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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 September 10, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed on September 10, 2026 has been entered. Claim 3 has been amended. No claims are canceled. Claim 31 has been added. Claims 1-31 are still pending in this application, with claims 1, 17-18 and 30 being independent.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 6-7, 11, 14, 17-20, 23-24 and 29-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sedin et al. (Int. Pub. No. WO 2024/162817 A1), hereinafter referred to as Sedin.
Regarding claim 1, Sedin discloses an user equipment (UE) (UE; See Fig. 9, #900), comprising:
one or more antennas (transmitter/receiver; See Fig. 9, #903 and #905); and
a processing system that includes processor circuitry (processor; See Fig. 9, #901) and memory circuitry (memory; See [230]) that stores code for the processor circuitry, the processing system configured to cause the UE to:
receive, via a first cell, a narrowband (NB)-based radio resource control (RRC) message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]) comprising an indication to redirect communications via the first cell to a second cell (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]); and
perform a reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication (The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For this operation, the UE 10 may use the information contained in the first message to assist in the selection of a cell. The UE 10 may perform cell selection or cell re-selection on list of physical cell IDs, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell included in the information. The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For example, the fourth operation S504 may be performed according to the fourth operation S304 of Figure 3; See [174] and [196]).
Regarding claim 2, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein:
the NB-based RRC message comprises an NB-based RRC release message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]); and
the NB-based RRC release message comprises an information element (IE) used to indicate redirection of the communications to the second cell (redirectedcarrierinfo-r13; See Table 1 and [204]).
Regarding claim 3, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 2, wherein:
the IE comprises a carrier frequency (the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell; See [172]), a cell identifier (the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell; See [172]), a cell identifier (the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell; See [172]), a cell identifier (the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell; See [172]), satellite information, a master information block (MIB), one or more system information blocks (SIBs), or a combination thereof for each cell of one or more cells to which the communications can be redirected; and
the processing system is configured to cause the UE to select the second cell for redirecting the communications from the one or more cells indicated by the IE (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required; See [172] and [194]), the second cell selected based at least in part on a dedicated carrier offset (Redirected carrier info - this indicates a carrier frequency that is used to redirect the UE to a NB-IoT carrier frequency through cell reselection. In Release 14, the information may also include an offset to specific frequencies to prioritize certain frequencies, and the timer T322 determines for how long this offset is active,; See [133]), timer information (Redirected carrier info - this indicates a carrier frequency that is used to redirect the UE to a NB-IoT carrier frequency through cell reselection. In Release 14, the information may also include an offset to specific frequencies to prioritize certain frequencies, and the timer T322 determines for how long this offset is active,; See [133]), a threshold value, or a combination thereof.
Regarding claim 6, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein:
the NB-based RRC message comprises an NB-based RRC reestablishment message (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment; See [194]); and
the NB-based RRC reestablishment message comprises an information element (IE) used to indicate redirection of the communications to the second cell (The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required; See [172] and [194]).
Regarding claim 7, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 6, wherein processing system is configured to cause the UE to send, via the second cell, an NB-based RRC connection reestablishment complete message based at least on performing the reestablishment procedure (The UE replies to the message in step 6 with an RRC Connection Re-establishment Complete message, and the UE may now start data communication; See [162]).
Regarding claim 11, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the UE to:
receive, via the first cell, cell information for a dedicated redirection cell (The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required, wherein when there is only one cell that would be a dedicated redirection cell; See [172]); and
perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the cell information for the dedicated redirection cell (The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For this operation, the UE 10 may use the information contained in the first message to assist in the selection of a cell. The UE 10 may perform cell selection or cell re-selection on list of physical cell IDs, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell included in the information. The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For example, the fourth operation S504 may be performed according to the fourth operation S304 of Figure 3; See [174] and [196]), wherein the second cell comprises the dedicated redirection cell (wherein when there is only one cell that would be a dedicated redirection cell; See [172]).
Regarding claim 14, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is operating in a control plane Internet of Things (IoT) optimization mode (The UE shall only initiate the procedure for a NB-IoT UE supporting RRC connection re-establishment for the Control Plan CIoT EPS/5GS optimization; See [153]).
