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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/13/2026 has been entered.
Claim status
Claims 2, 16, and 21 are amended.
Claims 3 and 17 are canceled.
Claims 1, 4, 18 were previously canceled.
Claims 24 and 25 are newly added.
Claims 2, 5-16, and 19-25 are pending for examination.
Response to arguments
Re: Rejection based on 35 U.S.C. 103
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered.
Applicant argues, (Pg.10 of applicant’s argument) “handover between cells,
as described in LIU, does not disclose or suggest "receiving control signaling configuring a
plurality of sets of cells for communication with one or more distributed units (DU s ), wherein the
one or more DUs are included in a set of DUs of a central unit (CU), wherein the control
signaling configures a first set of cells associated with a first DU of the one or more DUs and a
second set of cells associated with a second DU of the one or more DUs; receiving a
communication comprising layer 1 (LI) or layer 2 (L2) signaling, the communication indicating
a switch from the first set of cells of the plurality of sets of cells to the second set of cells of the
plurality of sets of cells””.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. As shown in the next section, in detail, combination of LIU and Novlan teaches the claim elements above including the amended claims citing RRC signaling.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 13-15, 16-17, and 20-21, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2020/0015132 A1), hereinafter “Liu” in view of Novlan et al. (US 2018/0324780 A1), hereinafter “Novlan”.
Claims 2, 16, and 21:
Regarding claim 2, Liu teaches ‘a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE)’ (Liu: [Abstract], “According to the present disclosure, a mobility management method, an access network device, and a terminal device are disclosed”), comprising:
‘receiving from a first distributed unit (DU), of one or more DUs, radio resource (RRC) control signaling configuring a plurality of sets of cells for communication with the one or more DUs’ (implied by disclosure in Liu: [Abstract] “the centralized unit communicates with the distributed unit, and … sending configuration information of the target cell to the terminal device through the distributed unit”. Configuration messages are sent through RRC signaling as shown in e.g., Fig.7A steps 705-713 where RRC signaling is received by Terminal device and sent by the distributed unit),
‘wherein the one or more DUs are included in a set of DUs of a central unit (CU)’ (Liu: Fig.8 shows two DUs connected to a CU).
Claim element, ‘wherein the RRC signaling configures a first set of cells associated with the first DU of the one or more DUs and a second set of cells associated with a second DU of the one or more DUs’, is implied by the disclosure in Liu that multiple cells are administered by a DU, e.g., in [0036], “terminal device performs cell handover between different cells administered by a same distributed unit”, and also in [0038]; “handover between cells administered by different distributed units” is disclosed in [0041])).
Liu, though teaches about resource configuration of target cell (e.g. Fig.14, step 145; Fig.15, steps 155-156), it does not expressly teach that the control signaling configures the cells associated with the distributed units.
Novlan in the same field of endeavor teaches, [0019] In an example, the method can comprise coordinating, by the network device, the first resource configuration and the second resource configuration among the first distributed unit and the second distributed unit. Further to this example, the coordinating can comprise communicating, by the network device, the first resource configuration to the second distributed unit and the second resource configuration to the first distributed unit. The communication can be facilitated by a central unit communicatively coupled to the first distributed unit and the second distributed unit.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Novlan with that of Liu motivated by providing resource configuration by the central unit as for cells and devices associated with different distributed units so that proper resource may be used when device moves from one distributed unit to another.
Liu teaches, ‘receiving a communication comprising layer 1 (L1) or layer 2 (L2) signaling’ (Liu: [0134] Before a primary cell change, the CU sends a PDCP PDU to an RLC layer of the DU through a PDCP layer, and communicates with the terminal device through MAC1 and PHY1 of the cell1 served by the DU.”), the communication indicating a switch from the first set of cells of the plurality of sets of cells to the second set of cells of the plurality of sets of cells’ (Liu: [0032], “a transmitter, configured to send configuration information of a target cell administered by the second distributed unit to the terminal device through the first distributed unit, where the processor is further configured to determine that the terminal device needs to perform a primary cell change between the first distributed unit and the second distributed unit, perform air interface resource reconfiguration for the target cell administered by the second distributed unit, and generate reconfiguration information; and the transmitter is further configured to send the reconfiguration information to the terminal device.”); and
‘switching from the first set of cells to the second set of cells based at least in part on the communication’ (Liu: Fig.15, after the terminal device receives Cell handover command from the central unit, it does RLC re-establishment and mac reestablishment with the second DU and performs random access; [0090], “A terminal device moves between cells separately administered by two different distributed units. For example, the terminal device may move from a first cell (that is, a source cell) administered by the first distributed unit to a second cell (that is, a target cell) administered by the second distributed unit.”).
