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 Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable by Cho (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2015/0245263).
Consider claim 1; Cho discloses a method of a terminal, the method comprising:
receiving cell selection and reselection criteria information (e.g. load) broadcast from a base station (par. 47, lines 1-13);
determining candidate base stations among all base stations capable of communicating with the terminal based on the cell selection and reselection criteria information [e.g. load (par. 47, lines 1-13)];
selecting one connection scheme from a lightening backhaul load (LBL) scheme or a maximum reference signal received power (RSRP) scheme based on a tolerable gap [e.g. power (par. 61, line 1 – par. 62, line 12)], which is a parameter (e.g. load) for determining the candidate base station (par. 47, lines 1-13);
selecting one candidate base station from among the candidate base stations as a target base station (par. 47, lines 1-13) based on the one connection scheme [e.g. power (par. 61, line 1 – par. 62, line 12)]; and
connecting to the target base station (par. 47, lines 13-15).
Consider claim 12; Cho discloses a terminal comprising:
at least one processor (par. 69, lines 3-6),
wherein the at least one processor causes the terminal to (par. 69, lines 3-6)
receive cell selection and reselection criteria information (e.g. load) broadcast from a base station (par. 47, lines 1-13);
determine candidate base stations among all base stations capable of communicating with the terminal based on the cell selection and reselection criteria information [e.g. load (par. 47, lines 1-13)];
select one connection scheme from a lightening backhaul load (LBL) scheme or a maximum reference signal received power (RSRP) scheme based on a tolerable gap [e.g. power (par. 61, line 1 – par. 62, line 12)], which is a parameter (e.g. load) for determining the candidate base station (par. 47, lines 1-13);
select one candidate base station from among the candidate base stations as a target base station (par. 47, lines 1-13) based on the one connection scheme [e.g. power (par. 61, line 1 – par. 62, line 12)]; and
connect to the target base station (par. 47, lines 13-15).
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 2-7, 13-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2015/0245263) in view of Wang (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2019/0208449).
Consider claim 2, as applied in claim 1; Cho discloses selecting a base station whose RSRP, which is a measurement result of a reference signal (RS) received from the base station, is greater than or equal to a first threshold (par. 119, lines 1-7). Cho discloses the claimed invention except: selecting a candidate base station whose reference signal received quality (RSRQ), which is the measurement result of the RS received from the base station, is greater than or equal to a second threshold from the base station whose RSRP is greater than or equal to the first threshold.
In an analogous art ang discloses selecting a candidate base station whose reference signal received quality (RSRQ) (par. 44, lines 1-25), which is the measurement result of the RS received from the base station (par. 44, lines 1-25), is greater than or equal to a second threshold from the base station whose RSRP is greater than or equal to the first threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25).
It is an object of Cho’s invention to provide a method of handing over from a serving base station to another base station. It is an object of Wang’s invention to provide a method of transferring data between a first and second base station. 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 Cho by including a second threshold, as taught by Wang, for the purpose of efficiently managing communication in a telecommunications network.
Consider claim 3, as applied in claim 1; Wang discloses selecting one or more candidate base stations from among the candidate base stations based on a quality threshold that is the received signal for all base stations (par. 44, lines 1-25), when selecting the LBL scheme (par. 3, lines 4-15); and selecting the target base station from among the one or more candidate base stations [e.g. eNB2 (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 4, as applied in claim 3; Wang discloses connecting the base station with the largest selection criterion value for selecting the target base station among the one or more candidate base stations as the target base station (par. 44, lines 1-25).
Consider claim 5, as applied in claim 4; Wang discloses calculating the selection criterion value based on at least one of a cell selection parameter, backhaul information, or the quality threshold [e.g. quality threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 6, as applied in claim 1; Wang discloses the tolerable gap is a ratio of the quality threshold, which is the received signal for all base stations (par. 41), and the RSRP received from the base station [based on the specification, pg. 16, lines 5-7, the concept of a ratio serves as a threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 7, as applied in claim 1; Wang discloses the tolerable gap is the number of upper base stations in a ranking of the base stations based on the quality threshold that is the received signal for all base stations (par. 41; par. 44, lines 1-25).
