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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s submission filed on 06/23/2026 has been entered. Applicant’s submission overcomes prior claim rejections under 35 USC § 112(b). Therefore, the corresponding claim rejections are withdrawn. Claims 1-16 and 18-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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 and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ou (US 9,088,912), hereinafter “Ou”.
Regarding claims 1, 8, Ou teaches:
A method performed by a User Equipment, UE, or a user equipment, UE, configured to enable efficient inter-frequency load balancing or dual connectivity setup or multi-connectivity setup or carrier aggregation setup, the method comprising or the user equipment comprising processing circuitry (see Ou, Fig. 5, col. 5, lines 11-14: The communication device 300 may include an input device 302, an output device 304, a control circuit 306, a central processing unit (CPU) 308, a memory 310, a program code 312, and a transceiver 314) configured to cause the UE to:
receive a measurement configuration from a network node, the measurement configuration comprising information that indicates two or more frequencies for which measurements are to be performed by the UE (see Ou, col. 5, lines 46-53: Measurement configurations are controlled by the eNB. In other words, the eNB tells the UE when to perform measurements, what to measure, and how to report. Such controlling information sent from the eNB to the UE includes for example information regarding how measurements should be filtered, different thresholds for the triggers that trigger the measurement report, what to measure, how to report, and what to include in the measurement report, and see col. 7, lines 12-15: The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE, and see col. 5, lines 30-34: A serving cell denotes the cell that the UE is connected to, while the neighbor cell may be another cell in close proximity on the same frequency (intra-frequency neighbor cell), or on a different frequency (inter-frequency neighbor cell); in this case, the gNB can send configuration of what to measure to the UE which receives the configuration. Measurement is performed for several cells and the cells are on different frequencies, corresponding to the configuration indicating two or more frequencies for performing measurements);
perform measurements in accordance with the measurement configuration to provide performed measurements (see Ou, col. 5, lines 46-53: Measurement configurations are controlled by the eNB. In other words, the eNB tells the UE when to perform measurements, what to measure, and how to report. Such controlling information sent from the eNB to the UE includes for example information regarding how measurements should be filtered, different thresholds for the triggers that trigger the measurement report, what to measure, how to report, and what to include in the measurement report, and see col. 7, lines 12-15: The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE, and see col. 5, lines 30-34: A serving cell denotes the cell that the UE is connected to, while the neighbor cell may be another cell in close proximity on the same frequency (intra-frequency neighbor cell), or on a different frequency (inter-frequency neighbor cell); in this case, the UE uses the measurement configuration to measure cells (i.e. to provide performed measurements)); and
transmit a measurement report to the network node, the measurement reporting comprising the performed measurements and information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements at a time at which the measurement report was generated (see Ou, Fig. 6, col. 5, lines 39-42: This is achieved by the UE by sending a measurement report to the eNB about the neighbor cells. The measurement report contains information about serving and neighbor cells such as received signal strength at the UE, and see col. 7, lines 4-23: at 402 using a configuration to indicate whether or not a corresponding additional measurement result should be included in the measurement report. The method further includes at 404 using the configuration to indicate more than one type of additional measurement result. Thus, the additional measurement result is only included when indicated by the indicator, thereby reducing the signalling overhead associated with reporting the measurement report for CA. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for best non-serving cells. The measurement result for the best non-serving cells may be the measurement result of the best non-serving cell on carriers other than the carrier of the object reference by the measurement identification in the measurement report. The measurement result for best non-serving cells may be limited to the carriers with the configured measurement identification and the configured SCell; in this case, the measurement report includes signal strength information (corresponding to performed measurements). The measurement report also includes additional measurement result for configured cells on configured carriers (i.e. the measurement report is specific to particular cells and carriers). Including information regarding the particular cells and carriers in the measurement report corresponds to the measurement reporting comprising information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements. This additional measurement result being included with the measurement report corresponds to the information being ready at a time that the measurement report was generated for transmission).
Regarding claim 6, Ou teaches the method. Ou further teaches:
further comprising determining that the measurement report is to be transmitted (see Ou, col. 7, line 63-col. 8, line 5: The measurement report may be triggered when the measured result of some inter-RAT neighbor cell becomes better than a predefined threshold. The triggering event is defined as Event B1: Inter-RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold. Alternately, the measurement report may be triggered when the measured result of the serving PCell becomes worse than a predefine threshold and the measured result of some inter-RAT neighbor cell becomes better than another predefined threshold).
