Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed June 26, 2026 have been fully considered but they moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter 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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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 under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claim(s) 1 and 5-6, 9 and 11 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2013/0034059) in view of Lee et al. (US 2011/0299492) (Hereafter, Lee ‘9492), and further in view of Yin et al. (US 2012/0093086).
Regarding claim 1, Lee discloses a communication system comprising a user equipment (UE) and a base station configured to perform radio communication with the user equipment (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB; paragraph [0072], UE and a base station in a contention-based random access procedure),
wherein a random access procedure is performed between the user equipment and the base station (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB; paragraph [0072], UE and a base station in a contention-based random access procedure; paragraph [0075], step 430, the UE transmits data to the BS by using the UL grant; paragraph [0110], step S780, UE transmits RRC connection request message via uplink SCH channel, establishment cause included in the RRC connection request message), wherein the random access procedure includes;
a first step where a random access preamble message is transmitted from the user equipment to the base station (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 410 random access preamble; paragraph [0073], UE transmits random access preamble),
a second step where a random access response message is transmitted from the base station to the user equipment (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 420 random access response; paragraph [0074], UE receives random access response),
a third step where a scheduled transmission message is transmitted from the user equipment to the base station (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 430 scheduled transmission; paragraph [0075], step 430, the UE transmits data to the BS by using the UL grant; Fig. 7, step S780 transmit uplink SCH RRC connection request message; paragraph [0110], step S780, UE transmits RRC connection request message via uplink SCH channel, establishment cause included in the RRC connection request message), and
a fourth step where a contention resolution message is transmitted from the base station to the user equipment (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 440 contention resolution; paragraph [0076], UE receives contention resolution response),
in a case where the second size of the uplink data is small, the user equipment is configured to transmit the scheduled transmission message including establishment cause information and the uplink data (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 430 scheduled transmission; paragraph [0075], step 430, the UE transmits data to the BS by using the UL grant; Fig. 7, step S780 transmit uplink SCH RRC connection request message; paragraph [0086], MTC service should support small data transmission; paragraph [0096], in a random access process, a MTC UE sets an establishment cause to “MTC access”; paragraph [0110], UE transmits RRC connection request message 780 via uplink SCH channel, establishment cause included in the RRC connection request message),
the establishment cause information contains information indicating that the uplink data exists (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 430 scheduled transmission; paragraph [0002], MTC is a type of data communication not requiring human interaction; paragraph [0075], step 430, the UE transmits data to the BS by using the UL grant; paragraph [0086], MTC service should support small data transmission; paragraph [0096], in a random access process, a MTC UE sets an establishment cause to “MTC access”; paragraph [0110], UE transmits RRC connection request message 780 via uplink SCH channel, establishment cause included in the RRC connection request message, establishment cause set as MTC [an indication of data from an MTC device indicates that the MTC device exists]), and
the user equipment is configured to transmit the scheduled transmission message and receive a response message to the scheduled transmission message (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 430 scheduled transmission, step 440 contention resolution; paragraph [0075], step 430, the UE transmits data to the BS by using the UL grant; Fig. 7, step S780 transmit uplink SCH RRC connection request message; paragraph [0076], UE receives contention resolution response; paragraph [0110], step S780, UE transmits RRC connection request message via uplink SCH channel, establishment cause included in the RRC connection request message),
Lee does not explicitly disclose that the user equipment is configured to receive information about a first size of data from the base station, and compare a second size of uplink data with the first size of data indicated in the information, and in a case where the second size of the uplink data is equal to or less than the first size, the user equipment is configured to transmit the scheduled transmission message the uplink data, and
does not explicitly disclose without transitioning to a radio resource control (RRC) connected state.
