DETAILED ACTION
Remarks
This Action is in response to Applicant’s Request for Continued Examination
(RCE) filed on 08/25/2025. Claims 1-2, 4-13, 15-16, and 18-21 are now pending in the present application.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
2. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 08/25/2025 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 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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 2, 15, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al. (US 20220167211 A1), hereinafter Sharma, in view of Yang et al., (US 20190208438), hereinafter Yang, further in view of Suzuki et al. (US 20130162471 A1), hereinafter Suzuki.
Regarding claim 1, Sharma discloses a method of controlling power consumption by a mobile network entity in a mobile telecommunication network ([0284], (FIG. 23: 160b)), the method comprising:
receiving, from at least one cell, network state information including a throughput map defining a throughput of the at least one cell in an area of interest and a traffic map defining traffic of the at least one cell in the area of interest, ([0288] “network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level). [0028] the information obtained from the other network nodes comprises one or more of information indicating latency of one or more application functions in the network, information indicating traffic throughput of one or more application functions in the network, information indicating IP address ranges associated with the LADN, information indicating revenue associated with a subscriber, information indicating a location of the LADN, information indicating whether a service area of the LADN overlaps the service area of another LADN, information indicating a load of the LADN, information indicating a load of network segments that application traffic is carried over, and information indicating a location of a wireless device”.
However, Sharma does not disclose providing a power saving function to control at least one of load and an amount of available radio resources that are activated and power configurations of connected cells the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network based on the network state information; and providing a positioning function to acquire position information related to user equipments, UEs,
connected to the cells at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network.
In the same field of endeavor, Yang discloses providing a power saving function to control at least one of load and an amount of available radio resources that are activated and power configurations of the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network based on the network state information, ([0091] “SON action field 486 may identify an antenna tilt setting, a transmission power setting, a handover parameter (e.g., event A3 parameters, such as a handover offset parameter, a hysteresis parameter, a time to trigger parameter, a cell individual offset parameter, etc.) […] a load balancing parameter (e.g., parameters controlling load balancing of traffic of particular QoS classes across multiple cells and/or across multiple base stations 130); [0024] values for the parameters may be set and the parameters may be later adjusted by the SON system based on network performance information and based on the UE device information”);
providing a positioning function to acquire position information related to user equipments, UEs, connected to the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network, ([0031] “a SON system, may determine positioning and/or route profiles for the UE devices associated with the base station and determine the adjustment for the optimization parameter further based on the determined positioning and/or route profiles for the UE devices. [0098] KPI collector 530 may collect, for a UE device 110 and for a particular time interval,
information relating to location of UE device 110”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] to include the positioning and/or route profiles, disclosed by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to determine the adjustment for
the optimization parameter, Yang, ([0031]).
However, Sharma as modified by Yang does not disclose wherein the positioning function is used for a mobile-network assisted positioning or a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning.
In the same field of endeavor, Suzuki discloses wherein the positioning function is used for a mobile-network assisted positioning or a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning, ([0002] “With enhanced performance of mobile stations such as mobile phones, mobile stations having a positioning function using a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) become popular. When positioning computation using the GNSS is performed in a mobile station, with a stand-alone positioning system in which positioning is performed by receiving radio waves only from GNSS satellites, there are concerns about the longer positioning time and the increase in power consumption in a mobile station. Therefore, a network-assisted system is adopted which is intended to reduce a positioning time by transmitting capture information (assist data) such as the locations of GNSS satellites from a
positioning support server to a mobile station”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] as modified by Yang [0031] to include mobile-network assisted positioning or GNSS positioning, as disclosed by Suzuki. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to enhance the performance of mobile stations such as mobile phones, Suzuki ([0002]).
Regarding claim 15, Sharma discloses a mobile network entity in a mobile telecommunication network ([0284], (FIG. 23: 160b)), the mobile network entity comprising: a transceiver (([0293], (transceiver circuitry 172), FIG. 23: 172)) configured to receive, from at least one cell, network state information including a throughput map defining a throughput of the at least one cell in an area of interest and a traffic map defining traffic of the at least one cell in the area of interest, ([0288] “network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level). [0028] the information obtained from the other network nodes comprises one or more of information indicating latency of one or more application functions in the network, information indicating traffic throughput of one or more application functions in the network, information indicating IP address ranges associated with the LADN, information indicating revenue associated with a subscriber, information indicating a location of the LADN, information indicating whether a service area of the LADN overlaps the service area of another LADN, information indicating a load of the LADN, information indicating a load of network segments that application traffic is carried over, and information indicating a location of a
wireless device”).
