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 .
This office action is in response to RCE filed 01/06/2026.
Claims 1-5, 7-16, 18-22 are pending and presented for examination.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/06/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 5, 11-12, 16, 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rajendran et al. (US 2015/0365890 A1) in view of Cao et al. (US 2013/0190027 A1) and Kim et al. (US 2024/0179625 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 12, Rajendran discloses a base station for reducing power consumption in a radio unit, comprising:
at least one processor (para. 0009) configured to:
trigger at least one power reduction step for the radio unit based on at least one data metric for at least the base station dropping below a threshold (see para. 0009, 0028, 0045, describes a threshold comparison and reduction of power consumption); and
reduce a number of frequency carriers that the radio unit wirelessly transmits on in response to the at least one power reduction step being triggered (see para. 0008, 0013, 0028, 0047-0048, discloses scaling channel bandwidth to reduce or conserve power); and
disable at least one additional antenna used to transmit wireless signals from the radio unit, and at least some additional circuitry used to process the wireless signals for the at least one additional antenna (see para. 0042, describes antenna configuration is reduced).
Although, Rajendran discloses explicitly scaling of frequency carriers, its does not explicitly disclose wherein the frequency carriers are a number of frequency carriers.
However, Cao discloses wherein the frequency carriers are a number of frequency carriers and triggering power reduction step by reducing the number of frequency carriers (see par. 0050, 0065-0066).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include reducing a number of frequency carriers as described by Cao.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow implementing power efficiencies.
Rajendran fails to disclose but Kim (US 2024/0179625 A1) discloses in response to the at least one data metric for at least the base station dropping below a threshold (see para. 0084-0090), periodically disable: at least one additional antenna used to transmit wireless signals from the radio unit (see fig. 6, para. 0084-0100, discloses comparison of data metric with reference value, and turning off power amplifier, thereby shutting down the antenna, and repeatedly performing the step in iterative); and at least some additional circuitry used to process the wireless signals for the at least one additional antenna (see fig. 6, para. 0084-0100, discloses comparison of data metric with reference value, and turning off power amplifier, thereby shutting down the antenna, and repeatedly performing the step in iterative).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include periodically disabling the at least one antenna as described by Kim.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow implementing power saving as described by Kim.
Regarding claims 5, 16, Rajendran discloses the base station wherein the at least one processor is further configured to disable at least one antenna used to transmit wireless signals from the radio unit, along with at least some associated circuitry used to process the wireless signals for the at least one antenna (see para. 0042, describes antenna configuration is reduced).
Regarding claim 11, 22, Rajendran discloses the base station wherein the at least one data metric comprises data throughput for the base station or a current throughput capacity utilization for the base station (see par. 0002).
Claims 2, 4, 13, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rajendran in view of Cao and Kim as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li (US 2021/0167935 A1).
Regarding claims 2, 13, Rajendran fails to disclose but Li (US 2021/0167935 A1) discloses the base station wherein the base station is a cloud radio access network (C-RAN) implementing a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) wireless interface (see fig.2, para. 0069, discloses architecture for gNB), comprising:
the radio unit and a plurality of additional radio units, each being configured to exchange radio frequency (RF) signals with at least one user equipment (UE) (see fig. 2, discloses multiple DUs); and
a centralized unit communicatively coupled to the radio unit and the plurality of additional radio units via a front-haul network, wherein the centralized unit is a Distributed Unit (DU) or a Central Unit (CU) configured to operate in a 3GPP Fifth Generation communication system (see fig. 2, discloses gNB comprising CU coupled to multiple Dus, see para. 0065).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include 5G new radio architecture as described by Li.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow implementing power efficiencies within 5G network.
Regarding claim 4, 15, Rajendran discloses the base station, wherein the base station is implementing a 3GPP Fourth Generation (4G) air interface (see para. 0033).
Rajendran fails to disclose but Li discloses wherein the base station is a cloud radio access network (C-RAN) (para. 0069),
a plurality of radio points (RPs), each being configured to exchange radio frequency (RF) signals with at least one user equipment (UE) (see fig. 2),
wherein the radio unit is implemented by one of the RPs (see fig. 2); and
a baseband controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of RPs via a front- haul network (par. 0210).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include 4G radio architecture as described by Li.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow implementing power efficiencies within 4G network.
Claims 3, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rajendran in view of Cao, Kim and Li as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Bhushan et al. (US 2019/0190806 A1).
Regarding claims 3, 14, Rajendran fails to disclose but Bhushan (US 2019/0190806 A1) discloses the base station wherein the base station utilizes carrier frequencies in a millimeter-wave range of greater than or equal to 24 GHz (see para. 0107).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include the base station wherein the base station utilizes carrier frequencies in a millimeter-wave range of greater than or equal to 24 GHz as described by Bhushan.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow implementing power efficiencies within 5G network.
Claims 8, 10, 19, 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rajendran in view of Cao and Kim as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Liu et al. (US 2017/0244364 A1).
Regarding claims 8, 19, Rajendran fails to disclose but Liu (US 2017/0244364 A1) discloses the base station, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to, for each of at least one amplifier circuit in the radio unit, limit a voltage bias of a drain, a gate, or both, of the respective amplifier circuit based on an average amplitude of a signal being transmitted (see 0030).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include limiting a voltage bias of a drain, a gate, or both, of the respective amplifier circuit based on an average amplitude of a signal being transmitted as described by Liu.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow change power output based on gate bias voltage.
Regarding claims 10, 21, Rajendran discloses the base station wherein the at least one amplifier circuit comprises one or more of the following: a final power amplifier stage, a pre-amplifier, and one or more driver amplifier stages in a transmit chain of the radio unit (see par. 0056, discloses different stage amplifier).
Claims 7, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rajendran in view of Cao and Kim as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Frenger et al. (US 2022/0158717 A1).
Regarding claims 7, 18, Rajendran discloses the base station wherein the at least one processor is further configured to re-enable the at least one additional antenna and the at least some additional circuitry (para. 0042).
Rajendran fails to disclose but Frenger (US 2022/0158717 A1) discloses wherein the re-enabling the at least one additional antenna at least during slots containing downlink synchronization signal block (SSB) traffic (see par. 0079-0084, 0102, describes remapping of physical antenna).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include the re-enabling the at least one additional antenna is during slots containing downlink synchronization signal block (SSB) traffic.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow receiving and maintaining connection with the UE.
Claims 9, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rajendran in view of Cao and Kim as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lin et al. (US 2021/0029848 A1).
Regarding claims 9, 20, Rajendran fails to disclose but Lin (US 2021/0029848 A1) discloses the base station wherein the at least one processor is further configured to reduce a speed of at least one fan or reduce a number of fans operating in the radio unit based on a respective temperature of at least one component in the radio unit falling below a respective temperature threshold (see par. 0028).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify to include reducing a speed of at least one fan or reduce a number of fans operating in the radio unit based on a respective temperature of at least one component in the radio unit falling below a respective temperature threshold.
The motivation for doing so would be to allow implementing power saving and quite mode operation.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-5, 7-16, 18-22 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
This office action corrects an error made in PTO 892.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Maleki et al. (US 2022/0255711 A1) – describes turning off some of the antenna for power saving.
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NISHANT B. DIVECHA
Supervisory Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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