DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/14/2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 4, 7 are amended; Claims 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 are cancelled; No claims are added. Claims 1, 4, 7 are currently pending and subject to examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 4, 7 are have been considered but they are not persuasive; however, in light of the amendment to the claims, a new ground of rejection is presented in view of Martinez Tarradell et al. (See the Office action for details).
Applicant’s Arguments:
Applicant argues that Wang does not teach, disclose nor suggest “release the measurement configuration in a case that the controller releases Multi Radio access technology (RAT)-Dual Connectivity (MR-DC)” because cell reselection is completely different than RRC connection resumption and because wang does not provide any details about what configurations are released.
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees with this argument as the claims are given their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification; however, limitations from the specification are not imported into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
The applicant acknowledges that Wang discloses in [0100] that the timer is stopped and the first configuration is released and that RRC dedicated signaling may take the form of release information as disclosed in in Wang [0083].
RRC connection resumption is in fact directly related to cell reselection as the UE in MR-DC may reconnect with the original SCG or select a new SCG for RRC connection resumption, as disclosed in Wang [0066] when the UE moves out of the paging area configured by the RAN, the UE is triggered to resume an RRC connection and reacquire a paging area configured by the RAN and when downlink data for the UE arrives, a gNB which retains a connection between the RAN and the CN for the UE will trigger all cells in the RAN paging area to send a paging message to the UE, so that the UE in the INACTIVE state can resume the RRC connection and receive data.
Wang discloses in [0079] that the configuration information is used for indicating a terminal device in an idle state and/or an inactive state to perform cell measurement and in [0094 - 0096] that measurement information may include measurement frequency of the second network, a frequency band list in which the measurement frequency of the second network is located, a threshold value for evaluating cell signal quality, a maximum number of beams for evaluating cell signal quality, a time window for measurement, a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block (SSB), an index set of SSBs to be measured, indication for acquiring a neighboring cell SSB index according to a serving cell SSB index, a validity area range of measurement configuration, a cell list to be reported of the measurement configuration, a measurement quantity to be reported, and a threshold value for measurement reporting and the measurement quantity to be measured and reported is directed to at least one of a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), a Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), and a Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR).
Applicant’s Arguments:
Applicant argues that the cited references do not teach the further amended independent claim 1, such that the feature of “release Multi Radio-Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) and the measurement configuration in a case that a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection is resumed”.
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees with this argument as the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981).
Wang discloses in [0051] that the UE in the RRC_CONNECTED state may enter the RRC_INACTIVE state by releasing with suspend the RRC connection; the UE in the RRC_INACTIVE state may enter the RRC_CONNECTED state by resuming the RRC connection, or enter the RRC_IDLE state by releasing the RRC connection.
Freda discloses in [0125] that a WTRU may initiate a resume procedure with a MN when an initial RACH procedure or RACH-like procedure to an SN cell fails or the WTRU may initiate a resume procedure with a MN when the WTRU does not receive a DL message that includes a C-RNTI on any of the DL SN cells for a specified or configured period of time.
In any event, in light of the amendment to the claims, a new ground of rejection is presented in view of Martinez Tarradell et al.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 4, 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (US 20220086674 A1) in view of Martinez Tarradell et al. (US 20190387569 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a terminal apparatus (Wang, FIG. 6, Terminal device, in relation to FIG. 7, UE 300) comprising: a receiver (Wang, FIG. 7, communication unit 310) configured to receive a first message (Wang, [0079] a network device sends first configuration information to a terminal device to perform cell measurement in relation to [0080] the terminal device receives the first configuration information sent by the network device); and a controller (Wang, FIG. 7, processing unit 320) configured to:
perform a measurement based on a measurement configuration included in the first message (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information is used for indicating a terminal device in an idle state and/or an inactive state to perform cell measurement in relation to [0081] the terminal device performs cell measurement according to the first configuration information), the measurement configuration being associated with a secondary cell group (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information includes second measurement information for a second network in relation to [0093] the terminal device reports a measurement result, to assist the network device to configure a secondary cell and/or secondary cell group in CA, and/or to assist the network device to multi-radio access technology dual connectivity);
in response to receiving the first message, start a timer associated with the secondary cell group (Wang, [0086] the terminal device receives second configuration information for configuring the first timer sent by the network device, where the first timer is started when the first configuration information is received in relation to [0095] the second measurement information may include a measurement frequency of the second network, a frequency band list in which the measurement frequency of the second network is located, a threshold value for evaluating cell signal quality, a maximum number of beams for evaluating cell signal quality, a time window for measurement) and used for a periodical measurement reporting (Wang, [0093] the terminal device reports a measurement result, to assist the network device to configure a secondary cell and/or secondary cell group in CA, and/or to assist the network device to multi-radio access technology dual connectivity, where rapid activation or inactivation of the secondary cell and/or secondary cell group may be achieved);
release the measurement configuration in a case that the controller releases Multi Radio access technology (RAT)-Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) (Wang, [0083] the RRC dedicated signaling may be RRC Release information in relation to [0100] the terminal device may stop the first timer and release the first configuration information).
