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 .
The present application claims priority to, inter alia, Korean Pat. App. No. 10-2020-0181358 filed December 22, 2020.
Status
Claims 1, 2, 10, and 11 have been amended.
Claim 16 was added.
Claims 1-16 are currently pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 3, 2026 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 16 objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 16 recites “The UE of claim 15, wherein the acceptable cell is selected when the UE fails to discover the suitable cell in the RRC inactive state or the RRC inactive state “. The alternative RRC state is identical. “RRC inactive state or the RRC inactive state” appears to be a typo since the RRC inactive state is redundant to the RRC inactive state.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
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 nonobviousness.
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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220022078 to Hongsuk Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim) in view of 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #110 electronic, Elbonia, Draft R2-2005755, June 1-12, 2020 (hereinafter R2-2005755) further in view of US Pat. Pub. 20140051428 to Sung Hoon Jung et al. (hereinafter Jung).
Regarding claim 1, Kim teaches An event-based logging method by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, (Kim, Fig. 10 illustrates a wireless communication system) the event-based logging method comprising:
identifying that the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) idle state (RRC_IDLE) or RRC inactive state (RRC_INACTIVE) and fails to discover a suitable cell and an acceptable cell; (Kim para. [0161] teaches that the UE is in an inactive state when a triggering event occurs such as: “a first triggering event that the wireless device transits from an any cell selection state to a camped on any cell state; a second triggering event that a first validity timer (e.g., T380 timer) expires while the wireless device is in the any cell selection state; a third triggering event that a radio access network (RAN) area update is trigged by an upper layer (e.g., NAS entity of wireless device) while the wireless device is in the any cell selection state; or a fourth triggering event that a second validity timer (e.g., T319 timer) expires.”)
identifying that a report type configured for logged measurement reporting is set to event-triggered. (Kim teaches in Fig. 11 steps 1103 and 1105 that a wireless device may log a transition cause “events that trigger the state transition” and transmit the logged measurement report comprising the transition cause to the network”)
identifying that a registered public land mobile network (RPLMN) when the UE fails to discover the suitable cell and the acceptable cell is included in a PLMN ID list; (Kim paras. [0041]-[0054] teach that a suitable cell is one that is in a PLMN list and other criteria).
logging a serving cell ID indicating a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped; (Kim teaches in Fig. 11 and paras. [0151]-[0156] that the UE logs data related to a transition to RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_IDLE. The logged measurement report with measurement values may including a cell identifier (ID) of a serving cell, a cell quality of the serving cell, a cell ID of at least one neighbor cell, a cell quality of the at least one neighbor cell etc. which includes a “suitable cell” recently camped).
and
logging a measurement result of the suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped. (Kim teaches in Fig. 12 step 1201 and para. [0165]- [0167] that the measurement report includes whether “the UE is/has been in camped on any cell state after the UE entered any cell selection state” :
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Although Kim teaches logging a serving cell ID indicating a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped, Kim does NOT teach logging a serving cell ID indicating a global cell ID of a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, R2-2005755 teaches logging a serving cell ID indicating a global cell ID of a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped. (R2-2005755 teaches in section 5.5a.3.2 Initiation, page 145, that the measurement logging includes “if the UE is in any cell selection state (as specified in TS 38.304 [20]):...set the servCellIdentity to indicate global cell identity of the last logged cell that the UE was camping on;” for measurements during RRC_INACTIVE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the present invention to combine Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Kim also does NOT teach “based on the report type being set to event-triggered (eventTriggered), and the RPLMN being included in the PLMN ID list”
In the same field of endeavour, Jung teaches “based on the report type being set to event-triggered (eventTriggered), and the RPLMN being included in the PLMN ID list”. (Jung teaches in para. [0024] logging based on a PLMN scope, wherein a UE can report logging and measurement for a permitted specific PLMN as well as for a registered PLMN (RPLMN). Further, Jung teaches in para. [0147] that a report condition may include information about an event “in which a report on a measurement result is triggered.” Further, Jung provides in TABLE 1, “events triggered by a measurement report”. Therefore, Jung teaches RPLMN included in the PLMN ID list and logging based on a report type being set to “eventTriggered” as claimed. Examiner notes that Jung further teaches that stored log entries in para. [0192]-[0193] including Global Cell Identity (GCI) which is a set of Physical Cell Identity (PCI) and a PLMN identity (see Fig. 17)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the present invention to combine Kim with Jung to teach a report type being set to event-triggered (eventTriggered), and the RPLMN being included in the PLMN ID list. Each of Kim and Jung are in the field of wireless communications and logging of measurements. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim and Jung in order to provide a radio link failure report that can guarantee continuity in a multiple PLMN environment as taught in Jung para. [0008].
