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
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file.
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 7 and 16 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.
Claims 7 and 16 recite "strength of a signal received by a terminal device in the first cell." Claims 1 and 10 already recite "a terminal device." It is unclear whether the terminal device of claims 7 and 16 is the same terminal device recited in the parent claim or a different one, and it is unclear which "signal" is intended (the target symbols, the CRS, or any downlink signal of the first cell). See paragraph [0092] of the specification ("strength of all signals of UEs connected to the first cell"). For purposes of examination, the limitation is interpreted as requiring that a received-signal-strength metric (e.g., RSRP) of at least one UE served by the first cell exceed the target threshold.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 10, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ren US 2018/0014260 in view of Park US 2013/0114498.
Consider claim 1, Ren discloses an energy-saving method — "dynamic cell breathing for power saving" ([0005], [0044]) — performed by a network device (radio access node 12, a base station of an LTE cellular communications network, [0044], [0050], [0069]), comprising:
determining, by a network device, target symbols ... whose transmit powers are to be adjusted — Ren determines that the transmit power of every downlink channel and of the reference signal of the cell is to be adjusted together: "when the transmit power of the cell 14 is changed, the transmit power for every channel is changed while the transmit power ratio between any two channels remains unchanged" ([0046]); "When the transmit power of the cell 14 is adjusted, the RS power is changed accordingly" ([0050]). The symbols carrying every channel and the reference signal of the cell are therefore the target symbols of Ren's adjustment.
in response to load of the first cell being lower than a preset threshold, reducing, by the network device, transmit powers of the target symbols — "the radio access node 12 determines if the loading of a first cell decreased (step 500). If [so], this is an indication that the transmit power level of the radio access node 12 may need to be reduced in order to save power," the target level being set "based on the loading and a loading decrease table" whose preset thresholds are 78%, 58%, 38% and 18% loading ([0062], Table 2; FIG. 7). The load is "determined ... by the number of connected wireless devices 16 or the utilization of the radio resources of the cell 14" ([0061]).
in response to the load of the first cell being higher than the preset threshold, increasing, by the network device, the transmit powers of the target symbols — "the radio access node 12 determines if a loading of a first cell has increased (step 600). If [so], this is an indication that the transmit power level of the radio access node 12 may need to be increased in order to provide additional services," the target level being set "based on the loading and a loading increase table" with thresholds at 22%, 42%, 62% and 82% ([0063], Table 3; FIG. 8; see also the worked example of [0064]).
However, Ren does not explicitly disclose that the cell is configured with MBSFN subframes, and multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network subframe of a first cell and comprise a cell-specific reference signal symbol, a demodulation reference signal symbol, a physical downlink control channel symbol dedicated to a terminal device, and a physical downlink shared channel symbol dedicated to the terminal device of that subframe.
In the related field of endeavor, Park discloses an LTE-A cell whose MBSFN subframes carry unicast transmissions to a UE: "a method for transmitting the unicast data for LTE-A UEs through the MBSFN subframe has been proposed" ([0112]); in such a subframe "[t]he CRSs are transmitted only in the control region of the MBSFN subframe and signals for the LTE-A UE, such as the PDSCHs, UE-RSs, CSI-RSs, etc., are transmitted in the other regions except for the control region" ([0113]; FIG. 8), the control region being "a first OFDM symbol and/or a second OFDM symbol" ([0114], [0124]), and "unicast data such as a PDCCH and a PDSCH" being transmitted to the UE ([0119]), “…FIG. 10A illustrates an example of DM-RSs transmission in the MBSFN region of the MBSFN subframe through four antenna ports…” ([0125]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to combine Ren's power control based on cell load and MBSFN subframes carrying unicast transmissions as taught by Park to arrive at the instant recitation in order to apply known techniques with predictable results for optimal research and development budget.
Examiner Note: See detailed rejection of independent claim 1 for all remaining independent claim rejections.
Consider claim 10, Ren discloses an apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing computer readable instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, enable the apparatus to: determine target symbols in a
However, Ren does not explicitly disclose MBSFN and a cell-specific reference signal symbol, a demodulation modulation reference signal symbol, a physical downlink control channel symbol dedicated to a terminal device, and a physical downlink shared channel symbol dedicated to the terminal device.
In the related field of endeavor, Park disclose MBSFN and a cell-specific reference signal symbol, a demodulation modulation reference signal symbol, a physical downlink control channel symbol dedicated to a terminal device, and a physical downlink shared channel symbol dedicated to the terminal device (see [0112-0114;0119;0125]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to combine Ren's power control based on cell load and MBSFN subframes carrying unicast transmissions as taught by Park to arrive at the instant recitation in order to apply known techniques with predictable results for optimal research and development budget.
Consider claim 19, ren discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: determining, by a network device, target symbols in a the first cell being lower than a preset threshold, reducing, by the network device, transmit powers of the target symbols; and in response to the load of the first cell being higher than the preset threshold, increasing, by the network device, the transmit powers of the target symbols (see [0005;0044,0046;0050;0060-0061;0064]).
However, Ren does not explicitly disclose MBSFN and a cell-specific reference signal symbol, a demodulation modulation reference signal symbol, a physical downlink control channel symbol dedicated to a terminal device, and a physical downlink shared channel symbol dedicated to the terminal device.
In the related field of endeavor, Park disclose MBSFN and a cell-specific reference signal symbol, a demodulation modulation reference signal symbol, a physical downlink control channel symbol dedicated to a terminal device, and a physical downlink shared channel symbol dedicated to the terminal device (see [0112-0114;0119;0125]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at a time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to combine Ren's power control based on cell load and MBSFN subframes carrying unicast transmissions as taught by Park to arrive at the instant recitation in order to apply known techniques with predictable results for optimal research and development budget.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6, 8-9, 11-15, 17-18, and 20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: See respective claim recitation.
Claims 7 and 16 are allowable over prior art, however, other outstanding issues remain.
Conclusion
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Fayyaz Alam
September 23, 2026
/FAYYAZ ALAM/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
Prosecution Insights