Claims 16 and 21 are change in categories with respect to claim 1. Claims are rejected based on rejection of claim 2. Memory and processor of claim 16 are implied.
Claims 6 and 20:
Regarding claim 6, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 4 (discussed above), further comprising:
‘receiving, on a non-serving DU, the communication indicating the switch, wherein the switch is based at least in part on a cross-DU selection of the first set of cells or the second set of cells’ (implied by disclosure in Liu: [0365] After determining that the terminal device needs to perform a primary cell change between the first distributed unit and the second distributed unit, the centralized unit performs air interface resource reconfiguration for the target cell administered by the second distributed unit” and communication with the second distributed unit is shown in Figs. 9 and 15.).
Claim 20 is change in categories with respect to claim 6. Claims are rejected based on rejection of claim 6.
Regarding claim 8, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above), ‘wherein each respective set of cells of the plurality of sets of cells includes at least one of a primary cell or a primary secondary cell’ (implied by disclosures in Liu: [0022] “determining, by the centralized unit, that the terminal device needs to perform a primary cell change between the first distributed unit and the second distributed unit”; and [0077] “For a dual connectivity (dual connectivity, DC) scenario, a source DU cell is changed from a PCell to a PSCell, and a target DU cell is changed from a PSCell to a PCell. For cell handover, UE is handed over from a source cell to a target cell.”).
Regarding claim 11, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above), further comprising:
‘receiving or transmitting control information on one or more beams of one or more of the first set of cells or the second set of cells’ (implied by disclosures in Liu, [0008] “[0008] In an existing long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, if an RRC connection reconfiguration (RRC Connection Reconfiguration) message received by a terminal device includes mobility control information (mobility Control Info parameter) when the terminal device performs cell handover,”, and handover/cell switching discussed above in claim 2.).
Regarding claim 13, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above), ‘wherein the first set of cells and the second set of cells are non-overlapping’ (implied by disclosure in [0041], “terminal device performs cell handover between cells administered by different distributed units”; [0090] “A terminal device moves between cells separately administered by two different distributed units. For example, the terminal device may move from a first cell (that is, a source cell) administered by the first distributed unit to a second cell (that is, a target cell) administered by the second distributed unit.”).
Regarding claim 14, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above), ‘wherein L1 signaling comprises physical (PHY) layer signaling’ (Liu: [0017], “sending, by the centralized unit, activation indication information to the distributed unit, where the activation indication information is used to instruct the distributed unit to send a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) activation command to the terminal device).
Regarding claim 15, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above), ‘wherein L2 signaling comprises one or more of service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, radio link control (RLC) layer, and medium access control (MAC) layer signaling’ (Liu: [0006] and [0008]).
Claims 5, 9-10, 19, and 22-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over combination of Liu and Novlan in view of Yi et al. (US 2021/0274535 A1), hereinafter “Yi”.
Claims 5 and 19:
Regarding claim 5, Combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above) but fails to teach, the method, ‘further comprising: communicating with the second DU to select a beam of the second set of cells’.
Yi, in the same field of endeavor teaches uplink beam selection, as disclosed in [0201], “The wireless device may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the Tx beam, for example, if the wireless device does not have the capability of beam correspondence. The wireless device may perform the uplink beam selection procedure, for example, based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources configured to the wireless device by the base station. The base station may select and indicate uplink beams for the wireless device, for example, based on measurements of the one or more SRS resources sent/transmitted by the wireless device.”.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure by Yi with that of the combination of Liu and Novlan and come up with the claimed invention for selection of beam so that communication with the new DU may happen with the selected beam.
Claim 19 is change in categories with respect to claim 5. Claims are rejected based on rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 9, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above).
Liu though teaches ‘monitoring’ or ‘measuring’ of signal strength as disclosed in [0092], “the measurement report carries information about signal quality that is of cells administered by the first distributed unit and the second distributed unit and that is measured by the terminal device, for example, RSRP or RSRQ.” . it fails to teach regarding beams.
Yi teaches measurements of signal strength in [0144] and also discloses beam management, as shown above in claim 5.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure of beams by Yi with that of measurements from Yi and combination of Liu and Novlan and come up with the claimed invention, ‘wherein receiving the communication comprises: receiving signaling to monitor or measure one or more beams of the second set of cells’, for cell switching with the maximum signal strength by selection of right beam for communication.
