DETAILED ACTION
An 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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS’s) submitted on 08/20/2024 and 02/13/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Elkotby et al. (US 20240215067 A1), hereinafter, Elkotby.
Regarding Claim 1, Elkotby teaches a communication method (¶0003; FIG. 16, network-controlled method; FIG. 17, device-controlled method), comprising: determining, by a terminal device, a transmission mode (Elkotby, FIG. 16, ¶¶0163-0166, at 1610-1860 transmission mode determination flow incl. at 1610, WTRU/terminal device receiving interrogator selection and backscattering based occasion configuration information based on any of the received signal strength measurement to [determine] at 1670 falling back to a legacy RACH procedure or at 1680a backscattering procedure/”mode”; see also ¶0046, ¶0051, the WTRU 102/” terminal device” with multi-mode capabilities; see also ¶0090 RF circuitry of WTRU/” terminal device” that may be capable of enabling passive signal transmissions in the absence of active power supply);
wherein the transmission mode comprises an active transmission mode and a back scattering transmission mode (Elkotby, ¶¶0143-0145, the WTRU may use an interrogation signal to harvest the energy to power its uplink transmissions [and]. . . modulate a reflected (e.g., backscattered) interrogation signal based on e.g., a set of antenna loads, which examiner interprets to correspond to “a backscattering operation mode”; ¶0177, alternative in case where ¶0293. . .the WTRU may fallback to (e.g., legacy non-backscattered based) . . . [b]y “legacy RACH transmission” it is meant throughout embodiments described herein, an active transmission (e.g., non-backscattered based); see also FIG. 16, ¶0305; FIG. 17, ¶0328).
Regarding Claim 2, Elkotby teaches Claim 1.
Elkotby further teaches in response to that the transmission mode is the active transmission mode, transmitting, by the terminal device, information by using a first transmitter (Elkotby, FIG. 1B, ¶0047, the transceiver 120, coupled to ¶0049, transmit/receive element 122 [of WTRU],configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116; FIG. 16; FIG. 17, at ¶0293. . .the WTRU may fallback to (e.g., legacy non-backscattered based) . . . [b]y “legacy RACH transmission” it is meant throughout embodiments described herein, an active transmission (e.g., non-backscattered based, interpreted to correspond to “the active transmission mode”) or
in response to that the transmission mode is the back scattering transmission mode, transmitting, by the terminal device, information by using a second transmitter (Elkotby, FIG. 1B, ¶0047, the transceiver 120, coupled to ¶0049, transmit/receive element 122 [of WTRU],configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116; FIG. 11, at 1130; FIG. 13, at 1380; FIG. 16, at 1680; FIG. 17, at 1770, WTRU transmitting/backscattering a PRACH Preamble/ “information”; see also ¶¶0143-0145, the WTRU may use an interrogation signal to harvest the energy to power its uplink transmissions [and]. . . modulate a reflected (e.g., backscattered) interrogation signal based on e.g., a set of antenna loads, which examiner interprets to correspond to “a backscattering operation mode”).
Regarding Claim 3, Elkotby teaches Claim 2.
Elkotby further teaches wherein the terminal device comprises a first transmitter with an active transmission capability and a second transmitter based on a back scattering technology (Elkotby, ¶0046, the WTRU/” terminal device” may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links).
Regarding Claim 4, Elkotby teaches Claim 1.
Elkotby further teaches transmitting, by the terminal device, capability information (¶¶0331-0332, cited as follows herein);
wherein the capability information is used to report that the terminal device supports the active transmission mode and the back scattering transmission mode (Elkotby, ¶0331 in a first step, a (e.g., semi) passive WTRU may report (e.g., transmit information indicating backscattering) capability);
wherein the capability information is carried by first information transmitted by the terminal device to a network device (Elkotby, ¶0332 (e.g., in a first step) the serving base station may receive capability information indicating the WTRU's capability, (interpreted to correspond to “the first information”) and may configure (e.g., transmit configuration information to) the WTRU . . .).
Regarding Claim 5, Elkotby teaches Claim 4.
Elkotby further teaches receiving, by the terminal device, a response message for the capability information; wherein the response message is used to indicate that the terminal device uses the back scattering transmission mode (Elkotby, ¶0331, the WTRU may receive monitoring configuration information indicating a monitoring configuration of the interrogation signal strength . . . (e.g., in a second step) the WTRU may measure the received signal strength of the interrogation signal (e.g., concurrently) during backscattering transmissions based on the received monitoring configuration and reported capability).
Regarding Claim 6, Elkotby teaches Claim 1.
Elkotby further teaches receiving, by the terminal device, first indication information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the transmission mode (Elkotby, ¶0270, the WTRU/”terminal device” . . . may receive (e.g., in a first step), for example, through any of RRC signaling, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling and system information, (e.g., configuration) information/“first indication information”); wherein the first indication information comprises a first radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a first medium access control control element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI) (Elkotby, ¶0270-¶0272 the WTRU which may be capable of (e.g., willing to, interested in) operating as an interrogator may receive (e.g., in a first step), for example, through any of RRC signaling, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling and system information, (e.g., configuration) information comprising indications; see also ¶0331, the WTRU may continue RRC connection operation with UL backscattering based on the newly received (e.g., determined) configuration).
Regarding Claim 7, Elkotby teaches Claim 6.
