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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 December 09, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on December 09, 2025 has been accepted and entered. Accordingly, claims 1, 4, 5, 9, 12, and 13 have been amended. Claims 3, 8, 11, and 16-20 have been canceled.
Claims 1, 4-7, 9, and 12-15 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on December 09, 2025 regarding claims 1 and 9 have been fully considered but the arguments are essentially directed towards the newly introduced limitations and they are addressed in this Office Action, below.
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.
Claims 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muta eta al. (US 20210321390 A1), hereinafter Muta, in view of SINGH et al. (US 20230328712 A1), hereinafter Singh and further in view Ode et al. (US 20210274406 A1), hereinafter Ode.
Regarding Claim 1, Muta discloses An operation method of a transmission and reception point (TRP) constituting a base station (Muta ¶0045 FIG. 2 is a radio base station 1 with RU 12 (TRP), DU 13-1 and DU 13-2, and CU 14. Fig. 8 illustrates a procedure), the operation method comprising:
receiving, from a first distributed unit (DU) and through a first physical layer, first scheduling information of a first terminal and first data to be transmitted to the first terminal (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 8 ¶0099 discloses DU #1 schedules the radio resource for terminal #1 Fig. 8 ¶¶0100, 0102 discloses communication to terminal #1 and terminal #2 may be performed via RU 12)
receiving, from a second DU and through the first physical layer, second scheduling information of a second terminal to be provided to the second terminal and second data to be transmitted to the second terminal; (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 8 [0101] DU #2 schedules radio resources for terminal #2, for example, based on the resource allocation information received from resource controller 11 (S107). Fig. 8 ¶¶0100, 0102 discloses communication to terminal #1 and terminal #2 may be performed via RU 12)).
wherein the first physical layer includes a first physical lower-split (PHY-Low-S) sublayer subordinately connected to the first DU and (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 1 ¶¶0041, 0042 discloses plurality of DUs with different arrangements of base station functions is connected to one RU with the lower layer and higher layer split, indicates first split Phy-low connects to first DU).
a second physical lower-split (PHY- Low-S) sublayer subordinately connected to the second DU, (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 1 ¶¶0041, 0042 discloses plurality of DUs with different arrangements of base station functions is connected to one RU with the lower layer and higher layer split, indicates second split Phy-low connects to second DU) and
the second physical layer includes a physical lower-common (PHY-Low-Comm) sublayer for communicating with the first terminal and the second terminal. (Muta Figs. 1, 2 ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part (second physical layer) and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 8 ¶¶0100, 0102 discloses communication to terminal #1 and terminal #2 may be performed via RU 12)
Although Muta teaches the scheduling by first DU and second DU for first terminal and second terminal via a single RU (Figs. 1, 2, 8), Muta does not explicitly mention first and second downlink data with simultaneous transmission:
simultaneously transmitting the first data and the second data to the first terminal and the second terminal, respectively, through a second physical layer based on the first scheduling information of the first terminal and the second scheduling information of the second terminal;
Singh, however, discloses:
simultaneously transmitting the first data and the second data to the first terminal and the second terminal, respectively, through a second physical layer based on the first scheduling information of the first terminal and the second scheduling information of the second terminal; (Singh discloses the radio unit 606 (corresponding to any of the RUs in Fig. 5. ¶0107) also includes lower layer functionality of the physical layer (PHY-Low 630) and the RF chain 632, second physical layer, to communicate with the UEs over the air. (Fig. 5, Fig. 6). A network (base station 602, DU 604) may schedule resources (time slot and REs to carry different types of information (e.g., PDSCH and DMRS) for UL and/or DL communication between the network and the UE via the control plane between a distributed unit and a radio unit. [¶0109]. Singh also discloses the air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication of the various devices. For example, 5G NR specifications provide multiple access for UL transmissions from UEs 222 and 224 to base station 210, and for multiplexing for DL transmissions from base station 210 to one or more UEs 222 and 224, utilizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP). [¶0076])
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta with Singh to simultaneously support multiple users with the scheduled resources as taught by Singh. Doing so allows a base station schedule access to a cell to support access by multiple UEs (Sing ¶0004).