However, Sharma does not disclose a power saving functional circuit configured to control at least one of load and amount of available radio resources that are activated and power configurations of the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network; and a positioning functional circuit configured to acquire position information related to user equipments, (UEs) connected to the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network.
In the same field of endeavor, Yang discloses a power saving functional circuit configured to control at least one of load and amount of available radio resources that are activated and power configurations of the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network, ([0091] “SON action field 486 may identify an antenna tilt setting, a transmission power setting, a handover parameter (e.g., event A3 parameters, such as a handover offset parameter, a hysteresis parameter, a time to trigger parameter, a cell individual offset parameter, etc.) […] a load balancing parameter (e.g., parameters controlling load balancing of traffic of particular QoS classes across multiple cells and/or across multiple base stations 130)”);
a positioning functional circuit configured to acquire position information related to user equipments, (UEs) connected to the at least one cell in the mobile telecommunication network, ([0031] “a SON system, may determine positioning and/or route profiles for the UE devices associated with the base station and determine the adjustment for the optimization parameter further based on the determined positioning and/or route profiles for the UE devices. [0098] KPI collector 530 may collect, for a UE device 110 and for a particular time interval, information relating to location of UE device 110”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] to include the positioning and/or route profiles, disclosed by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to determine the adjustment for the optimization parameter, Yang, ([0031]).
However, Sharma as modified by Yang does not disclose wherein the positioning functional circuit is used for a mobile-network assisted positioning or a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning.
In the same field of endeavor, Suzuki discloses wherein the positioning functional circuit is used for a mobile-network assisted positioning or a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning, ([0002] “With enhanced performance of mobile stations such as mobile phones, mobile stations having a positioning function using a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) become popular. When positioning computation using the GNSS is performed in a mobile station, with a stand-alone positioning system in which positioning is performed by receiving radio waves only from GNSS satellites, there are concerns about the longer positioning time and the increase in power consumption in a mobile station. Therefore, a network-assisted system is adopted which is intended to reduce a positioning time by transmitting capture information (assist data) such as the locations of GNSS satellites from a positioning support server to a mobile station”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] as modified by Yang [0031] to include include mobile-network assisted positioning or GNSS positioning, as disclosed by Suzuki. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to enhance the performance of mobile stations such as mobile phones, Suzuki ([0002]).
Regarding claim 2, as applied to claim 1 above, Yang, as included in the combination of Sharma and Suzuki, further discloses wherein the power saving function instructs the at least one cell to report the network state information to the power saving function, (Yang [0127] “Power distribution row 950 may identify the distribution of service categories used to determine an adjustment to a power parameter. [0121] performance monitor 360 of SON system 150 may receive one or more KPI values relating to access network 120 and/or provider network 140 and may access performance DB 365 to determine whether network performance has improved in response to the adjusted performance parameter”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] as modified by Suzuki to include the KPI values, disclosed by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to verify the network performance as a result of adjusted performance parameter, Yang, ([0121]).
Regarding claim 16, as applied to claim 15 above, Yang, as included in the combination of Sharma and Suzuki, further discloses wherein the power saving functional circuit is further configured to: instruct the at least one cell to report the network state information to the power saving functional circuit, (Yang [0127] “Power distribution row 950 may identify the distribution of service categories used to determine an adjustment to a power parameter. [0121] performance monitor 360 of SON system 150 may receive one or more KPI values relating to access network 120 and/or provider network 140 and may access performance DB 365 to determine whether network performance has improved in response to the adjusted performance parameter”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] as modified by Suzuki to include the KPI values, disclosed by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to verify the network performance as a result of adjusted performance parameter, Yang, ([0121]).
