DETAILED ACTION
1. Applicant’s response filed on 08/27/2025 has been entered and made of record.
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 .
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Examiner has considered all references submitted on the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 11/19/2025.
Claim Status
Claim(s) 1, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11 have been amended.
No claim(s) have been cancelled.
Claim 12 have been added.
Claim(s) 1-12 are currently pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s remarks (Page 6-7), filed on 08/27/2025, regarding Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 102 have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. Please refer to the rejection below for further details.
Applicant’s remarks (Page 7-8), filed on 08/27/2025, regarding Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. Please refer to the rejection below for further details.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7 and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tietz et al. (US 2015/0195757 A1), hereinafter “Tietz” in view of Lee et al. (WO 2021/177739 A1), hereinafter “Lee”.
Regarding claim 1, Tietz combined with Lee discloses a communication control apparatus (see Tietz [Fig. 1], MRN (Mobile Relay Node) 3 attached to Train) comprising:
a movement information acquisition unit (see Tietz [Fig. 2], Measurement and reporting module 47 and Positioning module 48) that acquires movement information concerning the movement of a relay station that can communicate with a base station and expand the communication cell provided by the base station (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0075], “… the mobile relay node 3 obtains, e.g., from the OAM entity 11, and stores in its memory 39 MRN specific route information (such as geographic coordinates, list of donor base stations along the route, next allowed DeNB cell depending on current cell and/or locations, etc).”; also see Tietz [Pg. 3, ¶0044], “… mobile relay node 3 includes a transceiver circuit 31 which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, the donor base station 5 via donor base station (DeNB) antenna 33 and which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, the user equipment 4 on the train 2 via the UE antenna 35.”); and
a connection control unit (see Tietz [Fig. 2], Communications control module 43) that connects the relay station to the base station that provides the selected communication cell (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0083], “… the donor base station 5-1 and the mobile relay node 3 perform the handover procedures to the target cell, i.e. the mobile relay node 3 perform the handover procedures to the target cell, i.e. the mobile relay node 3 detaches from base station 5-1 and re-attaches to the new donor base station (e.g. donor base station 5-2) associated with the cell selected in step s615.”).
Tietz does not completely disclose an expansion cell selection unit that selects a communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station based on the movement information, wherein the expansion selection unit selects the communication cell from a plurality of available communication cells based on historic demand at the communication cell.
Lee discloses an expansion cell selection unit that selects a communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station based on the movement information (see Lee [Pg. 3, ¶17], “… mobility management can be optimized by considering a cell selection/reselection based on history information/movement pattern between a VMR and a UE in the VMR.”), wherein the expansion selection unit selects the communication cell from a plurality of available communication cells based on historic demand at the communication cell (see Lee [Pg. 35, ¶275-277], “Cell selection by leveraging stored information: … 2. Once the UE has found a suitable cell using recent history information (for that UE to select which VMR node), the UE shall select the suitable cell.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the selection of a communication cell based on historic demand as detailed by Lee, onto the system of Tietz, in order to achieve at least mobility optimization and load balancing (see Lee [Pg. 3, ¶16-19], “… mobility management can be optimized … load balancing can be achieved … Advantageous effects which can be obtained through specific embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the advantageous effects listed above.”).
Regarding claim 2, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the relay station is installed to a moveable object (see Tietz [Fig. 1], MRN 3 installed on moving train.; also see Tietz [Pg. 3, ¶0039], “FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a mobile (cellular) telecommunication system 1 that includes a train 2 having a mobile relay node 3 that provides base station functionality for a plurality of user equipment 4, …”).
