DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-17, 20, 21, and 30 are pending. Claims 18, 19, 22-29, and 31-35 have been cancelled via preliminary amendment.
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 3/28/2024 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Citation #11 could not be found in the file wrapper. The examiner believes the document is listed on the accompanying PTO-892 and a copy of the reference was uploaded to the file wrapper. If this is incorrect, the applicant is invited to provide the correct document for consideration.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 3/28/2024. These drawings are accepted.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 8, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Qualcomm (R2-1912295, NPL cited on PTO-892).
As per claim 1, Qualcomm teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communications [Qualcomm, fig. 1, “UE”], comprising:
at least one processor [Qualcomm, fig. 1, “UE”, A UE, as readily understood within the context of 3GPP, reasonably contains a processor to operate.]; and at least one memory including a computer program code [Qualcomm, fig. 1, “UE”, A UE, as readily understood within the context of 3GPP, reasonably contains a memory and computer program code to operate.];
wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the UE [Qualcomm, fig. 1, “UE”, The UE performs operations as shown in fig. 1, where signalling is exchanged with a source gNB and a target gNB.] at least to:
receive, from a source network node, a command for dual active protocol stack handover (DAPS-HO) [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg. 2, Option 1, Bullet 1, “On receiving the RRC Reconfiguration complete message indicating the successful HO execution of the UE to the target cell, the target cell and source cell coordinate on when to stop the DL data tx on the source cell connection via step 6 ”, In step 3 (see fig. 1), the UE receives a RRC Reconf(iguration) message, including the enable-TDM-DAPSHO parameter, which functions as a command to perform DAPS-HO. The RRC Reconf(iguration) message is sent from a source eNB to the UE.] from a source primary cell (PCell) of the source network node to a target PCell of a target network node [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, ¶ 1, “During DAPS HO, source connection is maintained while performing target connection setup. If the source connection only has a PCell configured, then any additional Tx resources may be used for target setup”, The source gNB has a PCell and the target gNB will have its own PCell configured (see fig. 1, step 4b).], the source network node further comprising a set of source secondary cells (SCells) configured for the UE [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, ¶1, “However, if the source connection has CA configured, then the UE capabilities must be considered to decide if source connection CA can be maintained while performing the target connection setup. In some cases, it may not be possible to keep the source SCells active while performing target connection setup due to the limited hardware resources at the UE”, Section 2.2 handles SCell configuration at the source gNB.], the target network node further comprising a set of target SCells configured for the UE [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 4, ¶ 3 and Proposal 7, “Target gNB decides based on UE capabilities whether the previously configured SCells can remain as SCells for the target connection or not. As the RRC Reconfiguration message sent for DAPS HO, only has the target connection configuration, the target gNB includes the SCells to be released in the sCellToReleaseList IE, and, the SCells which need to be added or modified for target connection via the sCellToAddModList IE”, A target gNB further supports SCell configuration and has RRC parameters to inform the UE of their configuration. See also text for Proposal 7.], the command for the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, Proposal 2, “Proposal 2. Source gNB and target gNB coordinate during an DAPS HO to transmit the control signaling RRC message to release the source cell connection only on the target cell after the target cell connection is setup.”, A DAPS HO command is received as a DAPS HO RRC message (see fig. 1, step 3).] causing the UE to:
maintain, among the set of source SCells, at least one source SCell active during the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, Observation 2, “Observation 2. Maintaining the source connection SCells in configured/deactivated state during DAPS HO results in faster SCell activation, eliminating the SCell configuration delays, on fallback to the source connection due to DAPS HO failure”, Section 2.2 discusses SCell handling during DAPS HO. Observation 2 outlines that SCells for the source gNB may remain in a deactivated state during the HO to maintain fallback capability (see paragraph below Observation 1). In addition, Observation 1 discusses the idea of maintaining SCells of the source gNB in an active state. See fig. 1, “UE maintains both source and target connections.”]; and
activate, among the set of target SCells, at least one target SCell during the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 4, ¶ 3 and Proposal 7, “Target gNB decides based on UE capabilities whether the previously configured SCells can remain as SCells for the target connection or not. As the RRC Reconfiguration message sent for DAPS HO, only has the target connection configuration, the target gNB includes the SCells to be released in the sCellToReleaseList IE, and, the SCells which need to be added or modified for target connection via the sCellToAddModList IE”, A target gNB further supports SCell configuration and has RRC parameters to inform the UE of their configuration. See also text for Proposal 7.]; and
execute the DAPS-HO based on the received command for the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg.2, Option 1, bullet 3, “UE releases the source cell connection as per the notification from the target gNB. This makes the UE behaviour deterministic and provides flexibility on the source gNB release trigger events to the network implementation”, The RRC Reconfiguration Complete message (see bullet 1) indicates to the UE, by the target gNB, that the DAPS HO process has been completed and that the source connections (including SCells) should be released.].
