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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This is in reply to an RCE filed on 2/12/2026. Status of claims are:
** Claims 1-20 are pending in this Office Action.
** Claims 1, 8, and 15 are amended.
Response to Arguments
2. Applicant's certain arguments filed in the RCE amendment on 01/13/2026, have been fully considered but are moot in view of new ground of rejection. The reasons are set forth below.
Prior Art
U. S. Patent Pub No. US 20210105096 A1, to Chin et al., (hereinafter Chin).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20230086398 A1 to Teyeb et al., (hereinafter Teyeb) in view of US 20230021820 A1 to
US 20210105096 A1, to Chin et al., (hereinafter Chin).
Claim 1. A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising:
a transceiver (Teyeb: See Fig. 9, #302, UE #948 (i.e., transceiver)) configured to perform a random access procedure (See para[0042] “fast MCG Link recovery”, is “an RRC procedure”) and a processor operably coupled to the transceiver, (Teyeb: See Fig. 9, #902) the processor configured to:
based on a completion of the random access procedure, (Teyeb: See Fig. 3 and para[0030]-[0031] UE sends “RRC Reestablishment Complete” message (i.e., random access procedure) with radio link failure (RLF) report in it. The RLF report is stored in UE and is transmitted, using VarRLF-Report section of “UEInformationResponse” message) in case that the random access procedure is performed on a cell associated with a master cell group (MCG) set the indication to indicate an identity of PCell in a random-access report, (See para[0029], UE captures in the RLF report certain parameters, including an indication that it is an MCG RLC, and if MCG RLC is detected and determined, then UE sets the failedPCellID parameter, the physical cell identify of the PCell (i.e., a cell associated with MCG) where radio link failure was detected)
and in case that the random-access procedure is performed on a cell associated with a SCG (Teyeb: See para[0029]-[0030], in case of dual connectivity (DC), if UE determines “SCG RLF has occurred based on SCG RLC information that is sent to PSCell” (i.e., random access procedure performed on a Primary Cell of SCG(PSCell)), UE then determines that SCG RLF has occurred)
wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit, to a base station, the random-access report (i.e., random-access (RA) related information) including the indication indicating whether random access information is associated with the PCell or the PSCell that is identified at a granularity of the random access procedure. (Teyeb: See para[0051] information included in the “UEInformationResponse” that is sent by UE to MN (i.e., master node/MCG) includes, failed “PCell ID”, as well as other random-access (RA) related information.)
Although Teyeb teaches techniques related to UE detecting a radio link failure (RLF) for its serving cell, and sends a radio link failure report wherein such “RLF report” itself has various parameters such as UE setting the “failedPCell ID”, to the “PCell” ID where the radio link failure was detected and occurred, wherein the PCell, given the broadest reasonable interpretation BRI, consistent with Applicant’s specification, is understood as “Primary Cell” of a master cell group (PCell of MCG) or “Primary Cell” of a secondary cell group (PCell of SCG or PSCell), and wherein the RACH report (i.e., RA report) as well as the “RLF report” that are included in “UEInformationResponse”, further indicates if failure is due to “MCG RLF” or “SCG RLF” (Teyeb: See para[0029] & para[0029]), however, Teyeb does not seem to explicitly teach such report that UE sends out, includes an indication related to the identity of PSCell, as understood by:
Identify an indication of a type of cell including a primary cell (PCell) or a primary secondary cell group (SCG) cell (SPCell)
set the indication to indicate an identity of the PSCell in the random access report
However, in a similar field, Chin in para[0220]-[0224] teaches that a failure report that UE transmits after it detects a failure, includes information related to the PSCell , or may send SCG failure report which includes information related to the PSCell.
Teyeb teaches techniques related to master cell group and radio link failure reporting techniques, using “UEInformationReport” messaging sent that has “RACH-Report” that includes failed PCell ID included by UE. (Teyeb: See para[0029], para[0079] and Fig. 3)
Chin teaches UE being able to declare a radio link failure (RLF) and send a failure report which includes information related to the PSCell (Chin: See para[0220]-[0224])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date, to have included the radio link failure (RLF) reporting techniques as taught by Chin, as taught by Tayeb, with RLF failure reporting techniques of Tayeb, in order to benefit from enhancements of having a UE that can detect PSCell failure and send a failure report including information related to the PSCell. (Chin: See para[0220]-[0224])
Claim 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:
receive, from the base station, a request message associated with UE information; and transmit, to the base station, a response message as a response to the request message, wherein the random access report is included in the response message.
