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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/10/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 12 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.
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 effect-ive 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) 1-3, 8, 11-12 and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao (US 2022/0345947) in view of Byun (US 2023/0292219).
Cao discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 1, a method in a first node (see CU 2108 in Fig. 21) operating in a RAN (see RAN shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 5) for communicating with a UE (see UE 2102 in Fig. 21), the UE configured to receive unicast information from the RAN (see “unicast service” recited in paragraph [0130]; “unicast data bearers” recited in paragraph [0170]), the method comprising:
receiving, by the first node, an indication that the UE is attempting to receive MBS (see Fig. 21, wherein the CU 2108 receives an MBMSInterestIndicator from the UE 2102 via a Source DU 2104 in step (2.)) on a desired carrier frequency (see “the UE that is receiving the eMBMS service or is interested in the eMBMS service may send a measurement report and/or an RRC message (MBMS InterestIndicator) in response to the SIB 15 message. This message may contain the frequency list of the eMBMS service that the UE is currently receiving or interested in, and/or contain a feature bit that notifies the current cell that the UE wants to receive the eMBMS service or unicast service” recited in paragraph [0130]); and
the first node being a CU of a first distributed base station (see CU 2108 in Fig. 21; distributed gNB shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5) and the second node being a DU (see DU 408A in Fig. 4; and see target DU 2106 in Fig. 21) of the first distributed base station or a DU of a second distributed base station.
Regarding claim 2, the second node is the DEU of the first distributed base station (see DU 408A in Fig. 4; and see target DU 2106 in Fig. 21; and see distributed gNB in Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 3, wherein: the DU of the first distributed base station is a target DU of the first distributed base station (see Target DU 2106 in Fig. 21); the indication is received from a source DU of the first distributed base station (see Source DU 2104 sending the indication to the CU 2108 in step (2.) of Fig. 21); and the method further comprises, prior to the transmitting: determining, at the CU, to reconfigure a radio connection of the UE with the RAN so that a termination point of the radio connection changes from the source DU to the target DU (see “The CU determines the target cell of UE handover according to the reported measurement report (e.g., a MeasurementReport message) and MBMS interest indication (e.g., an MBMSInterestIndication message)” recited in paragraph [0163]; as shown in Fig. 21, the MBS interest indication is received in step (2.), which occur prior to the transmission in step (3.); and paragraph [0171], shows that the transmission include handover preparation information, which suggest that the radio connection reconfiguration is determined prior to the transmission in step (3.)); and generating the message to include a configuration for changing the radio connection (see “The UE CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message also contains HandoverPreparationInformation (in CU to DU RRC Information IE)” recited in paragraph [0171]).
Regarding claim 8, wherein: the first node operates as a master node (see CU 502 in Fig. 5); and the method further comprises configuring the second node to operate as a secondary node (see DU1 502A being in a secondary tier below the CU 502 in Fig. 2).
Regarding claim 11, a RAN node (see CU 2108 in Fig. 21) comprising processing hardware and configured to implement the method of claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 12, a method in a UE (see UE 2102 in Fig. 21) configured to receive unicast information from a RAN (see “unicast service” recited in paragraph [0130]; “unicast data bearers” recited in paragraph [0170]), the method comprising:
transmitting, by the UE and to a first network node that is operating in the RAN and that is a CU of a first distributed base station (see CU 2108 in Fig. 21), an indication that the UE is attempting to receive MBS from the RAN (see Fig. 21, wherein the CU 2108 receives an MBMSInterestIndicator from the UE 2102 via a Source DU 2104 in step (2.)) on a desired carrier frequency (see “the UE that is receiving the eMBMS service or is interested in the eMBMS service may send a measurement report and/or an RRC message (MBMS InterestIndicator) in response to the SIB 15 message. This message may contain the frequency list of the eMBMS service that the UE is currently receiving or interested in, and/or contain a feature bit that notifies the current cell that the UE wants to receive the eMBMS service or unicast service” recited in paragraph [0130]); and
receiving, by the UE and from a second node operating in the RAN and that is a DU of the first distributed base station or a DU of a second distributed base station (see DU 408A in Fig. 4; and see source DU 2104 in Fig. 21), a configuration generated in view of the indication (see RRC Reconfiguration in step (8.) of Fig. 21); and
receiving, by the UE and via the desired carrier frequency, the unicast information and MBS according to the configuration (see “With reference to FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the purpose of the UE CONTEXT SETUP process is to request the Target DU 1002, 1102 to establish a UE context and multicast data bearer or one or more unicast data bearers” recited in paragraph [0170]; also see “The candidate cell that can provide proper eMBMS services on any frequency may be at the highest priority of this frequency. When this cell is taken as the target cell, the UE may continue to receive the services of interest from this frequency” recited in paragraph [0130]).
Regarding claim 15, a UE comprising processing hardware and configured to implement the method of claim 12 (see UE 2102 in Fig. 21 and rejection of claim 12 above).
Regarding claim 16, wherein the second network node is the DU of the first distributed base station (see DU 408A of gNB 400 in Fig. 4; and see source DU 2104 in Fig. 21).
