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 .
This is responsive to Application 18/294,404 filed in which claims 17-28 are presented for examination.
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 17-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xu et al (US 2023/0261738 A1).
Regarding claim 17, Xu teaches an apparatus, comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions, the at least one memory and the instructions configured to, with the at least one processor, cause a network device, which provides a first radio cell (C-1), to transmit a first information (I-1) characterizing a radio coverage of at least one further radio cell (C-2) of at least one further network device, which at least temporarily and at least partially covers a neighbor area (NA) of the first radio cell (C-1) (Xu: Fig. 2; [0053], gateway 170/network device transmit satellite orbital location to base station 120/further network device with cell 220; the satellite having cell 210-1, 210-2).
Regarding claim 17, Xu teaches a method comprising: transmitting, by a network device, which provides a first radio cell (C-1), a first information (I-1) characterizing a radio coverage of at least one further radio cell (C-2) of at least one further network device, which at least temporarily and at least partially covers a neighbor area (NA) of the first radio cell (C-1) (Xu: Fig. 2; [0053], gateway 170/network device transmit satellite orbital location to base station 120/further network device with cell 220; the satellite having cell 210-1, 210-2).
Regarding claim 18, Xu teaches wherein at least one of the network device and the at least one further network device is a mobile network device, for example a non- terrestrial network device (Xu: Fig. 2; [0053], satellite is a mobile NTN).
Regarding claims 19 and 25, Xu teaches wherein the first information (I-1) comprises at least one of: a) first position information (POS-1) characterizing at least one position of the at least one further network device (Xu: Fig. 2; [0053], orbital location/position of the satellite), b) a timestamp (TIM) characterizing a time and/or date on which the at least one further network device is at the at least one position (POS- 1), c) second position information (POS-2) characterizing at least one center position of the at least one further radio cell (C-2), d) a time difference (TIM-DIFF) between two points in time, wherein each of the two points in time is associated with a respective position of the at least one further network device or a respective center position of the at least one further radio cell (C-2), e) an estimated coverage radius (COV-RAD) of the at least one further radio cell (C-2), f) a first indicator (IND-1) indicating that an estimated coverage radius (COV-RAD) of the at least one further radio cell (C-2) is at least similar to a coverage radius of the first radio cell (C-1), g) first angle-based position information (POS-3a) characterizing at least one angle at which a trajectory of the at least one further network device passes a circle centered at at least one of a center of the first radio cell (C-1) or a current position of the network device, h) second angle-based positioninformation (POS-3b) characterizing at least one angle at which a trajectory of the at least one further network device leaves a circle centered at at least one of a center of the first radio cell (C- 1) or a current position of the network device.
Regarding claim 20, Xu teaches wherein the first information (I-1) characterizes at least one of: a) a radio coverage (RC-1) of a predetermined first number of further radio cells (C-2) of the at least one further network device, which will at least temporarily cover the neighbor area (NA) of the first radio cell (C-1) within a predetermined first time interval (TI-1) (Xu: Fig. 2; [0053]-[0058]), b) a radio coverage (RC-2) of a predetermined second number of further radio cells (C-2) of the at least one further network device, which will at least temporarily cover the neighbor area (NA) of the first radio cell (C-1) within a predetermined second time interval (TI- 2) following the first time interval (TI-1).
Regarding claim 21, Xu teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the network device to indicate a change of the first information (I-1) (Xu: Fig. 2; [0052], [0061], gateway indicating to the base station changes in satellite location information).
Regarding claims 22 and 26, Xu teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the network device to: receive a request (REQ-I-1) for transmission of the first information (I-1) (Xu: Fig. 2; [0073], base station communicates/request with the gateway to update the satellite information).
Regarding claim 24, Xu teaches an apparatus, comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions, the at least one memory and the instructions configured to, with the at least one processor, cause a terminal device served by a first network device in a first radio cell (C-1) to receive a first information (I-1) characterizing a radio coverage of at least one further radio cell(C-2) of at least one further network device, which at least temporarily and at least partially covers a neighbor area (NA) of the first radio cell (C-1) (Xu: Fig. 2; [0073], base station communicates/request with the gateway to update the satellite information).
Regarding claim 27, Xu teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the terminal device to perform, based at least partially on the first information (I-1), at least one of: a) controlling an operation of the terminal device (Xu: Fig. 2; [0053]-[0554], initiate a paging procedure of the UEs), b) entering a sleep state, c) waking up from a sleep state.
Regarding claim 28, Xu teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the terminal device to: determine one or more time windows (TW) with radio coverage provided by at least one of a) the network device and/or b) the at least one further network device (Xu: Figs. 2 and 5; [0053], [0064], [0081] determining coverage at a given time).
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478