DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-14 and 18 are presented for examination.
Claims 15-17 are canceled.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/23/2024 and 01/06/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on12/13/2023. These drawings are acceptable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-14 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Laselva et al., (hereinafter Laselva), U.S. Publication No. 2022/0232471, in view of tang et al., (hereinafter Tang), U.S. Publication No. 2022/0238403.
As per claim 1, Laselva discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system [paragraphs 0001, 0002, 0098, 0133, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (a method applicable in a User Equipment (UE) apparatus, in connection to a telecommunication network)], the method comprising:
receiving, from a serving cell, a measurement configuration comprising i) a cell quality condition for a measurement report, and ii) at least one stationarity condition for the measurement report [fig. 3, paragraphs 0004, 0009, 0012, 0049, 0050, 0070, 0092, 0148, receiving, from a serving cell, a measurement configuration comprising i) a cell quality condition for a measurement report, and ii) at least one stationarity condition for the measurement report (receiving the link quality of the serving cell and the UE mobility status; the received RRM measurement configuration associated to a low UE mobility state comprises a relaxed measurement scope… relaxed measurement scope relates to e.g. serving cell measurements)];
performing a measurement on one or more cells based on the measurement configuration, to obtain a measurement result for the one or more cells [paragraphs 0029-0033, 0050, 0063, 0103, 0142, 0143, 0148, 0149, performing a measurement on one or more cells based on the measurement configuration, to obtain a measurement result for the one or more cells (performing the measurement of a neighbour cell; measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so)]; and
the measurement report based on that i) the measurement result for the one or more cells satisfies the cell quality condition, and ii) the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE [paragraphs 0012, 0027, 0050, 0062, 0070, 0078, 0103, the measurement report based on that i) the measurement result for the one or more cells satisfies the cell quality condition, and ii) the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE (measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so)],
wherein the measurement report comprises the measurement result for the one or more cells, and stationarity information informing that the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE [paragraphs 0012, 0027, 0050, 0062, 0070, 0078, 0103, wherein the measurement report comprises the measurement result for the one or more cells, and stationarity information informing that the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE (measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so))].
Laselva does not explicitly discloses transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report.
However, Tang teaches transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report [fig. 13, paragraphs 0007, 0052, 0101, 0125, 0132, 0134, 0142, transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report (quality measurement procedure may be transmitted from the UE to the base station; the UE may report and/or indicate a multi-beam capability to a base station, such as gNB 604 and/or base station 102)].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve upon the method described in Laselva by transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report as taught by Tang because it would provide the Laselva's method with the enhanced capability of improving overall system efficiency [Tang, paragraphs 0112, 0113].
As per claim 2, Laselva discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the measurement result comprises at least one of a cell quality of the serving cell or a cell quality of at least one neighbour cell [fig. 2, paragraphs 0004, 0028, 0050, wherein the measurement result comprises at least one of a cell quality of the serving cell or a cell quality of at least one neighbour cell ((RSRP/RSRQ) measurements on the serving cell; cell quality from the beam measurements is derived in the same way for the serving cell(s) and for the non-serving cell(s) … measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams)].
As per claim 3, Laselva discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the cell quality condition comprises at least one of:
event A1 condition that the cell quality of the serving cell becomes better than a threshold during at least a period of time-to-trigger (TTT); event A2 condition that the cell quality of the serving cell becomes worse than a threshold during at least a period of TTT; event A3 condition that the cell quality of the at least one neighbour cell becomes better than that of the serving cell by an offset during at least a period of TTT; event A4 condition that the cell quality of the at least one neighbour cell becomes better than a threshold during at least a period of TTT; or event A5 condition that the cell quality of the serving cell becomes worse than a serving cell threshold and the cell quality of the at least one neighbour cell becomes better than a neighbour cell threshold, during at least a period of TTT [fig. 3, paragraphs 0003, 0015, 0050, 0064-0067, 0078, event A1 condition that the cell quality of the serving cell becomes better than a threshold during at least a period of time-to-trigger (cell quality from the beam measurements is derived in the same way for the serving cell(s) and for the non-serving cell(s) … measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams; the User Equipment (UE) within a time window T is monitored against threshold values)];
As per claim 4, Laselva discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the at least one stationarity condition comprises at least one of:
a condition that a variation in the cell quality of the serving cell is smaller than a threshold for a time period; or a condition that a number of cell reselections during a time period is less than a threshold [paragraphs 0004, 0007, 0046, 0064-0067, 0078, a condition that a variation in the cell quality of the serving cell is smaller than a threshold for a time period (the link quality of the serving cell (as compared to a minimum quality threshold); the UE measuring an RSRP/RSRQ level (or increase) on the serving cell being above a network-configured threshold, level (or decrease) is falling below a threshold)].
