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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 1/14/2026 has been entered. Claims 1 and 2 are amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/14/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The amendments teach the additional limitation of the uplink path switching switches an uplink path from the source base station to the target base station while maintaining downlink paths with both the source base station and the target base station, however prior art of record Centonza et al. (US 2014/0080484), hereinafter Centonza, teaches: “According to some of the example embodiments, the source may keep some of the DRBs and some of the SRBs, while the target receives some of the SRBs and some of the DRBs associated with the user equipment as a result of the selective handover” (Centonza ¶ 0129), as well as “In general, the terms anchor node and assisting node, or anchor cell and assisting cell are used to identify a serving cell (anchor cell) hosted by a serving node (anchor node) and a neighbour cell (assisting cell) hosted by a neighbour node (assisting node), where bearers for the same user equipment are moved, setup, modified or removed in both cells at the same time and where the main control plane connection for the served user equipment is either kept at the anchor node or it is relayed by the anchor node” (Centonza ¶ 0104) showing that some DL paths are maintained between the source base station as well as some DL paths are handed over to the target base station along with the switched uplink paths.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hample (US 2016/0095034) in further view of Xu et al. (US 2019/0116536), hereinafter Xu, Kuo (US 2009/0257399), and Centonza et al. (US 2014/0080484), hereinafter Centonza.
Regarding Claim 1, Hample teaches: A User Equipment (UE), comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, in electronic communication with the at least one processor, storing one or more instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the UE to: “In a third illustrative set of examples, an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) is provided. The apparatus may include: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory” (Hample ¶ 0018) receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message for instructing an enhanced handover, the RRC reconfiguration message indicating that a data radio bearer (DRB) is configured with the enhanced handover: “At 326, base station 105-c forwards this information to UE 115-c in a RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. The RRC Connection Reconfiguration message may be signaled to the UE 115-c on a signaling radio bearer. The UE 115-c uses the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to terminate the data radio bearers on base station 105-c and access the target base station 385” (Hample ¶ 0103), perform a random access procedure to handover to the target base station: “The UE 115 may attach to the target base station via a random access channel (RACH) procedure” (Hample ¶ 0061).
Hample does not teach: the enhanced handover being a handover procedure during which the UE maintains communication with a source base station until a connection to the source base station is released after successful handover to a target base station; indicate information from a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to an RRC layer upon successful completion of the random access procedure; and, request, by the RRC layer from a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, for uplink path switching for the DRB configured with the enhanced handover when the information from the MAC layer is received, wherein the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured.
Regarding Claim 1, Xu teaches: The enhanced handover being a handover procedure during which the UE maintains communication with a source base station until a connection to the source base station is released after successful handover to a target base station: “The enhanced handover refers a handover scheme for maintaining a connection to the source eNB, as discussed in the 3GPP Rel-14. Specifically, the enhanced handover process means that the source eNB still transmits downlink data to a UE and also receives uplink data from the UE during the handover execution process. More specifically, after the source eNB has transmitted an RRC connection reconfiguration message, or after the source eNB has transmitted an RRC connection reconfiguration message and before the target eNB receives an RACH access from the UE, or after the source eNB has transmitted an RRC connection reconfiguration message and before the target eNB receives the RRC connection reconfiguration from the UE, the source eNB still transmits downlink data to the UE and also receives uplink data from the UE” (Xu ¶ 0281).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Hample with Xu for the purpose of providing seamless handover between a source and target gNB. According to Xu: “The present invention provides a method and eNB equipment for supporting seamless handover, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the delay of data transmission, the unnecessary data transmission or unnecessary data monitoring of a source eNB, and the missing and duplication transmission of uplink and downlink data in the handover process” (Xu ¶ 0019).
Xu does not teach: indicate information from a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to an RRC layer upon successful completion of the random access procedure; and, request, by the RRC layer from a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, for uplink path switching for the DRB configured with the enhanced handover when the information from the MAC layer is received, wherein the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured.
