Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/412,627

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INACTIVE STATE PAGING IN WIRELESS MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jan 15, 2024
Examiner
JAIN, SWATI
Art Unit
2649
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Soenghun Kim
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 11m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allow Rate
94 granted / 113 resolved
+21.2% vs TC avg
Strong +26% interview lift
Without
With
+26.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
28 currently pending
Career history
141
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.3%
-37.7% vs TC avg
§103
74.4%
+34.4% vs TC avg
§102
15.5%
-24.5% vs TC avg
§112
2.4%
-37.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 113 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 § 103 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 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 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Radisys et al., Redcap UE support over F1, R3-215916, 3GPP TSG RAN WG3 #114-e, Nov 1-11, 2021 (hereinafter Radisys) in view of US 20240373499 A1 (AGIWAL et al.)(hereinafter AGIWAL) in view of Ericsson, Running CR for the RedCap WI, R2-2111095, 3GPP TSG RAN2 Meeting #116-e, Nov 1-12, 2021 (hereinafter Ericsson 1) and in further view of Ericsson, Running CR for the RedCap WI, R2-2111097, 3GPP TSG RAN2 Meeting #116-e, Nov 1-12, 2021 (hereinafter Ericsson 2). In re claims 1 and 20, Radisys discloses a method performed by a distributed unit (DU) (Section 8.7.1.1, line 1, “The purpose of the Paging procedure is used to provide the paging information to enable the gNB-DU to page a UE”) and a distributed unit (DU) in a wireless communication system (Fig. 8.7.1.2-1, “gNB-DU”), the DU comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal; and a controller configured to control the transceiver to: receive, from a central unit (CU), a first paging message for a terminal (Fig. 8.7.1.2-1, section 8.7.1.1, page 5, line 1, “The gNB-CU initiates the procedure by sending a PAGING message”), wherein the first paging message comprises: first information that comprises a first identifier of the terminal (page 6, section 9.2.6.1, lines 1-2, “This message is sent by the gNB-CU and is used to request the gNB-DU to page UEs. Direction: gNB-CU ➔ gNB-DU”. Page 7, table, row 5, “RAN UE Paging identity”); second information derived from a second identifier of the terminal (Page 7, Table, row 3, “UE identity Index value”); third information related to discontinuous reception (DRX) (Page 7, Table, row 7, “Paging DRX”); and fourth information related to DRX (Page 7, Table, row 13, “Paging eDRX” (the paging message includes a RAN UE paging identity, a UE identity index value, paging DRX, and paging eDRX)); determine, based on the first paging message, a paging frame and a paging occasion; and transmit, via a paging channel, a second paging message in the paging occasion of the paging frame, wherein in case that fifth information is comprised in the first paging message: the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a paging occasion index. Radisys does not explicitly disclose DU comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal; and a controller configured to control the transceiver. AGIWAL discloses DU comprising: a transceiver (Fig. 20:2010) configured to transmit and receive a signal ([0015], “The base station includes: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal”); and a controller configured to control the transceiver (Fig. 20:2020, [0015], “a controller coupled with the transceiver”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys with AGIWAL to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a fourth generation (4G) to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services. Radisys and AGIWAL do not explicitly disclose determine, based on the first paging message, a paging frame and a paging occasion, wherein in case that fifth information is comprised in the first paging message: the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a paging occasion index. Ericsson 1 discloses determine, based on the first paging message, a paging frame and a paging occasion (Page 39, section 7, lines 3-7, “The paging frame (PF) and paging occasion (PO) for paging are determined by the following formulae: System frame number (SFN) for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N), Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: i_s = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns”), wherein in case that fifth information is comprised in the first paging message: the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a paging occasion index (Page 39, lines 15-25, “A PO is a set of 'S*X' consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions where 'S' is the number of actual transmitted SSBs determined according to ssb-PositionslnBurst in SIB1 and X is the nrofPDCCH-MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO if configured or is equal to 1 otherwise. The [x*S+K]th PDCCH monitoring occasion for paging in the PO corresponds to the Kth transmitted SSB, where x=0, 1, ... ,X-1, K = 1,2, ... ,S. The PDCCH monitoring occasions for paging which do not overlap with UL symbols...WhenfirstPDCCH-MonitoringOccasionOfPO is present, the starting PDCCH monitoring occasion number of (i_s + 1)th PO is the (i_s + 1)th value of the firstPDCCHMonitoringOccasionOfPO parameter; otherwise, it is equal to i_s * S*X...”. Page 39, line 26, “A PO associated with a PF may start in the PF or after the PF”. Page 39, section 7, lines 3-7, “The paging frame (PF) and paging occasion (PO) for paging are determined by the following formulae: System frame number (SFN) for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N). Page 39, lines 30-31, “The following parameters are used for the calculation of PF and i_s above: T: DRX cycle of the UE” (paging frame and paging occasion is determined based on UE identifier and DRX and their derivations)). