Detailed Action
1. The Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s communication filed on 06/18/2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 1-20 are currently pending in this Office Action.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. 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 § 103
3. 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.
4. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
5. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ronkainen et al. Pub. No.: US 2020/0086884 A1 in view of Narasimha et al. Pub. No.: US 2021/0378041 A1.
Claim 1
Ronkainen discloses a cellular network communication system (a cellular communication system in fig. 1-29), comprising:
PNG
media_image1.png
638
540
media_image1.png
Greyscale
a primary access point (gNR or gNB in par. 0003 & 0132 or IAB-donor 200a in fig. 1), comprising:
a wired high speed network connection (wired backhaul in fig. 5 and wired and wireless interface in par. 0140, see par. 0129 & 0134 for 5G, NR and WiFi that have capability for high speed, unless claim further recites what are required to be high speed for instance, 1Gbs or 10 Gbs);
a cellular interface (Interface QQ190 in fig. 21 and par. 0140) through which a cellular backhaul communication channel is established (see wireless backhaul connection between IAB node and Donor node or gNB in par. 0003) between a secondary access point (IAB-node 200b in fig. 1) and the primary access point using a cellular network communication protocol (see F1-C, E1, F1-U communication interfaces in fig. 2 and backhaul link or IAB link in fig. 3 and see par. 0129 for LTE, 4G or %G protocol and par. 0134 for NR & WiFi protocol; see evidence for primary and secondary in Balakrishna et al. Patent No.: US 11,864,005 B1); and
the secondary access point (IAB-node 200b in fig. 1 and network node in fig. 21), comprising:
a second cellular interface (Interface QQ190 in fig. 21 and par. 0140, see par. 0129 & 0134 for 3G, LTE, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, NR, 4G & 5G) through which one or more user equipment (UE) communicate (wireless device in fig. 21 and UE in fig. 1, see 300a,b,c in fig. 3), via the cellular network communication protocol, with the secondary access point and access the wired high speed network connection via the cellular backhaul communication channel (wired connection in fig. 5 and see par. 0140 for interfacing and par. 0129 & 0134 for UMTS, 3G, LTE, 4G, GSM, WCDMA, NR as cellular protocols); and
a third cellular interface (Interface QQ190 in fig. 21 and par. 0140, see par. 0129 & 0134 for 3G, LTE, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, NR, 4G & 5G) through which the cellular backhaul communication channel is established with the primary access point using the cellular network communication protocol (fig. 5 and see par. 0140 for interfacing and par. 0129 & 0134 for UMTS, 3G, LTE, 4G, GSM, WCDMA, NR as cellular protocols).
However, Ronkainen mentions antennas, arrays and MIMO (par. 0142), Ronkainen does not explicitly show a second cellular interface and a third cellular interface in IAB-node of fig. 1 & 21 of Ronkainen. To advance the prosecution, further evidence is provided herein.
PNG
media_image2.png
512
686
media_image2.png
Greyscale
In particular, Narasimha teaches interfaces of baseband circuit (3G BB 806, 4G BB 808, 5G BB 810 in fig. 9) for UE or RAN node (par. 0095 and see fig. 8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Integrated access and backhaul in a cellular communication of Ronkainen by providing a baseband circuit as taught in Narasimha. Such a modification would have included a baseband circuit into an integrated access and backhaul IAB node or a user equipment UE in a wireless communication system to adapt the communication route in a multi-hop relay network so that the wireless coverage area could be increased and it would have recovered backhaul failures as suggested in abstract of Narasimha.
Claim 2
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein the primary access point further comprises a fourth cellular interface (Ronkainen, baseband circuitry QQ174 in fig. 21; Narasimha, second and third and fourth cellular interfaces as 806, 808 and 810 in fig. 9) with which one or more additional UE communicate, via the cellular network communication protocol (Ronkainen, more UEs in fig. 1-7; Narasimha, UE 4-6 in fig. 3), with the primary access point and access the wired high speed network connection (Ronkainen, wired connection in fig. 5; Narasimha, NG interfaces via wired connection in par. 0017; for these reason, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement).
