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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/23/2026 has been entered. Applicant’s submission overcomes prior claim objections, and corresponding objections are withdrawn. Claims 8 and 11 are canceled. Claims 1-2, 5, 9-10, 12, 14, and 19-21 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/27/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
Applicant uses the term “and/or” several times throughout the claims. Regarding the use of this term, throughput the claims it is being interpreted under its broadest reasonable interpretation as “or” for the purposes of examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2, 9-10, 12, 19, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moon et al. (US 2024/0429994), hereinafter “Moon”, in view of Abedini et al. (US 2022/0053433), hereinafter “Abedini ‘433”.
Regarding claim 1, Moon teaches:
A signal transmitting apparatus, configured in a repeater, the apparatus comprising:
communication processor circuitry configured to perform sequence generation, encoding, and/or modulation to transmit a first signal to a network device, the first signal comprising at least one or PRACH, PUSCH, PUCCH and SRS for communication between the network device and the repeater (see Moon, par. [0134]: The relay node may generate an uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, or PUCCH, and the uplink signal may be generated based on the configuration information received from the base station. In addition, the relay node may map the generated uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, and PUCCH to an uplink resource, and may transmit the uplink signal in the uplink resource. The operation of generating the uplink signal may include operations such as channel encoding, interleaving, modulation, and DM-RS generation, and see par. [0094]: a relay node may be composed of a plurality of entities. Each entity may perform its own function for relay communication. For example, a repeater may include a first entity and a second entity. The first entity may perform a function of exchanging control information (e.g., side control information) with the base station. The first entity may be referred to as a ‘mobile termination (MT)’ or a ‘repeater MT’; in this case, the first entity corresponds to communication processor circuitry); and
forwarding processor circuitry configured to amplify and forward a second signal, the second signal comprising DL and/or UL RF signals between the network device and a user equipment for communication between the network device and the user equipment (see Moon, par. [0095]: The second entity may perform a function of relaying signals from the base station to the terminal or from the terminal to the base station. The second entity may be referred to as ‘forwarding (Fwd)’ or ‘repeater Fwd’, and see par. [0090]: The relay node may serve to receive a signal from a base station or TRP and forward it to the terminal or, conversely, receive a signal from a terminal and forward it to a base station or TRP. A signal received at the relay node may be amplified or beamforming may be applied thereto so that the signal is transmitted back to a counterpart node, and the coverage of the signal may be extended; in this case, the second entity corresponds to forwarding processor circuity), wherein,
the forwarding processor circuitry does not transmit over a time resource if the communication processor circuitry transmits over the time resource (see Moon, par. [0120]: the relay node may relay the first category signal to the terminal when the predetermined condition is satisfied, otherwise, the relay node may not relay the first category signal to the terminal, and see par. [0120]: The predetermined condition may include a condition that the first category signal does not overlap in time with another signal (e.g., signal to be relayed to the terminal, second category signal, etc.), and see par. [0121]: The second category signal may be transmitted through a backhaul link between the base station and the relay node (e.g., repeater or forwarding entity of repeater) or a control link between the base station and the relay node (e.g., repeater, MT entity of repeater); in this case, a first category signal is not relayed (i.e. the forwarding processor circuitry does not transmit) if a second category signal overlaps in time (i.e. if the communication processor circuitry transmits over the time resource)), and
the first signal is not related to signals transmitted by the user equipment, and/or the first signal is not related to signals received from the user equipment (see Moon, par. [0134]: The relay node may generate an uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, or PUCCH, and the uplink signal may be generated based on the configuration information received from the base station. In addition, the relay node may map the generated uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, and PUCCH to an uplink resource, and may transmit the uplink signal in the uplink resource. The operation of generating the uplink signal may include operations such as channel encoding, interleaving, modulation, and DM-RS generation, and see par. [0094]: a relay node may be composed of a plurality of entities. Each entity may perform its own function for relay communication. For example, a repeater may include a first entity and a second entity. The first entity may perform a function of exchanging control information (e.g., side control information) with the base station. The first entity may be referred to as a ‘mobile termination (MT)’ or a ‘repeater MT’; in this case, the generated uplink signal is independent of the UE, corresponding to not related to signals transmitted by or received from the UE).
