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 regarding the 103 rejection have been carefully considered and they are not persuasive. As indicated in the new ground office action, the combination of the references clearly teaches each and every limitation in the amended claims. Especially, Chen teaches transmitting a DL signals to a first remote unit over the wireless backhaul channel (Chen, [0061][0074][0079], to receive a downlink (DL) message over a backhaul (BH) network comprising control data). More derailed response can be found in the rejection of claim 1.
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 1-5, and 12 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Choi (US 20110007695) in view of Classon (US20070064669) further in view of Drewes (US 20140064067) further in view of Chen (US 20110149774).
Regarding claim 1, Choi discloses a method for communicating over a wireless backhaul channel, comprising:
generating a radio frame comprising a plurality of time slots, wherein each time slot comprises a plurality of symbols in time and a plurality of sub-carriers in a system bandwidth, and wherein the radio frame comprises an adjustable link directionality ratio of a number of the time slots for an uplink (UL) direction and the number of time slots for a downlink (DL) direction to provide traffic load balancing (Fig. 2, [0030]-[0032], a radio frame consists of slots, a slot may include symbols, subframe may be available for downlink and uplink transmission in each interval; signals the allocation of physical radio resources for data transmission on a Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH) and an Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH) through a control channel mapped on physical resource blocks, that is adjust ratio of DL and UL directions; [0003][0061][0062]);
broadcasting a broadcast channel signal to a plurality of remote units in a number of sub-carriers ([0040], the broadcast channel may carry information to be broadcasted in the mobile cell; fig.7),
wherein the broadcast channel signal comprises a transmission schedule comprising slot assignments that indicate a link direction and a transmission opportunity for a first of the plurality of remote units ([0040], BCH may carry system information such as downlink bandwidth information and number of OFDM symbols assigned; a UE is assigned network resources in time domain [0017], [0068], the parameter “DL bandwidth” on P-BCH); and
transmitting a DL control channel signal and a DL data channel signal to a first remote unit over the wireless ([0035][0036], PDSCH is used for DL data transmission; PDCCH carries the control information related to downlink transmissions such as resource allocation of DL-SCH),
wherein the broadcast channel signal, the DL control channel signal, and the DL data channel signal are transmitted by employing a time-frequency multiplex scheme (fig. 7, various channel signals are transmitted using a time-frequency scheme).
Choi does not explicitly disclose the DL data channel signal is transmitted by employing a single carrier block transmission scheme comprising a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) spreading for frequency diversity.
Classon discloses the DL data channel signal is transmitted by employing a single carrier block transmission scheme comprising a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) spreading for frequency diversity (Classon: [0043], the data transmission may be DL, the transmission scheme may be signal carrier DFT-spread OFDM).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi and the teachings (DFT spreading) given by Classon. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure that different frame sizes are better or near optimal to the assigned or scheduled traffic type in each band (Classon: [0058]).
Choi in view of Classon does not expressly disclose a broadcast channel signal to a plurality of remote units in a number of consecutive sub-carriers centered about a direct current (DC) sub-carrier in at least one of the time slots in the radio frame regardless of the system bandwidth.
Drewes discloses a broadcast channel signal to a plurality of remote units in a number of consecutive sub-carriers centered about a direct current (DC) sub-carrier in at least one of the time slots in the radio frame regardless of the system bandwidth (Drewes: [0133], the PBCH may be mapped in the frequency-domain to 72 subcarriers (=6 PRBs) around the
DC subcarrier and in the time-domain to the first 4 OFDMA symbols in slot 1 in each radio frame).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi and Classon with the teachings given by Drewes. The motivation for doing so would have been to support easy implementation and less hardware change (Drewes: [0087]).
It should be noted that, based on the subject matter from the LTE overview articles and citations from Choi, Choi (and 3GPP standards) inherently discloses the subject matter of an adjustable link directionality ratio of a number of the time slots for an uplink (UL) direction and the number of time slots for a downlink (DL) direction to provide traffic load balancing and 3GPP implicitly discloses communication between the network node and remote using wireless backhaul channel. To further clarify this feature and to provide support for the above note, Chen discloses, [0061][0074][0079][0087][0092] [0094], to receive a downlink (DL) message over a backhaul (BH) network comprising control data; the downlink/uplink backhaul configuration may satisfy downlink/uplink pairing as much as possible while taking the loading into account; the downlink/uplink configuration is flexible/adjustable: the downlink configuration may be either 10 ms or 40 ms, the uplink configuration may be downlink dependent. In one example, if the downlink is based on 40 ms, the uplink may be based on 8 ms. In another example, if the downlink is based on 10 ms, the uplink may be based on 10 ms, In one example, the configuration may be explicit which is flexible, symmetric, and has better load adaptation.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings of exchanging configuration information as given by Choi and Classon with the teachings of flexible uplink/downlink backhaul configuration given by Chen. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a consistent timing configuration for relay operation that accommodates new as well as legacy electronic devices and standards (Chen, [0010]).