Regarding claim 10, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above).
Combination of Liu and Novlan however fails to expressly teach, ‘wherein receiving the communication comprises: receiving signaling to monitor a synchronization signal block of the second set of cells’.
Yi in the same field of endeavor teaches monitoring of synchronization signal. Lee discloses, “The wireless device may monitor a carrier for the PSS, for example, to find and select the cell.” ([0181]); “A cell selection/search and/or reselection may be based on the CD-SSB.” ([0181]; “A synchronization signal (SS) / physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block may comprise the PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH. The base station may periodically send/transmit a burst of SS/PBCH blocks, which may be referred to as SSBs” ([0178]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosures by Yi with that of combination of Liu and Novlan motivated to monitor the synchronization signal for the purpose of cell selection, as described above by Yi.
Regarding claim 22, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above).
Combination of Liu and Novlan however fails to expressly teach, ‘wherein the first set of cells comprises a set of candidate cells, a set of activated cells, or a set of deactivated cells’.
The claim is implied by the disclosures in Yi, in [0361] “The base station may maintain one or more first frequencies as candidate cells for a primary cell for a wireless device. The base station may maintain one or more second frequencies as candidate cells for a second cell for the wireless device”;
[0379] “The wireless device may activate the scheduling cell, for example, if the scheduling cell is deactivated and based on receiving the command The command may be a second MAC CE comprising a cell indicator/index of the scheduling cell for the first cell.”; and
[0173] Configured SCells for a wireless device may be activated or deactivated, for example, based on traffic and channel conditions. Deactivation of an SCell may cause the wireless device to stop PDCCH and PDSCH reception on the SCell and PUSCH, SRS, and CQI transmissions on the SCell. Configured SCells may be activated or deactivated, for example, using a MAC CE (e.g., the MAC CE described with respect to FIG. 4B). A MAC CE may use a bitmap ( e.g., one bit per SCell) to indicate which SCells (e.g., in a subset of configured SCells) for the wireless device are activated or deactivated. Configured SCells may be deactivated, for example, after ( e.g., based on or in response to) an expiration of an SCell deactivation timer (e.g., one SCell deactivation timer per SCell may be configured); and
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosure of activated, deactivated or candidate cells by Yi with the disclosures in combination of Liu and Novlan so as to be able to use the set of activated, deactivated or candidate cells as necessary based on communication quality and or power saving purpose.
Regarding claims 23-25, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claims 2 and 16.(discussed above).
The claim elements are implied based on the discussion above in claim 22.
Claim 7 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over combination of Liu and Novlan as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of FIORANI et al. (US 2020/0351971 A1), hereinafter “Fiorani”.
Regarding claim 7, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above) but fails to teach, ‘wherein a quantity of cells in a particular set of cells of the plurality of sets of cells set is based at least in part on a UE capability of the UE’.
Fiorani in the same field of endeavor teaches about UE carrier aggregation capability and assignment of cells to a UE, “A CA-capable UE is assigned a PCell (e.g., PCell 1) that is always activated, and one or more SCells ( e.g., SCell2 and/or SCell3) which can be activated or deactivated dynamically.”(Fiorani: [0008]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify combine disclosure by Fiorani with that of combination of Liu and Novlan and come up with claimed invention so that carrier aggregation may be performed as per UE capability.
Regarding claim 12, combination of Liu and Novlan teaches the method of claim 2 (discussed above).
Liu teaches in Fig.16, step 162, “The terminal device receives configuration information of the target cell sent by the centralized unit through a distributed unit”.
Combined with disclosure by Fiorani, in [0077] “although the term "cell" is used herein, it should be understood that (particularly with respect to 5G NR) beams may be used instead of cells and, as such, concepts described herein apply equally to both cells and beams.”, and “[0089] Based on the measurements in the received Measurement Report (and, optionally, in one or more previously received Measurement Report messages), the gNB-CU can determine to perform a mobility operation (e.g., handover) of the UE from the source gNB-DU to the target gNB-DU. This can include, for example, a selection of a cell provided by the target gNB-DU as a new SpCell for the UE.”, a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine disclosures by Fiorani regarding equivalence of beams and cells and disclosure by Liu and Fiorani above, with purpose of cell switching.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US-11792713-B2 teaches base station device includes processing circuitry configured to implement: at least one distributed unit (DU) that outputs the plurality of radio beams; and a central unit (CU) that controls the at least one DU.
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/INTEKHAAB A SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462