DETAILED ACTION
This Final Office Action is in response to application number 18,554,301 filed on October 6th, 2023. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements (IDS), submitted on October 6th, 2023 and December 27th, 2024, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 37,44 and 54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 12004036 B2 ) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 20220046447 A1) Further in view of Xu et al. (US 20200260347 A1).
Regarding claim 37 and 54 Li et al. disclose a computer-implemented method, performed by a first node, the first node serving a wireless device in a secondary cell group, the method being for handling a change of the wireless device from a first cell to a second cell, the first node operating in a communications system, the method comprising: determining whether to proceed with the change from the first cell to the second cell, or to suspend the change, and the determining being based on whether or not a predicted quality of a communication between the wireless device and the second cell exceeds another threshold (US12004036 B2 Paragraph 006 discloses “…this application provide an SCG-side service processing method and apparatus in a dual connectivity scenario. When quality of service on an SCG side is poor, a terminal device reports, to a master base station, link quality information that is of a serving cell or a best neighboring cell and that is determined by the terminal device. Therefore, the master base station determines, based on the link quality information reported by the terminal, whether to release the SCG or hand over the terminal device from the serving cell to the best neighboring cell,…”); and sending, based on a result of the determination, an indication to a second node operating in the communications system, the second node serving the wireless device in a primary cell group, and the indication indicating to proceed with the change, wherein (US12004036 Paragraph 007 discloses “when determining that link quality information of a serving cell in the SCG meets a first preset condition, the terminal device obtains link quality information of at least one neighboring cell of the serving cell; US12004036 Paragraph 006 discloses “When quality of service on an SCG side is poor, a terminal device reports, to a master base station, link quality information that is of a serving cell or a best neighboring cell and that is determined by the terminal device.””):.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose determining being performed with the proviso that a probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell is lower than a threshold.
However in an analogous art Pedersen et al. disclose determining being performed with the proviso that a probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell is lower than a threshold (Paragraph 0049 discloses “Handover failures are radio link failures that may occur during handovers.” Hence the probability of radio link failures is proportional to probability of handover failures. Furthermore Pedersen paragraph 0054 discloses “For example, the UE may perform RRM measurements, such as reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or reference signal received quality, RSRQ, and then transmit the measurements to the gNB. Based on the measurements, the gNB may then for example estimate a probability for the UE experiencing handovers in the near future. For example, if the UE is reporting high RSRP and/or RSRQ indicating that the UE is far away from the cell edge, the probability of a handover in the near future may be low.” This example further indicates that high RSRP and/or RSRQ at the cell edge is inversely proportional to the probability of radio link failure and probability of handover. Finally, Pedersen 55 specifically through the underlined sentence discloses that the low probability of handover proportional to the low probability of radio link failure results in the determination of relaxed or reduced handovers “The gNB may then update 203 the relative weights for the UE based on the RRM signaling 202. As an example, if the gNB estimates a low probability for the UE experiencing handovers in the near future, the gNB may configure a low or even zero weight for radio link failures and/or handover failures for the UE to use in its reward function. Thus, the UE may further relax, or reduce, the antenna panel switching it would otherwise perform for the purpose of timely handovers. The gNB may also configure the UE with different weights for the reward function depending on its RRC state, for example having different weights in RRC idle mode and RRC connected mode. However, for the machine learning based scheme of the UE to operate efficiently, it may be beneficial if the weights are not updated too frequently.” Essentially the low probability of handover is proportional to low probability of radio link as evidenced through a low or zero weighting of the radio link failure resulting in the determination of reduced handovers.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Pedersen et al. to determine the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device , in order to proactively initiate a cell handover to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose with the proviso that the result is to proceed with the change, the first node sends the indication, and with the proviso that the result is to suspend the change, the first node refrains from sending the indication and suspends the change.