Claims 4-8 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al. (US 20220167211 A1), hereinafter Sharma, in view of Yang et al., US (20190208438), hereinafter Yang, further in view of Suzuki et al. (US 20130162471 A1), hereinafter Suzuki, and further in view of "3GPP TS 23.288 V16.2.0 (2019-12). 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Architecture enhancements for 5G System (SGS) to support network data analytics services (Release 16)", hereinafter “TS 23.288”.
Regarding claim 4, as applied to claim 2 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the at least one cell collects information from UEs, the information comprising one or more of channel state information (CSI) or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information.
In the same field of endeavor, TS 23.288 discloses wherein the at least one cell collects information from UEs, the information comprising one or more of channel state information (CSI) or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information, ([see section 6.2.3 Data Collection from OAM] “OAM perform the required configuration in order to provide the information requested by NWDAF subscription and perform the tasks, e.g., data collection, data processing, associated with the subscribed request from NWDAF. Another usage of OAM services is when the target of data collection is a specific UE, via MDT based retrieval of information. NWDAF subscribes the network data from OAM in the Table 6.4.2-3 by using the services provided by OAM as described in clause 6.2.3”; [see Table 6.4.2-3])
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Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the KPI values received by SON system 150, disclosed by Sharma as modified by Yang [0127] and Suzuki to include the tasks (data collection) disclosed by TS 23.288. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to enable the OAM to perform the required configuration and provide the requested information to the NWDAF, TS 23.288 ([see section 6.2.3 Data Collection from OAM], [see Table 6.4.2-3]).
Regarding claim 5, as applied to claim 4 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang
and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the at least one cell consults the positioning
function to map user throughput in the area of interest.
In the same field of endeavor, TS 23.288 discloses wherein the at least one cell consults the positioning function to map user throughput in the area of interest, ([see Table 6.8.2-1] “UE location information that NWDAF can use to derive the Area of Interest. The AMF ID to be used for obtaining the UE's location [...] Performance Measurements are related to information transfer over the user plane and/or the control plane (e.g., UE Throughput, DRB Setup Management”);
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Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the KPI values received by SON system 150, disclosed by Sharma as modified by Yang [0127] and Suzuki to include the AMF ID disclosed by TS 23.288. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to enable the NWDAF to obtain the UE's location, and use the obtained information to derive the Area of Interest, TS 23.288 ([see Table 6.8.2-1]).
Regarding claim 6, as applied to claim 5 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the at least one cell compiles network state information and reports to the power saving function.
In the same field of endeavor, TS 23.288 discloses wherein the at least one cell compiles network state information and reports to the power saving function, ([see section 6.2.3.2] “The interactions between NWDAF and OAM for data collection are illustrated in Figure 6.2.3.2-1. The data collected depends on the use cases. This figure is an abstraction of the OAM performance data file report management service that is defined TS 28.532. 1. (Clause 7.1.1.3.2, TS 28.532 [6]), Subscribe (Input): NWDAF subscribes to the notification(s) related to the services provided by the management service producer. 2. (Clause 7.1.1.3.3, TS 28.532 [6]), Subscribe (Output): management service producer responses to NWDAF if the subscription is success or not. 3. Data processing: management service producer prepares the data. 4. (Clause 7.1.1.1, TS 28.532 [6]), Notification (notifyFileReady): management service producer notifies the data file is ready. As the final step, NWDAF fetches data by using FTP (not specified in 3GPP, based on vendor implementation)”. [see Figure 6.8.4.2-1], For one-time reporting: Steps 1–9. For continuous reporting: Steps 10-20. Essentially, NWDAF collects O A M data which are reported by the RAN (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power or Reference Signal Received Quality); and receives UE Location information from an AMF;
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Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the KPI values
received by SON system, disclosed by Sharma as modified by Yang [0127] and Suzuki to include the data collected, disclosed by TS 23.288. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification so the NWDAF fetches the data by using FTP, TS 23.288 ([see section 6.2.3.2], [see Figure 6.8.4.2-1]).
