CTNF 18/721,507 CTNF 100625 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 06/18/2024, 10/07/2025 and 01/07/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements is being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim s 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Abedini et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0053486 (hereinafter Abedini) . Regarding Claim 1 , Abedini teaches a wireless relay device (“ a wireless repeater device for wireless communication, controlled by a base station, in a wireless communication network ” – See [¶0007]), comprising: a communication unit configured to relay a downlink wireless signal or an uplink wireless signal (“ The repeater device 1000 may include a relay unit (RU) 1002, one or more antenna arrays (or antennas, antenna panels, and/or the like) such as a receive (Rx) array 1004 and a transmit (Tx) array 1006, and an MT unit 1008 ” wherein “[t] he RU 1002 includes an amplifier 1010 for amplifying signals received via the receive array 1004 and transmitting the amplified signals via the transmit array 1006 ” – See [¶0148] and Figs. 9 and 10; furthermore “ Switches 1016, 1018, 1020, and 1022 include one or more components capable of enabling the repeater device 1000 to either relay a signal received via a receive antenna array or to transmit an RF analog signal generated by the repeater device 1000 (e.g., generated by the MT unit 1008) ” – See [¶0154] and “ may be used to multiplex and/or demultiplex communications received from and/or transmitted to an antenna array. For example, switches ( e.g., multiplexer/demultiplexers) may be used to switch an Rx antenna array to a Tx antenna array, or vice versa ” – See [¶0155]); a reception unit configured to receive information related to a control of relaying of the downlink wireless signal or the uplink wireless signal (a “ mobile termination (MT) unit 1008 includes a baseband processor 1012 for processing signals received from a base station (not shown) over a control path . . ., controlling the operation of the RU 1002 as necessary (e.g., via control signaling 1014), and transmitting signals to the base station via the control path, ” – See [¶0148] e.g. , as shown in Fig. 11, “[a] t call 1114, the BS 1102 and the repeater device 1104 perform an RU configuration procedure. Here, the BS 1102 may send control information (e.g., control messages) to configure the operation of an RU. For example, the BS 1102 may send configuration information for an RU (e.g., for RU 1104a and/or RU 1104b) of the repeater device 1104 to the MT unit (not shown) of the repeater device 1104 ” – See [¶0162]; furthermore, “ An RU-specific DCI format, which may be scrambled by an RU-RNTI, may be defined to provide the required configuration ” and “ semi-persistent and periodic configurations may also be supported. Configuration via MAC-CE or RRC (e.g., for semi-persistent/periodic modes) also may be supported ” – See [¶0163]); and a control unit configured to perform the control of relaying the downlink wireless signal or the uplink wireless signal based on the control information (“ The baseband processor 1012 includes one or more components capable of controlling one or more other components of repeater device 1000. For example, the baseband processor 1012 may include a controller, a microcontroller, a processor, and/or the like ” and “ may control a level of amplification or gain applied by the amplifier 1010 to an input signal ,” and/or “ controlling whether the antenna array acts as a receive antenna array or a transmit antenna array ,” and/or “ control timing of one or more of the above configurations ” – See [¶0151] and Fig. 10, e.g. , “ the RU configuration procedure may control the operation of a first RU 1104a (as represented by a line 1116) for DL traffic and control and may control the operation of a second RU 1104b (as represented by a line 1118) for UL traffic ” – See [¶0162] and Fig. 11, and “ if the repeater device is not a bidirectional repeater device, the repeater device may forward communication (e.g., traffic and/or control) in either the UL or DL direction, as determined by a default direction that may be configured to the repeater device ” – See [¶0234]) during a period from reception of the received control information or from a start of application of the received control information until after a specified period (as shown in Fig. 13, “ a period of time that may be equal to or greater than an amount of time N R 1306 it takes the repeater device to process the received propagation delayed R-ctrl information 1304 ” while a first “ UE1-ctrl 1308 is received by the repeater device and re-transmitted (e.g., repeated, re-broadcast) as a propagation delayed UE1 ctrl 1310 at a fourth time t 4 ” – See [¶0173], i.e. , a start of application of the received control information is at t 3 in Fig. 13, and the control information applied to the repeater is “ The control information in the table 1400 may be obtained from at least one of: a downlink control information (DCI) carried, for example, on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a MAC control element (MAC-CE), or configured in RRC signaling ” – See [¶0180] and Fig. 14, indicating a “ time domain resource allocation (TDRA) 1412 ” for the fronthaul-link TCI states