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
Request for Continued Examination
The request filed on 01/14/2026 for a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) under 37 CFR 1.114 based on parent Application No. 17/873,121 is acceptable and a RCE has been established. An action on the RCE follows.
This communication is in response to applicant’s 01/14/2026 amendment/responses in the application of LIN for “DEVICE AND METHOD OF HANDLING A HANDOVER” filed 07/25/2022. The amendments/response to the claims have been entered. No claims have been canceled. No claims have been added. Claims 1-23 are now pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 16-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 16, it is not clear whether the claimed subject matter “when an enable DAPS condition is satisfied and an RRC configuration of the suitable network comprises a DAPS configuration” is same RRC configuration message received in the preceding step or separate configuration message received by the communication device. Clarification is requested.
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 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) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al. (US 2023/0262538 A1), hereinafter KIM in view of CHEN et al. (US 2019/0223073 A1), hereinafter CHEN.
Regarding claim 1, KIM discloses a method for handling a handover of a communication device, comprising:
receiving a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message from a source network, wherein the RRC configuration message comprises at least one execution condition of at least one target network (the UE 1005 receives RRC Reconfiguration conditionalReconfiguration from the source gNB 1010 for normal handover or a DAPS handover and the terminal 1005 may immediately perform an operation of handover target to target cell 1015 and drive a T304 timer, see figure 10 and ¶ 0109);
determining a target network from the at least one target network according to the RRC configuration message in response to the execution condition being satisfied, wherein the target network is corresponding to the execution condition (the source cell 710 may accommodate the handover configuration information received from the target cells 715 and additional configuration information in a predetermined RRC message, and transmit the RRC message to the terminal 705 (operation 740). The configuration information may include the ID of the target cells… and conditions to trigger the operation of random access to each target cell Each of the above conditions may be different according to each target cell, and multiple conditions may be configured for one target cell., see ¶ 0100):
performing the handover from the source network to a target network of the at least one target network, wherein the target network is corresponding to the execution condition (the terminal 705 having received the handover configuration information may assess whether the provided condition(s) is satisfied (operation 745). Until the condition is satisfied, the terminal 705 may maintain an operation of data transmission or reception with the source cell 710 (operation 750). When a condition related to a particular target cell is satisfied (operation 755), the terminal 705 may perform a process of random access to the target cell and drive a T304 timer (operation 760), see ¶ 0101); and
transmitting a handover complete message to the target network, after performing the handover (the terminal 705 may transmit a msg3 to the target cell by using UL grant information accommodated in the RAR (operation 775). The msg3 may accommodate an RRCReconfigurationComplete message. When the random access process is successfully completed, the condition-based handover may be considered to be successfully completed, and the terminal 705 may stop the T304 timer being operated., see ¶ 0101).
KIM fails to explicitly disclose keeping connecting to the source network and transmitting a handover trigger message to the source network, when an execution condition of the at least one execution condition is satisfied.
In the same filed of endeavor, CHEN discloses if a triggering condition is satisfied (e.g., a target cell signal quality is above a given threshold within a time period TTT), the UE may select from one of the options (e.g., based on the NW configuration, based on predefined configuration, etc) includes the UE may directly execute the corresponding CHO command and notify the source base station about the triggered CHO command so that the source base station may stop the downlink data transmission to the UE. In some of the present embodiments, after the UE initiates executing the CHO command and performs synchronization and random access (RA) procedures for the selected target base station, the UE may send an indication message to the target base station (and the source base station). After reception of this indication message, the source base station may perform a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer and data forwarding (e.g., to the target base station). In another word, the UE maintains connection with the source base station during the condition-based handover (see ¶ 0074-0077).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement CHEN’s teaching of informing the source or serving node when CHO condition is met by the subscriber station in the network taught by KIM for informing the source base station exact timing of when to stop downlink data transmission to the UE and/or to start data forwarding to the target base station in condition-based handover.
Regarding claim 2, KIM discloses transmitting a measurement report as the handover trigger message to the source network, when the execution condition is satisfied (the terminal 705 may apply the measurement configuration information to measure signal quality of a serving cell and neighboring cells (operation 718), and report collected cell measurement information to the source cell 710 periodically or when a configured event occurs (operation 719), see ¶ 0100).