Regarding claim 2, Kim in view of R2-2005755 teaches The event-based logging method of claim 1 wherein in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state, the report type (reportType) is included in a measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig) for the UE. (Kim Fig. 11 and paras. [0150] -[0154] teach that In step S1105 , the wireless device may transmit a logged measurements including the transition cause to the network “UE in RRC_INACTIVE may encounter several events that may lead to the change of RRC state. Logging of such RRC state change from RRC_INACTIVE or logging of the event in RRC_INACTIVE may be beneficial for a network to optimize the network performance based on the received logged measurement report.”)
Regarding claim 3, Kim does NOT teach The event-based logging method of claim 2, wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is not included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig).
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless standards, R2-2005755 teaches The event-based logging method of claim 2, wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is not included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig). (R2-2005755 teaches on page 143 that areaConfiguration is not included when the UE is out of coverage as follows:
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill prior to the effective date of the present invention to have combined Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications and measurement logging. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Regarding claim 4, Kim does NOT teach The event-based logging method of The event-based logging method of wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig), and wherein the suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped is a portion of an area indicated by information in the area configuration (areaConfiguration).
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless standards, R2-2005755 teaches The event-based logging method of The event-based logging method of wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig), and wherein the suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped is a portion of an area indicated by information in the area configuration (areaConfiguration). (R2-2005755 teaches “areaConfiguration” on page 143, as shown above:
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill prior to the effective date of the present invention to have combined Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications and measurement logging. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Regarding claim 5, Kim does NOT teach The event-based logging method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, from a base station, configuration information about measurement logging (LoggedMeasurementConfiguration) performed by the UE in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communication standards, R2-2005755 teaches receiving, from a base station, configuration information about measurement logging (LoggedMeasurementConfiguration) performed by the UE in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state. (R2-2005755 teaches on page 204 that RRC messages send from the network include LoggedMeasurementConfiguration as shown, which is a message sent during RRC reconfiguration, which Examiner interprets as during either idle or inactive states as described on page 214).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill prior to the effective date of the present invention to have combined Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications and measurement logging. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Regarding claim 6, Kim teaches The event-based logging method of claim 1, wherein the suitable cell is a cell on which the UE may camp. (Kim teaches on para. [0051] ““Suitable cell” refers to a cell on which a UE may camp”).
Regarding claim 7, Kim teaches The event-based logging method of claim 6, wherein the suitable cell is a cell belonging to the RPLMN. (Kim teaches in para. [0051]-[0052] “a cell may be considered as suitable if the following conditions are fulfilled: The cell is part of either the selected PLMN or the registered PLMN or PLMN of the equivalent PLMN list”).
Regarding claim 8, Kim teaches The event-based logging method of claim 6, wherein the acceptable cell is a cell that provides a limited service to the UE. (Kim para. [0049] teaches “UE shall perform cell selection/reselection to an acceptable cell that supports emergency calls in any supported RAT regardless of priorities provided in system information from current cell, if no suitable cell is found.” Examiner interprets emergency calls as a “limited service” to a UE).
Regarding claim 9, Kim teaches The event-based logging method of claim 8, wherein the acceptable cell is selected when the UE fails to discover the suitable cell in the RRC inactive state or the RRC inactive state. (Kim para. [0049] quoted above with respect to claim 8 teaches “if no suitable cell is found” an acceptable cell is selected.)
