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 .
This is responsive to application 18/629,497 filed 4/8/2024 in which claims 1-16 are presented for examination.
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.
Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoshkholgh Dashtaki et al (US 2025/0338343 A1) (hereinafter Khosh) in view of Xu et al (US 2024/0049073 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Khosh teaches a method performed by a first base station, the method comprising:
obtaining, from a second base station, a conditional handover (CHO) configuration (Khosh: Figs. 19, 22; [0287] target BS/first base station receives HO request in CHO);
determining an uplink (UL) grant for a time-based CHO; and transmitting, to a terminal, the UL grant for the time-based CHO, wherein the time-based CHO is performed based on a random access channel (RACH)-less (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0348]-[0350], target BS transmits to the UE a dynamic UL grant in a RACH-less HO).
Khosh does not explicitly disclose the HO request comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition.
Xu teaches HO request comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition (Xu: Fig. 11; [0098], [0233], HO request comprising T310 threshold).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in th art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Khosh wherein the HO request comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition as disclosed by Xu to provide a system for supporting self-configuration and self-optimization (Xu: Abstract).
Regarding claim 5, Khosh teaches a method performed by a terminal, the method comprising:
receiving, from a first base station, an uplink (UL) grant for a time-based conditional handover (CHO), in case that a CHO configuration associated is obtained by the first base station from a second base station (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0348]-[0350], target BS/first base station transmits to the UE a dynamic UL grant in a RACH-less HO);
receiving, from the second base station, a control message including information for configuring an UL transmission; and performing the time-based CHO based on the UL grant and the information for configuring the UL transmission, wherein the time-based CHO is performed based on a random access channel (RACH)-less (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0350], UE receives HO command in RACH-less HO from the source BS/second base station).
Khosh does not explicitly disclose a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition.
Xu teaches a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition (Xu: Fig. 11; [0098], [0233], HO request comprising T310 threshold).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in th art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Khosh with a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition as disclosed by Xu to provide a system for supporting self-configuration and self-optimization (Xu: Abstract)
Regarding claim 9, Khosh teaches a first base station, comprising: a transceiver; and at least one processor configured to:
obtain, from a second base station, a conditional handover (CHO) configuration , determine an uplink (UL) grant for a CHO (Khosh: Figs. 19, 22; [0287] target BS/first base station receives HO request in CHO),
transmit, to a terminal via the transceiver, the UL grant for the time-based CHO, wherein the time-based CHO is performed based on a random access channel (RACH)-less (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0348]-[0350], target BS transmits to the UE a dynamic UL grant in a RACH-less HO).
Khosh does not explicitly disclose the HO request comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition.
Xu teaches HO request comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition (Xu: Fig. 11; [0098], [0233], HO request comprising T310 threshold).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in th art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Khosh wherein the HO request comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition as disclosed by Xu to provide a system for supporting self-configuration and self-optimization (Xu: Abstract).
Regarding claim 13, Khosh teaches a terminal, comprising: a transceiver; and at least one processor configured to:
receive, from a first base station via the transceiver, an uplink (UL) grant for a time-based conditional handover (CHO), in case that a CHO configuration is obtained by the first base station from a second base station (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0348]-[0350], target BS/first base station transmits to the UE a dynamic UL grant in a RACH-less HO),
receive, from the second base station via the transceiver, a control message including information for configuring an UL transmission, and perform the time-based CHO based on the UL grant and the information for configuring the UL transmission, wherein the time-based CHO is performed based on a random access channel (RACH)-less (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0350], UE receives HO command in RACH-less HO from the source BS/second base station).
Khosh does not explicitly disclose a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition.
Xu teaches a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition (Xu: Fig. 11; [0098], [0233], HO request comprising T310 threshold).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in th art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Khosh with a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with a time-based trigger condition as disclosed by Xu to provide a system for supporting self-configuration and self-optimization (Xu: Abstract)
Regarding claims 2, 6, 10 and 14, Khosh in view of Xu teaches wherein the CHO configuration associated with the time-based trigger condition includes at least one information on a time-based conditional event, or information on a time threshold (Xu: Fig. 11; [0098], [0233], HO request comprising T310 threshold).
Regarding claims 3, 7, 11 and 15, Khosh in view of Xu teaches wherein at least one of the first base station or the second base station is associated with a non-terrestrial network (NTN) (Khosh: Fig. 23; [0285]-[0286]).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Khosh in view of Xu teaches monitoring for a UL RACH-less transmission from the UE based on the CHO configuration associated with the time-based trigger condition (Khosh: Fig. 22; [0345]-[0350], RACH-less uplink transmission from the UE to the target BS).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Khosh in view of Xu teaches wherein the information for configuring the UL transmission further includes at least one of first information on a number of HARQ process configured, second information on a number of repetition for the UL transmission, or
third information associated with a RACH-less configuration (Khosh: Fig. 22).
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478