DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claims 1-4, 11, 13-16, 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Abedini et al. (Abedini) (US 2021/0306962) (submitted by applicant).
As to claim 1, Abedini discloses a relay node (205; Fig. 2, 7; paragraph 44-48) comprising
a transceivers which, in operation, receives signals and transmits said signals using a plurality of beams (330; Fig. 2; paragraph 44-48) and
processing circuitry, which, in operation, performs:
determining a power-related configuration individually for each beam out of the plurality of beams (paragraph 66-68, 73-74), and
configuring of the transceiver to transmit each beam among the plurality of beams according to the power-related configuration determined for said beam (paragraph 78).
As to claim 2, Abedini discloses wherein the determining includes:
controlling the transceiver to receive, from a network node, the power-related configuration including an indication of a transmission power to be applied by the relay node in transmission of said beam to a user equipment or to the network node (paragraph 73-74, 79).
As to claim 3, Abedini discloses wherein the power-related configuration is received via radio resource control protocol individually for one or more of: uplink beam (paragraph 74), downlink beam (paragraph 74), frequency band (paragraph 74-75), or periodically scheduled time domain units (paragraph 71).
As to claim 4, Abedini discloses wherein the power-related configuration includes an indication of a minimum received power threshold (paragraph 54-57, 70, 72, 90-91).
As to claim 11, Abedini discloses wherein the determining includes: determining that a transmission power for transmitting said signals needs to be reduced (receiving determination of lower power/gain configuration; paragraph 56-57, 63-64, 88-91);
reducing the transmission power applied to transmitting of said signals (applying the lower power/gain configuration; paragraph 56-57, 63-64, 78-81, 88-91); and
controlling a transceiver to transmit an indication of the reduced power to a network node (transmitting at the new power/gain levels; paragraph 56-57, 63-64, 78-81, 88-91).
As to claim 13, Abedini discloses a network node (305; Fig. 3, 8; paragraph 44-48) comprising
a transceivers which, in operation, receives signals and transmits said signals using a plurality of beams (330; Fig. 3; paragraph 44-48) and
processing circuitry, which, in operation, performs:
determining a power-related configuration individually for each beam out of the plurality of beams, the power-related configuration being for application by a relay node in receiving signals transmitting said signals using a plurality of beams (base station determining gain configurations for repeaters; paragraph 66-68, 73-74, 81),
controlling the transceiver to transmit to the relay node a configuration message based on the power-related configuration (paragraph 73, 81).
As to claim 14, Abedini discloses wherein the power-related configuration includes an indication of a transmission power to be applied by the relay node in transmission of said beam to a user equipment or to the network node (paragraph 73-74, 79).
As to claim 15, Abedini discloses wherein the power-related configuration is transmitted via radio resource control protocol individually for one or more of: uplink beam (paragraph 74), downlink beam (paragraph 74), frequency band (paragraph 74-75), or periodically scheduled time domain units (paragraph 71).
As to claim 16, Abedini discloses wherein the power-related configuration includes an indication of a minimum received power threshold (paragraph 54-57, 70, 72, 90-91).
As to claim 20, Abedini discloses wherein the determining includes the transceiver receiving an indication of the estimated maximum transmission power from the relay node (paragraph 54-57, 70, 72, 90-91); and determining the power-related configuration according to the estimated maximum transmission power (paragraph 54-57, 70, 72, 90-91).
As to claim 21, Abedini discloses wherein the determining includes receiving an indication of a reduced power to a network node, the indication indicating that the relay node reduced the transmission power applied to transmitting of said signals via individual beam (determining lower power/gain configuration; paragraph 56-57, 63-64, 78-81, 88-91).
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 5-9, 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abedini in view of Guan et al. (Guan) (US 2020/0389223) (submitted by applicant).
As to claim 5, while Abedini discloses wherein the configuring of the transceiver includes, for said beam: measuring power received from a direction of said beam from a user equipment or a network node toward which said beam is to be amplified (paragraph 60-63, 70, 72), they fail to specifically disclose
in case the measured power is below the minimum received power threshold for a predetermined time period, discontinuing the transmitting of said received signals.
In an analogous art, Guan discloses a communication system for transmitting and receiving signals between a network device and a relay node (Fig. 1-2; paragraph 36-39) which will measure power received from a direction of a beam from a user equipment or a network node (paragraph 68-71) and in a case the measured power is below a minimum received power threshold for a predetermined time period, discontinuing the transmitting of said received signals (determined beam failure based upon timer and searching for a replacement; paragraph 71-82, 108) so as to provide a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abedini’s system to include in case the measured power is below the minimum received power threshold for a predetermined time period, discontinuing the transmitting of said received signals, as taught in combination with Guan, for the typical benefit of providing a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
As to claim 6, while Abedini discloses wherein the configuring of the transceiver includes, for said beam: measuring power received from a direction of said beam from a user equipment or a network node toward which said beam is to be amplified (paragraph 60-63, 70, 72), they fail to specifically disclose
wherein the processing circuitry, in operation, controls the transceiver to receive, from a network node, an alternative beam configuration; and
in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period, applying the alternative beam configuration for transmitting said signal to the network node.
