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 .
Request for Continued Examination
The request filed on 06/12/2026 for a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) under 37 CFR 1.114 based on parent Application No. 18/559824 is acceptable and a RCE has been established. An action on the RCE follows.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-2, 4 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Re Claim 1, claim 1 line 5 recites “further includes and at least one transmission configuration indicator”. The examiner believes the “and” is a typo and should be removed. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-2, 5-6, 8-9, 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson et al. (US 2020/0112886 A1) (Wilson herein after).
Re Claims 1 and 8, Wilson discloses a method, performed by a user equipment (UE), of performing communication, and user equipment (UE) comprising: a transceiver (transceiver [0057]); and at least one processor (processor [0057] [0075]) coupled with connected to the transceiver, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, serving cell configuration information including channel measurement configuration information for at least one additional cell, wherein the serving cell configuration information further includes at least one transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configuration information for the at least one additional cell (receiving, at a UE, a message (e.g., RRC configuration message) indicating a first TCI-state for a current serving BS (e.g., TRP) and a second TCI-state for a target BS [0076]), and each of the at least one TCI state configuration information includes a cell identity (ID) of one of the at least one additional cell (the second TCI-state for the target BS may include a cell-ID corresponding to the target BS, a TRP-ID corresponding to the target BS, reference signal (RS) set associated with the second TCI-state, and/or quasi-co-location (QCL) parameters for the target BS [0076]);
performing a layer 1 (L1) measurement for the at least one additional cell, based on the channel measurement configuration information (network may trigger L 1 reporting of TCI state of neighbor cells, which may be used to identify potential target TCI-states (cells) for handover [0086]);
receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) including a TCI state ID for the UE, based on a report of the L1 measurement for the at least one additional cell (beam training and activation of control/uplink and downlink data/channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) beams and beam selection may be performed via L1 signaling (e.g., e.g., DCI, or MAC-CE) after the TCI-state for the target cell is activated [0085]); and
identifying a TCI state corresponding to an additional cell based on the TCI state ID and TCI state configuration information including a cell ID of the additional cell among the at least one TCI state configuration information (the network may trigger L 1 reporting of TCI state of neighbor cells, which may be used to identify potential target TCI-states (cells) for handover. For example, the operations 900 may also include BSs (e.g., including the target BS described herein) transmitting, prior to the handover of the UE, an L1 report to a network entity. The L1 report may indicate the TCI-state of the target BS to be used for cell selection. In certain aspects, the L1 report may be triggered via a message received by the target BS from the network entity [0086]).
Wilson discloses the claimed invention except in a single embodiment. However, Wilson discloses the embodiments for wireless commination ([0076]) and configuration of TCI states ([0084]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to utilize the teachings taught by Wilson to achieve the same expected results of the claimed invention and to further improve the handover in wireless communication efficiency.
Re Claims 2 and 9, Wilson discloses the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 8, wherein the serving cell configuration information included in cell group configuration information received via higher layer signaling (communications protocol stack including a RRC layer 510, a PDCP layer 515, a RLC layer 520, a MAC layer 525, and a PHY layer 530. In various examples, the layers of a protocol stack may be implemented as separate modules of software, portions of a processor or ASIC, portions of non-collocated devices connected by a communications link, or various combinations thereof. Collocated and non-collocated implementations may be used, for example, in a protocol stack for a network access device (e.g., ANs, CUs, and/or DUs) or a UE [0061]).
