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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to filing on 02/16/2024.
Claims 1, 4, and 15 are currently pending in the application.
Claims 1, 4, and 15 are currently rejected.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 02/16/2024 and 06/12/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 15 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 15 line 6 recites “UE CONTEXT T RELEASE REQUEST”. The ‘T’ between ‘CONTEXT’ and ‘RELEASE’ is being considered a typographical error and will be treated as such for the purpose of examination.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 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 nonobviousness.
Claims 1 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bae (Pub. No.: US 2022/0279391 A1) in view of Hwang (Pub. No.: US 2022/0007212 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Bae teaches
A method of a gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU) apparatus (Bae [0018]: method performed by a distributed unit (DU) of a candidate BS (gNB); [0064]: each of the BSs may be referred to as a gNB; claim 23: DU apparatus), the method comprising:
detecting failure of a gNB Centralized Unit User Plane (gNB-CU-UP) apparatus (Bae [0183]: DU determines that it is impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated for the terminal (detects failure: “impossible to maintain a CU-UP resource allocated for the terminal”));
sending a UE CONTEXT RELEASE REQUEST message to a gNB Centralized Unit Control Plane (gNB-CU-CP) apparatus in a case of detecting the failure of the gNB-CU-UP apparatus (Bae fig. 23 and [0183]: sending a UE context release request message to a gNB CU CP as a result of it being impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated for the terminal (in case of detecting failure)),
wherein the UE CONTEXT RELEASE REQUEST message includes information indicating detection of the failure of the gNB-CU-UP apparatus and information indicating that Radio Resource control (RRC) connection with a User Equipment (UE) needs to be re-established (Bae [0183]: UE context release request message used as an indication of it being impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated (failure detection), which in turn causes an RRC connection reconfiguration (reestablished RRC connection with UE/terminal));
receiving a UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMMAND message from the gNB-CU-CP apparatus (Bae fig. 23 and [0187]: receiving a UE context release command from the CU CP); and
Bae appears to be silent regarding the DU sending an RRC release message to the UE.
However, Hwang, in the analogous art of DU/CU architecture and failure detection, teaches
sending a RRC Release message to the UE (Hwang fig. 1K: 1K-100, sending an RRC release message from the DU to the UE).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Bae to incorporate the teachings of Hwang and send an RRC release message to the UE. Doing so would allow for RRC reestablishment as a result of node failure indication (Hwang [0160]).
Regarding claim 15, Bae teaches
A gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU) apparatus (Bae [0018]: a distributed unit (DU) of a candidate BS (gNB); [0064]: each of the BSs may be referred to as a gNB; claim 23: DU apparatus) comprising one or more memories storing instructions (Bae [0074]: memory) and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions (Bae [0019]: DU includes at least one processor to perform the method) to:
detect failure of a gNB Centralized Unit User Plane (gNB- CU-UP) apparatus (Bae [0183]: DU determines that it is impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated for the terminal (detects failure: “impossible to maintain a CU-UP resource allocated for the terminal”));
send a UE CONTEXT T RELEASE REQUEST message to a gNB Centralized Unit Control Plane (gNB-CU-CP) apparatus in a case of detecting the failure of the gNB-CU-UP apparatus (Bae fig. 23 and [0183]: sending a UE context release request message to a gNB CU CP as a result of it being impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated for the terminal (in case of detecting failure)),
wherein the UE CONTEXT RELEASE REQUEST message includes information indicating detection of the failure of the gNB-CU-UP apparatus and information indicating that Radio Resource control (RRC) connection with a User Equipment (UE) needs to be re-established (Bae [0183]: UE context release request message used as an indication of it being impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated (failure detection), which in turn causes an RRC connection reconfiguration (reestablished RRC connection with UE/terminal));
receive a UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMMAND message from the gNB-CU-CP apparatus (Bae fig. 23 and [0187]: receiving a UE context release command from the CU CP); and…
Bae appears to be silent regarding the DU sending an RRC release message to the UE.
However, Hwang, in the analogous art of DU/CU architecture and failure detection, teaches
send a RRC Release message to the UE (Hwang fig. 1K: 1K-100, sending an RRC release message from the DU to the UE).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Bae to incorporate the teachings of Hwang and send an RRC release message to the UE. Doing so would allow for RRC reestablishment as a result of node failure indication (Hwang [0160]).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang (Pub. No.: US 2022/0007212 A1) in view of Bae (Pub. No.: US 2022/0279391 A1) further in view of Kim (Pub. No.: US 2023/0319687 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Hwang teaches
A method of a User Equipment (UE) (Hwang [0050]: method for terminal (UE)), the method comprising:
receiving a RRC Release message from a gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU) apparatus in a case where a… apparatus fails (Hwang [0160] and fig. 1K: UE receives RRC release message from a gNB DU as a result of a node failure),
wherein the RRC Release message includes information indicating detection of failure of the … apparatus and information indicating that Radio Resource control (RRC) connection needs to be re-established (Hwang [0160]: RRC release message indicating failure and causing RRC reestablishment to be performed); and…
Hwang does not appear to explicitly teach that the node failure is specifically the gNB-CU-UP.
However, Bae, in the analogous art of CU/DU architecture, teaches
a gNB Centralized Unit User Plane (gNB-CU-UP) apparatus fails… gNB-CU-UP (Bae [0183]: it is impossible to maintain a radio resource allocated for the terminal (detects failure), “impossible to maintain a CU-UP resource allocated for the terminal”)
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Hwang to incorporate the teachings of Bae and have the apparatus that fails be a gNB-CU-UP. Doing so would allow for determination of whether a handover should be cancelled and if an RRC reconfiguration is required (Bae [0183]).
Hwang modified by Bae does not appear to explicitly teach initiating a procedure to establish a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session after receiving the RRC Release message.
However, Kim, in the analogous art of CU/DU architecture, teaches
initiating a procedure to establish a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session after receiving the RRC Release message (Kim fig. 11a and [0387]: waiting until after RRC release message before sending PDU session request (initiating procedure to establish a PDU session)).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Bae and Hwang to incorporate the teachings of Kim and initiate a procedure to establish a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session after receiving the RRC Release message. Doing so would allow for a handover to be completed before giving notifications regarding the PDU session (Kim [0387]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Teyeb et al. (Pub. No.: US 2023/0328604 A1) discloses context release triggered in the gNB-CU-UP due to a local failure.
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/R.E.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2412 /CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412