However, Moon does not teach:
the communication processor circuitry establishes a connection with a cell via random access procedure, the second signal that the forwarding processor circuitry forwards is associated with the cell that the communication processor circuitry is connected to,
Abedini ‘433, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
the communication processor circuitry establishes a connection with a cell via random access procedure (see Abedini ‘433, Fig. 39, par. [0434], lines 1-11: The initial access procedure 3900 may involve the network access node 3902 transmitting synchronization signaling (e.g., SSBs), a PBCH, RMSI, and other information (e.g., an indication that the network access node 3902 supports repeater devices) (e.g., transmitting SS/PBCH/RMSI/RptrSupportInd) to the repeater device 3904 at 3906. This may enable the repeater device 3904 to synchronize to the network access node 3902 and obtain initial access information (e.g., identify the resources to be used for a RACH procedure and determine whether the network access node supports repeater devices); in this case, the repeater device (i.e. communication processor circuitry of the repeater) performs random access to synchronize to the network access node (corresponding to the cell)), the second signal that the forwarding processor circuitry forwards is associated with the cell that the communication processor circuitry is connected to (see Abedini ‘433, Fig. 14, par. [0221]: At 1426, the second RU 1404b may forwards (e.g., relay) the UL traffic from the UE 1406 to the network access node 1402 along with UL traffic from the MT (of the repeater device 1404), and see par. [0433]: FIG. 39 is a call flow diagram illustrating an example of an initial access procedure 3900 between a network access node 3902 and a repeater device 3904 according to some aspects of the disclosure. The network access node 3902 may correspond to any of the network access nodes (e.g., scheduling entities, gNBs, base stations) shown in any of FIGS. 1, 2, 5-12, 14-17, 25, 29, 31, 37, and/or 39-44),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the communication processor circuitry of Moon with the establishment of a connection via a random access procedure of and associated forwarding of Abedini ‘433 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of extending coverage of a network with improved performance and flexibility (see Abedini ‘433, par. [0346]).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus. Moon further teaches:
wherein the first signal and the second signal are corresponding to a same cell (see Moon, pars. [0094-0095]: a repeater may include a first entity and a second entity. The first entity may perform a function of exchanging control information (e.g., side control information) with the base station. The first entity may be referred to as a ‘mobile termination (MT)’ or a ‘repeater MT’. The first entity may perform communication for exchanging the above-described control information with the base station through the above-described control link. In addition, the first entity may control operations (e.g., signal relaying operations) of the second entity based on the control information. The control link may be the Uu link or Uu interface. The second entity may perform a function of relaying signals from the base station to the terminal or from the terminal to the base station. The second entity may be referred to as ‘forwarding (Fwd)’ or ‘repeater Fwd’. The signal relaying operation may be performed through the above-described backhaul link and access link; in this case, generated and forwarded signals (i.e. first and second signals) are communicated with the same base station (i.e. same cell)).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus. Moon further teaches:
wherein the first signal is generated by the repeater (see Moon, par. [0134]: The relay node may generate an uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, or PUCCH, and the uplink signal may be generated based on the configuration information received from the base station. In addition, the relay node may map the generated uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, and PUCCH to an uplink resource, and may transmit the uplink signal in the uplink resource. The operation of generating the uplink signal may include operations such as channel encoding, interleaving, modulation, and DM-RS generation), and the second signal is forwarded by the repeater (see Moon, par. par. [0090]: The relay node may serve to receive a signal from a base station or TRP and forward it to the terminal or, conversely, receive a signal from a terminal and forward it to a base station or TRP. A signal received at the relay node may be amplified or beamforming may be applied thereto so that the signal is transmitted back to a counterpart node, and the coverage of the signal may be extended).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus. Moon further teaches:
