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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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 of this title, 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2023/0388871) in view of Tripathi et al. (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2022/0046490).
Consider claim 1; Guo discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code (par. 805, 807); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories (par. 805, 807), at least one processor of the one or more processors configured to cause the UE (par. 805, 807) to:
receive a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message associated with one or more layer 1 (L1) or layer 2 (L2) triggered mobility (LTM) candidate non- terrestrial network (NTN) cells (par. 432, lines 5-8);
perform, after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message, an early synchronization procedure with at least one of the LTM candidate NTN cells prior to receiving an indication to perform LTM (par. 433, lines 1-3), the early synchronization procedure comprising downlink synchronization and timing advance acquisition (par. 433, lines 1-3); and
perform LTM responsive to the indication to perform LTM (par. 434, lines 1-10).
Guo discloses the claimed inventio except: NTN cells.
In an analogous art Tripathi discloses NTN cells (par. 129, lines 7-12).
It is an object of Guo’s invention to provide a method for inter-cell mobility. It is an object of Tripathi’s invention to provide a method for handover signaling. Therefore, 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 teaching of Guo by including NTN cells, as taught by Tripathi, for the purpose of enhancing a user’s experience in a telecommunications network.
Consider claim 2, as applied in claim 1; Tripathi discloses the RRC reconfiguration message includes one or more satellite identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells (par. 259; par. 261, lines 2-8).
Consider claim 3, as applied in claim 1; Tripathi discloses perform (par. 129, lines 7-12; par. 141, line 4 – par. 142, line 6), responsive to the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells being within a range of the UE (par. 129, lines 7-12; par. 141, line 4 – par. 142, line 6), one or more L1 measurements associated with the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells (par. 129, lines 7-12; par. 141, line 4 – par. 142, line 6); and transmit one or more L1 measurement reports associated with the one or more L1 measurements (par. 141, line 4 – par. 142, line 6).
Consider claim 4, as applied in claim 3; Tripathi discloses perform the one or more L1 measurements responsive to a current time or UE location (par. 141, line 4 – par. 142, line 6), and wherein the at least one processor configured to cause the UE to transmit the one or more L1 measurement reports is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the one or more L1 measurement reports responsive to the one or more L1 measurements satisfying a measurement threshold (par. 141, lines 4-8).
Consider claim 5, as applied in claim 3; Tripathi discloses the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells are a single LTM candidate NTN cell (par. 141, lines 4-8), wherein the one or more L1 measurement reports are a single L1 measurement report (par. 141, lines 4-8), and wherein the single L1 measurement report does not contain a cell identifier associated with the single LTM candidate NTN cell (par. 141, lines 4-8).
Consider claim 6, as applied in claim 1; Guo discloses the RRC reconfiguration message includes a plurality of configuration identifiers associated with a plurality of LTM candidate NTN cells including the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells [e.g. target cells (par. 432, lines 5-8)], and wherein the at least one processor configured to cause the UE to perform LTM is further configured to cause the UE to: perform LTM responsive to an order associated with the plurality of configuration identifiers (par. 434, lines 1-10).
Consider claim 7, as applied in claim 1; Guo discloses perform LTM responsive to a location of the UE or a current time (par. 434, lines 1-10).
Consider claim 8; Guo discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a network node, comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code (par. 805, 807); and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories (par. 805, 807), at least one processor of the one or more processors configured to cause the network node (par. 805, 807) to:
transmit a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message associated with one or more layer 1 (L1) or layer 2 (L2) triggered mobility (LTM) candidate non- terrestrial network (NTN) cells (par. 432, lines 5-8), the RRC reconfiguration message comprising information enabling a user equipment (UE) to perform an early synchronization procedure with at least one of the LTM candidate NTN cells prior to receiving an indication to perform LTM (par. 432, line 5 – par. 433, line 5), the early synchronization procedure comprising downlink synchronization and timing advance acquisition (par. 432, line 5 – par. 433, line 5); and
initiate (par. 434, lines 4-10), after transmitting the RRC reconfiguration message (par. 432, lines 5-8), LTM using an indication to perform LTM (par. 434, lines 4-10).
