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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 5, 8, 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites “an amplifier determines timing …” For clarity and consistency with standard method-claim format, it is suggested that the step be amended to “determining, by an amplifier, timing …”.
Claim 5 recites limitation “sub-carrier space”. It seems to be “sub-carrier spacing” instead.
Claim 5 further recites “the first time and/or the second time is not less than a third time or greater than a third time”. “not less than a third time” already encompasses “greater than a third time”. Please delete that condition.
Claim 8 recites similar limitation “not less than a seventh time or greater than a seventh time”. The claim is objected for the same reason as indicated above.
Claim 15 is objected for the same reason as claim 5.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 3-10, 13-16, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 3, 13 and 19 recite the limitation “the timing comprises downlink timing of the MT and/or the RU, and the downlink timing satisfies at least one of the following,” then lists two downlink alternatives followed by “and/or the timing comprises uplink timing … and the uplink timing satisfies at least one of the following.” As drafted, the uplink limitation appears as a third member of the downlink “at least one of” list. It is therefore unclear whether the uplink limitations are required, optional alternatives to the downlink limitations, or an independent additional limitation. The metes and bounds of the claim cannot be determined.
Claim 3, 13 and 19 further recites limitation “align with receive timing and/or the downlink timing of the MT” is unclear, because “receive timing” is not attributed to any element. It’s unclear whose receive timing is meant (the MT’s, the RU’s or the amplifier’s).
Claim 3, 13 and 19 further recite limitation “transmit timing and/or the uplink timing of the MT is determined based on timing advance (TA) signaling of the MT” is unclear, because “transmit timing” is not attributed to any element. It is unclear whose transmit timing is meant.
Claim 4, 14 and 20 recites limitation “is first time delayed after” and “is a second time advanced before” are unclear. “First time” may be read either as an ordinal event (“delayed for the first time”) or as a time duration (“delayed by a first time”). It is therefore unclear whether the claim requires a delay or advance of a particular duration. Further clarification is required.
Claim 5 and 15 recite “not less than a third time or greater than a third time” is unclear. “Greater than” is wholly encompassed by “not less than,” so it is unclear what distinct limitation, if any, the second alternative is intended to impose.
Claim 6 and 16 recite the limitation “the first time and/or the second time is equal to X/u,”, where u is a parameter corresponding to the SCS.” It is unclear what correspondence is required between u and the SCS. Further, when u is the NR numerology index µ, u=0 for 15kHz SCS, and the expression X/u is undefined. The claim therefore fails to clearly define the claimed value for at least one SCS within its scope.
Claim 8 recites limitation “the uplink transmit timing of the RU” and “the uplink timing of the MT”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the above limitations in the claim. Claims 8 depends from claim 1, and these terms are introduced only in Claim 3.
Claim 8 recites limitation “a start time of a time unit of the RU” in line 6, while the corresponding conditional clause recites “a transmission start time of the RU.” It is unclear whether these refer to the same or different quantities.
Claim 9 is rejected for the same reasons set forth for claim 6 above.
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 1-6, 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Rudolf et al (US 2023/0283358 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 11 and 17, Rudolf teaches a timing adjustment method/apparatus/non-transitory readable storage medium, comprising:
an amplifier (Fig. 12, [0151], “smart repeater 1200”, according to spec [0035] of the instant application, amplifier may also be referred to a smart repeater) determines timing of a mobile termination (MT) ([0176], “the SR is provided with a configurable transmit timing adjustment value Ndelta allowing to adjust the SR UL Tx timing in a slot”; “An SR can be provided a value N.sub.delta of a transmit timing adjustment in a slot for a serving cell by an RRC and/or MAC CE provided parameter n-TimingAdvanceAdjustment for the serving cell as described in the embodiments of the disclosure”; also see Fig. 14) and/or a radio unit (RU) of the amplifier based on at least one of the following:
a predefined mode, a preconfigured mode, or obtained first information ([0006], “The NCR includes a transceiver of a NCR-MT entity configured to receive, on an NCR control link, information for a timing value for a NCR-Fwd entity”, [0152], “an SR-RU is also referred to as NCR-Fwd or NCR-RU”, it’s noted that NCR stands for network-controlled repeater; also see [0005], “determining, by the NCR, a timing adjustment for an NCR access link based on the timing value and a reference signal (RS). The method further includes receiving, by the NCR-Fwd entity on the NCR access link, a radio frequency (RF) signal based on the timing adjustment”; it’s noted that the timing values correspond to obtained first information).
Regarding claim 2, 12 and 18, Rudolf further teaches that the first information comprises: a medium access control control element (MAC CE) ([0103], “TA commands are UE specific and transmitted as a MAC CE on the DL-SCH, also see Fig 7).
Regarding claim 3, 13 and 19, Rudolf further teaches the timing comprises downlink timing of the MT and/or the RU, and the downlink timing satisfies at least one of the following:
the timing comprises uplink timing of the MT and/or the RU, and the uplink timing satisfies at least one of the following:
transmit timing and/or the uplink timing of the MT is determined based on timing advance (TA) signaling of the MT ([0165], “The gNB can use a single timing control loop on the carrier with a sequence of TA commands to control the UL timing of UL SCI transmission by the SR-MT”).
