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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/12/2024 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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "the disaster roaming device" in line 15. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 3 is rejected due to its dependence on rejected claim 2.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-11, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP TS 38.304, vol. RAN WG2, no. V16.5.0 6 July 2021 (2021-07-06), pages 1-39 (Year: 2021), hereinafter 3GPP, in view of Vamanan et al. (US 11930442), hereinafter Vam.
For claim 1,
3GPP teaches a user equipment ("UE") apparatus, comprising: a transceiver;
and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to cause the apparatus to ([Section 5.2.4] a UE transmits and receives and is configured for sidelink communication. These capabilities imply that the UE has at least one processor and a transmitter and receiver):
determine candidate cells and frequency layers for selecting the suitable cell according to the received configuration ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] UE performs cell reselection evaluation for NR frequencies and inter-RAT frequencies provided in system information with a provided priority. Due to this evaluation, there may be multiple candidate cells for reselection); and
select the suitable cell for disaster roaming based on the determined candidate cells and frequency layers ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] for intra-frequency/inter-frequency cell reselection the UE selects the highest ranked cell).
3GPP does not explicitly teach, however Vam teaches receive a first message comprising a configuration for selecting a suitable cell for disaster roaming ([at least COL. 26, lines 48 - 55] an indication is provided from a first cell stating that disaster roaming is allowed for subscribers of the first PLMN. This indication is provided in system information broadcast by the first cell. This indication acts as a configuration for selecting a suitable cell for disaster roaming.);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the method of 3GPP for determining and selecting a suitable cell for disaster roaming with the method of Vam for receiving a configuration to allow for selection of a suitable cell for disaster roaming to reduce service downtime and the amount of time and resources used to search for a suitable cell.
For claim 3, it is rejected due to its dependence on rejected claim 2.
3GPP further teaches wherein the information in the first message is transmitted commonly for a plurality of communication networks…([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] Cell reselection is based on absolute frequency priority information. Those cell reselection priorities are provided by a network via system information ("SI") and dedicated signaling (RRC release message). This process is commonly used for a plurality of communication networks whether or not a disaster condition applies).
For claim 4, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 1.
3GPP further teaches wherein the first message is transmitted using broadcast ([Section 5.2.4.7.0] cell reselection parameters are broadcast in system information and are read from the serving cell) or
dedicated signaling in a cell on which disaster roaming service is offered ([5.2.4.1] If priorities are provided in dedicated signaling, the UE shall ignore all the priorities provided in system information.).
For claim 5, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 1.
3GPP further teaches wherein the configuration comprises cell reselection priority information for intra-frequency and inter-frequency cell reselection ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] cell reselection parameters are signaled in system information blocks. SIB2 contains cell reselection information common for intra-frequency and inter-frequency cell reselection. It is well known in the art that priority information may be included as common cell reselection information).
For claim 6, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 5.
3GPP further teaches wherein, for broadcast signaling, the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to: for intra-frequency cell reselection, receive a new field comprising the cell reselection priority information in SIB2 ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] those cell reselection priorities are provided by network via system information ("SI") and dedicated signaling (RRC release message). SIB2 contains cell reselection information common for intra-frequency cell reselection as well as intra-frequency cell reselection information. Using the SIB2, or any other SIB with a “new field” is an obvious alternative to one of ordinary skill in the art.); and
for inter-frequency cell reselection, receive a new field comprising the cell reselection priority information in SIB4 for a configured frequency layer ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] those cell reselection priorities are provided by network via system information ("SI") and dedicated signaling (RRC release message). SIB4 contains information relevant for inter-frequency cell reselection, e.g., information about other NR frequencies and inter-frequency neighboring cells relevant for cell reselection. Using the SIB4, or any other SIB with a “new field” is an obvious alternative to one of ordinary skill in the art.).
For claim 7, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 5.
3GPP further teaches wherein the cell reselection priority information is received in a new SIB for intra-frequency and inter-frequency cell reselection ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] those cell reselection priorities are provided by network via system information ("SI") and dedicated signaling (RRC release message). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that using any SIB may be considered a “new SIB”.).
For claim 8, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 5.
3GPP further teaches wherein, for dedicated signaling, the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive a new field in an RRCRelease message for a configured frequency layer ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] those cell reselection priorities are provided by network via system information ("SI") and dedicated signaling (RRC release message).
For claim 9, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 5.
3GPP further teaches wherein the cell reselection priority information comprises a cell reselection priority value within a predefined range for each of a plurality of frequency layers ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] a maximum of 8 priorities is defined for the purpose of inter-frequency and inter-RAT priority reselection; values are in the range from 0 to 7 with value 0 = lowest priority and value 7 = highest priority.).
For claim 10, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 9.
3GPP further teaches wherein the cell reselection priority information comprises a subpriority value within a predefined range of the priority value for each of the plurality of frequency layers ([Applicant admitted prior art in Specification paragraph 72] For finer granularity so-called subpriorities in the value range = {0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8} can be optionally provided to each priority value.).
For claim 11, 3GPP and Vam teach claim 9.
3GPP further teaches wherein the same priority values can be assigned to multiple of the plurality of frequency layers ([5.2.4.1, Note 2] when a UE performs cell reselection, it may consider the frequencies providing the intra-carrier and inter-carrier configuration have equal priority in cell reselection, implying the same priority values may be assigned to multiple of the plurality of frequency layers.).
For claim 14, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-13 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.
Claim 2 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
For claim 15,
3GPP and Vam teach a network equipment apparatus, comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to cause the apparatus to: determine frequency layers on which disaster roaming service is offered; determine absolute frequency priority information for the determined frequency layers;… transmit, via broadcast or dedicated signaling, a first message to one or more disaster roaming devices, the first message comprising a configuration for selecting a suitable cell for disaster roaming, the information in the first message transmitted commonly to communication networks or specifically to communication networks for which disaster condition applies.
3GPP and Vam do not explicitly teach … determine whether a disaster roaming device shall consider only cells which belong to the disaster roaming service area.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Benjamin T. Ranew whose telephone number is (571)272-2746. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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/BENJAMIN T. RANEW/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/NATASHA W COSME/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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