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 .
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 7/7/2026 has been entered.
Claims 16, 18-21, 23-26, 28-30 are pending.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 16-17, 21, 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. US 20220386182 in view of Tripathi et al. US 20220150806 in view of Yiu et al. US 20190387440.
Regarding claim 16, A method for controlling handover of a user equipment (UE) (UE, Figure 1F, element 1f-01) by a target base station (target gNB, 1f-03), the method comprising: receiving handover request information for a conditional handover (target gNB receiving handover request from source gNB, element 1f-10, the source gNB defines a new indicator in the handover preparation information message, indicate to the target gNB that the source gNB will perform a handover and request handover, the source gNB notifies the target gNB that the source gNB may perform quick or early data forwarding, and may indicate to the target gNB to prepare to receive and process quick or early data forwarding, para. 0150); allocating a radio resource for the conditional handover of the UE based on the handover request information (the target gNB , element 1f-03, receives the handover preparation information message and identifies that the indicator for requesting handover method is included, the target gNB configures an RRCReconfiguration message including an indicator to indicate handover to the UE and including bearer configuration information, security key information, cell group configuration information, or system information required when the UE performs the DAPS handover method, the target gNB transmits the configured RRCReconfiguration message to the source gNB by including the configured RRCReconfiguration message in the DL-DCCH message of the handover command message, the target gNB indicates each bearer (DRB or SRB), para. 0151).
Kim does not explicitly disclose including handover window information of the UE from a source base station or a core network entity, if early data forwarding applies, receiving an early status transfer message from the source base station or the core network entity.
Tripathi discloses enhancements to conditional handover so that the overall time period during which resources are reserved in candidate cells is reduced and can reduce the bandwidth usage in the backhaul in conditional handover through more selective early packet forwarding, para. 0182. Tripathi discloses the S-gNB specifies a timer in the handover request message to the T-gNBs of candidate CHO cells, the timer is at least (1.5*RTT) long, where RTT is the estimated UE-T-gNB round trip time and indicates to the T-gNB that the T-gNB can reserve any required resources after the timer expires, para. 0191, the S-gNB sends an EARLY STATUS TRANSFER message to the selected T-gNB to facilitate packet forwarding from the S-gNB to the selected T-gNB so that the selected T-gNB is ready to transmit DL packets to the UE as soon as the UE and the T-gNB have established a radio connection in the target cell, para. 0199. Before the filing of the invention it would have been obvious to modify Kim to include Tripathi’s early forwarding and early status transfer messaging. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so for an efficient neighbor cell search in a wireless communication network, para. 0002.
Kim and Tripathi do not disclose including handover window information for conditional handover of the UE from a source base station or a core network entity, wherein the handover window information defines a time period during which the target base station maintains radio resources reserved for the conditional handover.
Yiu discloses a source RAN node includes an indication in a handover request message to indicate that the handover is a conditional handover and the target RAN node may accept the conditional handover if it is supported by sending an handover acknowledgement message to the source RAN node, para. 0057. Yiu discloses the source RAN node sends a conditional handover exit condition to the target RAN node so that the target RAN node can determine whether the CHO exit condition has occurred and the target RAN node can release RACH resources when the CHO exit condition occurs, para. 0058. Before the filing of the invention it would have been obvious to modify Kim and Tripathi to include Yiu’s conditional handover exit condition. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so since the use of conditional handover leads to better handover failure performance, para. 0040.
Claims 21 and 26 are rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 18, 23, 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim in view of Tripathi in view of Yiu in view of Li et al. US 20230362741.
