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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 7/23/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The RCE and amendment filed 7/23/2025 has been entered
Claims 1, 3, 5-7, 9, 11-13, 16-17, and 20 are rejected.
Claims 2, 8, 14, and 18 are objected
Claims 4, 10, 15, and 19 are canceled.
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, 3, 5-7, 9, 11-13, 16-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by "3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #102, Busan, South Korea, 21-25 May 2018, R2-1806772, Nokia, Nokia Shanghai Bell, Finalizing IDLE mode measurements for euCA" (hereinafter as “R2-1806772”).
Regarding Claim 1, “R2-1806772” teaches a method operating a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving a dedicated message including information associated with a first list including at least one frequency to be measured (“R2-1806772, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs should do can be provided by UE-specific information in RRCConnectionRelease, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 1, in case of UE-specific configuration (i.e. dedicated signaling), NW gives to UE only those carrier frequencies that it knows the UE can support);
receiving system information including information associated with a second list including at least one frequency to be measured via a broadcast signaling (“R2-1806772”, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs can be provided as same information to all UEs in SIB5, observation 2, using cell-specific configuration allows the operator to control which frequencies UEs measure in each cell);
identifying whether a first frequency included in the first list is same as one of the at least one frequency included in the second list (“R2-1806772”, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configurations, hence this overriding would be in a case where the same frequency is in both the RRCConnection and the SIB5 configuration); and
in case that the first frequency is same as a second frequency included in the second list, configuration information for measurement on the first frequency is not included in the dedicated message, and configuration information for measurement on the second frequency is included in the system information, performing measurement on the first frequency in an idle state or in an inactive state, based on the configuration information for measurement on the second frequency included in the system information (“R2-1806772”, Page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure inter-frequency carriers in RRC_IDLE mode, the UE then performs the requested measurements, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configurations, hence this overriding would be in a case where the same frequency is in both the RRCConnection and the SIB5 configuration, however if there is no configuration for a particular frequency listed in the RRCConnectionRelease then obviously the SIB5 frequency would be used for that frequency).
Regarding Claim 3, “R2-1806772” further teaches further comprising:
entering the idle state or the inactive state based on the dedicated message (“R2-1806772”, page 3, observation 1, the information on idle mode measurements UEs should do can be provided by UE-specific information in RRCConnectionRelease, page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure carriers in RRC_IDLE via indicating a measurement configuration to UE when releasing RRC connection, the UE then performs the requested measurements).
Regarding Claim 5, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein in case that the first frequency is included in the first list and the dedicated message further includes configuration information for measurement on the first frequency, the performing the measurement comprises performing measurement on the first frequency based on the configuration information for measurement on the first frequency in the dedicated message even if a different measurement configuration is included for the first frequency in the system information (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence).
Regarding Claim 6, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein the terminal operates in one of a Carrier Aggregation (CA) or Dual Connectivity (DC) mode prior to entering the idle state or the inactive state (“R2-1806772, page 4, section 32, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration).
Regarding Claim 7, “R2-1806772” teaches a method of operating a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a terminal, a dedicated message including information associated with a first list including at least one frequency to be measured (“R2-1806772, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs should do can be provided by UE-specific information in RRCConnectionRelease, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 1, in case of UE-specific configuration (i.e. dedicated signaling), NW gives to UE only those carrier frequencies that it knows the UE can support);
transmitting, to the terminal, system information including information associated with a second list including at least one frequency to be measured via a broadcast signaling (“R2-1806772”, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs can be provided as same information to all UEs in SIB5, observation 2, using cell-specific configuration allows the operator to control which frequencies UEs measure in each cell); and
receiving, from the terminal, a result of measurement on a first frequency included in the first list and same as one of the at least one frequency included in the second list, wherein in case that the first frequency is same as a second frequency included in the second list, configuration information for measurement on the first frequency is not included in the dedicated message, and configuration information for measurement on the second frequency is included in the system information, the measurement on the first frequency is performed by the terminal in an idle state or in an inactive state of the terminal based on the configuration information for measurement on the second frequency included in the system information (“R2-1806772”, Page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure inter-frequency carriers in RRC_IDLE mode, the UE then performs the requested measurements, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configurations, hence this overriding would be in a case where the same frequency is in both the RRCConnection and the SIB5 configuration, however if there is no configuration for a particular frequency listed in the RRCConnectionRelease then obviously the SIB5 frequency would be used for that frequency).
