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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on December 14, 2024, January 23, 2026 and September 16, 2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. 201710314190.8, filed on May 5, 2017.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, 9-12, 14-16, 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Rahman et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20180183503 A1 (supported by Provisional Application Mo. 62/455263).
Regarding Claim 1, Rahman discloses a transmission precoding matrix indication method, comprising: determining at least one uplink transmission precoding matrix and an uplink transmission layer quantity that correspond to a terminal device (e.g., ¶ [0006] [0007] BS [processes to send] indication of a TPMI and a number of layers [for purpose of receiving uplink data from UE based on the transmitted indication of the TPMI and the number of layers [i.e., the matrix and transmission layer quantity are associated with uplink configuration]); and sending downlink control information to the terminal device (e.g., ¶ [0007], UE receives DCI from BS, the indication of the TPMI and the number of layers via DCI signaling; e.g., ¶ [0085] LTE UL codebooks for 2 and 4 antenna ports are provided TABLEs 1-5, where the scaling factor a=√{square root over (2)} for 2 antenna ports, and a=2 for 4 antenna ports. Note that for 2 ports, rank 1, Codebook indices 4 and 5 correspond to antenna selection (with half power), and rank 2 corresponds to antenna selection for each layer, i.e., layer 0 transmitted from antenna port 20 and layer 1 transmitted from antenna port 21; e.g., ¶ [0091] In one alternative, the maximum number of layers for UL transmission is equal to the number of antenna ports at the UE. In another alternative, the maximum number of layers for UL transmission is up to 4 layers, i.e., up to 2 layers for 2 antenna ports, and up to 4 layers for 4 and 8 antenna ports; e.g., ¶ [0173] [0180] [0262] DCI field for TPMI indication; e.g., ¶ [0181] the codebook partition type (from CB0, CB1, and CB2) in rank 1-4 codebooks as explained in Embodiment 16 is determined/configured using a bitmap B or a field F via either higher layer (RRC) signaling or MAC CE based signaling or dynamic DCI based signaling), wherein the downlink control information comprises a first field, the first field indicating an index of the at least one uplink transmission precoding matrix and the uplink transmission layer quantity (e.g., ¶ [0006] [0007] A number of bits in the DCI signaling for the indication of the TPMI and the number of layers is determined by a coherence state that depends on the coherence capability reported by the UE [i.e., the capability used to derive the precoding matrix and number of layers], a bit quantity of the first field is related to a quantity of precoding matrices included in a codebook subset (e.g., ¶ [0173] [0180], TPMI-related signaling field size (number of bits) in an UL-related DCI is determined according to the number of pre-coding matrices after applying the codebook subset restriction to the UL codebook).
Regarding Claim 2, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the method according to claim 1.
Rahman discloses wherein the codebook subset is a part of a codebook corresponding to the uplink transmission layer quantity (e.g., ¶ [0139] UE is configured with a 4-Tx UL codebook for 1 SRS resource comprising 4 ports, wherein pre-coders comprise at least one of the following structures… for each layer, a subset of ports are selected and the selected ports are combined to obtain the pre-coder for that layer. For example, for each layer, a half of the ports (i.e. 2 ports) are selected. An example is pre-coders in LTE UL codebook; e.g., ¶ [0144] UE is configured with a N-Tx codebook for N ports in at least one resource where the higher rank (rank>1) codebook is designed using all or a subset of pre-coders in the rank-1 (or 1 layer) codebook; e.g., ¶ [0154] [0168] at least one of rank 2-4 codebooks is constructed using a subset of the pre-coders in the rank-1 codebook; e.g., ¶ [0170] The rank 2, rank-3, and rank-4 codebook tables according to any of these sub-alternatives are obtained by selecting a subset of pre-coding matrices (or a subset of Codebook-indices).
Regarding Claim 3, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the method according to claim 1.
Rahman discloses wherein the method further includes: determining the codebook subset corresponding to the terminal device (e.g., ¶ [0144] [0173] [0180], codebook determined/configured by gNB... configuration is an example of a codebook subset restriction); and sending a configuration message to the terminal device, wherein the configuration message indicates the codebook subset (e.g., ¶ [0144], UE is configured with a N-Tx codebook for N ports in at least one resource where the... codebook is designed using all or a subset of pre-coders in the... codebook).