Regarding claim 17, Sedin discloses a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE) (See Fig. 3, #10) comprising:
receiving, via a first cell, a narrowband (NB)-based radio resource control (RRC) message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]) comprising an indication to redirect communications via the first cell to a second cell (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]); and
performing a reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication (The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For this operation, the UE 10 may use the information contained in the first message to assist in the selection of a cell. The UE 10 may perform cell selection or cell re-selection on list of physical cell IDs, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell included in the information. The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For example, the fourth operation S504 may be performed according to the fourth operation S304 of Figure 3; See [174] and [196]).
Regarding claim 18, Sedin discloses a network entity (eNB_1; See Fig. 9, #900), comprising:
one or more antennas (transmitter/receiver; See Fig. 9, #903 and #905); and
a processing system that includes processor circuitry (processor; See Fig. 9, #901) and memory circuitry (memory; See [230]) that stores code for the processor circuitry, the processing system configured to cause the network entity to:
determine to redirect communications via a first cell to a second cell for a device (a first eNB (eNB_1) 20 decides to release a connection with a UE 10 with redirection; See [171]-[172] and [193]-[194]); and
send, to the device via the first cell, a narrowband (NB)-based radio resource control (RRC) message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]) comprising an indication configured to trigger the device to perform a reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on the determination (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]).
Regarding claim 19, Sedin further discloses the network entity of claim 18, wherein:
the NB-based RRC message comprises an NB-based RRC release message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]); and
the NB-based RRC release message comprises an information element (IE) used to indicate redirection of the communications to the second cell (redirectedcarrierinfo-r13; See Table 1 and [204]).
Regarding claim 20, Sedin further discloses the network entity of claim 19, wherein the IE comprises a carrier frequency (the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell; See [172]), a cell identifier (the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell; See [172]), satellite information, a master information block (MIB), one or more system information blocks (SIBs), or a combination thereof for each cell of one or more cells to which the communications can be redirected for the device (the first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to; See [172]).
Regarding claim 23, Sedin further discloses the network entity of claim 18, wherein:
the NB-based RRC message comprises an NB-based RRC reestablishment message (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment; See [194]); and
the NB-based RRC reestablishment message comprises an information element (IE) used to indicate redirection of the communications to the second cell (The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required; See [172] and [194]).
Regarding claim 24, Sedin further discloses the network entity of claim 23, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to receive, from the device via the second cell, an NB-based RRC connection reestablishment complete message based at least on the device performing the reestablishment procedure after the NB-based RRC reestablishment message comprising the IE is sent to the device (The UE replies to the message in step 6 with an RRC Connection Re-establishment Complete message, and the UE may now start data communication; See [162]).
Regarding claim 29, Sedin further discloses the network entity of claim 18, wherein:
the apparatus network entity comprises a base station (eNB_1; See Fig. 3, #20); and
the device comprises a device operating in a control plane Internet of Things (IoT) optimization mode (The UE shall only initiate the procedure for a NB-IoT UE supporting RRC connection re-establishment for the Control Plan CIoT EPS/5GS optimization; See [153]).
Regarding claim 30, Sedin discloses a method for wireless communications by a network entity (eNB; See Fig. 3, #20) comprising:
determining to redirect communications via a first cell to a second cell for a device (a first eNB (eNB_1) 20 decides to release a connection with a UE 10 with redirection; See [171]-[172] and [193]-[194]); and
sending, to the device via the first cell, a narrowband (NB)-based radio resource control (RRC) message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]) comprising an indication configured to trigger the device to perform a reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on the determination (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]).
