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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 47-66 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 47, 58, 59, the domain of “Repetition Factor” should be further defined (i.e. positive integers greater or equal to two).
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 47, 48, 52, 53, 57-60, 62, 63 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Khoshnevisan et al. – US 2024/0048321 (hereafter Khoshnevisan).
Re claim 58, Shoshnevisan discloses:
“A wireless device operative (Fig. 1, UE 120(s)) in a wireless communication network (Fig. 1, network 100), comprising: communication circuitry (Fig. 1, element 130) configured to communicate with one or more network nodes (Node(s) 110); and processing circuitry (Fig. 1, element 140) operatively connected to the communication circuitry and configured to” (Fig. 1, para. 0032, 0038, 0046):
“receive, from the network, a configuration of an SRS resource (para. 0005), the SRS resource configuration including at least an SRS Repetition Factor of the SRS resource, and wherein the SRS Repetition Factor, indicating a number of SRS repetitions in time domain, is two or greater (para. 0115, 0117, 0135; where in this example, the repetition factor is R=4)”;
“receive, from the network, a configuration of Time Domain Orthogonal Cover Code (TD-OCC) for the SRS resource, the TD-OCC configuration including at least one of a TD-OCC length and a TD-OCC code index” (para. 0005, 0046, 0115; 117, where in the this example, the TD-OCC length is X=4); and
“transmit SRS using the TD-OCC configuration applied over the SRS Repetitions” (para. 0005; 0046, 0115; wherein Shoshnevisan uses the TD-OCC when transmitting the SRS, which is a repetition (of 4) in this case).
Re claim 47, see corresponding claim 58 above.
Re claim 48, Shoshnevisan further discloses “further comprising, prior to receiving the SRS resource configuration or TD-OCC configuration:
Transmitting, to the network, an indication of a capability to support TD-OCC for SRS” in Fig. 8, element 805; para. 0121.
Re claim 52, Shoshnevisan further suggests the teaching of “wherein transmitting SRS using the TD-OCC configuration applied over the SRS Repetitions comprises transmitting SRS with one or more TD-OCC codes corresponding to the TD-OCC code index” in para. 0131, 0139-0142; wherein Shoshnevisan suggests the TD-OCC used for the SRS that is transmitted to the network is determined from TD-OCC sequence index.
Re claim 53, Shoshnevisan further suggests “wherein a TD-OCC code is applied over all repetitions of an SRS or a subset of the SRS repetitions” in para. 0109, 0114, 0115, 0117.
Re claim 57, Shoshnevisan further implies “wherein different SRS ports of the same SRS resource are associated with different TD-OCC codes” in para. 0109, 0111; wherein an SRS resource with two ports use different TD-OCC sequences.
Re claim 59, Shoshnevisan discloses:
“A method, performed by a base station (Fig. 1, node(s) 110) operative in a wireless communication network (Fig. 1, network 100), of configuring a wireless device (Fig. 1, UE 120) to transmit uplink Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) comprising:
transmitting, to the wireless device, a configuration of an SRS resource, the SRS resource configuration including at least an SRS Repetition Factor of the SRS resource, and wherein the SRS Repetition Factor, indicating a number of SRS repetitions in time domain, is two or greater” (para. 0006, 0008, 0115; where in this example, the repetition factor is R=4);
“transmitting, to the wireless device, a configuration of Time Domain Orthogonal Cover Code (TD-OCC) for the SRS resource, the TD-OCC configuration including at least one of a TD-OCC length and a TD-OCC code” (para. 0006, 0008; 0115; where in this example, the TD-OCC length is X=4); and
“receiving, from the wireless device, SRS using the TD-OCC configuration applied over the SRS Repetitions” (para. 0005; 0046, 0115, 0132, 0144; Fig. 8, element 830; wherein Shoshnevisan uses the TD-OCC when transmitting the SRS, which is a repetition (of 4) in this case).
Re claim 60, Shoshnevisan further discloses “further comprising, prior to transmitting the SRS resource configuration or TD-OCC configuration:
receiving, from the wireless device, an indication of a capability to support TD-OCC for SRS” in Fig. 8, element 805; para. 0121.
Re claim 62, Shoshnevisan further suggests “wherein receiving, from the wireless device, SRS using the TD-OCC configuration applied over the SRS Repetitions comprises receiving SRS with one or more TD-OCC codes corresponding to the TD-OCC code index” in para. 0131, 0139-0142; wherein Shoshnevisan suggests the TD-OCC used for the SRS that is received from the UE is determined from TD-OCC sequence index.
Re claim 63, Shoshnevisan further suggests “wherein a TD-OCC code is applied over all repetitions of an SRS or a subset of the SRS repetitions” in para. 0109, 0114, 0115, 0117.
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) 66 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shoshnevisan in view of Jiang et al. – US 2022/0338220 (hereinafter Jiang).
Re claim 66, Shoshnevisan discloses almost all claimed subject matter in claim 66, as stated above, except for “wherein the TD-OCC code is one of a Hadamard code, a cyclic shift, and a Discrete Fourier Transform”.
Jiang, in similar filed of endeavor, suggests that TD-OCC sequence and DFT sequence are equivalent (para. 0029).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing to have optionally incorporated the DFT sequence in place of TD-OCC sequence of Shoshnevisan and the same result would have been expected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 49-51, 54-56, 61, 64, 65 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zhang et al. – US 11,843,558
Chen et al. – US 12,506,511
Chou et al. – US 2025/0211474
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/DAC V HA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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