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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on May 20, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed May 13, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The argument features that Guo does not teach or suggest wherein the indication to perform LTM includes a payload that contains at least one of: 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.
The examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant’s statement and asserts that, using the broadest reasonable interpretation, Guo discloses the indication to perform LTM includes a payload that contains at least one of: one or more timing adjustment parameters associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells, or one or more beam identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7) “…the TA can be included in cell switch command when the target cell (e.g. C-Cell 130c) has been selected…” (par. 478, lines 9-11)” FIG. 45 shows an example TA command MAC CE 4500 for a candidate cell, which includes cell ID and TA (adjustment) value.” (par. 497, lines 1-3) “The Timing Advance Command field indicates the index value TA (e.g. 0, 1, 2…63) used to control the amount of timing adjustment that MAC entity has to apply…” (par. 497, lines 6-9)].
In view of the above, the rejection using Guo and Tripathi is maintained as repeated below.
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 [“FIG. 56 illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g. a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 56 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 5600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 5610, one or more memory/storage devices 5620…” (par. 803, lines 1-8)]; and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories [“FIG. 56 illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g. a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 56 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 5600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 5610, one or more memory/storage devices 5620…” (par. 803, lines 1-8)], at least one processor of the one or more processors configured to cause the UE [“FIG. 56 illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g. a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 56 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 5600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 5610, one or more memory/storage devices 5620…” (par. 803, lines 1-8)] 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 cells [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7)];
perform, after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7)], an early synchronization procedure with at least one of the LTM candidate NTN cells prior to receiving an indication to perform LTM [“Early sync: The UE 5402 may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition with candidate target cell(s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command…” (par. 433, lines 1-3)], the early synchronization procedure comprising downlink synchronization and timing advance acquisition [“Early sync: The UE 5402 may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition with candidate target cell(s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command…” (par. 433, lines 1-3)]; and
perform LTM responsive [“The UE 5402 switches to the configuration of the LTM candidate target cell (e.g. the UE 5402 detaches from the source cell and applies target configurations}” (par. 434, lines 8-10)] to the indication to perform LTM [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7)];
wherein the indication to perform LTM includes a payload that contains at least one of: one or more timing adjustment parameters associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells, or one or more beam identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7) “…the TA can be included in cell switch command when the target cell (e.g. C-Cell 130c) has been selected…” (par. 478, lines 9-11)” FIG. 45 shows an example TA command MAC CE 4500 for a candidate cell, which includes cell ID and TA (adjustment) value.” (par. 497, lines 1-3) “The Timing Advance Command field indicates the index value TA (e.g. 0, 1, 2…63) used to control the amount of timing adjustment that MAC entity has to apply…” (par. 497, lines 6-9)].
Guo discloses the claimed inventio except: NTN cells.
In an analogous art Tripathi discloses NTN cells [“…the UE provides one or more of these NTN measurements for the serving cell and/or the neighbor cells: Timing Advance…” (par. 129, lines 7-9)].
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 [“FIG. 56 illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g. a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 56 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 5600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 5610, one or more memory/storage devices 5620…” (par. 803, lines 1-8)]; and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories [“FIG. 56 illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g. a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 56 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 5600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 5610, one or more memory/storage devices 5620…” (par. 803, lines 1-8)], at least one processor of the one or more processors configured to cause the network node [“FIG. 56 illustrates components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g. a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 56 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 5600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 5610, one or more memory/storage devices 5620…” (par. 803, lines 1-8)] 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 cells [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7)], 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 cells [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7) “Early sync: The UE 5402 may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition with candidate target cell(s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command…” (par. 433, lines 1-3)] prior to receiving an indication to perform LTM [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7)], the early synchronization procedure comprising downlink synchronization and timing advance acquisition [“Early sync: The UE 5402 may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition with candidate target cell(s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command…” (par. 433, lines 1-3)]; and
initiate [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7)], after transmitting the RRC reconfiguration message [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7)], LTM using an indication to perform LTM [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7)];
wherein the indication to perform LTM includes a payload that contains at least one of: one or more timing adjustment parameters associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells, or one or more beam identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7) “…the TA can be included in cell switch command when the target cell (e.g. C-Cell 130c) has been selected…” (par. 478, lines 9-11)” FIG. 45 shows an example TA command MAC CE 4500 for a candidate cell, which includes cell ID and TA (adjustment) value.” (par. 497, lines 1-3) “The Timing Advance Command field indicates the index value TA (e.g. 0, 1, 2…63) used to control the amount of timing adjustment that MAC entity has to apply…” (par. 497, lines 6-9)].
Guo discloses the claimed inventio except: NTN cells.
In an analogous art Tripathi discloses NTN cells [“…the UE provides one or more of these NTN measurements for the serving cell and/or the neighbor cells: Timing Advance…” (par. 129, lines 7-9)].
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 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 payload further contains one or more configuration identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate NTN cells (par. 434, lines 4-10).
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 cells [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7)];
perform, after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message [“The RAN node 5414 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 5402, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate target cells…” (par. 432, lines 5-7)], an early synchronization procedure with at least one of the LTM candidate NTN cells prior to receiving an indication to perform LTM [“Early sync: The UE 5402 may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition with candidate target cell(s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command…” (par. 433, lines 1-3)], the early synchronization procedure comprising downlink synchronization and timing advance acquisition [“Early sync: The UE 5402 may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition with candidate target cell(s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command…” (par. 433, lines 1-3)]; and
perform LTM responsive [“The UE 5402 switches to the configuration of the LTM candidate target cell (e.g. the UE 5402 detaches from the source cell and applies target configurations}” (par. 434, lines 8-10)] to the indication to perform LTM [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7)];
wherein the indication to perform LTM includes a payload that contains at least one of: one or more timing adjustment parameters associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells, or one or more beam identifiers associated with the one or more LTM candidate cells [“The RAN node 5414 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell, and transmits a cell switch command MAC CE triggering LTM cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell…” (par. 434, lines 4-7) “…the TA can be included in cell switch command when the target cell (e.g. C-Cell 130c) has been selected…” (par. 478, lines 9-11)” FIG. 45 shows an example TA command MAC CE 4500 for a candidate cell, which includes cell ID and TA (adjustment) value.” (par. 497, lines 1-3) “The Timing Advance Command field indicates the index value TA (e.g. 0, 1, 2…63) used to control the amount of timing adjustment that MAC entity has to apply…” (par. 497, lines 6-9)].
Guo discloses the claimed inventio except: NTN cells.
In an analogous art Tripathi discloses NTN cells [“…the UE provides one or more of these NTN measurements for the serving cell and/or the neighbor cells: Timing Advance…” (par. 129, lines 7-9)].
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
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/JOEL AJAYI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
Prosecution Insights