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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35
U.S.C.119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent European patent application No. EP20195618.2 filed on 2020/09/11. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 03/08/2023, 06/03/2024,
08/02/2024,11/20/2024, 11/26/2024 and 06/12/2025 have been considered by the
examiner and made of record in the application file.
Claim Interpretation
Claim 27 recites the limitation “transmit the beam failure recovery message comprising the L3 measurement report if a determined condition is fulfilled, wherein the determined condition is at least one of”.
The " report if a determined condition is fulfilled" clause indicates that the associated limitations occur only when the criteria of this clause is met. However, the present claim never affirmatively requires such event to occur. The broadest reasonable interpretation of these limitations does not require these conditional steps to be performed. See Ex parte Schulhauser, 2013-007847 (PTAB 2016) (precedential) where the board held that when method steps are to be carried out only upon the occurrence of a condition precedent, the broadest reasonable interpretation holds that those steps are not required to be performed. As such, the limitation preceding " report if a determined condition is fulfilled " clause does not appear to have patentable weight since it is contingent upon a condition occurring. Examiner suggests positively reciting the " report [[if ]] to “when” a determined condition is fulfilled " limitation. For example, “report when a determined condition is fulfilled”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 non-obviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 16, 17, 19-20, 22-25 and 27 are rejected under U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over YIU et al. (US 2019/0387440 A1, hereinafter YIU) in view of YOON et al. (US 20200367125 A1, hereinafter YOON).
Consider Claim 16, YIU discloses a terminal device, comprising:
at least one processor; and (paragraph 0115, line 1-6, the terms "application
circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as "processor circuitry." As used herein, the term "processor circuitry" may refer to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations).
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to: (Paragraph 0129, Line 16- 19, the processors (or cores) may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform).
detect a beam failure event in a serving cell; (paragraph 087, line 7-11, the
beam recovery mechanism may be triggered when beam failure occurs. The network may explicitly configure the UE with resources for UL transmission of signals for recovery purposes. Paragraph 0045, line 16-19, when the CHO command is received by the UE 101/102, when the UE 101/102 detects or estimates that the serving cell/beam signal strength/ quality is below a configured or determined threshold).
responsive to the detection of the beam failure event: (Paragraph 087, line 4-9,
configurations of resources are supported where the base station (e.g., a TRP, gNB, or the like) is listening from all or partial directions the UL transmission/resources to report beam failure can be located in the same time instance as a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)).
transmit the beam failure recovery message comprising the L3 measurement
report if a determined condition is fulfilled, wherein the determined condition is at least one of: (Paragraph 0129, line 16-19, the processors (or cores) may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform 400. Paragraph 0195, line 5-8, the UE 101 may be configured with a "low" threshold to trigger generation and transmission of an early MR to increase the reliability of the handover (HO) command to be sent at operation 914).
at least one Time To Trigger timer for reporting a L3 mobility measurement has been started for the at least one further cell but has not yet expired; or a L3 mobility measurement event has been triggered for the at least one further cell but has not yet been reported. (Paragraph 0044, line 5-15, the UE 101/102 may start a timer at node 143 in response to receipt of the CHO command for a particular target cell/beam 112. At node 144, the UE 101/102 may periodically or otherwise continue to check the HO execution condition indicated by the CHO command (for example, by comparing the difference between the source 011 and target cell/beam 012 qualities to the X High) during a duration of the validity period. If the condition is satisfied before the timer expires, the UE 101/102 may execute the HO with the target cell/ beam 112).
YIU discloses the claimed invention but fails to teach transmit a beam failure recovery message comprising a L3 measurement report, wherein the L3 measurement report comprises L3-filtered mobility measurements related to the serving cell and at least one further cell, and wherein the at least one further cell comprises at least one non-serving cell.
However, YOON teaches device comprising transmit a beam failure recovery message comprising a L3 measurement report, wherein the L3 measurement report comprises L3-filtered mobility measurements related to the serving cell and at least one further cell, and wherein the at least one further cell comprises at least one non-serving cell (paragraph 0171, when the CF-RACH resource is not a suitable beam or the quality of the allocated beam failure detection RS is less than or equal to a threshold (e.g., Q.sub.out), the UE may declare beam failure and transmit a beam recovery RS. Paragraph 0189, the UE may transmit a measurement report containing information about RSRP/RSRQ(mobility measurements) for each cell(non-serving cell) to a serving cell. The serving cell may transmit a handover command(message) to the UE based on the measurement report received from the UE (S1410). The handover command may contain information about a target cell to which the UE will move through handover).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains, to modify Claim 16, by incorporating YIU new radio (NR) systems may support conditional handovers involving a UE sending a measurement report to a source cell, followed by the reception of a conditional handover command from the network to include the method and device for performing handover in wireless communication system of YOON. The motivation to do so would be develop a communication system design capable of supporting services/UEs sensitive to reliability and latency conditional handovers may lead to better handover failure performance when compared to legacy handover procedures. These methods allow the user equipment (UE) to recover the link with minimum delay, when a wireless link fails, thus improving the reliability of the wireless communication system, and hence improving the quality of service (QoS) of the communication system.
