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 OFFICE ACTION
This action is responsive to the communication on April 24th, 2026. Claims 20-25 and 27-41 have been canceled. Claims 1-9 and 17-19 have been elected and presented for examination.
Election/Restrictions
During a telephone conversation with Charles Gray on April 24th, 2026 a provisional election was made without traverse to prosecute the invention of configuring a feeder DRB for the feeder cell, claims 1-9, 17-19. Affirmation of this election must be made by applicant in replying to this Office action. Claims 10-16, 26 are withdrawn from further consideration by the examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected invention.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 8, 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rune et al. (US 2023/0397060) in view of Cheng et al. (US 2024/0031891).
Regarding claims 1, 17, Rune et al. discloses a feeder link establishing method (paragraph 0091 [the new feeder link is established]), comprising: determining to provide a feeder service for a gateway station (paragraph 0166 [initial period may occur when a satellite takes over coverage of a geographical area in which the wireless device is located, and the subsequent period may occur while the satellite maintains coverage of the geographical area in which the wireless device is located; moving cell]), and broadcasting a system message of a feeder cell (paragraph 091[If part of the system information is provided to the satellite in a feeder link switch “handover command” (or if the regenerative payload architecture, with the gNB located in the satellite, is used), the above one-shot overlay window may, in some embodiments, start at a time earlier (with a margin) than the beginning of such a period. This would allow part of the system information available at the satellite before the new feeder link is established to be broadcast to UEs, to use some of the unused time resources when no feeder link connection is available. The margin value may be set as default in the system information or be pre-defined with later broadcasting to indicate to the users which margin value to use if the time when the new feeder link connection is established is already known to the UEs.]).
Rune et al. does not explicitly disclose configuring a feeder data radio bearer DRB for the gateway station, after a radio resource control RRC connection with the gateway station is established.
However, Cheng et al. makes obvious configuring a feeder data radio bearer DRB for the gateway station, after a radio resource control RRC connection with the gateway station is established (see Figure 3 and paragraphs 0113-0114, 0128 [The target base station 105-c may then establish a second signaling radio bearer for the relay link (e.g., SRB1), a data radio bearer for the relay link (e.g., DRB), or both, based on the configuration of the relay UE 115-e and receiving the RRC reconfiguration request message. The target base station 105-c may then transmit an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the relay UE 115-e, where the RRC reconfiguration complete message includes an indication of the second signaling radio bearer for the relay link, the data radio bearer for the relay link, or both]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the transparent satellite could send a its configuration and RRC reconfiguration request to set up the data radio bearer in the backhaul. The motivation for this is to set up new DRBs when the satellite is in range.
Regarding claims 2, 18, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claims 1, 17.
However, Rune et al. further discloses wherein the determining to provide the feeder service for the gateway station comprises: determining to provide the feeder service for the gateway station, based on any one of configuration information or a satellite control command (paragraphs 0011, 0072, 0076-0077, 0089 [broadcast ephemeris data in the system information; availability of accurate ephemeris data of the new satellite is critical in conjunction with the satellite switch]), wherein the configuration information is pre-configuration information or operation and maintenance management configuration information of a satellite-borne base station (paragraphs 0011, 0072, 0076-0077, 0081, 0089 [broadcast ephemeris data in the system information; availability of accurate ephemeris data of the new satellite is critical in conjunction with the satellite switch, to facilitate smooth provisioning of frequent broadcast of ephemeris data, or other SI in the NTN system, only when it is needed the most, e.g., during a first period, e.g., the initial period following a new satellite's take-over of the responsibility for coverage of a certain area]).
Regarding claim 4, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Cheng et al. makes obvious wherein the configuring the feeder data radio bearer DRB for the gateway station comprises: sending an RRC reconfiguration message to the gateway station, the RRC reconfiguration message being used to configure the feeder DRB for the gateway station (see Figure 3 and paragraphs 0113-0114, 0128 [The target base station 105-c may then establish a second signaling radio bearer for the relay link (e.g., SRB1), a data radio bearer for the relay link (e.g., DRB), or both, based on the configuration of the relay UE 115-e and receiving the RRC reconfiguration request message. The target base station 105-c may then transmit an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the relay UE 115-e, where the RRC reconfiguration complete message includes an indication of the second signaling radio bearer for the relay link, the data radio bearer for the relay link, or both]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the transparent satellite could send a its configuration and RRC reconfiguration request to set up the data radio bearer in the backhaul. The motivation for this is to set up new DRBs when the satellite is in range.
