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 1 is amended. Claim 2-20 are cancelled.
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(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fehrenbach et al. (US2022/0078684 herein Feh) in view of Huang et al. (US20230397061) further in view of Tseng et al. (US20230047987).
Regarding claim 1, Feh teaches An apparatus for accessing a radio access network ([0173] “the serving cell 310 confirms the requested CHO configuration to the potential target cells 120, such as cell 2-4, and may provide extra information about, for example, cell identities, time information when the UE is expected and/or the service/slice the UE 110 is using”),
said radio access network comprising a plurality of network nodes each supporting providing radio coverage via at least one cell (Fig 5. “120”, [0106] “The CHO decision can also be based on, for example, a higher layer decision, e.g. based on:
the load of surrounding base stations”),
said apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor ([0436] “Depending on certain implementation requirements, embodiments of the invention can be implemented in hardware or in software. The implementation can be performed using a digital storage medium”, [0438] “The apparatus described herein may be implemented using a hardware apparatus, or using a computer”), cause the apparatus at least to:
respond to receipt of a message received from a serving network node ([0104] “The UE 110 informs the potential target node 120 as the RRC reconfiguration is completed by an RRC reconfiguration completed messages 270.”),
said message comprising information indicative of a plurality of configurations for a plurality of target cells and a request indicating an order in which said apparatus is predicted to access said target cells ([0167] “in the configuration request message 240, the serving source cell 310 may provide the full list of the sequential CHO and/or may provide only the relevant CHO information to each of the target cells 120, [0234] “cell 1 sends CHO configuration requests to the potential target cells cell 2-5, and receives CHO configuration acknowledgment messages 250 from the cells 2-5. After receiving the CHO acknowledgment messages 250, the configuration data 1100 is sent 140 to the UE 110”, (Examiner’s Note: sequential CHO list is equivalent to predicted to predicted access said target cells),
said information comprising information indicative of at least one full configuration for a first cell in said predicted order and at least one delta configuration indicating a change in configuration compared to a configuration for a previous cell ((Examiner’s Note: new version == full, changed portion ==delta, [0285] “In an embodiment, or alternatively speaking, the configuration updates or the update messages 325 may comprise a new version of the configuration data 1100 and/or only a changed portion of the configuration data 1100.”),
by: storing said information ([0422] “the cellular network is configured to make the user equipment trigger an update of the configuration data from the serving cell by sending a report, which may comprise … handover configuration and/or handover context configuration and/or information about cells in which handover context configuration are stored”).
and determine when one of a plurality of conditions ([0009] “configuring multiple conditional handovers as a sequence from the cellular network which indicates for a plurality of target cells of the cellular network, conditions to trigger a conditional handover to any of the target cells”) becomes fulfilled for said apparatus, said apparatus being configured on determining said one of the plurality of conditions is fulfilled, to apply a corresponding one of said configurations ([0262] “In an embodiment the user equipment is configured to trigger 160 the conditional handover by sending a signal 160 to the target cell and complete 230, 350 the conditional handover by receiving a signal from the target cell”),
wherein said message further comprises validity information related to at least one of the plurality of configurations ([0133] “For example, for terrestrial CHO, it is important, for example, that the CHO configuration is removed or deleted at some point in time. This is commonly done, for example, by explicit signalling from the cell or from the gNB of a cell, after expiry of a validity timer or, for example, after a successful, completed handover. In a regular procedure, the CHO configuration is removed or deleted (in step 4 on FIG. 2) after successful completion of the CHO”),