and access link TCI states selected among the activated TCI states at the RU and to be used for relaying during the TDRA, i.e. , until after a specified period, whereby the specified period may be a “ plurality of slots in the representation of periodic slot-level beamforming patterns 1702 rang [ing] from slot index 0 to slot index S-1 ,” as indicated by the control information shown in Fig. 14 – See [¶0196] and Fig. 17). Therefore, Claim 1 is anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 2 , dependent from Claim 1, further teaches the wireless relay device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit assumes that the control information is to be received at least one or more times in the specified period or in a specified number of monitoring occasions (“ a relay unit beamforming configuration may be selected using the control information . . . using at least one of: the time division duplex state, the fronthaul-link TCI state index, the access-link TCI state index, or the time domain resource allocation ” – See [¶0228], indicating “ the relay unit to relay the traffic identified by at least one of: the slot location, and the symbol location of the traffic obtained from the time domain resource allocation ” – See [¶0227], e.g. , “ the repeater device may override a slot comprising a previously received periodic slot-level beamforming pattern with a symbol-level beamforming pattern . . . such as the representative slot 1704 may be configured at an RU of a repeater device by a DCI (that may be associated with, or multiplexed with downlink control information of a UE on a PDCCH), by MAC-CE (as depicted in FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B), or by RRC signaling ” – See [¶0197], i.e. , the control unit assumes that the control information is to be received at least one or more times in the specified TDRA period; in the alternative, for “ the TCI state index that is currently being used or was most recently configured ” if “ a DCI at time t0 may indicate an access-link TCI state index value of X, where X is an integer . . . the repeater device may use X as the access-link TCI state index value until another DCI indicates any different access-link TCI state index value ” – See [¶0236] whereby “ the TDRA is obtained from a corresponding TDRA parameter of the MT ” or “ if the TDRA is not present in the control information, an indicated configuration in the control information may be adopted until a next TDRA in a next control information, overrides the adopted configuration. The indicated configuration may be adopted as soon as the control information is successfully decoded, and the content is acquired ” – See [¶0237], i.e., the control unit assumes a specified number of monitoring occasions for receiving anew DCI 1 ). Therefore, Claim 2 is anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 3 , dependent from Claim 1, Abedini further teaches the wireless relay device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit a feedback corresponding to the received control information (“ In an UL transmission, the scheduled entity may utilize one or more REs 306 to carry UL control information (UCI) including one or more UL control channels, such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), to the scheduling entity ” whereby “ the scheduling entity may transmit DCI that may schedule resources for uplink packet transmissions ” and “ UCI may also include HARQ feedback ” – See [¶0078] and Fig. 3; specifically, “ if a DCI at time t0 indicates an access-link TCI state, then the indicated access-link TCI state may be used until another DCI indicates a different access-link TCI state ” and “ where there is a semi-statically configured default access-link TCI state per time resources ” – See [¶0200] the received DCI may either activate a new DL/UL grant and/or release the DL SPS assignment requiring a HARQ-ACK as explained in 3GPP specifications 2 ). Therefore, Claim 3 is anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 4 , dependent from Claim 1, Abedini further teaches the wireless relay device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reception unit further receives a signal related to allowing of a relay operation (“ the repeater device may receive, from the base station, control signaling comprising control information, in association with traffic relayed through, or to be relayed through ” – See [¶0221] and “ the repeater device may obtain a time division duplex state from the control information ” – See [¶0224]; in addition “ a relay unit beamforming configuration may be selected using the control information ” – See [¶0228] whereby “ a presence of a null value [for the TDD state] may indicate that there is no RU activity ,” i.e. , “ a null TCI state may indicate that the RU may power off ” – See [¶0201] and Fig. 14, i.e., instead of allowing DL or UL traffic relay, the RU is indicated to shut off), and the control unit performs the control of relaying the downlink wireless signal or the uplink wireless signal in a case where a relay operation is allowed based on the signal (“ the repeater device may configure the relay unit of the repeater device according to the time division duplex state. Configuring the relay unit according to the time division duplex state may cause