Regarding claim 3, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the movement information includes at least one of the following:
the movement route of the relay station (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0074], “… the geographical position of the mobile relay node 3 is measured and reported by taking into account information on the planned route of the mobile relay node 3 (e.g. a relay node mounted on a train which is traveling along a pre-determined route) within the area covered by the communication system 1.”),
the arrival time of the relay station at each location on the movement route,
the traffic condition on the movement route,
the movement speed of the relay station (see Tietz [Pg. 7, ¶0099], “The mobile relay node 3 may also use serving cell information in combination with location information (e.g. geographical position, velocity, direction of travel, and the like) obtained using its positioning module 48.”),
the movement direction of the relay station (see Tietz [Pg. 7, ¶0099], “The mobile relay node 3 may also use serving cell information in combination with location information (e.g. geographical position, velocity, direction of travel, and the like) obtained using its positioning module 48.”), and
the current position of the relay station (see Tietz [Pg. 7, ¶0099], “The mobile relay node 3 may also use serving cell information in combination with location information (e.g. geographical position, velocity, direction of travel, and the like) obtained using its positioning module 48.”).
Regarding claim 4, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an activity history information collection unit that collects activity history information of at least one of the communication device communicating with the base station, the relay station, and other relay stations (see Tietz [Pg 10, ¶0146], “In the above embodiments, the list of allowed donor base stations is described to be either network specific, or mobile relay node specific. However, it will be appreciated that different types of lists or sub-lists may be provided, e.g. a list based on a current or historical geographic location, a list based on a time parameter, or any combination thereof.”),
wherein the movement information acquisition unit estimates the movement information of the relay station based on the activity history information (see Tietz [Pg. 10, ¶0146], “In this case, the list of allowed donor base stations may depend on the direction of travel as well, such that the mobile relay node measures or reports only neighbour base stations or base stations that are located along the path to be taken (or that has been taken previously) by the mobile relay node.”).
Regarding claim 5, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cell placement information acquisition unit that acquires cell placement information concerning the placement of a plurality of communication cells,
wherein the expansion cell selection unit selects a communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station further based on the movement information and the cell placement information (see Tietz [Pg. 7, ¶0088], “… the mobile relay node 3 obtains and stores in its memory 39 MRN specific route information (such as geographic coordinates, list of donor capable base stations along the route, next allowed DeNB cell depending on current cell and/or location, etc) as described with reference to step s601 above.”; also see Tietz [Pg. 7, ¶0087], “… the mobile relay node 3 performs measurement of the serving cell and uses the route information to select a handover candidate cell (or cells) when the measurement of the serving cell indicates that handover is necessary.”).
Regarding claim 6, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cell communication quality information acquisition unit that acquires communication quality information of a communication cell,
wherein the expansion cell selection unit selects a communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station further based on the movement information and the communication quality information (see Tietz [Pg. 5, ¶0067], “The mobile relay node 3 will use these measurement parameters to control when it starts making measurements on the signals from other base stations in order to find another base station 5 to which the mobile relay node 3 can handover when it is experiencing a degradation in signal quality in the current cell (e.g. due to the mobile relay node 3 moving away from the donor base station 5-1) and/or when the signals from the other base stations become better than a pre-set threshold.”).
Regarding claim 7, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cell expansion restriction information acquisition unit that acquires cell expansion restriction information concerning the expansion restriction of a communication cell,
wherein the expansion cell selection unit selects a communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station further based on the movement information and the cell expansion restriction information (see Tietz [Pg. 8, ¶0113], “The cells having a ‘CSG’ of which the MRN is a member are limited to donor capable cells operate by a donor capable base station. The search is based on a list, stored in the MRN, comprising information identifying the cells having a CSG of which the MRN is a member (and thus identifying the cells operated by a base station that is capable of providing donor services). In this way, base stations that are capable of providing donor services are treated as having a ‘closed subscribe group’ to which the mobile relay node 3 belongs.”).
