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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 May 18th, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Examiner acknowledges receipt of Applicant’s amendment filled 05/18/2026.
In the amendment, Applicant amended claims 1, 4-5, 7-8, 10, 13-14, 17-20.
In the amendment, Applicant canceled claims 2-3. 11-12, and 15-16.
Claims 1, 4-10, 13-14 and 17-20 are currently pending.
Response to Arguments
Examiner has fully considered Applicant's arguments, filed on 05/18/2026.
Applicant’s arguments (page 8-9) with respect to 35 USC 103 rejection of claim 1 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.
Applicant’s arguments (page 10-11) with respect to 35 USC 103 rejection of claim 10 and claim 14 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 objection:
Claim 4 and claim 17 are objected to for the following informalities: “wherein identifying the at least one candidate cell comprises identifying,” should be written as “wherein identifying the at least one candidate cell comprises,”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
In 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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 4, 10, 14, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vangala et al. (US20230189113-A1, hereinafter, Vangala) in view of KOSKELA et al. (US 20240430725 A1), hereinafter, Koskela), further in view of JEONG et al. (US 20230370876 A1), hereinafter, Jeong).
Regarding Claim 1, Vangala discloses, a method for initiating a cell selection or a handover for a User Equipment (UE) (Fig. 3, UE 320a), the method comprising:
identifying a plurality of candidate cells satisfying cell selection criteria or handover measurement criteria for the UE ("...In some examples, at least one mobility-based cell selection factor may indicate that a relatively lower cell mobility corresponds with a relatively longer time between actual or expected instances of cell reselection or handover for the UE during a time interval. According to some examples, at least one mobility-based cell selection factor may indicate that a relatively lower cell mobility corresponds with relatively less variation in actual or expected RSRP during a time interval." [¶0073], see also, "In some examples, method 400 may involve performing, by the UE and based at least in part on the first measurement configuration, a RSRP evaluation of the two or more cells. In some such examples, the cell selection or reselection process may be associated with one or more RSRP evaluation results." [¶0078] see also, "...According to some examples, the cell selection or reselection process may involve one or more measurements, based at least in part on the first measurement configuration, of two or more candidate cells."[¶0075]);
based on the determination for each candidate cell identifying at least one candidate cell that supports relaxed measurement from among the plurality of candidate cells ("...In some such examples, method 400 may involve implementing the reduced threshold for determining the RLF associated with (for example, based in part on) a current serving cell corresponding with a high-mobility state. In some implementations, the UE 620a may be configured to trigger an RLF associated with determining that one or more neighbor cells correspond with one or more relatively more relaxed measurement parameters than those of the serving cell."[ ¶0100]); and
Vangala doesn’t explicitly disclose, for each candidate cell, decoding a System Information Block2 (SIB2) broadcast by that candidate cell and determining whether the SIB2 includes a relaxed measurement information element;
initiating, the cell selection or the handover for the UE by prioritizing the identified at least one candidate cell over another candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element.
Koskela in a related art relates, for each candidate cell, decoding a System Information Block2 (SIB2) broadcast by that candidate cell and determining whether the SIB2 includes a relaxed measurement information element (“highPriorityMeasRelax-r16 is a parameter indicating whether measurements can be relaxed on high priority frequencies. If the field is absent, the user equipment 110 shall not relax measurements on high priority frequencies beyond what a parameter T.sub.higher_priority_search indicates. The value of the parameter T.sub.higher_priority_search informs that the user equipment shall search every layer of higher priority at least every T.sub.higher_priority_search=(60*N.sub.layers) seconds, where N.sub.layers is the total number of higher priority NR and E-UTRA carrier frequencies broadcasted in system information.” [¶0121]); Here, the “broadcasted in system information” could be broadcasted sib2.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala with the idea of decoding the System Information Block 2 (SIB2) of candidate neighbor cells to check for a relaxed measurement information element (IE) as disclosed by Koskela. The rationale for doing this is primarily centered around power conservation and efficient mobility management.
Jeong in related art relates, initiating, the cell selection or the handover for the UE by prioritizing the identified at least one candidate cell over another candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element.
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala and Koskela with the idea of prioritizing candidate cells that include this relaxed measurement IE during cell selection or handover as disclosed by Jeong. The primary advantage of doing this is significant energy savings and reduced power consumption for the User Equipment (UE) by minimizing unnecessary radio measurements.
Regarding Claim 4, combination of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong disclose the method as claimed in claim 1.