wherein the second signal includes a first transmission signal (a first forwarding signal) forwarded from a network device to a user equipment, and/or a second transmission signal (a second forwarding signal) forwarded from the user equipment to the network device (see Moon, par. [0095]: The second entity may perform a function of relaying signals from the base station to the terminal or from the terminal to the base station. The second entity may be referred to as ‘forwarding (Fwd)’ or ‘repeater Fwd’, and see par. [0090]: The relay node may serve to receive a signal from a base station or TRP and forward it to the terminal or, conversely, receive a signal from a terminal and forward it to a base station or TRP. A signal received at the relay node may be amplified or beamforming may be applied thereto so that the signal is transmitted back to a counterpart node, and the coverage of the signal may be extended).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus. Moon further teaches:
wherein the first forwarding signal comprises at least one of SSB, CSI-RS, PDCCH, PDSCH, DM-RS, PT-RS and PRS (see Moon, par. [0122]: The third category signal may be a signal transmitted to provide a coverage area of a relay node. The third category signal may be transmitted through a backhaul link or a control link between the base station and the relay node, and may be transmitted through an access link between the relay node and the terminals. The relay node may be a repeater, a forwarding entity of the repeater, or the like. The third category signal may be a signal transmitted (e.g., broadcast) for a plurality of terminals or unspecified terminals within a coverage area. For example, the third category signal may be repeatedly transmitted based on beam sweeping. For example, the third category signal may be transmitted for beam management of the terminal and may include an SSB, CSI-RS, PRS, SRS, and the like), and the second forwarding signal comprises at least one of PRACH, PUCCH, PUSCH and SRS (see Moon, par. [0194]: the relay node may relay a signal (e.g., uplink signal) received from the terminal to the base station through the backhaul link (or control link). The signal may be referred to as a relay signal (e.g., uplink relay signal), and see par. [0194]: The uplink relay signal and the uplink non-relay signal may include PUCCH, PUSCH, DM-RS, PT-RS, SRS, PRACH, and the like).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus. Moon further teaches:
wherein the communication processor circuitry is further configured to perform measurement and/or demodulation and/or decoding to receive a signal (see Moon, par. [0090]: A decode-and-forward (DF) relay may decode a received signal to obtain data, re-encode the data, and transmit the re-encoded data, and see par. [0166]: a method in which the relay node receives (i.e., demodulates and/or decodes) the downlink signal (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, etc.) for the terminal and obtains the control information may be considered, and see par. [0141]: The operation of transmitting or receiving a specific signal to or from the base station may include an operation of receiving a signal (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS) for beam quality measurement and/or reporting from the base station, an operation of receiving a signal indicating beam measurement and/or reporting from the base station (e.g., physical layer control information, DCI, higher layer message, RRC signaling or semi-static signaling equivalent thereto, MAC CE or dynamic higher layer signaling equivalent thereto, etc.)).
Regarding claim 21, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus. Moon further teaches:
wherein the communication processor circuitry is configured to not forward signals (see Moon, par. [0134]: The relay node may generate an uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, or PUCCH, and the uplink signal may be generated based on the configuration information received from the base station. In addition, the relay node may map the generated uplink signal such as PRACH, SRS, and PUCCH to an uplink resource, and may transmit the uplink signal in the uplink resource. The operation of generating the uplink signal may include operations such as channel encoding, interleaving, modulation, and DM-RS generation, and see par. [0094]: a relay node may be composed of a plurality of entities. Each entity may perform its own function for relay communication. For example, a repeater may include a first entity and a second entity. The first entity may perform a function of exchanging control information (e.g., side control information) with the base station. The first entity may be referred to as a ‘mobile termination (MT)’ or a ‘repeater MT’; in this case, the generated uplink signal is independent of the UE, corresponding to not related to signals transmitted by or received from the UE).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moon in view of Abedini ‘433, as applied to claims 1-2, 9-10, 12, 19, and 21 above, and further in view of Abedini et al. (US 2022/0182130), hereinafter "Abedini '130".
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 does not teach:
wherein the cell is a serving cell of the communication processor circuitry.