Regarding claim 11, Tietz combined with Lee discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a communication control program causing a computer to perform (see Tietz [Pg. 3, ¶0044], “As shown, the mobile relay node 3 includes a transceiver circuit 31 which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, … The operation of the transceiver circuit 31 is controlled by a controller 37 in accordance with software stored in memory 39.”);
acquiring movement information concerning a movement of a relay station that can communicate with a base station and expand a communication cell provided by the base station (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0075], “… the mobile relay node 3 obtains, e.g., from the OAM entity 11, and stores in its memory 39 MRN specific route information (such as geographic coordinates, list of donor base stations along the route, next allowed DeNB cell depending on current cell and/or locations, etc).”; also see Tietz [Pg. 3, ¶0044], “… mobile relay node 3 includes a transceiver circuit 31 which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, the donor base station 5 via donor base station (DeNB) antenna 33 and which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, the user equipment 4 on the train 2 via the UE antenna 35.”); and
connecting the relay station to the base station that provides the selected communication cell (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0083], “… the donor base station 5-1 and the mobile relay node 3 perform the handover procedures to the target cell, i.e. the mobile relay node 3 perform the handover procedures to the target cell, i.e. the mobile relay node 3 detaches from base station 5-1 and re-attaches to the new donor base station (e.g. donor base station 5-2) associated with the cell selected in step s615.”).
Tietz does not completely disclose selecting the communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station based on the movement information, wherein the expansion selection unit selects the communication cell from a plurality of available communication cells based on historic demand at the communication cell.
Lee discloses an expansion cell selection unit that selects a communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station based on the movement information (see Lee [Pg. 3, ¶17], “… mobility management can be optimized by considering a cell selection/reselection based on history information/movement pattern between a VMR and a UE in the VMR.”), wherein the expansion selection unit selects the communication cell from a plurality of available communication cells based on historic demand at the communication cell (see Lee [Pg. 35, ¶275-277], “Cell selection by leveraging stored information: … 2. Once the UE has found a suitable cell using recent history information (for that UE to select which VMR node), the UE shall select the suitable cell.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the selection of a communication cell based on historic demand as detailed by Lee, onto the system of Tietz, in order to achieve at least mobility optimization and load balancing (see Lee [Pg. 3, ¶16-19], “… mobility management can be optimized … load balancing can be achieved … Advantageous effects which can be obtained through specific embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the advantageous effects listed above.”).
Regarding claim 12, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the expansion cell selection unit selects the communication cell further based on future movement of the relay station (see Lee [Pg. 31, ¶222], “In step S1103, the wireless device may estimate a movement pattern of each of the plurality of mobile cells based on the location information and the identifier information. In step S1105, the wireless device may determine a mobile cell among the plurality of mobile cells for a cell selection based on the movement pattern.”).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tietz et al. (US 2015/0195757 A1), hereinafter “Tietz” in view of Park et al. (WO 2021/075761 A1), hereinafter “Park”.
Regarding claim 10, Tietz combined with Lee discloses a communication control method comprising:
acquiring movement information concerning a movement of a relay station that can communicate with a base station and expand a communication cell provided by the base station(see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0075], “… the mobile relay node 3 obtains, e.g., from the OAM entity 11, and stores in its memory 39 MRN specific route information (such as geographic coordinates, list of donor base stations along the route, next allowed DeNB cell depending on current cell and/or locations, etc).”; also see Tietz [Pg. 3, ¶0044], “… mobile relay node 3 includes a transceiver circuit 31 which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, the donor base station 5 via donor base station (DeNB) antenna 33 and which transmits signals to, and receives signals from, the user equipment 4 on the train 2 via the UE antenna 35.”);
selecting the communication cell to be expanded by the moving relay station based on the movement information (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0084], “… the mobile relay node 3 triggers handover procedures after comparing its own location with its pre-determined route information according to the criteria provided by the donor base station 5-1. Therefore, the mobile relay node 3 performs location calculations only (or obtains its own location in any suitable way), which beneficially reduces the overall number of measurements needed and thus minimizes handover delay. Thus when the mobile relay node’s current location matches a pre-defined location (or area), the mobile relay node 3 is handed over to the next donor base station which is selected using the mobile relay node’s known route.”; also see Tietz [Pg. 7, ¶0087], “However, in this case, the mobile relay node 3 performs measurements of the serving cell and uses the route information to select handover candidate cell (or cells) when the measurement of the serving cell indicates that handover is necessary.”), wherein:
connecting the relay station to the base station that provides the selected communication cell (see Tietz [Pg. 6, ¶0083], “… the donor base station 5-1 and the mobile relay node 3 perform the handover procedures to the target cell, i.e. the mobile relay node 3 perform the handover procedures to the target cell, i.e. the mobile relay node 3 detaches from base station 5-1 and re-attaches to the new donor base station (e.g. donor base station 5-2) associated with the cell selected in step s615.”).