Regarding claim 18, The method of claim 16, Kim, Tripathi and Yiu do not disclose wherein the handover window information is set as coordinated universal time (UTC)-based time information. Li et al. discloses a source sending a handover request including time advance source, used to indicate the TA value between the current UE and a source entity (an entity before handover and the TA_S includes the impact of the delay of the service link and the feeder link; and time stamp, used to indicate the time corresponding to the TA assistance information, and may be an absolute time, such as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), para. 0091-0097. Before the filing of the invention it would have been obvious to modify Kim’s conditional handover and Tripathi’s early forwarding and early status transfer messaging and Yiu’s handover with Li’s timing information included in the handover request. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so the problems of handover failure or reconfiguration failure and long time delay caused by insufficient resources are avoided, and the signaling load on the interface is reduced, thus ensuring the user experience and saving the cost of operators, para. 0059.
Claim 23 and 28 are rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 19, 24, 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim in view of Tripathi in view of Yiu in view of Wu et al. US 20240187955.
Regarding claim 19, The method of claim 16, Kim, Tripathi and Yiu do not disclose wherein the handover window information is included in a transparent container. Wu discloses handling a conditional handover (CHO) execution condition in a non terrestrial network (NTN) environment and a related mobility robustness optimization, Abstract. Wu discloses the source BS transmits a Handover REQUEST message for conditional handover to one or more candidate target BSs, e.g., a target BS and other potential target BS(s) as shown in FIG. 2. For example, the Handover REQUEST message for conditional handover may pass a transparent RRC container with necessary information to prepare a CHO procedure at a target BS side, para. 0033. Before the filing of the invention it would have been obvious to modify Kim and Tripathi and Yiu to include Wu’s conditional handover request message in a transparent RRC container. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so for mobility optimization, para. 0001-0002.
Claim 24, 29 are rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 20, 25, 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim in view of Tripathi in view of Yiu in view of Byun et al. US 20230119118.
Regarding claim 20, The method of claim 16, wherein: Kim, Tripathi and Yiu do not disclose a start time of the early data forwarding is determined by the source base station; and the early status transfer message includes downlink (DL) discarding data radio bearer (DRB) list information including a downlink count value (DL COUNT) and a data radio bearer identifier. Byun discloses Early Forwarding Transfer procedure is to transfer the COUNT of the first downlink SDU that the source NG-RAN node forwards to the target NG-RAN node or the COUNT for discarding of already forwarded downlink SDUs for respective DRB during DAPS Handover or Conditional Handover, para. 0197. Byun discloses the DRBs Subject To Early Forwarding Transfer List IE included in the early forwarding message contains the DRB ID(s) corresponding to the DRB(s) subject to be simultaneously served by the source and the target NG-RAN nodes during DAPS Handover or the DRB(s) transferred during Conditional Handover and for each DRB in the DRBs Subject To Early Forwarding Transfer List IE, the target NG-RAN node shall use the value of the DL COUNT Value IE as the COUNT of the first downlink SDU that the source NG-RAN node forwards to the target NG-RAN node and for each DRB in the DRBs Subject To Early Forwarding Transfer List IE for which the DISCARD DL COUNT Value IE is received in the EARLY FORWARDING TRANSFER message, the target NG-RAN node does not transmit forwarded downlink SDUs to the UE whose COUNT is less than the provided and discards them if transmission has not been attempted, para. 0200-0202. Before the filing of the invention it would have been obvious to modify Kim and Tripathi and Yiu to include Byun’s early forwarding transfer. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do this reduce interruption during handover, para. 0005.
Claim 25 and 30 are rejected under the same rationale.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments 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 regarding the amended limitation(s).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Balan et al. US 20240031903 discloses determining, at a first device, an ordered list of target cells for a second device to initiate handover to in order based on location-related data of the second device, the second device being served in a source cell of the first device and transmitting, to the second device, first information indicating the ordered list of target cells and radio configurations associated with each of the target cells.
Fehrenbach et al. US 20220078684 discloses a cellular network which supports conditional handovers preemptively prepares, for user equipments and for each of one or more target cells of the cellular network, for a conditional handover of the user equipments to one or more respective target cells, and send configuration data for configuring multiple conditional handovers as a sequence to the user equipment which describes for each cell conditions to trigger a handover to the respective cell.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELANIE JAGANNATHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3163. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/MELANIE JAGANNATHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2468
