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 Objections
Claims 1-4, 20-25, and 39 are objected to because of the following informalities: claims 1, 20, and 39 recite "wireless communications to from a user equipment" - it should read "to/from" . Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-4, 12-16, 20-23, 31-35, 39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Lunardi (2024/0244484) over Tsai (2022/0150723).
The applied reference has a common assignee with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2).
Regarding claim 1, Lunardi discloses a method performed by a second node for communication in a wireless communication network (para 108, Figure 4) comprising: detecting that an operation is to be executed at a second node (Figure 9), the execution causing an interruption of the wireless communication, upon detecting the operations are to be executed, receiving an indication from one or more first nodes whether or not to execute the operation (para 60, pause, delay or resume measurements) and determining to execute the operation based on the received indication (para 60-62). Lunardi discloses that the messaging can be related to a wireless communication to from a user equipment and implies to prevent interruption (para 118 – related to handover/configuration of tracking, etc.). Lunardi does not disclose that the operations are one or more management operations.
However, Tsai teaches in an analogous art, the use of signaling (figure 2, 3a) in which one or more management operations (workload scheduling/ management functions from O-Ran resource management 10) is used to be communicated between nodes (DU/RU of Figure 2). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use management signaling in order to correctly communicate control signaling in the wireless network.
Regarding claim 2 and 13, Lunardi further discloses indication to one of the first nodes that one ore more operations are to be executed at the second node (Figure 5, signaling between eNB1 and eNB2 indicate operations that must be performed between the two nodes).
Regarding claim 3 and 14, Lunardi doesn’t disclose transmitting a request message to the one or more first nodes to indicate the execution of management operations. However, Tsai teaches that management device transmits an indication to a first node indicating to execute the management operations (step 430, Figure 4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include an indication signal in order to timely process the measurements by the network nodes.
Regarding claim 4and 15 , Lunardi further discloses awaiting a pre-configured time interval (Figure 9, example 3 -waiting 5 reporting periods) after receiving the request to report back on whether to execute the one or more operations.
Regarding claim 12, Lunardi discloses a method performed by a second node for communication in a wireless communication network (para 108, Figure 4) comprising: detecting that an operation is to be executed at a second node (Figure 9), the execution causing an interruption of the wireless communication, upon detecting the operations are to be executed, receiving an indication from one or more first nodes whether or not to execute the operation (para 60, pause, delay or resume measurements) and determining to execute the operation based on the received indication (para 60-62). Lunardi discloses that the messaging can be related to a wireless communication to from a user equipment and implies to prevent interruption (para 118 – related to handover/configuration of tracking, etc.). Lunardi does not disclose that the operations are one or more management operations or the use of priority-based data.
However, Tsai teaches in an analogous art, the use of signaling (figure 2, 3a) in which one or more management operations (workload scheduling/ management functions from O-Ran resource management 10) is used to be communicated between nodes (DU/RU of Figure 2). Tsai also teaches that data can be priority-based (emergency-based or scheduling based priority, para 62, 66, 69). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use management signaling in order to correctly communicate control signaling in the wireless network.
Regarding claim 16, Lunardi doesn’t disclose the use of continuous feedback on whether a communication is going to be continued. Tsai further teaches that priority-based data is continuously evaluated (para 65, 69, feedback during the emergency operation back to the network management) on the communications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include feedback to allow for continuous improvement of the communications quality as suggested by Tsai.
Regarding claims 20-23, the combination of Lunardi and Tsai disclose the second node as described in the rejection of the method claims 1-4 above, and are rejected given the same reasoning.
Regarding claims 31-35, the combination of Lunardi and Tsai disclose the first node in a wireless system as described in the rejection of the method claims 12-16 above and are rejected given the same reasoning.
Regarding claim 39, Lunardi discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium (para 261) having stored thereon a computer program comprising program instructions that when run by a data processing unit perform a method, the method comprising: detecting that an operation is to be executed at a second node (Figure 9), the execution causing an interruption of the wireless communication, upon detecting the operations are to be executed, receiving an indication from one or more first nodes whether or not to execute the operation (para 60, pause, delay or resume measurements) and determining to execute the operation based on the received indication (para 60-62). Lunardi discloses that the messaging can be related to a wireless communication to from a user equipment and implies to prevent interruption (para 118 – related to handover/configuration of tracking, etc.). Lunardi does not disclose that the operations are one or more management operations.
However, Tsai teaches in an analogous art, the use of signaling (figure 2, 3a) in which one or more management operations (workload scheduling/ management functions from O-Ran resource management 10) is used to be communicated between nodes (DU/RU of Figure 2). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use management signaling in order to correctly communicate control signaling in the wireless network
This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C.102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B); or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement. See generally MPEP § 717.02.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Guchhait (2024/0098551) disclose the use of O-RAN DU and RU for control signaling.
Singh (2022/0287038) disclose Virtual machines in a wireless network with management signaling.
Wang (WO 2021/187871) disclose AI/ML operations in a NG system with respect to management operations.
Zee (11102842) discloses the use of signaling to indicate whether a network node is active/inactive.
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WILLIAM GEORGE TROST IV
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2641
/WILLIAM G TROST IV/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2641