However in an analogous art Xu et al. teaches with the proviso that the result is to proceed with the change, the first node sends the indication (US 20200260347 Paragraph 0098 discloses “As another possibility, the MCG may determine to handover the primary cell (and thus MCG) of the wireless device to the second cell group, for example based on cell measurement information, network load considerations, and/or for any of various other reasons. In such a case, the second cell group may receive a request from the first cell group to handover MCG for the wireless device to the second cell group. The second cell group may respond to the first cell group with a confirmation to handover MCG for the wireless device to the second cell group. The second cell group may further determine MCG reconfiguration information (e.g., indicating to handover to a primary cell provided by the second cell group, among various possible information) for the wireless device, and provide the MCG reconfiguration information to the wireless device using the cellular link between the second cell group and the wireless device “), and with the proviso that the result is to suspend the change, the first node refrains from sending the indication and suspends the change (US 20200260347 Paragraph 0142 discloses “According to some embodiments, the first cellular base station is further configured to: perform data transmission with the wireless device using the wireless link while the wireless device is experiencing MCG link failure.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Xu et al. to proceed with the change by sending the indication or suspend the change , in order to initiate a cell handover or suspend such a change and proceed with initial conditions to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claim 44, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 37.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose determining, using a classification machine-learning model, the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell; and determining whether the determined probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell falls within a first category of probabilities being lower than the threshold, the threshold being a second threshold
However in an analogous art Pedersen et al. teaches determining, using a classification machine-learning model, the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell; and determining whether the determined probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell falls within a first category of probabilities being lower than the threshold, the threshold being a second threshold ( US 20220046447 A1 Paragraph 0055 discloses “As an example, if the gNB estimates a low probability for the UE experiencing handovers in the near future, the gNB may configure a low or even zero weight for radio link failures and/or handover failures for the UE to use in its reward function.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Pedersen et al. to determine the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device , in order to proactively initiate a cell handover to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Claims 38-41 and 55 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 12004036 B2 ) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 20220046447 A1) in view of Xu et al. (US 20200260347 A1) further in view of Ma et al. (US 12273776 B2).
Regarding claims 38 and 55, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 37, further comprising: and determining whether or not the count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell exceeds a first threshold, wherein the determining of whether to proceed with the change from the first cell to the second cell, or to suspend the change, is based on whether or not the determined count exceeds the first threshold (US12004036 B2 Paragraph 006 discloses “…Therefore, the master base station determines, based on the link quality information reported by the terminal, whether to release the SCG or hand over the terminal device from the serving cell to the best neighboring cell,…”).
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose obtaining, from the second node, a count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell.
However in an analogous art Ma et al. teaches obtaining, from the second node, a count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell (US 12273776 B2 Paragraph 0029 discloses “Optionally, the master node may send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the Xn message. The Xn message may be a failure indication, or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request (S-NODE RELEASE REQUEST), or a newly defined Xn message, for example, SN change failure information. The master node may also send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the X2message. The X2 message may be a failure indication (RLF indication), or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request(SGNB release request), or a newly defined X2 message, for example, SN change failure information.”);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Ma et al. to obtaining, from the second node, a count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell, in order to initiate a cell handover based secondary cell group failures from the second node to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claim 39, LI et al. disclose the method according to claim 38.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose receiving a measurement report from the wireless device on the second cell; and, sending, based on the received measurement report, a first message to the second node, the first message requesting the count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell.
However in an analogous art Ma et al. teaches receiving a measurement report from the wireless device on the second cell (US 12273776 B2 Paragraph Background/Summary 49 discloses “the present disclosure provides a method performed by a base station in a mobile communication network. The method comprises: receiving a radio link failure report; and sending, according to the received radio link failure report, the radio link failure report, and/or user equipment (UE) history information, and/or movement history information report reported by a UE to another base station through an inter-base station interface oran interface between the base station and a core network node, wherein the movement history information report includes cell identifier information of a secondary cell group (SCG) cell to which the UE ever connects, and/or a time length of the connection between the UE and the cell.”); and, sending, based on the received measurement report, a first message to the second node, the first message requesting the count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell (US 12273776 B2 Paragraph 0029 discloses “Optionally, the master node may send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the Xn message. The Xn message may be a failure indication, or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request (S-NODE RELEASE REQUEST), or a newly defined Xn message, for example, SN change failure information. The master node may also send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the X2message. The X2 message may be a failure indication (RLF indication), or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request(SGNB release request), or a newly defined X2 message, for example, SN change failure information.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Ma et al. to obtaining, from the second node a wireless report from the second node and respond to the second node, in order to initiate a cell handover based on the wireless report received from the second node to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claims 40, Li et al disclose the method according to claim 39, wherein the measurement report comprises at least one of: an NR A3 measurement report, a second indication of downlink coverage, a third indication of downlink signal-to-noise and interference ratio, and a fourth indication of a Reference Signal Received Quality (US12004036 Paragraph 11 discloses “In a feasible design, the link quality information of the neighboring cell includes at least one of reference signal received power RSRP, reference signal received quality RSRQ, a signal to interference plus noise ratio SINR, load, a priority, or availability. If the solution is used, the terminal device can flexibly determine whether there is a better neighboring cell in the neighboring cell.” Paragraph 0013 discloses “In a feasible design, the second message is an A3 measurement report, an A4 measurement report, or an A5 measurement report. If the solution is used, the terminal device can flexibly send the second message.”).
