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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4-28-26 has been entered.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. PCT/CN2020/136565 (now, WO 2022/126385 A1 on 6-23-2022), filed on 12/15/2020.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 9-7-23 & 12-3-24. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 11-19-25. These drawings are acceptable.
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.
Claim(s) 20-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Liu (US 2021/0212007 A1) in view of Harada (VN 10043422 B).
Regarding Claim 20. (Currently Amended)
A parent node {Liu (US 2021/0212007 A1): Donor/IAB Node, Figs.1-2 (100/110) & 5 (first node)} of an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node {Liu: IAB node, Figs.1-2 & 5}, comprising:
at least one memory {Liu: memory 1701-Fig.17}; and
at least one processor {Liu: processor 1702-Fig.17} coupled with the at least one the memory and configured to cause the parent node to:
transmit, to the IAB node {Liu: IAB node 1-Fig.2 or 110-Fig.1 & second node-Fig.5}, a first reference signal (RS) on a first link with a first spatial domain transmit filter {Liu: ¶0157 wherein “For example, a parent node of the second node indicates the second node to perform the measurement by using a beam of a reference signal received by the second node. For the IAB node, there may be another indication manner for the receive beam. To be specific, a beam indication of an SSB or another reference signal sent by the second node is used to indicate that the receive beam is the same as or close to a transmit beam of the SSB or the reference signal sent by the second node, or indicates that a spatial domain filter used by the IAB node for the measurement is the same as a spatial domain filter used by the IAB node for sending the SSB or the reference signal”}, wherein the first RS comprises one of a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS), a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), or a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) {Liu: ¶0099 wherein “SSB sending s501-Fig.5 and SSB measurement performed by a first node and a second node”}; and
Liu does not explicitly disclose “receive, from the IAB node, a channel state information (CSI) report, the CSI report comprising a set of CSI at least based on the first RS”.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Harada (VN 10043422 B) discloses disclose “receive, from the IAB node, a channel state information (CSI) report, the CSI report comprising a set of CSI at least based on the first RS” {Harada: patented claim 4 wherein “the higher IAB nodes include: the receiver that receives the first information, the first information is based on the measurement of the radio link based on SSB and/or CSI-RS for the IAB inter-node”; In other words, IAB inter-node (the claimed IAB node) transmits measurement of received SSB and/or CSI-RS to the higher IAB nodes (the claimed parent node), emphasis added}. Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to Harada’s teaching to Liu’s system with the motivation being to “achieve higher data rates, higher speed, lower latency, wider bandwidth and similar capabilities”{Harada: page 1/35, lines 4-8}.
Regarding Claim 21. (New)
-Claim 21 is rejected with the same reasons as set forth in claim 20.
A method performed by a parent node of an IAB node, the method comprising:
transmitting, to the IAB node, a first reference signal (RS) on a first link with a first spatial domain transmit filter or receive, from the IAB node, the first RS on the first link with a first spatial domain receive filter, wherein the first RS comprises one of a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS), a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), or a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS); and
receiving, from the IAB node, a channel state information (CSI) report, the CSI report comprising a set of CSI at least based on the first.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
-Claims 1-18 are allowable because the applicant' s argument is found persuasive and the prior art fails to teach the underlined limitations, which are considered in combination with other limitations, as specified as, in each independent claim as following:
Independent Claim 1. (Currently Amended)
The prior art fails to teach an integrated access and backhaul (LAB) node, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the IAB node to:
receive, from a parent node of the IAB node, a first reference signal (RS) on a first link with a first spatial domain receive filter or transmit, to the parent node of the IAB node, the first RS on the first link with a first spatial domain transmit filter;
transmit, to a child node of the IAB node, a set of second RSs on a second link with a second spatial domain transmit filter, wherein the first RS and the set of second RSs each comprise one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal block (SSB), or a sounding reference signal (SRS); and
transmit a channel state information (CSI) report to the parent node of the IAB node, the CSI report including:
at least one of an index of the first RS or a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) based on the first RS; and
a set of CSI at least based on the set of second RSs.
Independent Claim 16. (Currently Amended)
A method performed by an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, the method comprising:
receiving, from a parent node of the IAB node, a first reference signal (RS) on a first link with a first spatial domain receive filter or transmitting, to the parent node of the IAB node, the first RS on the first link with a first spatial domain transmit filter;
transmitting, to a child node of the IAB node, a set of second RSs on a second link with a second spatial domain transmit filter, wherein the first RS and the set of second RSs each comprise one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal block (SSB), or a sounding reference signal (SRS); and
transmitting a channel state information (CSI) report to the parent node of the IAB node, the CSI report including:
at least one of an index of the first RS or a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) based on the first RS; and
a set of CSI at least based on the set of second RSs.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 20-21 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Harada (US 20210329540 A1) discloses that a radio backhaul can be appropriately detected and measured. A radio communication apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives a first signal periodically transmitted from a first node connected to the radio communication apparatus via a radio backhaul link and a second node not connected to the radio communication apparatus, and receives a second signal at a timing different from that of the first signal, and a control unit that determines a candidate of a switching destination of the radio backhaul link based on the first signal and switches the radio backhaul link based on the second signal {Figs.1-10}.
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/PHUONGCHAU BA NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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