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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/05/2024 and 11/27/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because:
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description:
“1g-25” (see figure 7);
“1g-55” (see figure 7);
“1g-80” (see figure 7);
“1k-42” (see figure 11); and
“1l-52” (see figure 12).
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because uses phrases which can be implied, such as, “The present disclosure relates” (see lines 1 and 3). A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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 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.
Claims 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Applicant Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) (page 1 Background art of the present application) in view of Jin (WO 2020076016 A1) (Jin (US 20210377830 A1) is used for translation purposes) (see also Supplementary European Search Report dated August 27, 2024, in connection with European Application No. 22842399.2, 11 pages filed with the Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) Form (SB08) filed on 11/27/2024).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, AAPA discloses receiving a first control message for a handover to one or more target cells from a source cell (AAPA “In conditional handover (CHO) operation unlike a normal handover, although a terminal receives configuration information instructing handover execution from the base station, the handover operation is not immediately executed, but rather, the handover operation is executed when a preset condition is met. That is, since the terminal can quickly identify a change in channel quality status, it may be advantageous for the terminal to determine the point in time to initiate the handover operation to minimize the probability of handover failure”); and performing, in case that a condition for a handover to one of the target cells is satisfied, a handover to the target cell (AAPA “The handover operation is not immediately executed, but rather, the handover operation is executed when a preset condition is met. That is, since the terminal can quickly identify a change in channel quality status, it may be advantageous for the terminal to determine the point in time to initiate the handover operation to minimize the probability of handover failure”). AAPA doesn’t specifically disclose maintaining, after the handover to the target cell is completed, without deleting, handover configuration information related to a multi-hop conditional handover (MH-CHO) among the handover configuration information for each of the target cells included in the first control message. Jin discloses maintaining, after the handover to the target cell is completed handover configuration information related to a multi-hop conditional handover (MH-CHO) among the handover configuration information for each of the target cells included in the first control message (figure 10 paragraph [0182]-[0201] “In an embodiment of the disclosure, multi-hop conditional handover “ …”For example, as shown in FIG. 9, when eight groups are provided in a target cell list for conditional handover and three target cells are sequentially included in each of the groups, the UE 1i-02 compares CHO conditions with respect to first target cells in the groups in the list according to priority and performs CHO. The list is maintained even after performing conditional handover with respect to a target cell, and the UE 1i-02 deletes ID of the target cell for which handover is completed from the list” … “After completing a CHO process to the target cell 1j-03, the UE 1j-01 may update the multi-hop CHO configuration information received in operation 1j-25 after operation 1j-70. For example, the UE 1j-01 may delete information about a target cell for which handover has been completed from a target cell list and maintain CHO configuration information for a list of target cells in remaining consecutive hops” … “Thereafter, the CHO or multi-hop CHO is ended and an existing handover procedure is followed (1k-35 or 1k-55) when a timer to which CHO is applied and which is received from the CHO or multi-hop CHO command expires (1k-30 or 1k-50), and is maintained while the timer is maintained (1k-40 or 1k-60).”). AAPA and Jin don’t specifically disclose without been deleted. Jin discloses that “After completing a CHO process to the target cell 1j-03, the UE 1j-01 may update the multi-hop CHO configuration information received in operation 1j-25 after operation 1j-70. For example, the UE 1j-01 may delete information about a target cell for which handover has been completed from a target cell list and maintain CHO configuration information for a list of target cells in remaining consecutive hops.”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art not to delete the information. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to be able to track previous for case of handover failure (see AAPA “it may be advantageous for the terminal to determine the point in time to initiate the handover operation to minimize the probability of handover failure”).