Claim 3
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein the cellular network communication protocol is 5G New Radio (NR) (Ronkainen, NR in par. 0134; Narasimha, new radio NR node or gNB as explained in par. 0003 and see fig. 7; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 4
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 3, wherein the secondary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the one or more UE accessing the secondary access point using 5G NR (Ronkainen, NR in par. 0134; Narasimha, 5G in fig. 8-9; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 5
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 4, wherein the secondary access point uses integrated access backhaul to communicate with the primary access point (Ronkainen, IAB-node in fig. 1-7 and see backhaul beam, link in fig. 15; Narasimha, IAB-node in fig. 1 & 3; and thus, the combined prior art meets the claim condition).
Claim 6
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 5, wherein the secondary access point prioritizes communications of the UE based upon slices to which the UE are assigned (Ronkainen, scheduling in fig. 7-19; Narasimha, IAB-node having high priority in par. 0047; accordingly, one of the ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 7
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein:
a first frequency band is used by the second cellular interface to communicate with UE (Ronkainen, 2 GHz and 66 GHz in par. 0142, see different frequency bands with GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G, LTE, WCDMA and NR in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, 3G baseband 806, 4G baseband 808, 5G baseband 810 in fig. 8-9; based on cellular standards, it’s intrinsic for frequency band for 3G, 4G, LTE, 5G and NR standards, please look at FCC or 3GPP and LTE band standards; let’s assume, first frequency band for 3G or 4G; see evidence for antenna for tuning frequency band in fig. 5 of Zhan Pub. No.: US 2018/0139708 A1) and a second frequency band, wholly distinct from the first frequency band (Ronkainen, par. 0129, 0134 & 0142; Narasimha, 806, 808, 810 in fig. 8-9; let’s assume second frequency band is 4G), is used by the cellular interface and the third cellular interface for backhaul communications between the secondary access point and the primary access point (Ronkainen, fig. 21 in view of par. 0129, 0134 & 0142 and fig. 2-19; Narasimha, see 3G, 4G, 5G in fig. 8-9 in view of fig. 1-7; for these reasons, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement unless claim further specifically recite what the first and second frequency bands are; see evidence for prioritizing in fig. 6 of Hampel et al. Pub. No.: US 2019/0289492 A1).
Claim 8
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 7, wherein the secondary access point further comprises a WiFi interface through which UE can communicate, via a WiFi communication protocol (Ronkainen, WiFi in par. 0134 & 0147 for fig. 21; Narasimha, 804 in fig. 8 supports WLAN in par. 0099), with the secondary access point and access the Internet via the cellular backhaul communication channel (Ronkainen, IP networks in par. 0130, VoIP in par. 0146 and see fig. 22 and par. 0162, a Wi-Fi network and TCP/IP; Narasimha, wireline IP in fig. 1 and see IP in fig. 2 and narrow band Internet in par. 0146 and internet in par. 0181; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 9
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 8, wherein communications received from the one or more UE via the WiFi interface of the secondary access point are translated by the secondary access point for communication over the cellular backhaul communication channel with the primary access point (Ronkainen, WiFi in par. 0134 & 0147 for fig. 21; Narasimha, 804 in fig. 8 support WLAN in par. 0099, wireline IP in fig. 1 and fig. 2; for these reasons, the combined prior art would have expected by the ordinary skill in the art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale G).
Claim 10
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 9, wherein communications received from the one or more UE via the WiFi interface of the secondary access point are interspersed with communications received from one or more additional UE via the third cellular interface through the cellular network communication protocol according to a defined prioritization scheme (Ronkainen, fig. 1-19 depicts the additional UE could be scheduled for transmitting and receiving; see WiFi in par. 0134 & 0147 and interface in fig. 21; Narasimha, IAB node with high priority in par. 0047 and see baseband in fig. 8-9 and Wireline IP in fig. 1 and IP transformation in fig. 2; for these reasons, the combined prior art would have renders the claim obvious, see evidence for prioritizing packet forwarding in fig. 5 of Hampel et al. Pub. No.: US 2019/0289492 A1).