Though Muta and Singh in combination teaches first and second DUs can simultaneously transmit first data and second data though a single RU with physical lower-common (RF/Antenna) (Muta Figs., 1, 2, 8 and Singh Figs. 5, 6), Muta and Singh do not explicitly teach the DU switch for the (first) terminal with the data continuity:
releasing a connection with the first DU for the first terminal, when a DU switching message is received from the first DU for the first terminal;
receiving, from the second DU, third scheduling information of the first terminal and third data to be transmitted to the first terminal based on the DU switching message;
transmitting, to the first terminal, the third data consecutive to the first data based on the third scheduling information of the first terminal,
Ode, however, teaches:
releasing a connection with the first DU for the first terminal, when a DU switching message is received from the first DU for the first terminal; (Ode Fig. 5 ¶0050 discloses the first DU 21A and the second DU 21B execute an inter-DU switching process for switching the wireless communication with the UE 3 from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B in response to the path switching request (step S26). This indicates releasing the UE communication with the first DU 21A))
receiving, from the second DU, third scheduling information of the first terminal and third data to be transmitted to the first terminal based on the DU switching message; (Ode Fig. 5 ¶0045 The CU 22 transmits the user data (PDCP PDU) to the first DU 21A and the second DU 21B through the F1 line 6 (step S11). At step S12 first DU 21A executes scheduling processing that allocates a radio resource to the UE 3. ¶0050 step S26 discloses inter-DU switching process for switching the wireless communication with the UE 3 from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B in response to the path switching request. Subsequently, [0051] discloses when user data (the next data, as the third data) from the CU 22 arrives, the second DU 21B executes the scheduling processing that allocates a radio resource of the UE 3 based on the wireless channel quality measured by the UE 3 (step S28))
transmitting, to the first terminal, the third data consecutive to the first data based on the third scheduling information of the first terminal, (Ode Fig. 5 steps S11 and S14 discloses user data with the First DU 21A. After Inter-DU switch at step S26, S27 and S30 discloses data continuation for the UE3 with second DU 21B. [0050] discloses the path switching between the DUs 21 for the switching from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B is different from the HO that switches cells)
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta and Singh with the inter-DU switch as taught by Ode. Doing so allows improving the transmission speed, the throughput, and the transmission delay of user data (Ode, ¶0062)
Regarding Claim 4, the combination of Muta, Singh, and Ode disclose all the limitations of claim 1. Muta further discloses:
further comprising transmitting uplink data to the first DU through the first PHY-Low-S sublayer when uplink data is received from the first terminal through the PHY-Low-Comm sublayer. (Muta discloses Fig. 8, [¶0103] Terminal #1 transmits a data signal using the radio resource indicated by the UL Grant information received from DU #1 (S109). [¶0106] RU 12 outputs data for DU #1 to DU #1 (S113) and outputs a data for DU #2 to DU #2 among the received data signals (S114))
Regarding Claim 5, the combination of Muta, Singh, and Ode discloses all the limitations of claim 1. Muta and Ode further disclose the switching:
further comprising switching a connection for the first terminal from the first PHY-Low-S sublayer to the second PHY-Low-S sublayer when a DU switching message requesting switching to the second DU for the first terminal is received from the first DU. (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 1 ¶¶0041, 0042 discloses plurality of DUs connected to one RU with the lower layer and higher layer split, indicates first and second split Phy-low connections to first and second DU. Ode Fig. 5 ¶0050 discloses the first DU 21A and the second DU 21B execute an inter-DU switching process for switching the wireless communication with the UE 3 from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B in response to the path switching request (step S25, S26). This indicates the split PHY-Low of the RU switches from first DU to second DU. )
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta and Singh with the inter-DU switch as taught by Ode. Doing so allows improving the transmission speed, the throughput, and the transmission delay of user data (Ode, ¶0062)
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of Muta, Singh, and Ode discloses all the limitations of claim 5. Ode further discloses the following:
transmitting uplink data to the second DU through the second PHY-Low-S sublayer when the uplink data is received from the first terminal through the PHY-Low-Comm sublayer. (Ode discloses [¶¶0050, 0051] the UE 3 communicates/switches the user data with the second DU 21B (from the first DU 21A after the DU path switch at step S26) using the wireless channel on the basis of the uplink/downlink data transmission control information (step S30))