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AAPA and Jin are analogous art because they are from the same field of communications. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate in the technique disclosed by AAPA the maintaining disclosed by Jin. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to effectively providing services in a mobile communication system and to minimize the probability of handover failure (see Jin paragraph [0007] and AAPA). See also KSR. In the KSR case, the Court stated that in certain circumstances what is obvious to try is also obvious, such as where "there is a design need or market pressure to solve a problem, and there are a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense." Regarding hindsight, the Court found that "[r]igid preventive rules that deny fact finders recourse to common sense . . . are neither necessary under our case law nor consistent with it." The Court stated that "familiar items may have obvious uses beyond their primary purposes," analogizing an obvious invention to the fitting together of pieces to a puzzle. The Court in this regard further stated that the person of ordinary skill is also a person of ordinary creativity, and not "an automaton."
Regarding claims 6 and 14, AAPA discloses transmitting the first control message to the terminal (AAPA “In conditional handover (CHO) operation unlike a normal handover, although a terminal receives configuration information instructing handover execution from the base station, the handover operation is not immediately executed, but rather, the handover operation is executed when a preset condition is met. That is, since the terminal can quickly identify a change in channel quality status, it may be advantageous for the terminal to determine the point in time to initiate the handover operation to minimize the probability of handover failure”). AAPA doesn’t specifically disclose determining to trigger a multi-hop conditional handover (MH-CHO) to a terminal; transmitting a handover request message including an indication instructing execution of a MH-CHO to one or more candidate target base stations; receiving a handover request response message from the candidate target base stations in response to the handover request message; generating, based on the handover request response message, a first control message for the terminal to execute a handover to the candidate target base stations. Jin discloses determining to trigger a multi-hop conditional handover (MH-CHO) to a terminal (Figure 10 step 1j-10: "Serving gNB" "determine multiple CHO" and paragraphs [0185] "The serving gNB s1j-02 determines whether or not the UE 1j-01 is to perform a multi-hop conditional handover to an adjacent cell, based on the cell measurement report. [..] In the above description with reference to FIG. 9, a base station determines whether to configure a general handover or multi-hop conditional handover, based on capability information of a UE as to whether multi-hop CHO is to be supported, multi-hop CHO triggering condition, etc. (1j-10)."); transmitting a handover request message including an indication instructing execution of a MH-CHO to one or more candidate target base stations (Figure 10 step 1j-15: "Handover Request" sent from the "Serving gNB" to the "Target gNB" and paragraph [0185]: "a base station determines whether to configure a general handover or multi-hop conditional handover, based on capability information of a UE as to whether multi-hop CHO is to be supported, multi-hop CHO triggering condition, etc. (1j-10). When a serving cell determines to perform a handover, the serving cell requests a new base station, i.e., a target eNB 1j-03, which is to provide a service to the UE 1j-01, to perform a handover by transmitting a handover (HO) request message to the target eNB 1j-03."); receiving a handover request response message from the candidate target base stations in response to the handover request message (Figure 10 step 1j-20 stent from the "Target gNB" to the "Serving gNB" and paragraph [0185]: "When a target cell accepts the request to perform the handover, the target cell transmits a HO request ACK message to the serving cell (1j-20). Operations 1j-15 and 1j-20 may be performed by the serving cell together with a plurality of target cells"); generating, based on the handover request response message, a first control message for the terminal to execute a handover to the candidate target base station (paragraph [0185]: "The serving cell receiving the HO request ACK message transmits to the UE 1j-01 a CHO config message including the multi-hop CHO configuration information through an RRCReconfiguration message (1j-25)"). AAPA and Jin are analogous art because they are from the same field of communications. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate in the technique disclosed by AAPA the maintaining disclosed by Jin. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to effectively providing services in a mobile communication system and to minimize the probability of handover failure (see Jin paragraph [0007] and AAPA). See also KSR above.
