DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 01/05/24 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B).
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4-5, 8-9, 12-13 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hsieh (U.S. 20210227435).
For claim 1, Hsieh discloses a method performed by a source base station including a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) in a wireless communication system supporting integrated access and backhaul (IAB) (at least Fig. 6, 8 and [0077]. The base station 123 (an IAB-Donor) includes a gNB-Central Unit 610 (gNB-CU 610) and one or more gNB Distributed-Units 620 (gNB-DU 620) (e.g., IAB-Nodes), illustrated as gNB-DU 621 and 622.), the method comprising:
transmitting, to a target base station, a handover request message including an indication indicating migration of at least one IAB node (at least Fig. 8, [0115] and [0171]. The Source CU 810 generates and sends a Handover Request message 904 to the Target CU 860 requesting preparation of resources for handover. In aspects, the Handover Request message 904 may carry current configuration information from the Source IAB-Donor 123. The configuration information in the Handover Request message 904 may include handover preparation information (e.g., in a HandoverPreparationInformation message). The handover preparation information may include at least one of: IAB-Node capability information, IAB-Node Radio Access Network (RAN) context information, capability information for one or more connected User Equipment (UE), context information for one or more connected UE, Source IAB-Donor configurations related to the IAB-Node and the User Equipment connected to the IAB-Node (e.g., current radio resource control, other Layer 2 configurations), the source radio resource configuration of the IAB-Donor and the IAB-Node, or the source radio resource configuration of one or more connected UE. In aspects, the Handover Request message 904 further carries measurement result information (e.g., a Measurement Result message received from the IAB-Node).); and
receiving, from the target base station, a handover request response message including configuration information according to a result of admission control based on the indication (at least Fig. 8, [0117]-[0119] and [0175]. Responsive to receiving the Handover Request message 904, the Target CU 860 may perform an Admission Control procedure 940 to decide whether to accept handover of the IAB-Node 832 (e.g., to validate that sufficient resources are available to receive the IAB-Node and any connected UE). If the Target CU 860 accepts the handover, the Target CU 860 utilizes the handover preparation information to determine a configuration type and the Target CU 860 decides whether to perform delta configuration based on the current configuration from the Source CU 810 or whether to perform full configuration. Where the determined configuration type is a delta configuration, the Target CU 860 performs a delta configuration change based on the current configuration received from the Source CU 810 and generates a Handover Request Acknowledgement message 906 that may include the current configuration from the handover preparation information.)
For claim 4, the combination of Hsieh and Huang et al. disclose the method of claim 1. Hsieh discloses that based on the received handover request response message, transmitting a mobility command message to a descendant node and its access UE having failed in admission control (at least [0026], [0121]-[0123]. The Target CU 860 sends the Handover Command message (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration message) to the Source CU 810 in the Handover Request Acknowledgement message 906. If handover to the Target IAB-Donor 125 (e.g., Target CU 860) fails (e.g., the Target CU 860 does not admit at least one PDU session resource, a failure occurs during the Handover Preparation), the Target CU 860 may communicate the failure to the Source CU 810 in a Handover Preparation Failure message. In aspects, the Handover Preparation Failure message includes a cause value to enable the Source CU 810 to determine the reason for the failure to handover. Responsive to receiving the Handover Request Acknowledgement message 906, the Source CU 810 may generate and send a first interface message 908 to the IAB-Node DU 836 over the existing F1 interface 806 between the Source CU 810 and the IAB-Node DU 836. The first interface message 908 notifies the IAB-Node DU 836 about the handover decision. A mobile IAB-Node deployed on a vehicle (e.g., bus, train, airplane), since the IAB-Node remains close to the User Equipment (UE) devices on the vehicle when the UE users are staying in the vehicle cabin, it is likely that the UE will perceive strong enough signal to maintain connection with the IAB-Node.), and transmitting a delayed RRCReconfiguration message to a descendant node and its access UE having succeeded in admission control (at least [0119]. If the Target CU 860 accepts the handover, the Target CU 860 generates a Handover Command message (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration message, RRCConnectionReconfiguration message) for the IAB-Node 832 (and connected UE) to handover to the Target IAB-Donor 125 (e.g., Target CU 860).)
For claims 5 and 8, the claims have features similar to claims 1 and 4 respectively. Therefore, the claims are also rejected for the same reason in claims 1 and 4.