Regarding claims 41, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 38, wherein the count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell is monitored over a time period (US12004036 B2 Paragraph 69 discloses “For example, a cell in the SCG is a serving cell, and the first threshold is 10 times. When the terminal device detects, within the detection time window that the timer T313 is started for more than 10 times, the terminal device considers that the link quality on the SCG side is poor.”).
Claims 42 and 43 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 12004036 B2 ) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 20220046447 A1) in view of Xu et al. (US 20200260347 A1). further in view of Singh et al. (US 20200195359 B2).
Regarding claim 42, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 37.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell is Downlink (DL) throughput, and wherein the other threshold is based on a ratio of a current DL throughput in the first cell over a predicted DL throughput in the second cell
However in an analogous art Singh et al. teaches wherein the predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell is Downlink (DL) throughput, and wherein the other threshold is based on a ratio of a current DL throughput in the first cell over a predicted DL throughput in the second cell (US 20200195359 B2 Paragraph 0067 discloses “The classification engine 336 can compare actual and expected outputs from models and determine whether a session is impacted. The classification engine 336 can also select the appropriate model based on the service being tested, such as downlink throughput, and the root cause of a problem being checked, such as downlink interference.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Singh et al. to implement predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell as the Downlink (DL) throughput, and wherein the other threshold is based on a ratio of a current DL throughput in the first cell over a predicted DL throughput in the second cell, in order to align handover objective based on user experience (throughput) and network efficiency.
Regarding claim 43, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 42, wherein the method further comprises ,sending, with the proviso that the determined probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell falls within the first category of probabilities being lower than the second threshold, a second message to a third node managing the second cell (Paragraph US12004036 Paragraph 211 discloses “In a feasible design, after sending the second message to the master base station,…”).
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose the second message requesting the predicted DL throughput in the second cell, and obtaining, based on the sent second message, the predicted DL throughput in the second cell from the third node.
However in an analogous art Singh et al. teaches the second message requesting the predicted DL throughput in the second cell, and obtaining, based on the sent second message, the predicted DL throughput in the second cell from the third node. (US20200195359 Paragraph 0063 discloses “In some examples, the modeling system 340 generates the trained user experience model to predict at least one of uplink throughput, downlink throughput, voice quality, call drops, and setup failures as a target of the model.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Singh et al. to implement predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell as the Downlink (DL) throughput, in order to align handover objective based on user experience (throughput) and network efficiency.
Claims 45,50-53 and 56 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 12004036 B2 ) in view of Singh et al. (US 20200195359 B2) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 20220046447 A1) Further in view of Xu et al. (US 20200260347 A1).
Regarding claims 45 and 56 Li et al. disclose a computer-implemented method, performed by a communications system, the method being for handling a change of a wireless device from a first cell to a second cell, the communications system comprising a first node, and a third node, the first node serving a wireless device in a secondary cell group, the method comprising: (Paragraph 0059 discloses the interface between the base stations “When no SRB3 is configured on the NR side, all signaling on the NR side is delivered by using the eNB. In this case, a measurement control message generated by a measurement control module of the gNB is transmitted to the eNB through an X2 interface, and the eNB delivers the measurement control message to the terminal device. The terminal device reports a measurement result to the eNB, and the eNB transmits the measurement report to the gNB through the X2 interface to perform a PSCell change process, namely, a serving cell handover process. When an SRB3 is configured on the NR side, some signaling of the terminal device may be sent to the gNB by using the SRB3.” whereby DL quality is disclosed below by Singh et al.) determining, by the first node, whether to proceed with the change from the first cell to the second cell, or to suspend the change, and the determining being based on whether or not the predicted quality of a communication between the wireless device and the second cell exceeds another threshold (US12004036 B2 Paragraph 006 discloses “…this application provide an SCG-side service processing method and apparatus in a dual connectivity scenario. When quality of service on an SCG side is poor, a terminal device reports, to a master base station, link quality information that is of a serving cell or a best neighboring cell and that is determined by the terminal device. Therefore, the master base station determines, based on the link quality information reported by the terminal, whether to release the SCG or hand over the terminal device from the serving cell to the best neighboring cell,…”); and sending by the first node, based on a result of the determination, an indication to a second node operating in the communications system, the second node serving the wireless device in a primary cell group, and the indication indicating to proceed with the change, wherein (US12004036 Paragraph 007 discloses “when determining that link quality information of a serving cell in the SCG meets a first preset condition, the terminal device obtains link quality information of at least one neighboring cell of the serving cell; US12004036 Paragraph 006 discloses “When quality of service on an SCG side is poor, a terminal device reports, to a master base station, link quality information that is of a serving cell or a best neighboring cell and that is determined by the terminal device.””):.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose determining, by the third node, and using a second machine-learning model, a predicted downlink (DL) quality in the second cell ; providing, by the third node, the predicted DL quality in the second cell to the first node;
However in an analogous art Singh et al. teaches determining, by the third node, and using a second machine-learning model, a predicted downlink (DL) quality in the second cell; (US Paragraph 0063 discloses “the modeling system 340 generates the trained user experience model to predict at least one of uplink throughput, downlink throughput, voice quality, call drops, and setup failures as a target of the model.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Singh et al. to implement a predicted downlink (DL) quality in the second cell, in order to align handover objective based on user experience (throughput) and network efficiency.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose determining being performed with the proviso that a probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell is lower than a threshold.
