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 regarding the 103 rejection have been carefully considered and they are moot because they do not apply to the new references used in the current office action.
Claim Objections
Claims 10 and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 15, in the limitation “receive a first message from a first distributed unit (DU)”, the phrase “a first distributed unit (DU)’ should be “the first distributed unit (DU)”, since in the preamble, there is already “a first DU”? Furthermore, if it is the first DU, does it mean that a first message is received from itself, according to the preamble, the apparatus operating as part of the first DU?
In claim 10, in the limitation “send a first message to a central unit (CU),”, the phrase “a central unit (CU)’ should be “the first central unit (DU)” since in the preamble, there is already “a first CU”? Furthermore, if it is the first CU, does it mean that a first message is sent to itself, according to the preamble, the apparatus operating as part of the first CU?
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 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Novlan (US 20200236021) in view of Laddu (US 20220322310) further in view of Zheng (US 20240088973).
Regarding claim 1, Novlan discloses a mobility management method, the method comprising:
receiving, at a first distribution unit (DU), a first measurement result reported by a terminal device ([0063], the arrows 606 represent a mobile device measurement report. The mobile device can measure beam strength/quality across TRP/DUs and can report the measurement results (through physical or higher layer signaling) to one or more DUs after receiving a beam management or RRM measurement trigger), wherein the first measurement result comprises measurement results corresponding to K cells, ([0065], CSI-RS based measurement configuration can include a set of time/frequency resources and scrambling identities (e.g. cell or virtual cell IDs), the configuration can include beam quality thresholds (which can be separately configured for serving or neighbor TRP/cells), where K is great than or equal to 1); and
sending, by the first DU, a first message to a central unit (CU) (fig. 6, [0064], the arrows 608 represent Inter-DU Measurement report coordination, sending from the DU to a CU. the measurement results of one or more DUs can be exchanged as part of a beam/RRM management procedure), wherein the first message comprises target beam information the terminal device to perform mobility management ([0016][0054][0061-64], a mobile device can be provided with a measurement configuration enabling beam-based measurement of one or multiple DUs, can measure beam strength/quality across TRP/DUs and can report the measurement results; an inter-distributed unit (DU) beam switch (mobility) and multi-connectivity establishment can be based on measurements and reports).
Novlan does not explicitly disclose the K cells comprising a current serving cell of the terminal device and at least one non-serving cell of the terminal device.
Laddu discloses the K cells comprising a current serving cell of the terminal device and at least one non-serving cell of the terminal device (Laddu, fig. 5, [0043][0083], the plurality of cell groups include at least a serving cell and at least one non-serving cell for the user device; the serving cell 530 and non-serving cells may coordinate regarding L1 measurements, e.g., such as coordinating or determining a CSI-RS, or SSB beam measurement report configuration for the UE 210. At 512, the serving cell 530 may provide or transmit to UE 210 a non-serving cell configuration for measurements).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Novlan with the teachings given by Laddu. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide significant improvement in wireless performance, which may include new levels of data rate, latency, reliability, and security (Laddu, [0005]).
Even though Novlan discloses an inter-distributed unit (DU) beam switch (mobility) and multi-connectivity establishment can be based on measurements and reports ([0016][0054]), Novlan does not explicitly disclose the first message comprises target beam information determined by the first DU based on the first measurement result.
Zheng discloses the first message comprises target beam information determined by the first DU based on the first measurement result and corresponding to a beam of a target cell different from beam(s) of the first DU (Zheng, [0035-37], DU 452 may determine the preferred beam from the plurality of second beams based on the measurement results of the UE for the first information transmitted via more than two first beams, by using the neural network in which the correlation between the first beams and the second beams is obtained in advance, using the first network element in the DU can determine the preferred beam more quickly and flexibly than using the first network element in the CU to determine the preferred beam).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Novlan with the teachings given by Zheng. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently select preferred beams based on the measurement results (Zheng, [0037]).
Claims 6, 10 and 15 are rejected similarly as claim 1 noting that Novlan discloses sending, by the CU, a second message to a second DU, wherein the second message comprises the target beam information with processor and memory (Novlan, figs. 3, 6, 8, [0061][0075-76], at 804, a set of measurement resources can be determined for each DU and exchanged across DUs through the central unit 324; the network device can generate a second configuration that comprises a second resource configuration related to second measurement resources of a second radio link between the mobile device and a second distributed unit of the distributed units. Facilitating the transmission of the one or more reports can comprise generating the combined report that is customized for the mobile device).
Regarding claims 2, 7, 11, 16, Novlan and Laddu disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the first message further comprises one or more of the following information:
a cell identity of the target cell corresponding to the target beam information, identification information of a second DU, or transmission status information of the terminal device, wherein the target cell is a cell of the second DU (Novlan, [0063][0065], measurement configuration can include identities (e.g. cell or virtual cell IDs); mobile device can measure beam strength/quality across TRP/DUs and can report the measurement results). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 3, 12, Novlan and Laddu disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:
sending a first indication message to the terminal device, wherein the first indication message comprises the target beam information and/or a cell identity of the target cell corresponding to the target beam information (Novlan, [0062], the arrows 604 represent mobile device specific measurement configuration. A mobile device can be provided with a measurement configuration enabling beam-based measurement of one or multiple DUs). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 4, 13, Novlan and Laddu disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a first configuration message from the CU, wherein the first configuration message comprises a group of configuration information corresponding to the at least one non-serving cell (Novlan, figs. 6, 7, steps 602, 702, Laddu, [0083], the serving cell 530 may transmit to UE 210 a non-serving cell configuration for measurements. Novlan, fig. 6, the DU receives the cell configuration for measurement from the CU); and
sending a second configuration message to the terminal device, wherein the second configuration message comprises the group of configuration information corresponding to the at least one non-serving cell (Laddu, [0083], the serving cell 530 may transmit to UE 210 a non-serving cell configuration for measurements. Novlan, fig. 6, the DU forwards the cell configuration for measurement to the UE).
Regarding claims 5, 9, 14, 18, Novlan and Laddu disclose the method according to claim 4, wherein the group of configuration information comprises one or more of the following configuration information of a corresponding cell:
reference signal configuration information, measurement configuration information (Novlan, [0016][0061-64], a mobile device can be provided with a measurement configuration enabling beam-based measurement of one or multiple DUs), beam configuration information, quasi co-location (QCL) information (Laddu, [0007]), control resource set (CORESET) configuration information (Laddu, [0007][0037]), search space configuration information, timing advance (TA) information, terminal device identification information, sequence information for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scrambling/descrambling (Laddu, [00036]),, random access resource configuration information, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource configuration information (Laddu, [00036]),, radio link monitoring configuration information, security-related configuration information, media access control (MAC) configuration information, and radio link control (RLC) configuration information, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) configuration information, or service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) configuration information.
It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 8, 17, Novlan and Laddu disclose the method according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a third configuration message from the second DU, wherein the third configuration message comprises a group of configuration information corresponding to the target cell (Novlan, fig. 6, step 608, the measurement results of one or more DUs can be exchanged as part of a beam/RRM management procedure) ; and
sending a first configuration message to the first DU, wherein the first configuration message comprises a group of configuration information corresponding to at least one non-serving cell of the terminal device (Novlan, 602, the coordination messages can be provided per DU or as a common configuration from a central beam/RRM management entity and correspond to mobile device-specific or mobile device-group-specific resources; Laddu, [0083], the serving cell 530 may transmit to UE 210 (through the first DU taught by Novlan) a non-serving cell configuration for measurements).
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached at 571-272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474