Consider claim 13, as applied in claim 12; Cho discloses selecting a base station whose RSRP, which is a measurement result of a reference signal (RS) received from the base station, is greater than or equal to a first threshold (par. 119, lines 1-7). Cho discloses the claimed invention except: selecting a candidate base station whose reference signal received quality (RSRQ), which is the measurement result of the RS received from the base station, is greater than or equal to a second threshold from the base station whose RSRP is greater than or equal to the first threshold.
In an analogous art ang discloses selecting a candidate base station whose reference signal received quality (RSRQ) (par. 44, lines 1-25), which is the measurement result of the RS received from the base station (par. 44, lines 1-25), is greater than or equal to a second threshold from the base station whose RSRP is greater than or equal to the first threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25).
It is an object of Cho’s invention to provide a method of handing over from a serving base station to another base station. It is an object of Wang’s invention to provide a method of transferring data between a first and second base station. 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 Cho by including a second threshold, as taught by Wang, for the purpose of efficiently managing communication in a telecommunications network.
Consider claim 14, as applied in claim 12; Wang discloses selecting one or more candidate base stations from among the candidate base stations based on a quality threshold that is the received signal for all base stations (par. 44, lines 1-25), when selecting the LBL scheme (par. 3, lines 4-15); and selecting the target base station from among the one or more candidate base stations [e.g. eNB2 (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 15, as applied in claim 14; Wang discloses connecting the base station with the largest selection criterion value for selecting the target base station among the one or more candidate base stations as the target base station (par. 44, lines 1-25).
Consider claim 16, as applied in claim 15; Wang discloses calculating the selection criterion value based on at least one of a cell selection parameter, backhaul information, or the quality threshold [e.g. quality threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 17, as applied in claim 12; Wang discloses the tolerable gap is a ratio of the quality threshold, which is the received signal for all base stations (par. 41), and the RSRP received from the base station [based on the specification, pg. 16, lines 5-7, the concept of a ratio serves as a threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 18, as applied in claim 12; Wang discloses the tolerable gap is the number of upper base stations in a ranking of the base stations based on the quality threshold that is the received signal for all base stations (par. 41; par. 44, lines 1-25).
Claims 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2019/0208449) in view of Cho (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2015/0245263).
Consider claim 8; Wang discloses a method of a base station, the method comprising:
transmitting a network environment parameter to a central server (par. 23, lines 1-14; par. 39, lines 29-33);
receiving a tolerable gap (par. 44, lines 1-25), which is a parameter for determining a candidate base station (par. 44, lines 1-25), from the central server (par. 23, lines 1-14) to maximize the performance of a network metric set based on the network environment parameter (par. 44, lines 1-25). Wang discloses the claimed invention except: generating cell selection and reselection information based on the network environment parameter and the tolerable gap; and transmitting the cell selection and reselection information to a terminal.
In an analogous art Cho discloses generating cell selection and reselection information based on the network environment parameter (e.g. load information) and the tolerable gap (e.g. optimum load) (par. 60); and
transmitting the cell selection and reselection information to a terminal (par. 47, lines 1-13).
It is an object of Wang’s invention to provide a method of transferring data between a first and second base station. It is an object of Cho’s invention to provide a method of handing over from a serving base station to another base station. 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 Wang by including cell reselection, as taught by Cho, for the purpose of efficiently managing communication in a telecommunications network.
Consider claim 9, as applied in claim 8; Cho discloses the network metric is generated based on a probability of communication success (par. 48), which is a probability that the capacity of the terminal is greater than the capacity of the target service (par. 48).
Consider claim 10, as applied in claim 8; Wang discloses the tolerable gap is a ratio of a quality threshold, which is a received signal for all base stations capable of communicating with the terminal (par. 41), and an RSRP received from the base station [based on the specification, pg. 16, lines 5-7, the concept of a ratio serves as a threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25)].
Consider claim 11, as applied in claim 8; Wang discloses the tolerable gap is the number of upper base stations in a ranking of base stations based on the quality threshold (par. 44, lines 1-25), which is a received signal for all base stations capable of communicating with the terminal (par. 41).
Ji is an exemplary reference that also discloses the inventive concept.
Conclusion
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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-Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm.
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/JOEL AJAYI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646