However in an analogous art Pedersen et al. disclose determining being performed with the proviso that a probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell is lower than a threshold (CN 102036282 Paragraph 0029 and 0032 disclose respectively “ if P (RLF) is less than low threshold value H1, namely the P (RLF) is less than H1, it means that the system performance and ending operation of the measuring activation stage, the base station performs step (3), entering the measuring dormancy stage;”, “measuring and calculating formula of an active phase duration tm: tm = KXT, in the formula, T is the measuring time unit of time, K is the number of measurement time unit, continuously executing the meaning of its maximum value Kmax is, if Kmax of unit measuring time of the RLF probability value P (RLF) is still lower than the set low probability threshold H1, the system performance cannot realize self-optimization and ending the measurement.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Pedersen et al. to determine the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device , in order to proactively initiate a cell handover to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose with the proviso that the result is to proceed with the change, the first node sends the indication, and with the proviso that the result is to suspend the change, the first node refrains from sending the indication and suspends the change.
However in an analogous art Xu et al. teaches with the proviso that the result is to proceed with the change, the first node sends the indication (US 20200260347 Paragraph 0098 discloses “As another possibility, the MCG may determine to handover the primary cell (and thus MCG) of the wireless device to the second cell group, for example based on cell measurement information, network load considerations, and/or for any of various other reasons. In such a case, the second cell group may receive a request from the first cell group to handover MCG for the wireless device to the second cell group. The second cell group may respond to the first cell group with a confirmation to handover MCG for the wireless device to the second cell group. The second cell group may further determine MCG reconfiguration information (e.g., indicating to handover to a primary cell provided by the second cell group, among various possible information) for the wireless device, and provide the MCG reconfiguration information to the wireless device using the cellular link between the second cell group and the wireless device “), and with the proviso that the result is to suspend the change, the first node refrains from sending the indication and suspends the change (US 20200260347 Paragraph 0142 discloses “According to some embodiments, the first cellular base station is further configured to: perform data transmission with the wireless device using the wireless link while the wireless device is experiencing MCG link failure.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Xu et al. to proceed with the change by sending the indication or suspend the change , in order to initiate a cell handover or suspend such a change and proceed with initial conditions to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claim 50, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 45.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell is Downlink (DL) throughput, and wherein the other threshold is based on a ratio of a current DL throughput in the first cell over a predicted DL throughput in the second cell
However in an analogous art Singh et al teaches wherein the predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell is Downlink (DL) throughput, and wherein the other threshold is based on a ratio of a current DL throughput in the first cell over a predicted DL throughput in the second cell (US 20200195359 B2 Paragraph 0067 discloses “The classification engine 336 can compare actual and expected outputs from models and determine whether a session is impacted. The classification engine 336 can also select the appropriate model based on the service being tested, such as downlink throughput, and the root cause of a problem being checked, such as downlink interference.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Singh et al. to implement predicted quality of the communication between the wireless device and the second cell as the Downlink (DL) throughput, and wherein the other threshold is based on a ratio of a current DL throughput in the first cell over a predicted DL throughput in the second cell, in order to align handover objective based on user experience (throughput) and network efficiency.
Regarding claim 51, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 45.
Li et al. fail explicitly to disclose determining, by the first node, using a classification machine-learning model, the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell, and determining, by the first node, whether the determined probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell falls within a first category of probabilities being lower than the threshold, the threshold being a second threshold.
