DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 6-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by He (US Pub. 2022/0361059).
Regarding claim 1, He discloses a cell reselection method used in a user equipment in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, the cell reselection method comprising:
specifying a serve or a function that the user equipment desires to use (par.084 “cells support access by RedCap UEs”);
selecting a target in response to an instruction from a network or periodically with, as a candidate, a cell or a frequency having a result of measurement processing (par.084 “RRM measurements by RedCap UEs……to perform cell reselection…….a measurement configuration that a cell provide to a RedCap UE”), the result satisfying a predetermined condition, the measurement processing being performed on a cell or a frequency different from a current existing cell (par.84 “neighbor cells to indicate whether the respective cell support access by RedCap UEs”); and
performing cell reselection to the target selected, wherein
the selecting of the target comprises performing control for selecting, as the
target, a cell or frequency configured to provide the service or the function specified (par.079 “the UE may perform cell reselection to the neighbor base station…….the neighbor station satisfy a condition”, par.084 “neighbor cells to indicate whether the respective cells support access by RedCap UEs”, par.088 “the SIB that indicates …..the neighbor cells support ……..access by RedCap UEs may be a SIB that contains information related to cell reselection parameters applicable to RedCap UEs. For example, the SIB that indicates ….. the neighbor cells support….. access by RedCap UEs may be SIB2, which contains parameters related to intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and/or inter-RAT cell reselection”).
Regarding claim 2, He discloses the control comprises first control of excluding, from the measurement processing, a cell or a frequency configured not to provide the service or the function specified (par.088 “the UE may identify any neighbor cells that do not support access by RedCap UEs based on the system information received from the serving cell and refrain from performing RRM measurements on such neighbor cells”).
Regarding claim 3, He discloses the control comprises second control of excluding, from the candidate, a cell or a frequency configured not to provide the service or the function specified (par.088 “the UE may identify any neighbor cells that do not support access by RedCap UEs based on the system information received from the serving cell”).
Regarding claim 6, He discloses the specifying comprising specifying, as the function that the user equipment desires to use, a first function configured to handle a reduced-capability user equipment having a reduced communication capability, and the performing of the control comprises performing the control for selectin, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to support the first function (par.084 “cells support access by RedCap UEs”).
Regarding claim 7, He discloses the specifying comprises specifying, as the function that the user equipment desires to use, a second function configured to handle uplink data transmission during a random access procedure, and
performing the control for selecting, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to support the second function (par.067).
Regarding claim 9, He discloses the performing of the control comprises determining whether a detected cell detected through the measurement processing supports a desired function that the user equipment desires to use (par.084), and
The determining comprises determining that the detected cell supports the desired function when the detected cell provides a physical random access channel resource associated with the desired function (par.067).
Regarding claim 10, He discloses everything as claim 1 above. More specifically, He disclose a controller configured to perform, when the user equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state (par.080).
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.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Pub. 2022/0361059) and further in view of Xu (CN 103313197 A).
Regarding claim 4, He fails disclose selecting, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to provide multi broadcast service.
Xu discloses selecting, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to provide multi broadcast service (par.017-022). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of He with the above teaching of Kang in order to provide multi broadcast service in the frequency with the highest priority to perform cell reselection.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Pub. 2022/0361059) and further in view of Kang (US Pub. 2022/0225189).
Regarding claim 5, He fails disclose selecting, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to provide network slice.
Khang discloses selecting, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to provide network slice (par.011, 093). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of He with the above teaching of Kang in order to provide a slice-based cell reselection operation.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Pub. 2022/0361059) and further in view of Basu (US Pub. 2017/0135005).
Regarding claim 8, He fails disclose the specifying comprises specifying, as the function that the user equipment desires to use, a third function configured to enhance coverage of a base station, and
The performing of the control comprises performing the control for selecting, as the target, a cell or a frequency configured to support the third function (par.091). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of He with the above teaching of Basu in order to provide a slice-based cell reselection operation.
Conclusion
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/TU X NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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