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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/22/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Claims 18, 38-39 have been amended.
Claims 18, 38-39 are presently pending.
Applicant's arguments with respect to the claim(s) have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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.
Claims 18, 38-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DENG (US 20220369173, hereinafter, “Deng”, provided in the IDS by the applicant) in view of LEE et al. (US 20200389886, hereinafter, “LEE”).
Claim 18. DENG teaches: A method of a terminal device, the method comprising: - See Fig. 3
receiving, from a first network device, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message for conditionally configuring a primary secondary cell (PSCell) of a secondary cell group (SCG), - See Fig.3, ¶ [0060], (“In step 7, the MN transmits a signaling for PSCell conditional change to the UE. The MN may transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information at one time via an RRC reconfiguration signaling…to transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information in sequence. The PSCell conditional change information includes an identity of a candidate PSCell, a trigger condition for PSCell change”); ¶ [0040], (“in the process of performing the PSCell change, once detecting that a candidate PCell meets the conditional handover trigger condition, the UE starts to perform the PCell handover, and the candidate PCell is not configured with SCG or configured with SCG relevant to other PSCells.”) the RRC reconfiguration message comprising information of a plurality of candidate PSCells; - See Fig.3, ¶ [0060], (“The MN may transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information at one time via an RRC reconfiguration signaling, or use multiple RRC reconfiguration signalings to transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information in sequence…Different candidate PSCells may have different or a same trigger condition for PSCell change.”)
selecting a target PSCell to be switched from the plurality of candidate PSCells; - See Fig.3, ¶ [0062], (“In step 9, the UE finds that at least one candidate PSCell meets the trigger condition. If there are multiple candidate PSCells that meet the trigger condition, the UE may select the candidate PSCell with highest signal quality as the target PSCell for the change”)
transmitting, to the first network device, an uplink message which comprises information indicating the selected target PSCell. - See Fig. 3, ¶ [0063], (“In step 10, the UE indicates to the MN the determined target PSCell, i.e., the target PSCell that the UE will access. The UE may indicate the determined target PSCell to the MN via RRC signaling, for example, indicating an identity of the determined target PSCell.”, The RRC signaling from the UE to the MN (master node (eq. network device)) is an uplink message.)
DENG does not explicitly teach:
applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access (RA);
However, LEE teaches:
applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access (RA); - See Fig 14, ¶ [0215 - 0216], (“2> if rach-SkipSCG is configured: 3> configure lower layers to apply the rach-SkipSCG for the target SCG…¶ [0222] 3> initiate the random access procedure on the PSCell, if rach-SkipSCG is not configured”, The random access procedure is not initiated if rach-SkipSCG is configured.)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified DENG with LEE to include applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access, as taught by LEE. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to reduce latency related to dual connectivity, as suggested by LEE, In DC (Dual connectivity), an SCG can be established, reconfigured or released by using an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message. In case random access to the primary SCell (PSCell) or if rach-SkipSCG is configured is required upon SCG reconfiguration, E-UTRAN employs the SCG change procedure. - ¶ [0090]
Claim 38. DENG teaches: A method of a first network device, the method comprising: - See Fig.3
transmitting, to a terminal device, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message for conditionally configuring a primary secondary cell (PSCell) of a secondary cell group (SCG), - See Fig.3, ¶ [0060], (“In step 7, the MN transmits a signaling for PSCell conditional change to the UE. The MN may transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information at one time via an RRC reconfiguration signaling, or use multiple RRC reconfiguration signalings to transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information in sequence. The PSCell conditional change information includes an identity of a candidate PSCell, a trigger condition for PSCell change, and radio resources configured for the UE by the candidate SN.”); ¶ [0040], (“in the process of performing the PSCell change, once detecting that a candidate PCell meets the conditional handover trigger condition, the UE starts to perform the PCell handover, and the candidate PCell is not configured with SCG or configured with SCG relevant to other PSCells.”) the RRC reconfiguration message comprising information of a plurality of candidate PSCells and the terminal device applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access (RA); - See Fig.3, ¶ [0060], (“The MN may transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information at one time via an RRC reconfiguration signaling, or use multiple RRC reconfiguration signalings to transmit multiple PSCcell conditional change information in sequence…Different candidate PSCells may have different or a same trigger condition for PSCell change.”) and
receiving, from the terminal device, an uplink message which comprises information indicating the selected target PSCell. - See Fig. 3, ¶ [0063], (“In step 10, the UE indicates to the MN the determined target PSCell, i.e., the target PSCell that the UE will access. The UE may indicate the determined target PSCell to the MN via RRC signaling, for example, indicating an identity of the determined target PSCell.”)
DENG does not explicitly teach:
the RRC reconfiguration message comprising information of a plurality of candidate PSCells and the terminal device applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access (RA);
However, LEE teaches:
the RRC reconfiguration message comprising information of a plurality of candidate PSCells and the terminal device applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access (RA); - See Fig 14, ¶ [0205], (“the received RRCConnectionReconfiguration message includes radioResourceConfigDedicated including drb-ToAddModList:…¶ [0210] 3> perform PSCell addition or modification;…¶ [0215 - 0216], (“2> if rach-SkipSCG is configured: 3> configure lower layers to apply the rach-SkipSCG for the target SCG;…¶ [0222] 3> initiate the random access procedure on the PSCell, if rach-SkipSCG is not configured”, The random access procedure is not initiated if rach-SkipSCG is configured.)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified DENG with LEE to include applying a configuration of the SCG without initiating Random Access, as taught by LEE. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to reduce latency related to dual connectivity, as suggested by LEE, In DC (Dual connectivity), an SCG can be established, reconfigured or released by using an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message. In case random access to the primary SCell (PSCell) or if rach-SkipSCG is configured is required upon SCG reconfiguration, E-UTRAN employs the SCG change procedure. - ¶ [0090]
Claim 39 is the apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim of claim 18 and is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 18 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Conclusion
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/SHIMA WASEL/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475