Claim 11
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, further comprising:
a second secondary access point (Ronkainen, one of the IAB-node 200a or 200b in fig. 1, 3, 7, 10, 12 & 15 would be a second secondary access point; Narasimha, one of IAB-node 116, 118, 120, 124 & 126 in fig. 1 and IAB-nodes 1-8 in fig. 3), comprising:
a fifth cellular interface (Ronkainen, baseband in fig. 21 and see MIMO in par. 0142; Narasimha, one of 3G BB 806, 4G BB 808, 5G BB 810 in fig. 8-9 as fifth cellular interface) through which one or more additional UE (pick any additional UE in fig. 1, 3, 7, 10, 12 & 15) can communicate, via the cellular network communication protocol (Ronkainen, GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G, LTE, WCDMA and NR in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, 3G, 4G and 5G in fig. 8-9 are cellular protocols or standards), with the second secondary access point and access the Internet via the cellular backhaul communication channel (Ronkainen, IAB nodes backhauling in fig. 1-19; Narasimha, IAB-node backhauling to fig. 1-7); and
a sixth cellular interface (Ronkainen, baseband in fig. 21 and see MIMO in par. 0142; Narasimha, one of 3G BB 806, 4G BB 808, 5G BB 810 in fig. 8-9 as fifth cellular interface) through which the cellular backhaul communication channel is established with the primary access point using the cellular network communication protocol (Ronkainen, see fig. 2-19 for establishing how backhaul links from IAB-node to parent or donor node; Narasimha, backhaul links in IAB-node in fig. 1-7; accordingly, the combined prior art would have rendered the claim obvious).
Claim 12
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 11, wherein accessing the Internet via the cellular backhaul communication channel comprises performing voice over IP (VoIP) communications via the Internet (Ronkainen, VoIP in par. 0146 in view of fig. 1-19; Narasimha, Wireline IP in fig. 1 and IP transformation in fig. 2 ; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 13
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 11, wherein the secondary access point and the second secondary access point each have no wired connection with any other access point (Ronkainen, wireless backhaul link fig. 1; see other the wireless backhaul link between access nodes in par. 0002 for fig. 1-19; Narasimha, wireless backhaul links IAB-node 118-120 to 104 in fig. 1; hence, the combined prior art meets the claim condition).
Claim 14
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein each of the cellular interface, the second cellular interface, and the third cellular interface use a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication arrangement (Ronkainen, baseband circuit and antenna in fig. 21 and see par. 0142 for MIMO; Narasimha, 3G, 4G, 5G, in fig. 8-9; for these reasons, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 15
Ronkainen discloses a method for using a cellular network communication system (a cellular communication system in fig. 1-29), the method comprising:
PNG
media_image3.png
624
813
media_image3.png
Greyscale
receiving, by a secondary access point (consider one of IAB-node 200a/200b in fig. 1-13), first data from user equipment (UE) (UE in fig. 1-21) using cellular communications (S104 in fig. 13 for receiving uplink user data; see cellular communications GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, WCDMA, LTE, NR in par. 0129 & 0134), wherein:
the cellular network communication system comprises a primary access point (IAB-donor in fig. 1-21) through which a wired high speed network connection (a wired connection in fig. 5) is accessed (see par. 0129 & 0134 for 5G, NR and WiFi that have capability for high speed, unless claim further recites what are required to be high speed for instance, 1Gbs or 10 Gbs); and
the secondary access point uses a cellular backhaul communication channel between the secondary access point and the primary access point using a cellular network communication protocol (see par. 0129 & 0134 for cellular protocols such as GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, WCDMA, LTE, NR) to access the wired high speed network connection (wired connection interfacing in fig. 2 and wired back haul in fig. 5; see par. 0129 & 0134 for 5G, NR and WiFi that have capability for high speed, unless claim further recites what are required to be high speed for instance, 1Gbs or 10 Gbs);
transmitting, by the secondary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel (see fig. 20 for upstream from IAB to Donor, fig. 2, and backhaul link in fig. 3, consider the situation, upstream from IAB-node to IAB-donor in fig. 1-19, see backhaul link in fig. 3), the first data received by the secondary access point from the UE (S104 receive uplink user data in fig. 13);
receiving, by the primary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel, the first data from the secondary access point (Donor would be receiving the user data via upstream in fig. 20 as transmitting schedule as depicted in fig. 13-14); and
transmitting, by the primary access point, via a wired network connection (wired connection in fig. 5), the first data to a cellular network core (Donor would be transmitting the user data via upstream in fig. 20 to the core network of fig. 1 as transmitting and receiving as depicted in fig. 13-14).