Lee ‘9492 discloses the user equipment is configured to receive information about a first size of data from the base station, and compare a second size of uplink data with the first size of data indicated in the information (Lee ‘9492, Fig. 3, S340 determine that data size of the MTC data is less than a predetermined threshold; paragraph [0024], the mobile communication device 210 further determines whether the data size of the MTC data to be transmitted is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value and then determines whether to transmit the MTC data in the scheduled transmission step according to the comparison result. the predetermined threshold value may be configured by the radio resource control (RRC) layer and broadcasted in the system information),
in a case where the second size of the uplink data is equal to or less than the first size, the user equipment is configured to transmit the scheduled transmission message the uplink data (Lee ‘9492, Fig. 3, S340 determine that data size of the MTC data is less than a predetermined threshold; paragraph [0024], the mobile communication device 210 further determines whether the data size of the MTC data to be transmitted is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value and then determines whether to transmit the MTC data in the scheduled transmission step according to the comparison result. the predetermined threshold value may be configured by the radio resource control (RRC) layer and broadcasted in the system information).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Lee `9492 into the system of Lee in order to efficiently reduce additional resource configuration and control signaling transmission overhead and improving the overall system performance (Lee `9492; [0020]).
The combination of Lee and Lee `9492 does not explicitly disclose without transitioning to a radio resource control (RRC) connected state.
Yin discloses without transitioning to a radio resource control (RRC) connected state (Yin, paragraph [0003], when the UE recovers a user plane bearer and sends data through the user plane bearer, the UE is in a Connected State; paragraph [0054], uplink user plane IP packet is directly transmitted between the UE and the network side through the signaling connection with no need to establish a radio interface side user plane bearer; paragraph [0086], when a signaling connection manner is selected to perform services of small data volumes such as a short message service, the radio interface side user plane bearer is not established, and all signaling interactions between the UE and the MME necessarily pass through the MME, so that the MME itself may monitor the idle state of the signaling connection and determine when to release the signaling connection to enable the UE to be in an idle state; paragraph [0091], an uplink user plane IP packet carrying MO SMS content is directly sent to the network side through the signaling connection).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Yin into the system of the combination of Lee and Lee `9492 in order to reduce the network load and lower the operating cost of an operator (Yin; [0054]).
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Lee and Lee ‘9492 and Yin, specifically Lee discloses wherein parameters of the establishment cause information of the scheduled transmission message include existence of the user equipment (Lee, paragraph [0110], UE transmits RRC connection request message 780 via uplink SCH channel, establishment cause included in the RRC connection request message, establishment cause set as MTC [an indication of data from an MTC device indicates that the MTC device exists]).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Lee and Lee ‘9492 and Yin, specifically Lee discloses wherein the response message is different from an RRC Connection Setup message (Lee, Fig. 4, UE, eNB, step 420 random access response; Fig. 7, random access response message S770; paragraph [0074], UE receives random access response).
Claim 10 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Lee ‘9492, and further in view of Yin, and further in view of Pelletier et al. (US 20120281566)
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Lee and Lee `9492 and Yin does not explicitly disclose wherein transmission/reception of data during the random access procedure is a UE monitoring message.
Pelletier discloses wherein transmission/reception of data during the random access procedure is a UE monitoring message (Pelletier, paragraph [0166]-[0167], WTRU may enable reception of control signaling on a PDCCH subsequent to transmission of a PRACH preamble and then WTRU may monitor control signaling for a random access response, then once the WTRU successfully decodes the control signaling, the monitoring may be extended when a DCI is received including scheduling information for the purpose of providing a “keep-alive”; paragraph [0174], small data transmission may be characterized by a keep-alive message from a network service or a uplink data transfer keep-alive message from an application; paragraph [0175]-[0177], WTRU may perform a RACH procedure to use connectionless approach to transfer small data using control plane signaling).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Pelletier into the system of the combination of Lee and Lee `9492 and Yin in order to reduce the network load and lower the operating cost of an operator (Pelletier; [0054]).
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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Li et al. (US 20120254890) discloses with the small data being acknowledged, the MTC device can switch to the detached mode or some detached-like mode (e.g., offline mode) if by example the M2M specifications define some new name, other than detached, for the non RRC-connected mode after successful sending of infrequent small data. In an embodiment there is a cause value, specific for the purpose of offline small data transmission and known to the MTC devices such as via a published standard, which the network includes in this connection rejection message which serves to acknowledge the network's proper receipt of the MTC's small data transmission.
Kim et al. (US 20130044708) discloses if new data occurs in an idle mode UE (i.e., the UE with no RRC connection) at step 405, the UE determines whether the newly generated data fulfills the small packet data transfer condition at step 410. if the small packet transfer procedure is preferable, the UE performs the data transfer procedure 2 at step 420.
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/A.L.L/Examiner, Art Unit 2413
/UN C CHO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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