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 Objections
Claims 6, 12, and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claims 6, 12, and 18, in line 2, replace “network types” with --types of networks-- and “one or more network types” with --one or more types of networks--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-2, 6-7, 11-14, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen (US 2020/0059395 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses a method for managing master cell group (MCG) failure by a user equipment (UE) supporting a dual connectivity scenario in a wireless communication system (Fig. 4), the method comprising:
establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with an MCG and a secondary cell group (Fig. 4, block 440, UE is in MR-DC mode, connected to both MN/MCG and SN/SCG);
detecting a failure of the RRC connection with the MCG (Fig. 4, block 470, MN or MCG link failure is detected);
transmitting, to a network corresponding to the SCG, a connection failure report upon detecting the failure of the RRC connection with the MCG (Fig. 4, block 480, UE transmits MN or MCG failure report to SN); and
receiving, from the network corresponding to the SCG, RRC reconfiguration information in response to the transmitted connection failure report (Fig. 4, block 490, UE receives SN command from SN in response to MN or MCG failure report), wherein the RRC reconfiguration information includes information about configuring the SCG as the MCG (81st paragraph, SN 430 may command the UE to perform a role exchange procedure. SN is now MN).
Regarding claims 2, 11, and 14, Chen discloses that wherein the connection failure report comprises at least one of an indication of the failure of the RRC connection (Fig. 4, block 480, MN failure report), a reason for the failure of the RRC connection (81st paragraph, report may contain a failure cause), or a neighbouring cell measurement report indicating at least a signal strength of one or more neighbouring cell groups of the UE.
Regarding claims 6, 12, and 18, Chen discloses that wherein the MCG and SCG is associated with one or more network types (Fig. 4, block 440, UE in MR-DC mode. According to 42nd and 43rd paragraphs, it can be NG-RAN, E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity, or NR-NR DC), and the one or more network types correspond to at least one of a Terrestrial Network (TN) (42nd and 43rd paragraphs, NG-RAN, E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity, or NR-NR DC which is terrestrial network) or a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN).
Regarding claim 7, Chen discloses a method for managing master cell group (MCG) failure by an apparatus of a network associated with a secondary cell group (SCG) (Fig. 4), the method comprising:
establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection for the SCG with a user equipment (UE) which established a RRC connection with an MCG (Fig. 4, block 440, UE in MR-DC mode, connected to both MN or MCG and SN or SCG);
receiving, from the UE, a connection failure report for a failure of the RRC connection with the MCG (Fig. 4, block 480, SN receives MN failure report);
reconfiguring the SCG as the MCG based on the connection failure report (81st paragraph, after receiving the MCG failure report, SN may make a decision to become new role exchange);
generating RRC reconfiguration information corresponding to the reconfiguration of the SCG as the MCG (Fig. 4, block 490, SN command is generated performing new role exchange); and
transmitting, to the UE, the RRC reconfiguration information (Fig. 4, block 490, SN command transmitted to UE).
Regarding claim 13, Chen discloses a user equipment (Fig. 8, UE) supporting a dual connectivity for managing master cell group (MCG) failure in a wireless communication system (Fig. 4), the UE comprising:
a memory storing instructions (Fig. 8, memory 828 storing instructions); and
at least one processor configured to, when executing the instructions, cause the UE to perform operations (Fig. 8, processor 826 executing instructions), the operations comprising:
establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with an MCG and a secondary cell group (Fig. 4, block 440, UE is in MR-DC mode, connected to both MN or MCG and SN or SCG);
detecting a failure of the RRC connection with the MCG (Fig. 4, block 470, MN or MCG link failure is detected);
transmitting, to a network corresponding to the SCG, a connection failure report upon detecting the failure of the RRC connection with the MCG (Fig. 4, block 480, UE transmits MN or MCG failure report to SN); and
receiving, from the network corresponding to the SCG, RRC reconfiguration information in response to the transmitted connection failure report (Fig. 4, block 490, UE receives SN command from SN in response to MN or MCG failure report), wherein the RRC reconfiguration information includes information about configuring the SCG as the MCG (81st paragraph, SN 430 may command the UE to perform a role exchange procedure. SN is now MN).
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.
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.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Kim (US 2020/0305216 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Chen discloses that the report may include measurement results such as RSRP, RSRQ, or SINR of MCG and SCG (103rd paragraph). Chen does not disclose that wherein the connection failure report further comprises a neighbouring cell measurement report including information indicating at least a signal strength of one or more neighbouring cell groups of the UE, and wherein the method further comprises: determining to reconfigure at least one of the SCG or the one or more neighbouring cell groups as the MCG based on the neighbouring cell measurement report. Kim discloses that the MCG failure report may include a measurement result of other frequencies so as to be usable when configuring a novel MCG (187th paragraph. Herein, other frequencies are used by neighboring cell groups). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include measurement of other cells in Chen’s system, as suggested by Kim, to configure new MCG when a failure occurs.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 8, 10, and 15-17 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.
Conclusion
Abraham et al (US 2026/0040179 A1), same assignee, discloses MCG fast recovery for MR-DC (Figs. 3-11).
Abraham et al (US 2025/0016641 A1), same assignee, discloses configuring LTM for MCG and SCG (Figs. 8-19).
Freda et al (US 2024/0298370 A1), same field of endeavor, discloses MCG failure report on SCG (Figs. 4-8).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANH VU H LY whose telephone number is (571)272-3175. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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ANH VU H. LY
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/ANH VU H LY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472