said apparatus being configured to verify using said validity information ([0218] “a predicted deterministic UE mobility or on an expected future route. In case, for example, such CHO handover is not executed as expected, e.g. a certain CHO within a certain time window, a UE behaviour might be needed to be defined to keep the radio link and/or to update the CHO configuration or the CHO configuration data … For instance, the UE may be configured to perform a CHO at a specific or expected position and/or within a specified or expected time window to a specific target gNB or target cell. In case, for example, the UE passed the respective position and/or the respective time window and does not see the expected target cell or a different cell, e.g. cell 8, (Examiner’s Note: verify using said validity information is being interepted as the UE uses expected time window to a specific target, if the time window passes that the UE knows it failed”),
when one of the plurality of conditions becomes fulfilled for said apparatus whether a corresponding target cell corresponds to a cell that said apparatus is seeking to access and where not, to not apply said corresponding configuration ([0022-25] “which is available to the user equipment, only for a limited temporal interval indicated in the configuration data. In other words, a conditional handover to a certain one of the target cells may be conditioned by the configuration data, at least partially … the conditions defined in the configuration data might favour certain target cells over other target cells such as over target cells of different service capacities … two or more target cells being available for triggering a CHO thereto according to a first set of target cell individual conditions of each of these target cells, additional condition data in the configuration data which describes the target cells, may be used to select one of the available target cells, wherein this additional condition data describes the target cells technology … A trigger might further be a policy-dependent trigger, for example, based on a charging model, wherein specific UEs might not be allowed to access a certain technology, e.g. cheaper modems or UEs of free of charge customers cannot access multi-RAT eNBs/gNBs. That is, for example, according to a condition defined in the configuration data, the UEs has to fulfil certain technology requirements for a CHO”),
([0023] “can be defined, for example, when using satellites target cells, wherein the periodicity of the temporal interval is related to the orbital periodicity of the satellite target cell”),
wherein one of the plurality of conditions becomes fulfilled when it is predicted that the apparatus is within the radio coverage of a corresponding cell (Fig. 7 “future cell”, [0197] “The new serving source cell 720 also informs potential target cells 120 about a successful CHO by a CHO status update 740. The status update 740 may contain further information important for the resource reservation of the potential target cells 120 and/or for the expected time of arrival of the UE 110, which may result in a better prediction of the UE 110, [0219] “For instance, the UE may be configured to perform a CHO at a specific or expected position and/or within a specified or expected time window to a specific target gNB or target cell”),
wherein said one of said plurality of conditions comprises a validity time, said validity time being a time when it is predicted that said apparatus is within the radio coverage of the corresponding cell (Fig. 7 “future cell”, [0197] “The new serving source cell 720 also informs potential target cells 120 about a successful CHO by a CHO status update 740. The status update 740 may contain further information important for the resource reservation of the potential target cells 120 and/or for the expected time of arrival of the UE 110, which may result in a better prediction of the UE 110, [0219] “For instance, the UE may be configured to perform a CHO at a specific or expected position and/or within a specified or expected time window to a specific target gNB or target cell”, [0132] “the configuration of a CHO is only valid for a certain period of time and only for a single handover from the current serving cell to one or more new cells or target cells. This means that the CHO is configured, for example, in each serving cell individually. Once, for example, a HO was executed or completed, the next CHO will need to be configured”);
on determining that one of the plurality of conditions is fulfilled, to: perform one or more radio measurements for a corresponding target cell within a time window ([0175] “This CHO configuration confirmation information 510, for example, confirm the decision that was requested in the CHO configuration request 240 and/or may provide the final outcome to the sequential CHO configuration send to the UE, e.g.