As per claim 2, Qualcomm teaches the UE of claim 1. Qualcomm also teaches wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the UE to receive the command for the DAPS-HO by using a dedicated signaling from the source network node [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg/ 3, Proposal 5, “Proposal 5. Source connection SCells are either released or maintained in configured/deactivated state on receiving the DAPS HO RRC Reconfiguration message”, A DAPS HO command is received as a DAPS HO RRC Reconfiguration message. The applicant’s specification gives RRC as an example of dedicated signalling.].
As per claim 3, Qualcomm teaches the UE of claim 1. Qualcomm also teaches wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the UE to execute the DAPS-HO by: performing a random access procedure for the target PCell [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg. 2, bullet 3, “We propose to adopt Option 1 for DAPS HO procedure, as this option limits the switching of control signaling transmission between the source and target cell connections. It also aligns with the traditional HO principles of switching data tx to the target connection after RACH is successful on the target cell connection”, Fig. 1 step 4b shows the RACH procedure setup for the PCell of the target gNB.]; after the random access procedure is successfully completed, receiving, from the target network node, a release message for the source PCell [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg. 2, bullet 3, “We propose to adopt Option 1 for DAPS HO procedure, as this option limits the switching of control signaling transmission between the source and target cell connections. It also aligns with the traditional HO principles of switching data tx to the target connection after RACH is successful on the target cell connection”, Fig. 1 step 4b shows the RACH procedure setup for the PCell of the target gNB. This bullet addresses source gNB connection release handling, which performed after RACH.]; and in response to the release message, releasing the source PCell and the at least one source SCell [Qualcomm, section 2.1, , pg.2, Option 1, bullet 3, “UE releases the source cell connection as per the notification from the target gNB. This makes the UE behaviour deterministic and provides flexibility on the source gNB release trigger events to the network implementation”, The RRC Reconfiguration Complete message (see bullet 1) indicates to the UE, by the target gNB, that the DAPS HO process has been completed and that the source connections (including SCells) should be released.].
As per claim 4, Qualcomm teaches the UE of claim 3. Qualcomm also teaches wherein the command for the DAPS-HO further causes the UE to: maintain, among the set of source SCells, a first subset of source SCells active upon receiving the command for the DAPS-HO until the random access procedure for the target PCell is successfully completed [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, Observation 2, “Observation 2. Maintaining the source connection SCells in configured/deactivated state during DAPS HO results in faster SCell activation, eliminating the SCell configuration delays, on fallback to the source connection due to DAPS HO failure”, Section 2.2 discusses SCell handling during DAPS HO. Observation 2 outlines that SCells for the source gNB may remain in a deactivated state during the HO to maintain fallback capability (see paragraph below Observation 1). In addition, Observation 1 discusses the idea of maintaining SCells of the source gNB in an active state. See fig. 1, “UE maintains both source and target connections.” In addition, the first subset and the second subset may be identical.]; and maintain, among the set of source SCells, a second subset of source SCells active after the successfully completed random access procedure until the release message for the source PCell is received from the target network node [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg. 2, bullet 3, “We propose to adopt Option 1 for DAPS HO procedure, as this option limits the switching of control signaling transmission between the source and target cell connections. It also aligns with the traditional HO principles of switching data tx to the target connection after RACH is successful on the target cell connection”, Fig. 1 step 4b shows the RACH procedure setup for the PCell of the target gNB. This bullet addresses source gNB connection release handling, which performed after RACH.].
