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 .
Response to Arguments
Claim 15: Applicant’s arguments (page 10 of applicant’s remarks) with respect to the claim(s) 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.
Applicant's arguments (First, Wei fails to teach or suggest that a device is to "perform handover operations for the group of one or more UEs based on the measurement." As discussed above, Wei fails to teach or suggest performing a handover for a group of UEs based on a measurement report from one UE.; see page 10 of applicant’s remarks) fail to comply with 37 CFR 1.111(b) because they amount to a general allegation that the claims define a patentable invention without specifically pointing out how the language of the claims patentably distinguishes them from the references.
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) 15-17 and 19-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (Li), U.S. Publication No. 2020/0344576 in view of Wei et al. (Wei), U.S. Publication No. 2019/0141589 in further view of LU et al. (LU), U.S. Publication No. 2015/0358860.
Regarding Claim 15, Li discloses an apparatus (i.e., RAN has base
stations for communicating with the device) comprising:
processing circuitry (i.e., processor 32 shown in figure 24) to:
receive, from a user equipment (UE), an uplink information transfer message that
includes a request to join or unjoin a group of UEs (i.e., a UE sends request to RAN node and AMF to establish the connection for receiving the broadcast/multicast data. The UE may provide various parameters, such as:... group ID indicating which group the UE wants to join for receiving the broadcast/multicast data; see paragraph [0147]);
output, for transmission, to an access and mobility management function (AMF),
a first message to determine whether the UE is authorized to join or unjoin the group (i.e., step 1 as shown in figure 17a and described in paragraph [0147]);
receive, from the AMF, a second message that is indicate whether the UE is
authorized to join or unjoin the group (i.e., AMF notifies the RAN node about the session established for broadcast/multicast with session ID, broadcast/multicast area, and UPF ID if the data will be transferred via user plane, and group ID along with the UE ID therefore, considered as authorized to join the group; see paragraph [0165]);
output, for transmission to the UE, a downlink information transfer message to
indicate whether the UE is authorized to join or unjoin the group (i.e., the RAN node communicates with UE to setup the RAN resource, and let UE know the session ID and group ID for broadcast/multicast service therefore, considered as indicating the UE is authorized to join the group; see paragraph [0166]); and
interface circuitry coupled with the processor circuitry to enable communication (see figure 4).
Li fails to disclose radio resource control (RRC) and manage control-plane
aspects of the group based on an assumed proximity of the group, wherein manage control-plane aspects of the group include receive a measurement from the UE and perform handover operations for the group based on the measurement, wherein to perform the handover operations the processing circuitry is to coordinate connections of the group by: successfully handing over one UE of the group before handing over other UEs of the group; or keeping one UE of the group connected with a macro cell while handing over other UEs of the group to a booster cell.
Wei discloses radio resource control (RRC) (i.e., RRC signaling; see
paragraph [0134]) and manage control-plane aspects of the group based on an assumed proximity of the group, wherein manage control-plane aspects of the group include receive a measurement from the UE (i.e., at 33, a measurement configuration is sent on activated resource blocks to a specific user equipment or a group of user equipment; see paragraph [0146]) and perform handover operations for the group based on the measurement (i.e., this may include a control plane handover… on the basis of a measurement report received from a user equipment; see paragraph [0147]). Also, see paragraph [0053].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Wei’s invention with Li’s invention to allocate radio resource efficiently as described throughout Wei.
Li and Wei fail to disclose wherein to perform the handover operations the processing circuitry is to coordinate connections of the group by: successfully handing over one UE of the group before handing over other UEs of the group; or keeping one UE of the group connected with a macro cell while handing over other UEs of the group to a booster cell.
LU discloses wherein to perform the handover operations the processing circuitry is to coordinate connections of the group (i.e., after receiving the handover configuration message, the agent UE takes out the PRACH resource and the C-RNTI of the agent UE, and then sends the handover configuration message separately to each piece of to-be-handed-over UE, where the handover configuration message includes at least the C-RNTI that is allocated by the T-eNB to the to-be-handed-over UE.; see paragraph [0150]) by: successfully handing over one UE of the group before handing over other UEs of the group (i.e., the agent UE initiates random access to the T-eNB according to a PRACH resource, establishes an uplink synchronous connection to the T-eNB, sends a first handover complete message to the T-eNB, and sends a second handover complete message separately to each piece of to-be-handed-over UE in the UE group… The agent UE receives a third handover complete message sent by each piece of to-be-handed-over UE in the UE group and forwards the third handover complete message to the T-eNB.; see paragraphs [0152] and [0156]); or keeping one UE of the group connected with a macro cell while handing over other UEs of the group to a booster cell.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider LU’s invention with Li’s and Wei’s invention for improving handover efficiency (see paragraph [0081] of LU).
Regarding Claim 16, Li, Wei and LU disclose the apparatus as described above. Li further discloses wherein the uplink information transfer RRC message includes a group association information element (IE) with: a group UE identifier that corresponds to the group; or a list of one or more UE identifiers that respectively correspond to the one or more UEs in the group (see paragraph [0147]).
Regarding Claim 17, Li, Wei and LU disclose the apparatus as described above. Li further discloses wherein the first message is an initial UE message that includes the group association IE (see paragraph [0147]).
Regarding Claim 19, Li, Wei and LU disclose the apparatus as described above. Li further discloses wherein the downlink information transfer RRC message is to indicate the UE is authorized to join the group (see paragraphs [0165] and [0166]).
Regarding Claim 20, Li, Wei and LU disclose the apparatus as described above. Li fails to disclose wherein the control-plane aspects include a mobility operation of the group or a measurement operation of the group. Wei discloses wherein the control-plane aspects include a mobility operation of the group or a measurement operation of the group (see paragraphs [0146]-[0147]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Wei’s invention with Li’s and LU’s invention to allocate radio resource efficiently as described throughout Wei.
Regarding Claim 21, Li, Wei and LU disclose the apparatus wherein the request to join or unjoin the group is a request for a association between the UE and the one or more UEs (i.e., a UE sends request to RAN node and AMF to establish the connection for receiving the broadcast/multicast data. The UE may provide various parameters, such as:... group ID indicating which group the UE wants to join for receiving the broadcast/multicast data; Li-see paragraph [0147]) as described above. Li fails to disclose control-plane only. Wei discloses control-plane only (see paragraph [0147]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Wei’s invention with Li’s and LU’s invention to allocate radio resource efficiently as described throughout Wei.
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li, Wei and LU in view of Dao et al. (Dao), U.S. Publication No. 2021/0105196.
Regarding Claim 18, Li, Wei and LU disclose the apparatus as described above. Li, Wei and LU fail to disclose wherein the second message is a UE context modification request. Dao discloses wherein the second message is a UE context modification request (see paragraphs [0154] and [0160]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Dao’s invention with Li’s, Wei’s and LU’s invention for supporting group communications as described throughout Dao.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHANTELL LAKETA HEIBER whose telephone number is (571)272-0886. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9am to 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony Addy, can be reached at telephone number (571)272-0886. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHANTELL L HEIBER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
May 13, 2026
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