Regarding Claim 4, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the method according to claim 3.
Rahman discloses wherein the configuration message is a higher layer signaling message or a physical layer signaling message (e.g., ¶ [0173] [0180], configuration is an example of a codebook subset restriction on codebook partition type by a gNB to a UE for an uplink codebook through RRC signaling).
Regarding Claim 6, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the method according to claim 1.
Rahman discloses wherein indexes of uplink transmission precoding matrices in the codebook subset are indexes successively re-established in a sequential order of the uplink transmission precoding matrices in a codebook (e.g., ¶ [0170]-[0172], Tables 12-16, Codebook tables indicate a sequential order of TPMI indices).
Regarding Claim 8, Rahman discloses a device (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0037], eNB 102), comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store an instruction (e.g., FIG. 2, controller/processor 225, memory 230; ¶ [0042], The controller/processor 225 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 230, such as an OS. The controller/processor 225 can move data into or out of the memory 230 as required by an executing process) the processor is configured to execute the instruction stored in the memory, and when the processor executes the instruction stored in the memory, the device is configured to perform operations that are functionally similar to those performed by the network device in the method of claim 1. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 1 shall be applied to claim 8.
Regarding Claim 9, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 8.
The functional limitations of Claim 9 are similar to claim 2. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 2 shall be applied to claim 9.
Regarding Claim 10, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 8.
The functional limitations of Claim 10 are similar to claim 3. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 3 shall be applied to claim 10.
Regarding Claim 11, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 10.
The functional limitations of Claim 11 are similar to claim 4. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 4 shall be applied to claim 11.
Regarding Claim 13, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 8.
The functional limitations of Claim 13 are similar to claim 6. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 6 shall be applied to claim 13.
Regarding Claim 15, Rahman discloses a device (e.g., FIG. 3, ¶ [0047], UE 116), comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store an instruction (e.g., FIG. 3, controller/processor 340, memory 360; ¶ [0051], The controller/processor 225 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 230, such as an OS. The controller/processor 225 can move data into or out of the memory 230 as required by an executing process) the processor is configured to execute the instruction stored in the memory, and when the processor executes the instruction stored in the memory, the device is configured to perform operations that are functionally similar to those performed by the terminal device in the method of claim 1. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 1,pertaining to the terminal, shall be applied to claim 15.
Regarding Claim 16, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 15.
The functional limitations of Claim 16 are similar to claim 2. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 2 shall be applied to claim 16.
Regarding Claim 17, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 15.
The functional limitations of Claim 17 are similar to claim 3. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 3 shall be applied to claim 17.
Regarding Claim 18, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 17.
The functional limitations of Claim 18 are similar to claim 4. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 4 shall be applied to claim 18.
Regarding Claim 20, Rahman discloses all the limitations of the device according to claim 15.
Rahman discloses wherein the device is further configured to complete the following: determining the at least one uplink transmission precoding matrix and the uplink transmission layer quantity based on the first field (e.g., ¶ [0173] [0180] [0262] DCI field for TPMI indication [received by terminal device]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7, 12, 14 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claims 5, 12 and 19, dependent from claim 1, 8 and 15, respectively, the prior art of record fails to disclose individually or in combination or render obvious the limitations wherein a configuration message includes at least one bit, the bit indicating whether at least one transmission precoding matrix corresponding to the bit in a codebook belongs to the codebook subset, and if a value of the bit is equal to a preset value, the at least one transmission precoding matrix corresponding to the bit in the codebook belongs to the codebook subset.
Regarding Claims 7 and 14, dependent from claims 3 and 10, respectively, the prior art of record fails to disclose individually or in combination or render obvious the limitations wherein the configuration message comprises a sampling factor l and an offset Λ, wherein a transmission precoding matrix whose index I*.sub.dx satisfies a formula (I*.sub.dx−Λ)modl=0 in a codebook belongs to the codebook subset, represents the index of the transmission precoding matrix in the codebook, and mod represents a REM operation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References considered relevant to this application are listed in the attached "Notice of References Cited” (PTO-892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VLADISLAV Y AGUREYEV whose telephone number is (571)272-0549. The examiner can normally be reached Monday--Friday (9-5).
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/VLADISLAV Y AGUREYEV/Examiner, Art Unit 2471
