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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending in this office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The reasons set forth below:
Applicant Argues:
On pages 8-11 of the remarks, Applicant argues First, the Examiner misrepresents the deficiencies of Shah. For instance, the Examiner merely adds the purported teaching of Lewis to the purported teachings of Shah relative to the "receiving" feature, even though independent claim 1 further recites "calculating ... offset values based on the performance metric information." In this regard, the Examiner fails to adequately address all of the deficiencies of Shah relative to the features recited in independent claim 1. Even so, Shah in view of Lewis does not describe or suggest the claimed performance metric information, as recited in the "receiving" feature of independent claim 1. The Examiner also alleges that a skilled artisan would have been motivated to combine the purported teachings of Lewis with Shah so as to "provide a system for dynamic wireless network throughput adjustment" - citing the Abstract of Lewis. Non-Final Office Action, pp. 4-5.
In response, the Examiner respectfully submits:
Shah teaches in Fig. 5; [0114]-[0115] that the CE/RAN controller receives at step S5040, HO status information from RAN 110. The HO status information represents network condition information as disclosed in [0108] and that the network condition information may be network congestion conditions, see [0002].
Shah does not explicitly disclose the HO status information (=performance metric) pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network. Fig. 1A of Shah disclose the network wherein the CE is connected to the RAN nodes. Also Fig. 1A shows the RAN nodes connected with another via the core network. The network connection between the RAN nodes and connecting the RAN nodes to the core network constitutes the transport network.
Lewis teaches in Fig. 6, a core network 540 connected to RAN node 510. The core network determines network congestion conditions, see [0025]-[0026]. Shah does not explicitly disclose that the network congestion condition information collected bt the core network is related to the transport network, however Lewis teaches network congestion information of a transport network. One of ordinary skill in the art worl be motivate to incorporate the teaching od Lewis into the system of Shah such that the handover is performed based on the network congestion information in he network thereby improving the system throughput since there will be less failures due ot the handover.
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.
Claims 1, 3-6, 7-9, 11-14 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shah et al (US 2024/0073770 A1) in view of Lewis et al (US 2023/0038198 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Shah teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a radio access network (RAN) controller device of a RAN, performance metric information (Shah: Fig. 5; [0114]-[0115], CE/RAN controller receives at step S5040, HO status information/performance metric from RAN 110);
calculating, by the RAN controller device, offset values based on the performance metric information and different performance metric classifications of end devices (Shah: Fig. 5; [0115]-[0117], CE determines at step S5060, mobility configuration parameters based on the HO status information; the mobility configuration information comprising CIO/offset, see [0118]); and
transmitting, by the RAN controller device, the offset values to wireless stations of the RAN (Shah: Fig. 5; at step S5100 the offsets are transmitted to the UEs).
Shah does not explicitly disclose the performance metric pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network.
Lewis teaches performance metric pertaining to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network (Lewis: Fig. 6; [0026], [0058], [0066], collecting transport network performance).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Shah wherein the performance metric pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network as disclosed by Lewis to provide a system for dynamic wireless network throughput adjustment (Lewis: Abstract).
Regarding claim 9, Shah teaches a network device (Shah: Fig. 5; CE 150) comprising: a processor that is configured to:
receive performance metric information ,wherein the network device is a RAN controller device of the RAN (Shah: Fig. 5; [0114]-[0115], CE/RAN controller receives at step S5040, HO status information/performance metric from RAN 110);
calculate offset values based on the performance metric information and different performance metric classifications of end devices (Shah: Fig. 5; [0115]-[0117], CE determines at step S5060, mobility configuration parameters based on the Ho status information; the mobility configuration information comprising CIO/offset, see [0118]); and
transmit the offset values to wireless stations of the RAN (Shah: Fig. 5; at step S5100 the offsets are transmitted to the UEs).
Shah does not explicitly disclose the performance metric pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network.
Lewis teaches performance metric pertaining to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network (Lewis: Fig. 6; [0026], [0058], [0066], collecting transport network performance).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Shah wherein the performance metric pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network as disclosed by Lewis to provide a system for dynamic wireless network throughput adjustment (Lewis: Abstract).
