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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/02/2024 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
3. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
4. Claims 1-13, 16, 19, 21, 23-25 and 65 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
5. Claims 1, 24, and 65 recite the phrase “and/or.” Appropriate correction is required.
Dependent claims are rejected based on their dependency from the rejected claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
6. 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.
7. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
8. Claim(s) 1-6, 8-13, 19, 21, and 23-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by (WO 2020251443 A1) by Teyeb et al. (provided by applicant, hereafter referred to as Teyeb).
Regarding claim 1, Teyeb teaches a method comprising:
receiving a configuration for expedited measurement reporting;
wherein the configuration provides an indication to a user equipment to perform at least one measurement related to at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell as part of connection setup procedure and/or for a period of time while the user equipment is in connected mode (see in particular page 27 lines 24-30: "the UE 50 was configured to start idle measurements only once it determines that it needs to resume or establish a connection. In other words, the UE 50 may receive an idleMeasConfig but [...] the UE 50 only performs idle measurements for early reporting upon the attempt to resume or establish a connection"; page 28 lines 35-37: "For example, the UE 50 may be configured to start and/or continue performing the measurements for either setting up a connection, resuming a connection, or both"; page 29 lines 1-7: "the UE 50 is configured to perform idle mode measurements on both beams and cells, when triggered to set up a connection");
performing the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 28 lines 20-22: "Upon determining the need to start or continue performing measurements for early reporting the UE 50 may initiate or continuing performing the idle mode measurements based on an idle measurement configuration"); and
providing at least one measurement result related to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 30 lines 10-13; “The UE 50 reports at least one of the idle measurements which have been obtained in accordance with the embodiments discussed above. That is, the UE 50 reports at least one measurement that was triggered based on a determination that the UE 50 needs to resume or establish a connection").
Regarding claim 2, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches wherein the configuration is received in response to the user equipment being moved to a radio resource control idle state or a radio resource control inactive state; or the configuration is received with by the user equipment in a system information block or with radio resource control signaling (see at least pg. 28 lines 22-23; “The idle measurement configuration may be already stored in the UE 50, or may be received in broadcast signaling.”).
Regarding claim 3, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches wherein the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell is a carrier or cell for which the user equipment should continue measurement at/after a radio resource control connection setup (see at least pg. 28 lines 35-37; “the UE 50 may […] continue performing the measurements for either setting up a connection, resuming a connection, or both”).
Regarding claim 4, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches wherein the configuration indicates the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell for which the user equipment is to perform the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 21 lines 14-17; "For both IDLE and INACTIVE early measurements, IEs can be optionally configured per NR frequency in both NR RRCRelease message and NR SIB that indicate: 1) a list of frequencies and optionally cells (similar to measCellList in LTE euCA) the UE 50 is required to perform early measurements").
Regarding claim 5, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches wherein the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier is either: at least one early measurement reporting carrier, a subset of the at least one early measurement reporting carrier, or different from the at least one early measurement reporting carrier (see at least pg. 29 lines 1-2: "the UE 50 may be configured to perform the idle mode measurements on a subset of the idle mode measurement configurations”, lines 14-16: " [...] the UE 50 may perform idle mode measurement on cell/frequencies only until it has managed to measure [...] all of the configured cells/frequencies to be measured" ).
Regarding claim 6, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches continuing to perform the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell, in response to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell having been performed at a time that is greater than a threshold amount relative to a current time (see at least pg. 27 line 33 to pg. 28 line 2: "the UE 50 may have received an idleMeasConfig and performed idle measurements while the T331 timer was running. However, upon expiry of the T3371 timer, the UE 50 may stop performing idle measurements [...]. Then, upon determining that a connection is needed, the UE 50 resumes performing the idle measurements for early reporting from the beginning" ).
Regarding claim 8, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches receiving a request for a status of the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell; and wherein the status of the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell is provided in response to receiving the request (see at least pg. 3 lines 32-34; In some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Setup or RRC Resume message, a request for the measurement taken while in the power saving state).
