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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-8, 11-13 and 20-34 filed on July 20, 2026 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 12, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner and an initialed and dated copy of the Applicant’s IDS form 1449 is attached to the instant Office Action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 12, filed July 20, 2026, with respect to claims 1-2, 4, have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objection of claims 1-2, 4, has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 12, filed July 20, 2026, with respect to claim 26 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S. of claim 26 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 12, filed July 20, 2026, with respect to claims 12-13, 21-27 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S. of claims 12-13, 21-27 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments, see pg. 12-13, filed July 20, 2026, with respect to claim 1 has been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued that . Claim 4 recites a list including at least two or more filter criteria. The claim limitation is not clear two of " type of network support, UE characteristic, or level of granularity" or two or more filtering criteria recited in claim 4. Claim 1 should further clarify two or more filtering criteria or categorize the list of filtering criteria recited in claim 4.
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 1-8, 11-13 and 20-34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeong et al. (US 2023/0217485 A1, hereinafter "Jeong") in view of Lundqvist et al.(US 10,623,977 B2, hereinafter "Lundqvist").
Regarding claim 1, Jeong discloses a method performed by a Radio Access Node, RAN, node for controlling a Minimization of Drive Tests, MDT, measurement to be performed by a User Equipment, UE, or a group of UEs in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
Obtaining a set of parameters of an MDT configuration, which the set of parameters comprises respective two or more filtering criteria related to type of network support, UE characteristic or level of granularity, to be used by UEs for performing MDT measurements (Jeong, [0073] The UE may provide UE capability information (i.e. UE characteristic) to the base station (5-20), and may indicate whether the base station supports the MDT operation and what frequency the base station can measure),
sending to a first UE or a group of UEs comprising the first UE an MDT configuration comprising, two or more parameters, which the two or more parameters comprises at least a part of the parameters comprised in the set of parameters, which the MDT configuration configures the first UE, or the group of UEs (Jeong, [0073] The base station may include configuration information necessary to perform the logged MDT operation in a specific RRC message, and may transmit the RRC message to the UE (5-25). As an example, the configuration information may include at least one of the following information) but does not explicitly disclose to measure and report MDT measurements according to said filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses configures the first UE, or the group of UEs, measure and report MDT measurements according to said filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 13 line 20-24 when an MDT triggering parameter included in the MDT configuration information is met, UE 1 acquires an MDT measurement value based on the indication about the immediate MDT content to be measured, where the MDT measurement value may include at least one of the following: location information of UE 1, RSRP of a serving cell, an SINR of the serving cell, RSRP of a neighboring cell, an SINR of the neighboring cell, service throughput, a service delay, and a service type).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 2, Jeong discloses UE provide UE capability but does not explicitly disclose based on the obtained set of parameters, selecting the first UE, or the group of UEs, that is capable of measuring and reporting MDT measurement according to the filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses based on the obtained set of parameters, selecting the first UE, or the group of UEs, that is capable of measuring and reporting MDT according to the filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 8 line 15-24 the base station may select a corresponding user equipment according to the trace session activation message, such as a user equipment with no less than 50% of a battery level, a user equipment whose strength of an uplink transmit signal is lower than a certain set threshold, a randomly selected user equipment, or a user equipment whose version and capability meet a certain requirement, and send the MDT configuration information to the selected user equipment. The MDT configuration information may be sent by using log measurement configuration information).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 3, Jeong does not explicitly disclose wherein the MDT configuration further configures the first UE, or the group of UEs, to evaluate, to determine whether or when the first UE, or the group of UEs, should perform MDT measurements filtered according to the filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the MDT configuration further configures the first UE, or the group of UEs, to evaluate, to determine whether and/or when the first UE, or the group of UEs, should perform MDT measurements filtered according to the filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 13 line 4-11 After receiving the trace session activation message sent by the EMS, eNB 1 determines, according to the immediate MDT measurement type carried in the trace session activation message, that a user equipment (User Equipment, "UE" for short) supported by eNB 1 needs to perform immediate MDT measurement, and then eNB 1 may select a UE that needs to perform MDT measurement, such as UE 1).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 4, Jeong discloses wherein the two or more filtering criteria, related to the type of network support, the UE characteristic and/or level of granularity, relate to any one or more out of:
a High Speed Data Network, HSDN, and/or indications or conditions pertaining to speed
a value or range of values of UE velocity,
an NR-R (or NR-Railway) indication,
a UE type or UE category,
a Closed Subscribed Group, CSG,
Mobility Restrictions,
a Type of Core Network
a Non-Public Network,
a Public Warning System, PWS,
an Integrated Access and Backhaul, IAB,
a Slice,
a Radio Bearer or Radio Bearer Type,
a Cell type attribute,
a Connectivity mode (Jeong, [0045] an LTE-NR dual connectivity ) ,
a Duplex mode,
a Radio Access Technology, RAT (Jeong, [0078] storing measurement information through the logged MDT operation, and is indicated in the unit of a cell. Further, this may include RAT information for collecting the measurement information),
Multicast and/or Broadcast,
NB-Internet of Things, IoT (Jeong, abstract [0004] IOT),
Operation in unlicensed spectrum,
Non-Terrestrial Network, NTN,
a Geographical area definition (Jeong, [0056,58] the UEs also store various pieces of information, such as location information, time information, and signal quality information. The information stored as above may be reported to a network 3-15 when the UEs are in the connected mode, and the information is transferred to a specific server),
a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state (Jeong, table 1 RRC state v.s. MDT),
transition(s) among Radio Resource Control, RRC, states (Jeong, table 1 RRC state v.s. MDT)
a Resource coordination and interference mitigation in the cells,
Area scope definitions including logical expressions,
Combinations of existing area scope definition means/possibilities, and
Configurations or usage of network features others than MDT.
