DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants' communication filed on July 14, 2026. Claims 1-20, 24 and 33 are cancelled. Claims 21, 23, 30, 32 and 39 are amended. Claims 21-23, 25-32 and 34-39 are currently pending and have been examined.
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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefore, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 39 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
In re claim 39, claim 39 recites “A computer program product storing programming instructions...”. The claim is ineligible because: it is not a process, machine manufacture or composition of matter. Based on BRI or plain meaning of a computer program product, it is a software or program per se.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments/remarks made in an amendment filed June 10, 2026, have been fully considered. In view of the amended claims 21, 23, 30, 32 and 39 and upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection, necessitated by the amendments, is made in view of different interpretation of the previously applied references as presented in this Office action. Applicants’ arguments with respect to claim(s) 21-23, 25-32 and 34-39 are therefore moot.
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, 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 21-23, 25-32 and 34-39 are rejected under US 20180167277 A1 (Mahimkar et al.) (hereinafter Mahimkar) in view of US 20140004841 A1 (Morad et al. (hereinafter Morad) and in further view of US 20230388819 A1 (Lin et al.) (hereinafter Lin).
In re claims 21, 30 and 39, Mahimkar discloses a system (Fig. 11:1100) comprising: a processor (Fig. 11:1104); a memory (Fig. 11:1106) and a computer program product for storing programming instructions for execution by the processor, causing the system to perform a method ([0123], “The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions...that any such media may contain computer-executable instructions for performing the methods of the disclosed subject matter”) comprising: identifying radio sites associated with a network service activity in a geographic region (Fig. 4B, Fig. 5, [0053], “As illustrated, in some embodiments, degree data 402 can comprise a list of identifiers 422 of the access point devices. Such is represented by “AP ID” of FIG. 4B, which identifies some positive integer, N, different AP devices. The list of N AP devices can represent the schedulable set. Degree data 402 can further comprise corresponding node degrees 404.sub.1-404.sub.M for some positive integer, M, different grids. A given node degree (e.g., 404.sub.1) can represent an amount of service an access point device (e.g., AP ID=1) provides at a given grid (e.g., grid 224)” (identifying AP1...N serving a grid that are scheduled to be serviced); receiving a radio site neighbor list identifying sets of neighboring radio sites in the geographic region, each of the sets of neighboring radio sites including two or more neighboring radio sites having overlapping or adjacent coverage zones with one another; assigning the radio sites to batches of radio sites for scheduling the network service activity based on the radio site neighbor list such that neighboring radio sites, in each set of neighboring radio sites, are assigned to different batches of radio sites; and transmitting, to a network operations center, a batch list identifying the batches of radio sites, wherein transmitting the batch list to the network operations center prompts the network operations center to schedule the network service activity for the respective batches of radio sites during different time periods.
Mahimkar does not explicitly disclose receiving a radio site neighbor list identifying sets of neighboring radio sites in the geographic region, each of the sets of neighboring radio sites including two or more neighboring radio sites having overlapping or adjacent coverage zones with one another; assigning the radio sites to batches of radio sites for scheduling the network service activity based on the radio site neighbor list such that neighboring radio sites, in each set of neighboring radio sites, are assigned to different batches of radio sites.