Consider Claim 17, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 16, wherein the
further cell is one of:
An inter-cell multi Transmission Reception Point cell; (Paragraph 0034, line 1-7,
the UEs 101 and 102 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique. Paragraph 0045, line 7- 11, wherein one CHO command or configuration may indicate multiple target/ candidate cells or beams with individual configurations, and each target/candidate cell or beam may be associated with a corresponding timer duration).
A neighbor cell; (Paragraph 0039, line 20-24, the UE 101, 102 may perform
signal quality or cell power measurements for channels or links of the target RAN node 112 and/or other neighboring cells).
A cell prepared for conditional handover of the terminal device; and (paragraph
0041, line 1-6, Conditional handovers (CHOs) may be used in embodiments where system 100A is an NR system. In these embodiments, a UE 101, 102 may be triggered to generate and transmit an early measurement report (MR) to a source cell, followed by the receipt of a CHO command from the network. Paragraph 0014, line 1-2, FIG. 9 shows an example conditional handover procedure in accordance with various embodiments).
A cell prepared with terminal device context. (Paragraph 0053, line 12- 24, the
UE 101/102 may perform the RA procedure with the source cell/beam if there are no valid physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources avail able. In some embodiments, the UE 101/102 may perform the RRC Connection Reestablishment procedure when the source RAN node 111/112 still has a valid UE context. The network may need provide some coordination to ensure that the source RAN node 111/112 does not discard the UE context after sending the HO (or CHO) command, at least until the source RAN node 111/112 receives an indication that the UE 101/102 has successfully handed over to target RAN node 111/112).
Consider Claim 19, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 16, wherein the
least one memory and instructions are further configured to cause the terminal device to transmit the beam failure recovery message comprising the L3 measurement report if a determined condition is fulfilled, where the determined condition is at least one of the terminal device is configured with at least one conditional handover candidate;
the terminal device is configured with at least one Transmission Coordination
Indicator State that has a Quasi-colocation source reference signal listed in a preconfigured set indicated by the serving cell; (Paragraph 0087, line 7-11, the beam recovery mechanism may be triggered when beam failure occurs. The network may explicitly configure the UE with resources for UL transmission of signals for recovery purposes. Paragraph 0060, line1-3, FIG. 1A, the UEs 101, 102 may perform measurements for cell selection and cell reselection, as well as for handover operations. Paragraph 0090, line 7- 15, to decode PDSCH according to a detected PDCCH with downlink control information (DCI) intended for the UE and the given serving cell where M depends on the UE capability. Each configured TCI state includes one reference signal (RS) set TCI-RS-SetConfig. Each TCI-RS-SetConfig may include parameters for con figuring quasi co-location relationship(s) between the RSs in the RS set and the demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) port group of the PDSCH).
the terminal device is configured with inter-cell multi Transmission Reception Point with multiple Downlink Control Information values. (Paragraph 0050, line 4-12, where multiple event-based exit conditions are to be set/configured for individual cells or beams, the Report Config EUTRA IE may include multiple Offset Leave elements in one or more of the listed event ld fields each of which may include their own values that are independent of the other Offset Leave elements Additionally, each event ld field may include multiple Offset Leave elements).
Consider Claim 20, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 16, wherein the least
one memory and instructions are further configured to cause the terminal device to transmit values of mobility measurements of the at least one further cell relative to the values of measurements of the serving cell. (Paragraph 0243, line 3-8, wherein, when the second condition is met, execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to: control radio control circuitry to perform one or more measurements of one or more cells or one or more beams; and control transmission of a measurement report to indicate signal strengths of the one or more cells or the one or more beams).
Consider Claim 22, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 16, wherein the
mobility measurements are included in one or a combination of the following: Medium Access Control Element, Physical Uplink Shared Channel signaling, Physical Uplink Control Channel signaling, Radio Resource Control message. (Paragraph 005, line 7-12, in order for the UE to connect/ reconnect with the source cell/beam when the exit condition is not met, the UE 101/102 may perform one or more of a scheduling request (SR) procedure, a random access (RA) procedure, and/or an RRC Connection Reestablishment procedure. (Paragraph 0092, line 1-3, A beam failure recovery request could be delivered over dedicated PRACH or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources).
Consider Claim 23, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 16, wherein the
least one memory and instructions are further configured to cause the terminal device to receive at least one response to the beam failure recovery message. (Paragraph 0094, line 1-7, a beam failure indication has been received by a MAC entity from lower layers, then the MAC entity may start a beam failure recovery timer and initiate a Random Access procedure. If the beam Failure Recovery Timer expires, then the MAC entity may indicate a beam failure recovery request failure to upper layers).