Cao doe not disclose the following features: regarding claim 1, transmitting, by the first node to a second node operating in the RAN, a message that includes the indication that causes, at the second node, a reconfiguration of the UE to be generated based on the indication, the reconfiguration of the UE to receive the unicast information and the MBS on the desired carrier frequency; regarding claim 12, wherein the configuration is received by the UE is generated by the second network node in view of the indication.
Byun discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 1, transmitting, by the first node to a second node operating in the RAN, a message that includes the indication (see step S1016, wherein the gNB-CU-CP sends a UE Context Modification Request and MBS Identity to the gNB-DU and paragraph [0301]) that causes, at the second node, a reconfiguration of the UE to be generated based on the indication, the reconfiguration of the UE (see “In step S1017, when to receive the modification request message, the gNB-DU may respond with the UE Context Modification Response or new message including the configuration for requested bearer to the gNB-CU-CP” recited in paragraph [0302], wherein in response to the message received in step S1016, gNB-DU may generate configuration for requested bearer) to receive the unicast information and the MBS on the desired carrier frequency (see “unicast bearer” recited in paragraph [0301] and see paragraph [0285], which shows that Fig. 10B is directed to switching to unicast communication for the MBS service; wherein the “requested bearer” represents a bearer of a desired frequency; and see Cao paragraph [0130] as shown above that shows how the UE continue to receive the services of interest from desired carrier frequency).
Regarding claim 12, wherein the configuration is received by the UE is generated by the second network node in view of the indication (see “In step S1017, when to receive the modification request message, the gNB-DU may respond with the UE Context Modification Response or new message including the configuration for requested bearer to the gNB-CU-CP” recited in paragraph [0302], wherein in response to the message received in step S1016, gNB-DU may generate configuration for requested bearer; and Fig. 21 of Cao shows that the DU sending RRCReconfiguration to the UE in response to the UE Context Modification request; therefore it would have been obvious to modify Cao’s UE Context Modification procedure using Byun’s teaching that involves the gNB-DU to generate configuration of the requested bearer, and sends the configuration to the UE in an RRC Reconfiguration message as taught by Cao).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of Cao using features, as taught by Byun, in order to determine and provide configuration for the requested bearer (see paragraph [0302] of Byun).
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao and Byun as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Bae ‘391 (US 2022/0279391).
Cao and Byun disclose the features as shown above.
Cao does not explicitly disclose the following features: regarding claim 4, the first distributed base station is a target base station: the indication is received from a source base station.
Bae ‘391 discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 4, the first distributed base station is a target base station: the indication is received from a source base station (see Fig. 7, wherein the indication may be the HO request 7-230 sent from a source BS to the CU of a target BS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Cao using features and Byun, as taught by Bae ‘391, in order to perform handover between separate base stations (see paragraph [0100] of Bae ‘391).
Claim(s) 5 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao and Byun as applied to claims 2 and 12 above, and further in view of Paterson (US 11,849,498 B2).
Cao and Byun discloses the features as shown above.
Cao also discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 5, wherein: the second node is a first DU (see target DU 2106 in Fig. 21); the method further comprises selecting, by the CU, the first DU of the first distrusted base station; from among the first DU and the second DU, for transmitting the message to the first DU (see Fig. 5 and paragraph [0149], which shows that Cao being directed to handover under the same CU; paragraphs [0163]-[0167] shows the target cell selection procedure, wherein the cells 512A-518A in Fig. 5 belong to different DUs; the target cell selection procedure by the CU 502 also selects the DU to be used, wherein each DUs in Fig. 5 belong to the same distributed base station served by the same CU 502).
Regarding claim 20, wherein the second network node is a first DU of the first distributed base station (see source DU 2104 in Fig. 21; paragraphs [0163]-[0167] shows the target cell selection procedure, wherein the cells 512A-518A in Fig. 5 belong to different DUs; the target cell selection procedure by the CU 502 also selects the DU to be used, wherein each DUs in Fig. 5 belong to the same distributed base station served by the same CU 502).
Cao does not discloses the following features: regarding claims 5 and 20, the UE is operating in DC with the first DU and a second DU of the first distributed base station.
Paterson discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 5 and 20, the UE is operating in DC (see “A central unit of a distributed base station which is according to a second radio access technology (RAT) and which provides Dual Connectivity to a User Equipment (UE)” recited in claim 1) with the first DU and a second DU of the first distributed base station (see Fig. 1, column 6, line 62- column 7, line 10, wherein the UE 3-2 being in communication with the gNB-DU 5-2a-1 and 5-2a-2 of the distributed gNB 5-2b).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Cao and Byun using features, as taught by Paterson, in order to provide access to a wider communication network using multi-connectivity (see column 1, line 45 to column 3, line 8 of Paterson).
Claim(s) 7 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao and Byun as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Karandikar (US 2021/0112616).
Cao and Byun disclose the features as shown above.
Cao also discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 7 and 18, wherein: the first node supports a first RAT, and the second node supports a second RAT (see paragraphs [0131]-[0132], which shows that the handover procedure, such as the handover procedure in Fig. 21, may be “Radio Access Technology (RAT) Coverage Based Handover”).
