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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ALI-TOLPPA
et al. (WO 2020/168457 A1) in view of Basu Mallick et al. (US 2023/0209453 A1)– Provisional
application No. 63/028510, filed on May 21, 2020).
Regarding claim 1, ALI-TOLPPA et al. teach a method, comprising: adjusting, by a
network entity, at least one parameter associated with mapping at least one network slice
coverage area into a minimum set of access network elements (see page 4, lines 9 -13: "
determine that at least one state of a network slice is to be adjusted in a limited geographical area
of at least one network resource; and adjust the at least one state of the network slice in the
limited geographical area of the at least one network resource). ALI-TOLPPA et al. are silent to teach wherein the at least one parameter associated with at least one network slice comprises at
least one recommended slice coverage optimization configuration and load distribution
action during slice instantiation and runtime comprising at least one of: handover parameter configuration option; cell reselection configuration option; or beam configuration option. Basu Mallick et al. teach the at least one parameter associated with at least one network slice comprises at least one recommended slice coverage optimization configuration and load distribution action during slice instantiation and runtime comprising at least one of: handover parameter configuration option; cell reselection configuration option; or beam configuration option (see par. 0099: the network may provide with the UE 205 distinct and specific reselection parameters in order to aid the UE 205 to move over to coverage of the second frequency layer 320 sooner than it normally would if the assistance containing reselection parameters of the second frequency layer (F2) was not provided for the desired slice. This ensures minimal battery consumption and extends the potential duration during which the UE 205 may benefit from service on the second frequency layer). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective the filling date of claimed invention (AIA ) to modify the at least one parameter associated with at least one network slice comprises at
least one recommended slice coverage optimization configuration and load distribution
action during slice instantiation and runtime comprising at least one of: handover parameter configuration option; cell reselection configuration option of Basu Mallick et al. to the method of ALI-TOLPPA et al. in order to ensure minimal battery consumption and extends the potential duration during which the UE 205 may benefit from service on the second frequency layer.
Regarding claim 2, ALI-TOLPPA et al. also teach wherein the at least one parameter
associated with at least one network slice comprises at least one of: antenna tilt configuration
option; compute resource configuration option; or command configured to enable slice support
associated with at least one determined cell (see page 4, lines 9-13: "determine that at least one
state of a network slice is to be adjusted in a limited geographical area of at least one network
resource; and adjust the at least one state of the network slice in the limited geographical area of
the at least one network resource).
Regarding claim 3, ALI-TOLPPA et al. also teach wherein the access network elements
comprise at least one of: base station; evolved nodeB (eNB); next generation nodeB (gNB);
centralized unit; distributed unit; cell; centralized unit control plane; or centralized unit user
plane (see page 4: The at least one network resource may comprise a core network resource. The
at least one network resource may comprise a radio access network resource. The at least one
network resource may comprise a tracking area. The at least one network resource may comprise
a cell).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID Q NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7844. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM.
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/DAVID Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643