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 .
DETAILED ACTION This action is in response to the application filed on 02/07/2024.
Claims 13-14, and 23-28 have been canceled.
Claims 1-12 and 15-22 are pending for examination.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 10, 12, 15-16 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (1) as being anticipated by Abdelghaffar et al. (US 20210176626).
As of claim 1, Abdelghaffar discloses a method for slot structure configuration, executed by a terminal device ([Fig. 9], UE115), and the method comprising: when simultaneous uplink and downlink transmission is supported by the terminal device (para [0063] discloses the UE be in full duplex mode and simultaneously transmit and receive in a same frequency band),
sending to a network device a reference frequency interval for configuring uplink and downlink slot structure of the terminal device (para [0065] discloses a UE declare a multi-mode capability for each band where the UE signal to base station (=a network device) it operates in full duplex FDD modes within the frequency band (=a reference frequency interval) and based on the UE declaration, the base station determines an appropriate slot format or frame format to be used by the UE, including the configuration).
As of claim 4, Abdelghaffar discloses a method for slot structure configuration, executed by a network device, and the method comprising: receiving a reference frequency interval (para [0063] disclose in a sub-band full duplex frequency configuration, UE declare to a base station that it operate in full duplex FDD modes within a frequency band (=reference frequency interval) which corresponds to base station receives a reference frequency interval) for configuring uplink and downlink slot structure of a terminal device sent by the terminal device when simultaneous uplink and downlink transmission is supported by the terminal device (para [0063] discloses in full duplex mode UE simultaneously transmit and receive in a same frequency band. the UE declare to a base station that it operates in full duplex FDD modes within the frequency band for an appropriate slot format or frame format to be used by the UE); and
configuring the uplink and downlink slot structure according to the reference frequency interval (para [0065] based on the UE declaration, the base station determines an appropriate slot format or frame format to be used by the UE, including the configuration).
As of claim 15, Abdelghaffar discloses a communication apparatus comprising a processor and a memory ([Fig.14] [0210] FIG. 17, device 1405 or a base station 105 includes a processor and a memory (=inherent property) wherein a computer program is stored in the memory, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to: receive a reference frequency interval (para [0063] disclose In a sub-band full duplex frequency configuration, UE declare to a base station that it operate in full duplex FDD modes within a frequency band (=reference frequency interval) which corresponds to base station receives a reference frequency interval) for configuring uplink and downlink slot structure of a terminal device sent by the terminal device when simultaneous uplink and downlink transmission is supported by the terminal device (para [0063] discloses in full duplex mode UE simultaneously transmit and receive in a same frequency band. the UE declare to a base station that it operates in full duplex FDD modes within the frequency band for an appropriate slot format or frame format to be used by the UE); and configure the uplink and downlink slot structure according to the reference frequency interval (para [0065] based on the UE declaration, the base station determines an appropriate slot format or frame format to be used by the UE, including the configuration).
As of claims 2, 10 and 21, rejection of claims 1, 4 and 15 cited above in corporate herein, in addition Abdelghaffar discloses sending to the network device indication information and receiving indication information sent by the terminal device indicating whether simultaneous uplink and downlink transmission is supported by the terminal device (para [0063] [0065] discloses the UE signal to base station (=a network device) it operates in full duplex FDD modes and simultaneously transmit and receive in a same frequency band (=simultaneous uplink and downlink transmission is supported by the terminal device).
As of claim 3, rejection of claim 1 cited above in corporate herein, in addition Abdelghaffar discloses the sending to the network device the reference frequency interval for configuring uplink and downlink slot structure of the terminal device comprises: sending a frequency type supported by the terminal device to the network device, wherein there is a mapping relationship between the frequency type and the reference frequency interval (para [0079] disclose carrier be associated with a particular bandwidth of the radio frequency spectrum and , the carrier bandwidth be one of a number of determined bandwidths for carriers (e.g., 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 40, or 80 megahertz (MHz)), [0092] UEs 115 be configured for operation using a narrowband protocol type that is associated with a defined portion or range within a carrier, para [0120] discloses one or more UEs 115 be in a full duplex mode and the UE 115 simultaneously transmit and receive in the TDD band of the CC bandwidth).