Regarding claim 3, KIM discloses starting a timer, after transmitting the handover trigger message to the source network; and stopping the timer, after transmitting the handover complete message to the target network (starting timer and stopping the timer after completion of handover, see ¶ 0101).
Regarding claim 4, KIM discloses the handover trigger message comprises a value of the timer (the terminal having received the logged MDT configuration information may drive a first timer (operation 530). A value of the first timer may be configured to be the same as a value of the logged duration, see ¶ 0090).
Regarding claim 5, KIM discloses the handover trigger message comprises an identity (ID) information of the target network (the configuration information may include the ID of the target cell, frequency information, configuration information (dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc.) required for an operation of random access to the target cell, transmission power information, and information of a C-RNTI used in the target cell, see ¶ 0097).
Regarding claim 6, KIM discloses the RRC configuration message comprises an RRC configuration of the target network, and the RRC configuration comprises a dual active protocol stack (DAPS) configuration (the source cell 1310 may accommodate the handover configuration information received from the target cell 1315 in a predetermined RRC message, and transmit the RRC message to the terminal 1305 (operation 1340). The configuration information includes the ID of the target cell, frequency information, configuration information (dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc.) required for an operation of random access to the target cell, transmission power information, and information of a C-RNTI used in the target cell. In addition, DAPS-related configuration information for each DRB may be included, see ¶ 0152).
Regarding claim 7, KIM discloses the RRC configuration message comprises at least one RRC configuration of the at least one target network, and the at least one RRC configuration is corresponding to the at least one execution condition, respectively (the source cell 710 may accommodate the handover configuration information received from the target cells 715 and additional configuration information in a predetermined RRC message, and transmit the RRC message to the terminal 705 (operation 740). The configuration information may include the ID of the target cells, frequency information, configuration information (e.g., dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc. for each target cell) required for an operation of random access to the target cells, transmission power information, information of a C-RNTI used in each target cell, and conditions to trigger the operation of random access to each target cell Each of the above conditions may be different according to each target cell, and multiple conditions may be configured for one target cell, see ¶ 0100).
Regarding claim 8, KIM discloses a method for handling a handover of a communication device, comprising:
receiving a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message from a source network, wherein the RRC configuration message comprises at least one execution condition of at least one target network (the UE 1005 receives RRC Reconfiguration conditionalReconfiguration from the source gNB 1010 for normal handover or a DAPS handover and the terminal 1005 may immediately perform an operation of handover target to target cell 1015 and drive a T304 timer, see figure 10 and ¶ 0109);
starting a timer, after transmitting the handover trigger message to the source network (the terminal 605 having received the handover configuration information may perform a process of random access to the target cell 615 and drive a T304 timer (operation 665), see ¶ 0098);
determining a failure of the handover from the source network to a target network of the at least one target network, when the timer expires, wherein the target network is corresponding to the execution condition and triggering a handover failure procedure according to the failure of the handover (when the condition-based handover is not successfully completed until the T304 timer is expired (operation 780), the terminal 705 may consider handover failure. The terminal 705 may declare an RLF, and perform a re-establishment operation (operation 785), see ¶ 0101).
KIM fails to explicitly disclose keeping connecting to the source network and transmitting a handover trigger message to the source network, when an execution condition of the at least one execution condition is satisfied.
In the same filed of endeavor, CHEN discloses if a triggering condition is satisfied (e.g., a target cell signal quality is above a given threshold within a time period TTT), the UE may select from one of the options (e.g., based on the NW configuration, based on predefined configuration, etc) includes the UE may directly execute the corresponding CHO command and notify the source base station about the triggered CHO command so that the source base station may stop the downlink data transmission to the UE. In some of the present embodiments, after the UE initiates executing the CHO command and performs synchronization and random access (RA) procedures for the selected target base station, the UE may send an indication message to the target base station (and the source base station). After reception of this indication message, the source base station may perform a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer and data forwarding (e.g., to the target base station). In another word, the UE maintains connection with the source base station during the condition-based handover (see ¶ 0074-0077).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement CHEN’s teaching of informing the source or serving node when CHO condition is met by the subscriber station in the network taught by KIM for informing the source base station exact timing of when to stop downlink data transmission to the UE and/or to start data forwarding to the target base station in condition-based handover.
