DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants' communication filed on April 15, 2026. Claims 21-40 are currently pending and have been examined.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on April 15, 2026 have been fully considered.
Applicant argues in its Argument that cited arts fail to teach limitations of the independent Claim 21,
“determining a recommendation for the placement and a type of the one more open-air repeaters to wirelessly communicate with the one or more potential recipients at a reduced cost for increased coverage… provide the increased coverage at the reduced cost for millimeter wave wireless communication access"
Examiner replies: In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
During patent examination, the pending claims must be given their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification. See MPEP § 2111. Further, although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). See also MPEP § 2145(VI).
Regarding limitations the Claim 21 of the instant case, Liu as modified teaches methods of identifying environmental conditions in a geographic area, and locating the best locations to install wireless network devices to achieve best coverage with minimum set of devices, where the wireless network devices may be base stations, mmWave base stations, e.g., Liu, repeaters, e.g., Figs. 3-5 with various types and combinations, and etc., where the purposes of all of these cited references are for better coverage at lower costs.
Conclusion: Examiner has shown the rejections set forth in the Office Action of January 15, 2026 are proper. In light of amended Claims, new grounds of rejection are set forth below. Since the new grounds of rejection are necessitated by Applicant's amendments to the claims, the present action is made final.
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 of this title, 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 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210368355 A1 (Liu), in view of US 20180123692 A1 (Leiba) and in further view of US 20200259552 A1 (Ashworth), US 20210328664 A1 (Schwab) and Falconer, D.D. and DeCruyenaere, J.P., 2003. Coverage enhancement methods for LMDS. IEEE Communications Magazine, 41(7), pp.86-92 (Falconer).
Regarding Claim 21 and 31:
A method, comprising: determining one or more candidate locations for one or more open-air repeaters to be associated with a selected carrier for a multiple-dwelling unit building (MDU) and provide fixed access to millimeter wave wireless communication for one or more potential recipients that reside in dwelling units within the MDU, wherein the one or more candidate locations include one or more structures that are arranged external to the MDU and are suitable for placement of the one or more open-air repeaters; determining a recommendation for the placement and a type of the one more open-air repeaters to wirelessly communicate with the one or more potential recipients at a reduced cost for increased coverage, wherein the recommendation is based in part on efficiently increasing coverage of wireless communication access to the one or more potential recipients by enabling millimeter wave communication access for one or more portions of the dwelling units within the MDU that are currently served by one or more wireless base stations that are fifth generation (5G) Next Generation NodeB (gNB); and configuring each placed open-air repeater to provide the increased coverage at the reduced cost for millimeter wave wireless communication access between the one or more potential recipients and the one or more wireless base stations that are a gNB and associated with the selected carrier (Liu: Figs. 1-2 and 5-6, the installation site selection and layout determination of wireless communication devices in a wireless network by modelling the terrain that “approximates or represents properties of the terrain, e.g., the physical environment. The terrain may be an urban environment in which multiple buildings are arranged. The modelled terrain may be 2D, 2.5D, 3D, or even 4D (considering different time at the same 3D location)”, i.e. ingesting geographic info including a set of candidate locations, e.g. Figs. 2, 5, coverage/cost/outrage criteria, and etc., where the LOS and NLOS are also considered for proper coverage).
Liu does not illustrate explicitly on method of determine LOS between nodes and adjust installation to comply to LOS in mmwave communication. However, Leiba teaches (Leiba: Figs. 10-11, a MMWave network planning method to identify LOS and obstacle paths, and places network nodes accordingly).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Liu with method of determine LOS between nodes and adjust installation to comply to LOS as further taught by Leiba. The advantage of doing so is to enable planning network nodes that incorporates LOS measurement to ensure the quality of mmwave communication.
Liu does not illustrate explicitly on using repeaters in network planning and placement. However, Ashworth teaches (Ashworth: Figs. 13-15, a repeater placement in wall to improve communication over obstacles).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Liu with method of using repeaters in network planning and placement as further taught by Ashworth. The advantage of doing so is to enable wireless communication through structure element to improve wireless communication coverage (Ashworth: Abstract).