Regarding Claim 1, Kuo teaches: indicate information from a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to an RRC layer upon successful completion of the random access procedure: “Upon successful completion of the handover procedure, i.e. when the MAC layer indicates the random access procedure is successfully completed, the UE shall perform the following steps” (Kuo ¶ 0008) and “Apply a new security configuration (including security keys and security algorithms) to lower layers such as the PDCP layer if an IE "securityConfiguration" is included in the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message” (Kuo ¶ 0009): and, request, by the RRC layer from a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, for uplink path switching for the DRB configured with the enhanced handover when the information from the MAC layer is received: “Upon successful completion of the handover procedure, i.e. when the MAC layer indicates the random access procedure is successfully completed, the UE shall perform the following steps” (Kuo ¶ 0008), “Indicate occurrence of the handover procedure to the PDCP layer” (Kuo ¶ 0012), and “according to the PDCP specification, when upper layers indicate that a handover procedure has occurred, for radio bearers that are mapped on Acknowledged Mode RLC entities, the UE shall perform maintenance of PDCP sequence numbers, header decompression and deciphering for PDCP PDUs received from lower layers and store the out-of-sequence PDCP SDUs, if any, in the reordering buffer until it is indicated to submit them to upper layers” (Kuo ¶ 0014).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Hample and Xu with the disclosure of Kuo to achieve the Predictable result of simplifying the structure of the uplink path and allowing it to be compatible with LTE communications. According to Kuo: “Long Term Evolution wireless communication system (LTE system), an advanced high-speed wireless communication system established upon the 3G mobile telecommunication system, supports only packet-switched transmission, and tends to implement both Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and Radio Link Control (RLC) layer in one single communication site, such as in Node B (NB) alone rather than in NB and RNC (Radio Network Controller) respectively, so that the system structure becomes simple“ (Kuo ¶ 0005).
Kuo does not teach: the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured.
Regarding Claim 1, Centonza teaches: the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured: “Element (IE) (e.g. "Selective Handover") in the HANDOVER REQUEST message. This IE may take different values depending on the type of selective handover that is being requested. For example, it may have three values, a value of "0" referring to "data radio bearers" (meaning only the data radio bearers listed in the E-RAB list are to be handed over) or value "1" referring to "signaling radio bearers" (meaning only the signaling radio bearers listed in the E-RAB list are to be handed over) or it may have the value "2" referring to "signaling and data radio bearers" (meaning signaling radio bearers as well as the data radio bearers comprised in the E-RAB list are to be handed over)” (Centonza ¶ 0139); and the uplink path switching switches an uplink path from the source base station to the target base station while maintaining downlink paths with both the source base station and the target base station: “According to some of the example embodiments, the source may keep some of the DRBs and some of the SRBs, while the target receives some of the SRBs and some of the DRBs associated with the user equipment as a result of the selective handover” (Centonza ¶ 0129), as well as “In general, the terms anchor node and assisting node, or anchor cell and assisting cell are used to identify a serving cell (anchor cell) hosted by a serving node (anchor node) and a neighbour cell (assisting cell) hosted by a neighbour node (assisting node), where bearers for the same user equipment are moved, setup, modified or removed in both cells at the same time and where the main control plane connection for the served user equipment is either kept at the anchor node or it is relayed by the anchor node” (Centonza ¶ 0104) showing that some DL paths are maintained between the source base station as well as some DL paths are handed over to the target base station along with the switched uplink paths.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Hample, Xu, and Kuo with the disclosure of Centonza to achieve the Predictable result of allowing for more flexibility than legacy handover. According to Centonza: “an interface is established to provide direct communications between two base stations serving a same user equipment. The example embodiments presented herein make it possible to perform handovers selectively between a source and a target eNB, thereby creating more system flexibility than the legacy way of performing handover where a user equipment is completely handed over to the target” (Centonza ¶ 0007).
Regarding Claim 2, Hample teaches: A handover method performed by a User Equipment (UE), the handover method comprising: receiving a Remote Radio Configuration (RRC) reconfiguration message for instructing an enhanced handover, the RRC reconfiguration message indicating that a data radio bearer (DRB) is configured with the enhanced handover: “At 326, base station 105-c forwards this information to UE 115-c in a RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. The RRC Connection Reconfiguration message may be signaled to the UE 115-c on a signaling radio bearer. The UE 115-c uses the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to terminate the data radio bearers on base station 105-c and access the target base station 385” (Hample ¶ 0103), performing a random access procedure to handover to the target base station: “The UE 115 may attach to the target base station via a random access channel (RACH) procedure” (Hample ¶ 0061).
Hample does not teach: the enhanced handover being a handover procedure during which the UE maintains communication with a source base station until a connection to the source base station is released after successful handover to a target base station; indicating information from a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to an RRC layer upon a successful completion of the random access procedure; and requesting, by the RRC layer, from a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, for an uplink path switching for the DRB configured with the enhanced handover when the information from the MAC layer is received, wherein the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured.
