TECHNIQUES FOR ZERO POWER INTERNET OF THINGS COMMUNICATION

DETAILED ACTION 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. Claims 1-3, 7, 8, 10-13, 15-17, 21, 22, 24-26, 28, and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo et al. (US 2024/0388407, “Luo”) in view of Hu (US 2025/0023589, “Hu”). Regarding claim 1, Luo discloses a method for wireless communication by a user equipment, comprising: - receiving configuration information for communicating with one or more zero power internet of things (ZP-IoT) devices (See Fig.12a-c; Fig.13a-c, DL/UL frequency band for passive IoT, PNG media_image1.png 282 637 media_image1.png Greyscale See ¶.36, the first device receives first configuration information. The first configuration information indicates one of the following: the uplink offset, the downlink offset, and the frequency domain spacing between the downlink frequency position and the uplink frequency position; See ¶.250, it is assumed that the second frequency unit includes an NR uplink carrier for transmitting an NR uplink signal and/or an NR downlink carrier for transmitting an NR downlink signal, the first frequency unit includes a passive IoT uplink carrier for transmitting a passive IoT uplink signal and/or a passive IoT downlink carrier for transmitting a passive IoT downlink signal, and the first frequency unit is located in a shared spectrum of NR and LTE. The foregoing example is described with reference to FIG. 12a and FIG. 12b; See further ¶.251 for uplink transmission frequency band; Examiner’s Note: Hu further discloses the limitation “ZP-IoT”), - wherein the configuration information indicates a first ZP-IoT frequency range for ZP-IoT communications (See ¶.117, In 5G NR, two frequency ranges are defined, including a frequency range (frequency range, FR) 1 and an FR 2. The FR 1 represents a low-frequency band, and the FR 2 represents a millimeter-wave high-frequency band; See further ¶.118 for details of FR1 and FR2; See ¶.134, When a frequency range is 0 to 24250 MHz, the RF reference frequency is specified by an NR absolute radio frequency channel number (NR absolute radio frequency channel number, NR-ARFCN) within a range (0 to 2016666) on the global frequency raster; See Table #3 & #4 for frequency ranges); and - transmitting, using a first resource sharing scheme, uplink (UL) signals to a first ZP-IoT device in the first ZP-IoT frequency range (See Fig.12a-c, ¶.251-252, and ¶.257, UL frequency band for passive IoT; See ¶.118, NR may work in an operating band of the FR 1 shown in Table 1, and the FR 1 includes a plurality of operating bands of NR. Each operating band has a corresponding number, a lower frequency boundary and an upper frequency boundary of uplink transmission (for example, transmission from a terminal to a base station), a lower frequency boundary and an upper frequency boundary of downlink transmission (for example, transmission from the base station to the terminal), and a duplex mode. As shown in Table 1, for an operating band numbered n1, a lower frequency boundary FUL_low of uplink transmission of the operating band is 1920 MHz, an upper frequency boundary FUL_high of the uplink transmission of the operating band is 1980 MHz, a lower frequency boundary FDL_low of downlink transmission of the operating band is 2110 MHz, an upper frequency boundary FDL_high of the downlink transmission of the operating band is 2170 MHz, and a duplex mode used by the operating band is frequency division duplex, FDD. Still as shown in Table 1, for an operating band numbered n39, lower frequency boundaries of both uplink transmission and downlink transmission of the operating band are 1880 MHz, upper frequency boundaries of both the uplink transmission and the downlink transmission of the operating band are 1920 MHz, and a duplex mode used by the operating band is time division duplex, TDD; See further Table #1 for duplex mode scheme such as FDD and/or TDD based on the frequency range), - wherein the first resource sharing scheme used to transmit the UL signals differs from a second resource sharing scheme for transmitting downlink (DL) signals to the first ZP-IoT device (See Table #1, PNG media_image2.png 225 428 media_image2.png Greyscale ; Examiner’s Note: a second resource sharing scheme is one of FDD and TDD). Luo discloses the passive IoT, but does not explicitly disclose the limitation “zero power IoT (ZP-IoT).” However, Hu discloses “ZP-IoT (See Fig.3, ‘Zero power device’; See Fig.9, Tx band width and Rx band width; See Figs.11-14, ‘Zero-power device’ and F1 frequency band and/or F2 frequency band for UL and/or DL; PNG media_image3.png 287 738 media_image3.png Greyscale See ¶.118, zero-power terminal, Ambient based IoT, A-IoT; See ¶.196, the first communication device may be a zero-power device or a tag device based on radio frequency power harvesting. Exemplarily, the first communication device may have only a back scattering transmitter (Tx) and a simple receiver (Rx), such as an A-IoT device; or the back scattering transmitter (Tx) and simple receiver (Rx) functions or modules may be attached to a normal transceiver terminal, such as an A-IoT assisted UE). