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 Amendment
Amendments filed on 04/20/2026 are entered. The previously presented claim objections of claims 2, 5, 7, 9, 14, 17 and 19 are withdrawn in response to the amendments. The amendments change the scopes of the previously presented claims and the current Office Action is made FINAL as necessitated by the claim amendments.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/20/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to the previously presented claim rejections in view of the currently amended claims, the Applicant argues that previously cited reference, Ling (US 2024/0040339) does not disclose that the target base station determines whether the UE is located within an MBS service area and then conditionally controls the allocation of MBS session resources based on that determination. The Applicant contends that Ling appears to relate to service availability or session participation based on location, rather than a handover-stage radio resource admission control procedure. (see page 8 of the response). However, Ling describes a procedure to determine whether to allow the terminal to be added to an MB session based on whether the terminal is located withing the local service area of the MB session (abstract, Fig. 4, etc.). Ling further describes such procedure may also be performed in a handover scenario (Fig. 4, paragraph [0085]) and claim 8 of Ling recites “during a handover from a source RAN node to a target RAN node, sending to the target RAN node a request for setting up MB session resource, the request for setting up MB session resource including location-related criteria for the local service area; and receiving from the target RAN node a message that the terminal device is out of the local service area or the terminal device shall be removed from the MB session”, thereby showing that the determination being made by the target RAN node on whether the terminal shall be included in the MB session. And as shown in the previous Office Action, the primary reference, Fujishiro, shows the initiating of shared delivery setup for the MBS session and configuring user plane resource for the MBS session when the handover request with the specified MBS session is accepted. Therefore, the combination of Fujishiro and Ling disclose the currently presented claim features of the amended claims. The currently amended claims are therefore rejected based on the combination of Fujishiro and Ling.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5-9, 12-14and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujishiro (US 2023/0254668) in view of Ling (US 2024/0040339).
Fujishiro discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 1, a method of a target base station (see gNB 200B in Fig. 10) for controlling a MBS session resource, the method comprising:
receiving a handover request from a source base station (see step S105 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB 200A sends a handover request to gNB 200B);
controlling to initiate shared delivery setup for the MBS session and configuring a user plane resource for the MBS session in an event that shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured (see step S106 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB determines whether to accept the handover request with the specified MBS session in step S105; see shared MBS data delivery shown in Fig. 7 and paragraphs [0062]-[0064]; wherein in the configuration shown in Fig. 10, wherein MBS sessions are communicated via the gNB, shared MBS data delivery as shown in Fig. 7 is to be performed, and therefore the MBS connection establishment in step S108 must include a procedure to configure the shared delivery for the MBS session in an event that the shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured, wherein the resource for the shared MBS traffic delivery must be configured in order to deliver the MBS traffic);
upon making determination to configure the user plane resource, transmitting, to a core network entity, a setup request message for allocating the user plane resource for the MBS session (see S106-S107 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB 200B determines whether to accept the handover request and sends an establishment request to the AMF 300B upon determines to accept the handover).
Regarding claim 2, wherein the handover request message (see “handover request message” recited in paragraph [0082]) include at least one of an MBS session ID for an active MBS session (see “second identifier is MBS session information” recited in paragraph [0082]), information for local MBS session resource setup, information for the PDU session resource setup associated with the local MBS session (see “first identifier is UPF information” recited in paragraph [0082]), MBS service area information, and MBS area session ID information.
Regarding claim 5, wherein the setup request message for allocating the user plane resource for the MBS session (see S107 in Fig. 10, wherein the gNB 200B transmits an establishment request to the AMF 300B, wherein “Here, the gNB 200B transmits, to the AMF 300B, at least one of the first identifier (UPF information) or the second identifier (MBS session information) included in the handover request message from the gNB 200A” as recited in paragraph [0088]).