Regarding claim 9, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches receiving a request for the at least one measurement result related to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell; and wherein the at least one measurement result related to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell is provided in response to receiving the request (see at least pg. 23 lines 23-28; The UE 50 also receives measurement request message request message (UEInformationRequest) (step 560) … The UE 50 also responds to the measurement request message (UEInformationResponse) with a measurement report comprising the fresh measurement (step 570)).
Regarding claim 10, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyab further teaches wherein a status of the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell is provided together with a measurement report related to at least one measurement for at least one early measurement reporting carrier (see at least pg. 30 lines 10-13; “The UE 50 reports at least one of the idle measurements which have been obtained in accordance with the embodiments discussed above. That is, the UE 50 reports at least one measurement that was triggered based on a determination that the UE 50 needs to resume or establish a connection").
Regarding claim 11, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches wherein the configuration for expedited measurement reporting is received from a serving cell (see at least pg. 7 line 25-pg. 8 line 9; Primary Cell (PCell)); and the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier comprises the serving cell and at least one other candidate cell (see at least pg. 17 lines 5-8; cell candidates).
Regarding claim 12, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyab further teaches wherein the configuration indicates that, upon connection setup, the user equipment is configured to perform the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell and to provide the at least one measurement result; and the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell is configured for early measurement reporting or for idle or inactive measurements (see at least pg. 21 lines 14-17; For both IDLE and INACTIVE early measurements, IEs can be optionally configured per NR frequency in both NR RRCRelease message and NR SIB that indicate: 1) a list of frequencies and optionally cells (similar to measCellList in LTE euCA) the UE 50 is required to perform early measurements).
Regarding claim 13, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyab further teaches wherein the configuration indicates at least one early measurement reporting carrier for which the user equipment is to perform at least one measurement (see at least pg. 21 lines 14-17; For both IDLE and INACTIVE early measurements, IEs can be optionally configured per NR frequency in both NR RRCRelease message and NR SIB that indicate: 1) a list of frequencies and optionally cells (similar to measCellList in LTE euCA) the UE 50 is required to perform early measurements).
Regarding claim 19, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches selecting, by with the user equipment, a number of carriers based on measurement quality; and prioritizing the carriers which fulfill a quality criterion; or prioritizing the carriers for which one or more early measurement reporting measurements are older than a defined time less than early measurement reporting measurement periodicity (see at least pg. 21 lines 14-19: For both IDLE and INACTIVE early measurements, IEs can be optionally configured per NR frequency in both NR RRCRelease message and NR SIB that indicate: [...] 2) a cell quality threshold (similar to qualityThreshold in LTE euCA) the UE 50 is required to report the measurement results only for the cells which met the configured thresholds).
Regarding claim 21, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyab further teaches providing a status of the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 30 lines 10-13; “The UE 50 reports at least one of the idle measurements which have been obtained in accordance with the embodiments discussed above. That is, the UE 50 reports at least one measurement that was triggered based on a determination that the UE 50 needs to resume or establish a connection").
Regarding claim 23, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb further teaches continuing to provide the at least one measurement result related to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell, in response to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell having been performed at a time that is greater than a threshold amount relative to a current time (see at least pg. 27 line 33 to pg. 28 line 2: the UE 50 may have received an idleMeasConfig and performed idle measurements while the T331 timer was running. However, upon expiry of the T3371 timer, the UE 50 may stop performing idle measurements [...]. Then, upon determining that a connection is needed, the UE 50 resumes performing the idle measurements for early reporting from the beginning).
Regarding claim 24, Teyeb teaches a method comprising:
providing a configuration for expedited measurement reporting;
wherein the configuration provides an indication to a user equipment to perform at least one measurement related to at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell as part of connection setup procedure and/or for a period of time while the user equipment is in connected mode (see in particular page 27 lines 24-30: the UE 50 was configured to start idle measurements only once it determines that it needs to resume or establish a connection. In other words, the UE 50 may receive an idleMeasConfig but [...] the UE 50 only performs idle measurements for early reporting upon the attempt to resume or establish a connection"; page 28 lines 35-37: "For example, the UE 50 may be configured to start and/or continue performing the measurements for either setting up a connection, resuming a connection, or both"; page 29 lines 1-7: "the UE 50 is configured to perform idle mode measurements on both beams and cells, when triggered to set up a connection); and
receiving at least one measurement result related to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 30 lines 10-13; The UE 50 reports at least one of the idle measurements which have been obtained in accordance with the embodiments discussed above. That is, the UE 50 reports at least one measurement that was triggered based on a determination that the UE 50 needs to resume or establish a connection).