Regarding claim 7, as applied to claim 6 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang, Suzuki, and TS 23.288 further discloses, in Yang, wherein the power saving function sends cell load control information to the at least one cell to adjust its load and corresponding power consumption,(Yang [0099] “optimization manager 540 may adjust one or more of a coverage optimization parameter, an antenna tilt parameter, a power distribution parameter, a retransmission parameter, a handover parameter, a neighbor list changes parameter, a load balancing parameter, Yang [0091] a load balancing parameter (e.g., parameters controlling load balancing of traffic of particular QoS classes across multiple cells and/or across multiple base stations 130). Yang [0102] Load balancing may be performed between particular bands of base station 130, between particular cells of base station 130, and/or may include coordination of load balancing of traffic with other base stations 130”. Essentially, SON system sends an instruction to adjust a particular optimization parameter to a base station based on utilization KP is (e.g., resource block utilization rate), wherein the optimization parameter includes a power distribution parameter and a load balancing parameter (e.g., parameters controlling load balancing of traffic of particular QoS classes across multiple cells and/or across multiple base stations)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] as modified by Suzuki and TS 23.288 to integrate the instruction sent by the SON system, disclosed by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification so the instruction is used to adjust a particular optimization parameter, Yang, ([0099], [0091], [0102]).
Regarding claim 8, as applied to claim 7 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang, Suzuki, and TS 23.288 further discloses, in Yang, wherein the cell load control information indicates at least one of an operational load and the amount of available radio resources that are activated to each cell, (Yang [0102] “Load balancer 580 may perform load balancing of traffic for base station 130. Load balancing may be performed between particular bands of base station 130, between particular cells of base station 130. [0091] SON action field 486 may identify an antenna tilt setting, a transmission power setting, […] a load balancing parameter (e.g., parameters controlling load balancing of traffic of particular QoS classes across multiple cells and/or across multiple base stations 130)”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the information obtained from the other network nodes, disclosed by Sharma [0288] as modified by Suzuki and TS 23.288 to integrate the load balancing parameter, disclosed by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification so the SON action field 486 may identify parameters controlling load balancing of traffic of particular QoS classes across multiple cells, Yang, ([0102], [0091]).
Regarding claim 18, as applied to claim 16 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the at least one cell collects information from UEs, the information comprising one or more of channel state information (CSI) or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information.
In the same field of endeavor, TS 23.288 discloses wherein the at least one cell collects information from UEs, the information comprising one or more of channel state information (CSI) or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information, ([see section 6.2.3 Data Collection from OAM] “OAM perform the required configuration in order to provide the information requested by NWDAF subscription and perform the tasks, e.g., data collection, data processing, associated with the subscribed request from NWDAF. Another usage of OAM services is when the target of data collection is a specific UE, via MDT based retrieval of information. NWDAF subscribes the network data from OAM in the Table 6.4.2-3 by using the services provided by OAM as described in clause 6.2.3”; [see Table 6.4.2-3])
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Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the KPI values received by SON system 150, disclosed by Yang ([0127]) as modified by Sharma and Suzuki to include the tasks (data collection) disclosed by TS 23.288. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to enable the OAM to perform the required configuration and provide the requested information to the NWDAF, TS 23.288 ([see section 6.2.3 Data Collection from OAM], [see Table 6.4.2-3]).
Regarding claim 19, as applied to claim 18 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the at least one cell consults the positioning function circuit to map user throughput in area of interest.
In the same field of endeavor, TS 23.288 discloses wherein the at least one cell consults the positioning function circuit to map user throughput in area of interest, ([see Table 6.8.2-1] “UE location information that NWDAF can use to derive the Area of Interest. The AMF ID to be used for obtaining the UE's location [...] Performance Measurements are related to information transfer over the user plane and/or the control plane (e.g., UE Throughput, DRB Setup Management”);
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Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the KPI values received by SON system 150, disclosed by Yang [0127] as modified by Suzuki to include the AMF ID disclosed by TS 23.288. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to enable the NWDAF to obtain the UE's location, and use the obtained information to derive the Area of Interest, TS 23.288 ([see Table 6.8.2-1]).
Regarding claim 20, as applied to claim 19 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the at least one cell compiles network state information and reports to the power saving function circuit.
