Detailed Action
1. The Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s communication filed on 09/17/2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 1-20 are currently pending in this Office Action.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
3. Applicant' s claim for the benefit of CIP of a prior-filed application 18/746322 under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
6. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shah Patent No.: US 11,800,538 B1 in view of Pandey et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0187964 A1.
Claim 1
Shah discloses a cellular network communication system (fig. 1-6 depict for wireless base stations supporting wireless backhaul a network system), comprising:
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a primary access point (network device of fig. 3 as donor node in fig. 4), comprising:
a wired high speed network connection (502 in fig. 5 for donor base station for using a wired connection and see HSPA+ in lines 15-19 of col. 1);
one or more cellular interfaces (communication component 308 in fig. 3 for a donor node in lines 29-67 of col. 11 for 2G/3G/4G/5G communication) through which a cellular backhaul communication channel (502 in fig. 5 for a wired connection as backhaul bandwidth) for is established between a secondary access point (network device of fig. 3 as child node in fig. 4-6) and the primary access point using a cellular network communication protocol (see backhaul link in col. 13); and
the secondary access point, comprising:
one or more cellular interfaces (communication component 308 in fig. 3 as child node in fig. 4-6) through which:
one or more user equipment (UE) (UE in fig. 1-2 & 4-6) communicate, via the cellular network communication protocol (see lines 50-67 of col. 11 for 2G/3G/4G/5G), with the secondary access point and access the wired high speed network connection via the cellular backhaul communication channel (as depicted in steps 504-506-508 of fig. 5, see step 602 in fig. 6 for establishing backhaul channel with donor base station); and
the cellular backhaul communication channel is established with the primary access point using the cellular network communication protocol (as depicted in fig. 5-6, child base station and donor base station could use 2G/3G/4G/5G protocol in lines 50-67 of col. 11).
Although Shah does not explicitly: “wherein the primary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the secondary access point; wherein the secondary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the one or more UE accessing the secondary access point”, claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Initially, it’s important to note that claim does not specifically define what gNodeB functionality are. In accordance with MPEP 2111, gNB functionality could be 5G or NR functions. In fact, Shah discloses user device and network devices as a donor base station and a child base station (fig. 1-4) to support 5G (lines 50-67 of col. 11) communications between user device and child base station, child base station and donor base station, and user device and donor base station (fig. 1 & 5-6). It means that the teaching of 5G communication in fig. 1-6 of Shah could have rendered the addressing claim limitations obvious if not anticipated. However, to advance the prosecution, further evidence is provided herein. In particular, Pandey teaches IAB Node and Donor Node, including gNodeB (par. 0038), providing fiber backhaul with 5G core and providing wireless services to UEs with different paths (fig. 2B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify wireless back stations supporting backhaul in a cellular communication of Shah by providing dynamic Integrated Access And Backhaul IAB for wireless networks as taught in Pandey. Such a modification would have included an integrated access and backhaul IAB node to support backhauling for wireless networks so that a mobile core network could have efficiently covered a much larger coverage area as suggested in par. 0001-0005 of Pandey.
Claim 2
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein one or more additional UE communicate directly with the one or more cellular interfaces of the primary access point via the cellular network communication protocol (Shah, another UE 102 could join into either 112, 116, 114 or 128 in fig. 1; Pandey, see fig. 1 for bases station or access point 122 that provides wireless services to more than one or two UE 124; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 3
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 2, wherein the primary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the one or more additional UE communicating directly with the primary access point (Pandey, 5G gNB-CU 211 in fig. 2A providing backhaul like to UE 203C directly, and thus the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 4
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 3, wherein the secondary access point is attached with a vehicle (it’s to note that claim does not specifically define whether the secondary access point perform differently when it’s attached with a vehicle; Shah, see child nodes in fig. 4; Pandey, an IAB supporting gNB-Du nodes accommodating self-driving vehicles in par. 0077 and see fig. 2B; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious; see further evidence for relay node attached to a bus in fig. 5-8 of Wei et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0259884 A1).
