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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged with the benefit of an earlier filing date of December 28, 2023 for provisional application 63/615383.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 25, 2024, May 9, 2025, and May 12, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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.
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 1 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Merlin et al (US Patent Application Publication 2016/0261327), and further in view of Huang et al (US Patent Application Publication 2025/0192869). Hereinafter Merlin and Huang.
Regarding claim 1, Merlin discloses a method comprising:
sending a sounding announcement frame to a another device and a receiving device (the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a first message according to a first format or a second format, where the first portion of the first message contains first information intended for a first set of wireless communication devices compatible with the first format or a second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, paragraph [0103]), wherein the sounding announcement frame announces a plurality of sounding frames for channel sounding over a plurality of antenna states of the another device v(the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a first message according to a first format or a second format, where the first portion of the first message contains first information intended for a first set of wireless communication devices compatible with the first format or a second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, and the first message is a sounding announcement contained in a PPDU, paragraphs [0103], [0104]);
sending to the another device and the receiving device a first sounding frame (the wireless communication device transmits a second portion of the first message according to the second format, where the second portion of the first message contains second information intended for the second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, paragraph [0104]);
sending to the another device and the receiving device a second sounding frame (the wireless communication device transmits a second message containing third information which is useable by the one or more wireless communication devices to determine the channel state, paragraph [0107]); and
receiving channel sounding feedback from the receiving device (the wireless communication device receives the channel state information via two or more tones or sub-bands, paragraph [0108]).
However, Merlin does not explicitly disclose “sending a sounding announcement frame to a Backscatter Device (BKD) and a receiving device;” “antenna states of the BKD” “sending to the BKD, wherein the BKD is set to a first state of the plurality of antenna states;” and “sending to the BKD, wherein the BKD is set to a second state of the plurality of antenna states.”
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device interacting to perform wireless communications as taught by Huang, to improve the wireless communication device of Merlin for spatially multiplexing data streams in a multi-antenna backscatter device. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 2, Merlin and Huang disclose the method of claim 1, Merlin discloses wherein:
the sounding announcement frame comprises a Null Data Packet Announcement (NDPA)-BKD frame (the sounding frame announcement message is a high-efficiency null data packet announcement (HE-NDPA) and the sounding frame is a high-efficiency null data packet (HE-NDP), paragraph [0107]); and
the plurality of sounding frames comprise Null Data Packet (NDP) frames (the sounding frame announcement message is a high-efficiency null data packet announcement (HE-NDPA) and the sounding frame is a high-efficiency null data packet (HE-NDP), paragraph [0107]).
Regarding claim 3, Merlin and Huang disclose the method of claim 1, Merlin discloses wherein the sounding announcement frame further comprises any one of: (i) a BKD states field that indicates a number of BKD states to sound, (ii) a time between sounding frames field that indicates a length of time between sending sounding frames (the sounding announcement transmitted in accordance with a format similar to frame in Fig. 7A or 7B, and the frame includes duration field, where the duration field carries a value that allows computation of the duration of the response that the wireless communication devices 120 are allowed to send, paragraphs [0061], [0064], [0070], [0073], [0077], [0088], [0094]), (iii) an uplink, downlink, and feedback field that indicates whether uplink sounding should be performed, whether downlink sounding should be performed, and when to send the channel sounding feedback.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device including transmission information bit as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for including BKD states. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 4, Merlin and Huang disclose the method of claim 1, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose wherein the BKD is operable to:
modulate the first sounding frame at the first state;
modulate the second sounding frame at the second state; and
send the modulated first sounding frame and the modulated second sounding frame to the receiving device.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device modulating transmission information as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for transmission to the wireless communication devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 5, Merlin and Huang disclose the method of claim 4, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose wherein the receiving device is operable to determine the channel sounding feedback using the first sounding frame, the second sounding frame, the modulated first sounding frame, and the modulated second sounding frame.
