DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Amendment filed 2/18/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 33, 38, 43, and 48 have been amended. The previous objections to those claims are withdrawn.
Claims 1-32, 41, and 51 were previously cancelled.
Claims 33-40, 42-50, and 52 remain pending.
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 33-40, 42-50, and 52 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deenoo et al. (US2090174571A1), hereafter Deenoo, in view of Sebire (US20170367115A1) and Fujishiro et al. (US20200187245A1), hereafter Fuji.
Regarding claims 33 and 43,
Deenoo discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE; Fig. 1A-B, 2, 3; WTRU) for handling establishment of a connection of the UE in a wireless communication network comprising a communication interface (Fig. 1B, transceiver 120, RF/antenna 122) and processing circuitry (Fig. 1B, processor 118, etc.).
Deenoo shows obtaining scheduling assistance information for the UE (paragraph 246-247; scheduling assistance including context information) comprising CSI report, QoS class ID, 5G QoS indicator or QoS flow ID of pending uplink data (paragraphs 13, 122-131, 198, 285-292, 328-333, 371, 387, 439; WTRU measurement/status reports for connectivity includes evaluating quality of the RAN based on CSI-RS; context information including flow/QoS information for NR/5G RAT) and transmitting, to an access node, an indication of the obtained scheduling assistance information, the indication being added in a message from the UE received by the access node/target handover node for establishing the connection of the UE (Abstract; paragraphs 4, 13, 122-131, 154, 198, 285-292, 311-318, 328-333, 371, 387, 439; WTRU provides scheduling assistance to a network during reconnection procedure including network-controlled mobility/handover).
Deenoo further shows performing opportunistic scheduling after handover based on a criterion (i.e. reason) being fulfilled (paragraph 246, 430-449; determining scheduling opportunities during mobility in light connected state controlled by network) using the indicated scheduling assistance information (paragraph 246, 396) comprising an amount of uplink data waiting (paragraph 139-146; period of inactivity/light connectivity corresponding to absence or low volume of DL/UL data) being above a threshold (paragraph 141-146, 288, 432; pre-defined trigger to report transmission activity during light connectivity when data volume exceeds a threshold) indicated by a buffer size parameter (paragraph 358, 371; buffer size threshold indicating allowed data volume for transmission without initiating connection/reconnection request; paragraph 445-455; BSR reporting).
Deenoo at least further suggests the scheduling assistance information on the basis of UE power (paragraphs 89-93, 149, 289, 355, 372-373, 406-416) but does not expressly show the scheduling assistance information comprises an amount uplink data waiting indicated by a buffer size parameter and UE power used when sending message 3 of a random access procedure.
Sebire discloses analogous art in order to assist the scheduler by the UE sending buffer status reports (BSR) and power headroom reports for uplink transmission (paragraph 7) including message 3 (uplink) of a RACH procedure (paragraph 9, 28).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Deenoo by providing scheduling assistance by the UE to the eNB comprising an amount uplink data waiting indicated by a buffer size parameter and UE power used when sending message 3 of a random access procedure, as shown by Sebire, thereby enabling the eNB to choose an appropriate transport block, MCS and PRB allocation for RACH uplink/msg3 transmission.
The combination of Deenoo and Sebire fail to expressly disclose a spare bit in the message and one of a spare establishment/resume cause value indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted, and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information.
Fuji discloses analogous method and device for scheduling uplink transmission resource (paragraphs 52, 65, 86-87, 227, 296, 442, 464; RAI/assistance information) including a spare bit in the message and one of a spare establishment/resume cause value (paragraphs 465-470; spare establishment/resume causes and 1-bit indication to inform eNB of early data to be sent that is small enough to be sent in Msg3) indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted (i.e. early/opportunisitic data transmission), and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information (paragraph 4, 100, 464, 690-692; SIB indicates allowable amount of early data to be transmitted).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Deenoo and Sebire by providing a spare bit in the message and one of a spare establishment/resume cause value indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted, and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information, as shown by Fuji, thereby enabling early data transmissions using RACH procedure.
Regarding claims 38 and 48,
Deenoo discloses a method performed by an access node (Fig. 1A, C, D; RAN/eNB) comprising a communication interface (Fig. 1A, C, D; RF/antenna of RAN/eNB) and processing circuitry (inherent) for handling establishment of a connection of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network.
Deenoo shows receiving a message for establishing the connection of the UE, the message comprising an indication of scheduling assistance information for the UE comprising CSI report, QoS class ID, 5G QoS indicator or QoS flow ID of pending uplink data (paragraphs 13, 122-131, 198, 285-292, 328-333, 371, 387, 439; WTRU provides scheduling assistance to network during reconnection based on measurement/status reports evaluating quality based on CSI-RS; context information including flow/QoS information for NR/5G RAT) and performing associated scheduling operation (reconnection) based on the received indication, performing opportunistic scheduling after handover based on a criterion (i.e. reason) being fulfilled (paragraph 246, 430-449; determining scheduling opportunities during mobility in light connected state controlled by network) using the indicated scheduling assistance information (paragraph 246, 396) comprising an amount of uplink data waiting (paragraph 139-146; period of inactivity/light connectivity corresponding to absence or low volume of DL/UL data) being above a threshold (paragraph 141-146, 288, 432; pre-defined trigger to report transmission activity during light connectivity when data volume exceeds a threshold) indicated by a buffer size parameter (paragraph 358, 371; buffer size threshold indicating allowed data volume for transmission without initiating connection/reconnection request; paragraph 445-455; BSR reporting).