Claim 5
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein the cellular network communication protocol is 5G New Radio (NR) (Shah, 5G in lines 50-67 of col. 11; Pandey, NR in par. 0038 and fig. 2A; and thus, the combined prior art anticipate the claim).
Claim 6
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary access point uses integrated access backhaul to communicate with the primary access point (Shah, fig. 4; Pandey, IAB system in fig. 2A-2J; and thus, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 7
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary access point prioritizes communications of the UE based upon slices to which the UE are assigned (Shah, 5G of fig. 4; Pandey, IAB for 5G or NR in fig. 2A-J and see priority of each cell or ranking; indeed, 5G provides user classes that the higher class gets priority over lower tier class; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F, see evidence for transmission priority based on QoS could be seen in par. 0066 of BAE et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0163759 A1).
Claim 8
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein:
a first frequency band is used by the second access point to communicate with UE and a second frequency band, wholly distinct from the first frequency band (Shah, in view of fig. 4-6 and lines 1-10 of col. 6, child node to another base station may select different frequency bands), is used for backhaul communications between the secondary access point and the primary access point (Shah, fig. 4-6, lines 1-10 of col. 6, 39 GHz as backhaul and 28 GHz on access; Pandey, see different frequency bands in fig. 2G; for these reasons, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 9
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary access point has no wired connection with any other access point (Shah, 602-604 in fig. 4, child base station of fig. 4 would be communicating to donor base station and UE via wireless bandwidth; and thus, the combined prior art meets the condition for not using wireline or wired connection).
Claim 10
Shah discloses a method for using a cellular network communication system (fig. 1-6 depict for wireless base stations supporting wireless backhaul a network system), the method comprising:
receiving, by a secondary access point (network device of fig. 3 as child node in fig. 4-6) of the cellular network communication system (604 in fig. 6), first data from user equipment (UE) using cellular communications (UE of fig. 2 for transmitting data to child base station of fig. 2 and see data transmission in steps 604-606 of fig. 6), wherein:
the cellular network communication system comprises a primary access point (network device of fig. 3 as donor node in fig. 4) of the cellular network communication system through which a wired high speed network connection is accessed (502 in fig. 5 for donor base station for using a wired connection and see HSPA+ in lines 15-19 of col. 1); and
the secondary access point uses a cellular backhaul communication channel (502 in fig. 5 and 602 in fig. 6) established between the secondary access point and the primary access point using a cellular network communication protocol (as depicted in steps 504-506-508 of fig. 5, see step 602 in fig. 6 for establishing backhaul channel with donor base station; see lines 50-67 of col. 11 for 2G/3G/4G/5G);
transmitting, by the secondary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel, the first data received by the secondary access point from the UE (see step 604 in view 612 in fig. 6 for transmitting UE’s data);
receiving, by the primary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel, the first data from the secondary access point (502 in fig. 5 and 602 & 612 of fig. 6, the primary base station would receive data from UE via the child base station as depicted in fig. 4); and
transmitting, by the primary access point, via a wired network connection, the first data to a cellular network core (as depicted in the detailed of fig. 4, the primary base station having a wired backhaul connection to 5G network in lines 50-67 of col. 11 and transmitting data traffic as explained in col. 13-14 with data transport component 312 in fig. 3 in view of fig. 5-6).
Although Shah does not explicitly: “the secondary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the one or more UE accessing the secondary access point ; and wherein the primary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the secondary access point”, claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Initially, it’s important to note that claim does not specifically define what gNodeB functionality are. In accordance with MPEP 2111, gNB functionality could be 5G or NR functions. In fact, Shah discloses user device and network devices as a donor base station and a child base station (fig. 1-4) to support 5G (lines 50-67 of col. 11) communications between user device and child base station, child base station and donor base station, and user device and donor base station (fig. 1 & 5-6). It means that the teaching of 5G communication in fig. 1-6 of Shah could have rendered the addressing claim limitations obvious if not anticipated. However, to advance the prosecution, further evidence is provided herein. In particular, Pandey teaches IAB Node and Donor Node, including gNodeB (par. 0038), providing fiber backhaul with 5G core and providing wireless services to UEs with different paths (fig. 2B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify wireless back stations supporting backhaul in a cellular communication of Shah by providing dynamic Integrated Access And Backhaul IAB for wireless networks as taught in Pandey. Such a modification would have included an integrated access and backhaul IAB node to support backhauling for wireless networks so that a mobile core network could have efficiently covered a much larger coverage area as suggested in par. 0001-0005 of Pandey.
