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)(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.
Claims 1-4, 6, 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Abedini et al (US 2021/0235501) (hereinafter Abedini).
Regarding claim 1, Abedini discloses an information transmission method, applied to a first node (e.g., a gNB), the method comprising:
sending a first beam control message to a second node (e.g., MMW repeater), wherein the first beam control message comprises at least beam behavior information, and the beam behavior information is used for indicating a beam control behavior to be executed by the second node (see Abedini, p. [0039], e.g., a network device (e.g., a gNB) may generate and send a RACH configuration message to an MMW repeater. The RACH configuration message may indicate two or more different RX beam sweep configurations for one or more Ros).
Regarding claim 2, Abedini discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the beam behavior information comprises one of:
first beam behavior information for indicating execution of a fixed beam dwell mode;
second beam behavior information for indicating execution of a beam scanning mode (see Abedini, p. [0035], e.g., the two or more different RX beam sweep configurations, and p. [0112], e.g., The gNB may generate and send a RACH configuration message to the MMW repeater indicating a TX beam form 505 and two RX beam forms 802 and 804 to use during RACH procedures); or
third beam behavior information for indicating termination of a beam scanning mode.
Regarding claim 3, Abedini discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the beam scanning mode comprises at least one of: a fixed beam scanning mode (see Abedini, p. [0035]), a wide-beam autonomous sweeping mode, a narrow- beam autonomous sweeping mode, an adjacent wide-beam autonomous sweeping mode, or an adjacent narrow-beam autonomous sweeping mode.
Regarding claim 4, Abedini discloses the method o
the beam information comprises at least one of: a beam identifier, beam angle information, codebook information, antenna module information (see Abedini, p. [0039], e.g., The MMW repeater may use the RACH configuration message to control one or more RX antennas to perform RX beam sweeping during the one or more ROs to receive a RACH message 1 form UE computing device, and p. [0105-0106]), multi-beam, or anisotropic beam information.
Regarding claim 6, Abedini discloses the method of claim 1, wherein sending a first beam control message to a second node is performed in any one of the following manners:
Broadcasting (see Abedini, p. [0106], e.g., the processor may control one or more TX antennas of the MMW repeater according to the RACH configuration message to send the SSB. In various embodiments, in response to the RACH configuration message, the processor may control one or more TX antennas to apply a TX beam configuration indicated in the RACH configuration message to broadcast the SSB from the MMW repeater);
Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) transmission;
Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission (see Abedini, p. [0030]);
out-of-band transmission; or in-band transmission.
Regarding claim 11, Abedini discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first beam control message further comprises common channel information, and the common channel information is used for instructing the second node to execute the beam control behavior on a channel corresponding to the common channel information (see Abedini, p. [0035], e.g., the two or more different RX beam sweep configurations, and p. [0112], e.g., The gNB may generate and send a RACH configuration message to the MMW repeater indicating a TX beam form 505 and two RX beam forms 802 and 804 to use during RACH procedures).
Regarding claim 12, Abedini discloses an information transmission method, applied to a second node, the method comprising: receiving a first beam control message sent by a first node (e.g., gNB), wherein the first beam control message comprises at least beam behavior information (e.g., a RACH configuration message), and the beam behavior information is used for indicating a beam control behavior to be executed (see Abedini, p. [0039], e.g., a network device (e.g., a gNB) may generate and send a RACH configuration message to an MMW repeater. The RACH configuration message may indicate two or more different RX beam sweep configurations for one or more Ros); and executing beam control according to at least the beam behavior information (see Abedini, p. [0035], e.g., the two or more different RX beam sweep configurations, and p. [0112], e.g., The gNB may generate and send a RACH configuration message to the MMW repeater indicating a TX beam form 505 and two RX beam forms 802 and 804 to use during RACH procedures).
Regarding claim 13, Abedini discloses the method of claim 12, wherein the beam behavior information comprises one of: first beam behavior information for indicating execution of a fixed beam dwell mode; second beam behavior information for indicating execution of a beam scanning mode (see Abedini, p. [0035], e.g., the two or more different RX beam sweep configurations, and p. [0112], e.g., The gNB may generate and send a RACH configuration message to the MMW repeater indicating a TX beam form 505 and two RX beam forms 802 and 804 to use during RACH procedures); or third beam behavior information for indicating termination of a beam scanning mode.
Regarding claim 14, Abedini discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the beam scanning mode comprises at least one of: a fixed beam scanning mode (see Abedini, p. [0035], e.g., the two or more different RX beam sweep configurations, and p. [0112]), a wide-beam autonomous sweeping mode, a narrow- beam autonomous sweeping mode, an adjacent wide-beam autonomous sweeping mode, or an adjacent narrow-beam autonomous sweeping mode.
Regarding claim 15, Abedini discloses the method of claim 12, wherein the first beam control message further comprises beam information of at least one beam, and the beam information is used for determining a beam for which the beam control behavior is to be executed; and the beam information comprises at least one of: a beam identifier, beam angle information, codebook information, antenna module information (see Abedini, p. [0039], e.g., The MMW repeater may use the RACH configuration message to control one or more RX antennas to perform RX beam sweeping during the one or more ROs to receive a RACH message 1 form UE computing device, and p. [0105-0106]) , multi-beam information, or anisotropic beam information.
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.
Claims 5 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abedini in view of Farag et al (US 2022/0210781) (hereinafter Farag).
Regarding claim 5, Abedini does not expressly disclose the method claim 1, wherein the first beam control message further comprises beam activation time information, and the beam activation time information is used for indicating an activation time of a beam for which the beam control behavior is to be executed; and the beam activation time information comprises at least one of: an absolute time of beam activation, an absolute time of beam deactivation, a repetition period of beam activation, a repetition period of beam deactivation, a relative time interval of beam activation, or a relative time interval of beam deactivation.
Farag discloses the above recited limitations (see Farag, Fig. 14, p. [0174], e.g., the UE in step 1402 receives a beam indication with a TCI state and an activation time (T), and the activation time can be relative to the time of reception of the beam indication (or acknowledgment), or an absolute time, and p. [0182], e.g., the TCI state activation time can be an absolute time reference, i.e., symbol number and/or slot number and/or subframe number and/or frame number.)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Farag’s teachings into Abedini. The suggestion/motivation would have been to provide beam indications to predictive beam management in a wireless communication system.
Regarding claim 16, the combined teaching of Abedini and Farag disclose the method of claim 12, wherein the first beam control message further comprises beam activation time information, and the beam activation time information is used for indicating an activation time of a beam for which the beam control behavior is to be executed; and the beam activation time information comprises at least one of: an absolute time of beam activation, an absolute time of beam deactivation, a repetition period of beam activation, a repetition period of beam deactivation, a relative time interval of beam activation, or a relative time interval of beam deactivation (see Farag, Fig. 14, p. [0174], e.g., the UE in step 1402 receives a beam indication with a TCI state and an activation time (T), and the activation time can be relative to the time of reception of the beam indication (or acknowledgment), or an absolute time, and p. [0182], e.g., the TCI state activation time can be an absolute time reference, i.e., symbol number and/or slot number and/or subframe number and/or frame number.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-10, 17-20 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
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/MINH TRANG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
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