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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claim 35-54 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.
Claim 35 recites limitation “mobility history information associated with one or both of one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells”. The above limitation renders the scope of the claim unclear. The ambiguity is exacerbated because secondary nodes and secondary cells are district entities in a multi-mode wireless architecture, and the claim fails to clarity whether mobility history information is maintained per node, per cell or per node-cell association. Further clarification is required.
Claim 38, 44, 48, 50 and 52 are rejected for the same reasons stated above.
Claims 36-37, 39-43, 45-47, 49, 51 and 54 are dependent claims of Claims 35, 38, 44, 48, 50 and 52 respectively, thus are rejected for the same deficiency.
Claim 47 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: receiving from the first network node, the first stored information, or a part of the first stored information.
Claim 47 recites limitation “transmitting the first stored information or part of the first stored information to another network node”. However, claim 47 or its parent claim didn’t even recite the step of obtaining or receiving the first stored information or a part of the first stored information.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 35-39, 48-51 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by (Chang, WO 2022/121889 A1 – foreign priority date of 2020/12/10, claim mapping is based on a machine translation version).
Regarding claim 35, 48, Chang teaches a method performed by a user equipment, UE, for handling communication in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:
obtaining and storing first information associated with one or more secondary nodes or secondary cells, wherein the first stored information comprises mobility history information associated with one or both of one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells (page 6, lines 16-20, “when the UE performs an operation of entering RRC INACTIVE state, if the UE supports saving of the S‐MHI and the UE is configured with SCG, the UE adds an entry in the UE variable for saving the S‐MHI, the entry being used to record the current PSCell movement information of the UE”, also see page 5, lines 37-39, “the MHI recorded based on PSCell change is referred to as S-MHI”, it’s noted that MHI stands for mobility history information and S-MHI is for mobility history information for Secondary Cell);
indicating to a first network node operating as a master node, MN, a capability of reporting mobility history information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells (page 5, lines 1-6, “if the UE supports saving of the MHI and there is an available MHI in the VarMobilityHistoryReport variable, the UE includes an indication (mobilityHistoryAvail information element) for informing the base station that it has the saved MHI in the RRC connection setup complete message or RRC connection recovery complete message, and sets the value of the information element to TRUE”, also see page 6, line 17, “the UE supports saving of the S-MHI”);
receiving a second indication from the first network node, indicating a request to fetch mobility history information associated with one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells (page 12, lines 8-12: ”the UE reports the information to the network side after receiving an S‐MHI reporting request of the network side, wherein the request is realized by including a request indication information in an RRC message such as UEInformationRequest message for requesting the S‐MHI reporting); and
transmitting an indication of the first stored information, or the first stored information (page 12, lines 6-7: “when the UE executes the S‐MHI reporting time, the UE reports the recorded S‐MHI information to a network side through an RRC message”).
Regarding claim 36, 49, Chang further teaches: transmitting to the first network node, a first indication that indicates presence or availability of mobility history information (page 5, lines 1-6, “if the UE supports saving of the MHI and there is an available MHI in the VarMobilityHistoryReport variable, the UE includes an indication (mobilityHistoryAvail information element) for informing the base station that it has the saved MHI in the RRC connection setup complete message or RRC connection recovery complete message, and sets the value of the information element to TRUE”) of the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and the one or more primary secondary cells at the UE (page 6, lines 16-20, “when the UE performs an operation of entering RRC INACTIVE state, if the UE supports saving of the S‐MHI and the UE is configured with SCG, the UE adds an entry in the UE variable for saving the S‐MHI, the entry being used to record the current PSCell movement information of the UE”).
Regarding claim 37, Chang further teaches that the indication of or the first stored information is transmitted to the first network node (page 12, lines 6-7: “when the UE executes the S‐MHI reporting time, the UE reports the recorded S‐MHI information to a network side through an RRC message”, page 3, lines 39-41, “the UE may acquire radio resources through two base stations at
the same time. One is a Master Node (MN), which is a base station to which the UE maintains RRC connection”, it’s noted that network side comprising a master node correspond to the first network node).
Regarding claim 38, 50, Chang teaches a method/device performed by a first network node for handling communication in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:
receiving a capability indication that a UE is capable of reporting a first stored information associated with one or both of one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells, the first stored information comprising mobility history information at the UE (page 5, lines 1-6, “if the UE supports saving of the MHI and there is an available MHI in the VarMobilityHistoryReport variable, the UE includes an indication (mobilityHistoryAvail information element) for informing the base station that it has the saved MHI in the RRC connection setup complete message or RRC connection recovery complete message, and sets the value of the information element to TRUE”, also see page 6, line 17, “the UE supports saving of the S-MHI”);
transmitting to the UE, a second indication indicating a request to fetch mobility history information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells (page 12, lines 8-12: ”the UE reports the information to the network side after receiving an S‐MHI reporting request of the network side, wherein the request is realized by including a request indication information in an RRC message such as UEInformationRequest message for requesting the S‐MHI reporting); and
receiving an indication of the first stored information or the first stored information from the UE (page 12, lines 6-7: “when the UE executes the S‐MHI reporting time, the UE reports the recorded S‐MHI information to a network side through an RRC message”).
Regarding claims 39, 51, Chang further teaches: receiving from the UE a first indication that indicates presence or availability of mobility history information of the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and one or more primary secondary cells at the UE (page 5, lines 1-6, “if the UE supports saving of the MHI and there is an available MHI in the VarMobilityHistoryReport variable, the UE includes an indication (mobilityHistoryAvail information element) for informing the base station that it has the saved MHI in the RRC connection setup complete message or RRC connection recovery complete message, and sets the value of the information element to TRUE”, also see page 6, line 17, “the UE supports saving of the S-MHI”).
