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 .
This office action is in response to the amendment filed on 02/17/2026. Claims 1-2, 4-9, 11-13, 15 are pending in this application and have been considered below.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1-2, 4-9, 11-13, 15 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection because of the amendment changes the scope of the invention.
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, 4-9, 11-13, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2022/0377622 A1) (Zhang herein after).
Re Claims 1 and 8, Zhang discloses a method, performed by a user equipment (UE), of performing communication, and user equipment (UE) comprising: a transceiver (transceiver [0031]); and at least one processor (processor [0031]) 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 and at least one transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configuration information for the at least one additional cell (gNB such as a Serving gNB (e.g., Source gNB 110) can configure N groups of TCI states for a UE (e.g., UE 105) by RRC signaling (e.g., see FIG. 3). The TCI states within a group can be used for one cell. In some embodiments TCI state groups can be configured explicitly as shown in Serving gNB cell 710. The TCI group 1 corresponds to the physical cell ID=x [0069]), wherein each of the at least one TCI state configuration information includes a cell identity (ID) of one of the at least one additional cell (TCI states in group 1 and 2 could refer to different RRC parameters and configurations, since they belong to different cells [0069]);
performing a layer 1 (L1) measurement for the at least one additional cell, based on the channel measurement configuration information (Source gNB 110 transmits RRC signaling to configure CMR and other report configurations. The RRC signaling can include configuration report request 300 (e.g., a reportConfig) of FIG. 3, for low layer inter-cell mobility management. The configuration can request L1 measurements in a report, including but not limited to: L1-RSRP, a L1-RSRQ, or a L1-SINR [0060]);
receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) including a TCI state ID for the UE (receiving the new TCI state via MAC CE, the UE sends the ACK for the MAC CE and waits for a given number of slots (or milliseconds), before the UE can start communicating with the new cell that corresponds to the physical cell ID associated with the new TCI state [0076]), based on a report of the L1 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]); 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 (receiving the new TCI state via MAC CE, the UE sends the ACK for the MAC CE and waits for a given number of slots (or milliseconds), before the UE can start communicating with the new cell that corresponds to the physical cell ID associated with the new TCI state [0076]).
Zhang discloses the claimed invention except in a single embodiment. However, Zhang discloses the embodiment for inter-cell mobility management in Figure 8 and L3 filter of L1 results report in Figure 6. It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to utilize the teachings taught by Zhang 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, Zhang 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 (system 200 can transmit a new TCI state from a different group (e.g., a different 5G wireless cell such as a neighboring cell) to a UE via MAC CE (e.g., L2 signaling.) [0076]; system 200 can transmit a new TCI state from a different group (e.g., a different 5G wireless cell such as a neighboring cell) to a UE via DCI signaling (e.g., L1 signaling.) [0077]).
Re Claims 4 and 11, Zhang discloses the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 8, further 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]).
Re Claims 5 and 12, Zhang discloses a method, performed by a base station, of performing communication, and base station comprising: a transceiver (transceiver [0031]); and at least one processor (processor [0031]) 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 and at least one transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configuration information for the at least one additional cell (gNB such as a Serving gNB (e.g., Source gNB 110) can configure N groups of TCI states for a UE (e.g., UE 105) by RRC signaling (e.g., see FIG. 3). The TCI states within a group can be used for one cell. In some embodiments TCI state groups can be configured explicitly as shown in Serving gNB cell 710. The TCI group 1 corresponds to the physical cell ID=x [0069]), wherein each of the at least one TCI state configuration information includes a cell identity (ID) of one of the at least one additional cell (TCI states in group 1 and 2 could refer to different RRC parameters and configurations, since they belong to different cells [0069]);
receiving, from the UE, a report of a layer 1 (L1) measurement performed for the at least one additional cell (Source gNB 110 transmits RRC signaling to configure CMR and other report configurations. The RRC signaling can include configuration report request 300 (e.g., a reportConfig) of FIG. 3, for low layer inter-cell mobility management. The configuration can request L1 measurements in a report, including but not limited to: L1-RSRP, a L1-RSRQ, or a L1-SINR [0060]); 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 (receiving the new TCI state via MAC CE, the UE sends the ACK for the MAC CE and waits for a given number of slots (or milliseconds), before the UE can start communicating with the new cell that corresponds to the physical cell ID associated with the new TCI state [0076]), based on the report of the L1 measurement (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]),
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 (receiving the new TCI state via MAC CE, the UE sends the ACK for the MAC CE and waits for a given number of slots (or milliseconds), before the UE can start communicating with the new cell that corresponds to the physical cell ID associated with the new TCI state [0076]).
Zhang discloses the claimed invention except in a single embodiment. However, Zhang discloses the embodiment for inter-cell mobility management in Figure 8 and L3 filter of L1 results report in Figure 6. It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to utilize the teachings taught by Zhang 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, Zhang 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 (system 200 can transmit a new TCI state from a different group (e.g., a different 5G wireless cell such as a neighboring cell) to a UE via MAC CE (e.g., L2 signaling.) [0076]; system 200 can transmit a new TCI state from a different group (e.g., a different 5G wireless cell such as a neighboring cell) to a UE via DCI signaling (e.g., L1 signaling.) [0077]).
Re Claims 7 and 15, Zhang discloses the method of claim 5 and the base station of claim 12, further comprising transmitting a signal indicating a handover (system 200 performs handover based on TCI state switching [0075]), based on a report of a layer 3 (L3) measurement performed at the UE 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]).
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 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