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.
This action is responsive to the Remark filed on 3/26/26.
Claim(s) 31, 34, 35 & 38 was/were amended.
Claim(s) 31-38 is/are presented for examination.
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 31-38 is/are unclear to the examiner; what does it mean by stating “in a procedure for preparing an MN-initiated inter-SN Conditional Primary Secondary Cell Group (SCG) Cell (PSCell) Change (CPC) from a source Secondary Node (SN) to a target SN with respect to a PSCell of the UE, send, to the UE, first information containing a CPC execution condition and SCG configuration information related to the target SN? The claim languages are not very about the part “send, to the UE,”? Is the claim meant to state: send to the UE? What are the claimed invention? Please clarify
Claim(s) 31-38 is/are unclear to the examiner; what does it mean by stating “after sending the first information to the UE, send, to the UE, a first inter-node message containing information indicating that the first inter-node message is for an inter- SN CPC”? The claim languages are not very about the part “send, to the UE,”? Is the claim meant to state: send to the UE? What are the claimed invention? Please clarify
Claim(s) 31-38 is/are unclear to the examiner; what does it mean by stating “send a second inter-node message, to the source SN, in response to receiving, from the UE, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Reconfiguration Complete message sent by the UE upon satisfaction of the CPC execution condition? The claim languages are not clear about “sending a second inter-node message, upon satisfaction of the CPC execution condition”? what exactly are the execution condition? To accomplished what? What are the claimed invention? To send back the inter-node message which contain the RRC complete message? Please clarify
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 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.
Claim(s) 31-32, 34-36 & 38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang, U.S. Pub/Patent No. US 2024/0073753 A1 in view of Purkayastha, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 2022/0116840 A1.
As to claim 31, Zhang teaches a Radio Access Network (RAN) node configured to operate as a Master Node (MN) associated with a Master Cell Group (MCG) in dual connectivity for a User Equipment (UE), the RAN node comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to:
in a procedure for preparing an MN-initiated inter-SN Conditional Primary Secondary Cell Group (SCG) Cell (PSCeII) Change (CPC) from a source Secondary Node (SN) to a target SN with respect to a PSCeII of the UE (Zhang, page 3, paragraph 37-42; page 6, paragraph 116; i.e., [0037] A MN could initiate a CPA procedure by sending a SN addition request message to multiple candidate target SNs; [0038] the MN to be prepared as candidate PSCell(s), e.g., cells 1, 2, 3, ...and 5; [0040] 4. the UE starts evaluating whether the execution condition(s) is fulfilled ( e.g., if the measured link quality of one candidate target SN is better than a threshold). Upon the fulfillment of the execution condition(s), the UE starts accessing the corresponding target SN; [0042] Upon receiving the SN change required message triggering the inter-SN CPC procedure, or upon the MN initiating the inter-SN CPC procedure, the MN sends a SN addition request message to multiple candidate target SNs);
send to the source SN, a first inter-node message containing information indicating the first inter-node message is for an inter-SN CPC (Zhang, page 4, paragraph 56; i.e., [0056] a MN initiated inter-SN CPC procedure, a MN may transmit a Xn or X2 message including CPC related configuration information provided by the MN ( e.g., the list of cells) to a T-SN, to initiate a MN initiated inter-SN CPC procedure); and
send a second inter-node message, to the source SN, in response to receiving, from the UE (Zhang, page 3, paragraph 40 & 48; i.e., [0040] 4. Upon receiving the CPA related RRC reconfiguration message, the UE starts evaluating whether the execution condition(s) is fulfilled ( e.g., if the measured link quality of one candidate target SN is better than a threshold). Upon the fulfillment of the execution condition(s), the UE starts accessing the corresponding target SN; [0048] For a SN initiated inter-SN CPC procedure, ensure a proper inter-SN CPC replace operation, to modify the related SN measurement configuration, and ensure that a source SN may know PSCell(s) prepared by the candidate target SN).
But Purkayastha failed to teach the claim limitation wherein send, to the UE, first information containing a CPC execution condition and SCG configuration information related to the target SN; after sending the first information to the UE, a first inter-node message containing information indicating the first inter-node message is for an inter-SN CPC; a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Reconfiguration Complete message sent by the UE upon satisfaction of the CPC execution condition.
