DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-30 have been examined.
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 .
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.
Priority
The current application is a National Stage entry of PCT/US2023/069900, International Filing Date: 07/10/2023 which claims foreign priority to 20220100566, filed 07/18/2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/20/2024 has been considered by the examiner.
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)(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, 2, 5-8, 10-21, and 23-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by United States Patent Application Publication No. US 20220132349 A1 to Li et al., hereinafter Li.
Regarding claim 1, Li discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a transmitter (paragraph 5, “The processor circuitry is configured to transmit one or more over the air (OTA) signals to a user equipment (UE) configured to operate on a wireless cellular network”), comprising:
a memory comprising computer-executable instructions (paragraph 83, “memory circuitry”, paragraph 84, “the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology”, and paragraph 86, “memory cells”);
and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to (paragraph 84, “one or more processors (or processor cores)” and paragraph 85, “processor(s) of application circuitry 505”):
select one or more transmission parameter configurations, from a set of transmission parameter configurations associated with one or more transmission events (paragraph 5, “The processor circuitry is configured to transmit one or more over the air (OTA) signals to a user equipment (UE) configured to operate on a wireless cellular network, and then receive feedback from the UE based on the OTA signals. Further, the processor circuitry is configured to determine both a total reference signal receive power (RSRP) accuracy and a RSRP baseband accuracy associated with UE based on the feedback. Further still, the processor circuitry is configured to execute a plurality of comparisons between the total RSRP accuracy, the RSRP baseband accuracy, and a plurality of accuracy thresholds, and then determine whether the UE passes a measurement accuracy test based on the plurality of comparisons”, paragraph 39, “the UEs 201 can be configured to communicate using OFDM communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 211 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques”, paragraph 43, “ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold”, paragraph 71, “configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement and QoS”, and paragraph 106, “platform 600 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 622 based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and/or various clients”);
and transmit a signal, according to the selected one or more transmission parameter configurations, in order to protect data transmitted to a receiver (paragraph 34, “IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets”, and paragraph 145, “perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.)”).
Regarding claim 2, Li discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to: determine a key, shared with the receiver (paragraph 66);
and generate artificial noise (AN) based on the key, wherein transmitting the signal comprises transmitting the AN or transmitting the data with the AN (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
Regarding claim 5, Li discloses wherein the one or more transmission events comprise at least one of a data transmission event, an energy signal transmission event, and an AN signal transmission event (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraph 43, “ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
Regarding claim 6, Li discloses wherein: the selecting one or more transmission parameter configurations comprises selecting one or more power configurations based on a table that maps power configurations to different combinations of the one or more transmission events (paragraph 4, “determine a total reference signal receive power (RSRP) accuracy”, paragraphs 5, 6, 24 and 25, “In part 2.2, measured RSRP at reference point B is calculated. A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from Tx side. The reference signal power in part 2.2 matches (i.e., equals or approximately equals) the reference signal power in part 2.1. RSRP is measured after beamforming. The measured RSRP includes reference signal power, artificial noise power and thermal noise power. In some embodiments, if thermal noise is very low, it can be omitted.”, paragraphs 111 and 120, “a power management interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMIC”, paragraph 137, “The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 708 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 706), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 711”, paragraph 198, “sending a reference signal with high power”, and paragraph 214).
Regarding claim 7, Li discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to determine a ranking associated with each of the one or more transmission events (paragraphs 5, 6, and 170).
Regarding claim 8, Li discloses wherein each ranking is determined based on one or more of a data priority, a data quality of service (QOS), a security priority, a security QoS, an energy requirement priority, and an energy QoS (paragraph 62, “commences the QoS and charging”, paragraph 64, “SDF to QoS flow mapping”, paragraphs 67, 71, and 146, “map QoS flows to DRBs, and vice versa”).
Regarding claim 10, Li discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to receive an indication, from a network entity, indicating whether the transmitter is to transmit AN or energy signals using a first power allocation, a second power allocation, or the first and the second power allocations (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
Regarding claim 11, Li discloses wherein: the selecting one or more transmission parameter configurations comprises selecting one or more transmit precoding matrix index (TPMI) and rank indicator (RI) configurations based on a table that maps TPMI and RI configurations to different combinations of the one or more transmission events (paragraph 217, Table 1, “Transmit Power Control TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator “).
Regarding claim 12, Li discloses wherein the selecting one or more transmission parameter configurations comprises selecting a transmit precoding matrix index (TPMI) based on an indication received from a network entity (paragraph 217, Table 1).
Regarding claim 13, Li discloses wherein the indication is conveyed via one of: a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indicator; or a reference signal (RS) identifier (RS ID) (paragraph 5, “reference signal receive power (RSRP) accuracy”, paragraphs 24, 25, 191, 198, 199, 213, and 214).