Morad discloses receiving a radio site neighbor list ([0091], “the term "neighbors" refers to cells that are geographically close to a reference cell or to cells that are listed in the neighbor list broadcasted by the reference cell”. [0039], “In some embodiments of the method according to the third aspect, the cells neighboring the selected cells comprise cells listed in neighbor lists broadcasted by the selected cells”. [0036], “In some embodiments of the method according to the first aspect or the second aspect, the cells neighboring the selected cells comprise cells listed in neighbor lists broadcasted by the selected cells”) identifying sets of neighboring radio sites in the geographic region ([0041], “a method of analyzing a plurality of cells of a cellular telecommunication network, the plurality of cells providing telecommunication services to a service area”. [0088], “A Service Area (SA) 111+121 is a geographical area which is defined as the union of all area of coverage (AoCs) of a predefined group of cells”. [0012], “Prime-ERCC--measures how much the radio coverage provided by a cell to a service area (SA) is overlapping with the radio coverage contributed by other cells in the SA, and also that the radio coverage provided by the cell is the best from all other cells in the SA”. [0034], “In some embodiments of the method according to the first aspect or the second aspect, the plurality of cells comprises the selected cells and one or more cells neighboring the selected cells”. [0035], “In some embodiments of the method according to the first aspect or the second aspect, the cells neighboring the selected cells comprise cells within a predetermined perimeter around the selected cells”. [0037], “In said method, selecting one or more cells consists of selecting a single cell among the plurality of cells and the plurality of cells comprises the selected cells and one or more cells neighboring the selected cells”), each of the sets of neighboring radio sites including two or more neighboring radio sites having overlapping or adjacent coverage zones with one another (Fig. 1, [0052], “In the following, the term substantial overlap between cells refers to an overlap between the radio coverage areas of the cells that exceed a predetermined threshold”. [0075], “When examining the radio coverage provided by a Selected-Cell which optionally has other neighboring cells, it is reasonable to categorize each CC into one of four CC types with respect to the Selected-Cell and neighboring cells”. [0099], “The area of coverage (AoC) 111 of Cell-A 110 and the AoC 121 of Cell-B 120 overlap in a certain area which is the overlapping of the two triangles 111,121”. [110], “The radio transmission of the Selected-Cell reaches and may be measured in this type of AoC, along with the radio transmission of neighboring cells in the SA, but the radio provided by the Selected-Cell is considered the best measured” (discloses coverage area calculated with neighboring cells from the list); assigning the radio sites to batches of radio sites for scheduling the network service activity based on the radio site neighbor list ([0092], “For example, the first step may be performed by successively defining each cell of the network as the selected cell, the corresponding service area comprising said cell and the neighboring cells i.e. cells in the vicinity of the selected cell(s), for example as listed in the neighbor list broadcasted by the selected cell(s)... in a second step, a more precise analysis to determine if said selected cells may be switched off at the same time without causing a coverage hole” (selecting radio sites from the neighboring list to not cause coverage hole during network service activity). [0093], “In another embodiment of the second step, the service area may comprise the selected cells and some of the neighbors of said selected cells based on the result of the first global scan. For example, when two or more cells in proximity have been found to be fully overlapped by their neighbors (i.e. said two or more cells have a Required-effective radio coverage contribution (ERCC) substantially equal to zero with respect to their respective neighbors), then the second step may be performed on the group of said two or more cells defined as the selected cells, the corresponding service area being defined as the union of the neighbors of the selected cells” (selecting cells to be serviced together depending on coverage with neighboring cells). In a further embodiment, said corresponding service area may be limited to the union of the neighbors of each of the two or more selected cells that respectively have at least a predefined level of overlapping with each selected cell”) such that neighboring radio sites, in each set of neighboring radio sites, are assigned to different batches of radio sites ([0176], “A system for obtaining information relating to the radio coverage contribution of a cell to a Service Area in a cellular telecommunication network is provided”. [0177], “FIG. 2 also includes the Radio Coverage Analyzer (RCA) 240 system”. [0223], “Since MS #A1 and MS #A2 are not in the overlapping area with any of the neighboring cells (Cell-B or Cell-C) they remained camping on Cell-A, unchanged” (here cells A, B and C do not have overlapping coverage). [0093], “The second step may be performed by successively carrying out the present method on groups of selected cells in order to determine if several cells may be switched off at the same time without causing a coverage hole” (creating batches). [0093], “In other words, the neighbors that do not overlap with the selected cells are excluded from the corresponding area” (calculating radio coverage contribution of a cell to a service area is used to create different batches for service)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Mahimkar with Morad to provide a method of providing maintenance to a set of radio sites in a geographical region by utilizing criterion to group them on the basis of coverage overlap. The advantage of doing so is minimal or reduced service disruptions to the user during the upgrade, faster execution of upgrades, better utilization of operational resources and significant cost reduction
Mahimkar and Morad do not explicitly disclose transmitting, to a network operations center, a batch list identifying the batches of radio sites, wherein transmitting the batch list to the network operations center prompts the network operations center to schedule the network service activity for the respective batches of radio sites during different time periods.