Although Ronkainen does not explicitly show: “a cellular backhaul communication channel established between the secondary access point and the primary access point”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
In fact, Ronkainen depicts backhaul links as downstream and upstream between IAB node and Donor (fig. 3, 5 & 20, see channel in par. 0140). Since claim does not specifically define what are involved in establishing backhaul communication channel, the teaching of Ronkainen could have rendered the claim limitation obvious. See MPEP 2111. However, to advance the prosecution, further evidence is provided herein. In particular, Narasimha teaches wireless backhaul links from IAB-node to IAB Donor (fig. 1), wireline IP in IAB-donor (fig. 1), BH RLC channel between IAB-node and IAB-donor (fig. 2) and establishing backhaul links between IAB nodes (par. 0031, re-establishing in par. 0047 and the backhaul link in par. 0048, see details for re-establishing, as to establishing in fig. 4-5, session establishment in par. 0082)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Integrated access and backhaul in a cellular communication of Ronkainen by providing a baseband circuit as taught in Narasimha. Such a modification would have included a baseband circuit into an integrated access and backhaul IAB node in a wireless communication system to adapt the communication route in a multi-hop relay network so that the wireless coverage area could be increased and it would have recovered backhaul failures as suggested in abstract of Narasimha.
Claim 16
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the method for using a cellular network communication system of claim 15, further comprising:
receiving, by the secondary access point, second data (Ronkainen, uplink user data for second or third UE in the same way for the first UE as depicted in S104 in fig. 13 and S204 in fig.14) from a second UE (Ronkainen, consider different UE in fig. 1-19) using wireless local area network (WLAN) communications (Ronkainen, WiFi in par. 0134 & 0147 for fig. 21; Narasimha, 804 in fig. 8 supports WLAN in par. 0099);
transmitting, by the secondary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel (Ronkainen, IAB-node in fig. 1-21 and see GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G, LTE, WCDMA and NR in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, backhaul in fig. 1-2 and see 3G, 4G, 5G BB in fig. 8-9), the second data received by the secondary access point from the second UE (Ronkainen, S108 in fig. 13 for second data);
receiving, by the primary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel (Ronkainen, IAB-node in fig. 1-21 and see GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G, LTE, WCDMA and NR in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, backhaul in fig. 1-2 and see 3G, 4G, 5G BB in fig. 8-9), the second data from the secondary access point (Ronkainen, see fig. 20 for upstream and downstream between Donor and IAB-node for transmitting and receiving, for instance, Donor will receive UE data via IAB-node); and
transmitting, by the primary access point, via the wired network connection (Ronkainen, wireline in fig. 1 and wired backhaul in fig. 5; Narasimha, wireline IP in fig. 1), the second data to the Internet (Ronkainen, see fig. 13-14 & 20, IP networks in par. 0130, VoIP in par. 0146 and see fig. 22 and par. 0162, a Wi-Fi network and TCP/IP; Narasimha, P in fig. 2 and narrow band Internet in par. 0146 and internet in par. 0181; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 17
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the method for using a cellular network communication system of claim 16, further comprising:
performing, by the secondary access point, prioritization among the first data received using the cellular communications and the second data received using the wireless local area network communications (Ronkainen, scheduling in fig. 7-19 for fig. 13-14 & 20; Narasimha, IAB-node having high priority in par. 0047; accordingly, one of the ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F; see evidence for prioritizing in fig. 6 of Hampel et al. Pub. No.: US 2019/0289492 A1).
