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 statement (IDS) was submitted on 30 December 2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 9-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. WO 2024/174134 A1 (hereinafter referred to as “Zhang”). Note: Zhang was cited by the applicant in the IDS received 30 December 2025.
As to claim 1, Zhang teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication (¶56; figures 1 and 6: UE 102), comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:
receive a configuration for channel state information (CSI) reporting, wherein the configuration includes a set of metrics (¶¶56, 74, and 79; figure 6: block 604 receive CSI report configuration including a list of CSI-RS resources and antenna ports, the configuration indicating target metrics, RI, PMI, CQI, etc.);
receive a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) associated with a set of CSI-RS ports (¶56; figure 6: block 608 receive configured CSI-RS resources associated with the ports configured in blocks 604 and 606);
identify a subset of CSI-RS ports from the set of CSI-RS ports based on the configuration (¶¶56 and 141-146; figure 6: block 610 identify a subset of antenna ports for the CSI-RS resources configured in blocks 604 and 606);
generate a set of CSI parameters comprising a first group of CSI parameter values associated with the set of CSI-RS ports and a second group of CSI parameter values associated with the subset of CSI-RS ports, wherein a subset of the second group of CSI parameter values is based at least in part on the first group of CSI parameter values (¶¶143-146: generate RI and PMI for different antenna ports, RI and PMI based on the antenna ports group with the largest number of antenna ports and separate RI and PMI for each antenna ports group (i.e., subset(s))); and
transmit a CSI report comprising a subset of the set of CSI parameters based on the set of metrics (¶¶56 and 141-142; figure 6: block 612 transmit CSI report based on the spectrum efficiency and the number of antenna ports).
As to claim 2, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the CSI report comprises:
one or more precoder matrix indicator (PMI) values comprising coefficients associated with the set of CSI-RS ports (¶¶79-81);
one or more rank indicator (RI) values associated with the set of CSI-RS ports (¶¶79-81);
a first channel quality indicator (CQI) value associated with the set of CSI-RS ports (¶¶143-146); and
a second CQI value associated with the subset of CSI-RS ports (¶¶143-146).
As to claim 3, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 2, wherein the first group of CSI parameters values comprises a PMI value of the one or more PMI values, an RI value of the one or more RI values, and the first CQI value, and wherein the second group of CSI parameter values comprises the second CQI value (¶¶79-81 and 143-146).
As to claim 4, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 3, wherein at least one of:
a precoding matrix associated with the subset of CSI-RS ports is inferred from the PMI value; and
a rank value associated with the subset of CSI-RS ports is inferred from the RI value (¶¶79-81 and 143-146).
As to claim 5, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to receive the CSI-RS over one or more non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources, and wherein the one or more NZP CSI-RS resources comprise one or more groups of CSI-RS ports that correspond to the set of CSI-RS ports (¶¶115 and 141-146; figure 10).
As to claim 6, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 4, wherein the set of CSI-RS ports are distributed over two dimensions, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to select the subset of CSI-RS ports independently over each dimension of the two dimensions (¶¶74-81, 115, and 141-146; figure 10).
As to claim 9, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein:
a number of CSI-RS ports of the subset of CSI-RS ports are consecutive over at least one dimension; or
the number of CSI-RS ports of the subset of CSI-RS ports are non-consecutive over the at least one dimension and with uniform gaps between each CSI-RS port and subsequent CSI-RS port of the number of CSI-RS ports (¶¶56, 74-81, 115, and 141-146; figures 6 and 10).
As to claim 10, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 9, wherein coefficients of one or more precoder matrix indicator (PMI) values are based on a codebook comprising a set of columns of a discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-based matrix (¶62).
As to claim 11, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 10, wherein an indexing of columns of the DFT-based matrix is circular, wherein a last column of the DFT-based matrix and a first column of the DFT-based matrix are consecutive columns (¶62).
