DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1 - 20 are presented for examination.
Specification
The title of the invention is objected for not being descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the Examiner.
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 of this title, 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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6, 9-11, 13, 14, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US Pub. 2022/0386252 A1) in view of Lin et al. (US Pub. US 20220045803 A1)
For claim 1, Lee discloses a method of a first communication node, comprising:
requesting allocation of a resource on a second non-terrestrial network (NTN) link between a second communication node and a user equipment (UE) to receive a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback from the UE via the second communication node (Lee: Figs. 14, step S1410, and 16, step S1610; a transmitting UE sends a base station a resource-request message, SR, or BSR requesting allocation of sidelink resources and may also report HARQ feedback over PUCCH.) [Lee ¶¶0164, 0195]; and
receiving an HARQ feedback signal corresponding to the transmitted data from the UE via the second communication node (Lee: Fig. 16, steps S1630–S1640; a receiving UE sends HARQ feedback to a transmitting UE, and that transmitting UE reports the received feedback to a base station over PUCCH. Thus, the base station receives feedback through an intermediate device.) [Lee ¶¶0120–0123, 0158, 0197–0198].
.But Lee doesn’t explicitly teach in response to a response of acceptance to the allocation of the resource on the second NTN link from the second communication node, transmitting, through a first NTN link via a first satellite, downlink control information (DCI) for transmitting data to the UE;
transmitting the data to the UE through the first NTN link based on the DCI;
However, Lin discloses in response to a response of acceptance to the allocation of the resource on the second NTN link from the second communication node, transmitting, through a first NTN link via a first satellite, downlink control information (DCI) for transmitting data to the UE (Lin: Figs. 4 and 5, steps 502–506; in a satellite RAN, a base station sends DCI to the UE scheduling a downlink transmission through the satellite-based access link) [US Lin ¶¶0128–0130, 0137];
transmitting the data to the UE through the first NTN link based on the DCI (Lin: the base station sends DCI scheduling the downlink transmission and then transmits the corresponding data to the UE in the disclosed satellite RAN.) [Lin ¶¶0128–0130, 0137, 0203–0204];
Since, all are analogous arts addressing satellite communication links used in a mobile network; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Lee with Link to ensure smooth communication between users, thus, improving network reliability.
For claim 9, Lee discloses a method of a first communication node, comprising:
receiving, from a second communication node, a request for allocation of a resource on a first non-terrestrial network (NTN) link to receive a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for data transmitted through a second NTN link established between the second communication node and a user equipment (UE) (Lee: Figs. 14 and 16; a base station receives a sidelink-resource request from a transmitting UE. The request concerns data or retransmission resources for a terrestrial sidelink) [Lee ¶¶0164, 0195];
in response to the request for allocation, allocating a resource on the first NTN link for receiving a first HARQ feedback signal from the UE for data transmitted through the second NTN link (Lee: Figs. 15 and 16, step S1610; in response to the request, the base station provides a configured grant allocating sidelink resources. Lee also discusses PUCCH resources associated with sidelink HARQ reporting) [Lee ¶¶0181, 0195];
in response to allocating the resource, transmitting an acceptance response signal including information on the resource allocated on the first NTN link to the second communication node (Lee: Fig. 16, step S1610; the configured grant transmitted by the base station in response to the resource request functions as an allocation authorization and conveys the allocated sidelink resources.) [Lee ¶0195];
in response to the information on the resource allocated on the first NTN link, receiving the first HARQ feedback signal from the UE for the data transmitted through the second NTN link (Lee: Fig. 16, steps S1620–S1640; after configured-grant-based sidelink transmission, the receiving UE sends HARQ feedback to the transmitting UE, and the transmitting UE reports that feedback to the base station through PUCCH.) [Lee ¶¶0196–0198]; and
delivering the received first HARQ feedback signal to the second communication node (Lee Fig. 16, steps S1630–S1640; as an isolated feedback-relay operation: the transmitting UE receives feedback from the receiving UE and reports it to the base station.) [Lee ¶¶0197–0198].
.But Lee doesn’t explicitly teach transmitting the data to the UE through the first NTN link based on the DCI;
However, Lin discloses transmitting the data to the UE through the first NTN link based on the DCI (Lin: the base station sends DCI scheduling the downlink transmission and then transmits the corresponding data to the UE in the disclosed satellite RAN.) [Lin ¶¶0128–0130, 0137, 0203–0204].
Since, all are analogous arts addressing satellite communication links used in a mobile network; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Lee with Link to ensure smooth communication between users, thus, improving network reliability.
