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 .
Notice for all Patent Application as subject to 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.
RESPONSE TO AMENDMENT
Amended claims 1-18 and new claims 20-21 are pending and remain for further examination.
The New Grounds of Rejection
Applicant’s amendments and arguments with respect to the claims 1-20 filed on March 09, 2026 have been fully considered. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of new references. Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of title AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office Action.
Claims 1-7 and 21-22 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being un-patentable over Ji et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0284493 A1) in view of Eckberg (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0202528 A1).
As to claim 1, Ji et al teach a method comprising: determining delay values of data in a buffer (pars. 0030 & 0032-0033, selecting/identifying/assigning delay timer in a data buffer); determining, based on the delay values, delay information that includes report values (pars. 0026-0027, figures 5-6, pars. 0070-0073 & 0076-0078, assigning delay information/delay timer to each data burst/packet in the data buffer and generating the buffer status report); and generating a control message that includes the delay information; and outputting the control message for transmission to a network (figures 6-7, pars. 0076-0078 & 0080-0083, generating a control signal based on the timing information of data burst (delay timer)).
However, Ji et al do not teach that the delay information that includes report values that corresponds to percentile values of the delay values.
Eckberg teaches a method comprising: determining delay information that includes a report value that corresponds to a percentile value of a delay value (figure 1, pars. 0042-0044 & 0090, determining delay information that corresponds to a percentile value of the delay value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Eckberg as stated above with the method of Ji et al for determining delay information that corresponds to a percentile value because it would have accelerated speed of distribution and reduced the amount of overhead of distribution to improved control over handling the congestion/delay problems.
As to claim 2, Ji et al do not teach that processing a configuration received from a base station that includes an indication of the percentile values.
Eckberg teaches that processing a configuration received from a base station that includes an indication of the percentile values (figure 1, pars. 0037, 0043, 0090, receiving configuration information including percentile values of the delay values).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Eckberg as stated above with the method of Ji et al for determining/indicating the percentile value because it would have reduced the amount of overhead of distribution to improved control over handling the congestion/delay problems.
As to claim 3, Ji et al teach that the delay values are based on a waiting time of the data in the buffer, a remaining time until a delivery deadline of the data in the buffer, or an estimated time until completing transmission of the data in the buffer (pars. 0005, 0031, 0070, 0075, figure 7, pars. 0086-0087, distribution is based on remaining time that data (PDU) has to be in buffer and waiting time that data (PDU) for transmission).
As to claim 4, Ji et al teach that the data comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) service data unit (SDU), a PDCP PDU, a radio link control (RLC) SDU, an RLC PDU, an RLC SDU segment, a PDU set, or data associated with a quality of service (QoS) flow (pars. 0029-0031, 0067, 0070-0071, data including different types of PDUs and also data associated with QoS parameters).
As to claim 5, Ji et al teach that the buffer is associated with a logical channel (LCH) or a logical channel group (LCG) (pars. 0032, 0084, data bursts associated with LCHs).
As to claim 6, Ji et al teach that the data in the buffer belong to one or more protocol data unit (PDU) sets (pars. 0026, 0070).
As to claim 7, Ji et al teach that a first data unit of the data arrives at the buffer at a first arrival time and a second data unit of the data arrives at the buffer at a second arrival time, and the first arrival time differs from the second arrival time (figure 6, par. 0082, the PDU manager assigns/identifies the timing information to each data bursts).
As to claims 21-22, they are also rejected for the same reasons set forth to rejecting claims 1-2 above, since claims 21-22 do not teach or define any new limitations than above rejected claims 1-7.
Claim 8 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being un-patentable over Ji et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0284493 A1) in view of Eckberg (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0202528 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lee et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0171205 A1).
As to claim 8, neither Ji et al nor Eckberg teach that the delay information includes a statistical value associated with the data in the buffer, the statistical value including a maximum value, a minimum value, an average value, a median value, a standard deviation value, or a variance value.
Lee et al teach a method comprising: determining, based on the distribution, delay information that corresponds to a percentile value (figure 7, Pars. 0069, 0101, 0110), and that the delay information is a statistical value associated with the data in the buffer, the statistical value including a maximum value, a minimum value, an average value, a median value, a standard deviation value, or a variance value (par. 0101, target value determines based on delay time and specifies a statistical value including a percentile value etc.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Lee et al as stated above with the method of Ji et al for specifying delay time/target value in a statistical value including a percentile value because it would have improved control over the data distribution to improved control over handling the congestion/delay problems.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of title AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office Action.
