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 .
Response to Arguments
With regard to the previous 103 rejections, applicant’s amendment and applicant’s arguments filed on 3/13/26 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the previous 103 rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further search and consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly cited reference Yan et al (WO 2020164366).
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 –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3, 6-7,10, 12-14, 17, 19, 22-23, 26, 33 and 35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Yan et al (WO 2020164366) (hereinafter referred to as Yan).
Regarding claims 1 and 17, Yan teaches an access method, performed by User Equipment (UE) in a network (see network in figure 1), comprising:
receiving auxiliary information for the UE to access to a non-terrestrial network (NTN); wherein auxiliary information comprises change information of the coverage area of a target satellite (See figure 3, step 302; par [41, 43, 44, 83, 87] where Yan teaches that the UE receives satellite location and satellite orbit information); and
determining time information for accessing to a target satellite according to position information of the UE and the auxiliary information (See figure 3, steps 304 & 305; par [22, 23, 43, 44, 62, 83, 87, 126-131, 135]; Yan teaches that UE compares the satellite’s position info and UE’s location to determine if the satellite should be the target satellite and whether to perform the random-access procedure on the target satellite);
wherein the change information of the coverage area of a target satellite comprises a plurality of areas passed by the target satellite in sequence (in Yan’s system, the satellite orbit information represents the information of the coverage areas passed by the satellite); and wherein the auxiliary information further comprises corresponding relationship between the change information and an access time parameter (See coverage duration in par [135]) where the access time parameter indicates a time for the UE to access the target satellite in a cell (See coverage duration in par [135, 140] where UE uses coverage duration information to determine access).
Regarding claims 3 and 19, Yan further teaches the corresponding relationship information between the change information and the access time parameter indicates the corresponding relationship between the coverage area and access time (See the relationship between the satellite coverage and overage duration in par [135, 140]).
Regarding claims 6 and 22, when the preset time option is not chosen in claim 1 or 17, then the preset time is not required in claims 6 and 22.
Regarding claims 7 and 23, Yan further teaches that the area information comprises longitude and latitude (see par [79]).
Regarding claims 10 and 26, when the reference point position option is not chosen in claim 1 or claim 17, then the reference point position is not required in claims 10 and 26.
Regarding claim 12, Yan further teaches the procedure for the UE to access the target satellite when the UE is in the coverage area of the target satellite (par [125]). Yan also teaches the procedure for the UE at the boundary of the coverage area (See par [131-135]).
Regarding claim 13, Yan further teaches determining time information for accessing to a target satellite according to a terminal position and coverage area of the candidate satellite comprise determining that the UE is located in the coverage area of the satellite and determining the time for accessing the target satellite according to the time offset of access time among a plurality of coverage areas and access time of at least one area (See par [131-135, 140-147]).
Regarding claim 33, Yan teaches that the UE comprises a processor, a transceiver, a memory and executable programs stored in the memory and can be executed by the processor (see par [51-53, 58]) wherein the processor execute the programs, the processor is caused to
receive auxiliary information for the UE to access to a non-terrestrial network (NTN); wherein auxiliary information comprises change information of the coverage area of a target satellite (See figure 3, step 302; par [41, 43, 44, 83, 87] where Yan teaches that the UE receives satellite location and satellite orbit information); and
determine time information for accessing to a target satellite according to position information of the UE and the auxiliary information (See figure 3, steps 304 & 305; par [22, 23, 43, 44, 62, 83, 87, 126-131, 135]; Yan teaches that UE compares the satellite’s position info and UE’s location to determine if the satellite should be the target satellite and whether to perform the random-access procedure on the target satellite);
wherein the change information of the coverage area of a target satellite comprises a plurality of areas passed by the target satellite in sequence (in Yan’s system, the satellite orbit information represents the information of the coverage areas passed by the satellite); and wherein the auxiliary information further comprises corresponding relationship between the change information and an access time parameter (See coverage duration in par [135]) where the access time parameter indicates a time for the UE to access the target satellite in a cell (See coverage duration in par [135, 140] where UE uses coverage duration information to determine access).
Regarding claim 35, Yan further teaches a network, comprising a processor, a transceiver, a memory and executable programs stored in the memory (see par [51-53, 58]); and can be executed by the processor wherein the processor, when executing the executed programs, performs the method according to claim 17 (see the rejection of claim 17).
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.
Claims 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yan et al (WO 2020164366) (hereinafter referred to as Yan) in view of Fan et al (WO 2020125069 A1) (hereinafter referred to as Fan).
Regarding claim 14, Yan does not explicitly teach absolute time information for access target satellite, timer information and an adjustment parameter of the timing duration. However, Fan et al teaches that the terminal can determine when to switch according to the handover command (absolute time information), a timeout timer (an access timer) for accessing to the target satellite in the preset cell; and a timeout period (adjustment parameter of the timing duration of the access timer) for precise satellite switching (see description for Mode 1 where the terminal maintains a timeout timer and set the duration of the timer to the second duration corresponding to the target satellite BS and starts the timer. Thus, the timer duration is adjusted to the 2nd duration corresponding to the target satellite BS). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply Fan’s teachings of using a timeout timer and a timeout time to precisely determine target satellite access time in Yan’s system with the motivation being to improve efficiency in handover and UE’s accessibility to the satellites.
Regarding claim 15, Yan does not teach accessing the target satellite when the timer times out. However, using a timer to determine when to switch to a new satellite is known in the art as evidenced by Fan. Fan et al teaches starting the access timer according to the starting time information of the access timer included in the auxiliary information (handover command); and accessing into the target satellite in the preset cell when the access timer times out (perform the switch to the target satellite after the second duration timeout; see description for Mode 1). Fan’s teachings would provide a more precise satellite switching time. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply Fan’s teaching of starting the access timer according to the starting time information of the access timer included in the auxiliary information; and accessing into the target satellite in the preset cell when the access timer times out in Yan’s system with the motivation being to improve efficiency in handover and UE’s accessibility to the satellites.
Regarding claim 16, Yan does not teach in response to the auxiliary information not comprising the starting time information of the access timer, starting the access timer when the configuration information of the target satellite is received; wherein determining time information for accessing to a target satellite according to position information of the UE and the auxiliary information comprises: according to the duration of the access timer determined by the auxiliary information, when the access timer times out, determining that the UE is located in the preset cell. However, Fan teaches in response to the auxiliary information not comprising the starting time information of the access timer, starting the access timer when the configuration information of the target satellite is received; wherein determining time information for accessing to a target satellite according to position information of the UE and the auxiliary information comprises: according to the duration of the access timer determined by the auxiliary information, when the access timer times out, determining that the UE is located in the preset cell according to the position information of the UE, and accessing into the target satellite in the preset cell (see the description of Mode 2 where the terminal immediately switches to the target satellite BS when there is no 2nd duration). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply Fan’s teachings of starting the access timer when the configuration information of the target satellite is received; wherein determining time information for accessing to a target satellite according to position information of the UE and the auxiliary information comprises: according to the duration of the access timer determined by the auxiliary information, when the access timer times out, determining that the UE is located in the preset cell in Yan’s system with the motivation being to improve efficiency in handover and UE’s accessibility to the satellites.
Conclusion
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HUY D. VU
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2461
/HUY D VU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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