…the cell identities, that is physical cell identities and/or global cell identities, and/or … the time and/or time window a UE is expected in a certain cell or target cell, and/or) indicated by said one of the plurality of conditions to determine whether radio coverage of the corresponding target cell satisfies a threshold ([0219] “[0219] “For instance, the UE may be configured to perform a CHO at a specific or expected position and/or within a specified or expected time window to a specific target gNB or target cell”, [0240] “FIG. 9 comprises, for example, the UE 110 requesting and receiving a multiple sequential configuration data; a completed CHO process including the serving cell sending CHO request to the potential target cells, receiving CHO acknowledgement and/or configuration data from the potential target cell, forwarding the CHO configuration data to the UE, executing or triggering a CHO, and the new serving cell informing the former serving cell and potential target cells about the completed CHO”) or is better than a currently serving cell ([0026] “A trigger might further be a handover-failure trigger, wherein a UE can track the history of past unsuccessful handovers and can de-prioritize handovers to target cells which failed in the past and/or which are overloaded and/or which declined handovers in the past… triggering a CHO thereto according to a first set of target cell individual conditions of each of these target cells, additional condition data in the configuration data which prioritises or ranks the target cells among each other, may be used to select one of the available target cells, wherein this additional condition data ranks the target cells here in terms of handover success likelihood”);
and apply the configuration corresponding to the target cell and initiate access to the target cell ([0240] “receiving CHO acknowledgement and/or configuration data from the potential target cell, forwarding the CHO configuration data to the UE, executing or triggering a CHO, and the new serving cell informing the former serving cell and potential target cells about the completed CHO”, [0294] “the user equipment 110 is configured to check whether the first and/or second portion 1130, 1150 of the configuration data 1100 comprises target cell configuration information indicating to the user equipment 110 a following target cell configuration to be applied after the handover to the target cell”),
wherein the validity information comprises configuration information mapped to a physical cell identity (PCI) of the corresponding target cell ([0219] “the UE may be configured to perform a CHO at a specific or expected position and/or within a specified or expected time window to a specific target gNB or target cell”, [0175] “his CHO configuration confirmation information 510, for example, confirm the decision that was requested in the CHO configuration request 240 and/or may provide the final outcome to the sequential CHO configuration send to the UE, e.g. … the cell identities, that is physical cell identities and/or global cell identities, and/or …the time and/or time window a UE is expected in a certain cell or target cell”),
and said apparatus verifies using said validity information whether the target cell said apparatus is seeking to access corresponds to the predicted target cell([0218] “a predicted deterministic UE mobility or on an expected future route. In case, for example, such CHO handover is not executed as expected, e.g. a certain CHO within a certain time window, a UE behaviour might be needed to be defined to keep the radio link and/or to update the CHO configuration or the CHO configuration data … For instance, the UE may be configured to perform a CHO at a specific or expected position and/or within a specified or expected time window to a specific target gNB or target cell. In case, for example, the UE passed the respective position and/or the respective time window and does not see the expected target cell or a different cell, e.g. cell 8, (Examiner’s Note: verify using said validity information is being interepted as the UE uses expected time window to a specific target, if the time window passes that the UE knows it failed”)
Feh does not explicitly teach wherein said apparatus is configured for dual connectivity and said plurality of target cells comprise secondary cells, by comparing a PCI of a cell being accessed with the PCI mapped to the configuration.
Huang teaches ([0147] “The CellGroupConfig IE is used to configure a master cell group (MCG) or secondary cell group (SCG). A cell group comprises of one MAC entity, a set of logical channels with associated RLC entities and of a primary cell (SpCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCells)”), by comparing a PCI of a cell being accessed with the PCI mapped to the configuration ([0185] “The condition may be that the PCI of the target cell (e.g., indicated in a handover command) is the same as one of the neighbor cell(s) indicated in a system information (e.g., SIB19), e.g., of the source cell. The UE may receive an RRC reconfiguration message (e.g., RRCReconfiguration) comprising (or indicating) the PCI of the target cell. The PCI of the target cell may be (the same as) one of the PCIs of neighbor cell(s) indicated in the neighbor cell list (e.g., ntn-NeighCellConfigList) in a system information (e.g., SIB19), e.g., of the source cell. The (PCI of) target cell may be (the same as) one of the (PCI of) neighbor cells indicated (in ntn-NeighCellConfigList) in a system information (e.g., SIB19), e.g., of the source cell.”).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Feh to incorporate the teachings of Huang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to increase the efficiency of the system.
Huang does not teach wherein said apparatus is configured for dual connectivity
Tseng teaches wherein said apparatus is configured for dual connectivity ([0061] “In other words, for a UE configured with dual connectivity (DC), the MCG is a set of one or more serving cells including the Pcell and zero or more secondary cells. Conversely, the SCG is a set of one or more serving cells including the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells”).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Feh, Huang to incorporate the teachings of Huang. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to increase the capability of NTN.
Response to Arguments
Applicant should submit an argument under the heading “Remarks” pointing out disagreements with the examiner’s contentions. Applicant must also discuss the references applied against the claims, explaining how the claims avoid the references or distinguish from them.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/K.T.F./Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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