For claim 18, Lee discloses a method of a user equipment (UE), comprising:
demodulating and decoding the data received through the first NTN link (Lee: Figs. 21–23, with the receive chain described as the reverse of Fig. 23; it expressly describes converting received radio signals to baseband, resource demapping, demodulation, descrambling, and decoding.) [Lee ¶¶0252, 0266];
generating a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback signal based on a result of the decoding (Lee: the receiving UE provides ACK when decoding succeeds and NACK when decoding fails. Generating the feedback from the decoding result is necessarily implicit in that operation, although Lee uses a terrestrial sidelink.) [Lee ¶¶0120–0123]; and
But receiving downlink control information (DCI) through a first non-terrestrial network (NTN) link via a first satellite;
receiving data through the first NTN link based on the DCI;
in response to the DCI indicating to transmit the first HARQ feedback signal through a second NTN link via a second satellite, transmitting the first HARQ feedback signal corresponding to the data received through the first NTN link to the second satellite of the second NTN link;
However, Lin discloses receiving downlink control information (DCI) through a first non-terrestrial network (NTN) link via a first satellite (Lin: Figs. 4–6; the disclosed satellite RAN provides a satellite-based link between the base station and UE, and the UE receives DCI scheduling a downlink transmission. Only one satellite/link is disclosed.) [Lin ¶¶0128–0130, 0137, 0142];
receiving data through the first NTN link based on the DCI (Lin: Figs. 4–6, steps 502–506 and 602–606; after receiving the DCI that schedules the downlink transmission, the UE receives the corresponding data in the satellite-based RAN.) [Lin ¶¶0137, 0142, 0203–0204];
in response to the DCI indicating to transmit the first HARQ feedback signal through a second NTN link via a second satellite, transmitting the first HARQ feedback signal corresponding to the data received through the first NTN link to the second satellite of the second NTN link (Lin: Figs. 6, 12, and 17; DCI may contain an indication controlling whether the UE transmits HARQ feedback, and the disclosure is applied to a satellite NTN.) [Lin ¶¶0138, 0142, 0157–0159, 0168–0169]
Since, all are analogous arts addressing satellite communication links used in a mobile network; Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Lee with Link to ensure smooth communication between users, thus, improving network reliability.
For claim 2, Lee as modified by Lin, Lin further discloses the second NTN link is a link with a shorter latency than the first NTN link (Lin: Tables 1–2; it identifies LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites having different altitudes and reports different propagation delays for satellite systems.) [US Lin ¶¶0014–0027]. See motivation to combine the references from the above claim.
.
For claim 6, Lee as modified by Lin, Lin further discloses the second NTN link is a link established for communication between the second communication node and the UE via a second satellite (Lin: Fig. 4; a base station communicates with a UE through a satellite-based access link. Only one base station, one UE, and one satellite path are disclosed a second link through a second satellite.) [Lin ¶¶0128–0130]. See motivation to combine the references from the above claim.
.
For claim 10, Lee as modified by Lin, Lin further discloses the first NTN link is a link with a shorter latency than the second NTN link (Lin: Tables 1–2; satellite altitude and signal-path length produce different propagation delays, including differing LEO, MEO, and GEO values.) [Lin ¶¶0014–0027]. See motivation to combine the references from the above claim.
For claim 11, Lee, as modified by Lin, discloses the resource allocated on the first NTN link is at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resource (Lee: Fig. 13; it identifies PUCCH and PUSCH as uplink channels and expressly uses a preconfigured PUCCH resource to report sidelink HARQ feedback.) [Lee ¶¶0155, 0158, 0161].
.
For claim 13, Lee, as modified by Lin, discloses the allocation information of the PUCCH on the first NTN link includes information on a transmission timing, time resource-related information, and frequency resource-related information for the PUCCH on the first NTN link (Lee: Fig. 15; it discloses time/frequency resource locations and reservation periods and temporal association between PUCCH, CG, PSSCH, and PSFCH resources.) [Lee ¶¶0124–0125, 0181, 0184].
.
For claim 14, Lee, as modified by Lin, discloses the first HARQ feedback, which is received from the second communication node, is received through a backhaul using an Xn interface with the second communication node (Lee: Figs. 2, 16, and 21; BS-to-BS Xn connectivity and inter-BS/IAB communication are disclosed separately from reporting HARQ feedback to a base station.) [Lee ¶¶0054, 0197–0198, 0252].
For claim 19, Lee as modified by Lin, Lin further discloses the DCI includes an indicator indicating to transmit the first HARQ feedback signal through the second NTN link, time resource-related information, and frequency resource-related information (Lin: Figs. 6, 12, and 17; DCI may include an indication controlling whether HARQ feedback is transmitted and a HARQ-feedback timing indicator.) [Lin ¶¶0138, 0142, 0157–0159, 0168–0169]. See motivation to combine the references from the above claim.
For claim 20, Lee as modified by Lin, Lin further discloses the second NTN link is a link established for communication via the second satellite (Lin: Fig. 4, it discloses communication between a base station and UE through a satellite-based link.) [Lin ¶¶0128–0130]. See motivation to combine the references from the above claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7-8, 12, 15-17 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US-20250080282-A1 US-20160338066-A1 US-20250184093-A1 US-20090207810-A1
US-12634096-B2
Inquiries
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to PAKEE FANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3633. The Examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00AM-5:00PM.
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, Armouche, Hadi can be reached on 571-270-3618. 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.
/PAKEE FANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
Prosecution Insights