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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
Claim(s) 21-40 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Okita (US Pub No. 2011/0171947).
Claim 21, Okita discloses a method comprising: detecting that a software package has become available to be applied within an open radio access network (figure 6, step 7-1, selecting base stations in which software will be upgraded); detecting, through autonomous monitoring (paragraph 0063, performed by the network management device and not manually) of the open radio access network, that utilization at a set of telecommunications sites is sufficiently low to trigger graceful shutdown and upgrade procedures, (paragraph 0064: the base station can check if the base stations have no calls. After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11); shutting down gracefully the set of telecommunications sites by handing over at least one call to another telecommunications site servicing a common area (paragraph 0064: calls connected to the base stations are handed over to the neighbor base station sequentially); and upgrading autonomously the set of telecommunications sites by applying the software package to the open radio access network after shutting down gracefully the set of telecommunications sites (paragraph 0064: After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11). Thus, the base stations are restarted (step 7-12). The base stations belonging to the base station group 1 (800-1) gradually increase transmission power of the base stations (step 7-13) and acknowledge the completion of the software upgrading to the network management device 250; and paragraph 0062: the base station in which the software will be upgraded is repeatedly selected in accordance with a predetermined rule).
Claim 22, 32, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, further comprising restoring the set of telecommunications sites to active functionality in a manner that avoids dropping at least one telephone call (par [0096] “in the base station 110', upon the upgrading of communication services provided in the wireless communication network 10', the CPU 111-4 of the apparatus management portion 121 upgrades software (such as a control program) stored in the memories 112-1 to 112-4 of the apparatus management portion”).
Claim 23, 33, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, further comprising executing a sorting algorithm to sort the set of telecommunications sites from a larger set of telecommunications sites due to members of the set of telecommunications sites having at least one common characteristic (par [0096] “upon the upgrading of communication services provided in the wireless communication network 10', the CPU 111-4 of the apparatus management portion 121 upgrades software”).
Claim 24, 34, Okita further discloses the method of claim 23, wherein the at least one common characteristic comprises a common time window during which members of the set of telecommunications sites indicate a level of utilization below a threshold level (paragraph 0064: the base station can check if the base stations have no calls. After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11)).
Claim 25, 35, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, wherein gracefully shutting down the set of telecommunications sites comprises toggling a graceful shutdown flag that triggers a handover procedure for handing over telephone calls to another distributed unit. (paragraph 0064: After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11). Thus, the base stations are restarted (step 7-12). The base stations belonging to the base station group 1 (800-1)).
Claim 26, 36, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, wherein detecting, through autonomous monitoring of the open radio access network, that utilization at the set of telecommunications sites is sufficiently low to trigger graceful shutdown and upgrade procedures further comprises detecting that the set of telecommunications sites is not handling an emergency call (par [0049, 0064]).
Claim 27, 37, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, wherein gracefully shutting down the set of telecommunications sites comprises preventing the set of telecommunications sites from accepting inbound telephone calls (par [0065]).
Claim 28, 38, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, wherein detecting that utilization at the set of telecommunications sites is sufficiently low to trigger graceful shutdown and upgrade procedures is based on an analysis of telemetry data (par [0064]).
Claim 29, 39, Okita further discloses the method of claim 28, wherein the telemetry data is continuously streamed from the open radio access network to a centralized data platform (par [0063]).
Claim 30, Okita further discloses the method of claim 21, wherein a radio access network intelligent controller upgrades autonomously the set of telecommunications sites by applying the software package to the open radio access network after shutting down gracefully the set of telecommunications sites (par [0064]).
Claim 31, Okita discloses a system comprising: a physical computing processor (See Fig. 2; item 117 communication processor”); and a non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding instructions that, when executed by the physical computing processor, cause a computing device to perform operations comprising: detecting that a software package has become available to be applied within an open radio access network (figure 6, step 7-1, selecting base stations in which software will be upgraded); detecting, through autonomous monitoring (paragraph 0063, performed by the network management device and not manually) of the open radio access network); detecting, through autonomous monitoring of the open radio access network, that utilization at a set of telecommunications sites is sufficiently low to trigger graceful shutdown and upgrade procedures(paragraph 0064: the base station can check if the base stations have no calls. After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11); shutting down gracefully the set of telecommunications sites by handing over at least one call to another telecommunications site servicing a common area (paragraph 0064: After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11). Thus, the base stations are restarted (step 7-12). The base stations belonging to the base station group 1 (800-1) gradually increase transmission power of the base stations (step 7-13) and acknowledge the completion of the software upgrading to the network management device 250; and paragraph 0062: the base station in which the software will be upgraded is repeatedly selected in accordance with a predetermined rule); and upgrading autonomously the set of telecommunications sites by applying the software package to the open radio access network after shutting down gracefully the set of telecommunications sites (paragraph 0064: the base station can check if the base stations have no calls. After determining no calls, the base stations are reset (step 7-10) and the base stations load new software (step 7-11)).
Claim 40, the claim is rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 21.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
BOGINENI et al. (US Pub No. 2020/0196155) discloses UTILIZING MACHINE LEARNING TO PROVIDE CLOSED-LOOP NETWORK MANAGEMENT OF A FIFTH GENERATION (5G) NETWORK
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/PHUOC H DOAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646