Regarding claim 7, Ou teaches the method. Ou further teaches:
further comprising transmitting, to the network node, information that indicates that the UE is capable of including, in a measurement report, information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements at a time at which the measurement report was generated (see Ou, Fig. 6, col. 7, lines 4-23: at 402 using a configuration to indicate whether or not a corresponding additional measurement result should be included in the measurement report. The method further includes at 404 using the configuration to indicate more than one type of additional measurement result. Thus, the additional measurement result is only included when indicated by the indicator, thereby reducing the signalling overhead associated with reporting the measurement report for CA. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for best non-serving cells. The measurement result for the best non-serving cells may be the measurement result of the best non-serving cell on carriers other than the carrier of the object reference by the measurement identification in the measurement report. The measurement result for best non-serving cells may be limited to the carriers with the configured measurement identification and the configured SCell, and see col. 5, lines 39-42: This is achieved by the UE by sending a measurement report to the eNB about the neighbor cells. The measurement report contains information about serving and neighbor cells such as received signal strength at the UE; in this case, including an additional measurement result with the measurement report corresponds to transmitting information that indicates a cell (i.e. a frequency) on which the UE has already performed measurements. This additional measurement result being included with the measurement report corresponds to the information being ready at a time that the measurement report was generated for transmission. Sending this information corresponds to indicating that the UE is capable of sending the information).
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.
Claims 2-5 and 9-16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ou in view of Malmirchegini et al. (US 9,380,594), hereinafter “Malmirchegini”.
Regarding claims 2, 9, Ou teaches the method or the UE.
However, Ou does not teach:
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive information that indicates priorities of the two or more frequencies.
Malmirchegini, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive information that indicates priorities of the two or more frequencies (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 30-38: the base station 105, at 325, may assign different priority values to each set of frequency bands based on identifying the various coverage areas of the base station associated with each set of frequency bands. For example, the base station 105 may assign a first priority value to the first frequency band and a second priority value to the second frequency band. In some examples, the first priority value of the first frequency band may be higher than the second priority value of the second frequency band).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or UE of Ou with the receiving priority information of Malmirchegini with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of lowering overall congestion using direct knowledge of traffic requirements and radio conditions of each user (see Malmirchegini, col. 4, line 63-col. 5, line 3).
Regarding claims 3, 10, Ou teaches the method or the UE.
Ou does not teach, but Malmirchegini teaches:
wherein the measurement configuration further comprises information that indicates priorities of the two or more frequencies (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 30-38: the base station 105, at 325, may assign different priority values to each set of frequency bands based on identifying the various coverage areas of the base station associated with each set of frequency bands. For example, the base station 105 may assign a first priority value to the first frequency band and a second priority value to the second frequency band. In some examples, the first priority value of the first frequency band may be higher than the second priority value of the second frequency band).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the measurement configuration of Ou with the priority information of Malmirchegini with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of lowering overall congestion using direct knowledge of traffic requirements and radio conditions of each user (see Malmirchegini, col. 4, line 63-col. 5, line 3).
Regarding claims 4, 11, the combination of Ou in view of Malmirchegini teaches the method or the UE.
Ou does not teach, but Malmirchegini teaches:
wherein the priorities of the two or more frequencies indicate a priority order of the two or more frequencies in the measurement configuration (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 30-38: the base station 105, at 325, may assign different priority values to each set of frequency bands based on identifying the various coverage areas of the base station associated with each set of frequency bands. For example, the base station 105 may assign a first priority value to the first frequency band and a second priority value to the second frequency band. In some examples, the first priority value of the first frequency band may be higher than the second priority value of the second frequency band).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the measurement configuration of Ou with the priority information of Malmirchegini with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of lowering overall congestion using direct knowledge of traffic requirements and radio conditions of each user (see Malmirchegini, col. 4, line 63-col. 5, line 3).
Regarding claims 5, 12, the combination of Ou in view of Malmirchegini teaches the method or the UE.