However, Purkayastha teaches the limitation wherein send, to the UE, first information containing a CPC execution condition and SCG configuration information related to the target SN (Purkayastha, figure 1 & 12; page 1, paragraph 9; i.e., [0009] a target secondary node (SN), a secondary cell group (SCG) configuration and an associated set of information for a target primary secondary cell (PSCell) identified for a user equipment, modify a master cell group (MCG) configuration for the target PSCell based on the associated set of information, and output, for transmission to the user equipment, a conditional primary secondary cell (PSCell) addition (CPA)); after sending the first information to the UE, a first inter-node message containing information indicating the first inter-node message is for an inter-SN CPC (Purkayastha, figure 1 & 12; page 1, paragraph 9; i.e., [0009] a target secondary node (SN), a secondary cell group (SCG) configuration and an associated set of information for a target primary secondary cell (PSCell) identified for a user equipment, modify a master cell group (MCG) configuration for the target PSCell based on the associated set of information, and output, for transmission to the user equipment, a conditional primary secondary cell (PSCell) addition (CPA) configuration including the MCG configuration and the SCG configuration for the target PSCell or a conditional PSCell change (CPC) configuration including the MCG configuration and the SCG configuration for the target PSCell); a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Reconfiguration Complete message sent by the UE upon satisfaction of the CPC execution condition (Purkayastha, figure 1 & 12; page 12, paragraph 127; i.e., [0127] target PSCell, the MN may combine the MCG configuration with the provided SCG configuration and CPC execution condition from the target SN, and provide the resulting CPC configuration to the UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang to substitute OFDM from Purkayastha for UMTS from Zhang to a user equipment (UE) may access a first cell of a first base station (BS) such as a gNB and/or access a second cell of a second base station (Purkayastha, page 1, paragraph 2).
As to claim 32, Zhang-Purkayastha teaches the RAN node as recited in claim 31, wherein the first inter-node message causes the source SN to continue providing user data to the UE until execution of the CPC (Zhang, page 3, paragraph 43; i.e., [0043] The SN addition request acknowledge message contains a RRC reconfiguration message that provides a UE with SN RRC reconfiguration to be used upon an execution of the inter-SN CPC procedure).
As to claim 35, Zhang teaches a Radio Access Network (RAN) node configured to operate as a source Secondary Node (SN) associated with a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) in dual connectivity for a User Equipment (UE), the RAN node comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to:
in a procedure for preparing an MN-initiated inter-SN Conditional Primary SCG Cell (PSCeII) Change (CPC) from the RAN to a target SN with respect to a PSCeII of the UE (Zhang, page 3, paragraph 37-42; page 6, paragraph 116; i.e., [0037] A MN could initiate a CPA procedure by sending a SN addition request message to multiple candidate target SNs; [0042] Upon receiving the SN change required message triggering the inter-SN CPC procedure, or upon the MN initiating the inter-SN CPC procedure, the MN sends a SN addition request message to multiple candidate target SNs; [0116] the initiating node (either a MN or a SN) indicates ten cells ( e.g., cells 1, 2, 3, ... and 10) as target PSCells, and the target SN has prepared five cells ( e.g., cells 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), then, the target SN may decide to prepare remaining five cells (e.g., cells 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) as additional prepared PSCells) and configuration information to the UE, receive from the MN a first inter-node message containing information indicating that this message is for an inter-SN CPC (Zhang, page 4, paragraph 56; i.e., [0056] a MN initiated inter-SN CPC procedure, a MN may transmit a Xn or X2 message including CPC related configuration information provided by the MN ( e.g., the list of cells) to a T-SN, to initiate a MN initiated inter-SN CPC procedure); and
receive, from the MN, a second inter-node message after the MN receives, from the UE (Zhang, page 3, paragraph 40 & 48; i.e., [0040] 4. Upon receiving the CPA related RRC reconfiguration message, the UE starts evaluating whether the execution condition(s) is fulfilled ( e.g., if the measured link quality of one candidate target SN is better than a threshold). Upon the fulfillment of the execution condition(s), the UE starts accessing the corresponding target SN; [0048] For a SN initiated inter-SN CPC procedure, ensure a proper inter-SN CPC replace operation, e.g., to modify the related execution condition(s) or to modify the related SN measurement configuration, and ensure that a source SN may know PSCell(s) prepared by the candidate target SN).