Regarding claim 9, KIM discloses transmitting a measurement report as the handover trigger message to the source network, when the execution condition is satisfied (the terminal 705 may apply the measurement configuration information to measure signal quality of a serving cell and neighboring cells (operation 718), and report collected cell measurement information to the source cell 710 periodically or when a configured event occurs (operation 719), see ¶ 0100).
Regarding claim 10, KIM discloses the step of triggering the handover failure procedure comprises: declaring a radio link failure (RLF) between the communication device and the source network, after starting the timer; and triggering a reestablishment procedure, after declaring the RLF (When the condition-based handover is not successfully completed until the T304 timer is expired (operation 780), the terminal 705 may consider handover failure. The terminal 705 may declare an RLF, and perform a re-establishment operation (operation 785), see ¶ 0101).
Regarding claim 11, KIM discloses wherein the step of triggering the handover failure procedure comprises: transmitting a handover failure information indicating the failure of the handover to the source network, when the timer expires and the communication device does not detect a RLF between the communication device and the source network (when the normal handover is not successfully completed until the T304 timer is expired (operation 695), the terminal 605 may consider that the handover has failed. The terminal 605 may declare an RLF. and perform a re-establishment operation (operation 698). When the RLF is declared, the terminal 605 may record useful information which is able to be collected at that time, and when the terminal is connected to one cell later, the terminal may report an RLF report, see ¶ 0098).
Regarding claim 12, KIM discloses the handover trigger message comprises a value of the timer (the terminal having received the logged MDT configuration information may drive a first timer (operation 530). A value of the first timer may be configured to be the same as a value of the logged duration, see ¶ 0090).
Regarding claim 13, KIM discloses the handover trigger message comprises an identity (ID) information of the target network (the configuration information may include the ID of the target cell, frequency information, configuration information (dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc.) required for an operation of random access to the target cell, transmission power information, and information of a C-RNTI used in the target cell, see ¶ 0097).
Regarding claim 14, KIM discloses the RRC configuration message comprises an RRC configuration of the target network, and the RRC configuration comprises a dual active protocol stack (DAPS) configuration (the source cell 1310 may accommodate the handover configuration information received from the target cell 1315 in a predetermined RRC message, and transmit the RRC message to the terminal 1305 (operation 1340). The configuration information includes the ID of the target cell, frequency information, configuration information (dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc.) required for an operation of random access to the target cell, transmission power information, and information of a C-RNTI used in the target cell. In addition, DAPS-related configuration information for each DRB may be included, see ¶ 0152).
Regarding claim 15, KIM discloses the RRC configuration message comprises at least one RRC configuration of the at least one target network, and the at least one RRC configuration is corresponding to the at least one execution condition, respectively (the source cell 710 may accommodate the handover configuration information received from the target cells 715 and additional configuration information in a predetermined RRC message, and transmit the RRC message to the terminal 705 (operation 740). The configuration information may include the ID of the target cells, frequency information, configuration information (e.g., dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc. for each target cell) required for an operation of random access to the target cells, transmission power information, information of a C-RNTI used in each target cell, and conditions to trigger the operation of random access to each target cell Each of the above conditions may be different according to each target cell, and multiple conditions may be configured for one target cell, see ¶ 0100).
Claim(s) 16-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al. (US 2023/0262538 A1), hereinafter KIM ‘539 in view of XIE et al. (US 2022/0400415 A1), hereinafter XIE.
Regarding claim 16, KIM discloses a method for handling a handover of a communication device, comprising:
receiving a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message from a source network, wherein the RRC configuration message comprises at least one RRC configuration of at least one target network (the UE 1005 receives RRC Reconfiguration conditionalReconfiguration from the source gNB 1010 for normal handover or a DAPS handover and the terminal 1005 may immediately perform an operation of handover target to target cell 1015 and drive a T304 timer, see figure 10 and ¶ 0109);
triggering a handover from the source network to a suitable network, wherein the suitable network is one of the at least one target network (when the information is related to a normal handover or a DAPS handover, the terminal 1005 may immediately (triggering) perform an operation of handover to a target cell 1015 and drive a T304 timer, see figure 10 and ¶ 0109);
performing a dual active protocol stack (DAPS) handover from the source network to the suitable network, when an enable DAPS condition is satisfied and an RRC configuration of the suitable network comprises a DAPS configuration (performing either normal handover or DAPS handover, see ¶ 0109; 0152 and figure 13).
