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 .
Election/Restrictions
Restriction to one of the following inventions is required under 35 U.S.C. 121:
I. Claims 1-9 and 16-20, drawn to substeps between CP-CU and target distributed unit (DU) for context setup as part of overall group UE handover (see Fig. 6), classified in H04W40/36.
II. Claims 10-15, drawn to substeps between the CP-CU and the source distributed unit (DU) for context modification as part of overall group UE handover (see Fig. 6), classified in H04W36/0083.
Inventions Group I and Group II are related as combination and sub-combination. Inventions in this relationship are distinct if it can be shown that (1) the combination as claimed does not require the particulars of the sub-combination as claimed for patentability, and (2) that the sub-combination has utility by itself or in other combinations (MPEP § 806.05(c)).
In the instant case,
the combination as claimed does not require the particulars of the sub-combination as claimed as claimed because combination invention group I (context setup for UE handover) does not require a sub-combination invention group II (context modification for UE handover).
The sub-combination has a separate utility by itself (context modification) other than use in combination.
The examiner has required restriction between combination and sub-combination
inventions. Where applicant elects a sub-combination, and claims thereto are subsequently found allowable, any claim(s) depending from or otherwise requiring all the limitations of the allowable sub-combination will be examined for patentability in accordance with 37 CFR 1.104. See MPEP § 821.04(a). Applicant is advised that if any claim presented in a continuation or divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or non-statutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application.
Restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper because all the inventions listed in this action are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and there would be a serious search and/or examination burden if restriction were not required because one or more of the following reasons apply:
a) Because these inventions are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and have acquired a separate status in the art in view of their different classification (Group I's H04W40/36 vs. Group II's H04W36/0083), restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper.
b) Because these inventions are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and the inventions require a different field of search (see MPEP § 808.02) (i.e.
context setup for handover vs. context modification for handover), restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper.
Claims 10-15 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Invention Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed by Telephone call was made to Applicants (Micha Adler, Reg. No. 64,808, tel: 312-803-5837) on 7 February 2026 .
Claim Objections
Claims 1-9 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 1, acronyms CP and CU lack antecedent basis.
Claims 2-9 are also objected since they are depended upon the objected independent claim 1 as set forth above.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 7, 16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakamura (WO 2025/032823) in view of Wang (US 2019/0297551).
Regarding claim 1, Nakamura describes an apparatus for wireless communication at a CP of a CU associated with a plurality of wireless devices associated with a first multi-modal service (fig. 3 & title, handover process for plural UEs with gNB 100 with CU & DUs, comprising:
at least one memory (fig. 13 & para. 116, CU comprising memory 1002); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on stored information that is stored in the at least one memory (fig. 13 & para. 116, CU comprising processor 1001 coupled to memory 1002 to execute its steps), the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to:
output, for a target distributed unit (DU) associated with a joint handover procedure for the plurality of wireless devices, a first request relating to a first context of a first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices (fig. 3 & para. 80, gNB-CU sends simultaneous UE Context Setup Request to target gNB-DU for handover, comprising [plural: first & second] requests for [each of] multiple UEs (UE1, UE2));
output, for the target DU, a second request relating to a second context of the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the second request comprises a second identifier of at least the first wireless device (fig. 3 & para. 80, gNB-CU sends simultaneous UE Context Setup Request to target gNB-DU for handover, comprising [plural: first & second] requests for [each of] multiple UEs (UE1, UE2))
Nakamura fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the first request comprises a first identifier of at least a second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices associated with the joint handover procedure.
wherein the second request comprises a first identifier of at least a first wireless device.
Wang also describes handover method for plural terminals (title and fig. 3 & 4), further describing:
wherein the first request comprises a first identifier of at least a second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices associated with the joint handover procedure, (fig. 2 and para. 86-89, plus elaborated on fig. 3-4 and para. 107, 114, 117 & 129, first terminal device obtains identification information of second terminal device as a response in step S1102, then sends handover assistance information comprising first & second terminal identification information to first network device, and finally the first network device sends to first (target) network device a first terminal’s handover request comprising the first & second terminal identification information, for the purpose of group/simultaneous (joint) handover, see also abstract. Such hangover steps are the same for fig. 5 & 6 embodiment (see para. 180), where fig. 5-6 describe handover messages & responses between first & second network devices as context request & context response messages, see para. 196-197).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the first request sent in Nakamura to comprise a first identifier of at least a second wireless device for a joint handover as in Wang.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this ensures a quantity of terminal devices to have service/communication continuity (Wang, para. 3).