Regarding claim 2, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1, wherein each time slot comprises a fixed time duration, and wherein the transmission schedule comprises a scheduling period about a half radio frame time duration or a full radio frame time duration (Choi: fig. 2, [0030], a slot may be half-millisecond, 10 subframe may be available for DL and UL transmission; [0033], resource allocation may be allocated on a subframe basis).
Regarding claim 3, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the fixed time duration comprises about 0.5 milliseconds (ms) to provide low transmission latency, and wherein the radio frame comprises about twenty time slots (Choi: [0030], each radio frame is 10 ms long and may include or consist of 20 half-millisecond slots).
Regarding claim 4, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting a pilot sequence (PS) in a symbol time spanning all the sub-carriers in the system bandwidth (Classon: fig. 22, the pilot signal is spanning all the carriers), wherein the PS comprises a pre-determined sequence comprising signal properties that provide channel estimation capabilities in the system bandwidth (Classon: [0080][0095], frame start may be based on the pilot symbol; a subframe is defined to include a single common pilot symbol; the subframe duration may be determined simply by the common pilot spacing ).
Regarding claim 5, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 4, wherein the PS is transmitted at a beginning of each time slot assigned for the DL direction to provide low receive processing latency at the remote units (Classon: [0094], a common pilot symbol (CPS) reference symbol may be the first symbol within a subframe (TDM pilot)).
Regarding claim 12, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast channel signal and the DL control channel signal are transmitted by employing the single carrier block transmission scheme (Classon: [0031][0043], the transmission may be DL and broadcast channel, the transmission scheme may be signal carrier DFT-spread OFDM; subframe is block; fig. 14).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Kim (US 20140044104).
Regarding claim 6, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 4,
Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen do not expressly disclose the PS is transmitted at about a middle of each time slot assigned for the DL direction to provide channel estimation with low timing drift in a time-varying channel.
Kim discloses the PS is transmitted at about a middle of each time slot assigned for the DL direction to provide channel estimation with low timing drift in a time-varying channel (Kim: [0115], reference signals may be moved to the middle of the slot to improve the channel estimation).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi, Classon and Drewes with the teachings given by Kim. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve channel estimation (Kim: [0115]).
Claims 7-11 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Li (US20130201925).
Regarding claim 7, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1,
Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen do not expressly disclose the radio frame comprises at least one specific time slot comprising a DL time period, a guard time period to provide a link direction switching opportunity, and an UL time period to provide an UL random access opportunity, and wherein the broadcast channel signal is broadcasted in the DL time period of the specific time slot.
Li discloses the radio frame comprises at least one specific time slot comprising a DL time period, a guard time period to provide a link direction switching opportunity, and an UL time period to provide an UL random access opportunity, and wherein the broadcast channel signal is broadcasted in the DL time period of the specific time slot (Li: figs.2 and 3, SP, [0036][0037], some slots are for DL, some for UL and SP includes guard time, and broadcast is in the DL slots).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi, Classon and Drewes with the teachings given by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently and effectively transmit large amount of control info (Li: [0002]).
Regarding claim 8, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Li discloses the method of claim 7, wherein the DL time period comprises about four symbols, wherein the guard time period comprises about one symbol, and wherein the UL time period comprises about two symbols (Choi: [0037], the DL occupies 4 symbols, since there are finite symbols per time period, the guard period can be adjusted to be one symbol and the UL can be two symbols; Li: [0037]. Note: it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to a person of ordinary skill in the art to adjust the number of symbols in the teaching Choi, since such a modification would have involved a simple adjustment of variables, which would have been within the general knowledge of an artisan in the art).
