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 .
Applicant’s RCE filed 9/12/25 is acknowledged.
Claim 1 is amended.
Claims 1 is pending.
Applicant’s amendments claim 1 have overcome the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection previously set forth in the Final Office Action mailed 6/26/2025.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/12/25 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 9/12/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In the remarks, Applicant contends the claims are patentable over Li in view of Park and Kumar. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Applicant has not provided any deficiencies in the disclosure of Li in view of Park and Kumar in relation to the claim limitations. Li in view of Park and Kumar disclose the claim limitation as shown in the rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. US 20250048203 (hereinafter “Liu”) in view of Park et al. US 20230189085 (hereinafter “Park”), and further in view of Kumar WO 2024039898 (hereinafter “Kumar”)
As to claim 1:
Liu discloses:
An apparatus (“user equipment (UE)”, Liu [0005]) comprising: at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory memory storing instructions (“the functions may be stored on or encoded as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium”, Liu [0026]) that, when executed by the at least one processor, (“Each of the units, or an associated processor or controller providing instructions”, Liu [0032]) cause the apparatus at least to perform:
wherein the receiving is based on determining that a handover of the apparatus from a serving cell back to a previous serving cell is to be executed; (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be provided to prevent or reduce the ping-pong handovers to the identified ping-pong cell by applying an additional offset towards the measurement of the ping-pong cell. That is, in response to indicating the ping-pong cell, the ping-pong handover managing algorithm may apply additional offset to the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell so that the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell may not trigger the ping-pong handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0099])
wherein the optimal ping-pong offset is to be used as part of handover measurement reporting for triggering an A3 event based and layerl/layer2 mobility handover or a conditional handover, (“the event may correspond to the measurement of the neighboring cell becoming an offset value better than the primary cell (PCell), e.g., Event A3, which may trigger an intra-frequency or inter-frequency handover procedures.”, Liu [0069])
wherein the ping-pong offset prediction determination is repeated periodically upon notification from the communication network, (“The measurement reports may include multiple measurements of cell metric, e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interface & noise ratio (SINR), and the signal quality of the serving cell and neighbor cells may be measured using various ways, e.g., periodic measurement or event triggered measurement. That is, to reduce unnecessary handover procedures, the base station and the UE may be configured with a periodic measurement reports and/or an event triggered measurement reports, and the base station and the UE may perform the handover based on the measurement reports.”, Liu [0067])
wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is identifying a value for one of preventing or delaying the apparatus from executing a handover to the previous serving cell, (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be provided to prevent or reduce the ping-pong handovers to the identified ping-pong cell by applying an additional offset towards the measurement of the ping-pong cell. That is, in response to indicating the ping-pong cell, the ping-pong handover managing algorithm may apply additional offset to the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell so that the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell may not trigger the ping-pong handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0099])
wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is used as part of a handover decision to trigger executing or not executing the handover back toward the previous serving cell, (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be provided to prevent or reduce the ping-pong handovers to the identified ping-pong cell by applying an additional offset towards the measurement of the ping-pong cell. That is, in response to indicating the ping-pong cell, the ping-pong handover managing algorithm may apply additional offset to the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell so that the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell may not trigger the ping-pong handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0099])
wherein the handover decision is triggered upon evaluating whether a previous serving cell power exceeds a current serving cell power plus a ping-pong offset value or not; (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be provided to prevent or reduce the ping-pong handovers to the identified ping-pong cell by applying an additional offset towards the measurement of the ping-pong cell. That is, in response to indicating the ping-pong cell, the ping-pong handover managing algorithm may apply additional offset to the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell so that the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell may not trigger the ping-pong handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0099])
and based on the determining, sending towards the network node the ping-pong offset prediction, (“the unified ping-pong handover managing may include applying a timer and/or a measurement offset to reduce or prevent triggering the event, e.g., transmitting the corresponding measurement report to the base station which may trigger the handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0074]) (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be applied to the measurement report evaluation, and prevent or reduce triggering of the event that may trigger the handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0097])
wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is sent to the network node as part of layer 1 measurement reporting, (“the unified ping-pong handover managing may include applying a timer and/or a measurement offset to reduce or prevent triggering the event, e.g., transmitting the corresponding measurement report to the base station which may trigger the handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0074]) (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be applied to the measurement report evaluation, and prevent or reduce triggering of the event that may trigger the handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0097])
wherein based on the ping-pong offset prediction the handover back to the previous serving cell is one of executed or not executed. (“The ping-pong handover managing algorithm may be provided to prevent or reduce the ping-pong handovers to the identified ping-pong cell by applying an additional offset towards the measurement of the ping-pong cell. That is, in response to indicating the ping-pong cell, the ping-pong handover managing algorithm may apply additional offset to the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell so that the RSRP measurement of the ping-pong cell may not trigger the ping-pong handover to the identified ping-pong cell.”, Liu [0099])
Liu as described above does not explicitly teach:
receiving from a network node of the communication network a ping-pong offset prediction request message;
However, Park further teaches the network node requesting for ping-pong offset information which includes:
receiving from a network node of a communication network a ping-pong offset (“the terminal may transmit a measurement prediction report message to the base station at the time t1 to report the signal strength measurement prediction result to the base station and prepare for a handover in advance. Alternatively, the terminal may report the signal strength measurement prediction result by transmitting a measurement prediction report message to the base station at the time (t1+t2) and may prepare for a handover in advance. In this case, t2 may be a trigger time (i.e., TTT).”, Park [0090]) prediction request message, (“the base station may transmit a UE information request message including a prediction feedback report request indicator to the terminal to request the terminal to transmit measurement prediction model feedback report information (S904)”, Park [0136]) (FIG. 9 shows the base station sending a request message to the UE, Park)
Park teaches requesting for a prediction feedback report to reduce ping-pong events between different cells.