But Purkayastha failed to teach the claim limitation wherein sending, to the UE, first information containing a CPC execution condition; a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Reconfiguration Complete message sent by the UE upon satisfaction of the CPC execution condition.
However, Purkayastha teaches the limitation wherein sending, to the UE, first information containing a CPC execution condition (Purkayastha, figure 1 & 12; page 1, paragraph 9; i.e., [0009] for transmission to the user equipment, a conditional primary secondary cell (PSCell) addition (CPA) configuration including the MCG configuration and the SCG configuration for the target PSCell or a conditional PSCell change (CPC) configuration including the MCG configuration and the SCG configuration for the target PSCell); a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Reconfiguration Complete message sent by the UE upon satisfaction of the CPC execution condition (Purkayastha, figure 1 & 12; page 12, paragraph 127; i.e., [0127] target PSCell, the MN may combine the MCG configuration with the provided SCG configuration and CPC execution condition from the target SN, and provide the resulting CPC configuration to the UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang to substitute OFDM from Purkayastha for UMTS from Zhang to a user equipment (UE) may access a first cell of a first base station (BS) such as a gNB and/or access a second cell of a second base station (Purkayastha, page 1, paragraph 2).
Claim(s) 34 is/are directed to a method claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 31. Therefore, claim(s) 34 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 31.
Claim(s) 36 is/are directed to a method claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 32. Therefore, claim(s) 36 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 32.
Claim(s) 38 is/are directed to a method claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 35. Therefore, claim(s) 38 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 35.
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 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.
Claim(s) 33 & 37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang, U.S. Pub/Patent No. US 2024/0073753 A1 in view of Purkayastha, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 2022/0116840 A1, and further in view of Chen, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 2021/0099926 A1.
As to claim 33, Zhang-Purkayastha teaches the RAN node as recited in claim 31. But Zhang failed to teach the claim limitation wherein the second inter-node message causes the source SN to stop providing user data to the UE.
However, Chen teaches the limitation wherein the second inter-node message causes the source SN to stop providing user data to the UE (Chen, page 8, paragraph 119; page 9, paragraph 133; i.e., [0119] After receiving the response/bye message from the UE, the MN may forward the SN status (e.g., provided by the source SN) and/or the data (e.g., if there are some SN-terminated bearers on the source SN) to the target SN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang-Purkayastha to substitute mMTC) from Chen for wireless communication from Zhang-Purkayastha to improving data rate, latency, reliability and mobility (Chen, page 1, paragraph 3).
As to claim 37, Zhang-Purkayastha teaches the RAN node as recited in claim 35. But Zhang failed to teach the claim limitation wherein the at least one processor is configured to, after receiving the first inter-node message, stop providing user data to the UE in response to receiving the second inter-node message from the MN indicating execution of the CPC or satisfaction of the CPC execution condition (Chen, page 4, paragraph 62; page 8, paragraph 119; page 9, paragraph 133; i.e., [0062] conditional PSCell addition (CPA) procedures and conditional PSCell change (CPC) procedures for intra-SN and inter-SN cases are provided in the present disclosure. Methods for a UE to determine what to do when a conditional reconfiguration command is executed and the corresponding UE; [0119] After receiving the response/bye message from the UE, the MN may forward the SN status (e.g., provided by the source SN) and/or the data (e.g., if there are some SN-terminated bearers on the source SN) to the target SN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang-Purkayastha to substitute mMTC from Chen for wireless communication from Zhang-Purkayastha to improving data rate, latency, reliability and mobility (Chen, page 1, paragraph 3)..
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claim(s) 31-38 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Listing of Relevant Arts
Yang, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 20230035119 A1 discloses provided from the UE, the inter-SN.
Chen, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 20210099926 A1 discloses PSCell CPC, MN-initiated, SCG.
Contact Information
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
THUONG NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3864. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:00-6:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached on 571-270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THUONG NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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