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “zero power IoT” as taught by Hu into the system of Luo, so that it provides a way of harvesting the power carried by the radio wave in space (Hu, See ¶.82). Regarding claim 2, Luo discloses “wherein transmitting the UL signals to the first ZP-IoT device comprises transmitting the UL signals using a duplexing scheme (See ¶.118, using duplex mode such as FDD or TDD for uplink transmission).” Regarding claim 3, Luo discloses “the duplexing scheme comprises a time division duplexing (TDD) scheme in which the UL signals and the DL signals are separated into different time occasions; and the different time occasions comprise UL time occasions for the UL signals and DL time occasions for the DL signals (See Figs.12a-14d and ¶.118, and Table #1).” Regarding claim 7, Luo discloses “the duplexing scheme comprises a frequency division duplexing (FDD) scheme in which the UL signals and the DL signals are separated into different frequency bands within a time slot; and the different frequency ranges comprise an UL frequency band for the UL signals and a DL frequency band for the DL signals (See Figs.12a-14d, ¶.118, and Table #1).” Regarding claim 8, Luo discloses “the first ZP-IoT frequency range in which the UL signals are transmitted is included within the UL frequency band (See Figs.12a-13c, passive IoT band within UL frequency band).” Regarding claim 10, Luo discloses “transmitting the UL signals to the first ZP-IoT device comprises one of: transmitting the UL signals to the first ZP-IoT device without using an UL timing advance; or transmitting the UL signals to the first ZP-IoT device using a first UL timing advance different from a second UL timing advance used for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communications (See ¶.30, the uplink offset, i.e., timing advance in TDD operating band; See further ¶.259-261 for uplink offset in details; See Figs.12a-13c; See ¶.120, OFDM).” Regarding claim 11, Luo discloses “transmitting the UL signals to one or more second ZP-IoT devices (See Fig.1 and ¶.84, a plurality of IoT devices).” Regarding claim 12, Luo discloses “the one or more second ZP-IoT devices support the ZP-IoT communication in one or more additional ZP-IoT frequency ranges different from the first ZP-IoT frequency range; and the configuration information further indicates the one or more additional ZP-IoT frequency ranges (See ¶.114, in embodiments of this application, frequency units (for example, a first frequency unit used for communication with the second device and a second frequency unit used for communication with a third device).” Regarding claim 13, Luo discloses “the first ZP-IoT frequency range and the one or more additional ZP-IoT frequency ranges are included within a ZP-IoT bandwidth; the ZP-IoT bandwidth includes a plurality of sub-channels; and each sub-channel of the plurality of sub-channels is included within at least one of the first ZP-IoT frequency range or the one or more additional ZP-IoT frequency ranges (See ¶.136 and Table #4, a plurality of sub-channel frequency ranges).” Regarding claim 15, it is a method claim performed by a network entity corresponding to the method claim 1 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claims 16, 17, 21, 22, and 24-26, they are claims corresponding to claims 2, 3, 7, 8, and 11-13, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims. Regarding claim 28, it is a user equipment claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations “a memory and a processor (See Fig.16)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Regarding claim 29, it is a network entity claim corresponding to the method claim 15, except the limitations “a memory and a processor (See Fig.16)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Claims 14 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo in view of Hu and further in view of Lei et al. (US 2019/0297489, “Lei”). Regarding claim 14, Luo and Hu do not explicitly disclose what Lei discloses “a sub-channel hopping pattern that indicates a subset of sub-channels, of the plurality of sub-channels, included within the first ZP-IoT frequency range or the one or more additional ZP-IoT frequency ranges to use to transmit the UL signals to the first ZP-IoT device and the one or more second ZP-IoT devices (Lei, See ¶.65, a frequency hopping pattern may be adapted for a particular NR-PRS to accommodate different positioning accuracy and capabilities of NR-IoT devices; See ¶.68, for NR-IoT devices in support of wider bandwidths (e.g. ≥20 MHz), a sub-band based PRS hopping pattern can be configured in a frequency domain. The frequency hopping may supplement a muting pattern in the time domain. Such an approach may add frequency diversity for PRS and also facilitates interference reduction).” Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “a sub-channel hopping pattern that indicates a subset of sub-channels, of the plurality of sub-channels, included within the first ZP-IoT frequency range or the one or more additional ZP-IoT frequency ranges to use to transmit the UL signals to the first ZP-IoT device and the one or more second ZP-IoT devices” as taught by Lei into the system of Luo and Hu, so that it provides a way for a frequency hopping pattern to be adapted to accommodate different positioning accuracy requirements and capabilities of NR-IoT devices (Lei, See ¶.73). Regarding claim 27, it is a claim corresponding to the claim14 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 4-6, 9, 18-20, and 23 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. Contact Information Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM. 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, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. 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. /JUNG H PARK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411