Park and Liu are analogous because they both pertain to the handover process.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the network node requesting for ping-pong offset information as described in Park into Liu. By modifying the method to include the network node requesting for ping-pong offset information as taught by Park, the benefits of improved handover process (Park [0169]) and minimized ping-pong instances (Liu [0005]) are achieved.
The combination of Park and Liu as described above does not explicitly teach:
determining a ping-pong offset prediction, wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is taking into account a change in a speed, trajectory, and received signal levels from the previous serving cell,
wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is taking into account at least the UE's speed, the UE's trajectory, and the received signal levels from the previous serving cell as input to a machine learning pre-trained model to perform prediction for an optimal ping- pong offset,
wherein trajectory and speed information of the apparatus is used as input to the machine learning pre-trained model which is configured to output a number representing the optimal ping-pong offset,
wherein the machine learning pre-trained model is a supervised machine learning model, wherein the machine learning pre-trained model uses a neural network including: an input layer; several hidden fully connected dense layers; and an output layer including: an output dimension equal to one, a Sigmoid as the activation function, and a Mean Absolute Error as a loss function,
However, Kumar further teaches determining a ping-pong offset prediction based on speed, trajectory, and received signal levels from the previous serving cell and using this data as an input to the AI/ML model to determine the offset which includes:
determining a ping-pong offset prediction, wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is taking into account a change in a speed, trajectory, and received signal levels from the previous serving cell, (“The UE may adjust the received time offset parameter to initiate the handover process depending on the changes in one or more of the UE speed, trajectory, signal quality of BS1 , and signal quality of BS2.”, Kumar [0227]) (“Positioning Module (or UE Location Prediction Module) (520): includes AI/ML Model(s) (520-1...520-N) using reference signals such as positioning reference signals (or SRS signals for BS), and/or their derivations, and/or UE speed, and/or UE trajectory information as inputs for predicting/ estimating future UE location in the cellular network.”, Kumar [0120])
wherein the ping-pong offset prediction is taking into account at least the UE's speed, the UE's trajectory, and the received signal levels from the previous serving cell as input to a machine learning pre-trained model to perform prediction for an optimal ping- pong offset, (“The UE may adjust the received time offset parameter to initiate the handover process depending on the changes in one or more of the UE speed, trajectory, signal quality of BS1 , and signal quality of BS2. The UE may use an AI/ML Model for handover prediction for adjusting the time offset parameter for initiating the handover process.”, Kumar [0227]) (“For example, the BS1 (300-1) may predict the location of UE (200) to be in Cell 2 of BS2 (300-2) after time t1 seconds. BS1 (300-1) may generate and send the handover command before t1-x seconds”, Kumar [0280]) (“Positioning Module (or UE Location Prediction Module) (520): includes AI/ML Model(s) (520-1...520-N) using reference signals such as positioning reference signals (or SRS signals for BS), and/or their derivations, and/or UE speed, and/or UE trajectory information as inputs for predicting/ estimating future UE location in the cellular network.”, Kumar [0120])
wherein trajectory and speed information of the apparatus is used as input to the machine learning pre-trained model which is configured to output a number representing the optimal ping-pong offset, (“Positioning Module (or UE Location Prediction Module) (520): includes AI/ML Model(s) (520-1...520-N) using reference signals such as positioning reference signals (or SRS signals for BS), and/or their derivations, and/or UE speed, and/or UE trajectory information as inputs for predicting/ estimating future UE location in the cellular network.”, Kumar [0120])
wherein the machine learning pre-trained model is a supervised machine learning model (“Model training may involve one or more model training methods including, for example, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, reinforcement learning, neural networks, federated learning, dictionary learning, and active learning.”, Kumar [0114]), wherein the machine learning pre-trained model uses a neural network (“The AI/ML Model used by the AI/ML Engine (400) may include a neural network based deep learning model.”, Kumar [0120]) including: an input layer; several hidden fully connected dense layers; (“a plurality of network nodes may be arranged in different layers and may send and/or receive data according to a convolution connection relationship”, Kumar [0120]) and an output layer including: an output dimension equal to one, a Sigmoid as the activation function (“choice of activation function (e.g., Sigmoid, ReLU, or Tanh)”, Kumar [0135]), and a Mean Absolute Error as a loss function, (“Regression metrics (e.g., Mean Absolute Error (MAE)”, Kumar [0217])
Liu, Park, and Kumar are analogous because they all pertain to the handover process and determining the ping-pong offset.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include determining a ping-pong offset prediction based on speed, trajectory, and received signal levels from the previous serving cell and using this data as an input to the AI/ML model to determine the offset as described in Kumar into Liu as modified by Park. By modifying the method to include determining a ping-pong offset prediction based on speed, trajectory, and received signal levels from the previous serving cell and using this data as an input to the AI/ML model to determine the offset, the benefits of improved handover process (Kumar [0227] and Park [0161]) and minimized ping-pong instances (Liu [0005]) are achieved.
Conclusion
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/A.C.K./
Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471