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 Rejections - 35 USC §103
1. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
2. Claims 1,4,6,9,11,14,20 and 22-23 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Pub. 2019/0357093 to Xu in view of U.S. Patent Pub. 2017/0034866 to Wager and U.S. Patent Pub. 2020/0053815 to Teyeb.
Regarding claims 1, 6 and 11, Xu teaches a transmission method with data offloading, applied to a secondary node (SN), wherein the method comprises:
receiving offloading request information transmitted by a network master node (MN), wherein the offloading request information comprises information about a target QoS flow and resource indication information; and transmitting, according to the resource indication information, the target QoS flow by using a target data radio bearer (DRB) (see Fig. 8a, steps 803 to 806, as described in sections [0089] to [0092], which teach a SeNB receiving an offloading message from the MeNB, which includes QoS to DRB mapping rules for the offloaded flow, as recited).
Regarding the last step in claim 1, which recites “in a case that the target QoS flow is unable to be transmitted according to the resource indication information, transmitting resource information to the MN, wherein the resource information is resource information available to the SN for establishing the target DRB”, Wager is added.
In an analogous art, Wager teaches a wireless system in which the SeNB and MeNB perform handoffs (offloading) based on available resources. See for example, sections [0062], [0069] and [0213] to [0215], which teach the MeNB and SeNB both negotiating resource bearer configurations for the UE (which are related to the QoS) and see claim 44 of Wager which explicitly teaches the SeNB sending its “available” resource configuration to the MeNB. Section [0123] also more explicitly teaches that when QoS can’t be met, the new resources used by the SeNB are sent to the MeNB.
Therefore, as both Xu and Wager teach MeNBs offloading to the SeNBs with resource messages, and as Wager teaches that the SeNB transmits a resource message to the MeNB which includes its resources used to meet the QoS, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Xu wit this message, as it keeps the master node informed of the type of connection, which is helpful to the master node.
Regarding the preamble which recites “wherein the secondary node (SN) and a master node (MN) are connected to a user equipment (UE)” it is first noted a passive wherein clause in the preamble is not an actively performed method step. Since patentable weight in a method claim is only given to actively performed steps (which occur after the preamble), this feature is given little to no patentable weight.
Regarding apparatus claims 6 and 11, this wherein clause in the preamble, is not structure per se, and therefore does not carry weight in an apparatus claim.
Further regarding the feature of “wherein the secondary node (SN) and a master node (MN) are connected to a user equipment (UE)”, see section [0095] of Xu and sections [0010] to [0016] and [0258] to [0260] of Wager which discuss the “dual connectivity mode” which includes a simultaneous connection of the UE to both the MeNB and the SeNB (as now recited in the preamble). Therefore, given the dual connection teachings of both Xu and Wager, it would have been obvious to use the combination of Xu and Wager in a “dual connection” mode, for the reasons described therein and as dual connections offer increased data rates and/or more connections to the UE, as is desired.
Regarding the feature of claim 1 which recites “and the resource indication information is used to indicate that the SN transmits the target QoS flow by using a target data radio bearer (DRB)”, as described above, Xu teaches that the MN sends resource information (DRB) and QoS information to the SN to attempt to setup the connection with the requested QoS. Therefore, the “resource indication information” transmitted in Xu would in fact “indicate to the SN the target flow QoS using the DRB”, as recited.
Regarding the feature of claim 1 which recites “to be offloaded to the SN”, as Xu/Wager teach including the QoS to DRB mapping rules for the offloaded flow (and implicitly teach this newly added feature of offloading to the SN), to more explicitly teach this feature Teyeb is added.
In an analogous art, Teyeb teaches a system in which a UE communicates to both an SeNB and MeNB. As shown in the first step in Fig. 7, Teyeb teaches that the master node MN sends a list of bears to be offloaded to the SN. See for example, section [0110], which explicitly teaches “In the SN-Addition Request message (operation 1), the MN sends a list of the UE's QoS flows/bearers that it wants to be handled by the SN (e.g., either as SN-terminated flows or MN-terminated bearers)”.
Therefore, as all of Xu, Wager and Teyeb teach MeNBs offloading QoS flows and/or bearers to the SeNBs, and as Teyeb explicitly teaches a list of bearers to be offloaded (“handled by the SN”), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Xu/Wager with this feature, for the reasons as described in all these references, such as increasing throughput by using additional nodes (SeNBs) which increases the throughput of the UE, as is conventional and as desired.