Regarding claim 6, after transmitting the setup request message, receiving a response message for identifying the user plane resource setup for the MBS session from the core network entity (see Fig. 10, following step S107, “The AMF 300B may notify the gNB 200B of the specified content” recited in paragraph [0090]. Although Fujishiro does not specify what is included in the specified content; Fujishiro does disclose the prior paragraph [0089], which recites “When the AMF 300B knows a correspondence relationship between the MBS session and the UPF 300A, the AMF 300B may specify the UPF 300A with which the gNB 200B is to establish the MBS connection, based on the second identifier”; therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the specified content is directed to the UPF establishing the MBS connection in step S108 in Fig. 10 in order to prepare the gNB 200B for the MBS connection establishment procedure in step S108 of Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 7, wherein the response message for identifying the user plane resource setup for the MBS session includes at least one of an MBS session ID, an MBS area session ID and shared user plane transmission TNL information (see Fig. 10, following step S107, “The AMF 300B may notify the gNB 200B of the specified content” recited in paragraph [0090]. Although Fujishiro does not specify what is included in the specified content; Fujishiro does disclose the prior paragraph [0089], which recites “When the AMF 300B knows a correspondence relationship between the MBS session and the UPF 300A, the AMF 300B may specify the UPF 300A with which the gNB 200B is to establish the MBS connection, based on the second identifier”, wherein “the second identifier” is an identifier for “MBS session information” as shown in paragraph [0088], such that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the specified content transmitted by the AMF include the second identifier in order to identify the MBS session to be established in step S108 of Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 8, a method of a source base station (see gNB 200A in Fig. 10) for controlling a MBS session resource, the method comprising:
transmitting a handover request for a UE to a target base station upon making determination to handover the UE (see step S105 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB 200A sends a handover request to gNB 200B for UE 100 upon determination of handover in step S104);
receiving radio resource configuration for an MBS session determined by the target base station based on the handover request message (see handover response including radio configuration in step S109 in Fig. 10); and
transmitting the radio resource configuration for the MBS session to the UE (see handover (RRC Reconfiguration) instruction transmitted to the UE in step S110 of Fig. 10 and paragraph [0097]);
controlling to initiate shared delivery setup for the MBS session and configuring a user plane resource for the MBS session in an event that shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured (see step S106 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB determines whether to accept the handover request with the specified MBS session in step S105; see shared MBS data delivery shown in Fig. 7 and paragraphs [0062]-[0064]; wherein in the configuration shown in Fig. 10, wherein MBS sessions are communicated via the gNB, shared MBS data delivery as shown in Fig. 7 is to be performed, and therefore the MBS connection establishment in step S108 must include a procedure to configure the shared delivery for the MBS session in an event that the shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured, wherein the resource for the shared MBS traffic delivery must be configured in order to deliver the MBS traffic).
Regarding claim 9, wherein the handover request message (see “handover request message” recited in paragraph [0082]) include at least one of an MBS session ID for an active MBS session (see “second identifier is MBS session information” recited in paragraph [0082]), information for local MBS session resource setup, information for the PDU session resource setup associated with the local MBS session (see “first identifier is UPF information” recited in paragraph [0082]), MBS service area information, and MBS area session ID information.
Regarding claim 12, wherein the radio resource configuration for the MBS session includes at least one of radio resource configuration configured for an active state MBS session and radio resource configuration information to be released for an inactive state MBS session (see “The handover instruction message may include at least part of the information described above included in the handover response message (e.g., the information of the MBS session permitted to be accepted by the gNB 200B, the information of the MBS session rejected to be accepted by the gNB 200B, and the radio configuration)” recited in paragraph [0097]; wherein the accepted MBS session are considered to be active state and the rejected MBS sessions are considered to be the claimed sessions released for an inactive state).
Regarding claim 13, a target base station (see gNB 200B in Fig. 10) for controlling a MBS session resource, the comprising:
a receiver (see receiver 220 in Fig. 3) to receive a handover request from a source base station (see step S105 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB 200A sends a handover request to gNB 200B);
a controller (see controller 230 in Fig. 3) configured to control initiating shared delivery setup for the MBS session and configuring a user plane resource for the MBS session in an event that shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured (see step S106 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB determines whether to accept the handover request with the specified MBS session in step S105; see shared MBS data delivery shown in Fig. 7 and paragraphs [0062]-[0064]; wherein in the configuration shown in Fig. 10, wherein MBS sessions are communicated via the gNB, shared MBS data delivery as shown in Fig. 7 is to be performed, and therefore the MBS connection establishment in step S108 must include a procedure to configure the shared delivery for the MBS session in an event that the shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured, wherein the resource for the shared MBS traffic delivery must be configured in order to deliver the MBS traffic);and
a transmitter (see transmitter 210 in Fig. 3) configured to, when determining to configure the user plane resource, transmit, to a core network entity, a setup request message for allocating the user plane resource for the MBS session (see S106-S107 in Fig. 10, wherein gNB 200B determines whether to accept the handover request and sends an establishment request to the AMF 300B upon determines to accept the handover).