Although KIM discloses performing a first normal handover from the source network to the suitable network (see performing either normal handover or DAPS handover, ¶ 0109; 0152), KIM fails to explicitly discloses that normal handover is perform when the DAPS condition is not satisfied or in other word the DAPS handover has failed.
In the same filed of endeavor, XIE discloses that when DAPS handover has failed or not satisfied, the UE falls back to regular/normal handover (see ¶ 0023-0024, 0037, 0051, 0063, 0179).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement XIE’s teaching in the network taught by KIM for providing continue communication service to UE when the current connection is worsening.
Regarding claim 17, KIM discloses detecting a communication failure; triggering a reestablishment procedure according to the communication failure; selecting the suitable network, after triggering the reestablishment procedure; and setting a flag according to the communication failure; wherein the flag indicates that the DAPS handover is disabled (when a handover is not successfully completed before the T304 timer is expired, the terminal 1005 may consider same as handover failure and declare RLF. The terminal 1005 may collect valid information and store same in the terminal variable VarRLF-Report. In addition, the terminal may trigger a re-establishment operation (operation 1055). The terminal 1005 may discover one suitable cell through a cell selection operation (see ¶ 0127).
Regarding claim 18, KIM discloses the communication failure comprises at least one of a failure of a second normal handover, a failure of a conditional handover or a radio link failure (RLF) (see ¶ 0103).
Regarding claim 19, KIM discloses wherein the RRC configuration message comprises at least one execution condition of the at least one target network, and the at least one execution condition is corresponding to the at least one RRC configuration, respectively (the source cell 710 may accommodate the handover configuration information received from the target cells 715 and additional configuration information in a predetermined RRC message, and transmit the RRC message to the terminal 705 (operation 740). The configuration information may include the ID of the target cells, frequency information, configuration information (e.g., dedicated preamble information, dedicated radio resource information, etc. for each target cell) required for an operation of random access to the target cells, transmission power information, information of a C-RNTI used in each target cell, and conditions to trigger the operation of random access to each target cell Each of the above conditions may be different according to each target cell, and multiple conditions may be configured for one target cell, see ¶ 0100).
Regarding claim 20, KIM discloses determining that the enable DAPS condition is satisfied, when the handover is triggered by a satisfied execution condition of the at least one execution condition; and determining that the enable DAPS condition is not satisfied, when the handover is not triggered by the at least one execution condition (the terminal 705 having received the handover configuration information may assess whether the provided condition(s) is satisfied (operation 745). Until the condition is satisfied, the terminal 705 may maintain an operation of data transmission or reception with the source cell 710 (operation 750). When a condition related to a particular target cell is satisfied (operation 755), the terminal 705 may perform a process of random access to the target cell and drive a T304 timer (operation 760), see ¶ 0101).
Regarding claim 21, KIM discloses determining that the enable DAPS condition is satisfied, when a flag is not set; and determining that the enable DAPS condition is not satisfied, when the flag is set; wherein the flag indicates that the DAPS handover is disabled (see ¶s 0114-0122 for detail).
Regarding claim 22, KIM discloses detaching from the source network, when performing the first normal handover (during normal handover the terminal 605 may stop the operation of data transmission or reception with the source cell 610 (operation 670), see ¶ 0098 and figure 6.
Regarding claim 23, KIM discloses keeping connecting to the source network, when performing the DAPS handover (a DAPS handover technique is a technique of maintaining data transmission or reception with a source base station during a handover process in order to minimize service interruption (see ¶ 0151).
Response to Arguments
Claim 1
Applicant's arguments filed 01/14/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Response to the applicant’s first argument, KIM discloses:
The capability information may indicate whether the terminal 705 supports a condition-based handover. The terminal 705 may receive a predetermined RRC message including measurement configuration information (measurement configuration) from the source cell 71 (operation 717)…the source cell 710 may determine whether to trigger a condition-based handover operation, based on the reported cell measurement information (operation 720). In order to configure the condition-based handover, the terminal 705 is required to support the condition-based handover. When the condition-based handover is determined to be triggered, the source cell may request the condition-based handover to one or more target cells 715 through a predetermined inter-node message (operation 725) (see ¶ 0100).
Based on the above, if terminal 705 can support the condition-based handover, the terminal 705 is provided with option to select a target cell from one or more target cells based on the configured condition(s). The number of target cells considered in a condition-based handover is determined by the network (see also ¶ 0095, 0101). Therefore, KIM teaches the claimed subject matter the terminal determines a target cell from the target cells when the condition is satisfied.