Regarding claim 5, Jeong discloses wherein the MDT configuration further comprises to apply the MDT measurement and send the MDT measurement report according to any one or more out of:
per MDT mode (Jeong [0082] Indicator indicating whether to perform the logged MDT operation in the idle mode, in the inactive mode, or in both modes),
per MDT measurements (Jeong [0083] Indicator indicating whether to collect and store beam level measurement information. In the next-generation mobile communication system, a beam antenna may be applied),
per "Area Scope of MDT" value (Jeong, [0056] The service provider loads signal measurement equipment in a vehicle, and collects cell measurement information in the service area, so that a lot of time and money is required), and per "event configuration" (Jeong, [0085] Indicator indicating whether to be able to trigger an MDT retrieval operation in 2nd step RRC resume process).
Regarding claim 6, Jeong discloses receiving a report from the first UE, or the group of UEs, reporting an MDT measurement measured according to the filtering criteria sent to the first UE, or the group of UEs (Jeong, [0092] the base station having received the RRC setup complete message may request the MDT data report by using a specific RRC message (5-70). The UE having received the request may report the MDT data by using the specific RRC message).
Regarding claim 7, Jeong discloses wherein the report further comprises the filtering criteria used for filtering the reported MDT measurement (Jeong, [0058] The immediate MDT is featured to immediately report the collected information to the network. Since the report should be immediately performed, only a connected mode UE can perform this).
Regarding claim 8, Jeong does not explicitly disclose wherein: the set of parameters of an MDT configuration is obtained from a network node.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein: the set of parameters of the MDT configuration is obtained from a network node (Lundqvist, Col. 12 line 46-52 The EMS sends a trace session activation message to eNB 1, where the trace session activation message carries an immediate MDT measurement type, and immediate MDT configuration information (which may include an immediate MDT triggering parameter and an indication about immediate
MDT content to be measured).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 11, Jeong discloses a method performed by a User Equipment, UE, for handling a Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) measurement in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
receiving an MDT configuration from a Radio Access Node, RAN, node (Jeong, [0073] The base station may include configuration information necessary to perform the logged MDT operation in a specific RRC message), the MDT configuration comprising one or more parameters comprising respective two or more filtering criteria related to type of network support, UE characteristic or level of granularity, to be used by the UE for performing MDT measurements, which the MDT configuration configures the UE to measure and report MDT measurements (Jeong, [0073] The UE may provide UE capability information (i.e. UE characteristic) to the base station (5-20), and may indicate whether the base station supports the MDT operation and what frequency the base station can measure), but does not explicitly disclose according to said filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses the MDT configuration configures the UE to measure and report MDT measurements according to said filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 13 line 20-24 when an MDT triggering parameter included in the MDT configuration information is met, UE 1 acquires an MDT measurement value based on the indication about the immediate MDT content to be measured, where the MDT measurement value may include at least one of the following: location information of UE 1, RSRP of a serving cell, an SINR of the serving cell, RSRP of a neighboring cell, an SINR of the neighboring cell, service throughput, a service delay, and a service type).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 12, Jeong does not explicitly disclose wherein the MDT configuration further configures the UE to evaluate, to determine whether or when the UE should perform MDT measurements filtered according to the filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the MDT configuration further configures the UE to evaluate, to determine whether or when the UE should perform MDT measurements filtered according to the filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 5 line 53-58 A user equipment determines, according to an MDT triggering parameter, whether to acquire an MDT measurement value, where the MDT triggering parameter includes at least one of the following: a signal to interference plus noise ratio, a data rate, a packet loss rate of a voice service, a data packet latency, or service interruption time).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 13, Jeong does not explicitly disclose evaluating to decide whether or when the UE shall perform MDT measurements filtered according to the filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses evaluating to decide whether or when the UE shall perform MDT measurements filtered according to the filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 5 line 53-58 A user equipment determines, according to an MDT triggering parameter, whether to acquire an MDT measurement value, where the MDT triggering parameter includes at least one of the following: a signal to interference plus noise ratio, a data rate, a packet loss rate of a voice service, a data packet latency, or service interruption time).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claims 20-27, these claims recite "a Radio Access Node" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 1-8, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-8 as presented above.
