DETAILED ACTION
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 . Claims 23-25, 27-32, 34-44 are currently pending. Claims 38-43 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 23-25, 27-32, 34-37, and 44 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by 3GPP TR 28.809 V0.4.0: Study on enhancement of Management Data Analytics (MDA) (Release 17), referred hereafter as D1.
Regarding claim 23, D1 discloses an apparatus comprising: memory to store self-organizing network (SON) conflict data (section 6.6.1.1; collecting/obtaining historical and current network performance data, performance measurements etc. by MDAS producer for analysis); and processing circuitry, coupled with the memory, to: identify, based on the SON conflict data, a potential or existing SON conflict (section 6.9.1.1; identifying potential/occurred SON conflict by analyzing data such as historical and the most recent changes made by the SON functions, current network configurations, historical and current network performance data related to the SON function(s) and the relevant non-SON functions (load information of the NR cells, handover performance measurements), policies and targets for the SON functions), wherein the SON conflict data includes an indication of a network resource model (NRM) update made by an SON function or a non-SON function (section 6.1.1.3.2; analyzing the data includes configuration data which comprises attributes contained in NRMs and NRM updates that include changes or creations of MOIs affecting RAN coverage); wherein the SON conflict data includes an indication of a radio link failure (RLF) report (section 6.1.1.3.2; analyzing the data includes performance measurements which comprises RLF reports) (sections 6.8.1.1 and 6.8.1.3.1; SON conflict (potential or already occurred) is identified by RLF report/data analyzed and correlated by the MDAS producer) containing a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell and a neighbor cell reported by a user equipment (UE) with an anonymous identifier and location information (section 6.1.1.3.2 with table describing RLF reports; RLF reports containing RSRP(s) and RSRQ(s) of the serving cell and neighbour cells reported by each UE with anonymous id (e.g., C-RNTI) and location information); and provide an analytics report to management data analytics service (MDAS) consumer that includes an indication of the potential or existing SON conflict (section 6.9.1.1; MDAS producer provides an analytics report to described potential/occurred SON conflict between SON functions or between SON function and non-SON function).
Regarding claim 24, D1 further suggests wherein the SON conflict data includes an indication of a performance measurement associated with an SON function (section 6.9.1.1; identifying potential/occurred SON conflict by analyzing data such as historical and the most recent changes made by the SON functions, current network configurations, historical and current network performance data related to the SON function(s) and the relevant non-SON functions (load information of the NR cells, handover performance measurements), policies and targets for the SON functions).
Regarding claim 25, D1 further suggests wherein the SON conflict data includes an indication of an attribute of a managed object instance (MOI), a policy of an SON function, or a target of an SON function (section 6.1.1.3.2; analyzing the data includes configuration data which comprises attributes contained in NRMs and NRM updates that include changes or creations of MOIs affecting RAN coverage) (section 6.9.1.1; identifying potential/occurred SON conflict by analyzing data such as historical and the most recent changes made by the SON functions, current network configurations, historical and current network performance data related to the SON function(s) and the relevant non-SON functions (load information of the NR cells, handover performance measurements), policies and targets for the SON functions).
Regarding claim 27, D1 further suggests wherein the analytics report includes an indication of: conflict type, a conflicting functions identifier, a conflicting attribute, or a conflict reason (section 6.1.1.3.3; the analytics report describing the coverage issue contains the following information: coverage issue type indication, root cause, affected objects, recommended actions etc.).
Regarding claim 28, D1 further suggests wherein the analytics report includes an indication of an energy-saving instruction identifier (section 6.6.1.3.3; analytics report includes energy efficiency issue identifier which is identifier of MDA assisted energy saving).
Regarding claim 29, D1 further suggests wherein the analytics report includes an indication of a new radio (NR) cell to enter an energy saving state or a user plane function (UPF) to enter an energy-saving state (section 6.6.1.1; MDAS can be used to provide an analytic report by analyzing the information comprehensively to assist the energy saving related decision making. The information such as load information of related cells and energy saving policies is used to achieve energy saving by activating the energy saving mode of the NR capacity booster cell or 5GC NF (e.g. UPF etc.)).
Regarding claim 30, D1 further suggests wherein the processing circuitry is further to cause the MDAS producer to provide a training report to the MDAS consumer, the training report including an indication of: a training identifier, a validation feedback identifier, a training result, or a failure cause (section 6.1.1.3.3; the analytics report describing the coverage issue contains the following information: coverage issue type indication, root cause, affected objects, recommended actions etc.) (section 6.1.1.1; MDAS producer provides the analytics report to MDAS consumer to take remedy actions) (section 5.3; consumer may validate the output data provided by the MDAS producer. The output data to be validated may be the analytics report and/or the ML model training report. The consumer may provide the validation data as feedback to the MDAS producer).