Regarding claim 14, wherein the handover request message (see “handover request message” recited in paragraph [0082]) include at least one of an MBS session ID for an active MBS session (see “second identifier is MBS session information” recited in paragraph [0082]), information for local MBS session resource setup, information for the PDU session resource setup associated with the local MBS session (see “first identifier is UPF information” recited in paragraph [0082]), MBS service area information, and MBS area session ID information.
Regarding claim 17, wherein the setup request message for allocating the user plane resource for the MBS session (see S107 in Fig. 10, wherein the gNB 200B transmits an establishment request to the AMF 300B, wherein “Here, the gNB 200B transmits, to the AMF 300B, at least one of the first identifier (UPF information) or the second identifier (MBS session information) included in the handover request message from the gNB 200A” as recited in paragraph [0088]).
Regarding claim 18, after transmitting the setup request message, receiving a response message for identifying the user plane resource setup for the MBS session from the core network entity (see Fig. 10, following step S107, “The AMF 300B may notify the gNB 200B of the specified content” recited in paragraph [0090]. Although Fujishiro does not specify what is included in the specified content; Fujishiro does disclose the prior paragraph [0089], which recites “When the AMF 300B knows a correspondence relationship between the MBS session and the UPF 300A, the AMF 300B may specify the UPF 300A with which the gNB 200B is to establish the MBS connection, based on the second identifier”; therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the specified content is directed to the UPF establishing the MBS connection in step S108 in Fig. 10 in order to prepare the gNB 200B for the MBS connection establishment procedure in step S108 of Fig. 10).
Regarding claim19, wherein the response message for identifying the user plane resource setup for the MBS session includes at least one of an MBS session ID, an MBS area session ID and shared user plane transmission TNL information (see Fig. 10, following step S107, “The AMF 300B may notify the gNB 200B of the specified content” recited in paragraph [0090]. Although Fujishiro does not specify what is included in the specified content; Fujishiro does disclose the prior paragraph [0089], which recites “When the AMF 300B knows a correspondence relationship between the MBS session and the UPF 300A, the AMF 300B may specify the UPF 300A with which the gNB 200B is to establish the MBS connection, based on the second identifier”, wherein “the second identifier” is an identifier for “MBS session information” as shown in paragraph [0088], such that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the specified content transmitted by the AMF include the second identifier in order to identify the MBS session to be established in step S108 of Fig. 10).
Fujishiro does not disclose the following features: regarding claims 1, 8 and 13, determine, based on the handover request message, whether the UE is located within an MBS service area associated with the MBS session; in response to determining that the UE is located within the MBS service area and that shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured, initiating shared delivery setup for the MBS session and configuring a user plane resource for the MBS session; in response to determining that the UE is not located within the MBS service area, controlling not to allocate a radio network resource for the MBS session (Fujishiro shows the initiating of shared delivery but does not show the initiation being based on the determination of whether the UE is located within the MBS service area.
Ling discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 13, determine, based on the handover request message, whether the UE is located within an MBS service area associated with the MBS session; in response to determining that the UE is located within the MBS service area and that shared delivery for the MBS session is not configured, initiating shared delivery setup for the MBS session and configuring a user plane resource for the MBS session; in response to determining that the UE is not located within the MBS service area, controlling not to allocate a radio network resource for the MBS session (see “providing Multicast Broadcast (MB) service in a local service area… determining whether a terminal device joining a MB session associated with the local service area is out of the local service area” recited in the abstract, wherein the MB service is provided to the UE based on whether the UE is in the local service area of the MB service; see Fig. 4, paragraph [0085], and claim 8 of Ling recites “during a handover from a source RAN node to a target RAN node, sending to the target RAN node a request for setting up MB session resource, the request for setting up MB session resource including location-related criteria for the local service area; and receiving from the target RAN node a message that the terminal device is out of the local service area or the terminal device shall be removed from the MB session” thereby showing that the determination being made by the target RAN node on whether the terminal shall be included in the MB session).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Fujishiro using features, as taught by Ling, in order to provide location based service and allow an optimal usage of network resources and better user experience (see paragraph [0006] of Ling).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUTAI KAO whose telephone number is (571)272-9719. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang Yao can be reached at (571)272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JUTAI KAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
Prosecution Insights