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 .
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.
Response to Amendment
This action is responsive to a request for continued examination filed 23 June 2026 incorporating amendments and remarks filed 2 June 2026. Claims 1, 3-20, 22, 24-26 and 28-34 are pending in the application.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-20, 22, 24-26 and 28-34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Cheng et al. (WO 2024/164193 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Cheng appears to disclose a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, individually or collectively configured to (Fig. 6, 602, [0105]-[0107]):
receive a signal indicating a first candidate cell of a plurality of candidate cells has adopted a dynamic discontinuous transmission/discontinuous reception (DTX/DRX) configuration, wherein a second candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells is not configured with the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration ([0016]-[0017] disclosing conditional handover (CHO) techniques related to network energy saving (NES) mode comprising cell discontinuous transmission (DTX) and/or discontinuous reception(DRX); [0031] disclosing “a CHO enhancement solution based on an NES mode of both the source cell and the target cell…UE...may switch to an NES specific CHO condition upon detection of the source cell in an NES mode. Instead of ( or in addition to) explicit UE group common Ll/L2 signaling, other implicit indication(s) of source cell NES mode change (e.g., dynamically changing NES mode to/from DTX/DRX); [0034] disclosing “the normal cell (i.e., a cell not in an NES mode) and the NES cell (i.e., a cell that is in an NES mode) satisfy the NES specific CHO condition, the UE may prioritize the normal cell for HO execution”; [0036] disclosing the gNB configures the UE with an indication of whether the target cell in in the NES mode (i.e., the NES mode of the target cell has not changed when the NES mode of the source cell has changed; Fig. 2, 214, 216, [0043]-[0045] disclosing the source cell sends an RRCReconfiguration message comprising 214 and 216 specifying criteria for triggering measurement reporting; [0051]-[0053] disclosing the source cell enters NES mode comprising cell DTX/DRX (i.e., dynamically switches to DTX/DRX mode) including of two or more candidate target cells);
evaluate a performance effect on the UE corresponding to each of the plurality of candidate cells including the first candidate cell and the second candidate cell based, at least in part, on the signal (Fig. 2, 222, [0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039], [0046] disclosing the UE performs CHO measurements 222 to detect A3, A4 and A5 events in the NES specific CHO condition evaluation of NES mode of the source cell and the target cell); and
initiate, based on receiving the signal indicating that the first candidate cell has adopted the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration, a handover procedure from a source cell to a target cell of the plurality of candidate cells based, at least in part, on the performance effect ([0031] in the NES specific CHO condition evaluation of NES mode of the source cell and the target cell; [0047] disclosing if the legacy CHO condition is met, the UE starts execution of handoff (e.g., using a legacy CHO procedure, as shown in FIG. IA and FIG. IB); Fig. 2 RACH procedure, [0052] disclosing For example, the UE 202 may perform a random access channel (RACH) procedure with the selected candidate target cell. The CHO handover completion occurs once the UE 202 becomes associated with the new cell on the source cell 204 ( and the UE 202 may send an attendant RRC reconfiguration complete message (RRCReconfigurationComplete) to the selected target cell. In a handover completion phase, the selected target cell sends the source cell 204 a handover success message.), wherein the first candidate cell is the source cell, and wherein a handover to the target cell occurs during a future time period when the target cell is not configured with the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration ([0016]-[0017] disclosing conditional handover (CHO) techniques related to network energy saving (NES) mode comprising cell discontinuous transmission (DTX) and/or discontinuous reception(DRX); [0031] disclosing “a CHO enhancement solution based on an NES mode of both the source cell and the target cell…UE...may switch to an NES specific CHO condition upon detection of the source cell in an NES mode. Instead of ( or in addition to) explicit UE group common Ll/L2 signaling, other implicit indication(s) of source cell NES mode change (e.g., dynamically changing NES mode to/from DTX/DRX); [0034] disclosing “the normal cell (i.e., a cell not in an NES mode) and the NES cell (i.e., a cell that is in an NES mode) satisfy the NES specific CHO condition, the UE may prioritize the normal cell for HO execution” implicitly, the handover to the target cell not in NES mode will occur at a later time).
Regarding claim 3, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, to evaluate the performance effect, are individually or collectively configured to evaluate a quality of service associated with one or more of the source cell or the target cell ([0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039] disclosing use of RSRQ).
Regarding claim 4, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, to evaluate the performance effect, are individually or collectively configured to evaluate a strength of a signal transmitted by the source cell, the target cell, or both ([0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039] disclosing use of RSRP).
Regarding claim 5, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, to receive the signal, are individually or collectively configured to receive a layer 1 indication or a layer 2 indication ([0030], [0051]).
Regarding claim 6, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the handover procedure includes a conditional handover ([0031]), a lower-layer triggered mobility handover ([0030]), or a layer 3 handover ([0052] RRCReconfiguration).
