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 Status
This office action is in response to the communication(s) filed on 02/05/2026.
Claim(s) 1-18, and 21-22 is/are currently presenting for examination.
Claim(s) 1 and 12 is/are independent claim(s).
Claim(s) 1-18, and 21-22 is/are rejected.
This action has been made FINAL.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 02/05/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-7, 10-14, 17-18, and 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US_20230354059_A1_Hong in view of US_20230276476_A1_Zhang.
Regarding claim 1, Hong discloses a transmission method performed by a terminal, comprising: reporting a first report to a network side in a case that one or more of a first service, a first slice, a first session, a first channel, a first request, and a first radio bearer satisfy a condition (Hong figure 2 steps S201 and S202), but do not explicitly disclose wherein the condition comprises: a first condition and/or a second condition, the first condition comprises one or more of following: disconnection of the first service, disconnection, release, or re-mapping of the first slice, disconnection of the first session, disconnection of the first radio bearer, initiation failure of the first slice, a bit error rate of the first channel exceeding a preset threshold, failing to detect the first channel in a serving cell, an indicator parameter of the first slice, the first session, the first channel, or the first radio bearer being lower than a preset threshold; the second condition comprises one or more of following: recovery of the first service, recovery of the first slice, recovery of the first session, reconstruction of the first radio bearer.
Zhang discloses wherein the condition comprises: a first condition and/or a second condition, the first condition comprises one or more of following: disconnection of the first service, disconnection, release, or re-mapping of the first slice, disconnection of the first session (Zhang figure 7, and paragraph 274, “…The Remote UE Report message shall be sent when the Remote UE disconnects from the ProSe 5G UE-to-Network Relay (e.g. upon explicit layer-2 link release or based on the absence of keep alive messages over PC5) to inform the SMF that the Remote UE(s) have left…”, and paragraphs 264-273. The Remote UE sends a report message when the remote UE disconnects the PDU session), disconnection of the first radio bearer, initiation failure of the first slice, a bit error rate of the first channel exceeding a preset threshold, failing to detect the first channel in a serving cell, an indicator parameter of the first slice, the first session, the first channel, or the first radio bearer being lower than a preset threshold; the second condition comprises one or more of following: recovery of the first service, recovery of the first slice, recovery of the first session, reconstruction of the first radio bearer.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Zhang’s The Remote UE sends a report message when the remote UE disconnects the PDU session in Hong’s system to clearly inform the network that the Remote UE(s) have left (Zhang paragraph 274). This method for improving the system of Hong was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Zhang. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hong and Zhang to obtain the invention as specified in claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 1, and Hong further discloses further comprising: receiving configuration information, wherein the configuration information is configured to configure the terminal to report the first report to the network side in case that one or more of the first service, the first slice, the first session, the first channel, the first request, and the first radio bearer satisfy the condition (Hong figure 3 step S302).
Regarding claim 4, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 1, and Hong further discloses further comprising: if the terminal is located in a first region, determining whether one or more of the first service, the first slice, the first session, the first channel, the first request, and the first radio bearer satisfy the condition ((Hong figure 2, and paragraph 35, tracking area).
Regarding claim 5, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 4, and Hong further discloses wherein the information of the first region comprises: a group of geographic location information (Hong paragraph 35, “…an identifier of a corresponding base station and identifier(s) of network slice(s) supported by the corresponding base station, as well as an identifier of a corresponding TAs and identifier(s) of network slice(s) supported by the corresponding TA”), or a cell list, or a tracking area list, or a bluetooth identifier, or a wireless local area network (WLAN) identifier.
Regarding claim 6, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 4, and Hong further discloses wherein the information of the first region is configured by a network side (Hong paragraph 35, the MDT measurement configuration information of the network slice) or agreed by a protocol.
Regarding claim 7, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 1, and Hong further discloses further comprising: reporting a terminal capability, wherein the terminal capability indicates whether the terminal supports reporting the first report to the network side in a case that one or more of the first service, the first slice, the first session, the first channel, the first request, and the first radio bearer satisfy the condition (Hong figure 3, paragraph 34, “A base station may determine whether the UE supports the MDT based on capability information reported by the UE. For a UE supporting the MDT, the base station may generate the MDT measurement configuration information of the network slice”, and paragraph 64).
Regarding claim 10, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 2, and Hong further discloses wherein the configuration information further comprises one or more of following: first time information, wherein the first time information indicates a time interval at which the terminal reports the first report; a quantity of initiation failures or disconnections of the first service and/or a duration of initiation failure or disconnection of the first service; a quantity of initiation failures, disconnections, releases, or remapping of the first slice and/or a duration of initiation failure, disconnection, release, or remapping of the first slice; a quantity of disconnections of a session of the first service and/or a duration of disconnection of a session of the first service; a quantity of disconnections of a radio bearer of the first service and/or a duration of disconnection of a radio bearer of the first service; an identifier of the first service; an identifier of the first session; an identifier of the first slice (Hong paragraph 35); an identifier of the first radio bearer; an identifier of the first channel; an identifier of the first request.