Regarding claims 2 and 10, AAPA and Jin disclose claims 1 and 9, Jin also discloses handover configuration information for each of the target cells and the handover configuration information includes an indication indicating whether a conditional handover to an associated target cell corresponds to a MH-CHO (paragraph [0184]-[0204] ”Operations 1j-15 and 1j-20 may be performed by the serving cell together with a plurality of target cells. The serving cell receiving the HO request ACK message transmits to the UE 1j-01 a CHO config message including the multi-hop CHO configuration information through an RRCReconfiguration message (1j-25)" and paragraph [0203]: "In operation 1k-10, the UE may receive a handover command from a serving base station. In this case, the handover command may be a CHO command or a multi-hop CHO command").
Regarding claims 3 and 11, AAPA and Jin disclose claims 1 and 9, Jin also discloses in case that the handover to the target cell has failed searching for a suitable cell through cell selection operation, determining, in case that a suitable cell is found, whether the suitable cell is one of the target cells having been configured through the first control message and performing, in case that the suitable cell is one of the target cells, a handover to the suitable cell (paragraph [0199]-[0204] "when the UE 1j-01 does not succeed in performing the handover to the target cell for a certain time. The UE 1j-01 attempts random access to a target cell indicated by the serving cell (a target cell determined according to priority and included in a multi-hop CHO list) (1j-55).")
Regarding claims 4 and 12, AAPA and Jin disclose claims 1 and 9, Jin also discloses reconfiguring, in case of receiving a second control message for reconfiguring the stored handover configuration information related to a MH-CHO from the target cell to which the handover is completed, the stored handover configuration information related to the MH-CHO (Figure 11 steps 1k-20, 1k-25 and paragraph [0204] "When in operation 1k-20, the UE receives a new handover command from the base station after performing handover to the target cell, the UE updates a stored CHO or multi-hop CHO in operation 1k-25"),
Regarding claims 5 and 13, AAPA and Jin disclose claims 1 and 9, Jin also discloses performing, in case of receiving a third control message indicating a normal handover from the target cell to which the handover is completed, a normal handover according to the normal handover indication (paragraph [0204] " In operation 1k-10, the UE may receive a handover command from a serving base station. In this case, the handover command may be a CHO command or a multi-hop CHO command.")
Regarding claim 7, AAPA and Jin disclose claim 6, Jin also discloses the first control message includes handover configuration information for each of the candidate target base stations, the handover configuration information includes a condition for executing a handover to an associated candidate target base station and an indication indicating whether a conditional handover to the associated candidate target base station corresponds to a MH-CHO, and the condition for executing a handover to an associated candidate target base station is determined by one of a first scheme in which the base station determines handover execution conditions for all candidate target base stations, and a second scheme in which the base station transmits a handover request message to at least one candidate target base station, receives condition information from the candidate target base stations based on the handover request message, and determines handover execution conditions for the candidate target base stations based on the received condition information (figure 10 steps 1j-10 to 1j-25 paragraph [0185]-[0204] "In the above description with reference to FIG. 9, a base station determines whether to configure a general handover or multi-hop conditional handover, based on capability information of a UE as to whether multi-hop CHO is to be supported, multi-hop CHO triggering condition, etc. (1j-10). When a serving cell determines to perform a handover, the serving cell requests a new base station, i.e., a target eNB 1j-03, which is to provide a service to the UE 1j-01, to perform a handover by transmitting a handover (HO) request message to the target eNB 1j-03. When a target cell accepts the request to perform the handover, the target cell transmits a HO request ACK message to the serving cell (1j-20). Operations 1j-15 and 1j-20 may be performed by the serving cell together with a plurality of target cells. The serving cell receiving the HO request ACK message transmits to the UE 1j-01 a CHO config message including the multi-hop CHO configuration information through an RRCReconfiguration message (1j-25).")