(Teyeb: See para[0079] and Fig. 3, UE in a master cell group (MCG), receiving “UEInformationRequest” message. See para[0034] for “UEInformationRequest” that UE receives, includes “rach-ReportReq” that instructs UE to perform “the random access procedure” and report RA information back, which UE performs and sends back to MN, via “UEInformationResponse”, that includes “rach-Report” performed by UE)
Claim 3. The UE of claim 1, wherein the random-access report is transmitted to the base station based on a signaling radio bearer (SRB)1
(Teyeb: See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmitted to MN, which includes “RLF” (radio link failure), as shown in Fig. 3, is done via SRB1 or SRB2. See para[0051] for RLF information included in the “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message sent back to MN) includes “failed PCell ID”, or Cell ID of failed PCell, and the ID of source PCell, and C-RTI of previous source PCell as well as other Random Access (RA) related information)
Claim 4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is further configured to:
receive a UE information response message; (Teyeb: See para[0036] “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) is the one transmitted to MN as shown in Fig. 3)
or
receive a radio resource control (RRC) message including the UE information response message for another node base station.
Claim 5. The UE of claim 1, wherein: the processor is further configured to generate and store a radio link failure (RLF) report for the PSCell; and the transceiver is further configured to transmit the RLF report to the base station using a signaling radio bearer (SRB1). (Teyeb: See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmitted to MN, which includes “RLF” (radio link failure), as shown in Fig. 3, is done via SRB1 or SRB2. See para[0051] for RLF information included in the “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message sent back to MN) includes “failed PCell ID”, or Cell ID of failed PCell, and the ID of source PCell (PSCell), and C-RTI of previous source PCell as well as other Random Access (RA) related information)
Claim 6. The UE of claim 1, wherein: the processor is further configured to generate and store a connection establishment failure (CEF) report for the PSCell; and the transceiver is further configured to transmit, to base station, the CEF report using a signaling radio bearer (SRB1). (Teyeb: See Table-3 for “UEInformationResponse”, that is transmitted using SRB1 to MN, not only includes Radio Link Failure (RLF) , but also it has “ConnectionFailure” (i.e., connection establishment failure). See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmission to MN by UE, as shown in Fig. 3, is SRB1 or SRB2)
Claim 7. The UE of claim 1, wherein random access (RA) information associated with the random access procedure includes at least one of RA channel configuration information, information per RA attempt including measurement information on a reference signal, a number of RA preambles transmitted, or
whether a contention is detected.
(Teyeb: See Table-3 for “UEInformationResponse”, that is transmitted using SRB1 to MN by UE, not only includes Radio Link Failure (RLF) , and “ConnectionFailure” (i.e., connection establishment failure), but it also includes “ContentionDetected” information)
Claim 8. A base station in a wireless communication system, the base station (Teyeb: See Fig. 3, MN (i.e., Base Station) receiving a RRC response message from UE) comprising:
a processor configured to perform a random-access procedure; and (Teyeb: See Fig. 10, having a processor and transceiver)
a transceiver operably coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to receive, from a user equipment (UE), a random access report (i.e., random-access (RA) related information) including an indication indicating whether random access information is associated with a primary cell (PCell) or a primary secondary cell group cell (PSCell) that is identified at a granularity of the random access procedure. (Teyeb: See para[0051] information included in the “UEInformationResponse” that is sent by UE to MN (i.e., master node) includes, a list of EPLMNs stored by the UE, failed PCell ID, as well as random-access (RA) related information.)