the repeater device (or the relay unit of the repeater device) to relay the traffic in a direction indicated by the time division duplex state ” – See [¶0224]). Therefore, Claim 4 is anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 5 , Abedini teaches, in Fig. 21, a communication device comprising: a communication unit configured to transmit or receive a downlink wireless signal or an uplink wireless signal to or from a wireless relay device (“ the processor 2104 may include communication and processing circuitry 2141 configured for various functions, including for example communicating with . . . a wireless communication device, . . ., an IAB node ” – See [¶0250]); a transmission unit (“ a transceiver 2110, one or more antennas/antenna array/antenna module 2120 ” – See [¶0249]) configured to transmit control information related to a control of relaying the downlink wireless signal or the uplink wireless signal to the wireless relay device (“ transmitting, to the repeater device, control information over control signaling to configure a relay unit of the repeater device to communicate traffic ” – See [¶0250]); and a control unit configured to assume that the downlink wireless signal or the uplink wireless signal is to be relayed (“ The processor 2104, as utilized in the base station 2100, may be used to implement any one or more of the processes described herein and illustrated, for example, in FIG. 22 ” – See [¶0249]) based on the control information with the same limitation as recited in Claim 1, using the same language. Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Abedini, Claim 5 is also anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 6 , Abedinin teaches a communication method performed by a wireless relay device (“ a method of transmitting, to the repeater device, control information over control signaling to configure the relay unit of the repeater device to communicate the traffic between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device ” – See [¶0275]), the communication method the steps executed by the communication unit, the reception unit and the control unit of the relay device of Claim 1, with the same limitations as recited in Claim 1 using the same language. Because Claim 1 is anticipated by Abedini, Claim 6 is also anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 7 , dependent from Claim 2, further teaches the wireless relay device as claimed in claim 2, further comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit a feedback corresponding to the received control information (“ In an UL transmission, the scheduled entity may utilize one or more REs 306 to carry UL control information (UCI) including one or more UL control channels, such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), to the scheduling entity ” including “ HARQ feedback, channel state feedback (CSF), such as a CSI report, or any other suitable UCI ” – See [¶0078] and Fig. 3, whereby “[t] he PHY layer 704, 720, 732 may be responsible for transmitting and receiving data on physical channels (e.g., within slots) ” including “ error detection on transport channels and indications to higher layers ” and “ hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) soft-combining ” of multiple (re)transmissions – See [¶0123] and Fig. 7). Therefore, Claim 7 is anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 8 , dependent from Claim 2, Abedini further teaches the wireless relay device as claimed in claim 2, dependent from Claim 1, with the same limitations as recited in Claim 4, using the same language. Because the control unit assumption recited in Claim 2 is independent and technically cumulative with the limitations recited in Claim 4, and each of the Claims 2 and 4 are anticipated by Abedini, Claim 8 is anticipated by Abedini. Regarding Claim 9 , dependent from Claim 3, further teaches the wireless relay device as claimed in claim 3, dependent from Claim 1, wherein the relay device has the same limitations as recited in Claim 4 using the same language. Because the transmission unit transmitting feedback as recited in Claim 3 is independent and technically cumulative with the limitations recited in Claim 4, and each of the Claims 3 and 4 are anticipated by Abedini, Claim 9 is anticipated by Abedini. In sum, Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2) as anticipated by Abedini . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure : Li et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0037457 discloses control information for power savings in smart repeaters; Kuang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0163103 discloses semi-persistent scheduling in sidelink relaying; Yuan et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0195618 discloses Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) transmission; Kusashima et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0022315 discloses Smart Repeater with Intelligent Surface; Black et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0151068 discloses smart repeaters in O-RAN framework; Abedini et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0291443 discloses autonomous BF at the repeater; Hanson et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0083759 discloses repeaters in 5G systems switching between UL and DL operations; Xu et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0056954 discloses unified TCI framework for sidelink relaying; 3GPP TS 38.213 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 16)”; 3GPP TS 38.214 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for data (Release 16)”; 3GPP TS 38.321 V16.7.0 (2021-12), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification (Release 16)”; 3GPP TS 38.331 v16.7.0 (2021-12), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 16)”; 3GPP TS 38.174 V16.4.