For claims 9 and 12, the claims have features similar to claims 1 and 4 respectively. Therefore, the claims are also rejected for the same reason in claims 1 and 4.
For claims 13 and 15, the claims have features similar to claims 1 and 4 respectively. Therefore, the claims are also rejected for the same reason in claims 1 and 4.
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 of this title, 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 2-3, 6 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsieh (U.S. 20210227435) in view of Huang et al. (U.S. 20230362745).
For claim 2, Hsieh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the handover request message includes information related to the IAB node, and information related to a topology of the IAB node (at least [0115]. The Handover Request message 904 may carry current configuration information from the Source IAB-Donor 123. The configuration information in the Handover Request message 904 may include handover preparation information (e.g., in a HandoverPreparationInformation message). The handover preparation information may include at least one of: IAB-Node capability information, IAB-Node Radio Access Network (RAN) context information, capability information for one or more connected User Equipment (UE), context information for one or more connected UE, Source IAB-Donor configurations related to the IAB-Node and the User Equipment connected to the IAB-Node (e.g., current radio resource control, other Layer 2 configurations), the source radio resource configuration of the IAB-Donor and the IAB-Node, or the source radio resource configuration of one or more connected UE.) However, Hsieh does not disclose a BAP address
In the same field of endeavor, Huang et al. disclose a BAP address (at least [0061]. The handover request message includes at least one of the following: (a) group mobility interest, or group mobility indication, or mobile IAB node indication, or IAB node indication, or group mobility authorized information; or (b) UE context information for multiple UEs or IAB-MTs; or (c) BAP address of IAB node allocated by source donor CU.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Hsieh as taught by Huang et al. for purpose of ensuring they are not reused in a neighbouring CU.
For claim 3, the combination of Hsieh and Huang et al. disclose the method of claim 2. Hsieh discloses wherein admission control is performed based on an amount of data required by individual descendant nodes and their access UEs indicated by the information related to the topology of the IAB node (at least [0117]. The Target CU 860 may perform an Admission Control procedure 940 to decide whether to accept handover of the IAB-Node 832 (e.g., to validate that sufficient resources are available to receive the IAB-Node and any connected UE).)
For claim 6, the claim has features similar to claim 3. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 3.
For claim 10, the claim has features similar to claim 2. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 2.
For claim 11, the claim has features similar to claim 3. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 3.
Claims 7 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsieh (U.S. 20210227435) in view of Zhu et al. (U.S. 12520213).
For claim 7, Hsiesh does not disclose the method of claim 5, wherein performing admission control comprises: allocating, by the CU of the target base station, a backhaul radio link control channel (BH RLC CH) to be used by the IAB node after connection; and assigning a transport network layer (TNL) address based on the DU of the target base station.
In the same field of endeavor, Zhu et al. disclose allocating, by the CU of the target base station, a backhaul radio link control channel (BH RLC CH) to be used by the IAB node after connection (at least col. 30, lines 49-62. A new IAB-donor-CU may send IAB context retrieve related request message (e.g. Handover request ACK message) to an initial IAB-donor-CU, including at least one of the following: traffic mapping for default path: Prior-Hop BAP Address, Ingress BH RLC CH ID, Next-Hop BAP Address, Egress BH RLC CH ID; a gNB-DU Cell Resource Configuration configured by new IAB-donor-CU; an IAB STC Info configured by new IAB-donor-CU; a Child IAB-DU cell configurations, including an Old gNB-CU UE F1 AP ID, a gNB-DU UE F1AP ID, an old NR CGI, a gNB-DU Cell Resource Configuration, an IAB STC Info, a RACH configuration, a CSI-RS/SR Configuration, a PDCCH Configuration SIB1, a SCS Common, Multiplexing Info.); and assigning a transport network layer (TNL) address based on the DU of the target base station (at least col. 10, lines 20-35. The new IAB-donor-CU may provide one or more new transport network layer (TNL) address, which is anchored at the new IAB-donor-DU, to the IAB-MT via a radio resource control (RRC) signaling.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Hsieh as taught by Zhu et al. for purpose of transmitting data between nodes in the network.
For claim 14, the claim has features similar to claim 7. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 7.
Conclusion
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/DAI PHUONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644