Regarding Claim 2, Xu teaches: The enhanced handover being a handover procedure during which the UE maintains communication with a source base station until a connection to the source base station is released after successful handover to a target base station: “The enhanced handover refers a handover scheme for maintaining a connection to the source eNB, as discussed in the 3GPP Rel-14. Specifically, the enhanced handover process means that the source eNB still transmits downlink data to a UE and also receives uplink data from the UE during the handover execution process. More specifically, after the source eNB has transmitted an RRC connection reconfiguration message, or after the source eNB has transmitted an RRC connection reconfiguration message and before the target eNB receives an RACH access from the UE, or after the source eNB has transmitted an RRC connection reconfiguration message and before the target eNB receives the RRC connection reconfiguration from the UE, the source eNB still transmits downlink data to the UE and also receives uplink data from the UE” (Xu ¶ 0281).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Hample with Xu for the purpose of providing seamless handover between a source and target gNB. According to Xu: “The present invention provides a method and eNB equipment for supporting seamless handover, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the delay of data transmission, the unnecessary data transmission or unnecessary data monitoring of a source eNB, and the missing and duplication transmission of uplink and downlink data in the handover process” (Xu ¶ 0019).
Xu does not teach: indicating information from a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to an RRC layer upon a successful completion of the random access procedure; and requesting, by the RRC layer, from a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, for an uplink path switching for the DRB configured with the enhanced handover when the information from the MAC layer is received, wherein the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured.
Regarding Claim 2, Kuo teaches: indicating information from a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to an RRC layer upon a successful completion of the random access procedure: “Upon successful completion of the handover procedure, i.e. when the MAC layer indicates the random access procedure is successfully completed, the UE shall perform the following steps” (Kuo ¶ 0008) and “Apply a new security configuration (including security keys and security algorithms) to lower layers such as the PDCP layer if an IE "securityConfiguration" is included in the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message” (Kuo ¶ 0009): and, requesting, by the RRC layer, from a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, for an uplink path switching for the DRB configured with the enhanced handover when the information from the MAC layer is received: “Upon successful completion of the handover procedure, i.e. when the MAC layer indicates the random access procedure is successfully completed, the UE shall perform the following steps” (Kuo ¶ 0008), “Indicate occurrence of the handover procedure to the PDCP layer” (Kuo ¶ 0012), and “according to the PDCP specification, when upper layers indicate that a handover procedure has occurred, for radio bearers that are mapped on Acknowledged Mode RLC entities, the UE shall perform maintenance of PDCP sequence numbers, header decompression and deciphering for PDCP PDUs received from lower layers and store the out-of-sequence PDCP SDUs, if any, in the reordering buffer until it is indicated to submit them to upper layers” (Kuo ¶ 0014).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Hample and Xu with the disclosure of Kuo to achieve the Predictable result of simplifying the structure of the uplink path and allowing it to be compatible with LTE communications. According to Kuo: “Long Term Evolution wireless communication system (LTE system), an advanced high-speed wireless communication system established upon the 3G mobile telecommunication system, supports only packet-switched transmission, and tends to implement both Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and Radio Link Control (RLC) layer in one single communication site, such as in Node B (NB) alone rather than in NB and RNC (Radio Network Controller) respectively, so that the system structure becomes simple“ (Kuo ¶ 0005).
Kuo does not teach: the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured.
Regarding Claim 2, Centonza teaches: the enhanced handover is configured independently for each DRB, and the uplink path switching is executed only for DRBs, including the DRB, for which the enhanced handover is configured: “Element (IE) (e.g. "Selective Handover") in the HANDOVER REQUEST message. This IE may take different values depending on the type of selective handover that is being requested. For example, it may have three values, a value of "0" referring to "data radio bearers" (meaning only the data radio bearers listed in the E-RAB list are to be handed over) or value "1" referring to "signaling radio bearers" (meaning only the signaling radio bearers listed in the E-RAB list are to be handed over) or it may have the value "2" referring to "signaling and data radio bearers" (meaning signaling radio bearers as well as the data radio bearers comprised in the E-RAB list are to be handed over)” (Centonza ¶ 0139); and the uplink path switching switches an uplink path from the source base station to the target base station while maintaining downlink paths with both the source base station and the target base station: “According to some of the example embodiments, the source may keep some of the DRBs and some of the SRBs, while the target receives some of the SRBs and some of the DRBs associated with the user equipment as a result of the selective handover” (Centonza ¶ 0129), as well as “In general, the terms anchor node and assisting node, or anchor cell and assisting cell are used to identify a serving cell (anchor cell) hosted by a serving node (anchor node) and a neighbour cell (assisting cell) hosted by a neighbour node (assisting node), where bearers for the same user equipment are moved, setup, modified or removed in both cells at the same time and where the main control plane connection for the served user equipment is either kept at the anchor node or it is relayed by the anchor node” (Centonza ¶ 0104) showing that some DL paths are maintained between the source base station as well as some DL paths are handed over to the target base station along with the switched uplink paths.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Hample, Xu, and Kuo with the disclosure of Centonza to achieve the Predictable result of allowing for more flexibility than legacy handover. According to Centonza: “an interface is established to provide direct communications between two base stations serving a same user equipment. The example embodiments presented herein make it possible to perform handovers selectively between a source and a target eNB, thereby creating more system flexibility than the legacy way of performing handover where a user equipment is completely handed over to the target” (Centonza ¶ 0007).
