DETAILED ACTION
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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zarifi (US Publication 2016/0182212).
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Shanmugam teaches a method of wireless communication of a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, in a first slot, downlink data signals from a base station on a first
component carrier (CC); (i.e. fig. 7 shows a virtual full duplex TDD communications in cellular network wherein a first UE (UE1) may directly receive DL signal on a first frequency from a base station comprised of virtual transmission points; see paragraphs 97 - 100) and
transmitting, in a second slot, uplink data signals supposed to be received on the first CC by the base station on a second CC. (i.e. fig. 7 shows a virtual full duplex TDD communications in cellular network wherein a first UE (UE1) may indirectly transmit an UL signal on a second frequency to the base station comprised of virtual transmission points, the indirect transmission is via a neighboring UE (UE2 or UE3) that relays over its existing uplink communication ; see paragraphs 97 - 101) (see Also; prior art teaches communications over a cellular network, including support for FDD and TDD; see paragraphs 2; further by definition of virtual full-duplex TDD an UL and DL communication may be simultaneous transmitted/received to/from a BS on the same frequency in different slots. However, the UL is transmitted via a relay which changes to first carrier on the BS side; see paragraphs 7 – 9, 34, 38 - 44)
Claim(s) 1 – 6, 8 – 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shanmugam (US Publication 2017/0079040).
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Shanmugam teaches a method of wireless communication of a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, in a first slot, downlink data signals from a base station on a first
component carrier (CC); (i.e. fig. 3 shows a UE (112) may receive downlink (DL) data (230) from a base station (110) on a first carrier (114a); see paragraph 36 - 41) and
transmitting, in a second slot, uplink data signals supposed to be received on the first CC by the base station on a second CC. (i.e. fig. 3 shows the UE (112) may transmit uplink (UL) (218) to the BS on a second carrier (114b), that is received by the BS (110) on the first carrier (114a) ; see paragraph 36 - 41) (see Also; prior art teaches communications over a cellular network, including support for FDD and TDD. In cellular (5G/LTE), a slot is a fundamental time unit for scheduling data. Therefore a slot is inherently used in data transmissions (whether DL/UL slots on different carriers respectively (FDD) or dynamically changing UL/DL slots on the same carrier (TDD)))
Regarding claims 2 and 13, Shanmugam teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first CC is in a first frequency band and the second CC is in a second frequency band. (i.e. fig. shows the first carrier (114a) and the second carrier (114b) are on different frequency bands; see paragraphs 36)
Regarding claims 3 and 14, Shanmugam teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the uplink data signals are received on the second CC in the second slot by a repeater, and the repeater forwards the received uplink data
signals to the base station on the first CC in the second slot. (i.e. figure 3 shows the UL signal is received by a relay (106) on the second carrier (114b), the relay then forwards the UL signal to the base station which receives the UL transmission on the first carrier (114a); see paragraph 36 - 41)
Regarding claims 4 and 15, Shanmugam teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first slot for receiving the downlink data signals and the second slot for transmitting the uplink data signals follow a time division duplexing (TDD) pattern. (i.e. the prior art discloses the relay forwarding of the UL or DL signals may utilize either FDD or TDD; see paragraph 5)
Regarding claims 5 and 16, Shanmugam teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the TDD pattern is configured on the first CC. (i.e. the prior art discloses the relay forwarding of the UL or DL signals may TDD; see paragraph 5) (see Also; fig.3 showing a configuration wherein the first carrier may receive the UL transmission on a separate carrier then what was transmitted; see paragraph 36 - 41)
Regarding claims 6 and 17, Shanmugam teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the UE together with the repeater form a logical device that communicates with the base station in a TDD mode. (i.e. fig. 3 shows the relay along with the UE may communicate with the base station; see paragraph 36, 37) (See Also; the prior art discloses the relay forwarding of the UL or DL signals may utilize either FDD or TDD; see paragraph 5)
Regarding claims 8, Shanmugam teaches a method of wireless communication of a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, in a first slot and from a repeater, downlink data signals on a second component carrier (CC), the downlink data signals being originated from a base station; (i.e. figure 3 shows a UE (112) may receive a downlink transmission (230) from a repeater at a component carrier (114a), the DL data (224) originally from a access base station (110); see paragraph 36 - 41)
and
transmitting, in a second slot, uplink data signals to the base station on a first CC. (i.e. fig. 3 shows the UE (112) may transmit uplink (UL) (218) to the BS (110) on a different carrier (114b); see paragraph 36 - 41) (see Also; prior art teaches communications over a cellular network, including support for FDD and TDD. In cellular (5G/LTE), a slot is a fundamental time unit for scheduling data. Therefore a slot is inherently used in data transmissions (whether DL/UL slots on different carriers respectively (FDD) or dynamically changing UL/DL slots on the same carrier (TDD)))
Regarding claims 9 Shanmugam teaches the method of claim 8, wherein the first CC is in a first frequency band and the second CC is in a second frequency band. (i.e. fig. shows the first carrier (114a) and the second carrier (114b) are on different frequency bands; see paragraphs 36)
Regarding claims 10, Shanmugam teaches the method of claim 8, wherein the first slot for receiving the downlink data signals and the second slot for transmitting the uplink data signals follow a time division duplexing (TDD) pattern. (i.e. the prior art discloses the relay forwarding of the UL or DL signals may utilize either FDD or TDD; see paragraph 5)
Regarding claims 11, Shanmugam teaches The method of claim 8, wherein the UE together with the repeater form a logical device that communicates with the base station in a TDD mode. (i.e. fig. 3 shows the relay along with the UE may communicate with the base station; see paragraph 36, 37)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 18 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT J LOPATA whose telephone number is (571)270-5158. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10-7 EST.
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ROBERT J. LOPATA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/ROBERT J LOPATA/
January 8, 2026Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471