Regarding claim 17, Shah teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor of a radio access network (RAN) controller device (Shah: Fig. 5; CE 150), wherein the instructions are configured to:
receive performance metric information, wherein the network device is a RAN controller device of the RAN (Shah: Fig. 5; [0114]-[0115], CE/RAN controller receives at step S5040, HO status information/performance metric from RAN 110);
calculate offset values based on the performance metric information and different performance metric classifications of end devices (Shah: Fig. 5; [0115]-[0117], CE determines at step S5060, mobility configuration parameters based on the Ho status information; the mobility configuration information comprising CIO/offset, see [0118]); and
transmit the offset values to wireless stations of the RAN (Shah: Fig. 5; at step S5100 the offsets are transmitted to the UEs).
Shah does not explicitly disclose the performance metric pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network.
Lewis teaches performance metric pertaining to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network (Lewis: Fig. 6; [0026], [0058], [0066], collecting transport network performance).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Shah wherein the performance metric pertains to a transport network that connects the RAN to a core network as disclosed by Lewis to provide a system for dynamic wireless network throughput adjustment (Lewis: Abstract).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Shah teaches calculating, by the RAN controller device, neighbor lists for each wireless station of the wireless stations based on the performance metric information and different performance metric classifications of the end devices (Shah: Fig. 7; [0118] CIO for different cells/neighboring cells determined).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Shah teaches receiving, by the RAN controller device, at least one of configuration or topology change information of the transport network, and wherein the calculating further comprises: calculating, by the RAN controller device, the offset values based on the performance metric information, the different performance metric classifications of end devices, and the at least one of the configuration or topology change information (Shah: Fig. 5; steps S5010 to step S5060; based on change of EU locations/configuration changes, CE determines updated mobility configuration parameters).
Regarding claims 5, 13 and 18, Shah teaches receiving calculating, by the RAN controller device, the offset values based on the performance metric information, the different performance metric classifications of end devices, at least one of configuration or topology change information (Shah: Fig. 5; steps S5010 to step S5060; based on change of EU locations/configuration changes, CE determines updated mobility configuration parameters), and at least one of mobility load balancing (MLB), mobility robustness optimization (MRO) (Shah: Fig. 5; [0066]-[0067], [0077], [0108]), or automatic neighbor relation (ANR).
Regarding claims 6, 14 and 19, Shah teaches wherein the different performance metric classifications relate to different Fifth Generation (5G) Quality of Service Class Identifiers (5QCIs) (Shah: Fig. 7; [0073], [0077] QoS in 5G system).
Regarding claims 8, 16 and 19, Shah teaches wherein the RAN controller device includes a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) device or a base station controller (BSC) device (Shah: Fig. 5; [0031], [0077]).
Claims 2 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shah et al (US 2024/0073770 A1) in view of Lewis et al (US 2023/0038198 A1) in further view of Khawand et al (US 2018/0213444 A1).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Shah in view of Lewis does not explicitly disclose wherein the performance metric information includes performance metric values of user plane traffic in the transport network relating to latency, throughput, reliability and packet error.
Khawand teaches wherein the performance metric information includes performance metric values of user plane traffic in the transport network relating to latency, throughput, reliability and packet error (Khawand: [0002], performance based on latency, error rates, throughput and reliability).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Shah in view of Lewis wherein the performance metric information includes performance metric values of user plane traffic in the transport network relating to latency, throughput, reliability and packet error as disclosed by Khawand to provide a system for quality of service management in a transport network (Khawand: Abstract).
Claims 7, 15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shah et al (US 2024/0073770 A1) in view of Lewis et al (US 2023/0038198 A1) in further view of Gajic et al (WO 2023/083458 A1).
Regarding claims 7, 15 and 20, Shah does not explicitly disclose wherein the offset values include cell individual offset values that pertain to different radio resource control (RRC) states of the end devices.
Gajic teaches wherein the offset values include cell individual offset values that pertain to different radio resource control (RRC) states of the end devices (Gajic: Page 29: lines 1-7, CIO based on RRC states of the users).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Shah wherein the offset values include cell individual offset values that pertain to different radio resource control (RRC) states of the end devices as disclosed by Gajic to provide a system for RL-based mobility optimization (Gajic: Page 2).
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 KODZOVI ACOLATSE whose telephone number is (571)270-1999. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 10 am to 6pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Avellino Joseph can be reached at (571) 272-3905. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
Prosecution Insights