Regarding claim 14, Li discloses wherein: the selected TPMI indicates that the transmitter is to use a digital precoder for transmitting the signal; and one of the TCI state indicator or the RS ID indicates analog beamforming (BF) weights that the transmitter is to use for transmitting the signal (paragraph 22, “beamforming gain”, paragraph 24, “RSRP is measured after beamforming, which is mainly signal power and can be considered an ideal RSRP”, paragraphs 25, 182, 187, 191, 196, 198, 199, and 213, “determining an ideal RSRP at a first reference point before beamforming, determining a measured RSRP at a second reference point after beamforming”, and paragraph 214).
Regarding claim 15, Li discloses wherein the indicated analog BF weights are associated with one of: a previously performed transmission of one or more uplink signals; or a previously performed reception of one or more downlink signals (paragraph 22, “beamforming gain”, paragraph 24, “RSRP is measured after beamforming, which is mainly signal power and can be considered an ideal RSRP”, paragraphs 25, 37-39, 64, 67, 182, 187, 191, 196, 198, 199, and 213, “determining an ideal RSRP at a first reference point before beamforming, determining a measured RSRP at a second reference point after beamforming”, and paragraph 214).
Regarding claim 16, Li discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a receiver (paragraph 5, “The processor circuitry is configured to transmit one or more over the air (OTA) signals to a user equipment (UE) configured to operate on a wireless cellular network”), comprising:
a memory comprising computer-executable instructions (paragraph 83, “memory circuitry”, paragraph 84, “the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology”, and paragraph 86, “memory cells”);
and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to (paragraph 84, “one or more processors (or processor cores)” and paragraph 85, “processor(s) of application circuitry 505”):
receive a key from a transmitter (paragraph 66);
receive a signal from the transmitter, wherein the signal comprises artificial noise (AN) (paragraphs 25, 27, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214);
and process the signal by canceling the AN from the signal using the key (paragraphs 25, 27, and 66).
Regarding claim 17, Li discloses wherein: the signal further comprises data; and the AN protects the data (paragraphs 34, 145 and 214).
Regarding claim 18, Li discloses wherein the AN is generated based on the key (paragraphs 25, 66, 191, 199, and 214).
Regarding claim 19, Li discloses wherein the signal is transmitted using one or more transmission parameter configurations from a set of transmission parameter configurations associated with one or more transmission events (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraph 43, “ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
Regarding claim 20, Li teaches a method for wireless communication, by a transmitter (paragraph 5, “The processor circuitry is configured to transmit one or more over the air (OTA) signals to a user equipment (UE) configured to operate on a wireless cellular network”), comprising:
selecting one or more transmission parameter configurations, from a set of transmission parameter configurations associated with one or more transmission events (paragraph 5, “The processor circuitry is configured to transmit one or more over the air (OTA) signals to a user equipment (UE) configured to operate on a wireless cellular network, and then receive feedback from the UE based on the OTA signals. Further, the processor circuitry is configured to determine both a total reference signal receive power (RSRP) accuracy and a RSRP baseband accuracy associated with UE based on the feedback. Further still, the processor circuitry is configured to execute a plurality of comparisons between the total RSRP accuracy, the RSRP baseband accuracy, and a plurality of accuracy thresholds, and then determine whether the UE passes a measurement accuracy test based on the plurality of comparisons”, paragraph 39, “the UEs 201 can be configured to communicate using OFDM communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 211 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques”, paragraph 43, “ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold”, paragraph 71, “configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement and QoS”, and paragraph 106, “platform 600 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 622 based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and/or various clients”);
and transmitting a signal, according to the selected one or more transmission parameter configurations, in order to protect data transmitted to a receiver (paragraph 34, “IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets”, and paragraph 145, “perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.)”).
Regarding claim 21, Li teaches determining a key, shared with the receiver (paragraph 66);
and generating artificial noise (AN) based on the key, wherein transmitting the signal comprises transmitting the AN or transmitting the data with the AN (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
Regarding claim 23, Li teaches wherein the one or more transmission events comprise at least one of a data transmission event, an energy signal transmission event, and an AN signal transmission event (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraph 43, “ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
Regarding claim 24, Li teaches wherein: the selecting one or more transmission parameter configurations comprises selecting one or more power configurations based on a table that maps power configurations to different combinations of the one or more transmission events (paragraph 4, “determine a total reference signal receive power (RSRP) accuracy”, paragraphs 5, 6, 24 and 25, “In part 2.2, measured RSRP at reference point B is calculated. A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from Tx side. The reference signal power in part 2.2 matches (i.e., equals or approximately equals) the reference signal power in part 2.1. RSRP is measured after beamforming. The measured RSRP includes reference signal power, artificial noise power and thermal noise power. In some embodiments, if thermal noise is very low, it can be omitted.”, paragraphs 111 and 120, “a power management interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMIC”, paragraph 137, “The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 708 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 706), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 711”, paragraph 198, “sending a reference signal with high power”, and paragraph 214).