Regarding claim 5, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1.
However, Rune et al. further discloses wherein the system message comprises first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate that a cell corresponding to the system message is a feeder cell (paragraph 0042, 0044, 0089 [known by the UE from broadcast/signaling of information related to the cell or feeder link switch; system information comprises ephemeris data or information related to cell selection or reselection; The SI broadcast is received according to an aperiodic configuration]).
Regarding claim 8, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1 above, but do not explicitly disclose releasing the feeder DRB and the RRC connection with the gateway station when it is determined to stop providing the feeder service for the gateway station.
However, such a feature is obvious in light of Rune et al. which discloses the footprint of a beam may move over the earth surface with the satellite movement (paragraph 0009).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize as the satellite moves its associated connections would need to be released.
Claim(s) 3, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rune et al. (US 2023/0397060) in view of Cheng et al. (US 2024/0031891) as applied to claim 2, 18 above, and further in view of Prasad et al. (US 2024/0244670).
Regarding claims 3, 19, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claims 2, 18, but do not explicitly disclose wherein the configuration information comprises location information and/or service time information of the gateway station.
However, Prasad et al. discloses wherein the configuration information comprises location information and/or service time information of the gateway station (paragraph 0314 [ the at least one common timing value may be indicated to the wireless device implicitly. For example, the one or more configuration parameters may indicate the location of the NTN gateway. The at least one common timing value may be the feeder link propagation distance value. In an example, the wireless device may compute/calculate/estimate/determine the feeder link propagation distance value based on the location of the NTN gateway. The wireless device may compute/calculate/estimate/determine the feeder link propagation distance value based on the satellite location. The wireless device may determine (e.g., obtain, estimate, calculate) the satellite location based on the satellite ephemeris]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the location of the NTN gateway could be indicated in the configuration to determine the feeder link propagation distance.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rune et al. (US 2023/0397060) in view of Cheng et al. (US 2024/0031891) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hong et al. (US 2019/0357119).
Regarding claim 6, the references as combined above disclose all the recited subject matter in claim 1, but do not explicitly disclose wherein the feeder cell is a dedicated feeder cell, and an access state of the feeder cell in the system message is a barred state.
However, Hong et al. makes obvious wherein the feeder cell is a dedicated feeder cell, and an access state of the feeder cell in the system message is a barred state (paragraph 0183 [when receiving information for indicating access barring for a corresponding access category through system information, the UE may perform access barring using a barring parameter assigned in the corresponding access category. The information for indicating the corresponding access category may include associated barring configuration information. For example, this may include information for indicating a specific UE, a specific application, a specific service, a specific procedure, specific subscription information, a specific QoS class mapping flow, a specific authority authentication confirmation, a specific RRC state, a specific access barring check layer, a specific PLMN, a specific network slice, or a combination of at least two of the above examples, for an access category]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to recognize the SI message could include access barring information in order to determine a specific QoS class that the cell serves.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 9 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art of record does not explicitly disclose or make obvious:
wherein the feeder cell is a non-dedicated feeder cell; before the configuring of the feeder DRB is completed, the access state of the feeder cell in the system message is the barred state; and after the configuring of the feeder DRB is completed, the access state of the feeder cell in the system message is a not-barred state,
and
wherein the method further comprises: retaining context information of the gateway station when releasing the RRC connection with the gateway station, wherein an RRC connection release message comprises second indication information, the second indication information being used to indicate an identity of the gateway station and/or to indicate a retention of the context information of the gateway station.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE whose telephone number is (571)270-3937. The examiner can normally be reached 4pm-11:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at (571)270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/ Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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