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 .
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.
Claim(s) 39-40 and 44-45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xin et al. US 2023/0099930 A1 in view of Mikaeil et al. US 2023/0156434 A1 and further in view of Saldati et al. US 2024/0259837 A1.
Claims 39 and 40:
Xin discloses a method for a first network device (See fig. 19, memory and processor), comprising: performing at least one multicast service (See abstract, multicast service); and transmitting, to a second network device, a configuration update message including information about a frequency list associated with the at least one multicast service (See para 279, “the notification message further includes one or more of the following information … carrier list information… for receiving the first multicast service”).
Xin doesn’t disclose frequency list associated with Temporary Mobile Group Identity (TMGI) that is associated with the at least one multicast service.
Mikaeil discloses a frequency list associated with Temporary Mobile Group Identity (TMGI) that is associated with the at least one multicast service (See para 39, “each frequency in the list is associated with a list of MBMS service area identities (SAIs) that is supported by the respective frequency while the USD includes a TMGI corresponding to each MBMS SAI, and further includes information associating the TMGIs and SAIs”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xin with the teachings of Mikaeil to improve the method disclosed by Xin by including the feature of frequency list and multicast service is associated with TMGI. The motivation to combine would have been to uniquely identify Multicast bearer services within MBMS.
Xin in view of Mikaeil doesn’t disclose Next-Generation Radio Access Network (NG- RAN) node Configuration Update message.
Saldati discloses Next-Generation Radio Access Network (NG- RAN) node Configuration Update message (See para 67-68, “For a gNB, a “NG-RAN NODE CONFIGURATION UPDATE” message includes an updated configuration data for NR cells served by the node sending the message (“Served Cells To Update NR” IE) and “Cell Assistance Information NR.””).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xin in view of Mikaeil with the teachings of Soldati to improve the method disclosed by Xin in view of Mikaeil by including the feature of (NG- RAN) node Configuration Update message. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce signaling overhead and avoid re-registration of gNB.
Claims 44 and 45:
Xin in view of Mikaeil doesn’t disclose transmitting, to the second network device, the NG-RAN node Configuration Update message in a case where cell information of a cell served by the first network device needs to be updated.
Saldati discloses transmitting, to the second network device, the NG-RAN node Configuration Update message in a case where cell information of a cell served by the first network device needs to be updated (See para 67-68, “For a gNB, a “NG-RAN NODE CONFIGURATION UPDATE” message includes an updated configuration data for NR cells served by the node sending the message (“Served Cells To Update NR” IE) and “Cell Assistance Information NR.””).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Xin in view of Mikaeil with the teachings of Soldati to improve the method disclosed by Xin in view of Mikaeil by including the feature of transmitting, the NG-RAN node Configuration Update message when cell information of a cell served by the first network device needs to be updated. The motivation for doing so would have been to give better view of topology of the network such as, UE location, load balancing and network slice availability at cell level.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 42-43 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. WO 2025087108 A1 discloses that the serving base station obtains the frequency information of the neighboring base station, including: receiving an Xn message sent by the neighboring base station, the message carrying the frequency information of the neighboring base station, and the Xn message including any one of an Xn establishment message and an NG-RAN node configuration update message.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HASHIM S BHATTI whose telephone number is (571)270-7748. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00am-5:30pm.
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HASHIM S. BHATTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/HASHIM S BHATTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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