DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/401,211 in response to an original application filed on 12/29/2023.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Claims 1, 7, 13 and 17 are independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 12/29/2023 and 12/06/2024, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 1; claim 1 recites the limitations “Please replace (IF) with (WHEN)”
Appropriate correction(s) is required.
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, 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 1-4, 7, 8, 13, 15 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lunden et al. (US 2015/0282033 A1) in view of Ghanbarinejad et al. (WO 2024/224380 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, a wireless communication method, comprising: determining a type or terminal group to which a terminal device belongs, [Figure 18, Ref # 1810, he WTRU may compare the energy harvested Eh to the energy consumed E.sub.c in ZE idle mode operation, wherein the terminal type is either low energy consumption or high energy consumption type, (Haque et al., Paragraph 166)],
Haque et al. fails to explicitly teach sending a backscatter signal based on a transmission resource, a backoff parameter or a time unit corresponding to the type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs,
Iqbal et al. teaches that when collision happens the backoff window is increased as in wireless devices. Since some backscatter transmissions may occur during the backscatter phase, the last transmission of the backscatter tag is required to finish within the assigned time, Therefore, the backscatter tag needs to check the timer prior to the data transmission. The required transmission time should be within the energy signal transmission time, (Iqbal et al., Page 4, Section B),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Haque et al. by including that sending a backscatter signal based on a transmission resource, a backoff parameter or a time unit corresponding to the type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs, (Iqbal et al., Page 4, Section B), in order to increase the communication range of the backscatter tag and decrease its bit error rate, since the backscatter tags use the existing RF signal, (Iqbal et al., Page 1, Introduction).
Regarding claim 2, the method of claim 1, wherein the type to which the terminal device belongs comprises a first type and a second type, [Iqbal et al., Figure 1, Ref # Device 1 and Device 2],
the terminal group to which the terminal device belongs comprises a first terminal group and a second terminal group, [Iqbal et al., Figure 1, Ref # Device 1 and Device 2],
at least one of the first type or the first terminal group comprises an energy-constrained terminal device, [Iqbal et al., Figure 1, Ref # Device 2],
and at least one of the second type or the second terminal group comprises terminal devices other than the energy-constrained terminal device, [Iqbal et al., Figure 1, Ref # Device 1].
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the type to which the terminal device belongs comprises the first type and the second type, [Iqbal et al., Figure 1, Ref # Device 1 and Device 2],
the terminal group to which the terminal device belongs comprises the first terminal group and the second terminal group, [Iqbal et al., Figure 1, Ref # Device 1 and Device 2],
a transmission resource corresponding to the first type is different from a transmission resource corresponding to the second type, [Iqbal et al., Figure 7, backscatter communication differs based on devices with high or low throughput],
and a transmission resource corresponding to the first terminal group is different from a transmission resource corresponding to the second terminal group, [Iqbal et al., Figure 7, backscatter communication differs based on devices with high or low throughput].
Regarding claim 4, the method of claim 3, wherein the transmission resource comprises at least one of a scheduling resource or a scheduling-free resource, [a transmission schedule associated with ZE reference signal(s) to be used for the purpose of cell measurements by the passive receiver may be fixed and known to the WTRU, (Haque et al., Paragraph 114)].
Regarding claims 7 and 17, a wireless communication method, comprising: sending scheduling information or a backoff parameter based on a first type and a second type or based on a first terminal group and a second terminal group, [a transmission schedule for processing of ZE reference signals may be comprised of either one or a combination of the following characteristics associated with a ZE reference signal waveform or one or more of its ZE waveform parts, (Haque et al., Paragraph 112)],
Haque et al. fails to explicitly teach that the scheduling information or the backoff parameter is used for a terminal device to send a backscatter signal based on a transmission resource, the backoff parameter or a time unit corresponding to a type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs,
Iqbal et al. teaches that when collision happens the backoff window is increased as in wireless devices. Since some backscatter transmissions may occur during the backscatter phase, the last transmission of the backscatter tag is required to finish within the assigned time, Therefore, the backscatter tag needs to check the timer prior to the data transmission. The required transmission time should be within the energy signal transmission time, (Iqbal et al., Page 4, Section B), in order to increase the communication range of the backscatter tag and decrease its bit error rate, since the backscatter tags use the existing RF signal, (Iqbal et al., Page 1, Introduction).
Regarding claim 8, the method of claim 7, wherein sending the scheduling information or the backoff parameter based on the first type and the second type or based on the first terminal group and the second terminal group comprises:
sending scheduling signaling, wherein the scheduling signaling is used for indicating the transmission resource corresponding to the first type or the first terminal group, or the scheduling signaling is used for indicating the transmission resource corresponding to the second type or the second terminal group, [a transmission schedule for processing of ZE reference signals may be comprised of either one or a combination of the following characteristics associated with a ZE reference signal waveform or one or more of its ZE waveform parts, wherein the type is zero energy terminal type, (Haque et al., Paragraph 112)].
Regarding claim 15, the terminal device of claim 13, wherein determining the type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs comprises: determining, based on signal strength measured by the terminal device, the type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs, wherein determining, based on the signal strength measured by the terminal device, the type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs comprises: if the signal strength or a signal voltage measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to a second threshold, determining, as the first type, the type to which the terminal device belongs or determining, as the first terminal group, the terminal group to which the terminal device belongs; otherwise, determining, as the second type, the type to which the terminal device belongs or determining, as the second terminal group, the terminal group to which the terminal device belongs, [the coordination may be such that part of ZE measurement reference signal that is used for cell ID identification and signal strength measurements may be transmitted in time multiplexing manner so that at any instant only a single cell transmits the reference signal part corresponding to cell ID and the strength measurement sequence, (Haque et al., Paragraph 146)].
Regarding claim 18, the communication device of claim 17, wherein sending the scheduling information or the backoff parameter based on the first type and the second type or based on the first terminal group and the second terminal group comprises: sending scheduling signaling for scheduling the transmission resource corresponding to the first type or the first terminal group on a time unit corresponding to the first type or the first terminal group, [a transmission schedule for processing of ZE reference signals may be comprised of either one or a combination of the following characteristics associated with a ZE reference signal waveform or one or more of its ZE waveform parts, wherein the type is zero energy terminal type, (Haque et al., Paragraph 112)], and sending scheduling signaling for scheduling the transmission resource corresponding to the second type or the second terminal group on a time unit corresponding to the second type or the second terminal group, [a transmission schedule for processing of ZE reference signals may be comprised of either one or a combination of the following characteristics associated with a ZE reference signal waveform or one or more of its ZE waveform parts, wherein the type is zero energy terminal type, (Haque et al., Paragraph 112)].
Regarding claim 19, the communication device of claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to invoke and run the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to perform further operation of: sending indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the time unit corresponding to the type or terminal group to which the terminal device belongs, wherein the indication information is carried in at least one of the following: scheduling signaling of terminal devices other than the terminal device, public signaling, or system information, [When the WTRU camps on a cell in RRCJDLE state or in RRCJNACTIVE state, the WTRU may perform any of the following actions: receive system information (e.g., system information block (SIB)) from the PLMN; establish an RRC connection or resume a suspended RRC connection, (Haque et al., Paragraph 97)].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 6, 9-12, 14, 16 and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478