Regarding claims 6 and 11, which recite the same method steps as in claim 1 performed by the master node apparatus and the secondary node apparatus, see the MeNB and SeNB in Fig. 8a.
Regarding the first amendment to claim 1 which now recites:
“using an SN-terminated split data radio bearer, the offloading request information further comprising a first indication of which resources the MN can provide for the target QoS flow”, as described above, Teyeb teaches the SN-terminated split bearer and section [0111] of Teyeb explicitly teaches “the MN provides a list of the QoS flows that it wants the SN to setup (i.e., SN-terminated) and also provides an “Offered GBR QoS Flow information”, which is an indication to the SN that it can add this flow as part of a split bearer and how many resources the MN is willing to provide for this flow”.
Regarding the second amendment to claim 1 which now recites:
“and the resource information comprises information of one or more resources that the SN suggests the MN allocate to the target QoS flow”, see section [0115] of Teyeb which explicitly teaches “the SN indicates the amount of resources that the MN should provide in MCG requested GBR QoS Flow Information”.
Therefore, these two sections of Teyeb teach the newly recited features.
Regarding claims 4, 9 and 14 which recite “wherein the resource indication information comprises at least one of the following: a bearer type, wherein the bearer type comprises at least one of split bearer, master cell group (MCG) bearer, and secondary cell group (SCG) bearer; and a mapping relationship between QoS flows and DRBs”, see section [0110] of Teyeb and section [0268] of Wager which teaches the three types of bearers, “split”, MCG and SCG and as described above in the rejection of claim 1, Xu teaches the mapping, as recited.
Regarding claim 20, which recites “wherein the resource indication information is used to indicate a usable resource set of the MN that corresponds to the SN-terminated split DRB”, as this claim recites the same features as claim 1 above but with the addition of the new “SN-terminated split”, see the rejection of claim 1 above, and Teyeb for the SN-terminated split bearer (described in the rejection of claim 1 above). Therefore, the combination of the references would teach and/or render obvious this feature as recited.
Regarding claim 22, which recites “further comprising: after determining that the SN is unable to establish the SN-terminated split DRB according to the first indication, transmitting the resource information to the MN”, as this claim recites the same feature as claim 1 above but with the addition of “SN-terminated split”, see the rejection of claim 1 above, and see Teyeb for the SN-terminated split bearer (as described in the rejection of claim 1 above). Therefore, the combination of the references would teach and/or render obvious this feature as recited.
Regarding claim 23, which recites “wherein the computer program is further executed by the processor to implement: after determining that the SN is unable to establish the SN-terminated split DRB according to the first indication, transmitting the resource information to the MN”, see Teyeb for SN-terminated, the cited sections of Xu (for the initial resource mapping and ACK or NACK response from the SN) and see section [0123] of Wager, which teaches that the SN feeds back the used resources it has available when they need to be negotiated and/or the originally indicated resources can’t be used. Therefore, the combination of the references would teach and/or render obvious this feature, as recited.
Claims 3, 8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the references as applied to claims 1, 6 and 11 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Pub. 2016/0295613 to Wager (hereinafter “Wager 613”).
Regarding claims 3, 8 and 13 which recite “wherein if the SN transmits the resource information to the MN, the method further comprises: receiving feedback information transmitted by the MN, wherein the feedback information is used to indicate whether the resource information is usable by the SN to establish the SN-terminated split DRB”, although Xu/Wager teach the exchanging of bearer resource message between MeNB and SeNB, as they do not explicitly teach the feedback from the MeNB and Teyeb teaches the SN-terminated split bearer, Wager 613 is added.
In an analogous art, Wager 613 teaches a wireless system in which the SeNB and MeNB perform both handoffs and negotiations of resources and bearer information. See for example, Figs. 14-15 as described in sections [0116] and [0133], which teach the MeNB provides an acceptance (ACK) or non-acceptance (NACK) of the bearer resource information sent by the SeNB.
Therefore, as both Xu/Wager and Wager 613 teach MeNBs exchanging bearer resource messages between the MeNB and the SeNBs, and as Wager 613 explicitly teaches that the MeNB transmits a feedback resource message to the SeNB which “is used to indicate whether the resource is usable by the SeNB”, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Xu with this message, as it keeps the resources used by the master and secondary nodes coordinated, as desired.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments have been fully considered but they are not persuasive and/or moot in view of the newly cited sections of Teyeb.
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/STEVEN S KELLEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646