DETAILED ACTION
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 of this title, 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, 2, 4-8, 10-14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. (US 2023/0155763, “Hao”) in view of Sergeev et al. (US 2022/0263556, “Sergeev”).
Regarding claim 1, Hao discloses a signal transmission method, wherein the method comprises:
- receiving, first indication information, wherein at least one of a mapping parameter or a widely linear processing matrix is determined based on the first indication information (See 1302 Fig.13 and ¶.95, receiving, from a network entity, information indicating at least one of a set of one or more frequency domain (FD) bases and linear combination coefficients; See ¶.76, the FD basis (Mi) for RI={3, 4} is comparable to RI=2. In one example, each layer (layer 0 and layer 1) of RI=2 uses M number of FD basis, making the FD basis across all four layers of RI=4 comparable to 2M; See ¶.87, the gNB configures the UE with the selected SRS resource via an SRS resource indictor (SRI) and with the wideband precoder via a transmit precoder matrix indicator (TPMI). For a dynamic grant, the SRI and TPMI may be configured via DCI format 0_1. For a configured grant (e.g., for semi-persistent uplink), SRI and TPMI may be configured via RRC or DCI); and
- sending, a second signal, wherein the second signal is obtained by converting a first signal based on the at least one of the mapping parameter or the widely linear processing matrix (See ¶.8, determining, at least one of a set of one or more frequency domain (FD) bases and linear combination coefficients, determining a subband precoder based at least in part on the at least one of the set of one or more FD bases and linear combination coefficients, transmitting, to the UE, information indicating at least one of the set of FDs and linear combination coefficients, and receiving, from the UE, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmitted with subband precoding as linear combinations of the FD bases based on the linear combination coefficients; See 1304 Fig.13 and ¶.95, the UE determines subband precoding based at least in part on linear combinations of the FD bases based on the linear combination coefficients; See ¶.72, the UE may be configured to report FD compressed precoder feedback to reduce overhead of the CSI report. As shown in FIG. 5, the precoder matrix (W2,i) for layer i with i = 0,1 may use an FD compression; See ¶.88, the UE determines the selected SRS resource from the SRI and precoding from TPMI and transmits PUSCH accordingly. FIG. 9 illustrates how the wideband precoder (indicated via TPMI) may map transmission layers to PUSCH ports. FIGS. 12A-12F illustrate example precoder matrix sets that may be selected via a TPMI index, for various layer and antenna port combinations), and the first signal comprises m streams of first data (See ¶.46, MIMO transmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas with multi-layer DL transmissions up to 8 streams and up to 4 streams per UE. Multi-layer transmissions with up to 4 streams per UE may be supported; See ¶.56, Spatial multiplexing may be used to transmit different streams of data, also referred to as layers, simultaneously on the same time-frequency resource. The data streams may be transmitted to a single UE to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs to increase the overall system capacity, the latter being referred to as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO)).
Hao does not explicitly disclose what Sergeev discloses,
- wherein the mapping parameter comprises a first mapping parameter of the m streams of first data and a second mapping parameter of conjugates of the m streams of first data (Sergeev, See ¶.175, Precoding matrix of a codebook with high spatial resolution based on linear combining of SD vectors with DFT-based FD compression can be constructed as a linear combination of L mutually orthogonal SD vectors, a column of precoding matrix can be represented by the following equation W1W2·WfH. In this equation, W.sub.1 is matrix of SD vectors with dimensions 2N.sub.1N.sub.2×2L; W.sub.2 is matrix of linear combining coefficients with dimensions 2L×N.sub.3O.sub.3; W.sub.f is a DFT matrix with dimensions N.sub.3×N.sub.3O.sub.3; the .sup.H operator represents a Hermitian conjugate; N.sub.3 is the number of FD compression units; O.sub.3 represents an oversampling of a FD DFT matrix; FD compression unit corresponds to a set of time-frequency resources (e.g., subband or part of subband). A column of a precoding matrix for FD compression unit k=0,1, . . . , (N.sub.3−1) is represented in Equation 2. The rank R precoding matrix is represented in Equation 3;
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645
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339
626
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),
