the claim 11, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein: receiving the CSI-RS configuration from the BS comprises aperiodically receiving the CSI-RS configuration from the BS, and transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS comprises aperiodically transmitting the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
Regarding to the claim 12, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein the set of channel quality reports comprises a same number of channel quality reports as a number of CSI-RS resource sets in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
Regarding to the claim 13, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein: a number of channel quality reports in the set of channel quality reports is less than a number of CSI-RS resource sets in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets, the number of the channel quality reports is one of a fixed number, a randomly selected number, or a number that is based on a quality of signals measured by the UE for each channel quality report, and the number of the channel quality reports is greater than or equal to one [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
Regarding to the claim 14, Ganesan’s 342 further teaches wherein receiving the CSI-RS configuration from the BS comprises receiving the CSI-RS configuration (CSI-RS configuration ) [see Paragraph 0173] from the BS through a radio resource control (RRC) message (RRC message) [see paragraph 0128]
Regarding to the claim 15, Ganesan’s 342 teaches a method for receiving a visibility region for a user equipment (UE) from a base station (BS) comprising an antenna array having a plurality of antenna ports, the method comprising:
receive, at the UE , from the BS, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225] , wherein:
the CSI-RS comprises a plurality of CSI-RS resource sets [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225],
each CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets identifying one or more resources for a region in a plurality of regions such near-field region , far-field region ) [see Paragraph 0173] [also see the paragraphs 0196 & 0208 & 0225].
However, Ganesan’s 342 does not explicitly teach generate a set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, each channel quality measurement report in the set of channel quality measurement reports corresponding to a CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets; transmit the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS; and
receive, from the BS, a region for use by the UE selected based on the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, the selected VR comprising one or more regions in the plurality of regions .
Kothapalli’s 874, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches transmitting a set of one or more channel quality measurement reports to the BS, each channel quality measurement report in the set of channel quality measurement reports corresponding to a CSI-RS resource set in the plurality of CSI-RS resource sets (the gNB sends a reference signal on all possible TX beams, the UE measures the received signal strength (e.g., equivalently, layer 1 (“L1”) reference signal received power (“RSRP”) and/or L1 signal-to-interference and noise ratio (“SINR”)) on all those beams and finds the beam providing a highest RSRP and/or SINR and reports back the best beam index to the gNB) [see Paragraph 0053];
receiving a beam for the UE based on the set of one or more channel quality measurement reports, the selected comprising one or more beams in the plurality of beams. [see Paragraph 0053].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ganesan’s 342 in view of Kothapalli’s 874 because Kothapalli’s 874 suggests that beam selection is an important and challenging problem, requiring novel and efficient solutions to enable the successful functioning of 5G NR cellular networks at mmWave frequencies.
However, Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874 do not explicitly teach identifying one or more resources for a VR in a plurality unique non-overlapping VRs, and each VR in the plurality of VRs comprising a different subset of the plurality antenna ports of the BS.
Gonzalez’s 582, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches identifying one or more resources for a VR in a plurality unique non-overlapping VRs, and each VR in the plurality of VRs comprising a different subset of the plurality antenna ports of the BS ( 0057] Consider an XL-MIMO system consisting of S sub-arrays, each equipped with N.sub.s antenna elements, such that the total number of antenna array elements is given by N=Σ.sub.s=1.sup.SN.sub.s, and let G∈C.sup.N×M be the effective channel matrix between the XL-MIMO array and M single-antenna users, which jointly depicts user activities, sub-array VRs, and the fading gains ) [see Figure 1 and Paragraphs 0057 & 0105] [also see the paragraphs 0009 & 0011].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system ( Ganesan’s 342 and Kothapalli’s 874), and further in view of Gonzalez’s 582 because Gonzalez’s 582 suggests that the present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for configuring a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts for a near-field region and a far-field region.
Conclusion
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/CHUONG T HO/Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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