DETAILED ACTION
This office action is responsive to communications filed on November 21, 2025. Claims 1-11 and 31-48 are pending in the application.
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 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.
Claims 1, 3, 31, 33, 35, 44, and 46 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Li et al. (US 2022/0110136).
Regarding Claim 1, Li teaches a method of wireless communication performed by a first base station distributed unit (DU), comprising:
receiving system information associated with a second base station DU in at least one of a master information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB) (“the DL/UL configuration and the configuration of the special SF used in a cell are signaled as part of the system information, which is included in system-information block 1 (SIB1)” – See [0019]; “FIG. 13a depicts a method performed by a receiving network node, 1160, 1160b, for CLI mitigation. The method comprises receiving 1310, from at least one sending network node, a time division duplex configuration of the at least one sending network node” – See [0205]; “Furthermore, a NN can also correspond to a distributed gNB or BS” – See [0064]; See also Fig. 3; A first base station DU (e.g., NN1) receives an SIB from a second base station DU (e.g., NN2));
identifying, based at least in part on the system information, one or more resources for crosslink interference (CLI) measurement for the second base station DU (“The method further comprises adapting 1320 operations in a cell based on the received time division duplex configuration for mitigating CLI with the at least one sending network node” – See [0208]; “The method further comprises adapting 1320 operations in a cell based on the received time division duplex configuration for mitigating CLI with the at least one sending network node” – See [0209]; “In embodiments, the method may further comprise performing at least one measurement on the configured interference measurement resources to estimate CLI levels” – See [0210]; Based on the TDD configuration from the system information, the first base station DU identifies measurement resources for CLI measurement); and
performing one or more CLI measurements for a cell associated with the second base station DU based at least in part on the one or more resources (“the method may further comprise performing at least one measurement on the configured interference measurement resources to estimate CLI levels” – See [0210]; The first base station DU performs one or more CLI measurements on the interference measurement resources).
Regarding Claim 3, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li further teaches receiving the system information comprises: receiving the system information from the second base station DU (“the DL/UL configuration and the configuration of the special SF used in a cell are signaled as part of the system information, which is included in system-information block 1 (SIB1)” – See [0019]; “FIG. 13a depicts a method performed by a receiving network node, 1160, 1160b, for CLI mitigation. The method comprises receiving 1310, from at least one sending network node, a time division duplex configuration of the at least one sending network node” – See [0205]; “Furthermore, a NN can also correspond to a distributed gNB or BS” – See [0064]; See also Fig. 3; A first base station DU (e.g., NN1) receives an SIB from a second base station DU (e.g., NN2)).
Claim 31 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 33, Li teaches the first base station DU of Claim 31. Li further teaches that to perform the one or more CLI measurements, the one or more processors are configured to: perform the one or more CLI measurements based at least in part on one or more reference signals transmitted from the second base station DU in the one or more resources (“To assist the operator in understanding the pathloss between NNs and UEs, CLI measurements can be adopted. These measurements can be based on for example the total received signal, e.g. RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), or the received signal strength from a specific set of transmitting NN/UE, e.g. RSRP (Received Signal Reference Power)” – See [0037]; The receiving NN/first DU measures the CLI based on an RSRP of a reference signal transmitted by the transmitting NN/second DU).
Claim 35 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 3.
Claim 44 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 1.
Claim 46 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 33.
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.
Claims 2, 7-9, 11, 32, 34, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, and 48 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2022/0110136) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 2022/0278788).
Regarding Claim 2, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a time division duplexing (TDD) configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU.
However, Pedersen teaches receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a time division duplexing (TDD) configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU (“For the purpose of TDD RF coexistence, the CU may also instruct DUs to perform adjacent channel measurements, or measurements of induced interference from adjacent carriers, to sense if there is critical adjacent channel operation that should be taken into account” – See [0094]; See also Fig. 3; The information identifies TDD configurations for performing measurements associated with the second DU for TDD coexistence. As shown in Fig. 3, the information is received from the CU in step 305).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to include receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a time division duplexing (TDD) configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU. Motivation for doing so would be to provide efficient centralized orchestration of CLI measurements (See Pedersen, [0097]).
Regarding Claim 7, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), one or more CLI measurement objects for the cell associated with the second base station DU, wherein the one or more CLI measurement objects identify at least one of: the one or more resources, a measurement window for the one or more CLI measurements, a subcarrier spacing (SCS) for the cell associated with the second base station DU, a reference signal configuration associated with the second base station DU, a cell identifier associated with the second base station DU, or an index of transmitted synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) associated with the second base station DU.