- the widely linear processing matrix comprises a first widely linear processing matrix of m streams of second data and a second widely linear processing matrix of conjugates of the m streams of second data, and m is an integer greater than or equal to 1 (See ¶.6, the linear combining coefficients include a linear combining coefficient c that is represented as c=a.sub.ref.Math.a.Math.b, where a.sub.ref is a reference amplitude, a is a differential amplitude, and b is a phase. In some implementations, the linear combining coefficient is reported via multiple bit fields including a first bit field, a second bit field, and a third bit field. These fields can be included in the PMI. The first bit field can be used to report a.sub.ref. The second bit field can be used to report a. The third bit field can be used to report b. In some implementations, at least one potential value that is represented by the second bit field is a complex number. In some implementations, at least one first potential value that is represented by the second bit field is a complex number, and one or more second potential values that are represented by the second bit field are real numbers. In some implementations, potential values represented by the third bit field are complex numbers with an amplitude equal to one. In some implementations, potential values represented by the third bit field follow a constellation of points for N phase-shift keying (N-PSK), where N is the number of points associated with the constellation. In some implementations, at least one potential value represented by the second bit field is a complex number, and a phase of the complex number is equal to π/N; See ¶.176, a UE can report linear combining coefficients to a base station. In some implementations, a value of a linear combining coefficient c.sub.s,i,l may be derived from the following equation c.sub.s,i,l=a.sub.ref.Math.a.Math.b, where a.sub.ref, a, and b are reported by the UE using separate bit fields; a.sub.ref is a reference amplitude for differential amplitude reporting, a is a differential amplitude (a-value), and b is phase (b-value). The mapping between values of a bit field and corresponding PMI components can be predetermined and known at the gNB and at the UE. In some implementations, the value of b can be derived from the value of the corresponding bit field t by using the following equation:
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175
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).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “wherein the mapping parameter comprises a first mapping parameter of the m streams of first data and a second mapping parameter of conjugates of the m streams of first data and/or the widely linear processing matrix comprises a first widely linear processing matrix of m streams of second data and a second widely linear processing matrix of conjugates of the m streams of second data, and m is an integer greater than or equal to 1” as taught by Sergeev into the system of Hao, so that it provides a way of reporting the linear combining coefficient related with a different amplitude and a phase in the matric format (Sergeev, See ¶.6) and precoding matrix of a codebook representing FD compression matrix (Sergeev, See ¶.175).
Regarding claim 2, Hao does not explicitly disclose what Sergeev discloses “wherein the m streams of second data are: the m streams of first data, or m streams of data obtained by mapping the m streams of first data and the conjugates of the m streams of first data based on the first mapping parameter and the second mapping parameter (Sergeev, See ¶.176).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 4, Hao discloses “wherein the first indication information comprises first amplitude information and phase information, wherein the first amplitude information indicates amplitude information of the first mapping parameter, indicates amplitude information of the second mapping parameter, or indicates a relative relationship between the amplitude information of the first mapping parameter and the amplitude information of the second mapping parameter; and the phase information indicates phase information of the first mapping parameter and phase information of the second mapping parameter (See ¶.66, for the Type II single panel codebook, the PMI is a linear combination of beams; it has a subset of orthogonal beams to be used for linear combination and has per layer, per polarization, amplitude and phase for each beam. For the PMI of any type, there can be wideband (WB) PMI and/or subband (SB) PMI as configured; See further ¶.72, ¶.110, ¶.113 for amplitude and phase).”
Regarding claim 5, Hao discloses “wherein the phase information comprises first phase information and second phase information, wherein the first phase information indicates the phase information of the first mapping parameter, and the second phase information indicates the phase information of the second mapping parameter; or the first phase information indicates reference phase information, and the second phase information indicates differential phase information (See ¶.56, The data streams may be transmitted to a single UE to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs to increase the overall system capacity, the latter being referred to as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., multiplying the data streams with different weighting and phase shifting) and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream through multiple transmit antennas on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE(s) with different spatial signatures, which enables each of the UE(s) to recover the one or more data streams destined for that UE. On the uplink, each UE transmits a spatially precoded data stream, which enables the base station to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream; See further ¶.66, ¶.108, ¶.111, ¶.113 for phase).”
