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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement submitted on 09/14/2023 has been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form).
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Group I in the reply filed on 11/12/2025 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because:
Claim 13 recites “computer-readable storage medium” but the term “computer-readable storage medium”, given its broadest reasonable interpretation read in light of the specification, does not exclude transitory forms of computer-readable media such as signals, which are nonstatutory (In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 84 USPQ2d 1495 (Fed. Cir. 2007)). While the specification provides several examples of forms of “computer-readable storage medium”, these examples do not serve to form a complete definition of the term, and the meaning of the term to the ordinary artisan potentially includes transitory media such as signals, which are not statutory, as well as non-transitory media. (See also USPTO Official Gazette notice 1351 OG 213.) Therefore, the claim encompasses non-statutory subject matter. Examiner suggests applicant to amendment this claim as “non-transitory computer-readable medium” to overcome 35 U.S.C. 101 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.
Claim(s) 1, 9 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keskitalo et al. (US 2014/0295840) in view of Ma et al. (US 20220022123A1)
Regarding claim 1, 9 AND 13, Keskitalo teaches a communication control method, being applicable to a serving base station, comprising (Fig. 6):
between sending measurement control information ([0081] “As shown in FIG. 6, the UE 50 may initially be in communication with a first eNB (e.g., source eNB1 (e.g., eNB 52)) that is associated with a first PLMN (e.g., PLMN1). The UE 50 may already be configured by source eNB1 to provide measurement reports to source eNB 1.)
and receiving a measurement report corresponding to the measurement control information (Fig. 6 Step 100; eNB1 receives measurement report; [0081] an MDT log may already be available to provide measurement reports as indicated at operation 100.)
performing a preprocess for handover communication of a terminal to obtain handover request response information returned by a target base station, wherein performing a preprocess for handover communication of the terminal device comprises:
determining a preset switching point ([0076] “the measurement reporting configuration manager 82 may be configured to provide configuration information to the measurement reporting module 80 to define rules identifying the conditions under which the measurement reporting module 80 is permitted or directed to report MDT measurement logged data. In an example embodiment, the measurement reporting configuration manager 82 may be configured to receive a global cell identifier from a target cell via an X2 interface or an S1 interface from an eNB (e.g., target eNB 53). In response to determining that the UE 50 should be handed over from a source cell to a target cell, the measurement reporting configuration manager 82 may generate a handover command message (e.g., an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message) and may include a global cell identifier of the target cell along with mobility information and any other suitable information in the handover command message.”)
in response to that the terminal device reaches the preset switching point, sending a handover request to the target base station, so that the target base station executes an access control algorithm for the terminal device to determine whether to accept the handover request and returns the handover request response information to the serving base station when determining to accept the handover request (Fig. 6 Step 104 and 106 “[0082] Responsive to the handover decision, source eNB1 may provide a handover request to target eNB 1, at operation 104. At operation 106, the handover request may then be acknowledged by the target eNB1”).
However, Keskitalo do not explicitly teach that handover is based on the location of the UE. In an analogous art, Ma teaches handover is based on the location of the UE (“[0105] According to the foregoing step 203 to step 210, when the UE moves, the RAN 1 may select, for the UE based on the current location of the UE and the network access planning information, the RAN 2 to which the UE is to be handed over, and then, trigger the UE to select a cell (referred to as the first cell) from the cells that belong to the RAN 2 and that are in the network access planning information to access. In the foregoing process, the RAN 1 determines, based on the network access planning information, a RAN to which the UE needs to be handed over.”) Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Keskitalo's teaching of handover to include Ma's teaching of UE’s location-based because by anticipating movement, location-based handover prevents, or significantly reduces, frequent, unnecessary handovers between cells.
With further regard to claim 9, Keskitalo teaches a base station (Fig. 4), comprising: a processor (Fig. 4, 70’); and a memory (Fig. 4, 76’) for storing a computer program executable on the processor (Fig. 4, 70’), wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer program in the memory to implement the method according to claim 1.
Claim(s) 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keskitalo (US 2014/0295840) in view of Ma (US 20220022123) further in view of Thomas (US 20220240129 A1)
Regarding claim 3, Keskitalo and Ma method according to claim 1, further comprising: obtaining the measurement report, wherein the measurement report is generated by the terminal device measuring signals of the serving base station and the target base station based on the measurement control information and is reported when the measurement report meets a preset measurement reporting criterion (Keskitalo, Fig. 6 Step 100; eNB1 receives measurement report; [0081] an MDT log may already be available to provide measurement reports as indicated at operation 100.); and
delivering a handover command to the terminal device when the measurement report meets a preset handover decision algorithm (Fig. 6 Step 108, [0082] “At operation 108, a handover command message such as, for example, a RRC message including mobility information (e.g., RRCConnectionReconfiguration message) may then be provided to the UE 50 by the source eNB1”)
so that the terminal device synchronizes frequency with the target base station (Fig. 6 Step 110; “At operation 110, the UE 50 may then detach from the originating cell and synchronize to the target cel)
and reconfigures a radio resource control (RRC) connection in response to receiving the handover command (Fig. 6 Step 108, [0082] “At operation 108, a handover command message such as, for example, a RRC message including mobility information (e.g., RRCConnectionReconfiguration message) may then be provided to the UE 50 by the source eNB1”; The examiner notes that the preamble of the claim is directed toward a “base station”. However, this limitation “so that…command” is directed toward what is happening at a UE. Thus, this “so that…command” limitation is irrelevant to a base station claim. However, for compact prosecution purpose, the limitation is also addressed above.)
Keskitalo teaches synchronization which implicitly teach timing advance (Fig. 6 Step 110; UE synchronizes to the target cel). However, for compact prosecution purpose, Thomas is added to show the explicit teaching of timing advance.
In an analogous art, Thomas teaches an uplink resource and timing advance allocated by the target base station ([0145] “Step/Description 1: RRC connection re-establishment: Enabling synchronization and timing advance using the prediction information already at the UE”). Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Keskitalo's teaching of handover to include Thomas 's teaching of timing advance in order to necessarily provide the proper timing adjustment to compensate for the different propagation delay of the new base station.
Regarding claim 4, Keskitalo, Ma and Thomas method according to claim 3, further comprising: transferring sequence number (SN) state data to the target base station after delivering the handover command, so that the target base station sends a path handover request to a core network and sends a user context release instruction to the serving base station after obtaining a path handover request response (Thomas [0072] 8. “The source eNB sends the SN (Sequence Number) STATUS TRANSFER message to the target eNB to convey the uplink PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) SN receiver status. [0074] 10. “The target eNB sends a PATH SWITCH REQUEST message to MME to inform that the UE has changed cell.” [0075] 11. “The MME confirms the PATH SWITCH REQUEST message with the PATH SWITCH REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message”; and
in response to obtaining the user context release instruction, releasing resources corresponding to the terminal device (Thomas “By sending the UE CONTEXT RELEASE message, the target eNB informs success of HO to source eNB and triggers the release of resources by the source eNB. The target eNB sends this message after the PATH SWITCH REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message is received from the MME.”)
Citation of Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Hwang (US 20200077314) teaches receiving, from the candidate target cell, a message including configuration approval information for conditional handover, configuring a condition for the conditional handover in which the terminal needs to perform handover to the candidate target cell, and transmitting, to the terminal, a fourth message including information on the condition for the conditional handover related to the candidate target cell.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUNG L LAM whose telephone number is (571)272-6497. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday -Thursday 9-5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Anderson can be reached on 571-272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Dung Lam/
Examiner, Art Unit 2617
/MATTHEW D. ANDERSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2646