In the same field of endeavor, TS 23.288 discloses wherein the at least one cell compiles network state information and reports to the power saving function circuit, ([see section 6.2.3.2] “The interactions between NWDAF and OAM for data collection are illustrated in Figure 6.2.3.2-1. The data collected depends on the use cases. This figure is an abstraction of the OAM performance data file report management service that is defined TS 28.532. 1. (Clause 7.1.1.3.2, TS 28.532 [6]), Subscribe (Input): NWDAF subscribes to the notification(s) related to the services provided by the management service producer. 2. (Clause 7.1.1.3.3, TS 28.532 [6]), Subscribe (Output): management service producer responses to NWDAF if the subscription is success or not. 3. Data processing: management service producer prepares the data. 4. (Clause 7.1.1.1, TS 28.532 [6]), Notification (notifyFileReady): management service producer notifies the data file is ready. As the final step, NWDAF fetches data by using FTP (not specified in 3GPP, based on vendor implementation)”. [see Figure 6.8.4.2-1], For one-time reporting: Steps 1–9. For continuous reporting: Steps 10-20. Essentially, NWDAF collects O A M data which are reported by the RAN (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power or Reference Signal Received Quality); and receives UE Location
information from an AMF;
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Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the KPI values
received by SON system, disclosed by Yang ([0127]) as modified by Suzuki to include the data collected, disclosed by TS 23.288. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification so the NWDAF fetches the data by using FTP,
TS 23.288 ([see section 6.2.3.2], [see Figure 6.8.4.2-1]).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et
al. (US 20220167211 A1), hereinafter Sharma, in view of Yang et al., US (20190208438), hereinafter Yang, further in view of Suzuki et al. (US 20130162471 A1), hereinafter Suzuki, further in view of "3GPP TS 23.288 V16.2.0 (2019-12). 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Architecture enhancements for 5G System (SGS) to support network data analytics services (Release 16)", hereinafter “TS 23.288”, and further in view of BAI et al., (IEEE Access), (Deep Convolutional Neural Network Assisted Reinforcement Learning based Mobile Network Power Saving, July 19, 2019), hereinafter “BAI”.
Regarding claim 9, as applied to claim 8 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang, Suzuki, and TS 23.288 does not disclose wherein the operational load is controlled by one or more of scaling up or down resources, and wherein the cell load control information includes one or more of: a number of active
In the same field of endeavor, BAI discloses wherein the operational load is controlled by one or more of scaling up or down resources, and wherein the cell load control information includes one or more of: a number of active physical resource blocks, modulation coding scheme levels, or a number of active antenna radio frequency chains, and transmission power, ([page 5, right column, section IV] “For power saving, these actions include scaling up or down the loads of cells, and handing over traffic to other bands and switching off cells whose loads are zero, and switching on cells. [page 2, right column, section II] Load of the system is the ratio of the number of active physical resource blocks (PRBs) over the number of total available PRBs. […] A typical set of load settings, i.e., 0%, 50%, 100%, were configured”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the parameters controlling load balancing of traffic across multiple cells, disclosed by Sharma as modified by Yang [0091], Suzuki, and TS 23.288 to integrate the load of the system, disclosed by BAI. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification so as to determine the typical set of load settings, BAI ([page 2, right column]).
Claims 10-13 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al. (US 20220167211 A1), hereinafter Sharma, in view of Yang et al., US (20190208438), hereinafter Yang, further in view of Suzuki et al. (US 20130162471 A1), hereinafter Suzuki, and further in view of BAI et al., (IEEE Access), (Deep Convolutional Neural Network Assisted Reinforcement Learning based Mobile Network Power Saving, July 19, 2019), hereinafter “BAI”.
Regarding claim 10, as applied to claim 1 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang, and Suzuki does not disclose wherein one or more of the power saving function and positioning function is virtualized or centralized.
In the same field of endeavor, BAI discloses wherein one or more of the power saving function and positioning function is virtualized or centralized ([page 2, right column, section B] “a threshold-based power saving method is proposed. This method uses a cell load adaptation equation to update cell loads to adjust power consumption […] The proposed method uses a centralized architecture and Q-learning to control
cell loads”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the SON system, disclosed by Sharma, as modified by Yang ([0031]) and Suzuki to integrate the cell load adaptation equation, disclosed by BAI. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to achieve a centralized architecture and Q-learning that controls cell loads, BAI ([page 2, right column]).