Cao does not discloses the following features: regarding claims 7 and 18, wherein: the first node supports a first RAT, and the second node supports a second RAT (Cao discloses RAT coverage based handover, but does not specify that the first node and the second node respectively supports a first RAT and a second RAT).
Karandikar discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 7 and 18, wherein: the first node supports a first RAT, and the second node supports a second RAT (see “Another object of embodiments herein is to disclose methods and systems for enabling at least one Centralized Unit (gNodeB-CU) within at least one RAN node to control a plurality of Distributed Units (DUs) of different RATs (5G New Radio (NR) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) RATs)” recited in paragraph [0008]; Fig. 2c; and see “Embodiments herein enable the at least one gNB-CU to control the UE and to allow the UE to connect to an additional RAT (for example, the WLAN DU) depending on capabilities of the UE and irrespective of an initial RAT (for example; 5G NR RAT), the UE is connected to” recited in paragraph [0121], which shows that gNB-CU supports different RATs and the DUs may be of different RATs).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Cao and Byun using features, as taught by Karandikar, in order to enable uniform control and management of radio resources of multiple RATs at a RAN level for providing a User Equipment (UE) with multi-connectivity (see paragraph [0002] of Karandikar).
Claim(s) 9 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao and Byun as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Mohammed Mikaeil (US 2023/0156434).
Cao and Byun discloses the features as shown above.
Cao also discloses the following features
Regarding claims 9 and 19, wherein: the UE is previously configured to receive MBS on a first carrier frequency but not on a second carrier frequency, and the message causes the second node to configured the UE for receiving MBS on the second carrier frequency (see “Based on Carrier Frequency—Based Handover” recited in paragraph [0133]-[0134]; see Fig. 5, wherein the cells associated with each DU may utilize different carrier frequencies 504A-510A, 504B-510B).
Cao does not disclose the following features: regarding claims 9 and 19, the desired frequency is the second carrier frequency (Cao discloses the handover being based on the carrier frequency, Cao also discloses an indication message that includes various information associated with the handover, but does not specifically show that “the indication” in claim 1 indicates the second carrier frequency).
Mohammed Mikaeil discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 9 and 19, the desired frequency is the second carrier frequency (see “the MBMS Interest Indication message is included in an IE known as “MBMSinterestindication-r11-IEs”. The IE contains three types of IEs. The first IE is “mbms-FreqList-r11” IE, which includes a list of carrier frequencies on which UE is to or intends to receive MBMS service” recited in paragraph [0042]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Cao and Byun using features, as taught by Mohammed Mikaeil, in order to specify MBMS service the UE the UE intends to receive (see paragraph [0042] of Mohammed MIkaeil).
Claim(s) 10, 13-14 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cao and Byun as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Bae ‘296 (US 2023/0217296).
Cao and Byun disclose the features as shown above.
Cao does not disclose the following features: regarding claim 10, wherein the second node is the DU of second distribution base station, and the UE is reconfigured to receive MBS and operate in DC with the first distributed base station and the second distributed base station in accordance with the second reconfiguration; regarding claim 13, wherein the second network node is the DU of the second distributed base station; regarding claim 14, the first network node operates as an MN, and the second network node operates as an SN, to provide dual connectivity; regarding claim 21, reconfiguring the UE to receive MBS and operate in DC with the first distributed base station and the second distributed base station in accordance with the received configuration.
Bae ‘296 discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 10, wherein the second node is the DU of second distribution base station (see SN DU in Fig. 17), and the UE is reconfigured to receive MBS (Cao as shown above discloses the UE reconfiguration to receive MBS having similar reconfiguration procedure) and operate in DC (see “dual connectivity” recited in paragraph [0007]) with the first distributed base station and the second distributed base station in accordance with the second reconfiguration (see Fig. 17, wherein the UE receives the DRB via the MN DU and the SN DU, wherein the MN and the SN are master/secondary nodes that are both distributed base stations).
Regarding claim 13, wherein the second network node is the DU of the second distributed base station (see Fig. 17, wherein the UE receives the DRB via the MN DU and the SN DU, wherein the MN and the SN are master/secondary nodes that are both distributed base stations).
Regarding claim 14, the first network node operates as an MN (see MN CU-CP in Fig. 17), and the second network node operates as an SN (see SN DU in Fig. 17), to provide dual connectivity (see “dual connectivity” recited in paragraph [0007]).
Regarding claim 21, reconfiguring the UE (see step 5q-600 and 5q-700 in Fig. 17) to receive MBS and operate in DC (see “dual connectivity” recited in paragraph [0007]) with the first distributed base station and the second distributed base station in accordance with the received configuration (see Fig. 17, wherein the UE receives the DRB via the MN DU and the SN DU, wherein the MN and the SN are master/secondary nodes that are both distributed base stations).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Cao and Byun using features, as taught by Bae ‘296, in order to increase reliability of packet transmission (see paragraph [0049] of Bae ‘296).
Conclusion
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/JUTAI KAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473