Regarding claim 25, Li teaches wherein the selecting one or more transmission parameter configurations comprises selecting a transmit precoding matrix index (TPMI) based on an indication received from a network entity (paragraph 217, Table 1).
Regarding claim 26, Li teaches wherein the indication is conveyed via one of: a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indicator; or a reference signal (RS) identifier (RS ID) (paragraph 5, “reference signal receive power (RSRP) accuracy”, paragraphs 24, 25, 191, 198, 199, 213, and 214).
Regarding claim 27, Li teaches a method for wireless communication, by a receiver, comprising:
receiving a key from a transmitter (paragraph 66);
receiving a signal from the transmitter, wherein the signal comprises artificial noise (AN) (paragraphs 25, 27, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214);
and processing the signal by canceling the AN from the signal using the key (paragraphs 25, 27, and 66).
Regarding claim 28, Li teaches wherein: the signal further comprises data; and the AN protects the data (paragraphs 34, 145 and 214).
Regarding claim 29, Li teaches wherein the AN is generated based on the key (paragraphs 25, 66, 191, 199, and 214).
Regarding claim 30, Li teaches wherein the signal is transmitted using one or more transmission parameter configurations from a set of transmission parameter configurations associated with one or more transmission events (paragraph 25, “A reference signal and artificial noise is sent out from TX side”, paragraph 43, “ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time”, paragraphs 191, 199, and 214, “second reference signal may also have artificial noise”).
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.
Claims 3, 4, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li as applied to independent claims 1 and 20 above, and further in view of United States Patent Application Publication No. US 20150049713 A1 to Lan et al., hereinafter Lan.
Li discloses the claimed invention, as cited above. However, Li is not relied upon to disclose the claim limitation with regards to “wherein determining the key comprises determining the key by using a symmetric key consensus algorithm”. Li discloses said claim limitation, as cited below.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Lan with the teachings of Li “since the eNodeB and the UE can use the symmetric cryptography after applying the PSU scheme, the complexity of data encryption and decryption afterwards would be very low. Therefore, the PSU scheme has low complexity, low power consumption, small changes to the LTE standards, and flexibility in choosing the subsequent symmetric cryptosystems” (Li – paragraph 66).
Regarding claim 3, Li discloses wherein determining the key comprises determining the key by using a symmetric key consensus algorithm (paragraphs 12 and 32, “agree on a symmetric key for the future data encryption and encryption”, paragraphs 37, and 65).
Li discloses the claimed invention, as cited above. However, Li is not relied upon to disclose the claim limitation with regards to “wherein determining the key comprises determining the key based on an algorithm that uses one or more values associated with channel reciprocity”. Li discloses said claim limitation, as cited below.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Lan with the teachings of Li to provide a secure means of data transmission “due to the reciprocity, uniqueness, and randomness of the channel, the eNodeB and the UE can quantize their observations on the channel to generate identical secret keys without explicitly transmitting the secret keys” (Li – paragraph 9).
Regarding claim 4, Li discloses wherein determining the key comprises determining the key based on an algorithm that uses one or more values associated with channel reciprocity (paragraph 9, “due to the reciprocity, uniqueness, and randomness of the channel, the eNodeB and the UE can quantize their observations on the channel to generate identical secret keys without explicitly transmitting the secret keys”, paragraphs 10, 11 41, 43, 53, and 64, “it can be seen that channel reciprocity provides a secure link between the UE and the eNodeB”).
Li discloses the claimed invention, as cited above. However, Li is not relied upon to disclose the claim limitations with regards to “wherein determining the key comprises: determining the key by using a symmetric key consensus algorithm; or determining the key based on an algorithm that uses one or more values associated with channel reciprocity”. Li discloses said claim limitations, as cited below.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Lan with the teachings of Li to provide a secure means of data transmission “due to the reciprocity, uniqueness, and randomness of the channel, the eNodeB and the UE can quantize their observations on the channel to generate identical secret keys without explicitly transmitting the secret keys” (Li – paragraph 9).
Regarding claim 22, Li teaches wherein determining the key comprises:
determining the key by using a symmetric key consensus algorithm (paragraphs 12 and 32, “agree on a symmetric key for the future data encryption and encryption”, paragraphs 37, and 65);
or determining the key based on an algorithm that uses one or more values associated with channel reciprocity (paragraph 9, “due to the reciprocity, uniqueness, and randomness of the channel, the eNodeB and the UE can quantize their observations on the channel to generate identical secret keys without explicitly transmitting the secret keys”, paragraphs 10, 11 41, 43, 53, and 64, “it can be seen that channel reciprocity provides a secure link between the UE and the eNodeB”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9 is 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. The references cited on form PTO-892 are cited to further show the state of the art with respect to security with the transmission of signals.
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/JEREMIAH L AVERY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2431