DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
2. Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-3 in the reply filed on 11/12/2025 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zou et al (US 20220303209, hereinafter referred to as Zou).
Re claim 1, Zou teaches a communication control method (Fig. 2) used in a cellular communication system (Fig. 1), the method comprising:
(i) performing, by a donor base station (first communication node/Donor CU, Fig. 1-2, Par 0041, Par 0045) comprising a relay node (second communication node/any of the intermediate IAB node Fig. 1-2, Fig. 6B, Donor DU, Fig. 6A, Par 0041, Par 0047) as a subordinate (Intermediate IAB nodes, IAB donor DU are subordinate of the donor CU, Fig. 1, Fig. 6A-B), configuration (routing configuration information, Fig. 2) whether the relay node causes a scheduler of the relay node to perform priority control in data packet transfer (second communication node/Intermediate IAB nodes/IAB donor DU performing data transmission based on the routing configuration received from the donor CU/first communication node) (Fig. 1-2, Par 0044-0045, Par 0054-0058, Par 0062, Par 0067, Par 0079, Par 0082-0084, Par 0094-0096, Par 0100-0102, Par 0107-0108); and
(ii) causing, by the relay node, the scheduler to operate in accordance with the configuration (performing data transmission based on the routing configuration received from the donor CU/first communication node) (Fig. 2, Fig. 4, Par 0067, Par 0082, Par 0101, Par 0107-0108, Par 0112-0113, Par 0117-0119).
Re claim 2, Zou teaches that the performing the configuration comprises performing, by the donor base station, configuration whether the relay node notifies a parent node or a child node of the relay node of assist information for performing priority control in data packet transfer by a scheduler of the parent node or the child node (intermediate IAB node transmits routing status information to the child node or the parent node, Fig. 5, Fig. 6A-B, Fig. 8A-B) , instead of configuring whether to cause the scheduler of the relay node to perform data packet transfer control (allowing the child/parent node to control the data packet transmission), and the causing comprises causing the relay node to notify the parent node or the child node of the assist information in accordance with the configuration (intermediate IAB node transmits routing status information to the child node or the parent node based on the routing configuration information, Fig. 5, Fig. 6A-B, Fig. 8A-B), instead of causing the scheduler to operate (based on the routing status information, the access IAB node/donor DU switches routes instead of the intermediate IAB node) (Fig. 5-8, Par 0122-0127, Par 0129-0130, Par 0134-0139, Par 0142-0149, Par 0164-0172).
Re claim 3, Zou teaches that the assist information (routing status information) comprises information that is changed each time the assist information passes through a plurality of relay nodes comprising the relay node (each of the intermediate IAB nodes filters the routing status information to be sent to the adjacent IAB node) and/or congestion information indicating that the relay node is congested (Par 0127-0129, Par 0135-0138, Par 0143-0148).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARUN UR R CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)270-3895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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/HARUN CHOWDHURY/Examiner, Art Unit 2473