Lin discloses transmitting, to a network operations center, a batch list identifying the batches of radio sites ([0004], “For example, a site, such as a site for an enterprise, may include a plurality of access points (APs) configured to provide one or more wireless networks for client devices. A network management system (NMS) may manage the plurality of APs and/or other devices in the network, such as by providing an upgrade plan that selectively upgrades APs or other devices in the wireless network”. [0007], “...wherein the upgrade plan comprises a plurality of batches, wherein each batch of the plurality of batches includes a selection of at least one AP from each of one or more of the plurality of clusters to be upgraded in parallel; and send the upgrade plan to an orchestrator to execute the upgrade plan” (transmitting a batch list to the orchestrator). [0073], “the output generated by plan generation module 382 may specify the parameters of the upgrade plan, such as the organization, the site, the selection of at least one AP from each of one or more clusters to be upgraded in parallel at a time (e.g., batch identifier and one or more APs associated with each batch)”. [0077], “In some examples, the administrator may specify a batch size as a particular number of APs or a percentage of all APs to be upgraded in parallel” (identifying batches of radio sites for service)), wherein transmitting the batch list to the network operations center prompts the network operations center to schedule the network service activity for the respective batches of radio sites during different time periods ([0086], “In this example, upgrade plan unit 370 may generate upgrade plan 610 that specifies a band (e.g., 5), a first batch size (e.g., 10% of APs of all APs), details of the upgrade plan (e.g., one or more APs associated with a batch identifier)”. [0005], “the network management system (NMS) may generate an upgrade plan that selectively upgrades a batch of APs at a time, where the batch of APs includes at least one AP from each of one or more clusters until the plurality of APs is upgraded” (each cluster assigned to a batch id and scheduled during a different, non-overlapping time period)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Mahimkar and Morad with Lin to provide a method of providing maintenance to a set of radio sites in a geographical region by utilizing criterion to group them on the basis of coverage overlap. The advantage of doing so is minimal or reduced service disruptions to the user during the upgrade, faster execution of upgrades, better utilization of operational resources and significant cost reduction
In re claims 22 and 31, the combination discloses the method of claim 21 and the system of claim 30, wherein Lin discloses wherein the radio sites are assigned to the batches of radio sites based on a neighbor exclusion rule set ([0006], “For example, by selectively upgrading at least one AP from each of one or more clusters of strongly connected APs in parallel, disruptions to wireless network services provided by the APs may be reduced and/or mitigated because the other APs within a given cluster may provide backup wireless network services in the event the at least one AP being upgraded is unavailable”. [0034], “For instance, AP 142A-1 may detect a radio signal to AP 142A-M and AP 142A-M may also detect a radio signal to AP 142A-1, where each radio signal has an RSSI value above a particular RSSI threshold value (discloses two neighboring AP’s). [0067], “In some examples, grouping module 372 may implement one or more clustering algorithms including K-means, mean-shift, spectral clustering, and/or other clustering algorithms to group one or more APs within the graph into a plurality of clusters”. [0072], “Selection module 374 may include a direction module 380 configured to apply a direction to the ordered selection of the one or more APs from each cluster to perform the upgrade. For example, direction module 380 may also apply a direction to the ordered selection of the one or more APs from each cluster to perform the upgrade in a way that avoids upgrading neighboring edge APs of adjacent clusters at the same time since neighboring edge APs of adjacent clusters may provide backup wireless network services for one another” (discloses neighbor exclusion rule set wherein neighboring AP’s that overlap in coverage may not be selected for maintenance at the same time to provide backup).
In re claims 23 and 32, the combination discloses the method of claim 22 and the system of claim 31, wherein Lin discloses wherein the neighbor exclusion rule set, the each neighboring radio site, in a given one of the sets of neighboring radio sites, be assigned to a different one of the batches of radio sites than other neighboring radio sites in the given set of neighboring radio sites ([0006], “For example, by selectively upgrading at least one AP from each of one or more clusters of strongly connected APs in parallel, disruptions to wireless network services provided by the APs may be reduced and/or mitigated because the other APs within a given cluster may provide backup wireless network services in the event the at least one AP being upgraded is unavailable”. [0034], “For instance, AP 142A-1 may detect a radio signal to AP 142A-M and AP 142A-M may also detect a radio signal to AP 142A-1, where each radio signal has an RSSI value above a particular RSSI threshold value (discloses two neighboring AP’s). [0067], “In some examples, grouping module 372 may implement one or more clustering algorithms including K-means, mean-shift, spectral clustering, and/or other clustering algorithms to group one or more APs within the graph into a plurality of clusters”. [0072], “Selection module 374 may include a direction module 380 configured to apply a direction to the ordered selection of the one or more APs from each cluster to perform the upgrade. For example, direction module 380 may also apply a direction to the ordered selection of the one or more APs from each cluster to perform the upgrade in a way that avoids upgrading neighboring edge APs of adjacent clusters at the same time since neighboring edge APs of adjacent clusters may provide backup wireless network services for one another” (discloses neighbor exclusion rule set wherein neighboring AP’s that overlap in coverage may not be selected for maintenance at the same time to provide backup). [0031], “The techniques may provide an upgrade plan to selectively upgrade at least one AP from two or more groups of strongly connected APs in parallel such that the selected APs are upgraded in batches. In this way, when the APs that are being upgraded are rebooted or are otherwise offline, the other APs in each group of strongly connected APs may provide backup wireless network services for the offline AP in the respective group” (two or more neighboring cells or strongly connected APs with strong overlapping coverage may be selected in different batches to provide backup and minimize disruption)).