Deenoo at least further suggests the scheduling assistance information on the basis of UE power (paragraphs 89-93, 149, 289, 355, 372-373, 406-416) but does not expressly show the scheduling assistance information comprises an amount uplink data waiting indicated by a buffer size parameter and UE power used when sending message 3 of a random access procedure.
Sebire discloses analogous art in order to assist the scheduler by the UE sending buffer status reports (BSR) and power headroom reports for uplink transmission (paragraph 7) including message 3 (uplink) of a RACH procedure (paragraph 9, 28).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Deenoo by providing scheduling assistance by the UE to the eNB comprising an amount uplink data waiting indicated by a buffer size parameter and UE power used when sending message 3 of a random access procedure, as shown by Sebire, thereby enabling the eNB to choose an appropriate transport block, MCS and PRB allocation for RACH uplink/msg3 transmission.
The combination of Deenoo and Sebire fail to expressly disclose a spare bit in the message and one of a spare establishment/resume cause value indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted, and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information.
Fuji discloses analogous method and device for scheduling uplink transmission resource (paragraphs 52, 65, 86-87, 227, 296, 442, 464; RAI/assistance information) including a spare bit in the message and one of a spare establishment/resume cause value (paragraphs 465-470; spare establishment/resume causes and 1-bit indication to inform eNB of early data to be sent that is small enough to be sent in Msg3) indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted (i.e. early data transmission), and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information (paragraph 4, 100, 464, 690-692; SIB indicates allowable amount of early data to be transmitted).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Deenoo and Sebire by providing a spare bit in the message and one of a spare establishment/resume cause value indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted, and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information, as shown by Fuji, thereby enabling early data transmissions using RACH procedure.
Regarding claims 34, 39, 44, and 49,
The combination of Deenoo, Sebire, and Fuji further discloses the message is one of the following messages: a random access message (paragraph 252, 263, 355, 372-373; RACH message/procedure); a MAC PDU or MAC Control Element (paragraph 393, 455, 476; MAC PDU/MAC CE); an RRCSetupRequest message; an RRCConnectionRequest message; an RRCReestablishmentRequest; an RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest message; an RRCResumeRequest message; an RRCConnectionResumeRequest; an RRCReconfigurationComplete message; and RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message (paragraph 216, 355; various RRC messages); or a MeasurementReport message (paragraph 318; measurement report containing target RAT information).
Regarding claims 35, 42, 45, and 52,
The combination of Deenoo, Sebire, and Fuji further discloses the scheduling assistance information comprises at least one of: UE measured signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) on a signal used as a synchronization source for random access (paragraph 93, 114, 164, 310, 324, 377); which radio bearer will be used for the pending uplink data (paragraph 131, 325); an active application (i.e. vehicular, medical; Background; paragraph 30) in the UE which pending uplink data pertains.
Regarding claims 36, 40, 46, and 50,
The combination of Deenoo, Sebire, and Fuji discloses the message is received/sent at radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment/re-establishment/resume (paragraph 104, 210, 259, 293-294, 310-314; RRC procedure to establish/re-establish/resume/reconnect); at Secondary Cell Group setup or Secondary node addition/change while in EN-DC configuration (paragraph 37, 73-74, 323); at handover (paragraphs 55, 74); at resync due to uplink inactivity/no response on Scheduling request/beam recovery (paragraph 89-98, 108, 114, 124, 130-139, 169, 279, 310); or at request for on demand system information (paragraph 248).
Regarding claims 37 and 47,
The combination of Deenoo, Sebire, and Fuji discloses the message is an RRCResumeRequest message (paragraph 104, 160, 210) and contains an short inactive Radio Network Temporary Identifier (paragraph 126, 175, 219-229, 240, 316, 323, 395) in order to make room for the indication of the obtained scheduling assistance information.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 2/18/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In the Remarks on pg. 15-16 of the Amendment, Applicant contends cited prior art to Fujishiro is used to determine to perform early data transmission when an amount of data is less than a threshold, rather than performing opportunistic scheduling when the waiting data is above a threshold, as now claimed.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As now shown in the rejection, primary reference to Deenoo is relied upon to show the majority of the claimed limitations, including performing opportunistic scheduling when the amount of waiting data is above a threshold. Fujishiro is tertiarily cited only to show the use of a including a spare bit in the message indicating an establishment/resume cause value indicating the assistance information, a type of data waiting to be transmitted and the amount of waiting uplink data relative to a threshold specified in system information. The rejection posits that one of ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious to modify Deenoo with the disclosure of Fujishiro for the purposes of enabling early data transmissions using RACH procedure under UE power considerations, but that does not negate the disclosures in Deenoo of performing opportunistic scheduling using the indicated scheduling assistance information comprising an amount of uplink data waiting being above a threshold indicated by a buffer size parameter. Therefore, the rejections based on the combination of Deenoo, Sebire, and Fujishiro are properly maintained.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/GREGORY B SEFCHECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477