Claims 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hample, Xu, Kuo, and Centonza as applied to claims 1-2 above, and further in view of Hong et al (US 2017/0223578) hereinafter Hong.
Regarding Claim 3, Hample, Kuo, Xue, and Centonza teach: The UE according to claim 1.
Hample, Kuo, Xue, and Centonza fail to teach: wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the UE to: perform retransmissions of all PDCP service data units (SDUs) in an ascending order of count (COUNT) values associated with the PDCP SDUs prior to the uplink path switching, starting from a first PDCP SDU that has not been confirmed to be successfully delivered for an acknowledge mode (AM) DRB, by the PDCP layer, when the request from the RRC layer is received.
Regarding Claim 3, Hong teaches: wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the UE to: perform retransmissions of all PDCP service data units (SDUs) in an ascending order of count (COUNT) values associated with the PDCP SDUs prior to the uplink path switching, starting from a first PDCP SDU that has not been confirmed to be successfully delivered for an acknowledge mode (AM) DRB, by the PDCP layer, when the request from the RRC layer is received: “The information for instructing the terminal to transmit the uplink data through a base station carrier (or information for designating the uplink data path) and the information to configure the content described above may be included in the RLC configuration information (RLC-CONFIG) in the case of the radio bearer configuration information (DRB-ToAddMod) or the RLC layer interworking structure” (Hong ¶ 0187) and “from the first PDCP SDU for which a successful delivery of the corresponding PDCP PDU has not been acknowledged by lower layers, perform the retransmission or transmission of all the PDCP SDUs that have already been associated with PDCP SNs in ascending order of the COUNT values associated to the PDCP SDU prior to the PDCP re-establishment as described below” (Hong ¶ 0272).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Hample, Kuo, Xue, and Centonza with Hong to achieve the Predictable result of improving WLAN coverage by ensuring use plan data achieves lossless transmission. According to Hong: “Most of the user plane data that requires lossless transmission may use an acknowledged mode (AM) RLC. The AM RLC ensures lossless data transmission through the retransmission” (Hong ¶ 0271).
Regarding Claim 4, Hample, Kuo, Xue, and Centonza teach: The handover method according to claim 2.
Hample, Kuo, Xue, and Centonza fail to teach: further comprising: performing retransmissions of all PDCP service data units (SDUs) in an ascending order of count (COUNT) values associated with the PDCP SDUs prior to the uplink path switching, starting from a first PDCP SDU that has not been confirmed to be successfully delivered for an acknowledge mode (AM) DRB, by the PDCP layer, when the request from the RRC layer is received.
Regarding Claim 4, Hong teaches: further comprising: performing retransmissions of all PDCP service data units (SDUs) in an ascending order of count (COUNT) values associated with the PDCP SDUs prior to the uplink path switching, starting from a first PDCP SDU that has not been confirmed to be successfully delivered for an acknowledge mode (AM) DRB, by the PDCP layer, when the request from the RRC layer is received: “The information for instructing the terminal to transmit the uplink data through a base station carrier (or information for designating the uplink data path) and the information to configure the content described above may be included in the RLC configuration information (RLC-CONFIG) in the case of the radio bearer configuration information (DRB-ToAddMod) or the RLC layer interworking structure” (Hong ¶ 0187) and “from the first PDCP SDU for which a successful delivery of the corresponding PDCP PDU has not been acknowledged by lower layers, perform the retransmission or transmission of all the PDCP SDUs that have already been associated with PDCP SNs in ascending order of the COUNT values associated to the PDCP SDU prior to the PDCP re-establishment as described below” (Hong ¶ 0272).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Hample, Kuo, Xue, and Centonza with Hong to achieve the Predictable result of improving WLAN coverage by ensuring use plan data achieves lossless transmission. According to Hong: “Most of the user plane data that requires lossless transmission may use an acknowledged mode (AM) RLC. The AM RLC ensures lossless data transmission through the retransmission” (Hong ¶ 0271).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRADLEY DAVIS LYTLE whose telephone number is (703)756-4593. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM EST.
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/B.D.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/BRADLEY D LYTLE JR./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473