Vangala doesn’t explicitly disclose, further comprising: determining whether the SIB2 includes at least one relaxed measurement parameter for each of the plurality of candidate cells, wherein the at least one relaxed measurement parameter is included in the relaxed measurement information element and indicates a relaxation method for a cell measurement in the corresponding candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells; and
wherein identifying the at least one candidate cell comprises identifying, by the UE, the at least one candidate cell that supports relaxed measurement based on a determination that the SIB2 of the at least one candidate cell includes the relaxed measurement information element including the at least one relaxed measurement parameter.
Jeong in related art relates, further comprising: determining whether the SIB2 includes at least one relaxed measurement parameter for each of the plurality of candidate cells, wherein the at least one relaxed measurement parameter is included in the relaxed measurement information element and indicates a relaxation method for a cell measurement in the corresponding candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells (“A UE 1e-05 that has decided to perform the RRM measurement in accordance with FIG. 4 and Table 3 checks whether relaxedMeasurement is configured in SIB2 (step 1e-15). In the relaxedMeasurement, a plurality of parameters for RRM relaxation are contained as shown in Table 4 partially captured from TS 38.331 v.16.2.0. If the relaxedMeasurement is configured in SIB2 and the UE 1e-05 supports relaxed measurement, the UE 1e-05 determines using the parameters whether RRM relaxation can be performed (step 1e-20). If it is determined through the step 1e-20 that the RRM relaxation can be performed, the UE 1e-05 can perform relaxed RRM measurement (step 1e-25).” [¶0069- ¶0070]); and
wherein identifying the at least one candidate cell comprises identifying, by the UE, the at least one candidate cell that supports relaxed measurement based on a determination that the SIB2 of the at least one candidate cell includes the relaxed measurement information element including the at least one relaxed measurement parameter.
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala with the idea of having the UE check if a candidate cell's System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) contains a relaxed measurement information element as disclosed by Jeong. The primary advantage of the described feature is drastic reduction in UE battery consumption during idle or inactive states via cell-specific relaxation methods.
Regarding Claim 10, Vangala discloses, a method for initiating a cell selection or a handover for a User Equipment (UE) (Fig. 3, UE 320a), the method comprising the UE:
Identifying, a plurality of candidate cells satisfying cell selection criteria or handover measurement criteria for the UE ("...In some examples, at least one mobility-based cell selection factor may indicate that a relatively lower cell mobility corresponds with a relatively longer time between actual or expected instances of cell reselection or handover for the UE during a time interval. According to some examples, at least one mobility-based cell selection factor may indicate that a relatively lower cell mobility corresponds with relatively less variation in actual or expected RSRP during a time interval." [¶0073], see also, "In some examples, method 400 may involve performing, by the UE and based at least in part on the first measurement configuration, a RSRP evaluation of the two or more cells. In some such examples, the cell selection or reselection process may be associated with one or more RSRP evaluation results." [¶0078] see also, "...According to some examples, the cell selection or reselection process may involve one or more measurements, based at least in part on the first measurement configuration, of two or more candidate cells."[¶0075]);
Vangala doesn’t explicitly disclose, for each candidate cell, decoding a System Information Block2 (SIB2) broadcast by that candidate cell and determining whether the SIB2 includes a relaxed measurement information element;
based on the determination for each candidate cell, identifying at least one candidate cell that supports relaxed measurement from among the plurality of candidate cells, and at least one other candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element;
determining whether a signal strength of the at least one other candidate cell is higher than the signal strength of the at least one candidate cell by a specified threshold; and
initiating the cell selection or the handover for the UE based on the determination.
Koskela in a related art relates, for each candidate cell, decoding a System Information Block2 (SIB2) broadcast by that candidate cell and determining whether the SIB2 includes a relaxed measurement information element (“highPriorityMeasRelax-r16 is a parameter indicating whether measurements can be relaxed on high priority frequencies. If the field is absent, the user equipment 110 shall not relax measurements on high priority frequencies beyond what a parameter T.sub.higher_priority_search indicates. The value of the parameter T.sub.higher_priority_search informs that the user equipment shall search every layer of higher priority at least every T.sub.higher_priority_search=(60*N.sub.layers) seconds, where N.sub.layers is the total number of higher priority NR and E-UTRA carrier frequencies broadcasted in system information.” [¶0121]); Here, the “broadcasted in system information” could be broadcasted sib2.