As per claim 5, Laselva discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the at least one stationarity condition corresponds to at least one of a relaxed measurement condition for stationary UE or a condition that the UE is in a stationary state [paragraphs 0012, 0042-0045, 0062, 0063, 0070, wherein the at least one stationarity condition corresponds to at least one of a relaxed measurement condition for stationary UE (the Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements, with specific relaxed measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); conditions for RRM measurement relaxation (e.g. UE mobility state, and UE “location”))].
As per claim 6, Laselva discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the stationarity information informs at least one of:
the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE; a relaxed measurement condition for stationary UE is satisfied for the UE; the UE is in a stationary state; a variation in the cell quality of the serving cell is smaller than a threshold for a time period; or a number of cell reselections during a time period is less than a threshold [fig. 3, paragraphs 0003, 0012, 0070, 0073, 0078, the UE is in a stationary state (UE mobility state BBMS is used to perform adaptation of the Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements; the low/stationary UE mobility state)].
As per claim 7, Laselva discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more cells comprise at least one first cell whose cell quality is worse than a threshold and at least one second cell whose cell quality is better than the threshold [paragraphs 0016, 0018, 0046, 0064-0067, 0073, wherein the one or more cells comprise at least one first cell whose cell quality is worse than a threshold and at least one second cell whose cell quality is better than the threshold (the UE measuring an RSRP/RSRQ level (or increase) on the serving cell being above a network-configured threshold)], and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, from the serving cell, a configuration for enabling the UE to perform a relaxed measurement on the at least one first cell after transmitting the stationarity information to the serving cell [fig. 3, Abstract, paragraphs 0062, 0070-0076, 0078, receiving, from the serving cell, a configuration for enabling the UE to perform a relaxed measurement on the at least one first cell after transmitting the stationarity information to the serving cell (the UE applies a default measurement configuration; the algorithm checks whether the BBMS estimate shows a low mobility state level, comprising also the stationary BBMS estimate)]; and
performing the relaxed measurement on the at least one first cell based on the configuration [paragraphs 0062, 0063, 0070, 0092-0095, performing the relaxed measurement on the at least one first cell based on the configuration (relaxed measurement scope relates to e.g. serving cell measurements; the received RRM measurement configuration associated to a low UE mobility state comprises a relaxed measurement)].
As per claim 8, Laselva discloses the method of claim 7,
wherein the performing of the relaxed measurement comprises skipping a measurement on the at least one first cell [paragraphs 0092, 0093, 0112, wherein the performing of the relaxed measurement comprises skipping a measurement on the at least one first cell (skipping or reduced measurements in terms of measurement periodicity, number of measured samples, number of measured intra- and/or inter-frequency neighbor cells; a relaxed (i.e. reduced) number of cells to measure within each layer)].
As per claim 9, Laselva discloses the method of claim 8,
wherein the configuration comprises one or more measurement target cells including the at least one second cell and excluding the at least one first cell [paragraphs 0092, 0093, 0112, wherein the configuration comprises one or more measurement target cells including the at least one second cell and excluding the at least one first cell (skipping or reduced measurements in terms of measurement periodicity, number of measured samples, number of measured intra- and/or inter-frequency neighbor cells; a relaxed (i.e. reduced) number of cells to measure within each layer)].
