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 December 30, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant amends independent claims 1, 6, 11, and 16 to overcome previous rejections. However, the Examiner studied previously cited references, and the combination of Han and Stjernholm still read on the amended claims.
Mainly, the Applicant argues on page 8 of Remarks that Stjernholmn describes reporting of RRC state changes for individual UEs to the near-RT RIC. However, the claimed invention requires reporting of RRC states for multiple UEs in a list format to the near-RT RIC. The Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Firstly, it is noted that claim recites “a list of one or more UEs”, and “information identifying each UE in the list of the one or more UEs”. In other words, claim language only requires at least one UE, and not necessarily more than one UEs. Thus, the Examiner reasonably interprets the claim language as one UE instead of more than one UEs.
Secondly, even if the Applicant further amend claim language to recite the list of more than one UEs, it would not place this application in condition for allowance as one of ordinary skilled in the art would have conceptualized that since Stjernholmn describes the report of RRC state for one UE, then the report of RRC state for more than one UEs would be obvious and/or easily modified by one of ordinary skilled in the art.
Lastly, it is worth to mention that paragraph 0008 of Sternholmn discloses that a management system including service management and orchestration (SM) and non-RT RAN intelligent controller (RIC) functionality may identify and observe individual UEs reported from RAN functions. In other words, a plurality of individual UEs or a list of one or more UEs are identified and observed. Thus, these teachings of Sternholmn reads on the amended claim language of “a list of one or more UEs”
Based on the above discussion, it should be clear to the Applicant that the combination of Han and Sternholmn still reads on the amended claims. Thus, previous rejections were proper and maintained.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 4-6, 10-11, 14-16, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han et al. (hereinafter “Han”, US 2023/0171592) in view of Stjernholm et al. (hereinafter “Stjernholm”, US 2023/0337170).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Han discloses a method performed by a near-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC) in a mobile communication system (i.e., RIC as shown in Fig. 1), the method comprising:
receiving, from an E2 node, an RIC indication message (i.e., the RIC indication message sent by the E2 node to a Near-RT RIC node as described in paragraph 0060, and as shown in Fig. 1).
Han, however, does not expressly disclose the remaining features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Stjernholm discloses individual user equipment management in RAN. Stjernholm also discloses:
wherein the RIC indication message includes user equipment (UE)-related information (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049),
wherein the UE-related information includes information indicating a radio resource control (RRC) state of each UE in a list of one or more UEs (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049), and information identifying each UE in the list of the one or more UEs associated with the RRC state (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049), and
wherein the RRC state is one of a plurality of states including an RRC-connected state, an RRC-inactive state, and an RRC-idle state (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to enable the network to adjust certain operations accordingly.
With further regard to claim 11, Han also discloses a transceiver (i.e., communication resources 430); and a processor coupled with the transceiver (i.e., processors 410 coupled to communication resources 430 as shown in Fig. 4).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Han discloses a method performed by an E2 node in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a near-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC), an RIC indication message (i.e., the RIC indication message sent by the E2 node to a Near-RT RIC node as described in paragraph 0060, and as shown in Fig. 1).
Han, however, does not expressly disclose the remaining features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Stjernholm discloses individual user equipment management in RAN. Stjernholm also discloses:
wherein the RIC indication message includes user equipment (UE)-related information (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049),
wherein the UE-related information includes information indicating a radio resource control (RRC) state of each UE in a list of one or more UEs (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049), and information identifying each UE in the list of the one or more UEs associated with the RRC state (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049), and
wherein the RRC state is one of a plurality of states including an RRC-connected state, an RRC-inactive state, and an RRC-idle state (i.e., the near-RT RIC and the management system (SMO) is informed when the UE leaves RRC-Idle as described in paragraph 0049).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to enable the network to adjust certain operations accordingly.
With further regard to claim 16, Han also discloses a transceiver (i.e., modem platform 330); and a processor coupled with the transceiver (i.e., host platform 328 coupled to modem platform 330 as shown in Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Han and Stjernholm disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Han also discloses:
transmitting an RIC subscription request message to the E2 node (i.e., RIC subscription request message is sent by the near-RT RIC to a E2 node as described in paragraph 0048); and
receiving an RIC subscription response message from the E2 node after transmitting the RIC subscription request message (i.e., determining the updated RAN UE ID information in response to the subscription request and transmitting to the near-RT RIC as described in paragraph 0146),
wherein the RIC subscription request message includes an event generation condition related to the RIC indication message (i.e., RIC subscription request message is sent by the near-RT RIC to a E2 node and is required for event triggers used to initiate Report, Insert and Policy actions as described in paragraph 0048).
Regarding claims 5, 10, 15, and 20, Han and Stjernholm disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Stjernholm also discloses wherein the E2 node is one of a next generation node B (gNB), a distributed unit (DU), an evolved node B (eNB), a gNB-central unit (CU), an en-gNB, or an ng-eNB (i.e., gNBS as described in paragraph 0202).
Claim(s) 9 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han in view of Stjernholm and further in view of Song et al. (hereinafter “Song”, US 2022/0225264).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Han and Stjernholm disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but do not expressly disclose features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Song discloses apparatus and method for service subscription through E2 interface in a radio access network communication system. Song also discloses:
receiving RIC subscription request message from the E2 node (i.e., setting an E2 subscription request message at an E2 node as described in paragraphs 0010-0012); and
transmitting an RIC subscription response message to the E2 node after receiving the RIC subscription request message (i.e., delivering a subscription request response message to the RIC after the event setting as described in paragraphs 0010-0012),
wherein the RIC subscription request message includes an event generation condition related to the RIC indication message (i.e., setting a call processing event as described in paragraphs 0010-0012).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to enable the network to monitor specific events and collect the necessary metrics.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 WAYNE CAI whose telephone number is (571)272-7798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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/Wayne H Cai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644