determining whether a signal strength of the at least one other candidate cell is higher than the signal strength of the at least one candidate cell by a specified threshold (“An example of a system information (SI) element in a system information block (SIB) for informing a user equipment about the parameters related to such relaxed measurements is described below” [¶0114]): and
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initiating the cell selection or the handover for the UE based on the determination (“s-Search ThresholdP-r16 is a parameter indicating an Rx level threshold for cell reselection.” [¶0118], see also, “The RRM measurements in the scope of some embodiments are primarily measurements of the received signal received power RSRP and/or the received signal received quality RSRQ for use for mobility purposes (i.e. cell quality measurements for cell reselection).” [¶0134], see also, “A user equipment which is in the RRC_Idle or RRC_Inactive mode can measure multiple beams (i.e. signals transmitted during SSBs at different beams) of a cell at least once, and the results of those measurements (power values) are averaged to derive the cell quality. In doing so, the user equipment is configured to consider a subset of the detected beams. Basically, the cell-level measurement quantity used for cell reselection may be defined as the linear average of the measurement quantity values (RSRP) of the beams which are above a network defined threshold (absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation)” [¶0136].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala with the idea of conditionally triggering cell selection or handover based on both the presence of the relaxed measurement feature and a signal strength threshold as disclosed by Koskela. The rationale for doing this is significant UE power savings and reduced battery consumption through optimized neighbor-cell tracking, while simultaneously ensuring network stability by preventing ping-pong handovers.
Jeong in related art relates, based on the determination for each candidate cell, identifying at least one candidate cell that supports relaxed measurement from among the plurality of candidate cells, and at least one other candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element;
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala and Koskela with the idea of prioritizing candidate cells that include this relaxed measurement IE during cell selection or handover as disclosed by Jeong. The primary advantage of doing this is significant energy savings and reduced power consumption for the User Equipment (UE) by minimizing unnecessary radio measurements.
Regarding Claim 14, Vangala discloses, an electronic device comprising:
memory storing instructions (Fig. 2, E 292, see also “The non-transitory computer-readable medium may store one or more instructions for wireless communication. The one or more instructions, when executed by a control system of a UE..." [¶0012]; and
one or more processors comprising processing circuitry (Fig. 2, E 220, 258), wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
identifying a plurality of candidate cells satisfying cell selection criteria or handover measurement criteria for the electronic device:
for each candidate cell, decoding a System Information Block2 (SIB2) broadcast by that candidate cell and determining whether the SIB2 includes a relaxed measurement information element;
based on the determination for each candidate cell, identifying at least one candidate cell that supports relaxed measurement; and
initiating the cell selection or the handover for the electronic device by prioritizing the identified at least one candidate cell over another candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element.
Regarding claim 14 “Electronic Device”, are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 10 “Method”, where Vangala, Koskela and Jeong teach Method/“Electronic Device”.
Regarding claim 17 “Electronic Device”, are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 4 “Method”, where Vangala, Koskela and Jeong teach Method/“Electronic Device”.
Claims 5, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vangala, Koskela and Jeong in view of Cheng; Chien-Chun (US20250016700-A1, hereinafter, Cheng).
Regarding Claim 5, combination of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong disclose the method as claimed in claim 4.
Vangala don’t explicitly disclose, wherein the relaxed measurement information element is included in a System Information Block2 (SIB2), and wherein the SIB2 is decoded by the UE during one of a cell selection/reselection, a conditional handover, a Dual Active Protocol Stack (DAPS) handover, redirection, and mobility to New Radio (NR) from Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA).
Cheng, in relates art relates, wherein the relaxed measurement information element is included in a System Information Block2 (SIB2), and wherein the SIB2 is decoded by the UE during one of a cell selection/reselection, a conditional handover, a Dual Active Protocol Stack (DAPS) handover, redirection, and mobility to New Radio (NR) from Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) ( "...Scenario 1000 illustrates an example on access procedure associated with alternative 2 for LP cell. The UE in the camped state may receive SIB2. SIB2 may contain cell re-selection information for intra-frequency cell selection..." [¶0073], see also, "...Scenario 200 involves a plurality of network nodes (e.g., a macro base station and a micro base station) and a UE, which may be a part of a wireless communication network (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G/NR network, an IoT network or a 6G network). Scenario 200 illustrates an example of alternative 1 for accessing the LP cell. For alternative 1, the UE may establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection via the normal cell by the initial cell search procedure. Once the UE establish the RRC connection successfully, the network node may provide access to a long-periodicity cell by one of the following procedure: (1) handover (HO), (2) conditional HO (CHO), (3) dual active protocol stack (DASP), (4) carrier arrogation (CA), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)-New Radio (NR)..." [¶0042]). During LP, that is "long periodicity" the network signals to the UE that it can begin relaxed measurements, the UE can increase the time interval between its RRM measurements. Instead of the standard, more frequent measurements, the UE can monitor neighboring cells much less often. This effectively increases the "periodicity" of measurements and the time spent in a low-power state. After receiving System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2), a User Equipment (UE) proceeds with the random access procedure by transmitting a random access preamble (Msg1), which informs the base station (eNodeB/gNB) of the UE's need to establish an RRC connection.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala, Koskela and Jeoung with the idea of using SIB 2 for cell selection, handover, etc. as disclosed by Cheng. The rationale is specifically concerning power-saving enhancements in 4g/5g network, as SIB2 can contain parameters related to relaxed measurements. The UE confirms the presence of these parameters by reviewing the contents of the SIB2 broadcast.