As of claims 5 and 16, rejection of claims 4 and 15 cited above in corporate herein, in addition Abdelghaffar discloses according to the reference frequency interval, selecting for the terminal device a component carrier for carrier aggregation from candidate carriers (para [0076] discloses a UE 115 using carrier aggregation and be configured with multiple downlink component carriers, Carrier aggregation be used with TDD component carriers); and configuring the uplink and downlink slot structure for the component carrier (para [0067] the base station determines an appropriate slot format be used by the UE, the base station may inform the UE of a slot format).
As of claim 12, rejection of claim 1 cited above in corporate herein, in addition Abdelghaffar discloses a communication apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, wherein a computer program is stored in the memory, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, to cause the apparatus to execute the method according to claim 1 ([0149] [FIG. 10] disclose the device 1005 or a UE 115 includes a processor and memory (inherent property).
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 of this title, 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 6-7 and 17-18 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Abdelghaffar et al. (US 20210176626) in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2024/0172215).
As of claims 6 and 17, rejection of claims 5 and 16 cited above in corporate herein, in addition Abdelghaffar does not explicitly disclose but Matsumura teaches the according to the reference frequency interval, selecting for the terminal device the component carrier for carrier aggregation from candidate carriers (Matsumura, para [0143] discloses the user terminal use at least one of carrier aggregation (CA) using a plurality of component carriers (CCs)), and configuring the uplink and downlink slot structure for the component carrier, comprises: obtaining candidate frequency intervals between the candidate carriers and a main carrier; and in response to existence of target candidate carriers whose candidate frequency intervals are greater than the reference frequency interval among the candidate carriers, selecting component carriers from the target candidate carriers, and configuring different uplink and downlink slot structures for the component carriers; or in response to the target candidate carrier not existing among the candidate carriers, selecting the component carriers according to channel qualities of channels corresponding to the candidate carriers, and configuring a same uplink and downlink slot structure for the component carriers (Matsumura, para [0065] [0085] discloses a UL symbol/slot and a DL symbol/slot be configured in different CCs in different operation bands (=different slot structure) DL resources and UL resources configured for the UE be configured in different CCs wherein [0144] each CC be included in at least one of a first frequency band, Frequency Range 1 of frequency FR1 6 GHz and a second frequency band, Frequency Range 2 of frequency FR2 is higher than 24 GHZ (different CCs or candidate carriers whose candidate frequency intervals are greater than the reference frequency interval, here Matsumura is applied for the first alternative).
Therefore it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Abdelghaffar with Matsumura in order to increase resource usage efficiency as taught by Matsumura in para [0008].
As of claims 7 and 18, rejection of claims 4 and 15 cited above in corporate herein, in addition Abdelghaffar does not explicitly disclose but Matsumura teaches obtaining service traffic of the terminal device; and configuring the uplink and downlink slot structure for the terminal device according to the reference frequency interval and the service traffic (Matsumura [FIG. 2A] [0037] shows and discloses time division duplex (TDD) configuration, DL traffic is higher than UL traffic, TDD slot/symbol configuration is performed for the UE in the bandwidth of one component carrier (CC)).
Therefore it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Abdelghaffar with Matsumura in order to increase resource usage efficiency as taught by Matsumura in para [0008].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8, 9, 11, 19, 20 and 22 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if the Applicant rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As to claims 8 and 19, the prior arts of record do not teach or reasonably suggest the limitation “in response to the service traffic being greater than a set threshold, selecting target candidate carriers whose candidate frequency intervals are greater than the reference frequency interval from the candidate carriers as component carriers” with the claimed invention as a whole.
Claims 9 and 20 are objected as being dependent on claims 8 and 19.
As to claims 11 and 22, the prior arts of record do not teach or reasonably suggest the limitation “receiving a frequency type supported by the terminal device sent by the terminal device; and querying a mapping relationship between the frequency type and the reference frequency interval, to obtain the frequency interval matching the frequency type supported by the terminal device as the reference frequency interval” with the claim invention as a whole.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FAHMIDA S CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)272-2547. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am to 5pm.
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/FAHMIDA S CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471