Regarding claim 31, Sedin further discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein:
the UE is an NB-IoT device (the UE may be an IoT device; See [82]),
to perform the reestablishment procedure, the processing system is further configured to cause the UE to preserve uplink data and downlink data associated with the first cell while the reestablishment procedure is performed (One development in both LTE-M and NB-IoT is the introduction of a suspended RRC connection state (mode). In this state, the UE and the network maintain the RRC context. In other words, the UE stores the RRC configuration of the last serving cell to which the UE was connected, and the network maintains the UE context. This allows for much faster establishment as the UE does not need to be reconfigured every time it enters RRC connected state, and does not need to reactivate Access Stratum (AS) security, for example. RRC Connection Release is a procedure used to transition the UE to RRC idle mode or RRC idle mode with suspend connection; See [98]-[101]), and the UE and the second cell are in an RRC connected mode for communicating with each other based on the reestablishment procedure (the new eNB (e.g. eNB_2) to which the UE has performed re-establishment may inform the old eNB (e.g. eNB_1) that re-establishment following a RRC Connection Release has been performed. In certain examples, the new eNB may provide the old eNB with any suitable other information, for example information indicating which cells were signalled, which cells the UE attempted to connect to, which cell the UE successfully connected to; See [199]).
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 (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.
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 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sedin as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Nakarmi et al. (U.S. PGPub 2020/0163151), hereinafter referred to as Nakarmi.
Regarding claim 4, Sedin teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the UE to: trigger a radio link failure (RLF) procedure for the communications via the first cell (Radio Link Failure is triggered at the UE; See [156]) and send, via the second cell, an NB-based RRC reestablishment request message based at least in part on triggering the RLF procedure (The UE triggers the re-establishment procedures, including cell selection where a suitable cell is selected. The UE sends an RRC Connection Reestablishment Request message to the selected cell (Target eNB). This message contains a UE identity (c-RNTI, physCellId and shortMAC-I) and a reestablishment cause; See [157]-[158]).
Sedin fails to teach that trigger for the radio link failure procedure is based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications.
Nakarmi teaches based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications, triggering radio link failure (The UE executes the RRC connection release procedure and the UE may trigger an RLF and/or RRC Connection Reestablishment procedure or some other recovery or failure handling procedure; See [0044]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications, triggering radio link failure taught by Nakarmi in order to authenticate handover.
Regarding claim 5, Sedin further teaches the UE of claim 4, wherein the NB-based RRC reestablishment request message comprises a redirect indication, a reestablishment cause IE comprising the redirect indication (This message contains a UE identity (c-RNTI, physCellId and shortMAC-I) and a reestablishment cause including a reestablishmentcause-r-16; See [158]AND [207]), a logical channel identifier (LCID) codepoint corresponding to the redirect indication, or a combination thereof.
Claims 8 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sedin as applied to claims 6 and 23 above, and further in view of Thangarasa et al. (U.S. PGPub 2022/0070743), hereinafter referred to as ‘743.
Regarding claim 8, Sedin fails to teach the UE of claim 6, wherein the NB-based RRC reestablishment message is received and the reestablishment procedure is triggered based at least in part on access stratum (AS) not being enabled for the communications via the first cell, a threshold to select the second cell being satisfied, or a combination thereof.
‘743 teaches wherein the NB-based RRC reestablishment message is received and the reestablishment procedure is triggered based at least in part on access stratum (AS) not being enabled for the communications via the first cell, a threshold to select the second cell being satisfied, or a combination thereof (the UE may perform measurements on neighbor cells operating on the serving carrier frequency and neighbor cells belonging to one or more non-serving carriers indicated in the obtained configuration information when one or more measurement criteria is met e.g. when the serving cell (cell1) signal measurement (e.g. SS-RSRP, SS-RSRQ etc.) falls below certain signal threshold. In another example, the UE may periodically perform measurements on neighbor cells belonging to one or more non-serving carriers associated with a priority level higher than the priority level of the serving carrier. The priority levels associated with different carrier frequencies are indicated in the configuration information transmitted to the UE by the network node e.g. serving cell; See [0127]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin in view of Sha to include wherein the NB-based RRC reestablishment message is received and the reestablishment procedure is triggered based at least in part on access stratum (AS) not being enabled for the communications via the first cell, a threshold to select the second cell being satisfied, or a combination thereof taught by ‘743 in order to configure the UE with CCA-aware cell-change parameters that control how long and how often the UE should keep trying a target cell.
