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 § 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) 1-10, 14-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abedini US 20220053486 in view of Fujishiro US 20250184983
1. An apparatus for wireless communications at a repeater wireless device, comprising:
at least one processor (Abedini: fig. 18, unit 1804); and
at least one memory coupled with the at least one processor (Abedini: fig. 18, unit 1805), the at least one processor configured to:
receive, from a network device, a control signal indicating that the repeater wireless device is to forward one or more messages associated with a [[non-serving]] cell of the repeater wireless device for a user equipment (UE) (Abedini: [0221-0225] - repeater device may receive, from the base station, control signaling comprising control information, in association with traffic relayed through, or to be relayed through, the repeater device between a first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device),
wherein the network device is a serving cell of the repeater wireless device (Abedini: e.g., fig. 19, unit 1901 [0218] - the repeater device 1902 may be controlled by the base station 1901); and
forward the one or more messages associated with the [[non-serving]] cell for the UE via a time resource associated with the non-serving cell in accordance with the control signal (Abedini: [0228] block 2012, the repeater device may configure a relay unit of the repeater device to communicate the traffic between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device based the control information using at least one of: the time division duplex state, the fronthaul-link TCI state index, the access-link TCI state index, or the time domain resource allocation. According to some aspects, the obtaining (including, e.g., receiving and identifying) any one or more of the obtained features (e.g., time domain duplex state, fronthaul-link TCI state index, access-link TCI state index and/or time domain resource allocation information), and the configuring of the relay unit may be performed by a mobile termination (MT) of the repeater device)
Abedini merely discloses the term non-serving cell [0003]
Fujishiro further teaches the term non-serving cell (FUJISHIRO: fig. 17, [0138] The secondary cell at a time when being configured may be inactive (i.e., not used for communication). The NCR-MT 520A configured with the secondary cell may receive an activation indication for activating the secondary cell from the gNB 200) in order to make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Abedini’s invention in order to make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication, as taught by Fujishiro.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: transmit, to the network device, a report indicating one or more measurements associated with the serving cell, wherein receiving the control signal is based at least in part on the report (Abedini: [0238]).
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor configured to receive the control signal is further configured to: receive an indication of a beam direction associated with the non-serving cell and an indication of the time resource (Abedini: [0225]; FUJISHIRO: [0131, 0138, 0148]).
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the indication includes an identifier associated with the non-serving cell and a beam index associated with the non-serving cell (Abedini: fig. 15, unit 1551-1512; FUJISHIRO: fig. 13 [0122, 0131]).
5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the indication includes a value of a transmission configuration indicator state associated with a beam of the non-serving cell, wherein the beam of the non-serving cell is associated with one or more of a synchronization signal block, a channel state information reference signal, or a positioning reference signal (Abedini: fig. 15, unit 1551-1512; FUJISHIRO: fig. 13 [0122, 0131]).
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive an indication of a configuration of the transmission configuration indicator state associated with the beam of the non-serving cell, wherein forwarding the one or more messages is based at least in part on the configuration (FUJISHIRO: [0122, 0131, 0138]). Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Abedini’s invention in order to make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication, as taught by Fujishiro.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor configured to receive the control signal is further configured to: receive an indication of an access beam associated with the non-serving cell, wherein the one or more messages are forwarded to the UE using the access beam (Abedini: [0238]; FUJISHIRO: [0122, 0131, 0138]).
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor configured to receive the control signal is further configured to: receive an indication of direction of the forwarding, wherein the direction indicates that the repeater wireless device is to transmit the one or more messages to the UE or receive the one or more messages from the UE (Abedini: [0238]).
9. An apparatus for wireless communications at a network device, comprising:
at least one processor (Abedini: fig. 18, unit 1804); and
at least one memory coupled with the at least one processor (Abedini: fig. 18, unit 1805), the at least one processor configured to:
output, for a repeater wireless device, a control signal indicating that one or more messages associated with a non-serving cell of the repeater wireless device are to be forwarded for a user equipment (UE), wherein the network device is a serving cell of the repeater wireless device (Abedini: [0221-0225] - repeater device may receive, from the base station, control signaling comprising control information, in association with traffic relayed through, or to be relayed through, the repeater device between a first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device); and
output, for the repeater wireless device, an indication of a beam direction and a time resource associated with the non-serving cell, wherein the one or more messages are forwarded for the UE using the beam direction and via the time resource (Abedini: [0228] block 2012, the repeater device may configure a relay unit of the repeater device to communicate the traffic between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device based the control information using at least one of: the time division duplex state, the fronthaul-link TCI state index, the access-link TCI state index, or the time domain resource allocation. According to some aspects, the obtaining (including, e.g., receiving and identifying) any one or more of the obtained features (e.g., time domain duplex state, fronthaul-link TCI state index, access-link TCI state index and/or time domain resource allocation information), and the configuring of the relay unit may be performed by a mobile termination (MT) of the repeater device)
Abedini merely discloses the term non-serving cell [0003]
Fujishiro further teaches the term non-serving cell (FUJISHIRO: fig. 17, [0138] The secondary cell at a time when being configured may be inactive (i.e., not used for communication). The NCR-MT 520A configured with the secondary cell may receive an activation indication for activating the secondary cell from the gNB 200) in order to make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Abedini’s invention in order to make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication, as taught by Fujishiro.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: output, to a distributed unit via the time resource, an indication of an unavailability of the repeater wireless device for forwarding the one or more messages (FUJISHIRO: [0103, 0109-0111, 0224-0231]). Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Abedini’s invention in order to make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication, as taught by Fujishiro.