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta and Singh with the inter-DU switch as taught by Ode. Doing so allows improving the transmission speed, the throughput, and the transmission delay of user data (Ode, ¶0062)
Regarding Claim 9, Muta discloses A transmission and reception point (TRP) apparatus constituting a base station (Muta ¶0045 FIG. 2 is a radio base station 1 with RU 12 (TRP), DU 13-1 and DU 13-2, and CU 14. Fig. 8 illustrates a procedure), the TRP apparatus comprising:
a first physical layer configured to receive, from a first distributed unit (DU), scheduling information of a first terminal and first data to be transmitted to the first terminal, (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 8 ¶0099 discloses DU #1 schedules the radio resource for terminal #1) Fig. 8 ¶¶0100, 0102 discloses communication to terminal #1 and terminal #2 may be performed via RU 12)
and receive, from a second DU, scheduling information of a second terminal to be provided to the second terminal and second data to be transmitted to the second terminal; (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 8 [0101] DU #2 schedules radio resources for terminal #2, for example, based on the resource allocation information received from resource controller 11 (S107). Fig. 8 ¶¶0100, 0102 discloses communication to terminal #1 and terminal #2 may be performed via RU 12)).
and a processor configured to control a connection between the first physical layer and the second physical layer. (Muta [¶0062] FIG. 4 discloses RU 12 includes Low-Phy (first physical layer), RF (second physical layer) and processor 127 to control)
wherein the first physical layer includes a first physical lower-split (PHY-Low-S) sublayer subordinately connected to the first DU (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 1 ¶¶0041, 0042 discloses plurality of DUs with different arrangements of base station functions is connected to one RU with the lower layer and higher layer split, indicates first split Phy-low connects to first DU) and
a second physical lower-split (PHY- Low-S) sublayer subordinately connected to the second DU (Muta Fig. 2 ¶0046 discloses DU 13-1 and DU 13-2 connected with RU 12. ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 1 ¶¶0041, 0042 discloses plurality of DUs with different arrangements of base station functions is connected to one RU with the lower layer and higher layer split, indicates second split Phy-low connects to second DU) and
the second physical layer includes a physical lower-common (PHY-Low-Comm) sublayer for communicating with the first terminal and the second terminal. (Muta Figs. 1, 2 ¶0048 RU 12 includes a radio frequency (RF) part (second physical layer) and a part of a physical layer processing (PHY) function (Low-PHY) (first physical layer). Fig. 8 ¶¶0100, 0102 discloses communication to terminal #1 and terminal #2 may be performed via RU 12)
Although Muta teaches the scheduling by first DU and second DU for first terminal and second terminal via a single RU (Figs. 1, 2, 8), Muta does not explicitly mention first and second downlink data with simultaneous transmission:
a second physical layer configured to simultaneously transmit the first data and the second data to the first terminal and the second terminal, respectively, through a second physical layer based on the scheduling information of the first terminal and the scheduling information of the second terminal;
Singh, however, discloses:
a second physical layer configured to simultaneously transmit the first data and the second data to the first terminal and the second terminal, respectively, through a second physical layer based on the scheduling information of the first terminal and the scheduling information of the second terminal; (Singh discloses the radio unit 606 (corresponding to any of the RUs in Fig. 5. ¶0107) also includes lower layer functionality of the physical layer (PHY-Low 630) and the RF chain 632, second physical layer, to communicate with the UEs over the air. (Fig. 5, Fig. 6). A network (base station 602, DU 604) may schedule resources (time slot and REs to carry different types of information (e.g., PDSCH and DMRS) for UL and/or DL communication between the network and the UE via the control plane between a distributed unit and a radio unit. [¶0109]. Singh also discloses the air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication of the various devices. For example, 5G NR specifications provide multiple access for UL transmissions from UEs 222 and 224 to base station 210, and for multiplexing for DL transmissions from base station 210 to one or more UEs 222 and 224, utilizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP). [¶0076])
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta with Singh to simultaneously support multiple users with the scheduled resources as taught by Singh. Doing so allows a base station schedule access to a cell to support access by multiple UEs (Sing ¶0004).