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Integrated access and backhaul radio transmission and reception (Release 16)”; 3GPP TR 38.874 V16.0.0 (2018-12), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Study on Integrated Access and Backhaul; (Release 16)”; 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #107-e, R1-2112837, Agenda Item: 8.10.2, Title:” Final summary for [107-e-NR-eIAB-02] on other enhancements for simultaneous operation of IAB-node's child and parent links,” Source: Moderator (Qualcomm Incorporated), November 2021. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUCIA GHEORGHE GRADINARIU whose telephone number is (571)272-1377. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm EST. 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, Joseph AVELLINO can be reached at (571)272-3905. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478 /JOSEPH E AVELLINO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 2 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 3 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 4 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 5 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 6 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 7 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 8 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 9 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 10 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 11 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 12 Art Unit: 2478 Application/Control Number: 18/721,507 Page 13 Art Unit: 2478 1 Abedini teaches 3GPP NR compliant embodiments (“ the RAN 104 may operate according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, often referred to as 5G ” or “ hybrid of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, often referred to as Long Term Evolution (LTE) ” – See [¶0040] while “ a repeater device that relays traffic between two nodes ( e.g., entities, devices) ” may be a “ UEs, integrated access and backhaul (IAB) nodes, base stations (including the base station controlling the relay), and/or other repeater devices ” – See [¶0038]); and 3GPP TS 38.213 V16.7.0 (2021-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 16)”(hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.213) teaches, in § 10.1, at page 108, UE procedure for determining PDCCH assignment whereby “ UE monitors PDCCH candidates in one or more . . .search spaces ” configure, e.g. , by RRC IEs provided searchSpaceSIB1 or PDCCH-ConfigCommon and “ for each DL BWP configured to a UE in a serving cell . . . for each search space set from the S search space sets, the UE is provided . . . - a PDCCH monitoring periodicity of k s slots and a PDCCH monitoring offset of o s slots, by monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset - a PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot, indicating first symbol(s) of the CORESET within a slot for PDCCH monitoring, by monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot - a duration of T s < k s slots indicating a number of slots that the search space set s exists by duration - a number of PDCCH candidates M s ( L ) per CCE aggregation level L by aggregationLevel1, aggregationLevel2, aggregationLevel4, aggregationLevel8, and aggregationLevel16, for CCE aggregation level 1, CCE aggregation level 2, CCE aggregation level 4, CCE aggregation level 8, and CCE aggregation level 16, respectively ;” and an indication of the DCI format “ to monitor PDCCH candidates for DCI format ”; finally “ A UE determines a PDCCH monitoring occasion on an active DL BWP from the PDCCH monitoring periodicity, the PDCCH monitoring offset, and the PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot ” – See id ., at page 111-112; see also Table 10.1-2, at page 114, indicating the “ maximum number of monitored PDCCH candidates per slot for a DL BWP with SCS configuration μ ∈ {0,1,2,3} for a single serving cell .” 2 Section 10.2, 3GPP TS 38.213 further describes, at page 120-122, how a “ UE validates, for scheduling activation or scheduling release, a DL SPS assignment PDCCH or a configured UL grant Type 2 PDCCH . . . . if validation is for scheduling activation and if the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field in the DCI format is present; ” in addition, a “ UE is expected to provide HARQ-ACK information in response to a SPS PDSCH release after N symbols from the last symbol of a PDCCH providing the SPS PDSCH release ”; otherwise, “ Validation of the DCI format is achieved if all fields for the DCI format are set according to Table 10.2-4 ” and “ If validation is not achieved, the UE discards all the information in the DCI format .”
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