DETAILED ACTION
This Non-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 .
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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 07/16/2026 has been entered.
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 Shih et al. (US 11838820 B2) further 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 forwarding, by a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer of the UE, to an RRC 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; and performing, by the RRC layer of the UE, 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, Shih et al. teaches forwarding, by a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer of the UE, to an RRC 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 (Shih et al. Paragraph 120 discloses “FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating cell (re)selection based on network slice, according to an exemplary implementation of the present disclosure. In action 2492, a UE's Non Access Stratum (NAS) may first identify a selected PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network) and the equivalent PLMNs. The UE's NAS is preconfigured to have the information of which RAT/frequency band supports the network slice or even specific network slice/service. The UE's NAS may forward the information to the Access Stratum (AS).” Here AS is equivalent to the RRC layer of the UE. Additionally Paragraph 118 discloses “An idle/inactive UE may camp or select/reselect a cell of a suitable RAT that supports the required/requested network slice/service.”); and performing, by the RRC layer of the UE, 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 (Shih et al. Paragraph 120 discloses “As such, the UE′ AS with network slice requirement may monitor and measure signal from/on the RATS/frequency bands. In FIG. 24, in action 2494, the UE's NAS or AS may identify the required/requested network slice/service and/or the network slice support (e.g., via slice IDs and/or NS Indication and/or Slice Bitmap). In action 2496, the UE may search the RATs/frequency bands on which the required/requested network slice/service and/or network slice capability are supported. It is noted that the RATs/frequency bands that the UE monitors on may be associated with the selected PLMN or the equivalent PLMNs.”).
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 Shih et al., forwarding by the NAS to the RRC or AS layer one or more network slices for cell reselection and perform by the RRC layer of the UE cell reselection, in order to facilitate efficient resource utilization and to meet requested service requirements.
Sivavakeesar et al. and Shih et al does not explicitly disclose receiving, from the serving cell, via dedicated signaling, second information indicating priority information associated with the one or more network slices;
However, in an analogous art, Zhu et al. teaches 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.”);
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., Shih et al. and to incorporate the teachings of Zhu et al., to receive from the serving cell priority information associated with one or more network slices , in order to facilitate efficient resource utilization and to meet requested service requirements.
Regarding claim 2 and 12, Sivavakeesar et al., Shih 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. Shih 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 Shih et al (US 11838820 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. Shih et al. and Zhu et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11.
Sivavakeesar et al., Shih 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., Shih 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., Shih et al. and Zhu et al. disclose the method of claim 1 and 11.
Sivavakeesar et al., Shih 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., Shih 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., Shih 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., Shih 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.
Conclusion
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
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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