Claim 11
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 10, further comprising:
receiving, by the primary access point, second data from a plurality of UE communicating directly with the primary access point using cellular communications (Shah, another UE 102 could join into either 112, 116, 114 or 128 in fig. 1; Pandey, see fig. 1 for bases station or access point 122 that provides wireless services to more than one or two UE 124; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 12
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 11, further comprising:
performing, by the primary access point, prioritization between the first data received via the cellular backhaul communication channel and the second data from the plurality of UE communicating directly with the primary access point (Shah, 5G of fig. 4; Pandey, IAB for 5G or NR in fig. 2A-J and see priority of each cell or ranking; indeed, 5G provides user classes that the higher class gets priority over lower tier class; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F, see evidence for transmission priority based on QoS could be seen in par. 0066 of BAE et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0163759 A1).
Claim 13
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 11, further comprising:
moving secondary access point into position such that sufficient signal strength is available for the cellular backhaul communication channel to be established with the primary access point (Shah, establishing wireless connections and backhaul links in fig. 4-6; Pandey, the use of signal strength indicator RSSI in par. 0165 and selecting path for point in fig. 2I in IAB network based on signal measurement, i.e., strength; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 14
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 13, wherein the secondary access point is mounted to a vehicle (it’s to note that claim does not specifically define whether the secondary access point perform differently when it’s attached with a vehicle; Shah, see child nodes in fig. 4; Pandey, an IAB supporting gNB-Du nodes accommodating self-driving vehicles in par. 0077 and see fig. 2B; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious; see further evidence for relay node attached to a bus in fig. 5-8 of Wei et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0259884 A1).
Claim 15
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 13, wherein the cellular network communication protocol is 5G New Radio (NR) (Shah, 5G in lines 50-67 of col. 11; Pandey, NR in par. 0038 and fig. 2A; and thus, the combined prior art anticipate the claim).
Claim 16
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 10, further comprising:
receiving, by the secondary access point, second data from a second UE using wireless local area network (WLAN) communications (Shah, first data in 604 or second data in 606 of fig. 6; Pandey, Wi-Fi in par. 0159 & 0165);
transmitting, by the secondary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel (Shah, 5G in lines 50-67 of col. 11 and fig. 4-6 ; Pandey, IAB operating channels in par. 0026), the second data received by the secondary access point from the second UE (Shah, second data in fig. 6; Pandey, 2 or more UEs in fig. 1-2);
receiving, by the primary access point, via the cellular backhaul communication channel, the second data from the secondary access point (Shah, in 612 of fig. 6, the donor base station would receive the uplink data transmitted from the child base station); and
transmitting, by the primary access point, via the wired network connection, the second data to the Internet (Pandey, par. 0034 for wired, optical and wireless links as part of the internet and other public networks; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 17
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 16, further comprising:
performing, by the secondary access point, prioritization among the first data received using the cellular communications and the second data received using the wireless local area network communications (Shah, 5G of fig. 4; Pandey, IAB for 5G or NR in fig. 2A-J and see priority of each cell or ranking; indeed, 5G provides user classes that the higher class gets priority over lower tier class; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F, see evidence for transmission priority based on QoS could be seen in par. 0066 of BAE et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0163759 A1).
