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 .
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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 non-obviousness.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Otaka et al. (US 2021/0168664)(hereafter Otaka) in view of Wang et al. (US 10582462)(hereafter Wang).
Regarding claims 1, 9 and 15, Otaka discloses a handover method (see abstract), comprising:
obtaining, by a first access network device, first information that comprises coverage information of at least one access network device adjacent to the first access network device (see, Fig. 4, the specify the type of handover, S404 which is coverage information sent from wireless base station 120b to the terminal, but does not explicitly disclose this information can be sent to the other base station but obvious as described below);
receiving, by the first access network device, route information from a terminal (see, Fig. 6, the UE, 110 sending route information to the communication device, 600 step S602);
determining, by the first access network device, a second access network device from the at least one access network device based
sending, by the first access network device to the second access network device, a handover request for requesting to hand over the terminal from the first access network device to the second access network device (see, Fig. 4, the handover request is sent from the wireless base station, 120b to the wireless base station, 120a and confirmation response S408 is sent for handover and handover instruction, S409 are sent to the user equipment, 110).
Otaka does not explicitly disclose the coverage information is received by the base station from the other base station and determining second network access device based on such information.
However, in same field of endeavor, Wang teaches in claim 1, obtaining, by a first base station, location information of the first base station, wherein the first base station is a to-be-synchronized base station; receiving, by the first base station, location information of a second base station from a synchronization control end, wherein the second base station is a source base station and the synchronization control end includes an operation, administration and maintenance ‘OAM’ device; calculating, by the first base station, a signal propagation delay between the first base station and the second base station according to the location information of the first base station and the location information of the second base station received from the OAM device.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Wang with the Otaka, as a whole, so as to perform handover operation based on the location information received by the base station from the OAM, the motivation is to determine propagation delay between the base stations during handover process.
Regarding claims 2, 10 and 16, Otaka further discloses the method wherein the first information further comprises coverage information of the first access network device (see, Fig. 6, the handover type, is coverage information, step S605).
Regarding claims 3, 11 and 17, Otaka further discloses the method wherein coverage information of any one of the at least one access network device comprises at least one of location information of the access network device, or coverage range information of a cell managed by the access network device (see, Fig. 5, the coverage information, Step S605).
Regarding claims 4, 12 and 18, Otaka further discloses the method, the method further comprising: receiving, by the first access network device, a handover request response from the second access network device (see, Fig. 4, the handover request, S407 by wireless base station, 120a to the wireless base station, 120b), wherein the handover request response comprises indication information indicating a possibility that the second access network device provides a communication service for the terminal (see, Fig. 4, the confirmation response, S408 and S409 performs handover instruction).
Regarding claims 5, 13 and 19, the combined teachings further disclose the method wherein the obtaining, by the first access network device, the first information comprises: receiving, by the first access network device, the first information from operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) (see, Wang, Claim 1).
Regarding claims 6, 14 and 20, the combined teachings further discloses the method wherein the obtaining, by the first access network device, the first information comprises: receiving, by the first access network device, the coverage information of the first access network device from operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) (see, Wang, Claim 1, receiving, by the first base station, location information of a second base station from a synchronization control end, wherein the second base station is a source base station and the synchronization control end includes an operation, administration and maintenance ‘OAM’ device; calculating, by the first base station, a signal propagation delay between the first base station and the second base station according to the location information of the first base station and the location information of the second base station received from the OAM device); and receiving, by the first access network device, the respective coverage information of the at least one access network device from the at least one access network device (see, Otaka, Fig. 6,handover type, S605 includes the coverage information, S605).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Fan et al. (US 11900980) discloses handover control method and device.
Cui et al. (US 2024/0163738) discloses reference selection for handover with specific pscell change or addition.
Liu et al. (US 2023/0103126) discloses interruption measurement for dual active protocol stack handover and conditional handover.
Speicher et al. (US 2021/0084558) discloses relay handover determination.
Hong et al. (US 2021/0045027) discloses handover method between base stations.
Carceres et al. (US 2021/0014755) discloses handover management for predetermined mobility.
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/DHAVAL V PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631