DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 .
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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the national stage application of an international application, which claim foreign priority to a Korean application filed on 10 May 2021. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 30 Oct 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the independent claims 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 § 102
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)(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, 2, 6, 7-10, and 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Kim (US 20230328811).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Kim teaches a method and a first base station (Kim, figure 24 – new base station), comprising: a transceiver; and a controller (Kim, figure 15 – elements of base station 1504) configured to execute the method:
receiving, from a terminal in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state, an RRC resume request message for small data transmission (SDT) (Kim, figure 24 – new base station receives “Msg 3 or Msg A” from wireless device in RRC inactive state, where Msg 3 or Msg A includes “RRC resume request” and “SDT assistance info”);
transmitting, to a second base station, a first message for requesting of a terminal context (Kim, figure 24 – “retrieve UE context request” from new base station), wherein the first message includes an SDT indicator (Kim, figure 24 and ¶329 – retrieve UE context request includes “SDT assistance info”);
in case that the terminal context is not relocated for the SDT, receiving, from the second base station, a second message including information associated with transmission of an uplink data of the terminal (Kim, figure 24 – new base station receives “retrieve UE context failure”; Kim, ¶321 – retrieve UE context failure message includes data forwarding information for uplink data of the LCID); and
transmitting, to the second base station, the uplink data of the terminal based on the information associated with transmission of the uplink data of the terminal (Kim, figure 24 and ¶330 – new base station transmits “1st UE data” to anchor base station via the data forwarding address provided to the new base station),
wherein the information associated with transmission of the uplink data includes uplink (UL) endpoint information associated with a data radio bearer (DRB). Kim, ¶329 (the response [i.e. failure] message from anchor base station may include logical channel mapping information comprising DRB ID of a logical channel of the first uplink data of the wireless device); Kim, ¶330 (anchor base station associates the data forwarding address with the network tunnel of DRBs associated with the first uplink data, where the tunnel has endpoints of the anchor base station and core network entity).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Kim also teaches forwarding information required to transmit the uplink data of the terminal to the second base station. Kim, ¶329 (response message includes forwarding information, including the data forwarding address for the DRB ID).
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Kim also teaches wherein the RRC resume message further includes an uplink SDT (Kim, figure 24 – the first message transmitted by the wireless device includes “RRC resume request” includes “+ 1st UL data”), and wherein the second base station is a last serving base station that stores the terminal context in the RRC inactive. Kim, ¶259 (anchor base station is the “last serving base station”).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Kim also teaches forwarding information required to transmit the uplink data of the terminal to the second base station. Kim, ¶329 (response message includes forwarding information, including the data forwarding address for the DRB ID) and wherein the second base station is a last serving base station that stores the terminal context in the RRC inactive state. Kim, ¶259 (anchor base station is the “last serving base station”).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Kim teaches a method and a second base station (Kim, figure 24 – anchor base station), comprising: a transceiver; and a controller (Kim, figure 15 – elements of base station 1504) configured to execute the method of:
receive, from a first base station, a first message for requesting a terminal context (Kim, figure 24 – “retrieve UE context request” from new base station), wherein the first message includes a small data transmission (SDT) indicator for SDT of a terminal in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state (Kim, figure 24 and ¶329 – retrieve UE context request includes “SDT assistance info” and the UE is designated as being in “RRC inactive” state),
based on the first message, determine whether to relocate the terminal context (Kim, figure 24 – anchor base station executes “Determining to keep UE context”),
in case that the terminal context is not relocated for the SDT, transmitting, to the first base station, a second message including information associated with transmission of uplink data of the terminal (Kim, figure 24 – anchor base station transmits “retrieve UE context failure”; Kim, ¶321 – retrieve UE context failure message includes data forwarding information for uplink data of the LCID), and
receiving, from the first base station, the uplink data of the terminal based on the information associated with transmission of the uplink data of the terminal (Kim, figure 24 and ¶330 – anchor base station receives “1st UE data” from new base station via the data forwarding address provided to the new base station),
wherein the information associated with transmission of the uplink data include uplink (UL) endpoint information associated with a data radio bearer (DRB). Kim, ¶329 (the response [i.e. failure] message from anchor base station may include logical channel mapping information comprising DRB ID of a logical channel of the first uplink data of the wireless device); Kim, ¶330 (anchor base station associates the data forwarding address with the network tunnel of DRBs associated with the first uplink data, where the tunnel has endpoints of the anchor base station and core network entity).
Regarding claims 16 and 18, Kim also teaches transmitting, to the first base station, a third message including the terminal context associated with the SDT (Kim, ¶309 – old base station transmits a “retrieve UE context response” to new base station, which contains UE context information) in case that the terminal context is relocated for the SDT (Kim, figure 22 and ¶312 – old base station decides to provide UE context to new base station when the terminal requests SDT).
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 5 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (of record) in view of CATT (NPL 2 on IDS, received 30 Oct 2023).
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Kim teaches the method of claim 1, the first base station of claim 9, and an embodiment where the UE context is transferred to the new base station. Kim, figure 22. Kim does not explicitly teach” receiving a fourth message for releasing the terminal context from the second base station; and based on a reception of the fourth message, transmitting an RRC release message to the terminal.”
However, CATT Teaches the new base station receiving a fourth message for releasing the terminal context from the second base station (CATT, pg. 5, figure 1 – “UE Context Release Command” from anchor gNB to new gNB); and based on reception of the fourth message, transmit an RRC release message to the terminal. CATT, pg. 5, figure 1 (“RRCRelease” from new gNB to UE). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to release a UE context, as taught by CATT, based on a relocation of the UE context to a new base station, as taught by Kim, in order to free up the resources used by the context once it is no longer needed at the old base station.
Claims 3, 4, 11, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (of record) in view of Talebi Fard (US 20210307100).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Kim teaches the method of claim 1, the first base station of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to:
in case that the terminal context is relocated for the SDT (Kim, figure 22 and ¶312 – old base station decides to provide UE context to new base station when the terminal requests SDT), receive a third message including the terminal context associated with the SDT (Kim, ¶309 – new base station receives “retrieve UE context response,” which contains UE context information).
Kim does not explicitly teach “based on the terminal context associated with the SDT, transmit the uplink data of the terminal to a user plane function (UPF) without passing through the second base station.” However, Tabeli Fard teaches a new base station transmitting “UL data” directly to the user plane function after having received a “Retrieve UE context response” from the old base station. Tabeli Fard, figure 33 (unnumbered steps “”Xn-AP: Retrieve UE Context Response” and “UL data”). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to enable uplink transmission by the new base station to the UPF, as taught by Tabeli Fard, in response to receiving a full UE context from the old base station, as taught by Kim, in order to ensure uplink transmission after a path switch. Tabeli Fard, ¶350.
Regarding claims 4 and 12, the combination of Kim and Tabeli Fard also teaches wherein based on the third message, the controller is further configured to:
transmitting a path switch request message to an access and mobility management function (AMF) (Tabeli Fard, figure 33 – “NG-AP Path Switch Request” from new base station to AMF); and
receiving a path switch request acknowledge message from the AMF. Tabeli Fard, figure 33 (“NG-AP: Path Switch Request ACK” from AMF to new base station).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure includes figure 8b of Kim ‘105, figure 4 of Huang, and figure 5A of Wang.
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 BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03, which allows for written authorization via the USPTO electronic filing system or mail, but not via email). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461