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys and AGIWAL with Ericsson 1 to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates and low latency and address issues with high frequency band utilization in 5G to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services. Radisys, AGIWAL and Ericsson 1 do not explicitly disclose transmit, via a paging channel, a second paging message in the paging occasion of the paging frame. Ericsson 2 discloses transmit, via a paging channel, a second paging message in the paging occasion of the paging frame (Figure 5.3.2.1-1, section 5.3.2.1: Paging, lines 1-2, “The purpose of this procedure is: to transmit paging information to a UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE”. Section 5.3.2.3: Reception of the paging message by the UE, page 42, lines 1-5, “if the ue-Identity included in the PagingRecord matches the UE's stored fullI-RNTI: 3> if the UE is configured by upper layers ,with Access Identity 1: 4> initiate the RRC connection resumption procedure according to 5.3.13 with resumeCause set to mpsPriorityAccess” (a paging message including a full-RNTI is transmitted)). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys and AGIWAL with Ericsson 1 and Ericsson 2 to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates and low latency and address issues with high frequency band utilization in 5G to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services. In re claim 2, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame and the paging occasion are determined based on the second information and the third information in case that the fifth information is not comprised in the first paging message (Section 7, Page 39, lines 3-7; lines 30-31, “The PF and PO for paging are determined by the following formulae: system frame number (SFN) for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N). The following parameters are used for the calculation of PF and i_s above: T: DRX cycle of the UE”). In re claim 3, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the third information related to DRX comprises a terminal-specific DRX value configured by radio resource control (RRC) (Section 7, Page 39, lines 30-35, “The following parameters are used for the calculation of PF and i_s above: T: DRX cycle of the UE, T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value(s), if configured by RRC and/or upper layers”). In re claim 4, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the fourth information related to DRX comprises a terminal-specific DRX value configured by upper layers (Section 7, page 39, lines 33-35, “T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value(s), if configured by RRC and/or upper layers”. Table on Page 3, row 2, “For RRC_IDLE UE, when eDRX is no longer than 10.24s, T is determined by IDLE eDRX cycle. When eDRX cycle is longer than 10.24s, during the CN PTW, T is determined by the shortest of UE specific DRX cycle, if configured by upper layer, and default paging cycle” (terminal specific DRX value configured by upper layers)). In re claim 5, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the fifth information is comprised in the first paging message for the terminal in case that the terminal supports a same paging occasion in RRC_IDLE and in RRC_INACTIVE (Section 7, Page 38, lines 31-38; page 39, lines 1-7, “The UE may use Discontinuous Reception (DRX) in RRC IDLE and RRC INACTIVE state in order to reduce power consumption. The UE monitors one paging occasion (PO) per DRX cycle. A PO is a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions and can consist of multiple time slots ( e.g. subframe or OFDM symbol) where paging DCI can be sent (TS 38.213). One Paging Frame (PF) is one Radio Frame and may contain one or multiple PO(s) or starting point of a PO. In multi-beam operations, the UE assumes that the same paging message and the same Short Message are repeated in all transmitted beams and thus the selection of the beam( s) for the reception of the paging message and Short Message is up to UE implementation. The paging message is same for both RAN initiated paging and CN initiated paging. The UE initiates RRC Connection Resume procedure upon receiving RAN initiated paging. If the UE receives a CN initiated paging in RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE moves to RRC_IDLE and informs NAS”). Radisys also discloses page 1: reason for change, “SA2 has confirmed in LSin R3-214712 that eDRX cycles> 10.24s for RRC Idle and eDRX upto 10.24s for RRC Inactive can be supported for Redcap UEs. Hence Paging eDRX IE for Redcap UEs needs to be supported over F1 paging”). In re claim 6, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Radisys discloses wherein the first identifier is a temporal identifier determined by the CU (page 6, section 9.2.6.1, lines 1-2, “This message is sent by the gNB-CU and is used to request the gNB-DU to page UEs. Direction: gNB-CU ➔ gNB-DU”. Page 7, table, row 5, “RAN UE Paging identity” (first temporal identifier of UE)). In re claim 7, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Radisys discloses wherein the second identifier is a temporal identifier determined by a core network entity (Page 7, Table, row 6, “CN UE paging identity”). In re claim 8, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the second information is last n bits of the second identifier (Page 1: Summary of change, Table RAN2#115, Row 3, “PDCP/RLC AM 12 bits SN is mandatory for Redcap UE, and PDCP/RLC AM 18bits SN is optional supported by Redcap UE”). In re claim 9, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 2 discloses wherein the first identifier is indicated to the terminal in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message that causes state transition from RRC_CONNECTED to RRC_INACTIVE (section 5.3.2.1, lines 1-2, “The purpose of this procedure is: to transmit paging information to a UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE”. Section 5.3.2.3, “2> if the ue-Identity included in the PagingRecord matches the UE's stored fullI-RNTI: 3> if the UE is configured by upper layers With Access Identity 1: 4> initiate the RRC connection resumption procedure according to 5 .3 .13 with resumeCause set to mpsPriorityAccess”). In re claim 10, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Radisys discloses wherein the second paging message comprise the first identifier (section 9.2.6.1, “This message is sent by the gNB-CU and is used to request the gNB-DU to page UEs” (a gNB-DU receives a paging message from a gNB-CU and the paging message includes a RAN UE paging identity)). In re claim 11, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 2 discloses the method further comprising: in response to the second paging message, receiving, by the DU from the terminal, an uplink message comprising a third identifier (page 42, section 5.3.2.3, lines 