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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Claims 28-36 in the reply filed on 01/28/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 37-54 are withdrawn from rejection and further consideration.
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.
Claims 28-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou et al. (2020/0329428), herein Chou, in view of Luo, Yunchun (2025/0330275), herein Luo.
Re. Claim 28, Chou teaches an apparatus of a node or element in a service-based access network, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code (Fig. 6), wherein the processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code is configured to cause the apparatus to perform: requesting or commanding initiation of an energy saving mode of one or more service producer entities in the service-based access network according to the energy saving request or command (¶0090 - The D-ES function indicates the change of energy saving mode to its management service producer for NF provisioning that will send a notifyMOIAttributeValueChanges (see clause 5.1.9 in TS 28.532 v. 15.2.0, 2019-03-28) to notify the D-ES management function to indicate the NR capacity booster has entered the energy saving mode).
However, Chou does not expressly teach capturing an energy saving request or command which is configured to trigger an energy saving service in the service-based access network.
Yet, Luo explicitly teaches capturing an energy saving request or command which is configured to trigger an energy saving service in the service-based access network (¶0004 - the first information may be configured to indicate whether the user equipment needs to enter an energy-saving mode, operation modes of the user equipment may include the energy-saving mode and a normal mode, a power consumption of the user equipment in the energy-saving mode may be less than that of the user equipment in the normal mode).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Luo to the teaching of Chou. The motivation for such would be to improve efficiency of the system upon receiving the energy saving mode by receiving the request as Luo provides a means of receiving the request for the energy-saving mode for the system (¶0004, Luo). All of the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements, as claimed by known methods, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention.
Re. Claim 29, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the one or more service producer entities comprise AT LEAST ONE OF: one or more network functions, which are configured to produce a service in or for the service-based access network, one or more microservices, which are configured to produce a service in or for the service-based access network, one or more communication control entity units, which are configured to produce a service for one or more cells, such as one or more distributed units of a base station entity (¶0084-0087 - The D-ES management function consumes the management service for NF provisioning with modiftMOIAttributes operation to: Configure the cell overlaid relations for NR capacity booster cells, and macro cells as candidate cells. Configure the ES policy that includes the thresholds for the energy saving activation and deactivation for NR capacity booster cells and candidate cells. Enable the distribute energy saving function for intra-RAT or inter-RAT. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”), and one or more cells, which are configured to produce a service for one or more user equipment entities, such as a base transceiver or radio entity, and/or one or more sectors of at least one cell and/or one or more beams of at least one cell.
Re. Claim 30, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, is configured to cause the apparatus to perform: identifying and/or retrieving information of the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR notifying one or more of the service producer entities of specifics of the requested or commanded energy saving mode (¶0090 - The D-ES function indicates the change of energy saving mode to its management service producer for NF provisioning that will send a notifyMOIAttributeValueChanges (see clause 5.1.9 in TS 28.532 v. 15.2.0, 2019-03-28) to notify the D-ES management function to indicate the NR capacity booster has entered the energy saving mode. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “And/Or”).
Re. Claim 31, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, is configured to cause the apparatus to perform: identifying and/or retrieving information of the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR notifying one or more of the service producer entities of specifics of the requested or commanded energy saving mode (¶0090 - The D-ES function indicates the change of energy saving mode to its management service producer for NF provisioning that will send a notifyMOIAttributeValueChanges (see clause 5.1.9 in TS 28.532 v. 15.2.0, 2019-03-28) to notify the D-ES management function to indicate the NR capacity booster has entered the energy saving mode. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “And/Or”), and wherein the specifics comprise AT LEAST ONE OF: an inactivity period specifying a time period of inactivity in the energy saving mode of a respective service producer entity, and a service producer alternative specifying one or more alternative service producer entities which are configured to produce a similar or equivalent service as a respective service producer entity (¶0082 - The basic concept of 5G energy saving is to divert the UE traffic of the NR capacity booster cell to the candidate cell(s) when its traffic load is low, and switch off the cell to operate in the low energy consumption mode. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “At Least One Of”).
Re. Claim 32, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, is configured to cause the apparatus to perform: identifying and/or retrieving information of the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR notifying one or more of the service producer entities of specifics of the requested or commanded energy saving mode (¶0090 - The D-ES function indicates the change of energy saving mode to its management service producer for NF provisioning that will send a notifyMOIAttributeValueChanges (see clause 5.1.9 in TS 28.532 v. 15.2.0, 2019-03-28) to notify the D-ES management function to indicate the NR capacity booster has entered the energy saving mode. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “And/Or”), and wherein at least one of the requesting or commanding and the notifying is performed by issuing an energy saving request or command to the one or more service producer entities (¶0090 - The D-ES function indicates the change of energy saving mode to its management service producer for NF provisioning that will send a notifyMOIAttributeValueChanges (see clause 5.1.9 in TS 28.532 v. 15.2.0, 2019-03-28) to notify the D-ES management function to indicate the NR capacity booster has entered the energy saving mode).
Re. Claim 33, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, is configured to cause the apparatus to perform: synchronizing UE contexts of associated user equipment entities, which are concerned by the requested or commanded energy saving mode, in or for the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR updating registers of the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR removing or clearing existing subscriptions, which are concerned by the requested or commanded energy saving mode, AND/OR closing affected connections, which are concerned by the requested or commanded energy saving mode (¶0022 - One typical scenario of energy saving is to switch off capacity boosters when the traffic demand is low, and re-activate them on a need basis. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “And/Or”).
Re. Claim 34, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, is configured to cause the apparatus to perform: synchronizing UE contexts of associated user equipment entities, which are concerned by the requested or commanded energy saving mode, in or for the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR updating registers of the one or more service producer entities, AND/OR removing or clearing existing subscriptions, which are concerned by the requested or commanded energy saving mode, AND/OR closing affected connections, which are concerned by the requested or commanded energy saving mode (¶0022 - One typical scenario of energy saving is to switch off capacity boosters when the traffic demand is low, and re-activate them on a need basis. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “And/Or”), and wherein the UE contexts are synchronized by issuing a UE context synchronization indication request, AND/OR the registers are updated AND/OR the existing subscriptions are removed or cleared AND/OR the affected connections are closed at a corresponding network function (¶0022 - One typical scenario of energy saving is to switch off capacity boosters when the traffic demand is low, and re-activate them on a need basis. Examiner interprets that the switching off of the connection occurs via a network function. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “And/Or”).
Re. Claim 35, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein capturing the energy saving request or command comprises: receiving the energy saving request or command in a central way, such as from a central entity, OR in a distributed way, such as based on policies or from any service producer entity or network function (¶0049 - Inter-RAT energy saving includes distributed energy saving—inter-RAT D-ES where the energy saving decision is made in the NR cells with OAM assist to provide relevant information. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “Or”).
Re. Claim 36, Chou and Luo teach Claim 28
Chou further teaches wherein the node or element is or relates to a communication control entity unit, which is configured to produce a control or management-related service, such as a central unit or a central unit control plane of a base station entity, AND/OR the service-based access network is based on a 3GPP standard or part of a 3GPP-based communication system, such as a system of or beyond 5G (¶0003 - embodiments of the present disclosure may help provide Load Balancing Optimization (LBO) and Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) for fifth generation (5G) systems. Additionally, Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features needs to be mapped because of the presence of “Or”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang et al. (2025/0350530) - ¶0005-0009, ¶0300-0323
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/N.J.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
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