Huang discloses the UE performs channel estimation based on the plurality of reflected reference signals and determines a number of spatial streams on the backscatter link between the backscatter device and the user equipment based on the plurality of reflected reference signals (paragraphs [0163] – [0164]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device modulating transmission information as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for transmission to the wireless communication devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 6, Merlin and Huang disclose the method of claim 1, Merlin discloses further comprising determining beamforming vectors based on the channel sounding feedback to beamform to the receiving device (the wireless communication device identified by the sounding announcement estimates the channel based on the sounding NDP and send a representation of the estimated channel in a sounding feedback CSI transmission, where single user or multi-user beamforming report (SU BR or MU BR) polls is used to request CSI from the wireless communication devices, paragraph [0062]).
Regarding claim 7, Merlin and Huang disclose the method of claim 1, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose further comprising scheduling channel sounding to (i) one or more additional BKDs, (ii) one or more additional receiving devices, or (iii) both (i) and (ii), wherein the BKD and the additional BKDs are assigned state sequences.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device interacting to perform wireless communications as taught by Huang, to improve the wireless communication device of Merlin for spatially multiplexing data streams in a multi-antenna backscatter device. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 8, Merlin discloses a system (wireless communication device, Fig. 3, paragraph [0049]) comprising:
a memory storage (the wireless communication device includes memory that provides instructions and data to the processor, paragraph [0050]); and
a processing unit coupled to the memory storage (the wireless communication device includes processor which controls operation of the wireless communication device, including perform logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored within the memory, paragraphs [0050] – [0051]), wherein the processing unit is operative to:
send a sounding announcement frame to another device and a receiving device (the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a first message according to a first format or a second format, where the first portion of the first message contains first information intended for a first set of wireless communication devices compatible with the first format or a second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, paragraph [0103]), wherein the sounding announcement frame announces a plurality of sounding frames for channel sounding over a plurality of antenna states of the another device (the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a first message according to a first format or a second format, where the first portion of the first message contains first information intended for a first set of wireless communication devices compatible with the first format or a second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, and the first message is a sounding announcement contained in a PPDU, paragraphs [0103], [0104]);
send to the another device and the receiving device a first sounding frame (the wireless communication device transmits a second portion of the first message according to the second format, where the second portion of the first message contains second information intended for the second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, paragraph [0104]);
send to the another device and the receiving device a second sounding frame (the wireless communication device transmits a second message containing third information which is useable by the one or more wireless communication devices to determine the channel state, paragraph [0107]); and
receive channel sounding feedback from the receiving device (the wireless communication device receives the channel state information via two or more tones or sub-bands, paragraph [0108]).
However, Merlin does not explicitly disclose “send a sounding announcement frame to a Backscatter Device (BKD) and a receiving device;” “antenna states of the BKD” “send to the BKD, wherein the BKD is set to a first state of the plurality of antenna states;” and “send to the BKD, wherein the BKD is set to a second state of the plurality of antenna states.”
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device interacting to perform wireless communications as taught by Huang, to improve the wireless communication device of Merlin for spatially multiplexing data streams in a multi-antenna backscatter device. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 9, Merlin and Huang disclose the system of claim 8, Merlin discloses wherein:
the sounding announcement frame comprises a Null Data Packet Announcement (NDPA)-BKD frame (the sounding frame announcement message is a high-efficiency null data packet announcement (HE-NDPA) and the sounding frame is a high-efficiency null data packet (HE-NDP), paragraph [0107]); and
the plurality of sounding frames comprise Null Data Packet (NDP) frames (the sounding frame announcement message is a high-efficiency null data packet announcement (HE-NDPA) and the sounding frame is a high-efficiency null data packet (HE-NDP), paragraph [0107]).