However, Pedersen teaches receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a resource configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU (“the DU measurement object attributes 202 may comprise the following: Timing of when a DU shall measure on sounding signal(s) by other DU(s) Type of sounding signal and resources it shall measure on, comprising beams” – See [0133]-[0135]; See also Figs. 2 and 3; The DUs 302 and 303 receive, from CU 301, the CLI measurement objects which identify the resource configuration for CLI measurements).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to include receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a resource configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU for the same reasons as those given with respect to Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 8, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a resource configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU.
However, Pedersen teaches receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a resource configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU (“the DU measurement object attributes 202 may comprise the following: Timing of when a DU shall measure on sounding signal(s) by other DU(s) Type of sounding signal and resources it shall measure on, comprising beams” – See [0133]-[0135]; See also Figs. 2 and 3; The DUs 302 and 303 receive, from CU 301, the CLI measurement objects which identify the resource configuration for CLI measurements).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to include receiving, from a base station central unit (CU), information identifying a resource configuration for the cell associated with the second base station DU for the same reasons as those given with respect to Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 9, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Although Li teaches performing CLI measurements on one or more reference signals transmitted from the second base station DU (“To assist the operator in understanding the pathloss between NNs and UEs, CLI measurements can be adopted. These measurements can be based on for example the total received signal, e.g. RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), or the received signal strength from a specific set of transmitting NN/UE, e.g. RSRP (Received Signal Reference Power)” – See [0037]), Li does not explicitly teach that the one or more reference signals comprise at least one of: a synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a remote interference management reference signal (RIM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).
However, Pedersen teaches that performing the one or more CLI measurements comprises: performing the one or more CLI measurements based at least in part on one or more reference signals transmitted from the second base station DU in the one or more resources, wherein the one or more reference signals comprise at least one of: synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a remote interference management reference signal (RIM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (“measure (310) a second sounding signal transmitted by the another distributed unit (303, 604) over an air interface (312), thus obtaining a DU-to-DU cross-link interference measurement result” – See [0053]; “As a non-limiting example embodiment, the sounding signal may simply be the Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS)” – See [0110]; See also Fig. 3; The CLI measurements performed by DU 303 are based on reference signals transmitted by DU 302 (second DU), wherein the reference signals are CSI-RS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to perform the one or more CLI measurements based at least in part on one or more reference signals transmitted from the second base station DU in the one or more resources, wherein the one or more reference signals comprise at least one of: synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a remote interference management reference signal (RIM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) since the CSI-RS is known to be a simple means to enable a DU to transmit a sounding signal for other DUs to measure (See Pedersen, [0093]).
Regarding Claim 11, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach performing one or more CLI mitigation actions based at least in part on the one or more CLI measurements, wherein the one or more CLI mitigation actions comprise at least one of: aligning a transmit schedule of the first base station DU with a transmit schedule of the cell associated with second base station DU, aligning a receive schedule of the first base station DU with a receive schedule of the cell associated with the second base station DU, aligning at least part of a time division duplexing (TDD) configuration of the first base station DU with a TDD configuration of the cell associated with the second base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more user equipments (UEs) associated with the first base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more integrated access and backhaul (IAB) child nodes of an IAB node associated with the first base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more cells associated with the first base station DU, coordinating spatial domain resources with the cell associated with the second base station DU, or transmitting an ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) uplink communication during a scheduled uplink resource for the cell associated with the second base station DU.
However, Pedersen teaches performing one or more CLI mitigation actions based at least in part on the one or more CLI measurements, wherein the one or more CLI mitigation actions comprise at least one of: aligning a transmit schedule of the first base station DU with a transmit schedule of the cell associated with second base station DU, aligning a receive schedule of the first base station DU with a receive schedule of the cell associated with the second base station DU, aligning at least part of a time division duplexing (TDD) configuration of the first base station DU with a TDD configuration of the cell associated with the second base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more user equipments (UEs) associated with the first base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more integrated access and backhaul (IAB) child nodes of an IAB node associated with the first base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more cells associated with the first base station DU, coordinating spatial domain resources with the cell associated with the second base station DU, or transmitting an ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) uplink communication during a scheduled uplink resource for the cell associated with the second base station DU (“The CU evaluates those measurement results, and if critical adjacent channel interference (e.g. from an operator using the adjacent carrier) occurs, then the CU instructs the DUs to use a default static TDD switching pattern (i.e. radio frame configuration) that is aligned with that operator” – See [0156]; The CU performs CLI mitigation actions based on the measurements, wherein the actions include alignment of TDD switching patterns between the DUs).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to perform one or more CLI mitigation actions based at least in part on the one or more CLI measurements, wherein the one or more CLI mitigation actions comprise at least one of: aligning a transmit schedule of the first base station DU with a transmit schedule of the cell associated with second base station DU, aligning a receive schedule of the first base station DU with a receive schedule of the cell associated with the second base station DU, aligning at least part of a time division duplexing (TDD) configuration of the first base station DU with a TDD configuration of the cell associated with the second base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more user equipments (UEs) associated with the first base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more integrated access and backhaul (IAB) child nodes of an IAB node associated with the first base station DU, adjusting a transmit power of one or more cells associated with the first base station DU, coordinating spatial domain resources with the cell associated with the second base station DU, or transmitting an ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) uplink communication during a scheduled uplink resource for the cell associated with the second base station DU. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the DU to fall back to a default TDD configuration when the detected interference is too high (See Pedersen, [0156]).
