DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 § 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 1, 2, 5-7, 11, 12 and 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo et al (US 2022/0399984 A1) in view of Oh et al. (US 2023/0328704 A1).
Consider claims 1, 11 and 17:
Luo discloses a method (see Fig. 4 and paragraph 0111, where Luo describes a process flow for operations between a base station 105-c, a repeater 405, and a user equipment (UE) 115-c; see paragraph 0057, where Luo describes that the base station has a radio transceiver; see paragraph 0005, where Luo describes that the base station includes a processor, memory coupled to the processor, and instructions stored in the memory; see Fig. 8 and paragraph 0148, where Luo describes that the repeater includes a transceiver 815, a processor 840, and a memory 830 storing code 835) comprising:
receiving, by a first device of a Network Controlled Repeater (NCR), first semi-static time division duplex (TDD) resource allocation information including a plurality of first flexible resources from a base station (see Fig. 4 and paragraph 0114, step 420, where Luo describes that the repeater 405 receives a time division duplex (TDD) configuration from the base station 105-c, the TDD configuration may be a common TDD configuration TDDConfigComm for all UEs in a cell; see paragraph 0099, where Luo describes that the repeater 405 may be a network-controlled repeater and that the received TDD configuration may be semi-static TDD configuration which schedules flexible resources, and the flexible resources may be downlink resources or uplink resources; see Fig. 5 and paragraph 0119, where Luo describes that receiver 510 is used for receiving the TDD configuration);
receiving, by the first device, TDD UL-DL additional configuration information from the base station (see Fig. 4 and paragraph 0114, step 420, where Luo describes that the repeater 405 may receive a dedicated TDD configuration TDDConfigDedicated that is specific to the UE 115-c from the base station 105-c; see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigDedicated is additional TDD configuration; see Fig. 5 and paragraph 0119, where Luo describes that receiver 510 is used for receiving the TDD configuration);
determining, by a second device of the NCR, second semi-static TDD resource allocation information by updating one or more of the plurality of first flexible resources in the first semi-static TDD resource allocation information based on the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigDedicated is used to override configuration of flexible resources indicated by the TDDConfigComm); and
forwarding, by the second device, a signal from the base station to a user equipment (UE), or forwarding a signal from the UE to the base station, based on the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information (see paragraph 0099, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigDedicated is used to indicate scheduling of flexible resources; see Fig. 4 and paragraph 0117, step 440, where Luo describes that the repeater 405 may retransmit a message from the base station 105c to the UE 115-c based on scheduling of the flexible resources).
As discussed above, Luo discloses first flexible resources. However, Luo does not specifically disclose: the first flexible resources are flexible resources not allocated to uplink or downlink.
Oh teaches: flexible resources not allocated to uplink or downlink (see Fig. 11 and paragraph 0236, where Oh describes a frequency band 1101 on which flexible resources 1104 are not allocated to downlink resource 1103 and uplink resource 1105).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include: the first flexible resources are flexible resources not allocated to uplink or downlink, as taught by Oh to modify the method of Luo in order to efficiently allocate frequency resources, as discussed by Oh (see paragraph 0009).
Consider claims 2 and 12:
Luo in view of Oh discloses the invention of claims 1 and 11 above. Luo discloses: wherein the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information includes dynamic TDD uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configuration information to be applied to the first device (see paragraph 0115, where Luo describes that the repeater 405 may know downlink and uplink information based on the received TDDConfigDedicated), and wherein the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information is received through control information for the first device, or wherein the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information is received through scheduling information for the first device (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDD configuration information may be communicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI)).
Consider claims 5 and 14:
Luo in view of Oh discloses the invention of claims 1 and 11 above. Luo discloses: wherein the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information is determined by updating one or more of the plurality of first flexible resources in the first semi-static TDD resource allocation information to be identical to one or more resources in the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigDedicated is used to override configuration of flexible resources indicated by the TDDConfigComm).
Consider claims 6 and 15:
Luo in view of Oh discloses the invention of claims 1 and 11 above. Luo discloses: wherein a resource not corresponding to the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information among the plurality of first flexible resources is maintained as a second flexible resource in the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information (see paragraph 0114, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigDedicated is specific to the UE 115-c).
