Response to an Amendment
This office action is a response to a communication made on 09/25/2025.
Claims 1-12, 14 and 19 are canceled.
Claims 13, 15-18 and 20-24 are currently amended.
Claims 13, 15-18 and 20-24 are pending for this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks on page 6-7, filed 09/25/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 13 under 103 have been considered and regarding the amended feature of “based on the importance based discard being activated and based on a set to which the PDCP SDU belongs” are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Sharma et al. (US 2021/0227422) in view of Basu Mallick et al. (US 2016/0164793).
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.
Claim(s) 13-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al. (US 2021/0227422), hereinafter “Sharma” in view of Basu Mallick et al. (US 2016/0164793), hereinafter “Basu”.
With respect to claim 13, Sharma discloses a method for performing operations by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
based on an indication related to an importance based discard being received from a network, activating the importance based discard operation (¶0081, teaches the determination of whether the first SDAP SDU 402 meets one or more criteria associated with a higher priority SDAP SDU may be based on an indication from an upper layer, ¶0090, teaches an indication associated with the first PDCP SDU 406 received from the SDAP entity 450, by determining whether the SDAP entity 450 has added the SDAP header 404 to the first SDAP SDU 402 and if so, optionally, by determining whether the SDAP header 404 comprises an indication that the first SDAP SDU 402 meets one or more criteria associated with the higher priority, ¶0094, teaches the PDCP entity 452 may start a first PDCP discard timer, associated with the first PDCP SDU 406);
based on the importance based discard being activated and based on a set to which the PDCP SDU belongs (¶0110, teaches a PDCP SDU (or a PDCP PDU containing a PDCP SDU) which is determined to have the higher priority (such as the second PDCP SDU 416) has associated with it a discard timer having a longer duration than a discard timer associated with a PDCP SDU not having the higher priority. As such, a PDCP SDU having the higher priority will only be discarded), starting a first discard timer for the importance based discard or a second discard timer (¶0110, teaches assign to the second PDCP PDU 418 a discard timer having a shorter time to expiry than the time to expiry of the discard timer assigned to the first PDCP PDU 416);
wherein:
based on the PDCP SDU belonging to a low importance set, the first discard timer for the importance based discard is started (¶0065, teaches discarding data, even lower priority data, may result in further undesirable consequences. For example, compression techniques (such as robust header compression) which rely on redundancy between sequential data units may require additional transmissions and/or latency to recover from the effect of any data loss or discard in order to be able to reconstruct the headers of the data units which were not discarded, regardless of the priority of the underlying data which was discarded, ¶0091, teaches the PDCP entity 452 may form the first PDCP PDU 408 from the first PDCP SDU 406 and the PDCP header 407 comprising a PDCP sequence number, ¶0094, teaches the PDCP entity 452 may start a first PDCP discard timer, associated with the first PDCP SDU 406);
based on the PDCP SDU not belonging to the low importance set, the second discard timer is started (¶0130, teaches the second PDCP SDU 416 is assigned the lowest sequence number which has not been associated with any PDCP PDU which has already been passed to the RLC/MAC protocol entity for transmission, ¶0179, teaches starting a second discard timer associated with the second data unit, the second discard timer to expire after a second timer duration wherein the second timer duration is longer than the first timer duration.
However, Sharma remain silent on receiving a Packet-Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) a service data unit (SDU) from an upper layer, submitting a PDCP protocol data unit (PDU) including the PDCP SDU to a lower layer.
Basu discloses receiving a Packet-Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) a service data unit (SDU) from an upper layer (¶0068 and ¶0223, teaches discard function is based on a timer, where for each PDCP SDU received from the higher layers (i.e. upper layer) in the transmitter a timer (“discardTimer” as first discard timer) is started…When a PDCP SDU is received at the PDCP layer from higher layers, the corresponding PDCP discardTimer is started for the PDCP SDU);
submitting a PDCP protocol data unit (PDU) including the PDCP SDU to a lower layer (¶0069 and ¶0154, teaches the PDCP layer continues generating the PDCP PDU out of the higher layer PDCP SDU, and once generated, forwards the generated PDCP PDU to the lower layer, RLC…the higher layer processes the received data packet (e.g. PDCP SDU) properly, for example by generating a processed data packet (e.g. PDCP PDU) to be forwarded (i.e. submitted) to the lower layer (e.g. RLC)).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sharma’s system with receiving a Packet-Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) a service data unit (SDU) from an upper layer, submitting a PDCP protocol data unit (PDU) including the PDCP SDU to a lower layer of Basu, in order to apply compression, security and sequence numbering to the SDU and convert it into a PDCP PDU, which is the only format that lower layers can transmit (Basu).