However in an analogous art, Pedersen et al. teaches determining, by the first node, using a classification machine-learning model, the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell, and determining, by the first node, whether the determined probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell falls within a first category of probabilities being lower than the threshold, the threshold being a second threshold (CN 102036282 Paragraph 0029 and 0032 disclose respectively “ if P (RLF) is less than low threshold value H1, namely the P (RLF) is less than H1, it means that the system performance and ending operation of the measuring activation stage, the base station performs step (3), entering the measuring dormancy stage;”, “measuring and calculating formula of an active phase duration tm: tm = KXT, in the formula, T is the measuring time unit of time, K is the number of measurement time unit, continuously executing the meaning of its maximum value Kmax is, if Kmax of unit measuring time of the RLF probability value P (RLF) is still lower than the set low probability threshold H1, the system performance cannot realize self-optimization and ending the measurement.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Pedersen et al. to determine the probability of radio link failure for the wireless device , in order to proactively initiate a cell handover to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claim 52, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 51, wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the first node, with the proviso that the determined probability of radio link failure for the wireless device at the first cell falls within the first category of probabilities being lower than the second threshold, a second message to a third node managing the second cell, the second message requesting the predicted DL throughput in the second cell (Paragraph US12004036 Paragraph 211 discloses “In a feasible design, after sending the second message to the master base station, …”).;
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose receiving, by the third node, the second message, wherein the determining, of the predicted DL throughput in the second cell is triggered by the received second message; and obtaining, by the first node, based on the sent second message, the predicted DL throughput in the second cell from the third node.
However in an analogous art Singh et al. teaches receiving, by the third node, the second message, wherein the determining, of the predicted DL throughput in the second cell is triggered by the received second message; and obtaining, by the first node, based on the sent second message, the predicted DL throughput in the second cell from the third node (US20200195359 Paragraph 0063 discloses “In some examples, the modeling system 340 generates the trained user experience model to predict at least one of uplink throughput, downlink throughput, voice quality, call drops, and setup failures as a target of the model.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Singh et al. to implement predicted quality of the communication in the second cell as the Downlink (DL) throughput, in order to align handover objective based on user experience (throughput) and network efficiency.
Regarding claim 53, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 45.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the second machine-learning model is a regressor model.
However in an analogous art, Singh et al. teaches wherein the second machine-learning model is a regressor model (US 20200195359 Paragraph 0036 and 0066 discloses “Regression analysis and machine learning can be used to train the model.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Singh et al. to implement a machine learning mode using a regressor model, in order as regressor models are integral to forecasting allowing for the extrapolation of trends beyond existing data.
Claims 46-49 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 12004036 B2 ) in view of Singh et al. (US 20200195359 B2) in view of Pedersen et al. (US 20220046447 A1) in view of Xu et al. (US 20200260347 A1). further in view of Ma et al. (US 12273776 B2).
Regarding claim 46, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 45, further comprising: and determining, by the first node, whether or not the count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell exceeds a first threshold, wherein the determining of whether to proceed with the change from the first cell to the second cell, or to suspend the change, is based on whether or not the determined count exceeds the first threshold (US 12004036 B2 Paragraph 006 discloses “…Therefore, the master base station determines, based on the link quality information reported by the terminal, whether to release the SCG or hand over the terminal device from the serving cell to the best neighboring cell,…”).
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose obtaining, by the first node from the second node, a count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell.
However in an analogous art Ma et al. teaches obtaining, from the second node, a count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell (US 12273776 B2 Paragraph 0029 discloses “Optionally, the master node may send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the Xn message. The Xn message may be a failure indication, or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request (S-NODE RELEASE REQUEST), or a newly defined Xn message, for example, SN change failure information. The master node may also send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the X2message. The X2 message may be a failure indication (RLF indication), or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request(SGNB release request), or a newly defined X2 message, for example, SN change failure information.”);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Ma et al. to obtaining, from the second node, a count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell, in order to initiate a cell handover based secondary cell group failures from the second node to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claim 47, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 46.
Li et al. fail to explicitly disclose receiving, by the first node a measurement report from the wireless device on the second cell; and, sending, by the first node based on the received measurement report, a first message to the second node, the first message requesting the count at the second cell.
