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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
RE claims 1, 7 and 13, the terms “failure rate relative growth rate”, “a user disconnection ratio relative growth rate” in claims 1, 7 and 13 are relative terms which render the claim indefinite. The terms are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. There is no definite frame of reference that establishes what each of these rates is relative to.
RE claims 2-6, 8-12 and 14-18, the claims depend upon one of claims 1, 7 and 13 and thereby inherit the issues set forth above and further fail to resolve them via further limitation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-18 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
RE claims 1, 7 and 13, prior arts do not explicitly disclose teach or suggest obtaining a failure rate relative growth rate, a user disconnection ratio relative growth rate, and a low network speed ratio of a target cell, nor do they disclose teach or suggest determining that the target cell has a first abnormal attribute when a sum of the failure rate relative growth rate and the user disconnection ratio relative growth rate of the target cell is greater than a first threshold and determining that the target cell has a second abnormal attribute when the low network speed ratio of the target cell is greater than a second threshold so as to determine whether or not a given target cell is in an abnormal state.
RE claims 2-6, 8-12 and 14-18, the claims depend upon one of claims 1, 7 and 13 and thereby incorporate the allowable features set forth above.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kobayashi et al. (US 2014/0315539): Paragraph 88 discloses a target cell evaluated based on “traffic burden of an evaluation targeted radio cell, average throughput, an abnormal cut-off rate, a handover failure and the like.” The prior art does not explicitly disclose or suggest “a failure rate relative growth rate, a user disconnection ratio relative growth rate, and a low network speed ratio of a target cell” nor does it disclose or suggest the claimed steps of “determining that the target cell has a first abnormal attribute when a sum of the failure rate relative growth rate and the user disconnection ratio relative growth rate of the target cell is greater than a first threshold; and determining that the target cell has a second abnormal attribute when the low network speed ratio of the target cell is greater than a second threshold.”
Wang et al. (US 2014/0043998): Paragraph 54 discloses an eNB monitoring performance of a target cell via measurement of “one or more pieces of the following information: the number of handover requests with respect to the target cell, the number of successful handovers with respect to the target cell, and a disconnection/call drop rate of the target cell”. Again, this prior art falls short of meeting the claimed features of determining “a failure rate relative growth rate, a user disconnection ratio relative growth rate, and a low network speed ratio of a target cell” and “determining that the target cell has a first abnormal attribute when a sum of the failure rate relative growth rate and the user disconnection ratio relative growth rate of the target cell is greater than a first threshold; and determining that the target cell has a second abnormal attribute when the low network speed ratio of the target cell is greater than a second threshold.”.
Santhanam et al. (US 2017/0055164, cited on the IDS dated January 05, 2025): Paragraphs 49-58 discloses a UE performing a procedure to determine sub-optimal cells which once identified are avoided. This is closest to the inventive concept claimed. The UE receives crowd-sourced information about the cells as well as collecting information itself. Paragraph 51 discloses “At 210, the UE 115-b may collect information for one or more cells. In some cases, the information may include statistical information for one or more cells. In some cases, the statistical information may be collected over time (e.g., on a time scale of hours, days, weeks, etc.). In some examples, the statistical information may be sorted based on time-of-day, location, and/or other parameters. The UE 115-b may additionally or alternatively determine a performance metric (e.g., a communications throughput) for one or more cells. The UE 115-b may additionally or alternatively probe one or more cells (e.g., perform a communications speed test for one or more cells). In some examples, the one or more cells for which the UE 115-b is collecting data may include a cell corresponding to the base station 105-c. In some examples, the collected information may be based at least in part on communications (e.g., an initiation of a cell access procedure 215) with the base station 105-c. In some examples, a cell access procedure 215 may include an initial access procedure, a HPPLMN scan, a manual PLMN scan, a manual PLMN selection, a manual CSG selection, a network-initiated cell redirection, a UE-initiated cell redirection, a cell search, camping in an idle state, and/or the like.”
Once again, as close as it is this prior art falls short of meeting the claimed features of determining “a failure rate relative growth rate, a user disconnection ratio relative growth rate, and a low network speed ratio of a target cell” and “determining that the target cell has a first abnormal attribute when a sum of the failure rate relative growth rate and the user disconnection ratio relative growth rate of the target cell is greater than a first threshold; and determining that the target cell has a second abnormal attribute when the low network speed ratio of the target cell is greater than a second threshold.”.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to James P Duffy whose telephone number is (571)270-7516. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday-Friday, 9am-6pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Huy D Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James P Duffy/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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