Claim 18
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the method for using the cellular network communication system of claim 15, wherein a first frequency band is used by the secondary access point to communicate with the UE and a second frequency band (Shah, see frequency band in lines 1-10 of col. 6 and lines 1-6 of col. 14 and see fig. 5-6 for two different connections and backhaul links), wholly distinct from the first frequency band, is used for cellular backhaul communications between the secondary access point and the primary access point (Shah, fig. 5-6 for wireless connections and backhaul links between the donor bases station and the child base station, lines 1-10 of col. 6, 39 GHz as backhaul and 28 GHz on access; Pandey, see different frequency bands in fig. 2G; for these reasons, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 19
Shah discloses a cellular network communication system (fig. 1-6 depict for wireless base stations supporting wireless backhaul a network system), comprising:
a cellular base station that functions as a primary access point (network device of fig. 3 as donor node in fig. 4), comprising:
a wired high speed network connection (502 in fig. 5 for donor base station for using a wired connection and see HSPA+ in lines 15-19 of col. 1);
one or more cellular interfaces (communication component 308 in fig. 3 for a donor node in lines 29-67 of col. 11 for 2G/3G/4G/5G communication) through which a cellular backhaul communication channel (502 in fig. 5 for a wired connection as backhaul bandwidth) is established between a secondary access point (network device of fig. 3 as child node in fig. 4-6) and the primary access point using a cellular network communication protocol (see 502 of fig. 5 and 602 of fig. 6 for establishing connection between the donor base station and the child bases station, see cellular protocols 2G/3G/4G/5G in lines 29-67 of col. 11); and
the secondary access point, comprising:
one or more cellular interfaces through which:
one or more user equipment (UE) communicate, via the cellular network communication protocol, with the secondary access point and access the wired high speed network connection via the cellular backhaul communication channel (as depicted in steps 504-506-508 of fig. 5, see step 602 in fig. 6 for establishing backhaul channel with donor base station); and
the cellular backhaul communication channel is established with the primary access point using the cellular network communication protocol ((as depicted in fig. 5-6, child base station and donor base station could use 2G/3G/4G/5G protocol in lines 50-67 of col. 11).
Although Shah does not explicitly: “a cellular network core hosted on a public cloud computing platform; wherein the primary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the secondary access point; and the secondary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the one or more UE accessing the secondary access point”, claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to address the obviousness of the claim limitation “cellular network core hosted on a public cloud computing platform”, initially, it’s to note that the use of a could is intrinsic feature in wireless communication network. Indeed, Shah mentions the use of a cloud server and claim does not specifically define what are required to be a public cloud computing platform. See MPEP 2111. In particular, Pandey teaches a cloud network architecture (par. 0124 & 0129).
Secondly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitation “wherein the primary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the secondary access point; and the secondary access point provides gNodeB functionality to the one or more UE accessing the secondary access point”, initially, it’s important to note that claim does not specifically define what gNodeB functionality are. In accordance with MPEP 2111, gNB functionality could be 5G or NR functions. In fact, Shah discloses user device and network devices as a donor base station and a child base station (fig. 1-4) to support 5G (lines 50-67 of col. 11) communications between user device and child base station, child base station and donor base station, and user device and donor base station (fig. 1 & 5-6). It means that the teaching of 5G communication in fig. 1-6 of Shah could have rendered the addressing claim limitations obvious if not anticipated. However, to advance the prosecution, further evidence is provided herein. In particular, Pandey teaches IAB Node and Donor Node, including gNodeB (par. 0038), providing fiber backhaul with 5G core and providing wireless services to UEs with different paths (fig. 2B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify wireless back stations supporting backhaul in a cellular communication of Shah by providing dynamic Integrated Access And Backhaul IAB for wireless networks as taught in Pandey. Such a modification would have included an integrated access and backhaul IAB node to support backhauling for wireless networks so that a mobile core network could have efficiently covered a much larger coverage area as suggested in par. 0001-0005 of Pandey.
Claim 20
Shah, in view of Pandey, discloses the cellular network communication system of claim 19, wherein the secondary access point is mounted to a vehicle (it’s to note that claim does not specifically define whether the secondary access point perform differently when it’s attached with a vehicle; Shah, see child nodes in fig. 4; Pandey, an IAB supporting gNB-Du nodes accommodating self-driving vehicles in par. 0077 and see fig. 2B; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious; see further evidence for relay node attached to a bus in fig. 5-8 of Wei et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0259884 A1).
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/SAN HTUN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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