Wang does not expressly disclose releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection.
Martinez Tarradell et al., for example, from an analogous field of endeavor (Martinez Tarradell et al [0152] an update of resumption procedure may be performed to enable the reconfiguration of an SgNB, where some indication from the UE on whether the current SgNB or another SgNB is suitable may be used and the UE may be asked to perform measurements on NR so it has results ready to provide if requested) discloses releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection (Martinez Tarradell et al [0153] if the UE has not moved, the current SCG configuration may be resumed, however, if the UE has moved, a procedure may combine parts of inter-gNB resume, MN HO and SN change may be used to move the UE contexts to the new MN and SN along with any data forwarding in relation to [0154] the location information from the UE may be conveyed within MSG3, such as an RRC Connection Resume Request message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection as taught by Martinez Tarradell et al., with the system of Wang in order to move the UE contexts to new MN and SN (Martinez Tarradell et al., [0153]).
Regarding claim 4, Wang et al. discloses a method performed by a terminal apparatus (Wang, FIG. 6, Terminal device, in relation to FIG. 7, UE 300), the method comprising:
receiving a first message (Wang, [0079] a network device sends first configuration information to a terminal device to perform cell measurement in relation to [0080] the terminal device receives the first configuration information sent by the network device) (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information is used for indicating a terminal device in an idle state and/or an inactive state to perform cell measurement in relation to [0081] the terminal device performs cell measurement according to the first configuration information);
performing a measurement based on a measurement configuration included in the first message (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information is used for indicating a terminal device in an idle state and/or an inactive state to perform cell measurement in relation to [0081] the terminal device performs cell measurement according to the first configuration information), the measurement configuration being associated with a secondary cell group (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information includes second measurement information for a second network in relation to [0093] the terminal device reports a measurement result, to assist the network device to configure a secondary cell and/or secondary cell group in CA, and/or to assist the network device to multi-radio access technology dual connectivity);
in response to receiving the first message, starting a timer associated with the secondary cell group (Wang, [0086] the terminal device receives second configuration information for configuring the first timer sent by the network device, where the first timer is started when the first configuration information is received in relation to [0095] the second measurement information may include a measurement frequency of the second network, a frequency band list in which the measurement frequency of the second network is located, a threshold value for evaluating cell signal quality, a maximum number of beams for evaluating cell signal quality, a time window for measurement) and used for a periodical measurement reporting (Wang, [0093] the terminal device reports a measurement result, to assist the network device to configure a secondary cell and/or secondary cell group in CA, and/or to assist the network device to multi-radio access technology dual connectivity, where rapid activation or inactivation of the secondary cell and/or secondary cell group may be achieved);
releasing the measurement configuration based on a release of Multi Radio access technology (RAT)-Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) (Wang, [0083] the RRC dedicated signaling may be RRC Release information in relation to [0100] the terminal device may stop the first timer and release the first configuration information).
Wang does not expressly disclose releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection.