wherein the information that indicates the at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements at the time at which the measurement report was generated comprises information that indicates a set of frequencies that have higher priority compared to at least one frequency for which the performed measurements triggered the measurement report (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 7-16: the UE 115 (either RRC connected-mode UE or RRC idle-mode UE) may periodically perform inter-frequency and/or intra-frequency measurements on each set of available frequency bands. The UE 115 may also generate a measurement report based in part on the inter-frequency and/or intra-frequency measurements. In some aspects, measurement report may include at least one of RSRP, RSRQ, CQI, and/or a SRS for each set of frequency bands. At 315, the UE 115 may transmit the measurement report to the base station 105, and see col. 13, lines 30-38: the base station 105, at 325, may assign different priority values to each set of frequency bands based on identifying the various coverage areas of the base station associated with each set of frequency bands. For example, the base station 105 may assign a first priority value to the first frequency band and a second priority value to the second frequency band. In some examples, the first priority value of the first frequency band may be higher than the second priority value of the second frequency band; in this case, the measurement report which is transmitted to the base station includes measurements on a plurality of frequencies. The measurement report includes frequency bands which have priorities, corresponding to a set of frequencies that have a higher priority).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the information of Ou with the information including priority of frequencies of Malmirchegini with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of lowering overall congestion using direct knowledge of traffic requirements and radio conditions of each user (see Malmirchegini, col. 4, line 63-col. 5, line 3).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Ou in view of Malmirchegini teaches the UE.
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
determine that the measurement report is to be transmitted (see Ou, col. 7, line 63-col. 8, line 5: The measurement report may be triggered when the measured result of some inter-RAT neighbor cell becomes better than a predefined threshold. The triggering event is defined as Event B1: Inter-RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold. Alternately, the measurement report may be triggered when the measured result of the serving PCell becomes worse than a predefine threshold and the measured result of some inter-RAT neighbor cell becomes better than another predefined threshold).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Ou in view of Malmirchegini teaches the UE.
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
transmit, to the network node, information that indicates that the UE is capable of including, in a measurement report, information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements at a time at which the measurement report was generated (see Ou, Fig. 6, col. 7, lines 4-23: at 402 using a configuration to indicate whether or not a corresponding additional measurement result should be included in the measurement report. The method further includes at 404 using the configuration to indicate more than one type of additional measurement result. Thus, the additional measurement result is only included when indicated by the indicator, thereby reducing the signalling overhead associated with reporting the measurement report for CA. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for best non-serving cells. The measurement result for the best non-serving cells may be the measurement result of the best non-serving cell on carriers other than the carrier of the object reference by the measurement identification in the measurement report. The measurement result for best non-serving cells may be limited to the carriers with the configured measurement identification and the configured SCell, and see col. 5, lines 39-42: This is achieved by the UE by sending a measurement report to the eNB about the neighbor cells. The measurement report contains information about serving and neighbor cells such as received signal strength at the UE; in this case, including an additional measurement result with the measurement report corresponds to transmitting information that indicates a cell (i.e. a frequency) on which the UE has already performed measurements. This additional measurement result being included with the measurement report corresponds to the information being ready at a time that the measurement report was generated for transmission. Sending this information corresponds to indicating that the UE is capable of sending the information).
Regarding claims 15, 18, Ou teaches:
A method performed by a network node, or a network node, the method comprising one or more of or the network node comprising processing circuitry (see Ou, col. 9, lines 36-39: The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two) configured to cause the network node to:
receive a measurement report from a User Equipment, UE (see Ou, Fig. 6, col. 5, lines 39-42: This is achieved by the UE by sending a measurement report to the eNB about the neighbor cells. The measurement report contains information about serving and neighbor cells such as received signal strength at the UE);
determine whether the UE is capable of including, in the measurement report, information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements at a time at which the measurement report was generated (see Ou, Fig. 6, col. 7, lines 4-23: at 402 using a configuration to indicate whether or not a corresponding additional measurement result should be included in the measurement report. The method further includes at 404 using the configuration to indicate more than one type of additional measurement result. Thus, the additional measurement result is only included when indicated by the indicator, thereby reducing the signalling overhead associated with reporting the measurement report for CA. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for best non-serving cells. The measurement result for the best non-serving cells may be the measurement result of the best non-serving cell on carriers other than the carrier of the object reference by the measurement identification in the measurement report. The measurement result for best non-serving cells may be limited to the carriers with the configured measurement identification and the configured SCell; in this case, including an additional measurement result with the measurement report corresponds to transmitting information that indicates a cell (i.e. a frequency) on which the UE has already performed measurements. This additional measurement result being included with the measurement report corresponds to the information being ready at a time that the measurement report was generated for transmission. This additional measurement result is included when it is configured by the network device, corresponding to determining whether the UE is capable of including the information);