Regarding claim 10, Merlin and Huang disclose the system of claim 8, Merlin discloses wherein the sounding announcement frame further comprises any one of: (i) a BKD states field that indicates a number of BKD states to sound, (ii) a time between sounding frames field that indicates a length of time between sending sounding frames (the sounding announcement transmitted in accordance with a format similar to frame in Fig. 7A or 7B, and the frame includes duration field, where the duration field carries a value that allows computation of the duration of the response that the wireless communication devices 120 are allowed to send, paragraphs [0061], [0064], [0070], [0073], [0077], [0088], [0094]), (iii) an uplink, downlink, and feedback field that indicates whether uplink sounding should be performed, whether downlink sounding should be performed, and when to send the channel sounding feedback.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device including transmission information bit as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for including BKD states. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 11, Merlin and Huang disclose the system of claim 8, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose wherein the BKD is operable to:
modulate the first sounding frame at the first state;
modulate the second sounding frame at the second state; and
send the modulated first sounding frame and the modulated second sounding frame to the receiving device.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device modulating transmission information as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for transmission to the wireless communication devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 12, Merlin and Huang disclose the system of claim 11, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose wherein the receiving device is operable to determine the channel sounding feedback using the first sounding frame, the second sounding frame, the modulated first sounding frame, and the modulated second sounding frame.
Huang discloses the UE performs channel estimation based on the plurality of reflected reference signals and determines a number of spatial streams on the backscatter link between the backscatter device and the user equipment based on the plurality of reflected reference signals (paragraphs [0163] – [0164]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device modulating transmission information as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for transmission to the wireless communication devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 13, Merlin and Huang disclose the system of claim 8, Merlin discloses the processing unit being further operative to determine beamforming vectors based on the channel sounding feedback to beamform to the receiving device (the wireless communication device identified by the sounding announcement estimates the channel based on the sounding NDP and send a representation of the estimated channel in a sounding feedback CSI transmission, where single user or multi-user beamforming report (SU BR or MU BR) polls is used to request CSI from the wireless communication devices, paragraph [0062]).
Regarding claim 14, Merlin and Huang disclose the system of claim 8, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose the processing unit being further operative to schedule channel sounding to (i) one or more additional BKDs, (ii) one or more additional receiving devices, or (iii) both (i) and (ii), wherein the BKD and the additional BKDs are assigned state sequences.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device interacting to perform wireless communications as taught by Huang, to improve the wireless communication device of Merlin for spatially multiplexing data streams in a multi-antenna backscatter device. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 15, Merlin discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores a set of instructions which when executed perform a method executed by the set of instructions (the wireless communication device includes processor which controls operation of the wireless communication device, including perform logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored within the memory, paragraphs [0050] – [0051]) comprising:
sending a sounding announcement frame to another device and a receiving device (the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a first message according to a first format or a second format, where the first portion of the first message contains first information intended for a first set of wireless communication devices compatible with the first format or a second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, paragraph [0103]), wherein the sounding announcement frame announces a plurality of sounding frames for channel sounding over a plurality of antenna states of the another device (the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a first message according to a first format or a second format, where the first portion of the first message contains first information intended for a first set of wireless communication devices compatible with the first format or a second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, and the first message is a sounding announcement contained in a PPDU, paragraphs [0103], [0104]);
sending to the another device and the receiving device a first sounding frame (the wireless communication device transmits a second portion of the first message according to the second format, where the second portion of the first message contains second information intended for the second set of wireless communication devices compatible with the second format, paragraph [0104]);
sending to the another device and the receiving device a second sounding frame (the wireless communication device transmits a second message containing third information which is useable by the one or more wireless communication devices to determine the channel state, paragraph [0107]); and
receiving channel sounding feedback from the receiving device (the wireless communication device receives the channel state information via two or more tones or sub-bands, paragraph [0108]).
However, Merlin does not explicitly disclose “sending a sounding announcement frame to a Backscatter Device (BKD) and a receiving device;” “antenna states of the BKD” “sending to the BKD, wherein the BKD is set to a first state of the plurality of antenna states;” and “sending to the BKD, wherein the BKD is set to a second state of the plurality of antenna states.”
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device interacting to perform wireless communications as taught by Huang, to improve the wireless communication device of Merlin for spatially multiplexing data streams in a multi-antenna backscatter device. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 16, Merlin and Huang disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, Merlin discloses wherein:
the sounding announcement frame comprises a Null Data Packet Announcement (NDPA)-BKD frame (the sounding frame announcement message is a high-efficiency null data packet announcement (HE-NDPA) and the sounding frame is a high-efficiency null data packet (HE-NDP), paragraph [0107]); and
the plurality of sounding frames comprise Null Data Packet (NDP) frames (the sounding frame announcement message is a high-efficiency null data packet announcement (HE-NDPA) and the sounding frame is a high-efficiency null data packet (HE-NDP), paragraph [0107]).