Consider Claim 24, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 23, wherein the
least one memory and instructions are further configured to, based on the at least one response to the beam failure recovery message, cause the terminal device to determine whether to remain connected to the serving cell or to perform a handover to another cell. (Paragraph 0040, line 3-12, the source RAN node 111 may decide to handover the UE 101, 102 to the target RAN node 112 by initiating the HO operation. To initiate the HO operation, the source RAN node 111 may transmit an HO request message to the target RAN node 112, and in response, the source RAN node 111 may receive an HO request acknowledgement (ACK) from the target RAN node 112. Once the HO request ACK is received, the source RAN node 111 may send an HO command to the UE to begin an attachment process with the target RAN node 112).
Consider Claim 25, YIU discloses the terminal device of claim 23, wherein the
least one memory and instructions are further configured to cause the terminal device to select a length of a window for monitoring a response to the beam failure recovery message based on the further cell included in the measurements. (Paragraph 0045, line 2-11, the validity timer may be configured for every CHO command, wherein a single validity timer duration may be indicated in a configuration for one or more target/candidate cells or beams. In a second example, validity timer(s) may be configured per target or candidate entity, wherein one CHO command or configuration may indicate multiple target/ candidate cells or beams with individual configurations, and each target/candidate cell or beam may be associated with a corresponding timer duration).
Consider Claim 27, YIU discloses a method in a terminal device, comprising:
detecting a beam failure event in a serving cell; and (paragraph 087, line 7-11,
The beam recovery mechanism may be triggered when beam failure occurs. The network may explicitly configure the UE with resources for UL transmission of signals for recovery purposes. Paragraph 0269, line 6-12, when a signal strength or signal quality of the new cell or the new beam is greater than or equal to a signal strength or signal quality of a service cell or serving beam, discarding or causing to discard the CHO, and transmitting or causing to transmit another measurement report to indicate the signal strength or the signal quality of the new cell or the new beam.
responsive to the detection of the beam failure event: (Paragraph 087, line 4-9,
Configurations of resources are supported where the base station (e.g., a TRP, gNB, or the like) is listening from all or partial directions (e.g., a random access region). The UL transmission/resources to report beam failure can be located in the same time instance as a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)).
transmit the beam failure recovery message comprising the L3 measurement
report if a determined condition is fulfilled, wherein the determined condition is at least one of: (Paragraph 0129, line 16-19, the processors (or cores) may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform 400. Paragraph 0195, line 5-8, the UE 101 may be configured with a "low" threshold to trigger generation and transmission of an early MR to increase the reliability of the handover (HO) command to be sent at operation 914).
at least one Time To Trigger timer for reporting a L3 mobility measurement has been started for the at least one further cell but has not yet expired; or a L3 mobility measurement event has been triggered for the at least one further cell but has not yet been reported. (Paragraph 0044, line5-15, the UE 101/102 may start a timer at node 143 in response to receipt of the CHO command for a particular target cell/beam 112. At node 144, the UE 101/102 may periodically or otherwise continue to check the HO execution condition indicated by the CHO command (for example, by comparing the difference between the source 011 and target cell/beam 012 qualities to the X High) during a duration of the validity period. If the condition is satisfied before the timer expires, the UE 101/102 may execute the HO with the target cell/ beam 112).
YIU discloses the claimed invention but fails to teach transmit a beam failure recovery message comprising a L3 measurement report, wherein the L3measurement report comprises L3-filtered mobility measurements related to the serving cell and at least one further cell, and wherein the at least one further cell comprises at least one non-serving cell.
However, YOON teaches transmit a beam failure recovery message comprising a L3 measurement report, wherein the L3measurement report comprises L3-filtered mobility measurements related to the serving cell and at least one further cell, and wherein the at least one further cell comprises at least one non-serving cell (paragraph 0171, when the CF-RACH resource is not a suitable beam or the quality of the allocated beam failure detection RS is less than or equal to a threshold (e.g., Q.sub.out), the UE may declare beam failure and transmit a beam recovery RS. Paragraph 0189, the UE may transmit a measurement report containing information about RSRP/RSRQ(mobility measurements) for each cell(non-serving cell) to a serving cell. The serving cell may transmit a handover command(message) to the UE based on the measurement report received from the UE (S1410). The handover command may contain information about a target cell to which the UE will move through handover).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains, to modify Claim 27, by incorporating YIU new radio (NR) systems may support conditional handovers involving a UE sending a measurement report to a source cell, followed by the reception of a conditional handover command from the network to include the method and device for performing handover in wireless communication system of YOON. The motivation to do so would be develop a communication system design capable of supporting services/UEs sensitive to reliability and latency conditional handovers may lead to better handover failure performance when compared to legacy handover procedures. These method allows the user equipment (UE) to recover the link with minimum delay, when a wireless link fails, thus improving the reliability of the wireless communication system, and hence improving the quality of service (QoS) of the communication system.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 16, 17, 19-20, 22-25 and 27 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHELE CAMILLE DOUGLAS whose telephone number is (571)270-0458. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 6:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeanette Parker can be reached at 571-270-3647. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHELE C DOUGLAS/Examiner, Art Unit 2646
/JEANETTE J PARKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2646