wherein: the indication includes an identity of the PCell is set in the random access report, based on a completion of the random access procedure, in the random access report when the random access procedure is performed on a cell associated with a master cell group (MCG); (See para[0029], UE captures in the RLF report certain parameters, including an indication that it is an MCG RLC, and if MCG RLC is detected and determined, then UE is instructed to set the failedPCellID to the physical cell identify of the PCell where radio link failure was detected)
when the random access procedure is performed on a cell associated with a secondary cell group (SCG). (Teyeb: See para[0029]-[0030], in case of dual connectivity (DC), if UE determines “SCG RLF has occurred based on SCG RLC information that is sent to PSCell” (i.e., random access procedure performed on a Primary Cell of SCG (PSCell)), UE then determines that SCG RLF has occurred)
Although Teyeb teaches techniques related to UE detecting a radio link failure (RLF) for its serving cell, and sends a radio link failure report wherein such “RLF report” itself has various parameters such as UE setting the “failedPCell ID”, to the “PCell” ID where the radio link failure was detected and occurred, wherein the PCell, given the broadest reasonable interpretation BRI, consistent with Applicant’s specification, is understood as “Primary Cell” of a master cell group (PCell of MCG) or “Primary Cell” of a secondary cell group (PCell of SCG or PSCell), and wherein the RACH report (i.e., RA report) as well as the “RLF report” that are included in “UEInformationResponse”, further indicates if failure is due to “MCG RLF” or “SCG RLF” (Teyeb: See para[0029] & para[0029]), however, Teyeb does not seem to explicitly teach such report that UE sends out, includes an indication related to the identity of PSCell, as understood by:
the indication includes an identity of the PSCell is set in the random access report
the indication indicates a type of cell including the PCell or the PSCell
However, in a similar field, Chin in para[0220]-[0224] teaches that a failure report that UE transmits after it detects a failure, includes information related to the PSCell , or may send SCG failure report which includes information related to the PSCell.
Teyeb teaches techniques related to master cell group and radio link failure reporting techniques, using “UEInformationReport” messaging sent that has “RACH-Report” that includes failed PCell ID included by UE. (Teyeb: See para[0029], para[0079] and Fig. 3)
Chin teaches UE being able to declare a radio link failure (RLF) and send a failure report which includes information related to the PSCell (Chin: See para[0220]-[0224])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date, to have included the radio link failure (RLF) reporting techniques as taught by Chin, as taught by Tayeb, with RLF failure reporting techniques of Tayeb, in order to benefit from enhancements of having a UE that can detect PSCell failure and send a failure report including information related to the PSCell. (Chin: See para[0220]-[0224])
Claim 9. The base station of claim 8, wherein the transceiver is further configured to:
transmit, to the UE, a request message associated with UE information; and receive, from the UE, a response message as a response to the request message, wherein the random access report is included in the response message.
(Teyeb: See para[0079] and Fig. 3, UE in a master cell group (MCG), receiving “UEInformationRequest” message. See para[0034] for “UEInformationRequest” that UE receives, includes “rach-ReportReq” that instructs UE to perform “the random access procedure” and report RA information back, which UE performs and sends back to MN, via “UEInformationResponse”, that includes “rach-Report” performed by UE)
Claim 10. The base station of claim 8, wherein the random access report is transmitted to the base station based on a signaling radio bearer (SRB)1;
(Teyeb: See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmitted to MN, which includes “RLF” (radio link failure), as shown in Fig. 3, is done via SRB1 or SRB2. See para[0051] for RLF information included in the “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message sent back to MN) includes “failed PCell ID”, or Cell ID of failed PCell, and the ID of source PCell, and C-RTI of previous source PCell as well as other Random Access (RA) related information)
Claim 11. The base station of claim 8, wherein the transceiver is further configured to:
receive a UE information response message;
(Teyeb: See para[0036] “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) is the one transmitted to MN as shown in Fig. 3)
or
receive a radio resource control (RRC) message including the UE information response message for another base station.