Regarding claim 4, 14 and 20, Rudolf further teaches in a case that the downlink transmit timing of the RU is determined based on the downlink receive timing of the RU, the downlink transmit timing of the RU is first time delayed after the downlink receive timing of the RU ([0156], Fig. 13, the RU receives a downlink signal and re-transmits it TRF later. The downlink transmit timing of the RU is therefore “first time delayed after” its downlink receive timing);
or in a case that the uplink receive timing of the RU is determined based on the uplink transmit timing of the RU, the uplink receive timing of the RU is a second time advanced before the uplink transmit timing of the RU ([0157], Fig. 13, the RU receives an uplink signal from the UE and forwards it to the gNB TRF later. Equivalently, the uplink receive timing of the RU is “ a second time advanced before” the uplink transmit timing of the RU).
Regarding claim 5, 15, Rudolf further teaches the first time and/or the second time satisfies at least one of the following:
the first time and/or the second time is an implementation-based value ([0156], Rudolf discloses that TRF results from the signal propagation and filtering characteristics of the repeater’s own RF path. The delay is therefore “an implementation-based value”);
the first time and/or the second time is not less than a third time or greater than a third time;
or the first time and the second time are the same or different (It’s noted that “the first time and the second time are the same or different” is met by any two values).
Regarding claim 6, 16, Rudolf further teaches in a case that the first time and/or the second time is related to the SCS, the first time and/or the second time is equal to X/2^u, or the first time and/or the second time is equal to X/u, wherein X is one of the following: a predefined value, a preconfigured value, or a network configured value; and u is a parameter corresponding to the SCS ([0112], For a SCS of 2^μ.15 kHz, the timing advance command for a TAG indicates the change of the UL timing relative to the current UL timing for the TAG in multiples of 16x64xTc/2^μ; it’s noted that X = 16x64xTc).
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.
Claims 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rudolf et al (US 2023/0283358 A1) in view of Ye et al (US 2023/0284165 A1).
Regarding claim 7, Rudolf teaches the method according to claim 4, Rudolf further teaches reporting the repeater to the base station ([0178, “the gNB can select and configure the timing adjustment values N.sub.delta using gNB-side and/or SR-reported measurements”).
However, Rudolf does not explicitly teach that the information reported by the repeater comprises the first time and/or the second time, or a reference SCS and/or a frequency range.
Ye teaches that the information reported could be a reference SCS ([0135], “report a full TA value, a UE-specific TA value, a differential TA value, a differential K.sub.offset, etc. In some scenarios, the information may be reported as a number of slots, in terms of the reference SCS”, [0122], “The value of X may be reported in various formats, such as an absolute time value or a number of slots, e.g., in terms of a reference SCS. Such a reference SCS may be the reference SCS determined at 504, or may be distinct reference SCS”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the teaching of Ye in the system disclosed by Rudolf. The modification requires no new signaling mechanism. Rudolf already provides a repeater-to GNB reporting channel carried in MAC CE or RRC signaling. The modification therefore amounts to carrying an additional, known category of timing information over an existing repeater-originated reporting channel, which is the application of a known technique to a know device ready for improvement.
Claims 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rudolf et al (US 2023/0283358 A1) in view of Luo et al (US 2022/0417989 A1).
Regarding claim 8, Rudolf teaches the method of claim 3, including the uplink transmit timing of the RU or the uplink timing of the MT([0183], “transmission timing”). But does not explicitly teach determining, by the amplifier, a turn-on time of the amplifier based on third information. (The clause beginning “wherein in a case of determining the turn on time …” are conditional and need not be satisfied (Schulhauser; MPEP 2111.04(II)).
Luo teaches determining, by the amplifier, a turn-on time of the amplifier based on third information ([0082], Fig. 4A, 400, 401, The relay node receives a scheduling message identifying an amplify-and-forward window and an offset prior to the beginning of that window; it’s noted that AF window is a start location of an available resource of the amplifier and of its forwarding transmission, and the scheduling message identifying that window is “third information” on which the activation is based).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to apply Luo’s scheduled activation of the repeater’s amplifier to the repeater of Rudolf. Both references concern network-controlled repeaters having an MT entity and an RU entity that amplifies and forwards signal without regeneration. The motivation for doing so is to avoid amplifying noise and interference outside of the window (see Luo, para 0079).
Regarding claim 9, the aforementioned references further teaches that in a case that at least one of the fourth time, the fifth time, or the sixth time is related to the SCS, at least one of the fourth time, the fifth time, or the sixth time is equal to X/2^u, or at least one of the fourth time, the fifth time, or the sixth time is equal to X/u, wherein X is one of the following: a predefined value, a preconfigured value, or a network configured value; and u is a parameter corresponding to the SCS (Rudolf, [0112], For a SCS of 2^μ.15 kHz, the timing advance command for a TAG indicates the change of the UL timing relative to the current UL timing for the TAG in multiples of 16x64xTc/2^μ; it’s noted that X = 16x64xTc).
Regarding claim 10, the aforementioned references further teach that wherein the seventh time satisfies at least one of the following: the seventh time is a predefined or preconfigured signal transmit-receive conversion time of the amplifier SCS (Rudolf, [0157]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SIMING LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-3859. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8:30am-5:00pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 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.
/SIMING LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