Regarding claim 25, Sedin fails to teach the network entity of claim 23, wherein the NB- based RRC reestablishment message comprising the IE is sent to trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure based at least in part on access stratum (AS) not being enabled for the communications for the device via the first cell, a threshold to select the second cell being satisfied, or a combination thereof.
‘743 teaches wherein the RRC reestablishment message comprising the IE is sent to trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure based at least in part on access stratum (AS) not being enabled for the communications for the device via the first cell, a threshold to select the second cell being satisfied, or a combination thereof (the UE may perform measurements on neighbor cells operating on the serving carrier frequency and neighbor cells belonging to one or more non-serving carriers indicated in the obtained configuration information when one or more measurement criteria is met e.g. when the serving cell (cell1) signal measurement (e.g. SS-RSRP, SS-RSRQ etc.) falls below certain signal threshold. In another example, the UE may periodically perform measurements on neighbor cells belonging to one or more non-serving carriers associated with a priority level higher than the priority level of the serving carrier. The priority levels associated with different carrier frequencies are indicated in the configuration information transmitted to the UE by the network node e.g. serving cel; See [0127]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the RRC reestablishment message comprising the IE is sent to trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure based at least in part on access stratum (AS) not being enabled for the communications for the device via the first cell, a threshold to select the second cell being satisfied, or a combination thereof taught by ‘743 in order to configure the UE with CCA-aware cell-change parameters that control how long and how often the UE should keep trying a target cell.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sedin as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Shrestha et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0319929), hereinafter referred to as Shrestha.
Regarding claim 9, Sedin further teaches the UE of claim 6, wherein: the NB-based RRC reestablishment message also comprises a dedicated radio resource configuration corresponding to the second cell (The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]); and the reestablishment procedure is performed to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on the dedicated radio resource configuration corresponding to the second cell (or this operation, the UE 10 may use the information contained in the first message to assist in the selection of a cell. The UE 10 may perform cell selection or cell re-selection on list of physical cell IDs, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell included in the information. The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For example, the fourth operation S504 may be performed according to the fourth operation S304 of Figure 3; See [174] and [196]).
Sedin fails to teach wherein the NB-based RRC reestablishment message also comprises a downlink Non-Access stratum (NAS) medium access control (MAC) IE.
Shrestha teaches wherein: the NB-based RRC reestablishment message also comprises a downlink Non-Access stratum (NAS) medium access control (MAC) IE (the RRC reestablishment message (e.g., Msg4) in downlink may also be extended to include DedicatedInfoNAS to carry any downlink NAS PDU.; See [0079]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein: the NB-based RRC reestablishment message also comprises a downlink Non-Access stratum (NAS) medium access control (MAC) IE taught by Shrestha in order to switching compatible with reestablishment while avoiding unnecessary data loss.
Claims 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sedin as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wang (Int. Pub. No. WO 2023/007020A1), hereinafter referred to as Wang.
Regarding claim 10, Sedin fails to teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the UE to: receive, via the first cell, a configuration to ignore an access barring check for the second cell; and perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the configuration.
Wang teaches an apparatus configured to receive, via the first cell, a configuration to ignore an access barring check for the second cell (The IAB-MT ignores cell-barring or cell-reservation indications contained in cell system information broadcast, wherein the cell system information broadcast is interpreted as the received configuration; See page 42, lines 1-2) and perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the configuration (The IAB-MT only considers a cell as a candidate for cell selection if the cell system information broadcast indicates IAB support for the selected PLMN, suggesting that the procedure is based on the configuration received; See page 42, lines 3-4).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, via the first cell, a configuration to ignore an access barring check for the second cell; and perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the configuration taught by Wang in order to minimize delay during handover.
Claims 12-13 and 26-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye as applied to claims 1 and 18 above, and further in view of Sillanpaa et al. (U.S. PGPub 2019/0394683), hereinafter referred to as Sillanpaa.
Regarding claim 12, Sedin fails to teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the UE to: send, via the first cell, an ordered list of one or more cells neighboring the first cell, the one or more cells neighboring the first cell being ordered based at least in part on measurements performed on the one or more cells; and receive the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications based at least in part on sending the ordered list.