Claim 12. The base station of claim 8, wherein:
the transceiver is further configured to receive, from the UE, a radio link failure (RLF) report using a signaling radio bearer 1 (SRB 1); the processor is further configured to identify the RLF report for the PSCell; (Teyeb: See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmitted to MN, which includes “RLF” (radio link failure), as shown in Fig. 3, is done via SRB1 or SRB2. See para[0051] for RLF information included in the “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message sent back to MN) includes “failed PCell ID”, or Cell ID of failed PCell, and the ID of source PCell (PSCell), and C-RTI of previous source PCell (PSCell) as well as other Random Access (RA) related information) and the transceiver is further configured to transmit the RLF report to another base station. (Teyeb: See para[0087] for the network (i.e., MN-BS) forwarding the report to the source cell and possibly the other attempted cells (i.e., SN-BS))
Claim 13. The base station of claim 8, wherein:
the transceiver is further configured to receive, from the UE, a connection establishment failure (CEF) report using a signaling radio bearer 1 (SRB 1); the processor is further configured to identify the CEF report for the PSCell; (Teyeb: See Table-3 for “UEInformationResponse”, that is transmitted using SRB1 to MN, not only includes Radio Link Failure (RLF) , but also it has “ConnectionFailure” (i.e., connection establishment failure). See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmission to MN by UE, as shown in Fig. 3, is SRB1 or SRB2) and the transceiver is further configured to transmit the CEF report to another base station. (Teyeb: See para[0087] for the network (i.e., MN-BS) forwarding the report to the source cell and possibly the attempted cells (i.e., SN-BS))
Claim 14. The base station of claim 8, wherein random access (RA) information associated with the random access procedure includes at least one of RA channel configuration information, information per RA attempt including measurement information on a reference signal, a number of RA preambles transmitted, or
whether a contention is detected.
(Teyeb: See Table-3 for “UEInformationResponse”, that is transmitted using SRB1 to MN, not only includes Radio Link Failure (RLF) , and “ConnectionFailure” (i.e., connection establishment failure), but it also includes “ContentionDetected” information)
Claim 15. A method of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
performing a random access procedure(See para[0042] “fast MCG Link recovery”, is “an RRC procedure”)
based on completion of the random access procedure, (Teyeb: See Fig. 3 and para[0030]-[0031] UE sends “RRC Reestablishment Complete” message (i.e., random access procedure) with radio link failure (RLF) report in it. The RLF report is stored in UE and is transmitted, using VarRLF-Report section of “UEInformationResponse” message) in case that the random access procedure is performed on a cell associated with a master cell group (MCG) setting the indication to indicate an identity of the PCell in a random-access report, (See para[0029], UE captures in the RLF report certain parameters, including an indication that it is an MCG RLC, and if MCG RLC is detected and determined, then UE sets the failedPCellID parameter, the physical cell identify of the PCell (i.e., a cell associated with MCG) where radio link failure was detected)
in case that the random access procedure is performed on a cell associated with a SCG (Teyeb: See para[0029]-[0030], in case of dual connectivity (DC), if UE determines “SCG RLF has occurred based on SCG RLC information that is sent to PSCell” (i.e., random access procedure performed on a Primary Cell of SCG (PSCell)), UE then determines that SCG RLF has occurred)
and transmitting, to a base station, the random access report (i.e., random-access (RA) related information) including the indication indicating whether random access report is associated with the PCell or the PSCell that is identified at a granularity of the random access procedure. (Teyeb: See para[0051] information included in the “UEInformationResponse” that is sent by UE to MN (i.e., master node) includes, a list of EPLMNs stored by the UE, failed “PCell ID”, as well as random-access (RA) related information.)
Although Teyeb teaches techniques related to UE detecting a radio link failure (RLF) for its serving cell, and sends a radio link failure report wherein such “RLF report” itself has various parameters such as UE setting the “failedPCell ID”, to the “PCell” ID where the radio link failure was detected and occurred, wherein the PCell, given the broadest reasonable interpretation BRI, consistent with Applicant’s specification, is understood as “Primary Cell” of a master cell group (PCell of MCG) or “Primary Cell” of a secondary cell group (PCell of SCG or PSCell), and wherein the RACH report (i.e., RA report) as well as the “RLF report” that are included in “UEInformationResponse”, further indicates if failure is due to “MCG RLF” or “SCG RLF” (Teyeb: See para[0029] & para[0029]), however, Teyeb does not seem to explicitly teach such report that UE sends out, includes an indication related to the identity of PSCell, as understood by:
Identify an indication of a type of cell including a primary cell (PCell) or a primary secondary cell group (SCG) cell (SPCell)
setting the indication including an identity of the PSCell in the random access report;
However, in a similar field, Chin in para[0220]-[0224] teaches that a failure report that UE transmits after it detects a failure, includes information related to the PSCell , or may send SCG failure report which includes information related to the PSCell.