Claims 32 and 45 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 2.
Claims 34, 43, and 48 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 11.
Claim 39 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 7.
Claim 40 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 8.
Claim 42 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 9.
Claims 4-6 and 36-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2022/0110136) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 2022/0278788) and Ye et al. (US 2021/0219155).
Regarding Claim 4, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node; and wherein the method further comprises: receiving information associated with the second base station DU with the IAB node.
However, Pedersen teaches that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node (“The DU # 1 602 will provide a relay message over the air via the extended F1 interface to IAB # 1 603 … The DU # 2 604 will provide a relay message over the air via the extended F1 interface to IAB # 2 605” – See [0144]; Each of the DUs is associated with a particular IAB node); and
wherein the method further comprises receiving information associated with the second base station DU with the IAB node (“The CU 601 will then configure the sounding signal transmission and measurement of such signals from other DUs, via the F1 interface to DU # 2 604. The DU # 2 604 will provide a relay message over the air via the extended F1 interface to IAB # 2 605” – See [0144]; The measurement information associated with the second DU is relayed from the first DU to IAB node 605, such that the information is received by the IAB node 605).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li such that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node; and wherein the method further comprises: receiving information associated with the second base station DU with the IAB node. Motivation for doing so would be to provide centralized orchestration of adjacent channel sensing of IAB nodes (See Pedersen, [0103]).
Li and Pedersen do not explicitly teach that the information is received by a mobile terminal (MT) associated with the IAB node.
However, Ye teaches that the IAB node has a mobile terminal (MT) for transmitting/receiving messages form upper-level nodes (“The IAB node is functionally divided into an IAB mobile termination (MT) and an IAB base station distributed unit (DU). The IAB MT means that the IAB node accesses an upper-level node as a terminal device UE” – See [0003]; “the IAB node 1 receives, by using an MT, a signal sent by the donor node” – See [0067]; The MT of the IAB node receives signals from the upper-level node (e.g., the DU)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li such that the information is received by a mobile terminal (MT) associated with the IAB node since it is a well-known feature of IAB nodes as defined in various 5G communication standards (See Ye, [0003]).
Regarding Claim 5, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach that the method further comprises receiving a resource configuration associated with the IAB child node.
However, Pedersen teaches that the method further comprises receiving a resource configuration associated with the IAB child node (“the DUs 302, 303 are configured 304, 305 with their sounding signal transmission parameters, as well as when to measure on sounding signals from other DUs” – See [0137]; “The DU shall be informed which sounding signal it shall measure on. This comprises informing the DU on which resource elements the sounding signal is transmitted in the slots where it occurs” – See [0121]; “In cases where the DU(s), transmitting the sounding signal(s), adopt beamforming, the DU that shall measure should also be informed of the transmit beamforming configuration of the sounding signal (see above)” – See [0122]; DU 303 receives the measurement information associated with DU 302 (second DU) in a resource configuration).
It would have ben obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to include receiving a resource configuration associated with the IAB child node for the same reasons as those given with respect to Claim 4.
Li and Pedersen do not explicitly teach that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) parent node; wherein the second base station DU is associated with an IAB child node of the IAB parent node; and wherein the resource configuration is associated with the IAB child node.