Regarding Claim 9, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein the dedicated message is used to enter the idle state or the inactive state by the terminal (“R2-1806772”, page 3, observation 1, the information on idle mode measurements UEs should do can be provided by UE-specific information in RRCConnectionRelease, page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure carriers in RRC_IDLE via indicating a measurement configuration to UE when releasing RRC connection, the UE then performs the requested measurements).
Regarding Claim 11, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein the first frequency is included in the first list and the dedicated message further includes measurement configuration information for the first frequency, and wherein the result of measurement on the first frequency included in the first list and same as the one of the at least one frequency included in the second list comprises (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence):
the result of measurement on the first frequency based on the measurement configuration information for measurement on the first frequency in the dedicated message even if a different measurement configuration is included for the first frequency in the system information (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence).
Regarding Claim 12, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein the terminal operates in one of a Carrier Aggregation (CA) or Dual Connectivity (DC) mode prior to entering the idle state or the inactive state (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence).
Regarding Claim 13, “R2-1806772” teaches a terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising:
a transceiver (“R2-1806772”, Page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure inter-frequency carriers in RRC_IDLE mode, the UE then performs the requested measurements, inherently a UE would have a transceiver and a processor in order to do these actions); and
at least one processor configured to (“R2-1806772”, Page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure inter-frequency carriers in RRC_IDLE mode, the UE then performs the requested measurements, inherently a UE would have a transceiver and a processor in order to do these actions):
control the transceiver to receive a dedicated message including information associated with a first list including at least one frequency to be measured (“R2-1806772, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs should do can be provided by UE-specific information in RRCConnectionRelease, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 1, in case of UE-specific configuration (i.e. dedicated signaling), NW gives to UE only those carrier frequencies that it knows the UE can support),
control the transceiver to receive system information including information associated with a second list including at least one frequency to be measured via a broadcast signaling (“R2-1806772”, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs can be provided as same information to all UEs in SIB5, observation 2, using cell-specific configuration allows the operator to control which frequencies UEs measure in each cell),
identify whether a first frequency included in the first list is same as one of the at least one frequency included in the second list (“R2-1806772”, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configurations, hence this overriding would be in a case where the same frequency is in both the RRCConnection and the SIB5 configuration), and
in case that the first frequency is same as a second frequency included in the second list, configuration information for measurement on the first frequency is not included in the dedicated message, and configuration information for measurement on the second frequency is included in the system information, perform measurement on the first frequency in an idle state or in an inactive state based on the configuration information for measurement on the second frequency included in the system information (“R2-1806772”, Page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure inter-frequency carriers in RRC_IDLE mode, the UE then performs the requested measurements, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configurations, hence this overriding would be in a case where the same frequency is in both the RRCConnection and the SIB5 configuration, however if there is no configuration for a particular frequency listed in the RRCConnectionRelease then obviously the SIB5 frequency would be used for that frequency).
Regarding Claim 16, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein in case that the first frequency is included in the first list and the dedicated message further includes measurement configuration information for measurement on the first frequency, the at least one processor is further configured to (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence):
perform measurement on the first frequency based on the measurement configuration information for measurement on the first frequency in the dedicated message even if a different measurement configuration is included for the first frequency in the system information (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRElease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence).