Regarding claim 7, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the signal includes a group-common layer 1 indication ([0030], [0051]).
Regarding claim 8, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, to evaluate the performance effect, are individually or collectively configured to evaluate local information (Fig. 2, 222, [0046] measurements are local to the UE).
Regarding claim 9, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to prioritize two or more candidate cells, wherein the target cell is one of the two or more candidate cells and the source cell is one of the two or more candidate cells ([0051]-[0053], [0055], [0062]).
Regarding claim 10, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors, to prioritize the two or more candidate cells, are individually or collectively configured to evaluate a performance metric associated with each of the two or more candidate cells (Fig. 2, 222, [0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039], [0046]).
Regarding claim 11, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to receive cell information associated with one or more of the two or more candidate cells ([0043], [0050]).
Regarding claim 12, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 9, wherein prioritizing the two or more candidate cells is based, at least in part, on one or more prioritization rules ([0036]-[0037], [0043], [0047]-[0048], [0053], [0055]-[0056] [0062], [0064], [0081] ).
Regarding claim 13, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the handover procedure is based, at least in part, on a layer 3 signaled DTX/DRX configuration or a layer 3 signaled DTX/DRX reconfiguration ([0085]).
Regarding claim 14, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to receive a configuration for a conditional lower-layer triggered mobility handover based, at least in part, on a layer 1 activation indication, a layer 2 activation indication, a layer 3 activation indication, a layer 1 deactivation indication, a layer 2 deactivation indication, or a layer 3 deactivation indication of cell discontinuous transmission/discontinuous reception (Fig. 2, 214, 216, 222, [0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039], [0043]-[0046], [0051], [0085]).
Regarding claim 15, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the signal is associated with one of the source cell or one or more candidate cells including the target cell ([0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039], [0046]).
Regarding claim 16, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to receive a triggering signal from one or more of the source cell or the one or more candidate cells ([0030], [0051], [0085]).
Regarding claim 17, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 16, wherein the triggering signal is received via one or more of dedicated signaling, group signaling, broadcast signaling, radio resource control signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element signaling, a paging communication, or a short message communication ([0030], [0051], [0085]).
Regarding claim 18, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 16, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to select the target cell from among the one or more candidate cells ([0037], [0043], [0047]-[0048]).
Regarding claim 19, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 18, wherein selecting the target cell is based, at least in part, on a dynamic discontinuous transmission/discontinuous reception capability of each of the one or more candidate cells ([0047], [0085]).
Regarding claim 20, Cheng appears to disclose a network node for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, individually or collectively configured to (Fig. 6, 618, [0114]-[0115]):
transmit, to a user equipment (UE) a signal indicating a first candidate cell of a plurality of candidate cells adopted a dynamic discontinuous transmission/discontinuous reception (DTX/DRX) configuration, wherein a second candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells is not configured with dynamic DTX/DRX ([0016]-[0017] disclosing conditional handover (CHO) techniques related to network energy saving (NES) mode comprising cell discontinuous transmission (DTX) and/or discontinuous reception(DRX); [0031] disclosing “a CHO enhancement solution based on an NES mode of both the source cell and the target cell…UE...may switch to an NES specific CHO condition upon detection of the source cell in an NES mode. Instead of ( or in addition to) explicit UE group common Ll/L2 signaling, other implicit indication(s) of source cell NES mode change (e.g., dynamically changing NES mode to/from DTX/DRX); [0034] disclosing “the normal cell (i.e., a cell not in an NES mode) and the NES cell (i.e., a cell that is in an NES mode) satisfy the NES specific CHO condition, the UE may prioritize the normal cell for HO execution”; [0036] disclosing the gNB configures the UE with an indication of whether the target cell in in the NES mode (i.e., the NES mode of the target cell has not changed when the NES mode of the source cell has changed; Fig. 2, 214, 216, [0043]-[0045] disclosing the source cell sends an RRCReconfiguration message comprising 214 and 216 specifying criteria for triggering measurement reporting; [0051]-[0053] disclosing the source cell enters NES mode comprising cell DTX/DRX (i.e., dynamically switches to DTX/DRX mode) including of two or more candidate target cells);
receive, from the UE, a handover request to initiate a handover procedure for the UE from a source cell to a target cell of the plurality of candidate cells ([0031] in the NES specific CHO condition evaluation of NES mode of the source cell and the target cell; [0047] disclosing if the legacy CHO condition is met, the UE starts execution of handoff (e.g., using a legacy CHO procedure, as shown in FIG. IA and FIG. IB); Fig. 2 RACH procedure, [0052] disclosing For example, the UE 202 may perform a random access channel (RACH) procedure with the selected candidate target cell. The CHO handover completion occurs once the UE 202 becomes associated with the new cell on the source cell 204 ( and the UE 202 may send an attendant RRC reconfiguration complete message (RRCReconfigurationComplete) to the selected target cell. In a handover completion phase, the selected target cell sends the source cell 204 a handover success message.) based, at least in part, on an evaluated performance effect on the UE corresponding to each of the plurality of candidate cells including the first candidate cell and the second candidate cell (Fig. 2, 222, [0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039], [0046] disclosing the UE performs CHO measurements 222 to detect A3, A4 and A5 events in the NES specific CHO condition evaluation of NES mode of the source cell and the target cell).