Abedini ‘130, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the cell is a serving cell of the communication processor circuitry (see Abedini ‘130, par. [0128], lines 1-5: MT unit 318 of the repeater 204 may be connected to multiple nodes or TX/RX points. In a first case, having no DC/CA, the MT unit 318 may have only a single serving cell (no DC, no CA), may be connected to multiple TRPs of the serving cell (via multiple serving beams), and see Abedini ‘130, par. [0150], lines 6-11: RU unit 320 can use the multiple TDD patterns to determine the repeater function. In one example, each of the multiple TDD patterns can be determined (by either of the serving cell(s), DU, CU, network) based on the TDD patterns of one or a subset of multiple cells or TRPs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 with the cell being a serving cell of Abedini ‘130 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling repeaters to communicate with multiple upstream nodes while avoiding conflicting control information (see Abedini ‘130, par. [0044]).
Claims 14 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moon in view of Abedini ‘433, as applied to claims 1-2, 9-10, 12, 19, and 21 above, and further in view of Tekgul et al. (US 2021/0075497), hereinafter "Tekgul".
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 does not teach:
wherein the apparatus further comprises:
processor circuitry configured to determine transmit power of the first signal and/or transmit power of the second signal.
Tekgul, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the apparatus further comprises:
processor circuitry configured to determine transmit power of the first signal and/or transmit power of the second signal (see Tekgul, par. [0089], lines 4-9: The relay 602 may select its mode based on capabilities of the relay 602, including eligible transmit and/or receive beams for a given mode of operation, a noise figure for the relay 602, a maximum power gain and/or a maximum output power of the relay 602, and see Tekgul, par. [0062], lines 1-4: a relay may receive an analog signal, amplify the power of the received analog signal to generate a repeat signal, and forward the repeat signal (e.g., may operate in an amplify forward mode); in this case, operation of the repeater is selected based on a maximum power gain or maximum output power (corresponding to transmit power of a signal)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 with the determining transmit power of Tekgul with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of optimizing latency and noise levels (see Tekgul, pars. [0061-0064]).
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 does not teach:
wherein the communication processor circuitry is further configured to receive first indication information and/or second indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate parameters related to the transmit power of the first signal, and the second indication information being used to indicate parameters related to the transmit power of the second signal.
Tekgul, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the communication processor circuitry is further configured to receive first indication information and/or second indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate parameters related to the transmit power of the first signal, and the second indication information being used to indicate parameters related to the transmit power of the second signal (see Tekgul, par. [0089], lines 2-9: The base station 604 may provide results or parameters that are used by the relay 602 to select or determine the mode. The relay 602 may select its mode based on capabilities of the relay 602, including eligible transmit and/or receive beams for a given mode of operation, a noise figure for the relay 602, a maximum power gain and/or a maximum output power of the relay 602, and see Tekgul, par. [0101], lines 1-3: at 704, the base station provides information to the relay node, wherein the mode of operation is selected by the relay node based on the information, and see Tekgul, par. [0062], lines 1-4: a relay may receive an analog signal, amplify the power of the received analog signal to generate a repeat signal, and forward the repeat signal (e.g., may operate in an amplify forward mode); in this case, the base station provides parameters which are received and used by the relay. The selection is performed using maximum power gain and maximum output power (corresponding to parameters related to the transmit power of the first and second signal)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Moon in view of Abedini ‘433 with the transmit power indication of Tekgul with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of optimizing latency and noise levels (see Tekgul, pars. [0061-0064]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Kwon et al. (US 2012/0099520) teaches a method for a repeater to transmit and receive a signal on a downlink sub frame in a wireless communication system.
Makki et al. (US 2022/0408490) teaches a method for performing the random access process using a relay node.
Park et al. (US 2014/0226540) teaches a method of transmitting uplink control information by a relay node.
Rom et al. (US 2024/0322882) teaches a method of communicating channel state information between a base station and a repeater.
M. M. Wang ("Dynamic Gain Management for On-Channel Repeaters") teaches a gain management scheme and evaluates the performance of the proposed gain management technique for on-channel repeaters.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CALEB J BALLOWE whose telephone number is (571)270-0410. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI 7:30-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nishant B. Divecha can be reached at (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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