Responding the applicant’s second argument, the cited secondary reference CHEN teaches the claimed subject matter. KIM discloses If a triggering condition is satisfied (e.g., a target cell signal quality is above a given threshold within a time period TTT), the UE may select from one of the three options (e.g., based on the NW configuration, based on predefined configuration, etc): includes the UE may directly execute the corresponding CHO command and notify the source base station about the triggered CHO command so that the source base station may stop the downlink data transmission to the UE…(see ¶ 0074-0077). Therefore, CHEN teaches the claimed subject matter “performing the handover from the source network to the target network of the at least one target network in response to transmitting the handover trigger message to the source network.”
Responding to the applicant’s third argument, the cited secondary reference CHEN discloses the claim subject matter. KIM teaches If a triggering condition is satisfied (e.g., a target cell signal quality is above a given threshold within a time period TTT), the UE may select from one of the three options (e.g., based on the NW configuration, based on predefined configuration, etc): includes
the UE may directly execute the corresponding CHO command and notify the source base station about the triggered CHO command so that the source base station may stop the downlink data transmission to the UE… In some of the present embodiments, after the UE initiates executing the CHO command and performs synchronization and random access (RA) procedures for the selected target base station, the UE may send an indication message to the target base station (and the source base station). After reception of this indication message, the source base station may perform a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer and data forwarding (e.g., to the target base station)(see ¶ 0074-0077).
As cited above, during CHO handover, the UE maintain connection with both the source base station and the target station when the CHO command or CHO handover is initiated. Therefore, CHEN discloses the claimed subject matter “keep connecting the source network.”
Claim 8
Responding to the applicant’s first argument, the cited secondary reference CHEN discloses the claim subject matter. KIM teaches If a triggering condition is satisfied (e.g., a target cell signal quality is above a given threshold within a time period TTT), the UE may select from one of the three options (e.g., based on the NW configuration, based on predefined configuration, etc): includes
the UE may directly execute the corresponding CHO command and notify the source base station about the triggered CHO command so that the source base station may stop the downlink data transmission to the UE… In some of the present embodiments, after the UE initiates executing the CHO command and performs synchronization and random access (RA) procedures for the selected target base station, the UE may send an indication message to the target base station (and the source base station). After reception of this indication message, the source base station may perform a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer and data forwarding (e.g., to the target base station)(see ¶ 0074-0077).
As cited above, during CHO handover, the UE maintain connection with both the source base station and the target station when the CHO command or CHO handover is initiated. Therefore, CHEN discloses the claimed subject matter “keep connecting the source network.”
In response to the applicant’s second argument, the combination of KIM-CHEN disclose the claimed subject matter. First, KIM discloses the terminal 705 having received the handover configuration information may assess whether the provided condition(s) is satisfied (operation 745)...When a condition related to a particular target cell is satisfied (operation 755), the terminal 705 may perform a process of random access to the target cell and drive a T304 timer (operation 760)…When the condition-based handover is not successfully completed until the T304 timer is expired (operation 780), the terminal 705 may consider handover failure. The terminal 705 may declare an RLF, and perform a re-establishment operation (operation 785) (see ¶ 0101). Second, CHEN discloses KIM teaches if a triggering condition is satisfied (e.g., a target cell signal quality is above a given threshold within a time period TTT), the UE may directly execute the corresponding CHO command and notify the base station (see ¶ 0074-0077). Therefore, the combination of KIM-CHEN discloses the claimed subject matter staring a timer after transmitting notifying message to the source base station.
Claims 16-23
Responding to the applicant’s arguments, the examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant interpretation of the factor of “the enable DAPS condition.” First, there is/are no condition(s) cited in the claim for DAPS condition. Second, the cited reference teaches the receiving of handover information initiate the DAPS handover -thus the receiving of handover information in RRC from the source in the base station is considered DAPS condition, where the handover information may be transmitted over from the source base station 1310 to the terminal 1315 over RRC message (see ¶ 0152).
Conclusion
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bob A. Phunkulh whose telephone number is (571) 272-3083. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. (first week of the bi-week) and Monday-Friday (for second week of the bi-week).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor CHARLES C. JIANG can be reach on (571) 270-7191.
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/BOB A PHUNKULH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412