Regarding claim 10, Kim in view of R2-2005755 and further in view of Jung teaches A user equipment (UE) performing event-based logging in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising:
a transceiver; (Kim Fig. 2, transceiver 213 and 223 and para. [0080]-[0081])
and a processor (Kim Fig. 2 processor 211 and 221 and para. [0080]-[0081]) configured to: identify that the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) idle state (RRCIDLE) or RRC inactive state (RRC_INACTIVE) and fails to discover a suitable cell and an acceptable cell,
identify that the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) idle state (RRC_IDLE) or RRC inactive state (RRC_INACTIVE) and fails to discover a suitable cell and an acceptable cell; (Kim para. [0161] teaches that the UE is in an inactive state when a triggering event occurs such as: “a first triggering event that the wireless device transits from an any cell selection state to a camped on any cell state; a second triggering event that a first validity timer (e.g., T380 timer) expires while the wireless device is in the any cell selection state; a third triggering event that a radio access network (RAN) area update is trigged by an upper layer (e.g., NAS entity of wireless device) while the wireless device is in the any cell selection state; or a fourth triggering event that a second validity timer (e.g., T319 timer) expires.”)
identify that a report type configured for logged measurement reporting is set to event-triggered. (Kim teaches in Fig. 11 steps 1103 and 1105 that a wireless device may log a transition cause “events that trigger the state transition” and transmit the logged measurement report comprising the transition cause to the network”)
identify that a registered public land mobile network (RPLMN) when the UE fails to discover the suitable cell and the acceptable cell is included in a PLMN identity (ID) list; (Kim paras. [0041]-[0054] teach that a suitable cell is one that is in a PLMN list and other criteria).
and
log a serving cell ID indicating a [[a global cell ID]] of a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped; (Kim teaches in Fig. 11 and paras. [0151]-[0156] that the UE logs data related to a transition to RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_IDLE. The logged measurement report with measurement values may including a cell identifier (ID) of a serving cell, a cell quality of the serving cell, a cell ID of at least one neighbor cell, a cell quality of the at least one neighbor cell etc. which includes a “suitable cell” recently camped).
and
log a measurement result of the suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped. (Kim teaches in Fig. 12 step 1201 and para. [0165]- [0167] that the measurement report includes whether “the UE is/has been in camped on any cell state after the UE entered any cell selection state” :
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Although Kim teaches log a serving cell ID indicating a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped, Kim does NOT teach log a serving cell ID indicating a global cell ID of a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communications, R2-2005755 teaches logging a serving cell ID indicating a global cell ID of a suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped. (R2-2005755 teaches in section 5.5a.3.2 Initiation, page 145, that the measurement logging includes “if the UE is in any cell selection state (as specified in TS 38.304 [20]):...set the servCellIdentity to indicate global cell identity of the last logged cell that the UE was camping on;” for measurements during RRC_INACTIVE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the present invention to combine Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Kim also does NOT teach that the logging is “based on the report type being set to event-triggered (eventTriggered), and the RPLMN being included in the PLMN ID list”
In the same field of endeavour, Jung teaches logging “based on the report type being set to event-triggered (eventTriggered), and the RPLMN being included in the PLMN ID list”. (Jung teaches in para. [0024] logging based on a PLMN scope, wherein a UE can report logging and measurement for a permitted specific PLMN as well as for a registered PLMN (RPLMN). Further, Jung teaches in para. [0147] that a report condition may include information about an event “in which a report on a measurement result is triggered.” Further, Jung provides in TABLE 1, “events triggered by a measurement report”. Therefore, Jung teaches RPLMN included in the PLMN ID list and logging based on a report type being set to “eventTriggered” as claimed. Examiner notes that Jung further teaches that stored log entries in para. [0192]-[0193] including Global Cell Identity (GCI) which is a set of Physical Cell Identity (PCI) and a PLMN identity (see Fig. 17)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the present invention to combine Kim with Jung to teach a report type being set to event-triggered (eventTriggered), and the RPLMN being included in the PLMN ID list. Each of Kim and Jung are in the field of wireless communications and logging of measurements. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim and Jung in order to provide a radio link failure report that can guarantee continuity in a multiple PLMN environment as taught in Jung para. [0008].
