DETAILED ACTION
This Final Office Action is in response to application number 17/791,381 filed on July 7th,2022. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Applicant Argument/Remarks filed 0n 01/09/2026 is acknowledged
Claims 1 and 11 have been amended
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements (IDS), submitted on July 26th, 2024, April 9th, 2024, October 20th, 2023, January 30th, 2023 and July, 14th, 2022 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-3, and 11-13, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sivavakeesar et al. (US 11452070-B2) in view of Zhu et al. (US 20210037455-A1).
Regarding claim 1 and 11, Sivavakeesar et al. disclose a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) for cell reselection (Col 27 lines 22-33 discloses cell reselection, Col 27 lines 34-46 discloses the UE performing cell reselection), the method comprising: receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Release message from a serving cell, the RRC Release message including slice information of neighboring cells of the serving cell (Col 27 lines 22-33 discloses the RRC Connection Release message containing the slice information of the neighbor cells);
Sivavakeesar et al. does not explicitly disclose receiving, by an RRC layer of the UE, from a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer of the UE, first information indicating one or more network slices for which a cell reselection procedure is to be performed while the UE is in an RRC IDLE state or an RRC INACTIVE state; receiving, from the serving cell, via dedicated signaling, second information indicating priority information associated with the one or more network slices ; and performing the cell reselection procedure to select a suitable cell that supports one of the one or more networks slices indicated by the first information based on the slice information of the neighboring cells the first information, and the second information.
However, in an analogous art, Zhu et al. teaches receiving, by an RRC layer of the UE, from a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer of the UE, first information indicating one or more network slices for which a cell reselection procedure is to be performed while the UE is in an RRC IDLE state or an RRC INACTIVE state (Zhu et al. Paragraphs 0121-0122 disclose respectively “At step 810, the UE receives a PDU session request on the slice B, for example, initiated by an application requiring a service (e.g., an URLLC service) on the slice B or by a higher layer OS of the UE.” and “At step 815, the UE transmits a NAS service request message to the core network via the BS A. The NAS service request message may request for slice B.” This shows the intra UE interaction from the PDU session initiation by an application or a higher layer OS of the UE to the transmission of the signal requesting slice B to the base station by the UE. Additionally Zhu paragraph 0169 disclose “At step 1205, the UE is camped on frequency A, where slice B is not included in allowed NSSAI for frequency A. In an example, the UE may be in an RRC idle mode. The UE may have received system information (e.g., SIB s) from the BS A. The UE may have received allowed NSSAI for the currently camped frequency A (e.g., from a previous connection to the network and/or previous monitoring).”. This shows the UE in and IDLE mode when the UE receives the application initiated session request.); receiving, from the serving cell, via dedicated signaling, second information indicating priority information associated with the one or more network slices (Zhu et al. Paragraph 0154 discloses “…during an RRC release or RRC resume, the BS may assign dedicated priority based on UE interested slices and/or frequencies received from the RRC service interest indication message. For example, the dedicated priority may include frequency priority information that the UE may use during cell reselection while the UE is in an RRC idle state and/or RRC inactive state.”) ; and performing the cell reselection procedure to select a suitable cell that supports one of the one or more networks slices indicated by the first information based on the slice information of the neighboring cells the first information, and the second information (Zhu et al. Paragraphs 0178 and 0154 disclose cell reselection based on first information and second information respectively. Whereby paragraph 0178 discloses “...the UE may perform cell reselection based on a service requirement. The UE may take interested network slices into consideration for cell reselection” and paragraph 0154 discloses “…the dedicated priority may include frequency priority information that the UE may use during cell reselection while the UE is in an RRC idle state and/or RRC inactive state.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Sivavakeesar et al. and to incorporate the teachings of Zhu et al., to receive by the RRC layer from the NAS one or more network slices for cell reselection and additionally receive from the serving cell priority information and perform cell reselection, in order to facilitate efficient resource utilization and to meet requested service requirements.
Regarding claim 2 and 12, Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11, wherein the first information includes at least one of a requested Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) or an allowed S-NSSAI (Col 8 Lines 47-67 discloses that the network slice instance comprising one or more S-NSSAIs includes the requested and the allowed S-NSSAIs).
Regarding claim 3 and 13, Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11, wherein the slice information of the neighboring cells indicates at least one slice supported by the neighboring cells and cell identities of the neighboring cells supporting the at least one slice (RRC Connection Release Message Col 21-28 discloses the RRC message comprising slice information of the neighbor cells and the related neighbor cell identities).