Regarding claims 28-30, these claims recite "a User Equipment" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 11-13, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 11-13 as presented above.
Regarding claim 31, Jeong discloses perform an MDT measurement but does not explicitly disclose measured according to the filtering criteria.
Lundqvist from the same field of endeavor discloses perform an MDT measurement measured according to the filtering criteria, and send a report to the RAN, node, reporting an MDT measurement measured according to the filtering criteria (Lundqvist, Col. 13 line 20-24 when an MDT triggering parameter included in the MDT configuration information is met, UE 1 acquires an MDT measurement value based on the indication about the immediate MDT content to be measured, where the MDT measurement value may include at least one of the following: location information of UE 1, RSRP of a serving cell, an SINR of the serving cell, RSRP of a neighboring cell, an SINR of the neighboring cell, service throughput, a service delay, and a service type).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified MDT disclosed by Jeong and MDT disclosed by Lundqvist with a motivation to make this modification in order to improve user satisfaction experience (Lundqvist, Col. 1 line 42).
Regarding claim 32, Jeong discloses wherein the report 1s adapted to further comprise the filtering criteria used for filtering the reported MDT measurement (Jeong, [0058] The immediate MDT is featured to immediately report the collected information to the network. Since the report should be immediately performed, only a connected mode UE can perform this).
Regarding claim 33, Jeong discloses wherein the two or more filtering criteria, related to the type of network support or the UE characteristic or level of granularity, relate to any one or more out of:
a High Speed Data Network, HSDN, or indications or conditions pertaining to speed
a value or range of values of UE velocity,
an NR-R (or NR-Railway) indication,
a UE type or UE category,
a Closed Subscribed Group, CSG,
Mobility Restrictions,
a Type of Core Network
a Non-Public Network,
a Public Warning System, PWS,
an Integrated Access and Backhaul, IAB,
a Slice,
a Radio Bearer or Radio Bearer Type,
a Cell type attribute,
a Connectivity mode (Jeong, [0045] an LTE-NR dual connectivity),
a Duplex mode,
a Radio Access Technology, RAT (Jeong, [0078] storing measurement information through the logged MDT operation, and is indicated in the unit of a cell. Further, this may include RAT information for collecting the measurement information),
Multicast and/or Broadcast,
NB-Internet of Things, IoT (Jeong, abstract [0004] IOT),
Operation in unlicensed spectrum,
Non-Terrestrial Network, NTN,
a Geographical area definition (Jeong, [0056,58] the UEs also store various pieces of information, such as location information, time information, and signal quality information. The information stored as above may be reported to a network 3-15 when the UEs are in the connected mode, and the information is transferred to a specific server),
a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state (Jeong, table 1 RRC state v.s. MDT),
transition(s) among Radio Resource Control, RRC, states (Jeong, table 1 RRC state v.s. MDT)
a Resource coordination and interference mitigation in the cells,
Area scope definitions including logical expressions,
Combinations of existing area scope definition means/possibilities, and
Configurations or usage of network features others than MDT.
Regarding claim 34, Jeong discloses wherein the MDT configuration further comprises to apply the MDT measurement and send the MDT measurement report according to any one or more out of:
per MDT mode (Jeong [0082] Indicator indicating whether to perform the logged MDT operation in the idle mode, in the inactive mode, or in both modes),
per MDT measurements (Jeong [0083] Indicator indicating whether to collect and store beam level measurement information. In the next-generation mobile communication system, a beam antenna may be applied),
per "Area Scope of MDT" value (Jeong, [0056] The service provider loads signal measurement equipment in a vehicle, and collects cell measurement information in the service area, so that a lot of time and money is required), and per "event configuration" (Jeong, [0085] Indicator indicating whether to be able to trigger an MDT retrieval operation in 2nd step RRC resume process).
Conclusion
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.
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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