Liu does not illustrate explicitly on determining of the placement and configuration of the one or more open-air repeaters. However, Schwab and Falconer teaches (Schwab: Figs. 3-5, repeater networks that provides incremental coverage depending on geographic info, e.g. number of dwellings and dwelling coverage for each RAP, where Falconer p90 also provides examples of 0.4 repeaters/km2 raises the coverage to about 78%, and 2.2/km2 raises it to over 95%; Fig. 7, multiple poles as candidate locations).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Liu with determining of the placement and configuration of the one or more open-air repeaters as further taught by Schwab and Falconer. The advantage of doing so is to provide a mechanism for distributed antenna systems or over-the-air repeaters to improve mmWave communication (Schwab: Background).
It is further noted that Liu as modified teaches methods of identifying environmental conditions in a geographic area, and locating the best locations to install wireless network devices to achieve best coverage with minimum set of devices, where the wireless network devices may be base stations, mmWave base stations, e.g., Liu, repeaters, e.g., Figs. 3-5 with various types and combinations, and etc., where the purposes of all of these cited references are for better coverage at lower costs.
Regarding Claims 22 and 32, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, further comprising: configuring at least one open-air repeater for placement on a window of the MDU, wherein the window placement is arranged for the at least one open-air repeater to wireless communicate via line of sight with the one or more wireless base stations and rebroadcast the wireless communication within at least one dwelling unit of the MDU (Ashworth: e.g., Figs. 2A-B).
Regarding Claims 23 and 33, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the determination of the one or more candidate locations further comprises: employing geographic information associated with the one or more candidate locations for one or more structures to identify at least one candidate location that includes a post, pole, tower, building corner, building wall, roof, or another building that is available for placement of an open-air repeater for the selected carrier (Leiba: Figs. 10-11, a MMWave network planning method to identify LOS and obstacle paths, and places network nodes accordingly; Ashworth: Figs. 13-15, a repeater placement in wall to improve communication over obstacles).
Regarding Claims 24 and 34, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the determination of the one or more candidate locations further comprises: employing information that includes a position and an orientation for one or more windows on an external surface of the MDU to identify at least one candidate location that includes a window that is available for placement of an open-air repeater for the selected carrier (Ashworth: e.g., Figs. 2A-B) .
Regarding Claims 25 and 35, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the determination of the one or more candidate locations, further comprises: employing one or more wireless signal propagation models to identify a strength of wireless signals required to provide wireless communication access for the one or more potential recipients (Leiba: [0114], throughput and/or packet loss assessment. It is noted that path loss, signal strength, packet loss or error rate and etc. are known wireless propagation model to determine signal quality of the path).
Regarding Claims 26 and 36, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the potential location determination further comprises evaluating a presence of a non-obstructed line of sight between each potential location and the one or more potential recipients that reside in the MDU (Liu: [0065] - [0066], considering both LOS and reflection paths (i.e. NLOS)).
Regarding Claims 27 and 37, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the one or more wireless base stations include one or more fifth generation (5G) Next Generation NodeB (gNB) base stations (Leiba: Figs. 10-11).
Regarding Claims 28 and 38, Liu as modified further teaches:
28. (New) The method of Claim 21, wherein the wireless communication access further comprises access to millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless communication (Liu: Figs. 1-2 and 5-6).
Regarding Claims 29 and 39, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the one or more potential recipients include a fixed wireless access (FWA) recipient (Ashworth: Figs. 13-15)
Regarding Claims 30 and 40, Liu as modified further teaches:
The method of Claim 21, wherein the one or more potential recipients further comprise at least one mobile device recipient (Ashworth: Figs. 3A-C)
Conclusion
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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHITONG CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1936. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:30am - 5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen Pan can be reached on 571-272-7855. 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. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. 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.
/ZHITONG CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
Prosecution Insights