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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 8, 14-17, 29 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Huang et al. (WO 2021031919 A1, see USPTO supplied English language translation).
Huang teaches a reflective communication system (i.e. backscatter communication at the bottom of page 11 of English language translation) where the reflector can have double-sideband or single-side modulation abilities (top of page 12).
With respect to the claims, references to the prior art appear in parenthesis.
Claims
1. An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Huang et al. English language translation of WO 2021031919 A1 where the reflector is considered as a user equipment for reflective/backscatter communication) , comprising: at least one processor; and memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to:
transmit an indication of a baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE for backscatter communications (Reporting capabilities (1)-(6) on pages 15-16) , the baseband frequency shift type comprising one or both of a single-side frequency shift or a double-side frequency shift (Single-side and double-side frequency offset of the center frequency at the bottom of page 13) ;
receive a control message that indicates a frequency domain resource allocation for backscatter communications at the UE, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation corresponds to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Frequency resource allocation based on single-sideband or double-sideband modulation at the top of page 14 where the controller sends a scheduling instruction according to the availably frequency resource in step 603 at the bottom of page 17) ; and
transmit one or more backscatter communications based at least in part on the frequency domain resource allocation indicated by the control message, wherein the one or more backscatter communications are frequency shifted according to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Example (c) where the transceiver (i.e. network entity) sends the excitation signal and receives the reflected signal from the user terminal) .
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to: receive downlink control information that indicates a default frequency domain resource allocation for backscatter communications at the UE (Controller sends scheduling instructions to the reflector which indicates default frequency domain resource allocation in the middle of page 18) .
14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions to transmit the one or more backscatter communications are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to:
receive a downlink shared channel transmission via a downlink baseband frequency (Example (b) where the dedicated exciter sends a downlink transmission and the user terminal receives the reflected signal in the middle of page 13) ; and signal the one or more backscatter communications by frequency shifting the downlink shared channel transmission with respect to the downlink baseband frequency and modifying one or both of an amplitude or a phase of the downlink shared channel transmission (Typical reflector can only perform a limited number of amplitude and/or phase modulations on the received excitation signal at the bottom of page 13) .
15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions to transmit the one or more backscatter communications are executable by the at least one processor to cause the UE to:
receive an uplink shared channel transmission via an uplink baseband frequency (Example (a) where the user terminal send an exciter signal that is uplink towards the base station in the middle of page 13); and signal the one or more backscatter communications by frequency shifting the uplink shared channel transmission with respect to the uplink baseband frequency and modifying one or both of an amplitude or a phase of the uplink shared channel transmission (Typical reflector can only perform a limited number of amplitude and/or phase modulations on the received excitation signal at the bottom of page 13) .
16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication of the baseband frequency shift type is transmitted in response to a trigger message (Reflected signal provides the reflector capability in the middle of page 15 where the excitation signal is the trigger message associated with example (c) on page 13) .
17. An apparatus for wireless communication at a network entity (Huang et al. English language translation of WO 2021031919 A1 where the reflector is considered as a user equipment for reflective/backscatter communication and the transceiver is the network entity), comprising: at least one processor; and memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the network entity to:
obtain an indication of a baseband frequency shift type supported by a user equipment (UE) for backscatter communications, the baseband frequency shift type comprising one or both of a single-side frequency shift or a double-side frequency shift (Controller determines at least one of single double-sideband capability in the middle of page 14 for the example (c) the transceiver (i.e. network entity) sends the excitation signal and receives the reflected signal (i.e. from the user terminal) in the middle of page 13) ;
output a control message that indicates a frequency domain resource allocation for backscatter communications at the UE, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation corresponds to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Frequency resource allocation based on single-sideband or double-sideband modulation at the top of page 14) ; and
obtain one or more backscatter communications based at least in part on the frequency domain resource allocation indicated by the control message, wherein the one or more backscatter communications are frequency shifted according to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Example (c) where the transceiver (i.e. network entity) sends the excitation signal and receives the reflected signal from the user terminal) .
29. A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Huang et al. English language translation of WO 2021031919 A1 where the reflector is considered as a user equipment for reflective/backscatter communication), comprising:
transmitting an indication of a baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE for backscatter communications (Reporting capabilities (1)-(6) on pages 15-16) , the baseband frequency shift type comprising one or both of a single-side frequency shift or a double-side frequency shift (Single-side and double-side frequency offset of the center frequency at the bottom of page 13);
receiving a control message that indicates a frequency domain resource allocation for backscatter communications at the UE, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation corresponds to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Frequency resource allocation based on single-sideband or double-sideband modulation at the top of page 14 where the controller sends a scheduling instruction according to the availably frequency resource in step 603 at the bottom of page 17); and
transmitting one or more backscatter communications based at least in part on the frequency domain resource allocation indicated by the control message, wherein the one or more backscatter communications are frequency shifted according to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Example (c) where the transceiver (i.e. network entity) sends the excitation signal and receives the reflected signal from the user terminal) .
30. A method for wireless communication at a network entity (Huang et al. English language translation of WO 2021031919 A1 where the reflector is considered as a user equipment for reflective/backscatter communication and the transceiver is the network entity), comprising:
obtaining an indication of a baseband frequency shift type supported by a user equipment (UE) for backscatter communications, the baseband frequency shift type comprising one or both of a single-side frequency shift or a double-side frequency shift (Controller determines at least one of single double-sideband capability in the middle of page 14 for the example (c) the transceiver (i.e. network entity) sends the excitation signal and receives the reflected signal (i.e. from the user terminal) in the middle of page 13);
outputting a control message that indicates a frequency domain resource allocation for backscatter communications at the UE, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation corresponds to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Frequency resource allocation based on single-sideband or double-sideband modulation at the top of page 14) ; and
obtaining one or more backscatter communications based at least in part on the frequency domain resource allocation indicated by the control message, wherein the one or more backscatter communications are frequency shifted according to the baseband frequency shift type supported by the UE (Example (c) where the transceiver (i.e. network entity) sends the excitation signal and receives the reflected signal from the user terminal) .
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (WO 2021/031919 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kellogg et al. (US 2018/0375703 A1).
Huang teaches reflective/backscatter communications (i.e. backscatter communication at the bottom of page 11 of English language translation) . Huang does not teach a frequency domain resource allocation indicating a frequency hopping scheme for backscatter communication. However, in the same field of backscatter communication, Kellogg teaches a frequency domain resource allocation using frequency hopping (paragraph 0109). Therefore, It 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 to allocate a frequency hopping scheme in the frequency domain resource allocation in Huang for the reason that a skilled artisan would have been motivated to adopt a well known technique taught by Kellogg to yield the predictable result of implementing a frequency hopping scheme in backscatter communication.
With respect to the claims, references to the prior art appear in parenthesis.
Claim
13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation indicates a frequency hopping scheme for backscatter communications at the UE (Obvious to implement a frequency hopping scheme in Huang for the reason that a skilled artisan would have been motivated to adopt a well-known technique such as frequency hopping in backscatter communication in Kellogg (paragraph 0109)).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7, 9-12, and 18-28 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELVIN C MARCELO whose telephone number is (571)272-3125. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6:00.
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MELVIN C. MARCELO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/MELVIN C MARCELO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463 August 22, 2026
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