Though Muta and Singh in combination teaches first and second DUs can simultaneously transmit first data and second data though a single RU with physical lower-common (RF/Antenna) (Muta Figs., 1, 2, 8 and Singh Figs. 5, 6), Muta and Singh do not explicitly teach the DU switch for the (first) terminal with the data continuity:
wherein the processor is further configured to control to: release a connection with the first DU for the first terminal, when a DU switching message is received from the first DU for the first terminal;
receive, from the second DU, third scheduling information of the first terminal and third data to be transmitted to the first terminal based on the DU switching message, and
transmit, to the first terminal, the third data consecutive to the first data based on the third scheduling information of the first terminal,
Ode, however, teaches:
wherein the processor is further configured to control to: release a connection with the first DU for the first terminal, when a DU switching message is received from the first DU for the first terminal; (Ode Fig. 5 ¶0050 discloses the first DU 21A and the second DU 21B execute an inter-DU switching process for switching the wireless communication with the UE 3 from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B in response to the path switching request (step S26). This indicates releasing the UE communication with the first DU 21A))
receive, from the second DU, third scheduling information of the first terminal and third data to be transmitted to the first terminal based on the DU switching message, (Ode Fig. 5 ¶0045 The CU 22 transmits the user data (PDCP PDU) to the first DU 21A and the second DU 21B through the F1 line 6 (step S11). At step S12 first DU 21A executes scheduling processing that allocates a radio resource to the UE 3. ¶0050 step S26 discloses inter-DU switching process for switching the wireless communication with the UE 3 from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B in response to the path switching request. Subsequently, [0051] discloses when user data (the next data, as the third data) from the CU 22 arrives, the second DU 21B executes the scheduling processing that allocates a radio resource of the UE 3 based on the wireless channel quality measured by the UE 3 (step S28)) and
transmit, to the first terminal, the third data consecutive to the first data based on the third scheduling information of the first terminal, (Ode Fig. 5 steps S11 and S14 discloses user data with the First DU 21A. After Inter-DU switch at step S26, S27 and S30 discloses data continuation for the UE3 with second DU 21B. [0050] discloses the path switching between the DUs 21 for the switching from the first DU 21A to the second DU 21B is different from the HO that switches cells)
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta and Singh with the inter-DU switch as taught by Ode. Doing so allows improving the transmission speed, the throughput, and the transmission delay of user data (Ode, ¶0062)
Regarding Claim 12, Claim 12 is directed to apparatus claim and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim 4. Therefore, claim 12 is also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim 4.
Regarding Claims 13 and 15, Claims 13 and 15 are directed to apparatus claim and does not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim 5 and 7. Therefore, claims 13 and 15 are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim 5 and 7.
Claims 6 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muta eta al. (US 20210321390 A1), hereinafter Muta, in view of SINGH et al. (US 20230328712 A1), hereinafter Singh, in view Ode et al. (US 20210274406 A1), hereinafter Ode and further in view of LEE et al. (US 20190320352 A1), hereinafter Lee.
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Muta, Singh, and Ode discloses all the limitations of claim 5. The combination of Muta, Singh, and Ode does not specifically disclose:
wherein the DU switching message includes at least one of information on a serving DU, information on a target DU, information on a DU switching time, resource information, DU switching indication information, or combinations thereof.
Lee, however, discloses:
wherein the DU switching message includes at least one of information on a serving DU, information on a target DU, information on a DU switching time, resource information, DU switching indication information, or combinations thereof. (Lee discloses At 1010, the CU-CP 1024 instructs the source DU 1022 to send a handover command to the UE 1020. the handover command includes target DU information (e.g., an ID of the target DU 1026), C-RNTI. [Fig. 10, ¶0100])
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Muta, Singh, and Ode to share target DU information in the control plane signaling for UE handover between DUs as taught by Lee. Doing so allows low latency control plane communications between a UE and a gNB. (Lee , ¶0034,0035)
Regarding Claim 14, Claims 14 is directed to apparatus claim and does not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim 6. Therefore, claim 14 is also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim 6.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED NIAMUL HUDA KHAN whose telephone number is (703)756-1689. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM.
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/M.N.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2417
/REBECCA E SONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2417