Re Claims 5 and 12, Wilson discloses a method, performed by a base station, of performing communication, and base station comprising: a transceiver (transceiver [0087]); and at least one processor (processor [0087]) connected to the transceiver, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), serving cell configuration information including channel measurement configuration information for at least one additional cell, wherein the serving cell configuration information further includes at least one transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configuration information for the at least one additional cell ((receiving, at a UE, a message (e.g., RRC configuration message) indicating a first TCI-state for a current serving BS (e.g., TRP) and a second TCI-state for a target BS [0076]), and each of the at least one TCI state configuration information includes a cell identity (ID) of one of the at least one additional cell (the second TCI-state for the target BS may include a cell-ID corresponding to the target BS, a TRP-ID corresponding to the target BS, reference signal (RS) set associated with the second TCI-state, and/or quasi-co-location (QCL) parameters for the target BS [0076]));
receiving, from the UE, a report of a layer 1 (L1) measurement performed for the at least one additional cell (network may trigger L 1 reporting of TCI state of neighbor cells, which may be used to identify potential target TCI-states (cells) for handover [0086]); and
transmitting, to the UE, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) including a TCI state ID for a TCI state corresponding to an additional cell, based on the report of the L1 measurement (beam training and activation of control/uplink and downlink data/channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) beams and beam selection may be performed via L1 signaling (e.g., e.g., DCI, or MAC-CE) after the TCI-state for the target cell is activated [0085]),
wherein the TCI state corresponding to the additional cell is identified based on the TCI state ID and TCI state configuration information including a cell ID of the additional cell among the at least one TCI state configuration information (the network may trigger L 1 reporting of TCI state of neighbor cells, which may be used to identify potential target TCI-states (cells) for handover. For example, the operations 900 may also include BSs (e.g., including the target BS described herein) transmitting, prior to the handover of the UE, an L1 report to a network entity. The L1 report may indicate the TCI-state of the target BS to be used for cell selection. In certain aspects, the L1 report may be triggered via a message received by the target BS from the network entity [0086]).
Wilson discloses the claimed invention except in a single embodiment. However, Wilson discloses the embodiments for wireless commination ([0076]) and configuration of TCI states ([0084]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to utilize the teachings taught by Wilson to achieve the same expected results of the claimed invention and to further improve the handover in wireless communication efficiency.
Re Claims 6 and 13, Wilson discloses the method of claim 5 and the base station of claim 12, wherein the serving cell configuration information is included in cell group configuration information transmitted via higher layer signaling (communications protocol stack including a RRC layer 510, a PDCP layer 515, a RLC layer 520, a MAC layer 525, and a PHY layer 530. In various examples, the layers of a protocol stack may be implemented as separate modules of software, portions of a processor or ASIC, portions of non-collocated devices connected by a communications link, or various combinations thereof. Collocated and non-collocated implementations may be used, for example, in a protocol stack for a network access device (e.g., ANs, CUs, and/or DUs) or a UE [0061]).
Claim(s) 4, 7, 11, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over John Wilson et al. (US 2020/0112886 A1) (Wilson herein after) in view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0377622 A1) (Zhang herein after).
Re Claims 4 and 11, Wilson discloses the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 8, except further comprising; performing a layer 3 (L3) measurement for the at least one additional cell; and receiving a signal indicating a handover, based on a report on the L3 measurement for the at least one additional cell.
However, Zhang discloses inter-cell connectivity operation comprising: performing a layer 3 (L3) measurement for the at least one additional cell (Source gNB 110 performs L3 filtering on the one or more L1 results reports received at 530 [0063]); and receiving a signal indicating a handover, based on a report on the L3 measurement for the at least one additional cell (system 200 determines whether to handover 5G wireless communications to a neighboring cell (e.g., to a different beam in a neighboring cell) based on the L3 reports and/or the L3 filtered L1 reports [0074]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Wilson, by making use of the technique taught by Zhang, in order to improve the handover accuracy and efficiency.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of wireless communication handover, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Wilson, nor does Wilson teach away from the modification (Wilson merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the L3 reporting taught by Zhang is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of performing a layer 3 (L3) measurement for the at least one additional cell; and receiving a signal indicating a handover, based on a report on the L3 measurement for the at least one additional cell.
Re Claims 7 and 15, Wilson discloses the method of claim 5 and the base station of claim 12, except further comprising transmitting a signal indicating a handover, based on a report of a layer 3 (L3) measurement performed at the UE for the at least one additional cell.
However, Zhang discloses inter-cell connectivity operation comprising: performing a layer 3 (L3) measurement for the at least one additional cell (Source gNB 110 performs L3 filtering on the one or more L1 results reports received at 530 [0063]); and receiving a signal indicating a handover, based on a report on the L3 measurement for the at least one additional cell (system 200 determines whether to handover 5G wireless communications to a neighboring cell (e.g., to a different beam in a neighboring cell) based on the L3 reports and/or the L3 filtered L1 reports [0074]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Wilson, by making use of the technique taught by Zhang, in order to improve the handover accuracy and efficiency.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of wireless communication handover, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Wilson, nor does Wilson teach away from the modification (Wilson merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the L3 reporting taught by Zhang is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of transmitting a signal indicating a handover, based on a report of a layer 3 (L3) measurement performed at the UE for the at least one additional cell.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH T LAM whose telephone number is (571)270-1862. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah S. Wang can be reached at (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENNETH T LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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