As per claim 10, Laselva discloses the method of claim 7, further comprising:
performing a normal measurement on the at least one second cell based on the configuration [paragraphs 0030, 0046, 0050, 0070, 0092, performing a normal measurement on the at least one second cell based on the configuration (two measurement window periodicities, providing the flexibility to a UE to measure different cells)].
As per claim 11, Laselva discloses the method of claim 10,
wherein the performing of the relaxed measurement comprises performing a measurement on the at least one first cell based on a relaxed measurement period longer than a normal measurement period required for the normal measurement [paragraphs 0004, 0007, 0030, 0046, 0050, 0070, wherein the performing of the relaxed measurement comprises performing a measurement on the at least one first cell based on a relaxed measurement period longer than a normal measurement period required for the normal measurement (perform relaxation of these RRM measurements by allowing measurements with longer intervals; increase the periodicity of the serving cell measurements)].
As per claim 12, Laselva discloses the method of claim 11,
wherein the configuration comprises the relaxed measurement period for a measurement on the at least one first cell, and the normal measurement period for a measurement on the at least one second cell [paragraphs 0030, 0046, 0050, 0070, 0092, wherein the configuration comprises the relaxed measurement period for a measurement on the at least one first cell, and the normal measurement period for a measurement on the at least one second cell (two measurement window periodicities, providing the flexibility to a UE to measure different cells)].
As per claim 13, Laselva discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the UE is in communication with at least one of a mobile device, a network, or autonomous vehicles other than the UE [fig. 2, 3, paragraphs 0020, 0050, 0098, 0159, wherein the UE is in communication with at least one of a mobile device, a network, (an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server; a User Equipment (UE) apparatus, in connection to a telecommunication network)].
As per claim 14, Laselva discloses a user equipment (UE) configured to operate in a wireless communication system [paragraphs 0001, 0002, 0098, 0133, a user equipment (UE) configured to operate in a wireless communication system (a User Equipment (UE) apparatus, in connection to a telecommunication network)], the UE comprising:
at least one transceiver; at least processor; and at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor [paragraphs 0098-0101, 0106, at least one transceiver; at least processor; and at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor (the UE apparatus comprising: at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the UE apparatus at least to perform the steps; receiving means (i.e. a receiver) for receiving a network configuration 301)], perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a serving cell, a measurement configuration comprising i) a cell quality condition for a measurement report, and ii) at least one stationarity condition for the measurement report [fig. 3, paragraphs 0004, 0009, 0012, 0049, 0050, 0070, 0092, 0148, receiving, from a serving cell, a measurement configuration comprising i) a cell quality condition for a measurement report, and ii) at least one stationarity condition for the measurement report (receiving the link quality of the serving cell and the UE mobility status; the received RRM measurement configuration associated to a low UE mobility state comprises a relaxed measurement scope… relaxed measurement scope relates to e.g. serving cell measurements)];
performing a measurement on one or more cells based on the measurement configuration, to obtain a measurement result for the one or more cells [paragraphs 0029-0033, 0050, 0063, 0103, 0142, 0143, 0148, 0149, performing a measurement on one or more cells based on the measurement configuration, to obtain a measurement result for the one or more cells (performing the measurement of a neighbour cell; measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so)]; and
the measurement report based on that i) the measurement result for the one or more cells satisfies the cell quality condition, and ii) the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE [paragraphs 0012, 0027, 0050, 0062, 0070, 0078, 0103, the measurement report based on that i) the measurement result for the one or more cells satisfies the cell quality condition, and ii) the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE (measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so)],
wherein the measurement report comprises the measurement result for the one or more cells, and stationarity information informing that the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE [paragraphs 0012, 0027, 0050, 0062, 0070, 0078, 0103, wherein the measurement report comprises the measurement result for the one or more cells, and stationarity information informing that the at least one stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE (measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so))].
Laselva does not explicitly discloses transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report.