Regarding claim [18] “Electronic Device”, is rejected under the same reasoning as claim [5] “Method”, where Vangala, Koskela, Jeoung, and Cheng teaches Method/“Electronic Device”.
Claims 6, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vangala, Koskela and Jeong in view of Li et al. (US 20240172120 A1, hereinafter, Li).
Regarding Claim 6, combination of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong disclose the method as claimed in claim 4.
Vangala explicitly doesn’t teach, wherein the at least one relaxed measurement parameter for a candidate cell indicates support for relaxation of frequency measurements in one of an idle and inactive state of the UE, based on the UE being served by the candidate cell.
Li, in related art relates, wherein the at least one relaxed measurement parameter for a candidate cell indicates support for relaxation of frequency measurements in one of an idle and inactive state of the UE, based on the UE being served by the candidate cell ("...The terminal device in the first state performs idle-state behavior such as relaxed intra-frequency measurement, relaxed inter-frequency measurement, relaxed cell measurement, and/or relaxed cell reselection. The relaxed intra-frequency measurement/inter-frequency measurement/cell measurement means that, compared with intra-frequency measurement/inter-frequency measurement/cell measurement in the idle state or the inactive state defined in the existing protocol, the relaxed intra-frequency measurement/inter-frequency measurement/cell measurement has a longer measurement period..." [¶0016]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong with the idea of using at least one relaxed measurement parameter for a candidate cell in idle /inactive state as disclosed by Li. The rationale for doing so is to reduce power consumption, "...The relaxed cell reselection means that, compared with cell reselection in an idle state or an inactive state defined in the existing protocol, the relaxed cell reselection has a lower threshold for triggering cell reselection or triggering cell measurement. Behavior of the terminal device in the first state is limited, so that power consumption of the terminal device is further reduced." [¶0016].
Regarding claim [19] “Electronic Device”, is rejected under the same reasoning as claim [6] “Method”, where Vangala, Koskela, Jeoung, and Li teaches Method/“Electronic Device”.
Claims 7, 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vangala, Koskela and Jeong in view of Kumar et al. (US 20200100151 A1, hereinafter, Kumar).
Regarding Claim 7, combination of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong disclose the method as claimed in claim 1.
Vangala doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein initiating the cell selection or the handover for the UE by prioritizing the identified at least one candidate cell over another candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element comprises:
selecting the identified at least one candidate cell for camping on, in response to a determination that the UE needs to initiate the cell selection; and
sending measurement report for the at least one candidate cell in response to a determination that the UE needs to initiate the handover.
Kumar, in related art relates, wherein initiating the cell selection or the handover for the UE by prioritizing the identified at least one candidate cell over another candidate cell of the plurality of candidate cells determined not to include the relaxed measurement information element comprises:
selecting the identified at least one candidate cell for camping on, in response to a determination that the UE needs to initiate the cell selection ("The network decides an optimal cell for the UE handover based both on the reported rank values and the reported signal strength values. The network, based on the report including the measured RSRP/RSRQ and ranks of the reported neighbor cells, may make a better decision to determine the most optimal cell to handover the UE. For example, based on the measurement report 1200, if the network determines that both the cells with RSRPs of 19 and 20 may sufficiently maintain a reliable link, the network may prioritize the cell with the higher reported rank for the handover. Thus, this technique ensures that a target cell determined for handover of the UE, in addition to satisfying a signal strength criterion/threshold..." [¶0092]); and
sending measurement report for the at least one candidate cell in response to a determination that the UE needs to initiate the handover (“In alternative aspects, the UE may be configured to trigger a measurement report when either one of the signal strength based or the rank based criteria are satisfied. However, the UE may still report both signal strength and rank values for each reported cell, and the network may take into account signal strength and rank of the reported cells to select a target cell for the UE handover.” [¶0093])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong with the idea that UE evaluates potential "candidate cells" and once a suitable cell is found, it selects it to "camp on "as disclosed by Kumar. The rationale for doing this process is to optimize of network efficiency and connection stability by reducing latency, preventing dropped calls, and saving device power during cell transitions.