15-17, “else if the ue-Identity included in the PagingRecord matches the UE identity allocated by upper layers: 3> forward the ue-Identity to upper layers and accessType (if present) to the upper layers; perform the actions upon going to RRC_IDLE as specified in 5.3.11 with release cause 'other' (forwarding a third identifier)). In re claim 12, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame is determined based on a minimum value between a default DRX value and a DRX value indicated by a ran-paging-cycle field in case that a DRX value configured by radio resource control (RRC) is smaller than a specific value (Page 39, lines 33-34, “T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value(s), if configured by RRC and/or upper layers (NAS), and a default DRX value broadcast in system information”. Page 39, lines 37-38, “If a UE specific extended DRX value is no longer than 1024 radio frames is configured ...T=UE specific extended DRX value”). In re claim 13, the combination discloses the method of claim 12, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame is determined based on a DRX value indicated by an extended-ran-paging-cycle field in case that the DRX value configured by radio resource control (RRC) is greater than the specific value (Page 3, Table, row 2, “For RRC_IDLE UE, when eDRX cycle is no longer than 10.24s, T is determined by IDLE eDRX cycle. When eDRX cycle is longer than 10.24s, during the CN PTW, T is determined by the shortest of UE specific DRX cycle, if configured by upper layer, and default paging cycle”. Also see section 7, pages 39-40). In re claim 14, the combination discloses the method of claim 13, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the ran-paging-cycle field and the extended-ran-paging-cycle field are comprised in a radio resource control (RRC) message that causes state transition from RRC_CONNECTED to RRC_INACTIVE (Page 38, section 7.1, “The UE may use Discontinuous reception (DRX) in RRC_IDLE and RRC_INACTTVE slate in order to reduce power consumption”. Page 39, line 1, “The UE initiates RRC Connection Resume procedure upon receiving RAN initiated paging” (discloses that DRX cycle is used by UE to go in Idle state for power consumption or vice versa). Radisys also discloses on Page 5, section 8.7.1.2, “The Paging DRX IE may be included in the PAGING message, and if present the gNB-DU may use it to determine the final paging cycle for the UE” (paging cycle is used by UE to transition from RRC_Connected to RRC_Inactive state for power consumption)). In re claim 15, the combination discloses the method of claim 12, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the default DRX value is indicated by system information (Page 40, lines 11-12, “Parameters Ns, nAndPagingFrameOffset, nrofPDCCH-1MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO, and the length of default DRX Cycle are signaled in SIB1”). In re claim 16, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame contains starting points of one or more paging occasions (Page 38, section 7, lines 34-35, “One Paging Frame (PF) is one Radio Frame and may contain one or multiple PO(s) or starting point of a PO”). In re claim 17, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging occasion is a set of one or more Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions (Page 38, section 7, lines 32-34, “A PO is a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions and can consist of multiple time slots ( e.g. subframe or OFDM symbol) where paging DCI can be sent (TS 38.213 [4])”). In re claim 18, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame is determined further based on a joint parameter that indicates an offset and a number of paging frames (Section 7, page 39, lines 1-7, “The UE initiates RRC Connection Resume procedure upon receiving RAN initiated paging. If the UE receives a CN initiated paging in RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE moves to RRC_IDLE and informs NAS. The PF and PO for paging are determined by the following formulae: SFN for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N), Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: i_s = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns”. Page 40, lines 7-10, “N: number of total paging frames in T, Ns: number of paging occasions for a PF, PF offset: offset used for PF determination, UE ID: 5G-S-TMSI mod 1024” (Paging frame calculation includes offset and number of paging frames)). In re claim 19, the combination discloses the method of claim 18, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the joint parameter is indicated by system information (Page 40, lines 11-12, “Parameters Ns, nAndPagingFrameOffset, nrofPDCCH-1MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO, and the length of default DRX Cycle are signaled in SIB1”). Contact Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SWATI JAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-0699. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri (830 am - 530 pm). 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, Pan Yuwen can be reached on 571-272-7855. 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. /SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649 /YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jan 15, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 09, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12598477
METHOD FOR DETERMINING LOCATION OF MOBILE BASE STATION
2y 5m to grant Granted Apr 07, 2026
Patent 12581313
ADAPTIVE PRESENCE-BASED ACCESS POINT RADIO CONFIGURATION
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Patent 12573287
Systems and methods for installing and testing alarming systems at cell sites
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 10, 2026
Patent 12567333
Method, Central Unit and System for Providing a Communication Function in a Means of Transport
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 03, 2026
Patent 12546808
TEST SYSTEM AND TEST METHOD
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 10, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

AI Strategy Recommendation

Get an AI-powered prosecution strategy using examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Powered by AI — typically takes 5-10 seconds

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+26.3%)
2y 11m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 113 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month