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.
Claims 40-47 and 52-54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang (WO 2022/121,889 A1), in view of Wang et al (US 2024/0306048).
Regarding claim 44, 52, Chang teaches a method/device performed by a second network node operating as a secondary node, SN, for handling communication in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:
receiving from a first network node,
transmitting a second indication to the first network node, indicating a request to fetch the mobility history information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells (page 12, lines 8-12: ”the UE reports the information to the network side after receiving an S‐MHI reporting request of the network side, wherein the request is realized by including a request indication information in an RRC message such as UEInformationRequest message for requesting the S‐MHI reporting).
Chang doesn’t explicitly teach communicating information regarding the mobility history information from UE to Secondary node via a master node.
Wang teaches communicating information regarding the mobility history information from UE to Secondary node via a master node ([0057], “If the SPCR information is associated with the SN-initiated change, the terminal device 110 may transmit, to the MN 122, the availability of the SPCR information associated with the SN-initiated PSCell change”, [0058], upon receipt of the availability of SPCR information associated with SN-initiated PSCell change, the MN 122 may forward 320 the availability of SPCR information associated with SN-initiated PSCell change to the target SN (in this example, the SN 121)”, also see abstract, “the terminal stores the information concerning the change of the primary cell of the secondary node”, it’s noted that SPCR information corresponds to successful PSCell change report, which is considered as a form of mobility history information).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the teaching of Wang in the system disclosed by Chang. Because both references addressed UE-stored mobility history in MN/SN architectures. Wang applies well-known signaling and reporting techniques (configuration signaling, UE storage, subsequent reporting) to mobility history associated with secondary nodes. Incorporating these techniques into the MN/SN system of Chang would have been a predictable and routine design choice, yielding the expected result of improved mobility coordination.
Regarding claim 45, 53, the aforementioned references further teach: receiving, from the first network node, a first indication that indicates presence or availability of mobility history information of the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and one or more primary secondary cells at the UE (Chang, page 5, lines 1-6, “if the UE supports saving of the MHI and there is an available MHI in the VarMobilityHistoryReport variable, the UE includes an indication (mobilityHistoryAvail information element) for informing the base station that it has the saved MHI in the RRC connection setup complete message or RRC connection recovery complete message, and sets the value of the information element to TRUE”, also see page 6, line 17, “the UE supports saving of the S-MHI”).
Regarding claim 46, 54, the aforementioned references further teach: receiving from the first network node, an indication of the first stored information, the first stored information, or a part of the first stored information (Chang, page 12, lines 6-7: “when the UE executes the S‐MHI reporting time, the UE reports the recorded S‐MHI information to a network side through an RRC message”).
Regarding claim 47, Chang in view of Wang further teaches: transmitting the first stored information or a part of the first stored information to another network node (Wang, [0093]).
Regarding claim 40, Chang teaches all of the limitations except that:
transmitting to a second network node operating as a secondary node, SN, the first indication that the UE has available first stored information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells.
Wang teaches that transmitting to a second network node operating as a secondary node, SN, the first indication that the UE has available first stored information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells ([0057], “If the SPCR information is associated with the SN-initiated change, the terminal device 110 may transmit, to the MN 122, the availability of the SPCR information associated with the SN-initiated PSCell change”, [0058], upon receipt of the availability of SPCR information associated with SN-initiated PSCell change, the MN 122 may forward 320 the availability of SPCR information associated with SN-initiated PSCell change to the target SN (in this example, the SN 121)”, also see abstract, “the terminal stores the information concerning the change of the primary cell of the secondary node”, it’s noted that SPCR information corresponds to successful PSCell change report, which is considered as a form of mobility history information).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the teaching of Wang in the system disclosed by Chang. Because both references addressed UE-stored mobility history in MN/SN architectures. Wang applies well-known signaling and reporting techniques (configuration signaling, UE storage, subsequent reporting) to mobility history associated with secondary nodes. Incorporating these techniques into the MN/SN system of Chang would have been a predictable and routine design choice, yielding the expected result of improved mobility coordination.
Regarding claim 41, Chang in view of Wang further teach: transmitting to a second network node, operating as a secondary node, SN (Wang, [0057]-[0058], also see abstract, it’s noted that SPCR information corresponds to successful PSCell change report, which is considered as a form of mobility history information), the capability indication that the UE is capable of reporting mobility history information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells (Chang, page 5, lines 1-6, “if the UE supports saving of the MHI and there is an available MHI in the VarMobilityHistoryReport variable, the UE includes an indication (mobilityHistoryAvail information element) for informing the base station that it has the saved MHI in the RRC connection setup complete message or RRC connection recovery complete message, and sets the value of the information element to TRUE”, also see page 6, line 17, “the UE supports saving of the S-MHI”).
Regarding claim 42, The method according to claim 38, further comprising: receiving a request from a second network node (Wang, Fig. 5, [0087], request send by SN to MN), operating as a secondary node, SN, to fetch mobility history information associated with the one or both of the one or more secondary nodes and secondary cells from the UE (Chang, page 12, lines 8-12: ”the UE reports the information to the network side after receiving an S‐MHI reporting request of the network side, wherein the request is realized by including a request indication information in an RRC message such as UEInformationRequest message for requesting the S‐MHI reporting).
Regarding claim 43, Chang in view of Wang further teaches that: transmitting the first stored information or a part of the first stored information to a second network node operating as a secondary node, SN, or another network node. Hu teaches the above limitation ([0092], “Upon receipt of the request, the terminal device 110 may transmit 560 the SPCR information to the MN 122 and the MN 122 may forward 570 the SPCR information to the SN 121” and Fig. 5, step 560 and 570).
Conclusion
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/SIMING LIU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411