Regarding claim 25, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 24.
Teyeb further teaches wherein the configuration is provided in response to the user equipment being moved to a radio resource control idle state or a radio resource control inactive state; or the configuration is provided to the user equipment in a system information block or with radio resource control signaling (see at least pg. 28 lines 22-23; The idle measurement configuration may be already stored in the UE 50, or may be received in broadcast signaling).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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 non-obviousness.
12. Claim(s) 7, 16, and 65 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Teyeb as applied to claim 1 above, in view of WO 2020/180226 A1 by Da Silva et al. (provided by applicant, hereafter referred to as Da Silva).
Regarding claim 7, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyeb does not explicitly teach wherein there is a time limit on how long after connection setup the user equipment continues one or more expedited measurement reporting measurements.
In the same field of endeavor, Da Silva teaches wherein there is a time limit on how long after connection setup the user equipment continues one or more expedited measurement reporting measurements (see at least pg. 38 lines 19-21; the message comprises a measurement configuration for idle/inactive measurements e.g. for early measurement reporting, a timer value (e.g. T331)).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Teyeb with Da Silva in order to effectively handle measurement configurations for measurement performed by a wireless device while in a power savings state.
Regarding claim 16, Teyeb teaches the method of claim 1.
Teyab does not explicitly disclose further comprising selecting, with the user equipment, at least one carrier or cell for performing the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell.
In the same field of endeavor, Da Silva teaches further comprising selecting, with the user equipment, at least one carrier or cell for performing the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 21 lines 15-16; UE receives a measurement configuration (for early measurement reporting) not containing a list of carrier frequencies).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Teyeb with Da Silva in order to effectively handle measurement configurations for measurement performed by a wireless device while in a power savings state.
Regarding claim 65, Teyeb teaches an apparatus (see at least Fig. 28) comprising:
at least one processor (see at least Fig. 28 (1170)); and
at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code (see at least Fig. 28 (1180));
wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
receive a configuration for expedited measurement reporting;
wherein the configuration provides an indication to a user equipment to perform at least one measurement related to at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell as part of connection setup procedure and/or for a period of time while the user equipment is in connected mode (see in particular page 27 lines 24-30: the UE 50 was configured to start idle measurements only once it determines that it needs to resume or establish a connection. In other words, the UE 50 may receive an idleMeasConfig but [...] the UE 50 only performs idle measurements for early reporting upon the attempt to resume or establish a connection"; page 28 lines 35-37: "For example, the UE 50 may be configured to start and/or continue performing the measurements for either setting up a connection, resuming a connection, or both"; page 29 lines 1-7: "the UE 50 is configured to perform idle mode measurements on both beams and cells, when triggered to set up a connection); …;
perform the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 28 lines 20-22: Upon determining the need to start or continue performing measurements for early reporting the UE 50 may initiate or continuing performing the idle mode measurements based on an idle measurement configuration); and
provide at least one measurement result related to the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 30 lines 10-13; The UE 50 reports at least one of the idle measurements which have been obtained in accordance with the embodiments discussed above. That is, the UE 50 reports at least one measurement that was triggered based on a determination that the UE 50 needs to resume or establish a connection).
Teyab does not explicitly disclose select, with the user equipment, at least one carrier or cell for performing the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell.
In the same field of endeavor, Da Silva teaches select, with the user equipment, at least one carrier or cell for performing the at least one measurement related to the at least one expedited measurement reporting carrier or cell (see at least pg. 21 lines 15-16; “UE receives a measurement configuration (for early measurement reporting) not containing a list of carrier frequencies”).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Teyeb with Da Silva in order to effectively handle measurement configurations for measurement performed by a wireless device while in a power savings state.
Conclusion
13. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATASHA W COSME whose telephone number is (571)270-7225. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-4. 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, Ayman Abaza can be reached at 571-270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NATASHA W COSME/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465