Sillanpaa teaches wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: send, via the first cell, an ordered list of one or more cells neighboring the first cell, the one or more cells neighboring the first cell being ordered based at least in part on measurements performed on the one or more cells (sending priority lists based on signal strength measurements; See [0037]); and receive the RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications based at least in part on sending the ordered list (triggering a redirect of the RRC connection; See [0035]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: send, via the first cell, an ordered list of one or more cells neighboring the first cell, the one or more cells neighboring the first cell being ordered based at least in part on measurements performed on the one or more cells; and receive the RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications based at least in part on sending the ordered list taught by Sillanpaa in order to minimize delay during handover.
Regarding claim 13, Sedin fails to further teach the UE of claim 12, wherein the ordered list of the one or more cells neighboring the first cell is sent via an uplink transfer information message, an uplink dedicated control channel (DCCH) message, or an uplink MAC control element (CE).
Sillanpaa teaches the UE transmitting the lists, suggesting an uplink transfer information message (See [0037]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the ordered list of the one or more cells neighboring the first cell is sent via an uplink transfer information message, an uplink dedicated control channel (DCCH) message, or an uplink MAC control element (CE) taught by Sillanpaa in order to minimize delay during handover.
Regarding claim 26, Sedin fails to teach the network entity of claim 18, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to: receive, from the device via the first cell, an ordered list of one or more cells neighboring the first cell, wherein the ordered list of the one or more cells neighboring the first cell comprises the second cell (sending priority lists based on signal strength measurements; See [0037]); and send the RRC message comprising the indication configured to trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the ordered list (triggering a redirect of the RRC connection; See [0035]).
Sillanpaa teaches one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, from the device via the first cell, an ordered list of one or more cells neighboring the first cell, wherein the ordered list of the one or more cells neighboring the first cell comprises the second cell; and send the RRC message comprising the indication configured to trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the ordered list.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the ordered list of the one or more cells neighboring the first cell is sent via an uplink transfer information message, an uplink dedicated control channel (DCCH) message, or an uplink MAC control element (CE) taught by Sillanpaa in order to minimize delay during handover.
Regarding claim 27, Sedin fails to further teach the network entity of claim 26, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to prepare the second cell for the reestablishment procedure based at least in part on receiving the ordered list.
Sillanpaa teaches wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to prepare the second cell for the reestablishment procedure based at least in part on receiving the ordered list (suggested by the device receiving the priorities in the list; See [0037]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the apparatus to prepare the second cell for the reestablishment procedure based at least in part on receiving the ordered list taught by Sillanpaa in order to minimize delay during handover.
Claims 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Se as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pham Van et al. (U.S. PGPub 2022/0014920), hereinafter referred to as Pham Van.
Regarding claim 15, Sedin fails to teach the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the UE to: receive the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications and a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) integrity protection parameter.
Pham Van teaches causing the UE to receive the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications and a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) integrity protection parameter (This can be the RRCConnectionRelease(-NB) with an extension to include a dedicatedDataInfoNAS IE or a newly defined RRC message whose function is to carry the DL NAS PDU and at the same time release the connection; See [0136]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include causing the UE to receive the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications and a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) integrity protection parameter taught by Pham Van in order to return secure information so the network can verify the UE before accepting delivery as valid.
Regarding claim 16, Sedin further teaches the UE of claim 15, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the UE to: send, via the second cell, a reestablishment request message based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication to redirect the communications and the NAS integrity protection parameter (The UE sends an RRC Connection Reestablishment Request message to the selected cell (Target eNB). This message contains a UE identity (c-RNTI, physCellId and shortMAC-I) and a reestablishment cause; See [158] and [192]), wherein the reestablishment request message comprises a response to the NAS integrity protection parameter (ul-NAS-MAC-r14 and ul-NAS-Count-r14; See [207]).
Pham Van as indicated above teaches the NAS parameter in the RRC Connection Release message.
Claims 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sedin as applied to claim 18 above, and further in view of You et al. (U.S. PGPub 2025/0203469), hereinafter referred to as You.