Claim 18
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the method for using a cellular network communication system of claim 15, wherein a first frequency band (Ronkainen, 2 GHz and 66 GHz in par. 0142, see different frequency bands with GSM, UMTS, 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G, LTE, WCDMA and NR in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, 3G baseband 806, 4G baseband 808, 5G baseband 810 in fig. 8-9; based on cellular standards, it’s intrinsic for frequency band for 3G, 4G, LTE, 5G and NR standards, please look at FCC or 3GPP and LTE band standards; let’s assume, first frequency band for 3G or 4G; see evidence for antenna for tuning frequency band in fig. 5 of Zhan Pub. No.: US 2018/0139708 A1) is used by the secondary access point to communicate with the UE (Ronkainen, fig. 1-21; Narasimha, see fig. 1-3 for communications between UE, IAB-node and IAB-donor) and a second frequency band (Ronkainen, par. 0129, 0134 & 0142; Narasimha, 806, 808, 810 in fig. 8-9; let’s assume second frequency band is 4G), wholly distinct from the first frequency band, is used for cellular backhaul communications between the secondary access point and the primary access point (Ronkainen, fig. 20 for using different bands for upstream and downstream, i.e., intrinsic feature in cellular communication standards in 4G, LTE and 5G mentioned in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, 3G, 4G, 5G in fig. 8-9 and Backhaul in fig. 2-3; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 19
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the method for using a cellular network communication system of claim 17, further comprising:
performing, by the primary access point, prioritization among the first data received using the cellular communications (Ronkainen, scheduling in fig. 7-19 for fig. 13-14 and upstream, downstream in fig. 20, see fig. 21 in view of cellular standards mentioned in par. 0129 & 0134; Narasimha, IAB-node having high priority in par. 0047), the second data received using the wireless local area network communications (Ronkainen, WiFi in par. 0134 & 0147 for fig. 21 and see fig. 13-14 and 21 for second data as UE uplink data; Narasimha, 804 in fig. 8 supports WLAN in par. 0099), and third data received directly by the primary access point from one or more additional UE (Ronkainen, see additional UE in fig. 1-21 for scheduling data for transmitting and receiving in downstream and upstream in fig. 13-14 & 21 with UE uplink data via IAB-node to donor; Narasimha, see fig. 1-9; and thus, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious; see evidence for prioritization in fig. 6 of Hampel et al. Pub. No.: US 2019/0289492 A1).
Claim 20
Ronkainen, in view of Narasimha, discloses the method for using a cellular network communication system of claim 16, wherein receiving, by the primary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel (Ronkainen, Donor in fig. 1-21 and backhauling in fig. 1-12; Narasimha, BH RLC channel in fig. 2 and see IAB-donor in fig. 1-9 and see cellular protocol 3G, 4G, 5G in fig. 8-9), the data from the secondary access point comprises the primary access point serving as a gNodeB for the secondary access point (Ronkainen, IAB-donor of fig. 1 for gNB in fig. 2 in view of upstream and downstream for transmitting and receiving in fig. 13-14 & 21; Narasimha, see gNB in fig. 7 for IAB-donor in fig. 1-6; for these reasons, the combined prior art meet the claim requirement).
Contact Information
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAN HTUN whose telephone number is (571)270-3190. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7 AM - 5 PM.
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, Jinsong Hu can be reached on 5712723965. 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. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SAN HTUN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
Prosecution Insights