Regarding claim 11, Kim in view of R2-2005755 teaches The UE of claim 11 wherein in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state, a report type (reportType) is included in a measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig) for the UE. (Kim Fig. 11 and paras. [0150] -[0154] teach that In step S1105 , the wireless device may transmit a logged measurements including the transition cause to the network “UE in RRC_INACTIVE may encounter several events that may lead to the change of RRC state. Logging of such RRC state change from RRC_INACTIVE or logging of the event in RRC_INACTIVE may be beneficial for a network to optimize the network performance based on the received logged measurement report.”)
Regarding claim 12 Kim does NOT teach The UE of claim 11, wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is not included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig).
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless standards, R2-2005755 teaches The event-based logging method of claim 2, wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is not included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig). (R2-2005755 teaches on page 143 that areaConfiguration is not included when the UE is out of coverage as follows:
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill prior to the effective date of the present invention to have combined Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications and measurement logging. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Regarding claim 13, Kim does NOT teach The UE of claim 11 wherein an area configuration (areaConfiguration) is included in the measurement logging configuration (VarLogMeasConfig), and wherein the suitable cell on which the UE most recently camped is a portion of an area indicated by information in the area configuration (areaConfiguration).
(R2-2005755 teaches “areaConfiguration” on page 143, as shown above:
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill prior to the effective date of the present invention to have combined Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications and measurement logging. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Regarding claim 14, Kim does NOT teach The UE of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to control to receive, from a base station, configuration information about measurement logging (LoggedMeasurementConfiguration) performed by the UE in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state.
In the analogous art of 3GPP 5G wireless communication standards, R2-2005755 teaches receiving, from a base station, configuration information about measurement logging (LoggedMeasurementConfiguration) performed by the UE in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state. (R2-2005755 teaches on page 204 that RRC messages send from the network include LoggedMeasurementConfiguration as shown, which is a message sent during RRC reconfiguration, which Examiner interprets as during either idle or inactive states as described on page 214).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill prior to the effective date of the present invention to have combined Kim with R2-2005755. Each of Kim and R2-2005755 are in the field of wireless communications and measurement logging. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Kim with R2-2005755 in order to comply with 3GPP 38.331 RRC and NR Mobility are performed in accordance with the performance requirements as specified in TS 38.133 as taught on page 145 of R2-2005755.
Regarding claim 15, Kim teaches The UE of claim 10 wherein the suitable cell is a cell which belongs to the RPLMN and on which the UE may camp, and wherein the acceptable cell is a cell that provides a limited service to the UE. (Kim teaches in para. [0049]-[0052] teaches that the “UE shall perform cell selection/reselection to an acceptable cell that supports emergency calls in any supported RAT regardless of priorities provided in system information from current cell, if no suitable cell is found.” Examiner interprets emergency calls as a “limited service” to a UE. Kim further teaches “a cell may be considered as suitable if the following conditions are fulfilled: The cell is part of either the selected PLMN or the registered PLMN or PLMN of the equivalent PLMN list”).
Regarding claim 16, Kim teaches wherein the acceptable cell is selected when the UE fails to discover the suitable cell in the RRC inactive state or the RRC inactive state. (Examiner interprets the “RRC inactive state or the RRC inactive state” as “RRC inactive state” due to the redundancy. Kim para. [0041] teaches that if a cell selection process fails to find a suitable cell , the UE shall find an “acceptable cell” and that any cell selection state may be applicable for RRC IDLE and RRC INACTIVE state.)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure includes US Pat. Pub. US 20210029569 to Sangwon Kim.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action
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/MMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2412
/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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