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 .
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claim 19 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 19 recites “sending first indication information to [a] the second IAB node, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate beam usage restriction of the second IAB node.”
Appropriate correction is required.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 12, 19, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (US 2024/0031044 A1) Regarding claims 1, 19, Kim et al. disclose an interference processing method, comprising: performing, by a first integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, a first operation, wherein the first operation comprises at least one of the following: measuring a target transmission signal of a second IAB node (Para 102 teaches “The IAB-node 1002 measures a signal received to the IAB-MT to measure (1040) a DU-to-MT self-interference channel while transmitting (1026) a signal to the time-frequency resource for self-interference channel measurement. For example, while transmitting a downlink signal through an IAB-DU of the IAB-node 1002, the IAB-node 1002 may measure a signal received to the IAB-MT thereof to measure the DU-to-MT self-interference channel. ”), wherein the target transmission signal comprises at least one of the following: a downlink transmission signal of a distributed unit (DU) and an uplink transmission signal of a mobile terminal (MT) (Para 102 teaches “A resource to which a signal is transmitted may be any resource in which the IAB-node 1002 may configure as well as reference signal resources such as CSI-RS, DM-RS, and CRS commonly used for channel measurement. For example, the IAB-MT may measure a self-interference channel from all or part of an SSB, PDCCH, or PDSCH resource transmitted by the IAB-DU. This is because the IAB-MT accurately knows a signal transmitted by the IAB-DU within the same IAB-node 1002”.); and sending first indication information to a second IAB node, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate beam usage restriction of the second IAB node (Para 116 teaches ” The self-interference channel measurement announcement may include at least one information of a time to measure self-interference, a frequency resource to measure self-interference, or a self-interference measurement beam configuration. The other IAB-nodes 1300 and 1302 may determine whether resource use is restricted due to self-interference channel measurement of the IAB-node 1304 based on the information included in the self-interference channel measurement announcement”). Regarding claim 2, Kim et al. discloses a method, wherein the downlink transmission signal comprises at least one of the following: synchronization signal block (SSB) and channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS); or, wherein the beam usage restriction indicated by the first indication information comprises at least one of the following: a prohibited first beam; and power restriction corresponding to a second beam. (Para 102 teaches “A resource to which a signal is transmitted may be any resource in which the IAB-node 1002 may configure as well as reference signal resources such as CSI-RS, DM-RS, and CRS commonly used for channel measurement. For example, the IAB-MT may measure a self-interference channel from all or part of an SSB, PDCCH, or PDSCH resource transmitted by the IAB-DU. This is because the IAB-MT accurately knows a signal transmitted by the IAB-DU within the same IAB-node 1002”.) Regarding claim 12, 20, Kim et al. discloses a interference processing method, comprising: receiving, by a second IAB node, first indication information sent by a first IAB node, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate beam usage restriction of the second IAB node(Para 116 teaches ” The self-interference channel measurement announcement may include at least one information of a time to measure self-interference, a frequency resource to measure self-interference, or a self-interference measurement beam configuration. The other IAB-nodes 1300 and 1302 may determine whether resource use is restricted due to self-interference channel measurement of the IAB-node 1304 based on the information included in the self-interference channel measurement announcement”).; and performing, by the second IAB node, a third operation related to a downlink transmission beam of a DU of the second IAB node according to the first indication information. (Para 102 teaches “The IAB-node 1002 measures a signal received to the IAB-MT to measure (1040) a DU-to-MT self-interference channel while transmitting (1026) a signal to the time-frequency resource for self-interference channel measurement. For example, while transmitting a downlink signal through an IAB-DU of the IAB-node 1002, the IAB-node 1002 may measure a signal received to the IAB-MT thereof to measure the DU-to-MT self-interference channel.”).
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.
Claim(s) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 2024/0031044 A1) in view of Miao et al. (US 2022/0167254 A1). Regarding claim 3, Kim et al. discloses the claimed invention as set forth in claim 1 above. Kim et al. does not disclose a method, wherein in a case that the first operation comprises measuring the target transmission signal of the second IAB node, the first IAB node performing the first operation comprising: performing, by the first IAB node, the first operation according to a second operation; wherein the second operation comprises at least one of the following: obtaining N cell identifiers corresponding to the second IAB node, wherein N is a positive integer; obtaining configuration information of the target transmission signal; sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to instruct the second IAB node to send the target transmission signal at a first time domain position; and sending second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used to instruct the second IAB node to stop sending the target transmission signal at a second time domain position. However Mio et al. discloses a method, wherein in a case that the first operation comprises measuring the target transmission signal of the second IAB node, the first IAB node performing the first operation comprising: performing, by the first IAB node, the first operation according to a second operation; wherein the second operation comprises at least one of the following: obtaining N cell identifiers corresponding to the second IAB node, wherein N is a positive integer (Para 263 teaches “Generally, periodicity and offset defines the periodicity and subframe offset for measuring the SSB transmission from neighbor IAB nodes, and sfn denotes n subframes. Duration defines the SSB window duration in terms of number of subframes. Pci-List defines a list of physical-cell IDs and/or IAB-DU node IDs depending on the initialization value for SSBs”); obtaining configuration information of the target transmission signal; sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to instruct the second IAB node to send the target transmission signal at a first time domain position; and sending second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used to instruct the second IAB node to stop sending the target transmission signal at a second time domain position. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the method of obtaining a list of cell ID corresponding to the IAB of Miao et al. with the system of Kim et al. in order to provide a system for transmission configurations for synchronization signal blocks (SSB) and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) blocks to support inter-node discovery and measurement for integrated access and backhaul (IAB) nodes.
Regarding claim 4, Kim et al. discloses a method, wherein the N cell identifiers are obtained from any one of the following: a donor IAB node and the second IAB node; or, wherein the configuration information is obtained from any one of the following: a donor IAB node and the second IAB node; or, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of the following: an index of the target transmission signal; transmission time-frequency information of the target transmission signal; and transmission power information of the target transmission signal. (Para 116 teaches “With reference to FIG. 13, when it is determined that self-interference measurement is necessary in addition to the case that a self-interference measurement configuration is designated from an IAB-donor, an IAB node 1304 may transmit information for SI channel measurement announcement to other IAB-nodes 1300 and 1302 other than the IAB-donor (1320)”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-11 and 13-18 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJAY P CATTUNGAL whose telephone number is (571)270-7525. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:00 PM.
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/AJAY CATTUNGAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467