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 1-13 are pending.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shrivastav et al, application no. 2022/0132467, hereinafter known as Shri in view of Gorolamo et al, application no. 2023/0388866, hereinafter known as Gorolamo.
As to claim 1, Shri discloses a communication method used in a mobile communication system for supporting a multicast and broadcast service (MBS) (Shri, [0007], providing by the network entity (first cell, source cell, source gNB or network node) MBS services to user equipment (UE) including be Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) or Point-To-Point (PTP)), the communication method comprising: receiving, by a user equipment in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state in a first cell, an MBS session provided by the first cell through Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) (Shri, [0077], [0096], UE receiving form network entity RRC configuration message to setup PTP or PTM MBS service; figure 6, step 606, RRC connection establishment to set up MBS services, figure 14, RRC connected mode used for MBS service) Shri teaches providing neighboring celling information for handover to UE by the first cell using a MCCH or SIB message ([0070]). Shri does not expressly disclose use of RRC configuration message for handover indication however Gorolamo dicloses receiving, by the user equipment from the first cell, an RRC Reconfiguration message indicating handover to a second cell (Gorolamo, [0015]-[0020], receiving by UE from network entity RRC reconfiguration message for MBS service available to be used at target cell (second cell), and to be used after handover, with plural information, such PDU sequence number) for MBS communications when in target cell); and receiving, by the user equipment, the MBS session provided by the second cell after the handover, wherein the RRC Reconfiguration message comprises MBS reception configuration for receiving the MBS session provided by the second cell (Gorolamo, figure 11b, Source gNB to UE with RRC reconfiguration message, “RRC reconfiguration complete” between UE and target gNB; [0023]-[0033], UE communicating with target gNB with RRC reconfiguration information).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Shri to include the limitations of receiving, by the user equipment from the first cell, an RRC Reconfiguration message indicating handover to a second cell; and receiving, by the user equipment, the MBS session provided by the second cell after the handover, wherein the RRC Reconfiguration message comprises MBS reception configuration for receiving the MBS session provided by the second cell as taught by Gorolamo. First providing relevant MBS session information to a UE helps UE to continue communicating with the MBS session at the second cell after handover with minimal issues.
As to claim 2, Shri discloses wherein the MBS session is a multicast session (Shri, [0023]-[0024], paging request for joining multicast session of MBS service).
As to claim 3, Shri discloses further comprising transmitting, by a first base station managing the first cell to a second base station managing the second cell, a handover request message comprising information indicating an MBS session the user equipment is currently receiving or is interested in receiving (Shri, [0069]-[0072], UE interest in receiving or receiving MBS when considering handover; where network entity and neighbor entity can be base stations).
As to claim 4, Shri discloses the communication method according to claim 1. Shri discloses transmitting, by the first base station having received the response message, the RRC Reconfiguration message comprising the MBS reception configuration, to the user equipment (Shri, [0070]-[0072], sending second cell MBS service by the first cell to UE). Shri does not disclose however Gorolamo discloses transmitting, by the second base station having received the handover request message, a response message comprising the MBS reception configuration to the first base station; MBS information forward by first cell to UE is the MBS information first cell got from the second base station (Gorolamo, figure 6, [0121], receiving RRC configuration message from target gNB and forwarded to UE by source gNB; figure 10a, MBS configuration message from target to source gNB forwarded to UE by source gNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Shri to include the limitations of transmitting, by the second base station having received the handover request message, a response message comprising the MBS reception configuration to the first base station; MBS information forward by first cell to UE is the MBS information first cell got from the second base station as taught by Gorolamo. Forwarding communications metrics for target gNB by source gNB, to UE for handover is well known in the art that enables UE to communicate accordingly with the target gNB.
As to claim 5, Shri discloses configuring, by a base station managing the first cell, a multicast radio bearer (MRB) comprising a Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) communication path for the user equipment in the RRC connected state (Shri, [0077], [0096], UE use RRC configuration message to setup PTP or PTM MBS service; figure 6, step 606, RRC connection establishment to set up MBS services, figure 14, RRC connected mode for MBS service); switching, by the base station, from the PTM communication path to a Point-to-Point (PTP) communication path in response to determining handover of the user equipment from the first cell to the second cell; and executing, by the base station, the handover after the switching to the PTP communication path (Shri, [0004]-[0010], source cell providing both PTM and PTP MBS communication to UE; [0017], [0072], providing unicast communication of the PTM of the MBS for cell reselection).
As to claim 6, Shri discloses the communication method according to claim 1. Shri does not disclose however Gorolamo discloses further comprising: synchronizing, between the first cell and the second cell, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) variable for the MBS session (Gorolamo, [0220]-[0225], sharing between target gNB and Source gNB progress information for MBS communication with PDCP sequence numbers and synchronizing communication thereof).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Shri to include the limitations of further comprising: synchronizing, between the first cell and the second cell, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) variable for the MBS session as taught by Gorolamo. Synchronizing MBS service in progress during handover from source to target gNB allows MBS communication to continue with minimal or no interruptions for UE.
As to claim 7, Shri discloses transmitting, by the user equipment, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) status report for requesting a retransmission of data lost in the handover, to a network (Shri, [0066], sharing status information between devices in the network for MBS service including NACK for retransmission).
As to claim 8, Shri discloses the communication method according to claim 1. Shri does not disclose however Gorolamo discloses further comprising: remaining, by the user equipment, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity used for MBS reception to continue MBS reception, in the handover (Gorolamo, [0237]-[0238], UE remains PDCP MBS reception during handover process).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Shri to include the limitations of further comprising: remaining, by the user equipment, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity used for MBS reception to continue MBS reception, in the handover as taught by Gorolamo. UE remaining during handover from source to target gNB allows MBS communication to continue with minimal or no interruptions for UE.
As to claim 9, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1 by Shri in view of Gorolamo.
As to claim 10, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1 by Shri in view of Gorolamo.
As to claim 11, Shri discloses a mobile communication system comprising: the user equipment according to claim 9 (Shri, figure 1 and 2, UE are of communication system).
As to claim 12, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1 by Shri in view of Gorolamo.
As to claim 13, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1 by Shri in view of Gorolamo.
Conclusion
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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