Regarding claim 11, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 1, and Hong further discloses wherein the first report comprises one or more of following: information of a source cell; information of a target cell; information of a reconnected cell; beam information of a source cell; beam information of a target cell; location information of the terminal; second time information, wherein the second time information indicates a time instant at which the terminal obtains or records the first report; third time information, wherein the third time information represents a time instant at which the condition is satisfied or a duration for which the condition is satisfied; information of a slice (Hong figure 3 , step S305) and/or a quantity of initiation failures, disconnections, release, or remapping of the slice and/or a duration of initiation failure, disconnection, release, or remapping of the slice; an identifier of a radio bearer and/or a quantity of disconnections of the radio bearer and/or a duration of disconnection of the radio bearer; an identifier of a service and/or a quantity of initiation failures or disconnections of the service and/or a duration of initiation failure or disconnection of the service; an identifier of a session and/or a quantity of disconnections of the session and/or a duration of disconnection of the session; an identifier of a channel and/or a quantity of disconnections of the channel and/or a duration of disconnection of the channel; an identifier of a request and/or a quantity of disconnections of the request and/or a duration of disconnection of the request.
Regarding claim 12, Hong and Zhang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, Hong and Zhang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 2.
Regarding claim 14, Hong and Zhang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 7.
Regarding claim 17, Hong and Zhang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 10.
Regarding claim 18, Hong and Zhang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 11.
Regarding claim 21, Hong and Zhang disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 22, Hong and Zhang disclose a network side device, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the program is executed by the processor, the steps of the method according to claim 12 is implemented (Hong figure 8).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US_20230354059_A1_Hong in view of US_20230276476_A1_Zhang and US_20230209384_A1_Pantelidou.
Regarding claim 3, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 1, but do not disclose wherein reporting the first report to the network side comprises: if the terminal is in a connected state, reporting the first report to the network side; if the terminal is in an idle state or an inactive state, recording the first report, and reporting the first report to the network side.
Pantelidou discloses if the terminal is in a connected state, reporting the first report to the network side; if the terminal is in an idle state or an inactive state, recording the first report, and reporting the first report to the network side (Pantelidou paragraph 33, “…Immediate MDT reporting means that a user device generates, while it is in connected state, real time report of radio measurements after measurements are carried out. In Logged MDT reporting, the user device is configured for measurements when it is in connected mode and the user device collects MDT data when it enters idle or inactive states. The user device in Logged MDT sends reports in a form of logs when it enters connected state…”).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Pantelidou’s real time reporting for user device in connected mode, and logged the reports when it is in idle or inactive states and sends reports in a form of logs when it enters connected state in Hong and Zhang’s system to improve network performance and quality. This method for improving the system of Hong and Zhang was within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Pantelidou. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hong, Zhang and Pantelidou to obtain the invention as specified in claim 3.
Claim(s) 8-9, and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US_20230354059_A1_Hong in view of US_20230276476_A1_Zhang and US_20130070594_A1_Garcia.
Regarding claim 8, Hong and Zhang disclose the method according to claim 1, but do not disclose wherein the first condition further comprises one or more of following: initiation failure of the first service, failure of the first request, an indicator parameter of the first service, or the first request being lower than a preset threshold.
Garcia discloses wherein the first condition further comprises one or more of following: initiation failure of the first service (Garcia paragraph 35, “…the user terminal 112 reports the failure to initiate a service request to the P-GW 212…”), failure of the first request, an indicator parameter of the first service, or the first request being lower than a preset threshold.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Garcia’s the user terminal reports the failure to initiate a service request in Hong and Zhang’s system to better manage the resource allocation in order to fulfill the service request of user terminal with high priority (Garcia paragraphs 22, 37). This method for improving the system of Hong and Zhangwas within the ordinary ability of one of ordinary skill in the art based on the teachings of Garcia. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hong, Zhang and Garcia to obtain the invention as specified in claim 8.
Regarding claim 9, Hong, Zhang and Garcia disclose the method according to claim 8, and Garcia further discloses wherein the initiation failure of the first slice or the first service indicates that the terminal initiates the first slice or the first service, but is rejected by a protocol layer in the terminal, rejected by the network side, or prohibited by a protocol; the failure of the first request indicates that the terminal initiates the first request, but is rejected by a protocol layer in the terminal, rejected by the network side, or prohibited by a protocol (Garcia paragraph 35, “The user terminal 114, or the LTE access network 102, determines that it is unable to provide the requested QoS. In the scenario shown in FIG. 3, the user terminal 112 reports the failure to initiate a service request to the P-GW 212…”, and paragraph 22, “…If the LTE access network 102 is congested, the service request by user terminal 114 to initiate a video streaming application may be denied....”).
Regarding claim 15, Hong, Zhang and Garcia disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 8.
Regarding claim 16, Hong, Zhang and Garcia disclose the limitations as set forth in claim 9.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
The reference US_20220095398_A1_Pan, teaches the Remote UE Report message shall be sent when the Remote UE disconnects from the ProSe 5G UE-to-Network Relay (e.g. upon explicit layer-2 link release or based on the absence of keep alive messages over PC5) to inform the SMF that the Remote UE(s) have left (Pan paragraph 354).
The reference US_20150256545_A1_Dotterer, teaches an account holder device and/or user device may be sent one or more alerts reporting that a user device has been disconnected from the service (Dotterer paragraph 39).
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 WEIBIN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3695. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30AM - 6:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached at (571)272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/W.H/Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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