However, Tang teaches transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report [fig. 13, paragraphs 0007, 0052, 0101, 0125, 0132, 0134, 0142, transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report (quality measurement procedure may be transmitted from the UE to the base station; the UE may report and/or indicate a multi-beam capability to a base station, such as gNB 604 and/or base station 102)].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve upon the UE described in Laselva by transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report as taught by Tang because it would provide the Laselva's UE with the enhanced capability of improving overall system efficiency [Tang, paragraphs 0112, 0113].
As per claim 18, Laselva discloses a base station (BS) configured to operate in a wireless communication system, the BS comprising:
at least one transceiver; at least processor; and at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor [paragraphs 0123-0126, 0128, at least one transceiver; at least processor; and at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor (an apparatus, being part of a telecommunication network, comprising at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform the step; transmission means for sending to a User Equipment (UE))], perform operations comprising:
transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a measurement configuration comprising i) a cell quality condition for a measurement report, and ii) at least one stationarity condition for the measurement report [fig. 3, paragraphs 0004, 0009, 0012, 0049, 0050, 0070, 0092, 0148, transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a measurement configuration comprising i) a cell quality condition for a measurement report, and ii) at least one stationarity condition for the measurement report (receiving the link quality of the serving cell and the UE mobility status; the received RRM measurement configuration associated to a low UE mobility state comprises a relaxed measurement scope… relaxed measurement scope relates to e.g. serving cell measurements)];
the measurement report comprising a measurement result for one or more cells, and stationarity information informing that the stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE [paragraphs 0012, 0027, 0050, 0062, 0070, 0078, 0103, the measurement report comprising a measurement result for one or more cells, and stationarity information informing that the stationarity condition is satisfied for the UE (measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); measurement reports may contain the measurement results of the best beams if the UE is configured to do so)],
determining to enable the UE to perform a relaxed measurement based on the stationarity information [paragraphs 0012, 0042-0045, 0062, 0063, 0070, determining to enable the UE to perform a relaxed measurement based on the stationarity information (the Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements, with specific relaxed measurement and reporting configurations being provided by the network and mapped to different levels of BBMS (such as stationary/low, medium, and high, for instance); conditions for RRM measurement relaxation (e.g. UE mobility state, and UE “location”))];
identifying, among the one or more cells, at least one first cell whose cell quality is worse than a threshold and at least one second cell whose cell quality is better than the threshold [paragraphs 0016, 0018, 0046, 0064-0067, 0073, identifying, among the one or more cells, at least one first cell whose cell quality is worse than a threshold and at least one second cell whose cell quality is better than the threshold (the UE measuring an RSRP/RSRQ level (or increase) on the serving cell being above a network-configured threshold)]; and
transmitting, to the UE, a configuration for enabling the UE to perform the relaxed measurement on the at least one first cell [fig. 3, Abstract, paragraphs 0062, 0070-0076, 0078, transmitting, to the UE, a configuration for enabling the UE to perform the relaxed measurement on the at least one first cell (the UE applies a default measurement configuration; the algorithm checks whether the BBMS estimate shows a low mobility state level, comprising also the stationary BBMS estimate)]
Laselva does not explicitly discloses receiving, from the UE, the measurement report.
However, Tang teaches receiving, from the UE, the measurement report [fig. 13, paragraphs 0007, 0052, 0101, 0125, 0132, 0134, 0142, receiving, from the UE, the measurement report (quality measurement procedure may be transmitted from the UE to the base station; the UE may report and/or indicate a multi-beam capability to a base station, such as gNB 604 and/or base station 102)].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve upon the BS described in Laselva by transmitting, to the serving cell, the measurement report as taught by Tang because it would provide the Laselva's BS with the enhanced capability of improving overall system efficiency [Tang, paragraphs 0112, 0113].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lee, U.S. Publication No. 2021/0105649 discloses the network may notify that (i) the wireless device is stationary or with low mobility, and/or (ii) the serving cell quality is better than a threshold, upon receiving an indication, from the wireless device.
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/JACKIE ZUNIGA ABAD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469