In an analogous art, Guan discloses a communication system for transmitting and receiving signals between a network device and a relay node (Fig. 1-2; paragraph 36-39) which will measure power received from a direction of a beam from a user equipment or a network node (paragraph 68-71), control the relay node to receive, from the network node, an alternative beam configuration (paragraph 59-64) and in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period, applying the alternative beam configuration for transmitting said signal to the network node (switching to a candidate beam if the original beam does not sufficiently recover within a timer period; paragraph 5, 43-45, 71-82, 108) so as to provide a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abedini’s system to include wherein the processing circuitry, in operation, controls the transceiver to receive, from a network node, an alternative beam configuration; and in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period, applying the alternative beam configuration for transmitting said signal to the network node, as taught in combination with Guan, for the typical benefit of providing a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
As to claim 7, Abedini and Guan disclose wherein, the alternative beam configuration includes: one or more beams to said network node having a direction different from the direction of said beam (see Abedini at paragraph 33-35 and Guan at paragraph 43-45, 77-85, 108), and/or one or more beams to a network node different from said network node.
As to claim 8, Abedini and Guan disclose wherein after the predetermined time period, the processing circuitry, in operation, performs link recovery of the link between the relay node and the network node, the link recovery including beam selection (beam failure recovery; see Guan at Fig. 1-2; paragraph 5, 77-85, 108).
As to claim 9, while Abedini discloses wherein the configuring of the transceiver includes, for said beam: measuring power received from a direction of said beam from a user equipment or a network node toward which said beam is to be amplified (paragraph 60-63, 70, 72), they fail to specifically disclose
in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period: generating a failure indication; and
controlling the transceiver to transmit the failure indication to the network node.
In an analogous art, Guan discloses a communication system for transmitting and receiving signals between a network device and a relay node (Fig. 1-2; paragraph 36-39) which will measure power received from a direction of a beam from a user equipment or a network node (paragraph 68-71), control the relay node to receive, from the network node, an alternative beam configuration (paragraph 59-64) and in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period, controlling the transceiver to transmit the failure indication to the network node (transmitting a beam failure recovery request from the relay node to the network device; paragraph 5, 43-45, 71-82, 108) so as to provide a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abedini’s system to include in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period: generating a failure indication; and controlling the transceiver to transmit the failure indication to the network node, as taught in combination with Guan, for the typical benefit of providing a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
As to claim 17, Abedini fails to specifically disclose wherein the processing circuitry, in operation, controls the transceiver to transmit, to the relay node, an alternative beam configuration.
In an analogous art, Guan discloses a communication system for transmitting and receiving signals between a network device and a relay node (Fig. 1-2; paragraph 36-39) which will measure power received from a direction of a beam from a user equipment or a network node (paragraph 68-71), control the relay node to receive, from the network node, an alternative beam configuration (paragraph 59-64) and in case the measured power is below the minimum power threshold for a predetermined time period, applying the alternative beam configuration for transmitting said signal to the network node (switching to a candidate beam if the original beam does not sufficiently recover within a timer period; paragraph 5, 43-45, 71-82, 108) so as to provide a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abedini’s system to include wherein the processing circuitry, in operation, controls the transceiver to transmit, to the relay node, an alternative beam configuration, as taught in combination with Guan, for the typical benefit of providing a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
As to claim 18, Abedini and Guan disclose wherein the alternative beam configuration includes: one or more beams from said relay node having a direction different from the direction of said beam (see Abedini at paragraph 33-35 and Guan at paragraph 43-45, 77-85, 108), and/or one or more beams from said relay to a network node different from said network node.
As to claim 19, Abedini and Guan disclose wherein the determining includes receiving a failure indication to the network node, the failure indication indicating that the relay node measured power below the transmitted minimum power threshold for the predetermined time period (transmitting a beam failure recovery request from the relay node to the network device; see Guan at paragraph 5, 43-45, 71-82, 108).
Claims 10, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abedini in view of Kusashima et al. (Kusashima) (EP 3975604 A1) (submitted by applicant).
As to claim 10, Abedini fails to specifically disclose
estimating a maximum transmission power for avoiding a self-oscillation when transmitting said signals; and controlling a transceiver to transmit an indication of the estimated maximum transmission power to a network node.
In an analogous art, Kusashima discloses a communication system for transmitting and receiving signals between a network device and terminal device through a relay node (Fig. 1-5; paragraph 12-15) which will estimate a maximum transmission power for avoiding a self-oscillation when transmitting said signals and control a transceiver to transmit an indication of the estimated maximum transmission power to a network node (calculated power headroom from maximum to avoid self-interference; paragraph 155-164) so as to provide a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abedini’s system to include estimating a maximum transmission power for avoiding a self-oscillation when transmitting said signals; and controlling a transceiver to transmit an indication of the estimated maximum transmission power to a network node, as taught in combination with Kusashima, for the typical benefit of reducing self-interference by controlling the power of the transmissions (paragraph 181).
As to claim 12, Abedini fails to specifically disclose
wherein the determining that a transmission power for transmitting said signals needs to be reduced is performed when an increase in self-oscillation is detected.
In an analogous art, Kusashima discloses a communication system for transmitting and receiving signals between a network device and terminal device through a relay node (Fig. 1-5; paragraph 12-15) wherein the determining that a transmission power for transmitting said signals needs to be reduced is performed when an increase in self-oscillation is detected (calculated power headroom from maximum to avoid self-interference; paragraph 155-164) so as to provide a beam recovery method for beam failures due to poor or blocked signals (see abstract, paragraph 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Abedini’s system to include wherein the determining that a transmission power for transmitting said signals needs to be reduced is performed when an increase in self-oscillation is detected, as taught in combination with Kusashima, for the typical benefit of reducing self-interference by controlling the power of the transmissions (paragraph 181).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to James R Sheleheda whose telephone number is (571)272-7357. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am-5 pm CST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Benjamin Bruckart can be reached at (571) 272-3982. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James R Sheleheda/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424
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