Regarding claim 11, as applied to claim 1 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the power saving function comprises an artificial intelligence module which incorporates a deep convolutional neural network.
In the same field of endeavor, BAI discloses wherein the power saving function comprises an artificial intelligence module which incorporates a deep convolutional neural network, ([page 2, right column, section B] “2) A threshold-based power saving method is proposed. This method uses a cell load adaptation equation to update cell loads to adjust power consumption. 3) Most importantly, a deep learning approach, i.e., deep convolutional neural network-based Q-learning (DCNNQ), for power saving is proposed”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the SON system, disclosed by Sharma, as modified by Yang ([0031]) and Suzuki to integrate the cell load adaptation equation, disclosed by BAI. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to achieve a DCNNQ, BAI ([page 2, right column]).
Regarding claim 12, as applied to claim 11 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose wherein the power saving function receives the network state information and aggregates the network state information into a two-dimensional image and a one- dimensional vector, and wherein a first channel of the two-dimensional image is an aggregated throughput map, recording a throughput of cells in area of interest; a second channel of the two-dimensional image is an aggregated traffic map, recording a traffic of cells in the area of interest; and the one-dimensional vector records loads of cells in the area of interest.
In the same field of endeavor, BAI discloses wherein the power saving function receives the network state information and aggregates the network state information into a two-dimensional image and a one- dimensional vector, and wherein a first channel of the two-dimensional image is an aggregated throughput map, recording a throughput of cells in area of interest; a second channel of the two-dimensional image is an aggregated traffic map, recording a traffic of cells in the area of interest; and the one-dimensional vector records loads of cells in the area of interest, ([page 9, right column] “Fig. 13 depicts the normalized aggregate power consumption of the three methods. [page 2, right column, section B] The DCNN not only takes a one-dimensional (1D) load vector as input, but also a two-channel two-dimensional (2D) image containing information of instantaneous NTV requirement and
network throughput”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the SON system,
disclosed by Sharma, as modified by Yang ([0031]) and Suzuki to integrate the DCNN, disclosed by BAI. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to achieve the 1D load vector and 2D image, BAI ([page 2, right column]).
Regarding claim 13, as applied to claim 10 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang and Suzuki does not disclose where DCNN Q-learning is utilized as a learning architecture of the power saving function.
In the same field of endeavor, BAI discloses where DCNN Q-learning is utilized as a learning architecture of the power saving function, ([page 2, right column, section B] “a threshold-based power saving method is proposed. This method uses a cell load adaptation equation to update cell loads to adjust power consumption. Most importantly, a deep learning approach, i.e., deep convolutional neural network-based Q-learning (DCNNQ), for power saving is proposed. The proposed method uses a centralized architecture and Q-learning to control cell loads...”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the SON system, disclosed by Sharma, as modified by Yang ([0031]) and Suzuki to integrate the cell load adaptation equation, disclosed by BAI. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to achieve a DCNNQ, BAI ([page 2, right column]).
Regarding claim 21, as applied to claim 1 above, Sharma, as modified by Yang, as modified by Suzuki does not disclose wherein, based on a level of centralization, a message of network state information includes information of a whole network in a fully centralized manner or information of part of a network in a distributed manner.
In the same field of endeavor, BAI discloses wherein, based on a level of centralization, a message of network state information includes information of a whole network in a fully centralized manner or information of part of a network in a distributed manner, ([page 2, left column, section A] “a centralized deep RL based method is proposed, to intelligently control BS loads according to realistic power and traffic models. In a multi-cell mobile network, it is straightforward to expect a distributed architecture where each cell is equipped with one RL agent. As a result, multiple agents perform RL individually. However, a distributed architecture suffers from the moving target problem [24], where the behavior of each agent can impact on behaviors of other agents.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the SON system, disclosed by Sharma, as modified by Yang ([0031]) and Suzuki to integrate the distributed architecture, disclosed by BAI. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification so each cell may be equipped with one RL agent and able to perform RL individually, BAI ([page 2, left column, section A]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to independent claims 1 and 15, and the newly added dependent claim 21 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
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/GILBERT M. GRANT/Examiner, Art Unit 2642
/Rafael Pérez-Gutiérrez/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2642