Regarding claim 9, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Li discloses the method of claim 7, wherein the specific time slot is located at about a third time slot in the radio frame, at about a thirteenth time slot in the radio frame, or combinations thereof (Li: fig. 2, the SP is illustrated at the second time slot; Note: it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to a person of ordinary skill in the art to adjust the number of symbols in the teaching Li, since such a modification would have involved a simple adjustment of variables (from second to third), which would have been within the general knowledge of an artisan in the art).
Regarding claim 10, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Li discloses the method of claim 7 further comprising transmitting a synchronization sequence (SS) in a same set of sub-carriers as the broadcast channel signal in the DL time period of the specific time slot by time multiplexing with the broadcast channel signal, wherein the SS comprises a pre-determined sequence comprising signal properties that provide signal detection capabilities for identifying the radio frame (Classon: fig. 14, [0074], synchronization symbols and broadcast channel control information are transmitted in some slot by time multiplexing. [0078], the sync information may convey information about the layout of the radio frame).
Regarding claim 11, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Li discloses the method of claim 10, wherein the SS is transmitted in about one symbol time, and wherein the broadcast channel signal is transmitted in about two symbol time (Classon: fig. 14, [0074], synchronization symbol occupies one symbol time and broadcast channel control information occupies 4 symbol times. Choi: [0037], the DL occupies 4 symbols (which can be adjusted), which indicates that SS can occupy 4 symbols. Note: it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to a person of ordinary skill in the art to adjust the number of symbols in the teaching of Classon or Choi, since such a modification would have involved a simple adjustment of variables, which would have been within the general knowledge of an artisan in the art).
Claims 13 and 15 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Nakao (US20110134874).
Regarding claim 13, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1,
Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen do not expressly disclose the DL control channel signal is transmitted in a first set of the sub-carriers located near a higher frequency edge of the system bandwidth and a second set of the sub-carriers located near a lower frequency edge of the system bandwidth.
Nakao discloses the DL control channel signal is transmitted in a first set of the sub-carriers located near a higher frequency edge of the system bandwidth and a second set of the sub-carriers located near a lower frequency edge of the system bandwidth (Nakao: [0194], a PDCCH placed in the downlink component band on the higher frequency side, the base station has to transmit a response signal using a PHICH placed in the downlink component band on the lower frequency side).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi, Classon and Drewes with the teachings given by Nakao. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the use efficiency of frequency (Nakao: [0025]).
Regarding claim 15, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving a UL data channel signal comprising a UL data frame from the first remote unit; generating a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback signal according to a reception status of the UL data frame (Choi: [0039], may carry HARQ in response to uplink transmission; that is a uplink transmission has been received and a HARQ feedback is generated based on the uplink transmission);
Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen do not expressly disclose mapping the HARQ feedback signal to a first set of the sub-carriers located near a higher frequency edge of the system bandwidth; and repeating the mapping of the HARQ feedback signal to a second set of the subcarriers located near a lower frequency edge of the system bandwidth.
Nakao discloses mapping the HARQ feedback signal to a first set of the sub-carriers located near a higher frequency edge of the system bandwidth; and repeating the mapping of the HARQ feedback signal to a second set of the subcarriers located near a lower frequency edge of the system bandwidth (Nakao: [0194], a PDCCH placed in the downlink component band on the higher frequency side, the base station has to transmit a response signal using a PHICH (Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel) placed in the downlink component band on the lower frequency side).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi, Classon and Drewes with the teachings given by Nakao. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the use efficiency of frequency (Nakao: [0025]).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen further in view of Baldemair (US20110014911).
Regarding claim 14, Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen disclose the method of claim 1,
Choi, Classon, Drewes and Chen do not expressly disclose the slot assignments comprise a slot assignment for the first remote unit for UL transmission, wherein the DL control channel signal further comprises UL control information for the UL transmission, and wherein the method further comprises: combining at least some of the DL control information and at least some of the UL control information to generate a control frame; and computing a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) for the control frame.
Baldemair discloses the slot assignments comprise a slot assignment for the first remote unit for UL transmission, wherein the DL control channel signal further comprises UL control information for the UL transmission, and wherein the method further comprises: combining at least some of the DL control information and at least some of the UL control information to generate a control frame; and computing a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) for the control frame (Baldemair: [0053], PDCCH contains the Downlink Control Information (DCI)-which typically contains either a DL assignment or an UL grant-and a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC); [0055]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to utilize the teachings as given by Choi, Classon and Drewes with the teachings given by Baldemair. The motivation for doing so would have been to make sure that a PDCCH has been correctly decoded and to address the terminal (Baldemair: [0054]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474