Regarding claim 31, D1 discloses one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a management data analytics service (MDAS) producer to: receive self-organizing network (SON) conflict data (section 6.6.1.1; collecting/obtaining historical and current network performance data, performance measurements etc. by MDAS producer for analysis) that includes an indication of a network resource model (NRM) update made by an SON function or a non-SON function (section 6.1.1.3.2; analyzing the data includes configuration data which comprises attributes contained in NRMs and NRM updates that include changes or creations of MOIs affecting RAN coverage), and an indication of a radio link failure (RLF) report (section 6.1.1.3.2; analyzing the data includes performance measurements which comprises RLF reports) (sections 6.8.1.1 and 6.8.1.3.1; SON conflict (potential or already occurred) is identified by RLF report/data analyzed and correlated by the MDAS producer) containing a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell and a neighbor cell reported by a user equipment (UE) with an anonymous identifier and location information (section 6.1.1.3.2 with table describing RLF reports; RLF reports containing RSRP(s) and RSRQ(s) of the serving cell and neighbour cells reported by each UE with anonymous id (e.g., C-RNTI) and location information); identify, based on the SON conflict data, a potential or existing SON conflict (section 6.9.1.1; identifying potential/occurred SON conflict by analyzing data such as historical and the most recent changes made by the SON functions, current network configurations, historical and current network performance data related to the SON function(s) and the relevant non-SON functions (load information of the NR cells, handover performance measurements), policies and targets for the SON functions); and provide an analytics report to an MDAS consumer that includes an indication of the potential or existing SON conflict (section 6.9.1.1; MDAS producer provides an analytics report to described potential/occurred SON conflict between SON functions or between SON function and non-SON function).
Regarding claim 32, D1 further suggests wherein the SON conflict data includes an indication of a performance measurement associated with an SON function (section 6.9.1.1; identifying potential/occurred SON conflict by analyzing data such as historical and the most recent changes made by the SON functions, current network configurations, historical and current network performance data related to the SON function(s) and the relevant non-SON functions (load information of the NR cells, handover performance measurements), policies and targets for the SON functions).
Regarding claim 34, D1 further suggests wherein the analytics report includes an indication of: a conflict type, a conflicting functions identifier, a conflicting attribute, or a conflict reason (section 6.1.1.3.3; the analytics report describing the coverage issue contains the following information: coverage issue type indication, root cause, affected objects, recommended actions etc.).
Regarding claim 35, D1 further suggests wherein the analytics report includes an indication of an energy-saving instruction identifier (section 6.6.1.3.3; analytics report includes energy efficiency issue identifier which is identifier of MDA assisted energy saving).
Regarding claim 36, D1 further suggests wherein the analytics report includes an indication of a new radio (NR) cell to enter an energy saving state or a user plane function (UPF) to enter an energy-saving state (section 6.6.1.1; MDAS can be used to provide an analytic report by analyzing the information comprehensively to assist the energy saving related decision making. The information such as load information of related cells and energy saving policies is used to achieve energy saving by activating the energy saving mode of the NR capacity booster cell or 5GC NF (e.g. UPF etc.)).
Regarding claim 37, D1 further suggests wherein the media further stores instructions to cause the MDAS producer to provide a training report to the MDAS consumer, the training report including an indication of: a training identifier, a validation feedback identifier, a training result, or a failure cause (section 6.1.1.3.3; the analytics report describing the coverage issue contains the following information: coverage issue type indication, root cause, affected objects, recommended actions etc.) (section 6.1.1.1; MDAS producer provides the analytics report to MDAS consumer to take remedy actions) (section 5.3; consumer may validate the output data provided by the MDAS producer. The output data to be validated may be the analytics report and/or the ML model training report. The consumer may provide the validation data as feedback to the MDAS producer).
Regarding claim 44, D1 further suggests wherein the SON conflict data includes an indication of an attribute of a managed object instance (MOI), a policy of an SON function, or a target of an SON function (section 6.8.1.3.1 and 6.8.1.3.2, discloses that the data required (configuration data NRM) for SON conflict analysis include the execution data including the changes or the configuration (attributes) of the MOIs, policy and targets of the SON functions).
Response to Remarks/Arguments
Applicant's remarks/arguments filed 05/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. On page 7 of the Applicant’s remarks regarding the amended claims 23 and 31, Applicant disagrees and submits that the cited D1 fails to disclose each and every element of the amended independent claims. D1 generally teaches techniques for the enhancement of Management Data Analytics (MDA). According to D1, the MDAS producer correlates and analyzes data triggered by events like RLF reports to identify SON conflicts. In other words, D1 identifies conflicts based on general RLF data without having to account for the highly specific data structures required for granular conflict detection, where the RLF report contains "a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell and a neighbor cell reported by a user equipment (UE) with an anonymous identifier and location information," as claimed in Applicant's amended independent claims. Therefore, Applicant respectfully submits that the amended independent claims 23 and 31 are in condition for allowance. Since the dependent claims depend, either directly or indirectly, from Applicant's amended independent claims 23 and 31, Applicant respectfully submits that these claims are in condition for allowance as well.
In response, the Examiner respectfully disagrees with the Applicant’s assertion that D1 does not teach or suggest where the RLF report contains "a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell and a neighbor cell reported by a user equipment (UE) with an anonymous identifier and location information," as claimed in Applicant's amended independent claims. D1, in section 6.8.1.1, discloses that RLF data/report is analyzed by the MDAS to identifying potential SON conflict or a SON conflict that occurred. If SON conflict is identified, MDAS provides an analytics report to describe the conflict. D1, in section 6.1.1.3.2, disclose RLF reports containing RSRP(s) and RSRQ(s) of the serving cell and neighbour cells reported by each UE with anonymous id (e.g., C-RNTI) and location information. Thus D1 clearly discloses where the RLF report contains "a reference signal received power (RSRP) and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell and a neighbor cell reported by a user equipment (UE) with an anonymous identifier and location information," as claimed. Therefore the rejections of claim 23 and claim 31 which recites similar features as claim 23 have been maintained for at least the reasons discussed above. The rejections of the dependent claims have also been maintained for at least the reasons discussed with respect to claim 23 above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOANG-CHUONG Q VU whose telephone number is (571)270-3945. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (9:30-5:30 PM EST.).
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HOANG-CHUONG Q. VU
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2476
/HOANG-CHUONG Q VU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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