Regarding Claim 17, “R2-1806772” teaches a base station in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising:
a transceiver (“R2-1806772”, page 4, observation 4, the UE-specific configuration in RRCConnectionRelease allows eNB to custom the measured frequencies according to UEs support (CA) band combination, inherently the eNB would have a transceiver and a processor in order to do this); and
at least one processor configured to (“R2-1806772”, page 4, observation 4, the UE-specific configuration in RRCConnectionRelease allows eNB to custom the measured frequencies according to UEs support (CA) band combination, inherently the eNB would have a transceiver and a processor in order to do this):
control the transceiver to transmit, to a terminal, a dedicated message including information associated with a first list including at least one frequency to be measured (“R2-1806772, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs should do can be provided by UE-specific information in RRCConnectionRelease, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 1, in case of UE-specific configuration (i.e. dedicated signaling), NW gives to UE only those carrier frequencies that it knows the UE can support),
control the transceiver to transmit, to the terminal, system information including information associated with a second list including at least one frequency to be measured via a broadcast signaling (“R2-1806772”, Page 3, observation 1, the information on which IDLE mode measurements UEs can be provided as same information to all UEs in SIB5, observation 2, using cell-specific configuration allows the operator to control which frequencies UEs measure in each cell), and
control the transceiver to receive, from the terminal, a result of measurement on a first frequency included in the first list and same as one of the at least on frequency included in the second list, wherein in case that the first frequency is same as a second frequency included in the second list, configuration information for measurement on the first frequency is not included in the dedicated message, and configuration information for measurement on the second frequency is included in the system information, the measurement on the first frequency is performed by the terminal in an idle state or in an inactive state of the terminal based on the configuration information for measurement on the second frequency included in the system information (“R2-1806772”, Page 2, section 2, paragraph 2, network may request UE to measure inter-frequency carriers in RRC_IDLE mode, the UE then performs the requested measurements, Page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, the UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRelease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configurations, hence this overriding would be in a case where the same frequency is in both the RRCConnection and the SIB5 configuration, however if there is no configuration for a particular frequency listed in the RRCConnectionRelease then obviously the SIB5 frequency would be used for that frequency).
Regarding Claim 20, “R2-1806772” further teaches wherein the first frequency is included in the first list and the dedicated message further includes measurement configuration information for measurement on the first frequency, and wherein the result of measurement on the first frequency included in the first list and same as the one of the at least one frequency included in the second list comprises (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRElease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence):
the result of measurement on the first frequency based on the measurement configuration information for measurement on the first frequency in the dedicated message even if a different measurement configuration is included for the first frequency in the system information (“R2-1806772”, page 4, section 3.2, paragraph 2, UE can be provided with a “CA measurement configuration” within RRCConnectionRElease that is different from SIB5 configuration, and which overrides any SIB5 configuration, this would be a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and broadcast messages, with the configuration in the dedicated message taking precedence).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2, 8, 14, and 18 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for objected the claim(s):
In interpreting the claim(s), in light of the specification filed on 5/5/2023, the examiner finds the claimed invention to be patentably distinct from the prior art(s) of record.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reason(s) for objecting to the claim(s) to be allowed:
Regarding claim(s) 2, 8, 14, and 18, “R2-1806772” does not teach the limitation of not performing idle or inactive mode measurement if a frequency is in the dedicated or UE-specific early measurement list but not in the cell-specific early measurement list, hence only performing the early measurement for a particular frequency when the particular frequency is in both the UE-specific measurement list and the cell-specific measurement list. The reason for not performing the measurement for a frequency in the UE-specific list which is not in the cell-specific list is that the cell-specific list comprises frequencies that are available to be measured in the current cell. Hence, just because a frequency is in the UE-specific list for early measurement, it would be unnecessary and a waste of resources to perform the early measurement if the particular frequency is not available in the cell, i.e. if the particular frequency in the UE-specific list is also not in the cell-specific list. “R2-1806772” teaches (page 4 section 3.2 paragraph 2 amongst others) that if the frequency is in both lists to then give priority to the measurement configuration for the frequency in the UE_specific list as opposed to the configuration for the frequency in the cell-specific list. “R2-1806772” is silent with the scenario of the frequency being in the UE-specific list but not the cell-specific list. “R2-1900261” in the first paragraph of Section 2.3 teaches the scenario of all aggregable frequencies being included in the system information (cell-specific list) and there being a subset of frequencies being sent to low capability UEs (UE-specific list), hence this is a reverse scenario of frequencies in the cell-specific list but not in the UE-specific list, whereas the claimed limitation is the scenario of frequencies in the UE-specific list but not in the cell-specific list. Section 2.3 paragraph 3 of “R2-1900261” teaches that the list of frequencies to measure configured through dedicated signaling is only valid in a given area, and therefore unnecessary measurement can be avoided if a valid area is configured, said valid area could be configured via dedicated signaling (Proposal 3). Although somewhat similarly trying to avoid measurements if they are not valid / available in a given cell or area, this does not explicitly teach the amended limitation of avoiding early measurement if the particular frequency is in the UE-specific list but not in the cell-specific list.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are respectfully not persuasive.