As to claim 12, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 10, wherein the subset of CSI-RS ports corresponds to the number of CSI-RS ports that are consecutive, and wherein the codebook is based on a subset of non-consecutive columns of the DFT-based matrix with a uniform gap between identifiers of each column and subsequent column of the non-consecutive columns (¶62).
As to claim 13, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 10, wherein the subset of CSI-RS ports corresponds to the number of CSI-RS ports that are non-consecutive, and wherein the codebook is based on a subset of consecutive columns of the DFT-based matrix (¶62).
As to claim 14, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 10, wherein the second group of CSI parameter values further comprises:
an indication of a subset of columns of the DFT-based matrix based on the subset of CSI-RS ports;
an indication of the subset of CSI-RS ports; or
a combination thereof (¶56; figure 6).
As to claim 15, Zhang teaches a network node for wireless communication (¶57; figures 1 and 7: network entity 104), comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the network node to:
transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a configuration for channel state information (CSI) reporting that includes a set of metrics (¶¶57, 74, and 79; figure 7: block 704 transmit CSI report configuration including a list of CSI-RS resources and antenna ports, the configuration indicating target metrics, RI, PMI, CQI, etc.);
transmit, to the UE, a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) identifying a set of CSI-RS ports (¶57; figure 7: block 708 transmit configured CSI-RS resources associated with the ports configured in blocks 704 and 706); and
receive, from the UE, a CSI report that comprises values associated with the set of CSI-RS ports and values associated with a subset of CSI-RS ports (¶¶57 and 141-142; figure 7: block 712 receive CSI report based on the spectrum efficiency and the number of antenna ports).
As to claim 16, Zhang teaches the network node of claim 15, wherein the configuration includes information identifying a spatial adaption pattern or antenna array at the network node that is associated with the subset of CSI-RS antenna ports (¶57; figure 7).
As to claim 17, Zhang teaches the network node of claim 15, wherein the configuration includes information an indication of a quantity of CS-RS ports of the subset of CSI-RS antenna ports (¶57; figure 7).
As to claim 18, claim 18 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As to claim 19, claim 19 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
As to claim 20, claim 20 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
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.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of 3GPP R1-2306031 “FL summary#2 for SD and PD adaptation for R18 NES” (hereinafter referred to as “3GPP”. Note: 3GPP was cited by the applicant in the IDS received 30 December 2025.
As to claim 7, Zhang teaches the UE of claim 1.
Although Zhang teaches “The UE of claim 1,” Zhang does not explicitly disclose “the set…combination thereof”.
However, 3GPP teaches the set of metrics comprises:
a difference between a first channel quality indicator (CQI) value and a second CQI value being less than or equal to a first threshold value;
a difference between a first rank indicator (RI) value associated with the set of CSI-RS ports and a second RI value associated with the subset of CSI-RS ports being less than or equal to a second threshold value;
a range of values for a quantity of CSI-RS ports of the set of CSI-RS ports that satisfies a set of conditions associated with a layout of the CSI-RS ports; or
a combination thereof (§6).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve upon the apparatus described in Zhang by including “the set…combination thereof” as taught by 3GPP because it provides Zhang’s apparatus with the enhanced capability of improved UE adaptability based on configured thresholds (3GPP, §6).
As to claim 8, Zhang in view of 3GPP teaches the UE of claim 7.
3GPP further teaches the subset of the set of CSI parameters comprises the first group of values and the second group of values based at least in part on the set of metrics being satisfied, or
the subset of the set of CSI parameters comprises the first group of values based at least in part on the set of metrics not being satisfied (§6).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve upon the apparatus described in Zhang in view of 3GPP by including “the subset…not being satisfied” as further taught by 3GPP for the same rationale as set forth in claim 7 (3GPP, §6).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Barzegar Khalilsarai et al. US 2025/0192847 A1 – Channel State Information (CSI) Including a Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI)
Barzegar Khalilsarai et al. US 2025/0192952 A1 – Channel State Information (CSI) with Indication of Precoding Matrix
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/JUSTIN T VAN ROIE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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