Regarding claim 8, AAPA and Jin disclose claim 7, Jin also discloses in case of receiving a handover success message as to the terminal from a base station to which the terminal has completed a handover, transferring, to the base station to which the terminal has completed a handover, handover configuration information whose indication indicates a correspondence to a MH-CHO among the handover configuration information for each of the candidate target base stations; and deleting the handover configuration information for each of the candidate target base stations (figure 10 steps 1j-10 to 1j-25 paragraph [0185]-[0204] "In the above description with reference to FIG. 9, a base station determines whether to configure a general handover or multi-hop conditional handover, based on capability information of a UE as to whether multi-hop CHO is to be supported, multi-hop CHO triggering condition, etc. (1j-10). When a serving cell determines to perform a handover, the serving cell requests a new base station, i.e., a target eNB 1j-03, which is to provide a service to the UE 1j-01, to perform a handover by transmitting a handover (HO) request message to the target eNB 1j-03. When a target cell accepts the request to perform the handover, the target cell transmits a HO request ACK message to the serving cell (1j-20). Operations 1j-15 and 1j-20 may be performed by the serving cell together with a plurality of target cells. The serving cell receiving the HO request ACK message transmits to the UE 1j-01 a CHO config message including the multi-hop CHO configuration information through an RRCReconfiguration message (1j-25).")
Regarding claim 15, AAPA and Jin disclose claim 14, Jin also discloses the first control message includes handover configuration information for each of the candidate target base stations, the handover configuration information includes a condition for executing a handover to an associated candidate target base station and an indication indicating whether a conditional handover to the associated candidate target base station corresponds to a MH-CHO, the condition for executing a handover to an associated candidate target base station is determined by one of a first scheme in which the base station determines handover execution conditions for all candidate target base stations, and a second scheme in which the base station transmits a handover request message to at least one candidate target base station, receives condition information from the candidate target base stations based on the handover request message, and determines handover execution conditions for the candidate target base stations based on the received condition information, and in case of receiving a handover success message as to the terminal from a base station to which the terminal has completed a handover, the controller is configured to transfer, to the base station to which the terminal has completed a handover, handover configuration information whose indication indicates a correspondence to a MH-CHO among the handover configuration information for each of the candidate target base stations, and delete the handover configuration information for each of the candidate target base stations (figure 10 steps 1j-10 to 1j-25 paragraph [0185]-[0201] "In the above description with reference to FIG. 9, a base station determines whether to configure a general handover or multi-hop conditional handover, based on capability information of a UE as to whether multi-hop CHO is to be supported, multi-hop CHO triggering condition, etc. (1j-10). When a serving cell determines to perform a handover, the serving cell requests a new base station, i.e., a target eNB 1j-03, which is to provide a service to the UE 1j-01, to perform a handover by transmitting a handover (HO) request message to the target eNB 1j-03. When a target cell accepts the request to perform the handover, the target cell transmits a HO request ACK message to the serving cell (1j-20). Operations 1j-15 and 1j-20 may be performed by the serving cell together with a plurality of target cells. The serving cell receiving the HO request ACK message transmits to the UE 1j-01 a CHO config message including the multi-hop CHO configuration information through an RRCReconfiguration message (1j-25)" … “After completing a CHO process to the target cell 1j-03, the UE 1j-01 may update the multi-hop CHO configuration information received in operation 1j-25 after operation 1j-70. For example, the UE 1j-01 may delete information about a target cell for which handover has been completed from a target cell list and maintain CHO configuration information for a list of target cells in remaining consecutive hops”)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Kadiri (US 20200022035 A1) discloses performing a combination of handover techniques.
Yoo (US 20190253942 A1) discloses method and apparatus for performing handover in wireless communication system.
Akl (US 20220014990 A1) discloses conditional handover using cell global identifiers.
Chen (US 20220303853 A1) discloses target cell ID for conditional handover and conditional PScell addition or change.
Wu (US 20230059975 A1) discloses method of failure handling in conditional handover.
Fehrenbach (US 20220078684 A1) discloses user equipment supporting conditional handovers to cells of a cellular network and a cellular network supporting conditional handovers.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN A TORRES whose telephone number is (571)272-3119. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kenneth N Vanderpuye can be reached at (571) 272-3078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUAN A TORRES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2634
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