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
Applicant’s arguments filed on Feb. 27, 2026 with respect to claims 1 – 5 and 12 - 26 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1, 2, 12 – 15, 19, 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Tsuda US PGPub: US 2020/0245208 A1 Jul. 30, 2020 and in view of
Mo US PGPub: US 2007/0156804 A1 Jul. 5, 2007.
Regarding claims 1, 14, Tsuda discloses,
a method performed by a first (Target eNB 608 - Fig. 10/608) next generation radio access network NG-RAN node in a wireless communication system (the infrastructure equipment may also be referred to as a base station, network element, enhanced Node B - eNodeB, or eNB or a coordinating entity for example, and may provide a wireless access interface to one or more communications devices within a coverage area or cell. The infrastructure equipment may for example be any entity of a telecommunications system, e.g. an entity of a New Radio Access Technology Systems – Figs. 3, 5, 7, 10, paragraph 0030. A new radio system may allow the aerial UEs to transmit those UL signals in other modes than connected mode – paragraph 0098), the method comprising:
receiving, from a second NG-RAN node (source eNB 606 – Fig. 10/606), a handover request message (the source eNB 606 then transmits a handover request message in a message M4 and the target eNB 608 performs an admission control – Figs. 10/M4, 10/S5, paragraph 0115),
but, does not disclose, acquiring information related to a trajectory prediction for a user equipment UE that is included in the handover request message and
performing a decision for a handover of the UE based on the information related to the trajectory prediction, wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction indicates information about a cell to which the UE is predicted to connect.
Mo teaches, acquiring information related to a trajectory prediction for a user equipment UE that is included in the handover request message and
performing a decision for a handover of the UE based on the information related to the trajectory prediction, wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction indicates information about a cell to which the UE is predicted to connect (Handover can be triggered by Handover Management 225 receiving a handover request from QoS Management 227 as a result of detecting unacceptable quality of service. It can also be triggered when a user carries an active call enters into an Edge Access Point with a predicted path of travel towards the edge of a location area… Handover can be triggered by Handover Management 225 receiving a handover request from QoS Management 227 as a result of detecting unacceptable quality of service. It can also be triggered when a user carries an active call enters into an Edge Access Point with a predicted path of travel towards the edge of a location area - paragraph 0046).
When location information is reported by the Mobile Station 110, the location of the user is relayed to Location Management 223. User location information is represented by a number of information elements such as radio signal strength, Location Area Identifier (LAI) of a cellular network radio cell and IP address of the Access Point. User location information is stored in Information Storage 242 (paragraph 0045).
The visited Mobility Orchestration Server 120 recognizes that Visited CLID is one of the visiting users registered locally. It executes step 627 to check the location of the visiting user identified by Visited CLID. It also checks the visiting user's Mobile Station's capabilities and the user's incoming call handling preference from the user profile information received from the user's home Mobility Orchestration Server when the user registered (Fig. 6b/627, paragraph 0070).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to consider Mo’s teachings in relation to the claimed invention, thus providing a system which tracks where the user roams and creates a Personal Virtual Mobile Network to co-inside with the user's Sphere Of Mobility automatically, as discussed by Mo (Mo, paragraph 0004).
Regarding claims 2, 13, 19, 23, Tsuda discloses all the claimed features,
but, does not disclose, the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction is determined based on a prediction by NG-RAN node.
Mo teaches, handover can be triggered by Handover Management 225 receiving a handover request from QoS Management 227 as a result of detecting unacceptable quality of service. It can also be triggered when a user carries an active call enters into an Edge Access Point with a predicted path of travel towards the edge of a location area… Handover can be triggered by Handover Management 225 receiving a handover request from QoS Management 227 as a result of detecting unacceptable quality of service. It can also be triggered when a user carries an active call enters into an Edge Access Point with a predicted path of travel towards the edge of a location area (paragraph 0046).
When location information is reported by the Mobile Station 110, the location of the user is relayed to Location Management 223. User location information is represented by a number of information elements such as radio signal strength, Location Area Identifier (LAI) of a cellular network radio cell and IP address of the Access Point. User location information is stored in Information Storage 242 (paragraph 0045).
The visited Mobility Orchestration Server 120 recognizes that Visited CLID is one of the visiting users registered locally. It executes step 627 to check the location of the visiting user identified by Visited CLID. It also checks the visiting user's Mobile Station's capabilities and the user's incoming call handling preference from the user profile information received from the user's home Mobility Orchestration Server when the user registered (Fig. 6b/627, paragraph 0070).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to consider Mo’s teachings in relation to the claimed invention, thus providing a system which tracks where the user roams and creates a Personal Virtual Mobile Network to co-inside with the user's Sphere Of Mobility automatically, as discussed by Mo (Mo, paragraph 0004).