Regarding claim 21, Sedin teaches the network entity of claim 18, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to: send the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication via the first cell (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]), but fails to teach the network entity to receive, from the device via the second cell, an NB-based RRC reestablishment request message.
You teaches wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to: receive, from the device via the second cell, an NB-based RRC reestablishment request message (the second network device receives an RRC re-establishment request message from a terminal device, where the RRC re-establishment request message includes an identifier of a first cell and an identifier of the terminal device in the first cell; obtains context information of the terminal device based on the identifier of the first cell and the identifier of the terminal device in the first cell; See [0037]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include the network entity to receive, from the device via the second cell, an NB-based RRC reestablishment request message taught by You in order to optimize handover.
Regarding claim 22, Sedin further teaches the network entity of claim 21, wherein the RRC reestablishment request message comprises a redirect indication, a reestablishment cause IE comprising the redirect indication (when the UE performs RRC re-establishment, after having received RRC Connection Release message, the UE may include a predetermined RRC re-establishment cause in the RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest message that indicates that the UE is performing re-establishment in response to receiving a RRC Connection Release message. In certain examples, the RRC Connection Release cause may be a newly defined cause value, for example "ReleaseToOtherCell", or any other suitable naming. Figure 5 illustrates an example of RRC Connection re-establishment after RRC Connection Release including an RRC re-establishment cause; See [192]), a logical channel identifier (LCID) codepoint corresponding to the redirect indication, or a combination thereof.
Claim 28 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sedin as applied to claim 18 above, and further in view of Kazmi et al. (U.S. PGPub 2025/0126569), hereinafter referred to as Kazmi.
Regarding claim 28, Sedin fails to teach the network entity of claim 18, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to: trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on a load balancing demand, identifying a coverage area for the first cell is moving away from the device, receiving assistance information from the device, or a combination thereof.
Kazmi teaches wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to: trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on a load balancing demand
(When a neighbouring cell becomes stronger than serving cell or for load balancing on the serving cell, serving node can trigger the handover (HO) command; See [0138]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Sedin to include wherein the processing system is configured to cause the network entity to: trigger the device to perform the reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on a load balancing demand taught by Kazmi in order to minimize loss.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 2, 17-20 and 30 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.
On pages 9-11 of the Applicants’ Response, Applicants state that Ye et al. (U.S. PGPub 2022/0201789), hereinafter referred to as Ye fails to teach the claimed narrowband (NB)-based radio resource control (RRC) message and performing a reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message.
Examiner has newly introduced Sedin et al. (Int. Pub. No. WO 2024/162817 A1) which teaches receiving, via a first cell, a narrowband (NB)-based radio resource control (RRC) message (RRCConnectionRelease-NB; See [204]) comprising an indication to redirect communications via the first cell to a second cell (the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating a set of one or more intra-RAT cells that the UE 10 should select and perform RRC establishment to, if required. For example, the information may comprise a physical cell ID, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell. the first eNB 20 transmits a first message to the UE 10 in response to the release decision. For example, the first message may comprise an RRCConnectionRelease message. The first message may comprise information indicating that the UE 10 should perform establishment or re-establishment. The first message may also comprise any other suitable information, for example configuration information as described above in relation to Figure 3; See [172] and [194]); and performing a reestablishment procedure to redirect the communications to the second cell based at least in part on receiving the NB-based RRC message comprising the indication (The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For this operation, the UE 10 may use the information contained in the first message to assist in the selection of a cell. The UE 10 may perform cell selection or cell re-selection on list of physical cell IDs, carrier frequency and/or carrier bandwidth of each cell included in the information. The UE 10 performs cell selection or cell re-selection. For example, the fourth operation S504 may be performed according to the fourth operation S304 of Figure 3; See [174] and [196]).
Conclusion
Any response to this action should be mailed to:
Commissioner for Patents,
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Hand delivered responses should be brought to:
Customer Service Window
Randolph Building
401 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHLEY L SHIVERS whose telephone number is (571)270-3523. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:00pm.
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, Chirag Shah can be reached at 571-272-3144. 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.
/ASHLEY SHIVERS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 9/28/2026