Elkotby further teaches the first indication information is determined by a network device based on at least one of a service scenario, power saving requirement information of the terminal device, or a channel condition of the terminal device (Elkotby, ¶0315, the backscattering WTRU may decide to limit the number of scanning occasions to a number that may be lower than the number of available scanning occasions (e.g., n<N) and may utilize the saved (e.g., corresponding) power for the direct transmission of a PRACH preamble (e.g., in response to any of the paging message and the higher layer request).
Regarding Claim 8, Elkotby teaches Claim 1.
Elkotby further teaches determining, by the terminal device, the transmission mode based on an information transmission process (Elkotby, ¶0144, a backscattering WTRU may modulate a reflected (e.g., backscattered) interrogation signal based on e.g., a set of antenna loads; interpreted to correspond to “an information transmission process”).
Regarding Claim 9, Elkotby teaches Claim 8.
Elkotby further teaches determining, by the terminal device, the transmission mode based on the information transmission process comprises: using, by the terminal device, the active transmission mode when performing system access (Elkotby, FIG. 16 at 1660; FIG. 17 at 1760, absent ACK or detected preamble/ interrogation, WTRU falling back to Legacy RACH Procedure / “active transmission mode”; FIG. 19, ¶0349 a method 1900 for selecting a backscattering operation mode and a timing advance configuration during RRC connection establishment / “performing system access”).
Regarding Claim 10, Elkotby teaches Claim 9.
Elkotby further teaches using, by the terminal device, the active transmission mode when performing the system access comprises: using, by the terminal device, the active transmission mode before an RRC connection is established (Elkotby, FIG. 19; at 1980 the WTRU may receive a RACH response message from the serving base station comprising contention resolution and a (e.g., differential) timing advance command that may indicate a timing advance to be used for uplink transmissions with respect to the synchronization that may have been performed with the interrogating WTRU based on the interrogation signal).
Regarding Claim 11, Elkotby teaches Claim 9.
Elkotby further teaches using, by the terminal device, the active transmission mode when performing the system accessing comprises: using, by the terminal device, the active transmission mode when the terminal device transmits first information to a network device (Elkotby, FIG. 16 at 1660; FIG. 17 at 1760, absent ACK or detected preamble/ interrogation, WTRU falling back to Legacy RACH Procedure / “active transmission mode”; FIG. 19 follows).
Regarding Claim 12, Elkotby teaches Claim 8.
Elkotby further teaches using, by the terminal device, the back scattering transmission mode after receiving a response message for system access (Elkotby, FIG. 19, at 1980, the WTRU may receive a RACH response message from the serving base station comprising contention resolution).
Regarding Claim 13, Elkotby teaches Claim 1.
Elkotby further teaches determining, by the terminal device, the transmission mode based on a channel condition (Elkotby, FIG. 20, ¶0407 a step 2010, a WTRU may receive an interrogation signal from an interrogating WTRU, the interrogation signal may comprise a preamble that may be associated with a bi-static backscattering operation / the transmission mode).
Regarding Claim 14, Elkotby teaches Claim 13.
Elkotby further teaches determining, by the terminal device, the transmission mode based on a magnitude relationship between channel measurement information and a first threshold value (Elkotby, FIG. 20, ¶0407, at 2020 the WTRU may determine that a received signal strength of the interrogation signal may be above a first threshold) wherein the channel measurement information comprises at least one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) (Elkotby, ¶0407 see also ¶0158-0159, a received signal strength of the interrogation signal may be obtained (e.g., measured), for example based on any of a RSRP and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ); ¶0298, the WTRU may measure received signal strength (e.g., any of RSRP and RSRQ) e.g., based on (e.g., existing) reference signals).
Regarding Claim 15, Elkotby teaches Claim 14.
Elkotby further teaches receiving, by the terminal device, second indication information (Elkotby, ¶0270, the WTRU/”terminal device” . . . may receive (e.g., in a first step), for example, through any of RRC signaling, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling and system information, (e.g., configuration) information/“second indication information”);wherein the second indication information is used to indicate the first threshold value (Elkotby, the passive WTRU may determine in which backscattering coverage ring (e.g., signal strength category) it may belong based on any of the received signal strength measurement, backscattering capability (e.g., any of reflection coefficient and efficiency), and e.g., configured thresholds); wherein the second indication information comprises a broadcast signaling, a second RRC signaling or a second MAC CE (Elkotby, FIG. 19, ¶0357, at at 1920 the WTRU may receive any of a paging message and a higher layer request to establish an (e.g., RRC) connection).
Regarding Claim 16, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 1 and is rejected same rationales of Claim 1 (from perspective of network device).
Regarding Claims 17 -18, the claims disclose similar features of Claim 6 and are rejected based on the same rationales of Claim 6.
Regarding Claim 19, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 1 and is rejected same rationales of Claims 1in apparatus form (a terminal device (Elkotby, FIG. 1B, ¶0047, WTRU 102), comprising: a processor (FIG. 1B, ¶0047, processor 118) and a memory wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, (FIG. 1B, ¶0047, non-removable memory 130; removable Memory 132).
Regarding Claim 20, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 16 and is rejected same rationales of Claims 16 in apparatus form (Elkotby a network device (Elkotby, FIG. 1A, ¶0031, base station 114).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Elkotby et al. (US 20250016822 A1): Abstract, ¶0002; methods and apparatus for waveform design and signaling for energy harvesting (EH) in a wireless network; ¶0153 WTRU(s)may also use a combination of active and backscattering transmission where a WTRU may utilize its power source to boost the power of the backscattered signal.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACY L WILLIAMS whose telephone number is 571-270-7694. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8:30-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at 571-270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TRACY L WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465 /CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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