Regarding claims 12, 15, Tsuda discloses,
a method performed by a second (source eNB 606 – Fig. 10/606) next generation radio access network NG-RAN node in a wireless communication system (the infrastructure equipment may also be referred to as a base station, network element, enhanced Node B - eNodeB, or eNB or a coordinating entity for example, and may provide a wireless access interface to one or more communications devices within a coverage area or cell. The infrastructure equipment may for example be any entity of a telecommunications system, e.g. an entity of a New Radio Access Technology Systems – Figs. 3, 5, 7, 10, paragraph 0030. A new radio system may allow the aerial UEs to transmit those UL signals in other modes than connected mode – paragraph 0098), the method comprising:
transmitting, to a first NG-RAN node (Target eNB 608 – Fig. 10/608), a handover request message (the source eNB 606 then transmits a handover request message in a message M4 and the target eNB 608 performs an admission control – Figs. 10/M4, 10/S5, paragraph 0115)
but, does not disclose, performing a trajectory prediction for a user equipment UE; and a handover request message including information related to the trajectory prediction, wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction is associated with a decision for a handover of the UE, and wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction indicates information about a cell to which the UE is predicted to connect.
Mo teaches, performing a trajectory prediction for a user equipment UE; and a handover request message including information related to the trajectory prediction, wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction is associated with a decision for a handover of the UE, and wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction indicates information about a cell to which the UE is predicted to connect (Handover can be triggered by Handover Management 225 receiving a handover request from QoS Management 227 as a result of detecting unacceptable quality of service. It can also be triggered when a user carries an active call enters into an Edge Access Point with a predicted path of travel towards the edge of a location area… Handover can be triggered by Handover Management 225 receiving a handover request from QoS Management 227 as a result of detecting unacceptable quality of service. It can also be triggered when a user carries an active call enters into an Edge Access Point with a predicted path of travel towards the edge of a location area - paragraph 0046).
When location information is reported by the Mobile Station 110, the location of the user is relayed to Location Management 223. User location information is represented by a number of information elements such as radio signal strength, Location Area Identifier (LAI) of a cellular network radio cell and IP address of the Access Point. User location information is stored in Information Storage 242 (paragraph 0045).
The visited Mobility Orchestration Server 120 recognizes that Visited CLID is one of the visiting users registered locally. It executes step 627 to check the location of the visiting user identified by Visited CLID. It also checks the visiting user's Mobile Station's capabilities and the user's incoming call handling preference from the user profile information received from the user's home Mobility Orchestration Server when the user registered (Fig. 6b/627, paragraph 0070).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to consider Mo’s teachings in relation to the claimed invention, thus providing a system which tracks where the user roams and creates a Personal Virtual Mobile Network to co-inside with the user's Sphere Of Mobility automatically, as discussed by Mo (Mo, paragraph 0004).
Claims 3, 16, 20, 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Tsuda US PGPub: US 2020/0245208 A1 Jul. 30, 2020 and in view of
Mo US PGPub: US 2007/0156804 A1 Jul. 5, 2007 and in view of
Verma US Patent: US 10,531,318 B1 Jan. 7, 2020.
Regarding claims 3, 16, 20, 24, both Tsuda and Mo discloses all the claimed features,
but, does not disclose, the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the trajectory prediction is associated with a machine learning model in the second NG-RAN node.
Verma teaches, program 150 utilizes machine learning, specifically data mining techniques - i.e., clustering, regression, association rule learning, anomaly detection, classification, etc., to identify recurring patterns within the data history along with a plurality of datasets such as historical trips, historical destinations – i.e., locations, historical data transfer metadata - i.e., duration, speed, content, provider, etc., historical telephone logs, historical recipients, etc., (ABSTRACT, column 7, lines 26 – 41) for the one or more computer processors identify an intended travel path of a user over a time interval, and the one or more computer processors predict a cellular signal strength of a user device for the intended travel path over the time interval (Verma, column 1, lines 50 – 54).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to consider Verma’s teachings (Verma, column 1, lines 50 – 54) in determining and scheduling future data transfers to one or more computer processors identified an intended travel path of a user over a time period (Verma, ABSTRACT, column 7, lines 26 – 41).
Claims 4, 5, 17, 18, 21, 22, 25, 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Tsuda US PGPub: US 2020/0245208 A1 Jul. 30, 2020 and in view of
Mo US PGPub: US 2007/0156804 A1 Jul. 5, 2007 and further in view of
Shan US PGPub: US 2019/0174449 A1 Jun. 6, 2019.
Regarding claims 4, 17, 21, 25 both Tsuda and Mo discloses all the claimed features,
but, does not disclose, the method of claim 1, wherein the handover request message further includes a source NG-RAN node UE Xn application protocol XnAP identifier ID and a target cell global ID.