if the UE is not capable of including the information, wait for one or more additional measurement reports from the UE before taking an action (see Ou, Fig. 6, col. 7, lines 4-23: at 402 using a configuration to indicate whether or not a corresponding additional measurement result should be included in the measurement report. The method further includes at 404 using the configuration to indicate more than one type of additional measurement result. Thus, the additional measurement result is only included when indicated by the indicator, thereby reducing the signalling overhead associated with reporting the measurement report for CA. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for best non-serving cells. The measurement result for the best non-serving cells may be the measurement result of the best non-serving cell on carriers other than the carrier of the object reference by the measurement identification in the measurement report. The measurement result for best non-serving cells may be limited to the carriers with the configured measurement identification and the configured SCell; in this case, step 404 of the method is performed only if the UE includes an additional measurement result (i.e. the network device waits for additional measurement reports if the UE is not capable));
wherein the receiving the measurement report is in response to providing a measurement configuration to the UE, the measurement configuration comprising information that indicates the two or more frequencies for which measurements are to be performed by the UE (see Ou, col. 5, lines 46-53: Measurement configurations are controlled by the eNB. In other words, the eNB tells the UE when to perform measurements, what to measure, and how to report. Such controlling information sent from the eNB to the UE includes for example information regarding how measurements should be filtered, different thresholds for the triggers that trigger the measurement report, what to measure, how to report, and what to include in the measurement report, and see col. 7, lines 12-15: The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE, and see col. 5, lines 30-34: A serving cell denotes the cell that the UE is connected to, while the neighbor cell may be another cell in close proximity on the same frequency (intra-frequency neighbor cell), or on a different frequency (inter-frequency neighbor cell) ); in this case, the gNB can send configuration of what to measure to the UE which receives the configuration. Measurement is performed for several cells and the cells are on different frequencies, corresponding to the configuration indicating two or more frequencies for performing measurements).
However, Ou does not teach:
if the UE is capable of including the information:
determine whether the UE has already performed measurements on one or more higher priority frequencies, wherein a higher priority frequency is a frequency having a priority above a threshold priority;
if the UE has already performed measurements on the one or more higher priority frequencies, take a load-balancing action; and
if the UE has not already performed measurements on the one or more higher priority frequencies, wait for one or more additional measurement reports from the UE before taking an action,
Malmirchegini, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
if the UE is capable of including the information:
determine whether the UE has already performed measurements on one or more higher priority frequencies, wherein a higher priority frequency is a frequency having a priority above a threshold priority (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 7-16: the UE 115 (either RRC connected-mode UE or RRC idle-mode UE) may periodically perform inter-frequency and/or intra-frequency measurements on each set of available frequency bands. The UE 115 may also generate a measurement report based in part on the inter-frequency and/or intra-frequency measurements. In some aspects, measurement report may include at least one of RSRP, RSRQ, CQI, and/or a SRS for each set of frequency bands. At 315, the UE 115 may transmit the measurement report to the base station 105, and see col. 13, lines 30-38: the base station 105, at 325, may assign different priority values to each set of frequency bands based on identifying the various coverage areas of the base station associated with each set of frequency bands. For example, the base station 105 may assign a first priority value to the first frequency band and a second priority value to the second frequency band. In some examples, the first priority value of the first frequency band may be higher than the second priority value of the second frequency band; in this case, if the UE includes information on all frequencies (i.e. if the UE is capable of including the information), measurement report includes frequency bands which have priorities, including a first priority which has higher priority than a second priority, corresponding to a priority above a threshold priority);
if the UE has already performed measurements on the one or more higher priority frequencies, take a load-balancing action (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 44-54: the base station 105, at 325, may adjust cell reselection parameters for the idle mode UEs 115. At 330, the base station 105 may transmit a message comprising the priority assignments and idle-mode parameter configurations to the UE 115. At 335, the UE 115, upon receiving the message, may update the idle-mode parameters and select, at 340, for communication with the base station, frequency resources (e.g., a frequency band from a plurality of frequency bands) based at least in part on the priority assignments and idle-mode parameter configurations; in this case, adjusting cell reselection parameters corresponds to a load-balancing action); and
if the UE has not already performed measurements on the one or more higher priority frequencies, wait for one or more additional measurement reports from the UE before taking an action (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 11, lines 7-17: the assignment of priorities to each set of frequency bands may be dependent on the periodic measurement reports received from the UEs 115. Thus, in some examples, the base station 105 may configure one or more UEs 115 for periodic measurements of each set of frequency bands at particular time intervals and request the UE 115 to transmit the measurement report to the base station 105 at the periodic intervals. For example, the base station 105 may configure the connected-mode UEs (e.g., UEs 115-a and 115-c) to perform periodic measurements for each set of frequency bands during particular time intervals; in this case, no actions are taken until receiving measurement reports, corresponding to waiting for additional measurement reports),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or network node of Ou with the priorities of frequencies and load-balancing action of Malmirchegini with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of lowering overall congestion using direct knowledge of traffic requirements and radio conditions of each user (see Malmirchegini, col. 4, line 63-col. 5, line 3).
