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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/11/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/24/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/03/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/09/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 59-61, 63-67, 69-74, 76, 84-87, and 89-91 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Turtinen (Pub. No.: US 20220312530 A1, hereafter “Turtinen”) in view of Teyeb (Pub. No.: US 20230247495 A1, hereafter “Teyeb”).
Regarding Claim 59, Claim 65, Claim 72, and Claim 85
Turtinen teaches a Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit Comprising
A method performed by a distributed unit (Turtinen Fig. 4: gNB, with the gNB node containing a distributed node, see Fig. 1: 195 and ¶0083) of a radio network node (Turtinen Fig. 1: 170, RAN node) that is split into a centralized unit (Turtinen Fig. 4: Anchor gNB) and one or more distributed units (Turtinen Fig. 4: gNB) in a radio access network (Turtinen Fig. 1: 100, wireless network; Turtinen teaches a gNB unit within a RAN-type network, which the network contains an Anchor gNB), the method comprising: receiving an indication (Turtinen Fig. 4: 420) that a wireless device (Turtinen Fig. 4: UE) is a Reduced Capability (RedCap) User Equipment (UE) (Turtinen ¶0166: Msg3 may include id of UE, which may be a RedCap UE; Turtinen teaches a gNB receiving information from a UE that shows that the UE is a RedCap UE); transmitting (Turtinen Fig. 4: 425), from the distributed unit (Turtinen Fig. 4: gNB) to the centralized unit (Turtinen Fig. 4: Anchor gNB), information indicating that a wireless communication device is a RedCap UE (Turtinen ¶0166: gNB sends the initial UE message to the Anchor gNB, e.g. information on the RedCap status, see Fig. 4: 420, Msg3; Turtinen teaches the gNB transmitting the initialization context, which includes the RedCap UE information, from the gNB node to the Anchor gNB node);
Turtinen does not explicitly teach
wherein the information is transmitted in a message to transfer an initial layer 3 message.
However, Teyeb teaches
wherein the information (Teyeb ¶0099: UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER) is transmitted in a message (Teyeb ¶0099: UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER) to transfer an initial layer 3 message (Teyeb ¶0099: initial layer 3 message, PDU session resources are used with UE context see ¶0094; Teyeb teaches a UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER in an initial layer 3 message that contains the UE context).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Turtinen by way of Teyeb, to include an element that teaches a UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER in an initial layer 3 message that contains the UE context, as taught by Teyeb in ¶0094 and ¶0099, to better improve backhaul cross-link interfaces for higher densification.
Claim 72 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art, Turtinen teaches
communication circuitry (Turtinen Fig. 1: 158); and processing circuitry configured to (Turtinen Fig. 1: 196; Turtinen teaches communication circuitry coupled with a processor):
Regarding Claim 60, Claim 66, Claim 73, and Claim 86
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 59. Teyeb teaches
wherein the information is transmitted over an F1 interface (Teyeb ¶0099: F1 interface) between the distributed unit (Teyeb ¶0099: sent by the gNB-DU) and the centralized unit (Teyeb ¶0099: to the gNB-CU; Teyeb teaches the information being sent over an F1 interface from a distributed unit to a centralized unit).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Turtinen by way of Teyeb, to include an element that teaches the information being sent over an F1 interface from a distributed unit to a centralized unit, as taught by Teyeb in ¶0099, to better improve backhaul cross-link interfaces for higher densification.
Regarding Claim 61, Claim 67, Claim 74, and Claim 87
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 59. Teyeb teaches
wherein the information is transmitted in an INITIAL UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER message (Teyeb ¶0099: UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Turtinen by way of Teyeb, to include an element that teaches the information is being sent in a UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER, as taught by Teyeb in ¶0099, to better improve backhaul cross-link interfaces for higher densification.