Martinez Tarradell et al., for example, from an analogous field of endeavor (Martinez Tarradell et al [0152] an update of resumption procedure may be performed to enable the reconfiguration of an SgNB, where some indication from the UE on whether the current SgNB or another SgNB is suitable may be used and the UE may be asked to perform measurements on NR so it has results ready to provide if requested) discloses releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection (Martinez Tarradell et al [0153] if the UE has not moved, the current SCG configuration may be resumed, however, if the UE has moved, a procedure may combine parts of inter-gNB resume, MN HO and SN change may be used to move the UE contexts to the new MN and SN along with any data forwarding in relation to [0154] the location information from the UE may be conveyed within MSG3, such as an RRC Connection Resume Request message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection as taught by Martinez Tarradell et al., with the system of Wang in order to move the UE contexts to new MN and SN (Martinez Tarradell et al., [0153]).
Regarding claim 7, Wang et al. discloses an integrated circuit mounted on a terminal apparatus (Wang, FIG. 6, Terminal device, in relation to FIG. 7, UE 300), the integrated circuit being configured to cause the terminal apparatus to:
receive a first message (Wang, [0079] a network device sends first configuration information to a terminal device to perform cell measurement in relation to [0080] the terminal device receives the first configuration information sent by the network device);
perform a measurement based on a measurement configuration included in the first message (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information is used for indicating a terminal device in an idle state and/or an inactive state to perform cell measurement in relation to [0081] the terminal device performs cell measurement according to the first configuration information),
the measurement configuration being associated with a secondary cell group (Wang, [0079] the first configuration information includes second measurement information for a second network in relation to [0093] the terminal device reports a measurement result, to assist the network device to configure a secondary cell and/or secondary cell group in CA, and/or to assist the network device to multi-radio access technology dual connectivity);
in response to receiving the first message, start a timer associated with the secondary cell group (Wang, [0086] the terminal device receives second configuration information for configuring the first timer sent by the network device, where the first timer is started when the first configuration information is received in relation to [0095] the second measurement information may include a measurement frequency of the second network, a frequency band list in which the measurement frequency of the second network is located, a threshold value for evaluating cell signal quality, a maximum number of beams for evaluating cell signal quality, a time window for measurement) and used for a periodical measurement reporting (Wang, [0093] the terminal device reports a measurement result, to assist the network device to configure a secondary cell and/or secondary cell group in CA, and/or to assist the network device to multi-radio access technology dual connectivity, where rapid activation or inactivation of the secondary cell and/or secondary cell group may be achieved);
release the measurement configuration in a case that the terminal apparatus releases Multi Radio access technology (RAT)-Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) (Wang, [0083] the RRC dedicated signaling may be RRC Release information in relation to [0100] the terminal device may stop the first timer and release the first configuration information).
Wang does not expressly disclose releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection.
Martinez Tarradell et al., for example, from an analogous field of endeavor (Martinez Tarradell et al [0152] an update of resumption procedure may be performed to enable the reconfiguration of an SgNB, where some indication from the UE on whether the current SgNB or another SgNB is suitable may be used and the UE may be asked to perform measurements on NR so it has results ready to provide if requested) discloses releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection (Martinez Tarradell et al [0153] if the UE has not moved, the current SCG configuration may be resumed, however, if the UE has moved, a procedure may combine parts of inter-gNB resume, MN HO and SN change may be used to move the UE contexts to the new MN and SN along with any data forwarding in relation to [0154] the location information from the UE may be conveyed within MSG3, such as an RRC Connection Resume Request message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine releasing the MR-DC in a case that the MR-DC is configured based on a resumption of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection as taught by Martinez Tarradell et al., with the system of Wang in order to move the UE contexts to new MN and SN (Martinez Tarradell et al., [0153]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Sharma et al. (US 20230345582 A1) is cited to show a NW node that can change the change the DRB type of SRB1 split bearer to SRB1 bearer, i.e. remove the SCG leg of split bearer during an RRC Connection Reestablishment procedure, and once the UE removes the SCG leg of split SRB1, it can simply resume the SRB1 and send the response of the re-establishment message, alternatively the UE can suspend the split SRB functionality of SCG leg during re-establishment procedure and should only resume once SCG configuration is activated, which is similar to aspects of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIONEL PREVAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5673. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10 AM - 4 PM.
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/L.P./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416