For independent claim 1, and similarly for the other independent claims 7, 13, and 17, Applicant argues that the prior art does not teach the below limitations:
identifying whether a first frequency included in the first list is same as one of the at least one frequency included in the second list; and
in case that the first frequency is same as a second frequency included in the second list, configuration information for measurement on the first frequency is not included in the dedicated message, and configuration information for measurement on the second frequency is included in the system information, performing measurement on the first frequency in an idle state or in an inactive state based on the configuration information for measurement on the second frequency included in the system information.
“R2-1806772” teaches dedicated UE-specific idle mode measurement configurations in RRC Release (page 3 observation 1) and cell specific idle mode measurement configurations provided in a SIB5 to all UEs in the cell (page 3 observations 1 and 2). Furthermore the UE specific idle mode measurement configurations in RRC Release (UE-specific idle mode measurement configurations) is different from and would override any SIB5 (cell-specific) configurations (page 4 section 3.2 paragraph 2). By the UE-specific dedicated configuration being “different” from SIB5 (cell-specific), this would mean that for any same frequencies in both dedicated and SIB5 idle mode measurement configuration lists, those same frequencies would have different measurement configurations for the same frequency in the measurement lists. Hence in the case of a same frequency in the dedicated and SIB5 lists, the configuration in the dedicated list for that frequency would override the configuration in the SIB5 list for that frequency (provided of course that there is a configuration in the dedicated list for that frequency). Hence if a frequency is in the dedicated list along with an idle mode measurement configuration for that frequency, then the idle mode measurement configuration in the dedicated list for that frequency would override any idle mode measurement configuration in the SIB5 list for that frequency. The only time that an idle mode measurement configuration for a particular frequency in the SIB5 list would actually be used would be if either the frequency is not listed in the dedicated list, or if the frequency is listed in the dedicated list but without an idle mode measurement configuration for that frequency.
Applicant argues that “R2-1806772” does not explicitly teach operations in the case where the same frequency is in both of the dedicated list and the SIB5 list (Remarks, page 12 last paragraph, and page 14 third paragraph). However as mentioned above, the idle mode measurement configuration for a frequency on the dedicated list would override the idle mode measurement configuration for the frequency on the SIB5 list, so this override discloses a situation where the same frequency is on both the dedicated and SIB5 lists. Applicant further argues that “R2-1806772” does not disclose a situation where the same frequency is in both the dedicated and SIB5 lists, but the configuration information for the frequency in the dedicated list is missing (Remarks, page 13, second and third paragraphs). However as mentioned above, when there is the same frequency in both dedicated and SIB5 lists, the configuration information for the frequency in the dedicated list will override the configuration information for the frequency in the SIB5 list. Hence the only time that the measurement configuration for the frequency in the SIB5 list will take effect is when the corresponding frequency is not in the dedicated list, or when the configuration for the corresponding frequency is missing from the dedicated list (even if the frequency itself is listed in the dedicated list). Applicant further argues that “R2-1806772” could be interpreted such that if there is an absence of configuration information for a frequency in the dedicated list, that instead of the configuration for the same frequency in the SIB5 list taking effect, that instead the absence of a configuration in the dedicated list would take effect and there would be no configuration and no measurement for that frequency (Remarks, page 15 second from last paragraph). However the word override of the SIB5 configuration by the dedicated configuration for the same frequency would only occur when there is the same frequency in the dedicated list, and there is a corresponding configuration for the same frequency in the dedicated list. If the override condition does not take effect (by either the frequency not being in the dedicated list, or the configuration being missing in the dedicated list), the lack of an override condition means that the configuration in the SIB5 list takes effect, as lack of an override does not mean cancel, but rather it means that the overriding situation (dedicated configuration for a frequency taking effect) does not occur, and therefore the SIB5 configuration for the frequency would take effect.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAD N DEFAUW whose telephone number is (571)272-6905. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang can be reached on (571) 270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/T.N.D/ Examiner, Art Unit 2412 /CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412