Regarding Claim 63, Claim 76
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 59. Turtinen further teaches
receiving the indication from the wireless communication device in a random access procedure (Turtinen Fig. 4: 410, MSG1, e.g. including a random access channel (RACH) preamble, see ¶0166), and wherein the information is transmitted to the central unit in response to receiving the indication from the wireless communication device (Turtinen Fig. 4: 425; Turtinen teaches the gNB transferring the initial context information to the Anchor gNB, which can include the RACH preamble).
Regarding Claim 64, Claim 71, Claim 84, and Claim 91
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 59. Turtinen teaches
receiving (Turtinen Fig. 4: 430), from the centralized unit, a paging message that requests the distributed unit to page (Turtinen ¶0166: initial UE message, e.g. RRC connection Setup Request) a wireless communication device (Turtinen Fig. 4: UE), wherein the paging message includes information indicating that the wireless communication device to be paged is a RedCap UE (Turtinen ¶0166: transmits an initial context setup request, examiners note, this can include the initial context setup, which includes the RedCap information; Turtinen teaches the gNB receiving an initial UE message and transmitting that information to the Anchor gNB); and paging the wireless communication device based on the information included in the paging message (Fig. 4: 435; Turtinen teaches the Anchor gNB responding in kind due to the paging request).
Regarding Claim 69 and Claim 89
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 65. Turtinen teaches
responsive to receiving the information (Turtinen Fig. 4: 410), transmitting (Turtinen Fig. 4: 415), to another network node (Turtinen Fig. 3: AMF), an indication that the wireless communication device is a RedCap UE (Turtinen Fig. 4: 460, examiners note, this can include the initial context setup, which includes the RedCap information; Turtinen teaches the gNB node forwarding the initial context for a UE message to an AMF, which includes the RedCap information).
Regarding Claim 70 and Claim 90
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 69. Turtinen teaches
wherein the indication is transmitted in an INITIAL UE MESSAGE (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) and/or wherein the another network node implements an Access and Mobility Function (AMF) (Turtinen Fig. 3: AMF).
Claim(s) 62, 68, 75, and 88 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Turtinen (Pub. No.: US 20220312530 A1, hereafter “Turtinen”) in view of Teyeb (Pub. No.: US 20230247495 A1, hereafter “Teyeb”), further in view of Wei (Pub. No.: US 20240114569 A1, hereafter “Wei”).
Regarding Claim 62, Claim 68, Claim 75, and Claim 88
Turtinen in view of Teyeb teaches the Method, Distributed Unit, and Central Unit as explained above in Claim 59. Turtinen in view of Teyeb does not explicitly teach
wherein a RedCap UE is characterized by at least one of: a maximum bandwidth of 20 MHz in a first frequency range (FR1) and a maximum bandwidth of 100 MHz in a second frequency range (FR2); lack of support for carrier aggregation and lack of support for dual connectivity; or support of a maximum of 2 receive branches and/or a maximum of 2 downlink multiple- input multiple-output layers.
However, Wei teaches
wherein a RedCap UE (Wei ¶0083: RedCap UE) is characterized by at least one of: a maximum bandwidth of 20 MHz in a first frequency range (FR1) (Wei ¶0083: 20 MHz for FR1) and a maximum bandwidth of 100 MHz in a second frequency range (FR2) (Wei ¶0083: 100 MHz for FR2; Wei teaches a characterization of a RedCap UE with a maximum of 20 MHz for FR1, and 100 MHz for FR2); lack of support for carrier aggregation and lack of support for dual connectivity (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim); or support of a maximum of 2 receive branches and/or a maximum of 2 downlink multiple- input multiple-output layers (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim).
It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Turtinen in view of Teyeb by way of Wei, to include an element that teaches a characterization of a RedCap UE with a maximum of 20 MHz for FR1, and 100 MHz for FR2, as taught by Wei in ¶0083, to better improve the optimization of UE capabilities when the UE has a reduced antenna threshold from other elements.
Conclusion
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/JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
/Sudesh M. Patidar/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415