Regarding claim 22, Cheng appears to disclose the network node of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors, to configure the UE to evaluate the performance effect, are individually or collectively configured to configure the UE to evaluate local information (Fig. 2, 222, [0046] measurements are local to the UE).
Regarding claim 24, Cheng appears to disclose the network node of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to configure the UE to receive a configuration for a conditional lower-layer triggered mobility handover based, at least in part, on a layer 1 activation indication, a layer 2 activation indication, a layer 3 activation indication, a layer 1 deactivation indication, a layer 2 deactivation indication, or a layer 3 deactivation indication of cell discontinuous transmission/discontinuous reception (Fig. 2, 214, 216, 222, [0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039], [0043]-[0046], [0051], [0085]).
Regarding claim 25, Cheng appears to disclose the network node of claim 20, wherein the triggering condition is associated with one of the source cell or one or more candidate cells including the target cell ([0019], [0031]-[0033], [0038]-[0039]).
Regarding claim 31, Cheng appears to disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the signal includes a current DTX/DRX configuration for each of the plurality of candidate cells ([0036] disclosing the gNB configures the UE with an indication of whether the target cell in in the NES mode; [0031] an indication is received that the source node has changed to NES mode and performs CHO based on the NES mode of the source cell and NES mode of the target cells; [0034] disclosing the node not in NES mode is prioritized over a cell in the NES mode for HO).
Regarding claim 32, Cheng appears to disclose the network node of claim 20, wherein the signal includes a current DTX/DRX configuration for each of the plurality of candidate cells ([0036] disclosing the gNB configures the UE with an indication of whether the target cell in in the NES mode; [0031] an indication is received that the source node has changed to NES mode and performs CHO based on the NES mode of the source cell and NES mode of the target cells; [0034] disclosing the node not in NES mode is prioritized over a cell in the NES mode for HO).
Regarding claims 26, 28-29 and 33, the claims are directed towards the method of wireless communication performed by the user equipment (UE) of claims 1, 8-9 and 31. Accordingly, claims 26, 28-29 and 33 are rejected on the grounds presented above for claims 1, 8-9 and 31.
Regarding claims 30 and 34, the claims are directed towards the method of wireless communication performed by the network node of claims 20 and 32. Accordingly, claims 30 and 34 are rejected on the grounds presented above for claim 20 and 32.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02 June 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts thew reference of record Cheng does not disclose, “wherein a handover to the target cell occurs during a future time period when the target cell is not configured with the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration." Applicant admits that Cheng discloses at [0034] “if both the normal cell (i.e., a cell not in an NES mode) and the NES cell (i.e., a cell that is in an NES mode) satisfy the NES specific CHO condition, the UE may prioritize the normal cell for HO execution”; and asserts Cheng “is silent as to the handover conditioned on a future time period when the normal cell is not configured with the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration.” The assertion is based on features not recited in the claims.
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., “the handover conditioned on a future time period when the normal cell is not configured with the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration”) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Cheng appears to disclose, as admitted by applicant, prioritizing handover to a target cell that is not in NES mode. Applicant ignores the finding of fact that NES mode is disclosed by Cheng as being in DTX and/or DRX mode ([0016]-[0017]). Based on applicant’s admission that Cheng discloses prioritizing handover to a normal cell not in NES mode is an implicit admission that this can include the cell not being in CTX and/or DRX mode. Further, the disclosure of Cheng implies the handover has not occurred yet, and will occur at a future time to the cell not in NES mode. Accordingly, the finding of facts in Cheng support a prima facie case of anticipation because Cheng appears to disclose the feature “wherein a handover to the target cell occurs during a future time period when the target cell is not configured with the dynamic DTX/DRX configuration."
Accordingly, applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Uemera et al. (WO 2024/209611 A1), Jung et al (KR 20240126195 A).
All claims are identical to or patentably indistinct from, or have unity of invention with claims in the application prior to the entry of the submission under 37 CFR 1.114 (that is, restriction (including a lack of unity of invention) would not be proper) and all claims could have been finally rejected on the grounds and art of record in the next Office action if they had been entered in the application prior to entry under 37 CFR 1.114. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL even though it is a first action after the filing of a request for continued examination and the submission under 37 CFR 1.114. See MPEP § 706.07(b). 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 Joseph A Bednash whose telephone number is (571)270-7500. The examiner can normally be reached 7 AM - 4:30 PM M-F.
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/JOSEPH A BEDNASH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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