Regarding claim 17, Merlin and Huang disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, Merlin discloses wherein the sounding announcement frame further comprises any one of: (i) a BKD states field that indicates a number of BKD states to sound, (ii) a time between sounding frames field that indicates a length of time between sending sounding frames (the sounding announcement transmitted in accordance with a format similar to frame in Fig. 7A or 7B, and the frame includes duration field, where the duration field carries a value that allows computation of the duration of the response that the wireless communication devices 120 are allowed to send, paragraphs [0061], [0064], [0070], [0073], [0077], [0088], [0094]), (iii) an uplink, downlink, and feedback field that indicates whether uplink sounding should be performed, whether downlink sounding should be performed, and when to send the channel sounding feedback.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device including transmission information bit as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for including BKD states. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 18, Merlin and Huang disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose wherein the BKD is operable to:
modulate the first sounding frame at the first state;
modulate the second sounding frame at the second state; and
send the modulated first sounding frame and the modulated second sounding frame to the receiving device.
Huang discloses the base station is an RF source node transmitting RF wave (e.g. reference signal or data signal) to UE and BD such that the UE receives direct link signal and BD receives backscatter link signal, where the BS acts as an RF energy source and transmits energy harvest wave to the BD that utilizes modulation scheme that switches on the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘1’ and switches off the reflection when transmitting information bit ‘0’ (e.g. each antenna of BD has two states: reflection-on and reflection-off) (paragraphs [0090] – [0096], [0101]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device modulating transmission information as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for transmission to the wireless communication devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 19, Merlin and Huang disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, but Merlin does not explicitly disclose wherein the receiving device is operable to determine the channel sounding feedback using the first sounding frame, the second sounding frame, the modulated first sounding frame, and the modulated second sounding frame.
Huang discloses the UE performs channel estimation based on the plurality of reflected reference signals and determines a number of spatial streams on the backscatter link between the backscatter device and the user equipment based on the plurality of reflected reference signals (paragraphs [0163] – [0164]).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Merlin and Huang before him or her, to incorporate the backscatter device modulating transmission information as taught by Huang, to improve the sounding announcement frame of Merlin for transmission to the wireless communication devices. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve efficiency of the use of shared communications mediums, and reliability of wireless communications (paragraph [0003] of Huang).
Regarding claim 20, Merlin and Huang disclose the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, Merlin discloses the method executed by the set of instructions further comprising determining beamforming vectors based on the channel sounding feedback to beamform to the receiving device (the wireless communication device identified by the sounding announcement estimates the channel based on the sounding NDP and send a representation of the estimated channel in a sounding feedback CSI transmission, where single user or multi-user beamforming report (SU BR or MU BR) polls is used to request CSI from the wireless communication devices, paragraph [0062]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
XU et al (US Patent Application Publication 2025/0030519) – transmitting a first signal to a second device, where the first signal is backscatter-transmitted by the first device based on a second signal, a symbol length corresponding to the first signal is N times a symbol length corresponding to the second signal, and the second signal is transmitted by a third device, where N is a positive integer greater than 1
Chuanfeng HE (US Patent Application Publication 2025/0063495) – the STA being indicated by an AP whether to receive a data part of a first PPDU frame, where the RFID system includes electronic tag that includes energy harvesting module, backscatter communication module and low power consumption computing module
XU et al (US Patent Application Publication 2025/0358800) – the first device receives a first target signal and a second target signal on a target time unit, where the first target signal includes a first signal and a second signal, the second target signal includes a third signal, the first signal and the third signal are transmitted by a second device through active transmission, the second signal is transmitted by a third device through backscattering of a fourth signal, and the first signal, the third signal, and the fourth signal each includes a pilot signal
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAI J CHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-5448. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 10AM-6PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Marcus Smith can be reached at (571)270-1096. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Kai Chang/Examiner, Art Unit 2468
/Thomas R Cairns/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2468