However in an analogous art Ma et al. teaches receiving a measurement report from the wireless device on the second cell (US 12273776 B2 Paragraph Background/Summary 49 discloses “the present disclosure provides a method performed by a base station in a mobile communication network. The method comprises: receiving a radio link failure report; and sending, according to the received radio link failure report, the radio link failure report, and/or user equipment (UE) history information, and/or movement history information report reported by a UE to another base station through an inter-base station interface oran interface between the base station and a core network node, wherein the movement history information report includes cell identifier information of a secondary cell group (SCG) cell to which the UE ever connects, and/or a time length of the connection between the UE and the cell. ); and, sending, by the first node, based on the received measurement report, a first message to the second node, the first message requesting the count at the second cell (US 12273776 B2 Paragraph 0029 discloses “Optionally, the master node may send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the Xn message. The Xn message may be a failure indication, or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request (S-NODE RELEASE REQUEST), or a newly defined Xn message, for example, SN change failure information. The master node may also send the information of the SCG failure to the secondary node using the X2message. The X2 message may be a failure indication (RLF indication), or a handover report, or a UE context release, or a secondary node release request(SGNB release request), or a newly defined X2 message, for example, SN change failure information.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Li et al. to incorporate the teachings of Ma et al. to obtaining, from the second node a wireless report from the second node and respond to the second node, in order to initiate a cell handover based on the wireless report received from the second node to preserve continuity of the service without interruptions.
Regarding claims 48, Li et al disclose the method according to claim 47, wherein the measurement report comprises at least one of: an NR A3 measurement report, a second indication of downlink coverage, a third indication of downlink signal-to-noise and interference ratio, and a fourth indication of a Reference Signal Received Quality (US12004036 Paragraph 11 discloses “In a feasible design, the link quality information of the neighboring cell includes at least one of reference signal received power RSRP, reference signal received quality RSRQ, a signal to interference plus noise ratio SINR, load, a priority, or availability. If the solution is used, the terminal device can flexibly determine whether there is a better neighboring cell in the neighboring cell.” Paragraph 0013 discloses “In a feasible design, the second message is an A3 measurement report, an A4 measurement report, or an A5 measurement report. If the solution is used, the terminal device can flexibly send the second message.”).
Regarding claims 49, Li et al. disclose the method according to claim 46, wherein the count of consecutive secondary cell group failures at the second cell is monitored over a time period (US12004036 B2 Paragraph 69 discloses “For example, a cell in the SCG is a serving cell, and the first threshold is 10 times. When the terminal device detects, within the detection time window that the timer T313 is started for more than 10 times, the terminal device considers that the link quality on the SCG side is poor.”).
Response to Arguments
In the arguments dated February 23rd 2026, the applicant states “the plain language of paragraph 55 of Pedersen makes two things crystal clear: (1) the probability being estimated is the probability of a user equipment (UE) being handed over in the "near future," and (2) the estimated probability of near-future handovers is not used to gate a cell change and instead relates to changing mathematical weights in a reward function that is used by a user equipment (UE) for deciding when to switch between its respective antenna panels.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees as Pedersen paragraph 0049 discloses “Handover failures are radio link failures that may occur during handovers.” Hence the probability of radio link failures is proportional to probability of handover failures. Furthermore Pedersen paragraph 0054 discloses “For example, the UE may perform RRM measurements, such as reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or reference signal received quality, RSRQ, and then transmit the measurements to the gNB. Based on the measurements, the gNB may then for example estimate a probability for the UE experiencing handovers in the near future. For example, if the UE is reporting high RSRP and/or RSRQ indicating that the UE is far away from the cell edge, the probability of a handover in the near future may be low.” This example further indicates that high RSRP and/or RSRQ at the cell edge is inversely proportional to the probability of radio link failure and probability of handover. Finally, Pedersen 55 specifically through the underlined sentence discloses that the low probability of handover proportional to the low probability of radio link failure results in the determination of relaxed or reduced handovers “The gNB may then update 203 the relative weights for the UE based on the RRM signaling 202. As an example, if the gNB estimates a low probability for the UE experiencing handovers in the near future, the gNB may configure a low or even zero weight for radio link failures and/or handover failures for the UE to use in its reward function. Thus, the UE may further relax, or reduce, the antenna panel switching it would otherwise perform for the purpose of timely handovers. The gNB may also configure the UE with different weights for the reward function depending on its RRC state, for example having different weights in RRC idle mode and RRC connected mode. However, for the machine learning based scheme of the UE to operate efficiently, it may be beneficial if the weights are not updated too frequently.” Essentially the low probability of handover is proportional to low probability of radio link as evidenced through a low or zero weighting of the radio link failure resulting in the determination of reduced handovers.
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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/Samuel Dilan Rutnam/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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