Tietz does not disclose selecting the communication cell to be expanded by the relay station prioritizes non-terrestrial communication cells.
Park discloses selecting the communication cell to be expanded by the relay station prioritizes non-terrestrial communication cells (see Park [Pg. 37, Ln. 13-14], “… the electronic device 101 supporting NTN may increase or decrease the priority of an NTN cell in a cell selection/reselection operation.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate prioritizing the NTN cells as detailed by Park, onto the system of Tietz, in order to efficiently select/reselect communication cells in a frequency diverse environment (see Park [Pg. 2, Ln. 37-38], “… the electronic device may efficiently select of reselect cells in a network environment in which a plurality of cells having different frequency bands exist.”).
Claim(s) 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tietz et al. (US 2015/0195757 A1), hereinafter “Tietz” in view of Lee et al. (WO 2021/177739 A1), hereinafter “Lee” in further view of Wu et al. (US 2023/0096165 A1), hereinafter “Wu”.
Regarding claim 8, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1.
Tietz combined with Lee does not disclose wherein the communication cells include a terrestrial communication cell provided on the ground by a terrestrial base station installed on the ground, and
a non-terrestrial communication cell provided on the ground by a flying non-terrestrial base station.
Wu discloses wherein the communication cells include a terrestrial communication cell provided on the ground by a terrestrial base station installed on the ground, and a non-terrestrial communication cell provided on the ground by a flying non-terrestrial base station (see Wu [Pg. 7, ¶0088], “Alternatively, it may be understood as that the second network device is a relay device providing a relay forwarding services for the first network device. It may be understood that, if the cell covered by the second network device is a terrestrial network communication cell, the second network device is a terrestrial base station, and the first network device is connected to the terrestrial base station. If the cell covered by the second network device is a non-terrestrial network communication cell, the second network device is a non-terrestrial base station (for example, a satellite), and the first network device is connected to the satellite.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate wherein the communication cells include a terrestrial communication cell provided on the ground by a terrestrial base station installed on the ground, and a non-terrestrial communication cell provided on the ground by a flying non-terrestrial base station as detailed by Wu, onto the combined system of Tietz and Lee, in order to provide a more seamless coverage by deploying less disaster prone cell coverage (see Wu [Pg. 6, ¶0079], “The NTN communication system provides seamless coverage for a terminal device by deploying an access network device or some function of the access network device on a non-terrestrial device (for example, a high altitude platform station or a satellite). Because the non-terrestrial device is less susceptible to natural disasters, reliability of the communication system can be improved.”).
Regarding claim 9, Tietz combined with Lee discloses the communication control apparatus according to claim 1.
Tietz combined with Lee does not disclose wherein the non-terrestrial base station is a communication satellite flying in outer space.
Wu discloses wherein the non-terrestrial base station is a communication satellite flying in outer space (see Wu [Pg. 7, ¶0088], “… the second network device is a non-terrestrial base station (for example, a satellite), and the first network device is connected to the satellite.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate wherein the non-terrestrial base station is a communication satellite flying in outer space as detailed by Wu, onto the combined system of Tietz and Lee, in order to provide a more seamless coverage by deploying less disaster prone cell coverage (see Wu [Pg. 6, ¶0079], “The NTN communication system provides seamless coverage for a terminal device by deploying an access network device or some function of the access network device on a non-terrestrial device (for example, a high altitude platform station or a satellite). Because the non-terrestrial device is less susceptible to natural disasters, reliability of the communication system can be improved.”).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/J.D./Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/YEMANE MESFIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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