Claims 4-5,7,9,14-15 and 17,19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sivavakeesar et al. (US 11452070-B2) in view of Zhu et al. (US 20210037455-A1) further in view of Bi et al. (WO 2018228294-A1 citations are from the translation).
Regarding claim 4 and 14, Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11.
Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. fail to explicitly teach that the cell reselection procedure comprises: performing at least one measurement on a list of candidate cells indicated by the slice information of the neighboring cells.
However, in an analogous art Bi et al. disclose that the cell reselection procedure comprises: performing at least one measurement on a list of candidate cells indicated by the slice information of the neighboring cells (Page 12 Paragraph 4 discloses the terminal device conducting measurements based on cell reselection information received with regards to supported network slice 2 and F2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al.to incorporate the teachings of Bi et al., to measure a list of candidate cells indicated by the slice information of the neighboring cells, in order to support optimal cell selection that provides reliable, efficient and quality service to end users.
Regarding claim 5 and 15, Bi et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11, wherein the cell reselection procedure comprises: performing at least one measurement on a list of candidate cells that support at least one same slice (Page 12 Paragraph 4 discloses the terminal device conducting measurements based on cell reselection information received with regards to supported network slice 2 and F2, this indicates that measurements are based on the same network slice).
Regarding claim 7 and 17, Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11.
Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. fail to explicitly teach that selecting a prioritized intended slice among the one or more network slices indicated by the first information based on the second information.
However, in an analogous art Bi et al. disclose that selecting a prioritized intended slice among the one or more network slices indicated by the first information based on the second information (A1 Page 4 Paragraph 3 discloses the selection of a prioritized slice among the plurality of slices).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. to incorporate the teachings of Bi et al., to select a prioritized slice among the plurality of slices, in order to ensure that critical services receive the necessary resources.
Regarding claim 9 and 19, Sivavakeesar et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11.
Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. fail to explicitly teach that the serving cell does not support the one or more network slices indicated by the first information.
However, in an analogous art Bi et al. disclose that the serving cell does not support the one or more network slices indicated by the first information (Page 2 Paragraph 4 discloses the terminal equipment reselecting a cell that does not support the network slice supported by the terminal device).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Sivavakeesar et al. and Zhu et al. to incorporate the teachings of Bi et al., to know or determine that the serving cell does not support the intended slice, in order to minimize quality of service disruptions and perform cell reselection successfully and rapidly.
Response to Arguments
In the arguments applicant indicates that “Zhu merely discloses inter-node signaling between the UE and the network. While Zhu mentions that a request can be sent via NAS signaling or RRC signaling, this simply describes the protocol used to transmit a message externally to the network. Zhu does not describe the specific intra-UE interaction recited in unamended claim 1. The claimed feature requires the UE's own internal NAS layer to provide information to its RRC layer to be utilized in performing a cell reselection procedure.” Additionally applicant indicates “that the procedures described in Zhu, including handover, dual-connectivity (DC), and carrier aggregation (CA), are exclusively RRC_CONNECTED state procedures. In contrast, in amended claim 1, the cell reselection procedure is to be performed "while the UE is in an RRC_IDLE state or an RRC_INACTIVE state.".
Examiner respectfully disagrees, with respect to the first argument listed above as Zhu paragraph 0121 and 0122 respectively disclose “At step 810, the UE receives a PDU session request on the slice B, for example, initiated by an application requiring a service (e.g., an URLLC service) on the slice B or by a higher layer OS of the UE.” and “At step 815, the UE transmits a NAS service request message to the core network via the BS A. The NAS service request message may request for slice B.”. This shows the intra UE interaction from the PDU session initiation by an application or a higher layer OS of the UE to the transmission of the signal requesting slice B to the base station by the UE. With regards to the second argument listed above Zhu paragraph 0169 disclose “At step 1205, the UE is camped on frequency A, where slice B is not included in allowed NSSAI for frequency A. In an example, the UE may be in an RRC idle mode. The UE may have received system information (e.g., SIB s) from the BS A. The UE may have received allowed NSSAI for the currently camped frequency A (e.g., from a previous connection to the network and/or previous monitoring).”. This shows the UE in and IDLE mode when the UE receives the application initiated session request.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Samuel Dilan Rutnam whose telephone number is 703-756-1374. The examiner can normally be reached between 8:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached on 571-272-8586.
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/Samuel Dilan Rutnam/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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