As per claim 5, Qualcomm teaches the UE of claim 4. Qualcomm also teaches wherein the first subset of source SCells is the same as the second subset of source SCells [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, Observation 2, “Observation 2. Maintaining the source connection SCells in configured/deactivated state during DAPS HO results in faster SCell activation, eliminating the SCell configuration delays, on fallback to the source connection due to DAPS HO failure”, Section 2.2 discusses SCell handling during DAPS HO. Observation 2 outlines that SCells for the source gNB may remain in a deactivated state during the HO to maintain fallback capability (see paragraph below Observation 1). In addition, Observation 1 discusses the idea of maintaining SCells of the source gNB in an active state. See fig. 1, “UE maintains both source and target connections.” In addition, the first subset and the second subset may be identical.].
As per claim 8, Qualcomm teaches the UE of claim 1. Qualcomm also teaches wherein the command for the DAPS-HO further causes the UE to configure and activate the set of target SCells during the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 4, ¶ 3 and Proposal 7, “Target gNB decides based on UE capabilities whether the previously configured SCells can remain as SCells for the target connection or not. As the RRC Reconfiguration message sent for DAPS HO, only has the target connection configuration, the target gNB includes the SCells to be released in the sCellToReleaseList IE, and, the SCells which need to be added or modified for target connection via the sCellToAddModList IE”, A target gNB further supports SCell configuration and has RRC parameters to inform the UE of their configuration. See also text for Proposal 7.].
As per claim 30, Qualcomm teaches a method for operating a user equipment (UE) [Qualcomm, fig. 1, “UE”] for wireless communications, comprising:
receiving, from a source network node, a command for dual active protocol stack handover (DAPS-HO) [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg. 2, Option 1, Bullet 1, “On receiving the RRC Reconfiguration complete message indicating the successful HO execution of the UE to the target cell, the target cell and source cell coordinate on when to stop the DL data tx on the source cell connection via step 6 ”, In step 3 (see fig. 1), the UE receives a RRC Reconf(iguration) message, including the enable-TDM-DAPSHO parameter, which functions as a command to perform DAPS-HO. The RRC Reconf(iguration) message is sent from a source eNB to the UE.] from a source primary cell (PCell) of the source network node to a target PCell of a target network node [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, ¶ 1, “During DAPS HO, source connection is maintained while performing target connection setup. If the source connection only has a PCell configured, then any additional Tx resources may be used for target setup”, The source gNB has a PCell and the target gNB will have its own PCell configured (see fig. 1, step 4b).], the source network node further comprising a set of source secondary cells (SCells) configured for the UE [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, ¶1, “However, if the source connection has CA configured, then the UE capabilities must be considered to decide if source connection CA can be maintained while performing the target connection setup. In some cases, it may not be possible to keep the source SCells active while performing target connection setup due to the limited hardware resources at the UE”, Section 2.2 handles SCell configuration at the source gNB.], the target network node further comprising a set of target SCells configured for the UE [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 4, ¶ 3 and Proposal 7, “Target gNB decides based on UE capabilities whether the previously configured SCells can remain as SCells for the target connection or not. As the RRC Reconfiguration message sent for DAPS HO, only has the target connection configuration, the target gNB includes the SCells to be released in the sCellToReleaseList IE, and, the SCells which need to be added or modified for target connection via the sCellToAddModList IE”, A target gNB further supports SCell configuration and has RRC parameters to inform the UE of their configuration. See also text for Proposal 7.], the command for the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, Proposal 2, “Proposal 2. Source gNB and target gNB coordinate during an DAPS HO to transmit the control signaling RRC message to release the source cell connection only on the target cell after the target cell connection is setup.”, A DAPS HO command is received as a DAPS HO RRC message (see fig. 1, step 3).] causing the UE to:
maintain, among the set of source SCells, at least one source SCell active during the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 3, Observation 2, “Observation 2. Maintaining the source connection SCells in configured/deactivated state during DAPS HO results in faster SCell activation, eliminating the SCell configuration delays, on fallback to the source connection due to DAPS HO failure”, Section 2.2 discusses SCell handling during DAPS HO. Observation 2 outlines that SCells for the source gNB may remain in a deactivated state during the HO to maintain fallback capability (see paragraph below Observation 1). In addition, Observation 1 discusses the idea of maintaining SCells of the source gNB in an active state. See fig. 1, “UE maintains both source and target connections.”]; and
activate, among the set of target SCells, at least one target SCell during the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.2, pg. 4, ¶ 3 and Proposal 7, “Target gNB decides based on UE capabilities whether the previously configured SCells can remain as SCells for the target connection or not. As the RRC Reconfiguration message sent for DAPS HO, only has the target connection configuration, the target gNB includes the SCells to be released in the sCellToReleaseList IE, and, the SCells which need to be added or modified for target connection via the sCellToAddModList IE”, A target gNB further supports SCell configuration and has RRC parameters to inform the UE of their configuration. See also text for Proposal 7.]; and
executing the DAPS-HO based on the received command for the DAPS-HO [Qualcomm, section 2.1, pg.2, Option 1, bullet 3, “UE releases the source cell connection as per the notification from the target gNB. This makes the UE behaviour deterministic and provides flexibility on the source gNB release trigger events to the network implementation”, The RRC Reconfiguration Complete message (see bullet 1) indicates to the UE, by the target gNB, that the DAPS HO process has been completed and that the source connections (including SCells) should be released.].