Regarding claim 7, Nakamura describes:
wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
obtain, from the target DU, a first context setup response relating to the first context of the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices, and obtain, from the target DU, a second context setup response relating to the second context of the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices (para. 80-81, in response to to receiving the Simultaneous UE Context Setup Request comprising plural UE handover Requests, the gNB-DU may return a Simultaneous UE Context Setup Response to the gNB-CU as the plural handover responses.
Nakamura and Wang combined describe:
wherein the first context setup response comprises the first identifier of at least the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices associated with the joint handover procedure; and wherein the second context setup response comprises the second identifier of at least the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices associated with the joint handover procedure (fig. 2 and para. 86-89, plus elaborated on fig. 3-4 and para. 107, 114, 117 & 129, first terminal device obtains identification information of second terminal device as a response in step S1102, then sends handover assistance information comprising first & second terminal identification information to first network device, and finally the first network device sends to first (target) network device a first terminal’s handover request comprising the first & second terminal identification information, for the purpose of group/simultaneous (joint) handover, see also abstract. Such hangover steps are the same for fig. 5 & 6 embodiment (see para. 180), where fig. 5-6 describe handover messages & responses between first & second network devices as context request & context response messages, see para. 196-197).
Regarding claim 16, Nakamura describes an apparatus for wireless communication at a target distributed unit (DU) (fig. 4, target DU) serving a plurality of wireless devices associated with a multi-modal service (para. 3, expansion of functions (service) of NTN in communication), comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and, based at least in part on stored information that is stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor (fig. 13 & para. 116, DU comprising processor 1001 coupled to memory 1002 to execute its steps), the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is configured to:, individually or in any combination, is configured to:
obtain, in association with a handover procedure for the plurality of wireless devices, a first context setup request for a first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices (fig. 3 & para. 80, gNB-CU sends simultaneous UE Context Setup Request to target gNB-DU for handover, comprising [plural: first & second] requests for [each of] multiple UEs (UE1, UE2));
obtain, in association with the handover procedure for the plurality of wireless devices, a second context setup request for the second wireless device (fig. 3 & para. 80, gNB-CU sends simultaneous UE Context Setup Request to target gNB-DU for handover, comprising [plural: first & second] requests for [each of] multiple UEs (UE1, UE2))
Nakamura fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the first context setup request comprises a first identifier for at least a second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices; and
wherein the second context setup request comprises a second identifier for at least the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices.
Wang also describes handover method for plural terminals (title and fig. 3 & 4), further describing:
wherein the first context setup request comprises a first identifier for at least a second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices; and wherein the second context setup request comprises a second identifier for at least the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices (fig. 2 and para. 86-89, plus elaborated on fig. 3-4 and para. 107, 114, 117 & 129, first terminal device obtains identification information of second terminal device as a response in step S1102, then sends handover assistance information comprising first & second terminal identification information to first network device, and finally the first network device sends to first (target) network device a first terminal’s handover request comprising the first & second terminal identification information, for the purpose of group/simultaneous (joint) handover, see also abstract. Such hangover steps are the same for fig. 5 & 6 embodiment (see para. 180), where fig. 5-6 describe handover messages & responses between first & second network devices as context request & context response messages, see para. 196-197).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the first request sent in Nakamura to comprise a first identifier of at least a second wireless device for a joint handover as in Wang.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this ensures a quantity of terminal devices to have service/communication continuity (Wang, para. 3).
Regarding claim 19, Nakamura and Wang combined describe:
wherein the first context setup request comprises one or more of an ID of each of the plurality of wireless devices (Nakamura fig. 4. Simultaneous UE context Setup request including HO requests for (IDs of] UE1 & UE2).
Claims 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakamura in view of Wang as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Chandrashekar (US 2024/0224137).
Regarding claim 17, Nakamura and Wang combined already describe the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to execute steps, but fail to further explicitly describe:
check, based on obtaining the first context setup request and the second context setup request, for resources for the first wireless device and the second wireless device.
Chandrashekar also describes wireless handoff comprising CU-CP, serving DU and target DU (fig. 7), further describing:
check, based on obtaining the first context setup request and the second context setup request, for resources for the first wireless device and the second wireless device (para. 105, in response to receiving UE Context Setup Request message from CU-CP 808, target DU 806 make preparations 834 comprising reserving necessary resources for UE 802 & verifying RACH-less feasibility of the HO (checking)).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the first & second context setup requests in Nakamura and Wang combined to prompt a check for resources as in Chandrashekar.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this decreases the time to accomplish the handover (decrease latency) and decrease user plan interruption time (Chandrashekar, para. 7).