For claim 18, it is a system claim corresponding to the method of claim 1. Therefore claim 18 is rejected under the same ground as claim 1.
For claim 23, it is an apparatus claim corresponding to the method of claim 1. Therefore claim 23 is rejected under the same ground as claim 1.
For claim 24, it is a non-transitory computer readable storage medium claim corresponding to the method of claim 1. Therefore claim 24 is rejected under the same ground as claim 1.
With respect to claims 15 and 20, Sharma in view of Basu discloses the method and the system of claims 13 and 18, wherein activating the importance based discard comprises configuring the first discard timer for the importance based discard based on the second discard timer (Sharma, ¶0179, teaches starting a first discard timer associated with the first data unit, the first discard timer to expire after a first timer duration, and starting a second discard timer associated with the second data unit, the second discard timer to expire after a second timer duration wherein the second timer duration is longer than the first timer duration, Basu, ¶0174 and ¶0261, teaches the master base station configure a secondary discard function in a lower layer of the secondary base station, based on the master discard function in the higher layer of the master base station, such that the secondary discard function of the lower layer at the secondary base station discards a received data packet upon expiry of the secondary timer started by the lower layer upon reception of the received data packet from the higher layer at the master base station…the RLC layer can determine exactly when the discard timer at the PDCP layer will expire based on the previously configured discard timer value of the SeNB (especially when being configured the same as the discard timer in the PDCP layer of the MenB) and the received reception time information of the time stamp), .
With respect to claims 16 and 21, Sharma in view of Basu discloses the method and the system of claims 13 and 18, wherein the first discard timer for the importance based discard is shorter than the second discard timer (Sharma, ¶0110, teaches assign to the second PDCP PDU 418 a discard timer having a shorter time to expiry than the time to expiry of the discard timer assigned to the first PDCP PDU 416, Basu, ¶0158 and ¶0264, teaches the secondary timer is started each time a data packet (e.g. PDCP PDU) is received at the lower layer from the higher layer at the master base station. Correspondingly, upon expiry of the secondary timer, the received data packet (e.g. PDCP PDU) is discarded at the lower (i.e. shorter) layer of the secondary base station …the MeNB is motivated to transmit bearers/packets associated with a short discard timer itself, rather than transmitting such packets via the SeNB and thus incurring the backhaul link delay/congestion).
With respect to claims 17 and 22, Sharma in view of Basu discloses the method and the system of claims 13 and 18, further comprising:
receiving information indicating whether the PDCP SDU belonging to low importance set or not, from the upper layer (Sharma, ¶0065, teaches discarding data, even lower priority data, may result in further undesirable consequences. For example, compression techniques (such as robust header compression) which rely on redundancy between sequential data units may require additional transmissions and/or latency to recover from the effect of any data loss or discard in order to be able to reconstruct the headers of the data units which were not discarded, regardless of the priority of the underlying data which was discarded, ¶0091, teaches the PDCP entity 452 may form the first PDCP PDU 408 from the first PDCP SDU 406 and the PDCP header 407 comprising a PDCP sequence number, ¶0094, teaches the PDCP entity 452 may start a first PDCP discard timer, associated with the first PDCP SDU 406, Basu, ¶0073 and ¶00223 teaches when indicated from upper layer (i.e. PDCP) to discard a particular RLC SDU… When a PDCP SDU (i.e. service data unit considered as critical packet) is received at the PDCP layer from higher layers, the corresponding PDCP discardTimer is started for the PDCP SDU).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US10630819B2 teaches discarding a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) service data unit (SDU) are disclosed. A PDCP layer sets a timer and discards a PDCP SDU upon expiration of the timer. The timer may be set upon receiving the PDCP SDU from an upper layer or upon submitting the PDCP SDU to a lower layer for transmission. The timer and a radio link control (RLC) discard timer may be coordinated. Alternatively, the PDCP layer may discard the PDCP SDU based on a notification from an RLC layer or based on a PDCP status report.
CN116847405A teaches provide a data packet processing method, device, communication equipment and storage medium, including: the first communication equipment performs a target operation, the target operation includes at least one of the following: determining the importance level, data The data flow description information corresponding to the packet and/or the channel to which the data packet is mapped; a cache status report that differentiates the importance levels is determined according to the importance level of the target data packet, where data packets of different importance levels correspond to different importance levels. Caching status reports; sending cache status reports distinguishing importance levels; determining the scope of the first target data packet; stopping the first operation and/or performing the second operation, or performing the first operation.
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GOLAM MAHMUD whose telephone number is (571)270-0385. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8.00-5.00pm.
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/GOLAM MAHMUD/Examiner, Art Unit 2458
/UMAR CHEEMA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2458