Claims 9-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ji et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0284493 A1).Ji’s patent application meets all the limitations for claims 9-17 recited in the claimed invention.
As to claim 9, Ji et al disclose an apparatus comprising: processing circuitry (see figures 3-5) to: determine first buffer delay information associated with first data in a buffer; determine second buffer delay information associated with second data in the buffer (par. 0032; figures 5-6, pars. 0076-0077, figure 7, par. 0086, allocating a first data burst and a second data burst to a data buffer and assigning a delay timer to each data bursts); determine a differential value between the first buffer delay information and the second buffer delay information; and generate a control message including the first buffer delay information and the differential value; and outputting the control message for transmission to a network (figures 6-7, pars. 0076-0078 & 0080-0083 & 0090, generating a control signal based on the timing information of data burst (delay timer), monitoring a difference of timing of output of the data bursts and generating a control signal based on the timing information of data burst (delay timer)); and interface circuitry couple the processing circuitry to transmit the control message (See figures 3-4).
As to claim 10, Ji et al disclose that the first delay information is associated with a remaining time until a delivery deadline for the first data in the first buffer or a queuing time in the first buffer (pars. 0005, 0031, 0070, 0075, figure 7, pars. 0086-0087, distribution is based on remaining time that data (PDU) has to be in buffer).
As to claim 11, Ji et al disclose that the control message includes a reference report, the reference report is to indicate the first buffer delay information(pars. 0032, 0090, control signal includes BSR report having delay timer).
As to claim 12, Ji et al disclose that process a configuration including a table that associated indexes with respective delay interval; and determine the reference report based on the first buffer delay information and the table (pars. 0078, 0080, 0090, determining report based on timer and table).
As to claim 13, Ji et al disclose that process a configuration including a table that associated indexes with respective differential delay interval; and determine the differential value based on the first buffer delay information and the table (pars. 0083, 0088-0089, determining differential value based on timer and table).
As to claim 14, Ji et al disclose that the control message is a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (pars. 0083, 0090).
As to claim 15, Ji et al disclose that the first buffer delay information is associated with a first logical channel (LCH) or a first logical channel group (LCG) and the second buffer delay information is associated with a second LCH or a second LCG (pars. 0032, 0084, 0089, data bursts associated with LCHs).
As to claim 16, Ji et al disclose that the first data and the second data are associated with a logical channel LCH or a logical channel group (LCG) (pars. 0032, 0084, data bursts associated with LCHs).
As to claim 17, Ji et al disclose that the determine a distribution based on the first data in the first buffer or the second data in the second buffer (figure 6, par. 0070 lines 1-9, allocating PDUs to data buffers).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of title AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office Action.
Claims 18 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being un-patentable over Ji et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0284493 A1) in view of Eckberg (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0202528 A1).
As to claim 18, Ji et al do not teach that the first buffer delay information is based on a first percentile associated with the distribution or the second buffer delay information is based on a second percentile associated with the distribution.
Eckberg teaches that the first delay information is based on a first percentile associated with the distribution or the second delay information is based on a second percentile associated with the distribution (figure 1, pars. 0042-0044 & 0090, determining delay information that corresponds to a percentile value of the delay value).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Eckberg as stated above with the method of Ji et al for determining delay information that corresponds to a percentile value because it would have accelerated speed of distribution and reduced the amount of overhead of distribution to improved control over handling the congestion/delay problems.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments with respect to the claims 1-20 filed on March 09, 2026 have been fully considered but they are deemed to be moot in a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of new references. The examiner has attempted to answer (response) to the remarks (arguments) in the body of the Office Action (see new rejection of claims 1-18 and 21-22).
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.
Additional Reference
The examiner as of general interest cites the following reference.
a. Xu et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0386240 A1.
Content Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bharat Barot whose telephone number is (571)272-3979. The examiner can normally be reached on 7:00AM-3:30PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kamal B Divecha can be reached on (571)272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BHARAT BAROT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2453May 28, 2026
Prosecution Insights