Regarding claim 18, Nakamura, Wang and Chandrashekar combined describe:
wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
output, based on the first context setup request and the check for the resources, a first context setup response for the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the first context setup response comprises the first identifier for at least the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices; and output, based on the second context setup request and the check for the resources, a second context setup response for the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the second context setup response comprises the second identifier for at least the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices (Wang, fig. 5 & 6 and para. 196-197, context request & context response messages incorporate same contents as hangover steps as described in fig. 2 and para. 86-89, plus elaborated on fig. 3-4 and para. 107, 114, 117 & 129, in which first terminal device sends handover assistance information comprising first & second terminal identification information to first network device, and finally the first network device sends to first (target) network device a first terminal’s handover request comprising the first & second terminal identification information, for the purpose of group/simultaneous (joint) handover).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claim 2, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the CP of the CU is a first CP of a first CU associated with the plurality of wireless devices, and wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
obtain, from a second CP of a second CU associated with the joint handover procedure for the plurality of wireless devices, a first handover request for the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the first request comprises the first identifier of at least the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices; and
obtain, from the second CP of the second CU, a second handover request for the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the second request comprises the second identifier of at least the first wireless device.
The closest Tertiary prior art, Uchino (US 2025/0113274) also describing multiple UES connected to [one] CU via a DU that is moving out of coverage to perform
inter-DU handovers simultaneously. The CU then exchange several message with a source DU and a target DU to perform the handover as follows: CU may exchange context a UE context modification request/response with the source DU, a UE context setup request/response with the target DU, and another UE context modification request/response with the source DU (para. 126), in combination with Nakamura and Wang, fail to render the above additional limitations as a whole obvious.
Regarding claim 8, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to: obtain a first indication of a completion of a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration for the first wireless device; and output, based on the first indication, a first path switch request for the first wireless device, wherein the first path switch request comprises the first identifier of at least the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices.
The closest prior art, Nakamura describing each of UEs 1-3 receiving a RRC reconfiguration message from source DU before performing the handover execution and completion (fig. 4) and Wang describing in fig. 3 the second network device receiving connection reconfiguration completion message in step S1220 (and likewise in fig. 4-7), in combination, fail to render the above additional features as a whole obvious.
Regarding claim 20, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the at least one processor, individually or in any combination, is further configured to:
perform, based on the first context setup request and the second context setup request, a random access procedure for the plurality of wireless devices;
output, based on the random access procedure for the first wireless device, a first data delivery status indication for the first wireless device, wherein the first data delivery status indication comprises the first identifier for at least the second wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices; and
output, based on the random access procedure for the second wireless device, a second data delivery status indication for the second wireless device, wherein the second data delivery status indication comprises the second identifier for at least the first wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices.
The closest prior art, Wang describing handover request message in step S1203 of fig. 3 or 4 leading to random access process from first terminal device, in combination with Nakamura and Uchino, fail to render the above additional features as a whole obvious.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Ni (US 2017/0339110) describing first & second terminal handover requests comprising first service chain identifiers (para. 22-23), Singh (US 9370025) describing base station receiving a first handover request for a first UE from the first neighboring base station at a first receipt time, and at block 404, the base station receives a second handover request for a second UE from the second neighboring base station at a second receipt time (fig. 4 block 403), Yilmaz (US 20160021594) describing [joint] handover request (for both UE1 & UE2) & joint handover command (fig. 4, 413, 416-147), Mikios (US 2020/0205039) describing handover control of affiliated UEs to ensue handover at different interval (fig. 8 & para. 74), Yu (US 2015/0382252) describing group handover where source BS sending to target BS a group HO request (fig. 5), Lu (US 2015/0358860) describing UE agent & each [piece of] UE within the UE group needs handover, UE agent sends a (one) handover request message to a target base station (title & fig. 1 #102) where agent UE sends measurement report of UE & its own agent measurement report to S-eNB (step 501). Upon receipt of HO configuration, agent UE sends such HO configuration to each [piece of] UE (fig. 5), Wang (US 2015/0304911) describing handover request comprising a send of UE IDs as a group (fig. 6b), Xu US 20200137637 describing second network device transmitting to first network device a HO ack for first UE plus another HO ACK for second UE (fig. 1), Yang (US 2020/0008117) describing first network conferred with second network device & sends separate handover indication to UE1 & UE2 (fig. 8).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WARNER WONG whose telephone number is (571)272-8197. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am - 3:30pm.
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WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469