In re claims 25 and 34, the combination discloses the method of claim 21 and the system of claim 30, wherein Lin discloses the method further comprising: scheduling, by the network operations center, the network service activity for the respective batches of radio sites during the different time periods such that each respective batch of radio sites is scheduled during a different, non-overlapping time period ([0086], “In this example, upgrade plan unit 370 may generate upgrade plan 610 that specifies a band (e.g., 5), a first batch size (e.g., 10% of APs of all APs), details of the upgrade plan (e.g., one or more APs associated with a batch identifier)” [0005], “Each group of strongly connected APs may be referred to herein as a “cluster” of strongly connected APs. Based on the graph of the plurality of APs grouped into clusters, the NMS may generate an upgrade plan that selectively upgrades a batch of APs at a time, where the batch of APs includes at least one AP from each of one or more clusters until the plurality of APs is upgraded”. [0006], “Additionally, by selectively upgrading at least one AP from each of the one or more clusters of strongly connected APs to be upgraded, the upgrade process may avoid randomly selecting APs for a batch that may all provide wireless network services for one or more client devices in a certain region of a site, which would cause a disruption to the wireless network services if these randomly selected APs are to be upgraded in parallel” (each cluster assigned to a batch id and scheduled during a different, non-overlapping time period)).
In re claims 26 and 35, the combination discloses the method of claim 25 and the system of claim 34, wherein Mahimkar discloses the method further comprising: receiving a radio site exception list identifying at least one radio site to be omitted from the batch list transmitted to the network operations center, wherein the at least one radio site is scheduled for the network service activity by a different network operations center ([0090], “For example, some important tweak in security configuration may be required on an urgent basis, so operators be willing to incur some performance hit...For coverage, we consider a set of nodes as schedulable if the number of coverage holes is within a threshold” (individual operators such as AT&T have their own upgrade plans. It is implicit that the nodes selected for network activity will be excluded if serviced by another operator to avoid duplicate work)).
In re claims 27 and 36, the combination discloses the method of claim 21 and the system of claim 30, wherein Lin discloses wherein the network service activity, when performed at a radio site, temporarily reduces network coverage or network capacity at the radio site ([0006], “That is, the techniques of the disclosure provide a middle ground approach that may reduce and/or mitigate disruptions caused by an upgrade process to wireless network services provided by the APs without compromising the speed at which to upgrade APs in the network” (It is implicit that the reason for making such batches is to have less interruption of service to user and have a backup coverage as such network activity will tend to reduce network coverage at the radio site being serviced)).
In re claims 28 and 37, the combination discloses the method of claim 21 and the system of claim 30, wherein Lin discloses wherein the network service activity comprises at least one of a software upgrade, a firmware update, or a configuration change to equipment at the radio sites ([0030], “APs 142 at a site 102 may be periodically upgraded with software or firmware to improve the performance of APs 142 and/or to fix issues with the current software or firmware implemented by APs 142, such as security issues. When software or firmware is being upgraded, APs 142 are typically rebooted or otherwise taken offline. This may cause disruptions to wireless network services provided by the APs 142 at site 102 that are being upgraded”).
In re claims 29 and 38, the combination discloses the method of claim 21 and the system of claim 30, wherein Mahimkar discloses wherein the network service activity is scheduled for each respective batch of radio sites during a maintenance window assigned to the respective batch ([0020], “The operations teams manually select the time slots and locations of the AP devices to be upgraded, sometimes without any consideration to service impact other than to upgrade during the maintenance window...At times, the operational teams schedule and execute upgrades during the maintenance window in the hope of minimal disruption during off-peak hours” (batch of AP to be upgraded during a maintenance window)).
Conclusion
Applicants’ 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.
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/SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649 /YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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