Shan teaches, The AMF 321 determines and updates Mobility Pattern of the UE 301 based on subscription of the UE 301, statistics of the UE mobility, network local policy, and the UE assisted information, or any combination thereof. The statistics of the UE mobility can be historical or expected UE moving trajectory. The Mobility Pattern can be used by the AMF 321 to optimize mobility support provided to the UE 301, for example, Registration area allocation and the like (paragraph 0065).
In NR implementations, the AP 963 may be an NG application protocol layer NGAP or NG-AP 963 for the NG interface 113 defined between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321, or the AP 963 may be an Xn application protocol layer XnAP or Xn-AP 963 for the Xn interface 112 that is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (paragraph 0235).
The XnAP 963 may support the functions of the Xn interface 112 and may comprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the NG RAN 111 or E-UTRAN 210, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like (paragraph 0239).
In NR implementations, the UEs 101 monitor (or attempt to decode) respective sets of PDCCH candidates in one or more configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured CORESETs according to the corresponding search space configurations. A CORESET includes a set of PRBs with a time duration of 1 to 3 OFDM symbols (paragraph 0029).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to consider a handover process of Xn/X2 or NG/Xn of Shan (Shan, paragraphs 0029, 0065, 0235, 0239), for the AMF does not know whether the UE is authorized to use a Local Area Data Network LADN feature and does not know the particular LADN Data Network Name DNN that will be used by the UE (Shan, paragraph 0003).
Regarding claims 5, 18, 22, 26, both Tsuda and Mo discloses all the claimed features,
but, does not disclose, the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the trajectory predictionincludes a cell global identifier ID and a time information indicating a time interval.
Shan teaches, The AMF 321 determines and updates Mobility Pattern of the UE 301 based on subscription of the UE 301, statistics of the UE mobility, network local policy, and the UE assisted information, or any combination thereof. The statistics of the UE mobility can be historical or expected UE moving trajectory. The Mobility Pattern can be used by the AMF 321 to optimize mobility support provided to the UE 301, for example, Registration area allocation and the like (paragraph 0065).
In NR implementations, the AP 963 may be an NG application protocol layer NGAP or NG-AP 963 for the NG interface 113 defined between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321, or the AP 963 may be an Xn application protocol layer XnAP or Xn-AP 963 for the Xn interface 112 that is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (paragraph 0235).
The XnAP 963 may support the functions of the Xn interface 112 and may comprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the NG RAN 111 or E-UTRAN 210, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like (paragraph 0239).
In NR implementations, the UEs 101 monitor (or attempt to decode) respective sets of PDCCH candidates in one or more configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured CORESETs according to the corresponding search space configurations. A CORESET includes a set of PRBs with a time duration of 1 to 3 OFDM symbols (paragraph 0029).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to consider a handover process of Xn/X2 or NG/Xn of Shan (Shan, paragraphs 0029, 0065, 0235, 0239), for the AMF does not know whether the UE is authorized to use a Local Area Data Network LADN feature and does not know the particular LADN Data Network Name DNN that will be used by the UE (Shan, paragraph 0003).
The prior arts made of record and not relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Xu US PGPub: US 2019/0313295 A1 Oct. 10, 2019.
A method for supporting handover and a corresponding base station and network node for performing the method is provided. The method includes forwarding data to a target base station, receiving a first end marker packet from a core network, and transmitting, for a quality of service, quality of service QoS, flow for which the data forwarding has been completed, a second end marker packet to the target base station, the end marker packet containing a QoS flow identity QFI (ABSTRACT, paragraphs 0015 - 0022).
When the UE moves between two NG-RAN base stations or moves between base stations of different systems - e.g. NG-RAN and long-term evolution LTE, an inter-cell handover may be performed. In the case of performing the handover, in order to ensure continuity of services, data forwarding between base stations is required (paragraph 0011).
When the user equipment UE moves between two next generation radio access network NG-RAN base stations or moves between base stations of different systems - e.g. 5G system 5GS and evolved packet system EPS, an inter-cell handover may be performed (paragraph 0047).
The “base station” refers to a mobile communication data and control switching center having a large transmission power and a relatively large coverage area, including functions such as resource allocation scheduling, data reception and transmission, and the like. The “source base station” and the “target base station” are named with respect to the handover procedure (paragraph 0283).
Sun US PGPub: US 2021/034215 A1 Nov. 4, 2021.
A handover process of Xn/X2 or NG/Xn. A handover preparation process is completed between the base station in the satellite and the base station on the ground corresponding to the cell 11 through the Xn/NG interface, and a handover message is sent to the terminal, and the terminal initiates synchronization and access to the cell 11 according to configuration of the handover message (paragraphs 0099, 0122, 0130).
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.
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/NIMESH PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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