14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: obtain, from the repeater wireless device, a report indicating one or more measurements associated with the serving cell, wherein receiving the control signal is based at least in part on the report (Abedini: fig. 11, unit 1108-1114).
15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the indication includes an identifier associated with the non-serving cell and a beam index associated with the non-serving cell (Abedini: fig. 15, unit 1551-1512; FUJISHIRO: fig. 13 [0122, 0131]).
16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the indication includes a transmission configuration indicator state value associated with a beam of the non-serving cell, wherein the beam of the non-serving cell is associated with one or more of a synchronization signal block, a channel state information reference signal, or a positioning reference signal (Abedini: fig. 15, unit 1551-1512; FUJISHIRO: fig. 13 [0122, 0131]).
17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: output an indication of a configuration of the transmission configuration indicator state value associated with the beam of the non-serving cell, wherein forwarding the one or more messages is based at least in part on the configuration (Abedini: fig. 15, unit 1551-1512; FUJISHIRO: fig. 13 [0122, 0131]).
18. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor configured to output the control signal is further configured to: output an indication of an access beam associated with the non-serving cell, wherein the one or more messages are forwarded to the UE using the access beam (Abedini: [0238]; FUJISHIRO: [0122, 0131, 0138]).
19. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor configured to output the control signal is further configured to: output an indication of direction of the forwarding, wherein the direction indicates that the repeater wireless device is to transmit the one or more messages to the UE or receive the one or more messages from the UE (Abedini: [0238]).
Claim(s) 11-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abedini-Fujishiro in view of Zou US 20250168718
11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: obtain, from a distributed unit, assistance information indicating an access beam associated with the non-serving cell; and generate the indication that the one or more messages are to be forwarded for the UE based at least in part on the assistance information (Zou: fig. 6, unit 600 [0133]) in order to sends the candidate DU mobility pre-configuration (or SCG addition in a DC supported case) request information element (IE) to the target DU.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Abedini’s invention in order to sends the candidate DU mobility pre-configuration (or SCG addition in a DC supported case) request information element (IE) to the target DU, as taught by Zou.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the assistance information is associated with the UE or is device agnostic (Abedini: [0238]; Zou: fig. 6, unit 600 [0133]).
13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor configured to output the control signal is further configured to: obtain, from a centralized unit, an indication that the one or more messages are to be forwarded for the UE; and outputting, for the repeater wireless device, a medium access control element or downlink control information indicating that the one or more messages are to be forwarded for the UE based at least in part on obtaining the indication (Abedini: fig. 8, unit 800; Zou: [0133]).
Regarding claims 20-30, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-19, where the difference used is a “method” and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 11/02/16 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant Argument:
According to amended claim 1, receive, from a network device, a control signal indicating that the repeater wireless device is to forward one or more messages associated with a non-serving cell of the repeater wireless device for a user equipment (UE). Such a distinction is not disclosed in Abedini-Fujishiro.
Response to Arguments:
With respect to the above argument, Examiner would like to draw attention to that it is the claims that define the claimed invention, and it is claims, not specifications that are anticipated or unpatentable. Constant v. Advanced Micro-Devices Inc., 7 USPQ2d 1064.
In addition, the Examiner would like to draw attention to (fig. 17, [0138]) of Fujishiro, for example: The secondary cell at a time when being configured may be inactive (i.e., not used for communication). The NCR-MT 520A configured with the secondary cell may receive an activation indication for activating the secondary cell from the gNB 200. The NCR-MT 520A may activate the operation of the NCR-Fwd 510A, that is, make the NCR-Fwd 510A available for relaying, in response to receiving the activation indication. Thus, while the secondary cell is in the inactive state, the operation of the NCR-Fwd 510A can also be in the inactive state, so that power consumption and unexpected interferences due to the NCR-Fwd 510A can be kept from occurring (herein it’s considered same as receive, from a network device, a control signal indicating that the repeater wireless device is to forward one or more messages associated with a non-serving cell of the repeater wireless device for a user equipment (UE)).
Thus, for the above reason, the prior art meet the claim limitation.
The examiner stresses that the claims are too broad and require detail or specialization of the steps as recited in the claims. Alone and as claimed, the limitations are too open.
Examiner has cited particular portions of the references as applied to each claim limitation for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Regarding all other arguments presented by applicant, the arguments are substantially the same as those which have already been addressed above and in the interest of brevity; the Examiner directs the applicant to those responses above.
Remark:
In addition, an interview could expedite the prosecution.
Conclusion
Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sulaiman Nooristany whose telephone number is 571-270-1929. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday: 8:30am to 5:00pm (EST). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeff Rutkowski can be reached on 571-270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SULAIMAN NOORISTANY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415