Consider claim 9, as applied in claim 8; Tripathi discloses the RRC reconfiguration message indicates a plurality of groups associated with a plurality of LTM candidate NTN cells including the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells (par. 107; par. 129, lines 7-12; par. 142, lines 1-6; par. 259).
Consider claim 10, as applied in claim 8; Guo discloses the indication to perform LTM is specific to a user equipment (UE) (par. 434, lines 4-10).
Consider claim 11, as applied in claim 10; Guo discloses the indication to perform LTM includes a payload that contains at least one of: one or more configuration identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells (par. 434, lines 4-10), one or more timing adjustment parameters associated with the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells, or one or more beam identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells.
Consider claim 12, as applied in claim 8; Tripathi discloses the indication to perform LTM is associated with a plurality of user equipments (UEs) [e.g. groupcast/multicast (par. 107)].
Consider claim 13, as applied in claim 12; Tripathi discloses the RRC reconfiguration message indicates a group identifier associated with the plurality of UEs [e.g. via the groupcast/multicast (par. 107)].
Consider claim 14, as applied in claim 12; Tripathi discloses the indication to perform LTM indicates a group identifier associated with the plurality of UEs [e.g. via the groupcast/multicast (par. 107; par. 141, lines 4-8)].
Consider claim 15, as applied in claim 14; Tripathi discloses the indication to perform LTM explicitly indicates a group identifier or indicates a bitmap associated with the group identifier, and wherein the plurality of UEs are configured to perform LTM using respective LTM configurations [e.g. via the groupcast/multicast (par. 107)].
Consider claim 16; Guo discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receive a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message associated with one or more layer 1 (L1) or layer 2 (L2) triggered mobility (LTM) candidate non- terrestrial network (NTN) cells (par. 432, lines 5-8);
perform, after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message, an early synchronization procedure with at least one of the LTM candidate NTN cells prior to receiving an indication to perform LTM (par. 433, lines 1-3), the early synchronization procedure comprising downlink synchronization and timing advance acquisition (par. 433, lines 1-3); and
perform LTM responsive to the indication to perform LTM (par. 434, lines 1-10).
Guo discloses the claimed inventio except: NTN cells.
In an analogous art Tripathi discloses NTN cells (par. 129, lines 7-12).
It is an object of Guo’s invention to provide a method for inter-cell mobility. It is an object of Tripathi’s invention to provide a method for handover signaling. Therefore, 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 teaching of Guo by including NTN cells, as taught by Tripathi, for the purpose of enhancing a user’s experience in a telecommunications network.
Consider claim 17, as applied in claim 16; Tripathi discloses the RRC reconfiguration message indicates a plurality of groups associated with a plurality of LTM candidate NTN cells including the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells (par. 107; par. 129, lines 7-12; par. 142, lines 1-6; par. 259).
Consider claim 18, as applied in claim 16; Guo discloses the indication to perform LTM is specific to a user equipment (UE) (par. 434, lines 4-10), or the indication to perform LTM is associated with a plurality of UEs including the UE.
Consider claim 19, as applied in claim 18; Tripathi discloses the RRC reconfiguration message indicates a group identifier associated with the plurality of UEs [e.g. via the groupcast/multicast (par. 107)].
Consider claim 20, as applied in claim 18; Tripathi discloses the indication to perform LTM indicates a group identifier associated with the plurality of UEs [e.g. via the groupcast/multicast (par. 107; par. 141, lines 4-8)].
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE
MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within
TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not
mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the
shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any
extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
Examiner should be directed to Joel Ajayi whose telephone number is (571) 270-1091. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday from 7:30am to 5:00pm and Friday 7:30am to 4:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Jeanette Parker can be reached on (571) 270-3647. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/JOEL AJAYI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646