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm (R2-1912295, NPL cited on PTO-892) in view of Wu (US PG Pub 2023/0083266).
As per claim 9, Qualcomm teaches the UE of claim 1. Qualcomm does not explicitly teach wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the UE, before receiving the command for the DAPS-HO, to: receive, from the source network node or the target network node, a request for a UE capability, the UE capability comprising: (i) a maximum number of SCells that the UE is able to maintain active simultaneously, and/or (ii) at least one SCell combination that the UE is able to maintain; and report the UE capability to the source network node or the target network node.
However, in an analogous art, Wu teaches receive, from the source network node or the target network node, a request for a UE capability [Wu, ¶ 0162, “At block 904, the centralized unit determines whether the user device is configured with a DAPS (e.g., in event 504). The centralized unit can determine whether the user device is configured with a DAPS according to a DAPS handover capability in a UE Capability IE of a message (e.g., in a UECapabilityInformation message) received from the user device, a core network, or another base station”, The UE sends UE Capability Information to the base station as part of communication before a DAPS HO begins (e.g., fig. 3, step 302).], the UE capability comprising: (i) a maximum number of SCells that the UE is able to maintain active simultaneously, and/or (ii) at least one SCell combination that the UE is able to maintain; and report the UE capability to the source network node or the target network node [Wu, ¶ 0065, “For example, if the DAPS handover capability indicates that the UE 102 is not capable of CA, the S-BS 104 can configure the UE 102 to release all SCells (i.e., N−1 SCells). In another example, if the DAPS handover capability indicates that the UE 102 is capable of communicating with the S-BS 104 using CA in N-P cells associated to one or more particular frequency bands during DAPS handover, where P is a whole number greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to M (i.e., 0<P<M), the S-BS 104 can configure the UE 102 to release M cells if N−M cells are associated to some or all of the one or more particular frequency bands”, The UE Capability IE (see also ¶s 0064 and 0066) may include SCell combinations that are supported by the UE. This information is reported to the base stations (see fig. 9, ¶s 01060 and 0162).].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the UE Capability IE field of Wu into Qualcomm. One would have been motivated to do this because existing RRC signaling (as taught by Qualcomm) may incorporate additional IE fields to accommodate new functionality with a reasonable expectation of success.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 7, and 10-13 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.
Claims 14-17, 20, and 21 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As per claims 14-17, 20, and 21, the cited prior art, either alone or in combination, fails to teach all of the claimed features. In particular, independent claim 14 further distinguishes itself from a traditional DAPS HO (as taught by Qualcomm and Wu) by incorporating and specifying a request acknowledgement message that (i) indicates which target SCell(s) to activate during DAPS HO and (ii) further indicates whether the source SCell should be replaced with other source SCells. Integrating this information into the DAPS HO messaging goes beyond on the prior art of record. Based on this reasoning, independent claim 14 is allowable over the cited prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
The reference, Ohlsson et al. (US PG Pub 2023/0108496), teaches DAPS HO in LTE, where random access is employed (see at least fig. 4).
The reference, Qualcomm (NPL, R2-1912300), teaches Tx sharing during DAPS HO (see section 2.2, fig. 1).
The reference, Qualcomm (NPL, R2-191821), discusses the merits of keeping SCells active during DAPS HO (see Q6, pgs. 8 and 9).
The reference, Nokia (NPL, R2-2109053), teaches bearer release handling for DAPS (see section 2.1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Paul H. Masur whose telephone number is (571)270-7297. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 4:30 AM to 5PM.
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/Paul H. Masur/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2417