Consider claims 7 and 16:
Luo in view of Oh discloses the invention of claims 1 and 11 above. Luo discloses: wherein the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information includes only UL or DL information for a specific symbol included in a specific slot among the plurality of first flexible resources (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigCommon may indicate a slot or symbol as a flexible resource, and the TDDConfigDecicated may override the flexible resource indicated by TDDConfigCommon into a downlink resource), and wherein based on that the specific symbol is UL, the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information is determined by updating all first flexible resources included in the specific slot among the plurality of first flexible resources to UL (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigCommon may indicate a slot or symbol as an uplink resource, and the TDDConfigDecicated may override the flexible resource indicated by TDDConfigCommon into a uplink resource), and wherein based on that the specific symbol is DL, the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information is determined by updating all first flexible resources included in the specific slot among the plurality of first flexible resources to DL (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigCommon may indicate a slot or symbol as a downlink resource, and the TDDConfigDecicated may override the flexible resource indicated by TDDConfigCommon into a downlink resource).
Claims 3, 4 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo et al (US 2022/0399984 A1) in view of Oh et al. (US 2023/0328704 A1), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Abedini et al. (US 2020/0084819 A1).
Consider claims 3 and 13:
Luo in view of Oh discloses the method of claim 1 above. Luo discloses: wherein the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information includes information of one or more second flexible resources (see paragraph 0097, where Luo describes that the TDDConfigDedicated is used to override configuration of flexible resources indicated by the TDDConfigComm).
Luo does not specifically disclose: (1), the one or more second flexible resources are a propagation delay between UL and DL, and (2), forwarding of a signal by the second device is not performed in the one or more second flexible resources.
Regarding (1), Abedini teaches: one or more flexible resources are a propagation delay between UL and DL (see the Abstract, where Abedini describes a relay node which receives a timing advance (TA) value from a parent station; see paragraph 0060, where Abedini describes that the TA value may correspond to propagation delay between downlink data reception and uplink transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include: the one or more second flexible resources are a propagation delay between UL and DL, as taught by Abedini to modify the method of Luo in order to handle loss of uplink synchrnization, as discussed by Abedini (see paragraph 0005).
Regarding (2), Oh teaches: forwarding of a signal by a second device is not performed in one or more second flexible resources (see Fig. 11 and paragraph 0236, where Oh describes that a flexible resource 1104 is a guard interval between downlink resource 1103 and uplink resource 1105).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include: forwarding of a signal by the second device is not performed in the one or more second flexible resources, as taught by Oh to modify the method of Luo in order to efficiently allocate frequency resources, as discussed by Oh (see paragraph 0009).
Consider claim 4:
Luo in view of Oh discloses the method of claim 1 above. Luo discloses: wherein the TDD UL-DL additional configuration information includes dynamic TDD uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configuration information to be applied to the first device (see Fig. 4 and paragraph 0116, step 435, where Luo describes that the repeater 405 may adjust one or more radio frequency resources based on the detected conditions of information transmitted between the base station 105-c and the UE 115-c), and wherein the second semi-static TDD resource allocation information include information of one or more second flexible resources (see paragraph 0117, where Luo describes that the scheduled communication resources may be flexible resources).
Luo does not specifically disclose: (1), the one or more second flexible resources are a propagation delay between UL and DL, and (2), forwarding of a signal by the second device is not performed in the one or more second flexible resources.
Regarding (1), Abedini teaches: one or more flexible resources are a propagation delay between UL and DL (see the Abstract, where Abedini describes a relay node which receives a timing advance (TA) value from a parent station; see paragraph 0060, where Abedini describes that the TA value may correspond to propagation delay between downlink data reception and uplink transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include: the one or more second flexible resources are a propagation delay between UL and DL, as taught by Abedini to modify the method of Luo in order to handle loss of uplink synchrnization, as discussed by Abedini (see paragraph 0005).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-10 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 LIHONG YU whose telephone number is (571)270-5147. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am-6:00 pm EST Monday-Friday.
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/LIHONG YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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