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 .
Applicant’s RCE filed 2/3/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 1,8, and 20 are amended.
Claims 2-7,9-19,21-33,36, and 37 are cancelled.
Claims 1,8,20,34, and 35 are pending.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/3/2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: The amended claim language is not properly marked up. The limitations in claim 1 should be underlined because the limitations are newly amended.
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.
Claim(s) 1,20,34, and 35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsieh (US 20210227435) in view of Wang (US 20190313244).
Re claim 1:
Hsieh discloses a connection establishment method, applied to an integrated access and backhaul (IAB)-node, comprising:
receiving, by a distributed unit (DU) of the IAB node, from a source donor centralized unit (CU), (Fig.9 ref. 908 First Interface Message ref. 836 is an IAB node, ref. 810 is a source CU, and ref. 860 is a target CU and Para.[0123] the Source CU 810 may generate and send a first interface message 908 to the IAB-Node DU 836 over the existing F1 interface 806 between the Source CU 810 and the IAB-Node DU 836 and Para.[0125] For example, the first interface message 908 may carry a UE Context Modification Request and Para.[0132] In aspects, the first interface message 908 includes configuration information. The configuration information may include information about the Target CU 860);
establishing a transport network layer (TNL) connection to the target donor CU based on the (Para.[0133] Responsive to receiving the configuration information, the IAB-Node DU 836 performs a TNL connection setup procedure and creates Transport Network Layer (TNL) connectivity toward the Target CU 860); and
after establishing the TNL connection, transmitting an F1 Setup Request message to the target donor CU to establish an F1 AP connection with the target donor CU (Para.[0136] Responsive to receiving the first interface message 908 and having created Transport Network Layer (TNL) connectivity toward the Target CU 860, the IAB-Node DU 836 may initiate a F1 setup procedure with the Target CU 860 by generating and sending a F1 Setup Request message 916 to the Target CU 860 via the wireless backhaul link 815 (Un 815) implemented utilizing the TNL connectivity).
As shown above, Hsieh discloses a source donor CU sending configuration information of a target donor CO to a DU an IAB and then using that configuration information to establish a TNL connection and then establish a F1 connection. Hsieh does not expand upon all the configuration information included and thus does not explicitly disclose IP address information.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that IP address information is part of the configuration information of a CU in order to establish a connection with the CU.
Wang explicitly discloses IP address information (Para.[0291] Otherwise, a message sent via the F1 interface may be a UE context setup message, including a UE context (an RRC configuration, such as SRB and DRB protocol stack configurations), information (for example, an IP address on a CU-CP side and a GTP-U tunnel endpoint identifier TEID) required for establishing a user plane tunnel of an F1 interface connection).
Hsieh and Wang are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hsieh to explicitly show IP address information as part of configuration information as taught by Wang in order to effectively manage a terminal device context and establish an F1 connection (Wang Para.[0007,0290]).
Re claim 20: Claim 20 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 1 from the perspective of the source CU.
Re claim 34:
Hsieh discloses an integrated access and backhaul (IAB)-node, comprising a processor and a memory; wherein the memory is configured to store instructions; and the processor is configured to read the instructions to perform the method of claim 1 (Fig. 3).
Re claim 35:
Hsieh discloses a centralized unit (CU), comprising a processor and a memory; wherein the memory is configured to store instructions; and the processor is configured to read the instructions to perform the method of claim 20 (Fig. 3).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsieh (US 20210227435) in view of Wang (US 20190313244) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Teyeb (US 20220201777).
Re claim 8:
As discussed above, Hsieh in view of Wang meets all the limitations of the parent claim.
Hsieh does not explicitly disclose the method of claim 1, before establishing the transport network layer (TNL) connection to the target donor CU, further comprising: receiving link connection success indication information from an upper layer IAB-node; wherein the link connection success indication information comprises at least one of: identity information of the target donor CU, a cell identity, a CU change identity, an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the target donor CU, a link migration success indication, a link reestablishment success indication, an identity of an IAB-node for link migration or an identity of an IAB-node for link reestablishment.
Teyeb discloses the method of claim 1, before establishing the transport network layer (TNL) connection to the target donor CU, further comprising: receiving link connection success indication information from an upper layer IAB-node; wherein the link connection success indication information comprises at least one of: identity information of the target donor CU, a cell identity, a CU change identity, an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the target donor CU, a link migration success indication, a link reestablishment success indication, an identity of an IAB-node for link migration or an identity of an IAB-node for link reestablishment (Fig.17 and Fig. 20 ref. gNB-CU Configuration Update and Fig.19 A and 19B and Para.[0186] The gNB-DU shall report to the gNB-CU, in the gNB-CU Configuration Update Acknowledge message, the successful establishment of the TNL association(s) with the gNB-CU as follows: [0187] A list of TNL address(es) with which the gNB-DU successfully established the TNL association shall be included in the gNB-CU TNL Association Setup List IE; [0188] A list of TNL address(es) with which the gNB-DU failed to establish the TNL association shall be included in the gNB-CU TNL Association Failed To Setup List IE).
Hsieh and Teyeb are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hsieh to explicitly show information exchanged during TNL connection establishment as taught by Teyeb in order to minimize service interruption, reduce power consumption, and increase system capacity (Teyeb Para.[0201]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD SAJID ADHAMI whose telephone number is (571)272-8615. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-5:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached at (571) 272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471