Regarding claims [13/20] “Method/ Electronic device”, is rejected under the same reasoning as claim [7] “Method”, where Vangala/Koskela/Jeong/ Kumar teaches Method/Electronic device/Method.
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vangala, Koskela and Jeong in view of Lee et al. (US 20240163765 A1, hereinafter, Lee-3765).
Regarding Claim 8, combination of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong disclose the method as claimed in claim 1.
Vangala further teaches, wherein initiating the cell selection or the handover for the UE by prioritizing the identified at least one candidate cell comprises: determining at least two candidate cells that support relaxed measurement from among the plurality of candidate cells ("...the cell selection or reselection process may involve a cell reselection process. Block 430 may, for example, be performed by one or more elements of a UE control system, such as the controller/processor 280 of FIG. 2. According to some examples, the cell selection or reselection process may involve one or more measurements, based at least in part on the first measurement configuration, of two or more candidate cells." [¶0075]);
Vangala doesn’t explicitly disclose, comparing a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and a bandwidth of the at least two candidate cells to determine a selected candidate cell with a higher RSRP and the bandwidth; and
initiating, by the UE, the cell selection or the handover for the UE using the selected candidate cell.
Lee-3765, in related art relates, comparing a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and a bandwidth of the at least two candidate cells to determine a selected candidate cell with a higher RSRP and the bandwidth ("The method of claim 1, wherein the neighbor cells comprise target cells for a conditional mobility, wherein the method further comprises: performing a measurement on each of the target cells to obtain a signal quality of each of the target cells; and determining the cell having a highest signal quality among the selected one or more cells based on the signal quality of each of the target cells, and wherein the performing of the cell reselection to the cell comprises performing a conditional mobility to the cell based on a mobility command related to the cell." [Claim 4]); Here the highest signal quality means having highest RSRP and higher BW; and
initiating, by the UE, the cell selection or the handover for the UE using the selected candidate cell (Fig 12, see also, "In step S1207, the UE may perform a cell reselection to a cell among the selected one or more cells." [¶0214]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong with the idea of using both Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and bandwidth to decide which cell to connect to during cell selection and handover procedures as disclosed by Lee-3765. The rationale for using both Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and bandwidth to decide is to ensures the best possible connectivity, balancing strong signal strength with high data throughput.
Regarding Claim 9, combination of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong disclose the method as claimed in claim 1.
Vangala doesn’t explicitly teach, further comprising: detecting that a signal strength of a UE connected with a first cell is reduced below a specified threshold level; and
identifying the plurality of candidate cells having a signal strength above another specified threshold level in response to detecting that the signal strength of the UE connected with the first cell decreases below the specified threshold level.
Lee-3765, in related art relates, further comprising: detecting that a signal strength of a UE connected with a first cell is reduced below a specified threshold level ("For example, the mobility condition for a target cell may comprise event A5 condition. The event A5 condition may be related to a serving cell threshold and a target cell threshold. The event A5 condition for a target cell may be satisfied if a signal quality for the target cell is better than the target cell threshold and a signal quality for the serving cell is lower than the serving cell threshold." 0183]); and
identifying the plurality of candidate cells having a signal strength above another specified threshold level in response to detecting that the signal strength of the UE connected with the first cell decreases below the specified threshold level ("...The UE may calculate the remaining accessible/service time of each cell in the first neighbor cell list whose measured cell quality is higher than a threshold. The UE may calculate a distance between the UE and each cell in the second neighbor cell list whose measured cell quality is higher than a threshold. The UE may perform a cell reselection to a neighbor cell whose cell quality is the highest, among the cells whose calculated remaining service time is the longest among the cells in the first neighbor cell list and calculated distance is the shortest among the cells in the second neighbor cell list." [¶0226]). Here “signal strength” could be used for “cell quality” as signal strength is a fundamental part of overall cell quality.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the idea of Vangala, Koskela and Jeong with the idea of setting up a condition for a target cell that may be satisfied if a signal quality for the target cell is better than the target cell threshold as disclosed by Lee-3765. The rationale for using candidate cells having a signal strength above a specified threshold level is to ensures that "...The UE may perform a cell reselection to a neighbor cell whose cell quality is the highest..." [¶0226].
Conclusion
References cited but not used: Chen et al. (US 20240292368 A1), [¶0043-¶0046] can be used for independent claims 1, 10 and 14 in addition to the one used.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA whose telephone number is (703)756-1594. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 - 6:30 ET.
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/MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA/Examiner, Art Unit 4126
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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