However, Ye teaches that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) parent node; wherein the second base station DU is associated with an IAB child node of the IAB parent node; and wherein the resource configuration is associated with the IAB child node (“an upper-level node of the IAB node 1 is the IAB node 3” – See [0065]; “the IAB node 1 receives, by using a DU” – See [0069]; “an IAB node 1 receives, by using an MT, a signal sent by a DU of an IAB node 3” – See [0072]; “Cross link interference CLI is interference from the DU of the IAB node 3 to the DU of the IAB node 1” – See [0070]; See also Fig. 2; IAB node 3 is a first DU and is an upper-level (parent) node with respect to IAB node 1 which is a lower-level (child) node with respect to IAB node 3, wherein the resource configuration for measuring CLI is associated with IAB node 3 and IAB node 1 (IAB child node)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li such that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) parent node; wherein the second base station DU is associated with an IAB child node of the IAB parent node; and wherein the resource configuration is associated with the IAB child node since the use of parent and child IAB nodes allows for the relay of signals between a donor node and UEs. Accordingly, coverage can be extended (See Ye, [0003] and [0054]).
Regarding Claim 6, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach that the method further comprises: receiving information associated with the second base station DU in a resource configuration.
However, Pedersen teaches receiving information associated with the second base station DU in a resource configuration (“the DUs 302, 303 are configured 304, 305 with their sounding signal transmission parameters, as well as when to measure on sounding signals from other DUs” – See [0137]; “The DU shall be informed which sounding signal it shall measure on. This comprises informing the DU on which resource elements the sounding signal is transmitted in the slots where it occurs” – See [0121]; “In cases where the DU(s), transmitting the sounding signal(s), adopt beamforming, the DU that shall measure should also be informed of the transmit beamforming configuration of the sounding signal (see above)” – See [0122]; DU 303 receives the measurement information associated with DU 302 (second DU) in a resource configuration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to include receiving information associated with the second base station DU in a resource configuration. Motivation for doing so would be to inform the DU that is performing the measurements of the transmit beamforming configuration of the sounding signal (See Pedersen, [0122]).
Li and Pedersen do not explicitly teach that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) child node; wherein the second base station DU is associated with an IAB parent node of the IAB child node; and wherein the resource configuration is associated with the IAB parent node.
However, Ye teaches that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) child node; wherein the second base station DU is associated with an IAB parent node of the IAB child node; and wherein the resource configuration is associated with the IAB parent node (“an upper-level node of the IAB node 1 is the IAB node 3” – See [0065]; “the IAB node 1 receives, by using a DU” – See [0069]; “an IAB node 1 receives, by using an MT, a signal sent by a DU of an IAB node 3” – See [0072]; “Cross link interference CLI is interference from the DU of the IAB node 3 to the DU of the IAB node 1” – See [0070]; See also Fig. 2; IAB node 1 is a lower-level (child) node with respect to IAB node 3 which is an upper-level (parent) node with respect to IAB node 1, wherein the resource configuration for measuring CLI is associated with IAB node 3 (IAB parent node) and IAB node 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li such that the first base station DU is associated with an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) child node; wherein the second base station DU is associated with an IAB parent node of the IAB child node; and wherein the resource configuration is associated with the IAB parent node for the same reasons as those given with respect to Claim 5.
Claim 36 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 4.
Claim 37 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 5.
Claim 38 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 6.
Claims 10, 41, and 47 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2022/0110136) in view of Miao (US 2022/0103270).
Regarding Claim 10, Li teaches the method of Claim 1. Li does not explicitly teach that performing the one or more CLI measurements comprises: performing one or more received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements based at least in part on one or more CLI-RSSI transmissions from the second base station DU in the one or more resources.
However, Miao teaches performing one or more received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements based at least in part on one or more CLI-RSSI transmissions (“In 3GPP NR system, dynamic TDD operation is supported on an unpaired spectrum so that DL and UL transmission directions at least for data can be dynamically assigned on a per-slot basis at least in a TDM manner … Moreover, SRS-RSRP and RSSI have been adopted as the measurement metric for CLI” – See [0023]; “According to the latest 3GPP discussion, both SRS-RSRP and RSSI are supported for the CLI measurements” – See [0025]; RSSI measurements are performed on CLI-RSSI transmissions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li to include performing one or more received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements based at least in part on one or more CLI-RSSI transmissions from the second base station DU in the one or more resources since RSSI is supported as a CLI measurement metric in the widely adopted 3GPP NR standards.
Claims 41 and 47 are rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 10.
Response to Arguments
After claims 1-11 and 31-48 were previously indicated as allowable, an Advisory Action was issued on January 2, 2026 withdrawing the allowance and citing the Li reference which was applicable as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102. In the interviews held on 12/22/2025, 1/7/2026, and 1/16/2026, the Examiner indicated that a new Non-Final Office action will be issued with corresponding 102/103 rejections based on the Li reference. The new rejections have been made herewith in the present Office Action.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Scott M Sciacca whose telephone number is (571)270-1919. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday, 7:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. EST.
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/SCOTT M SCIACCA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478