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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-3, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 -as being unpatentable over Logothetis et al, application no. 2015/0304130, hereinafter known as Logo in view of Kundargi et al, application no. 2018/0048492, hereinafter known as Kundargi.
As to claim 1, Logo discloses a method of wireless communication, comprising: receiving, by a first communication device, a number of subcarriers from a second communication device, each subcarrier including a corresponding reference signal (Logo, figure 1-3, transmitting and receiving devices in network including communication with MIMO technique; [0024] receiving sides gets plural reference signals and performs channel estimation). Logo does not disclose however Kundargi discloses calculating an inversion factor for each subcarrier based on a received value of the corresponding reference signal (Kundargi, figure 6, [0038]-[0039], determining the reciprocity compensation coefficients for subcarriers); and transmitting by the first communication device to the second communication device, at least some of the subcarriers by scaling pilot signal on each of the at least some of the subcarriers using a corresponding inversion factor (Kundargi, figure 6, [0039]-[0041], scaling pilot signal of each subcarrier with reciprocity compensation, figure 9, step 3, UE sending to reciprocity compensation network).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Logo to include the limitations of calculating an inversion factor for each subcarrier based on a received value of the corresponding reference signal and transmitting by the first communication device to the second communication device, at least some of the subcarriers by scaling pilot signal on each of the at least some of the subcarriers using a corresponding inversion factor as taught by Kundargi. Determining inversion factor helps calculate adjustments to be made to signals to compensate for network conditions.
As to claim 2, Logo discloses wherein the subcarriers are received in a single time slot (Logo, [0084], channel estimate performed with pilot signal per sub-carriers; figure 9, [0116], sub-carriers sent in slots and multiple slots as known in the art).
As to claim 3, Logo discloses wherein the subcarriers are received over multiple time slots (Logo, [0084], channel estimate performed with pilot signal per sub-carriers; figure 9, [0116], sub-carriers sent in slots and multiple slots as known in the art)
As to claim 6, Logo discloses the method of claim 1. Logo does not disclose however Kundargi discloses wherein the scaling includes multiplying the pilot signal by the inversion factor (Kundargi, figure 6, [0039]-[0041], scaling pilot signal of each subcarrier with reciprocity compensation,).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Logo to include the limitations of wherein the scaling includes multiplying the pilot signal by the inversion factor as taught by Kundargi. Scaling pilot signals provides adjustment to the signals to account for the communication environment
As to claim 7, Logo discloses wherein the first communication device is a user terminal in a wireless network and the second communication device is a network device in the wireless network (Logo, figure 1, first device as UE node 45 and second device is network device (base station 30, 35 or relay node 40).
As to claim 11, Logo discloses method of wireless communication, comprising: transmitting, to a first communication device, from a second communication device, a number of subcarriers, each subcarrier including a corresponding reference signal (Logo, figure 1-3, transmitting and receiving devices in network including communication with MIMO technique; [0024] receiving sides gets plural reference signals per sub-carrier and performs channel estimation); receiving, from the first communication device, at least some of the subcarriers carrying pilot signals scaled by inversions factors for the at least some of the subcarriers (Kundargi, figure 6, [0038]-[0039], determining the reciprocity compensation coefficients for subcarriers and scaling pilot signal of each subcarrier with reciprocity compensation, figure 9, step 3, UE sending reciprocity compensation to network); and estimating a communication channel between the second communication device and the first communication device using the inversion factors (Kundargi, figure 7, step 5, [0044]-[0049], base station estimates based on the inversion factor, communication channel metrics).
As to claim 13, Logo discloses the method of claim 11. Logo does not disclose however Kundargi discloses wherein the corresponding reference signals transmitted on each subcarriers are identical (Kundargi, [0035], same reference signals used for subcarriers).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Logo to include the limitations of wherein the corresponding reference signals transmitted on each subcarriers are identical as taught by Kundargi. Reference signals would be the same for sub-carriers in the same communication environment.
As to claim 14, Logo discloses the method of claim 11. Logo does not disclose however Kundargi discloses further including: performing a subsequent transmission from the second communication device to the first communication device by pre-coding using a result of the estimating the communication channel (Kundargi, figure 7, step 5, [0044]-[0049], base station estimates based on the inversion factor, communication channel metrics, [0041], [0042], precoding estimation based on inversion factor).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Logo to include the limitations of performing a subsequent transmission from the second communication device to the first communication device by pre-coding using a result of the estimating the communication channel as taught by Kundargi. Scaling pilot signals provides adjustment to the signals to account for the communication environment which can further used for precoding.
As to claim 19, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1 above by Logo in view of Kundargi.
As to claim 20, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 11 above by Logo in view of Kundargi.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 -as being unpatentable over in view of Kundargi and further in view of Song et al, application no. 20100150034, hereinafter known as Song.
As to claim 15, Logo and Kundargi disclose the method of claim 14. Logo and Kundargi do not disclose however Song discloses wherein the pre-coding includes Tomlison-Harashima precoding (Song, figure 3, [0047]-[0048], Tomlison-Harashima used for precoding by base station).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Logo and Kundargi to include the limitations of wherein the pre-coding includes Tomlison-Harashima precoding as taught by Song. Tomlison-Harashima is known technique for precoding in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 8-10, 12 and16-18 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GAUTAM SHARMA whose telephone number is (571)270-7182. The examiner can normally be reached 11am-8pm.
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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