Regarding claim 6, Hao discloses “wherein at least two of the following are jointly encoded in the first indication information: phase information of the first mapping parameter, phase information of the second mapping parameter, amplitude information of the first mapping parameter, or amplitude information of the second mapping parameter (See ¶.8, determining, at least one of a set of one or more frequency domain (FD) bases and linear combination coefficients, determining a subband precoder based at least in part on the at least one of the set of one or more FD bases and linear combination coefficients, transmitting, to the UE, information indicating at least one of the set of FDs and linear combination coefficients, and receiving, from the UE, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmitted with subband precoding as linear combinations of the FD bases based on the linear combination coefficients; See ¶.66, For the Type II single panel codebook, the PMI is a linear combination of beams; it has a subset of orthogonal beams to be used for linear combination and has per layer, per polarization, amplitude and phase for each beam. For the PMI of any type, there can be wideband (WB) PMI and/or subband (SB) PMI as configured; See ¶.72, where the precoder matrix W.sub.i (not shown) has P = 2N.sub.1N.sub.2 rows (spatial domain, number of ports) and N.sub.3 columns (frequency-domain compression unit containing RBs or reporting sub-bands), and where M bases are selected for each of layer 0 and layer 1 independently. The W.sub.2,0 matrix 520 consists of the linear combination coefficients (amplitude and co-phasing), where each element represents the coefficient of a tap for a beam).”
Regarding claim 7, it is a method claim performed by a network entity corresponding to the method claim 1 performed by a UE and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 8 and 10-12, they are claims corresponding to claims 2 & 4-6, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Regarding claim 13, it is an apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitation “at least one process and one or more memories (See Fig.3)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 14 and 16-18, they are claims corresponding to claims 2 & 4-6, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Regarding claim 19, Hao discloses “wherein the first indication information comprises codebook index information and second amplitude information, wherein the codebook index information indicates a codebook index, and the first widely linear processing matrix and the second widely linear processing matrix are determined based on the codebook index; and the second amplitude information indicates at least one of an amplitude of the first widely linear processing matrix or an amplitude of the second widely linear processing matrix (See ¶.66, for the Type II single panel codebook, the PMI is a linear combination of beams; it has a subset of orthogonal beams to be used for linear combination and has per layer, per polarization, amplitude and phase for each beam. For the PMI of any type, there can be wideband (WB) PMI and/or subband (SB) PMI as configured; See ¶.83 for codebook operation with FD compression with layer index; See ¶.23, R is the number ofprecoding matrix indicator (PMI) subbands within one CQI subband. The FD bases may be DFT bases, and the FD basis with index; See ¶.30, represents a (differential) amplitude the coefficient associated with SD basis with index; See ¶.88, The UE determines the selected SRS resource from the SRI and precoding from TPMI and transmits PUSCH accordingly. FIG. 9 illustrates how the wideband precoder (indicated via TPMI) may map transmission layers to PUSCH ports. FIGS. 12A-12F illustrate example precoder matrix sets that may be selected via a TPMI index, for various layer and antenna port combinations).”
Regarding claim 20, Hao and Sergeev disclose “the first mapping parameter, the second mapping parameter, the first widely linear processing matrix, or the second widely linear processing matrix are determined based on the first indication information;
- the second signal is obtained by the communication apparatus by performing widely linear processing on m streams of third data and conjugates of the m streams of third data based on the first widely linear processing matrix and the second widely linear processing matrix; and
- the m streams of third data are obtained by the communication apparatus by mapping the m streams of first data and the conjugates of the m streams of first data based on the first mapping parameter and the second mapping parameter (See Fig.9, Fig.11, Fig.18A-B, See ¶.72, the FD compression matrix sizing upto 2L x M; See Fig.12A-F, precoding matrix with different size of TPMI index; Examiner’s Note: as rejected in claim 1, Sergeev discloses “the conjugates of the m streams of a plurality of data”).
Claims 3, 9, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao in view of Sergeev and further in view of Elshafie et al. (US 2025/0168869, “Elshafie”).
Regarding claim 3, Hao and Sergeev do not explicitly disclose what Elshafie discloses “wherein the first signal is a proper Gaussian signal, and the second signal is an improper Gaussian signal (Elshafie, See ¶.94, as part of the configuration, the type of the signal carried on the waveform/OFDM may be configured symmetric Gaussian and/or improper Gaussian and other types of modulations and distributions) based on factors such as the energy transfer device capability to support such modulation, feedback from energy harvesting device on which waveform and modulation is best/desired/suggested, or any combinations thereof).” Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “the first signal is a proper Gaussian signal, and the second signal is an improper Gaussian signal” as taught by Elshafie into the system of Hao and Sergeev, so that it provides a way of generating energy transfer signals for energy harvesting (Elshafie, See ¶.92).
Regarding claims 9 and 15, they are claims corresponding to claims 3 & 3, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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