Teyeb teaches techniques related to master cell group and radio link failure reporting techniques, using “UEInformationReport” messaging sent that has “RACH-Report” that includes failed PCell ID included by UE. (Teyeb: See para[0029], para[0079] and Fig. 3)
Chin teaches UE being able to declare a radio link failure (RLF) and send a failure report which includes information related to the PSCell (Chin: See para[0220]-[0224])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date, to have included the radio link failure (RLF) reporting techniques as taught by Chin, as taught by Tayeb, with RLF failure reporting techniques of Tayeb, in order to benefit from enhancements of having a UE that can detect PSCell failure and send a failure report including information related to the PSCell. (Chin: See para[0220]-[0224])
Claim 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
receiving, from the base station, a request message associated with UE information; and transmitting, to the base station, a response message as a response to the request message, wherein the random access report is included in the response message.
(Teyeb: See para[0079] and Fig. 3, UE in a master cell group (MCG), receiving “UEInformationRequest” message. See para[0034] for “UEInformationRequest” that UE receives, includes “rach-ReportReq” that instructs UE to perform “the random access procedure” and report RA information back, which UE performs and sends back to MN, via “UEInformationResponse”, that includes “rach-Report” performed by UE)
Claim 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the random-access report is transmitted to the base station based on a signaling radio bearer (SRB) 1.
(Teyeb: See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmitted to MN, which includes “RLF” (radio link failure), as shown in Fig. 3, is done via SRB1 or SRB2. See para[0051] for RLF information included in the “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message sent back to MN) includes “failed PCell ID”, or Cell ID of failed PCell, and the ID of source PCell (PSCell), and C-RNTI of previous source PCell as well as other Random Access (RA) related information)
Claim 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving a UE information response message; (Teyeb: See para[0036] “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) is the one transmitted to MN as shown in Fig. 3)
or
receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including the UE information response message for another base station wherein random access (RA) information associated with the random-access procedure includes at least one of RA channel configuration information, information per RA attempt including measurement information on a reference signal, a number of RA preambles transmitted,
or
whether a contention is detected.
(Teyeb: See Table-3 for “UEInformationResponse”, that is transmitted using SRB1 to MN, not only includes Radio Link Failure (RLF) , and “ConnectionFailure” (i.e., connection establishment failure), but it also includes “ContentionDetected” information)
Claim 19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
generating and storing a radio link failure (RLF) report for the PSCell; and transmitting the RLF report to the base station using a signaling radio bearer (SRB 1). (Teyeb: See para[0036] and para[0051] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message), transmitted by UE to MN, which includes the RLF report information, as well as “failed PCell ID”, Cell ID of failed PCell, the source PCell (PSCell) ID, and C-RTI of previous source PCell (PSCell), as well as other Random Access (RA) related information, as shown in Fig. 3, is via SRB1 or SRB2)
Claim 20. The method of claim 15, further comprising: generating and storing a connection establishment failure (CEF) report for the PSCell; and transmitting the CEF report to the base station using a signaling radio bearer (SRB 1). (Teyeb: See Table-3 for “UEInformationResponse”, that is transmitted using SRB1 to MN, not only includes Radio Link Failure (RLF), but also it has “ConnectionFailure” (i.e., connection establishment failure). See para[0036] the signaling radio bearer for “UEInformationResponse” (i.e., RRC message) transmission to MN by UE, as shown in Fig. 3, is SRB1 or SRB2)
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAJID ESMAEILIAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7830. The examiner can normally be reached on 9am-5pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner' s supervisor, Chirag G. Shah can be reached on 571-272-3144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M. E./
Examiner, Art Unit 2477
/GREGORY B SEFCHECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477