Regarding claims 16, 19, the combination of Ou in view of Malmirchegini teaches the method or network node.
Ou does not teach, but Malmirchegini teaches:
wherein the action is at least one of transmitting a handover request, initiating setup of carrier aggregation, or dual-connectivity setup (see Malmirchegini, Fig. 3, col. 13, lines 44-54: the base station 105, at 325, may adjust cell reselection parameters for the idle mode UEs 115. At 330, the base station 105 may transmit a message comprising the priority assignments and idle-mode parameter configurations to the UE 115. At 335, the UE 115, upon receiving the message, may update the idle-mode parameters and select, at 340, for communication with the base station, frequency resources (e.g., a frequency band from a plurality of frequency bands) based at least in part on the priority assignments and idle-mode parameter configurations, and see col. 6, lines 7-17: aspects of the present disclosure adjust cell reselection parameters for the idle mobile device 115 based on the current active user conditions. Adjusting cell reselection parameters may include adjusting the cell reselection criterion such that the UE may reselect to a second frequency band if the quality of the second frequency band is at least Qhyst,s and/or Qoffset,s,n dB better for a fixed time period than the first frequency band quality. Thus, the cell reselection parameters define the criterion that would trigger a mobile device 115 to shift from the first frequency band to the second frequency band, for example; in this case, adjust cell reselection parameters for triggering a change of frequency band corresponds to a handover request).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or network node of Ou with the specific action of Malmirchegini with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of lowering overall congestion using direct knowledge of traffic requirements and radio conditions of each user (see Malmirchegini, col. 4, line 63-col. 5, line 3).
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Ou in view of Malmirchegini teaches the network node. Ou further teaches:
wherein prior to receiving the measurement report from the UE, the processing circuitry is further configured to:
provide a measurement configuration to the UE, the measurement configuration comprising information that indicates the two or more frequencies for which measurements are to be performed by the UE (see Ou, col. 5, lines 46-53: Measurement configurations are controlled by the eNB. In other words, the eNB tells the UE when to perform measurements, what to measure, and how to report. Such controlling information sent from the eNB to the UE includes for example information regarding how measurements should be filtered, different thresholds for the triggers that trigger the measurement report, what to measure, how to report, and what to include in the measurement report, and see col. 7, lines 12-15: The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE, and see col. 5, lines 30-34: A serving cell denotes the cell that the UE is connected to, while the neighbor cell may be another cell in close proximity on the same frequency (intra-frequency neighbor cell), or on a different frequency (inter-frequency neighbor cell) ); in this case, the gNB can send configuration of what to measure to the UE which receives the configuration. Measurement is performed for several cells and the cells are on different frequencies, corresponding to the configuration indicating two or more frequencies for performing measurements).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 06/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues “Ou fails to disclose ‘transmitting a measurement report to the network node, the measurement reporting comprising the performed measurements and information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements at a time at which the measurement report was generated’ of claim 1” (see Applicant’s remarks, pages 7-9).
Examiner respectfully disagrees and points to Ou in Fig. 6, col. 5, lines 39-42: This is achieved by the UE by sending a measurement report to the eNB about the neighbor cells. The measurement report contains information about serving and neighbor cells such as received signal strength at the UE, and col. 7, lines 4-23: at 402 using a configuration to indicate whether or not a corresponding additional measurement result should be included in the measurement report. The method further includes at 404 using the configuration to indicate more than one type of additional measurement result. Thus, the additional measurement result is only included when indicated by the indicator, thereby reducing the signalling overhead associated with reporting the measurement report for CA. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE. The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for best non-serving cells. The measurement result for the best non-serving cells may be the measurement result of the best non-serving cell on carriers other than the carrier of the object reference by the measurement identification in the measurement report. The measurement result for best non-serving cells may be limited to the carriers with the configured measurement identification and the configured SCell.
These sections teach a UE sending a measurement report. The measurement report includes signal strength information (corresponding to performed measurements). The measurement report also includes additional measurement result for configured cells on configured carriers (i.e. the measurement report is specific to particular cells and carriers). Including information regarding the particular cells and carriers in the measurement report corresponds to the measurement reporting comprising information that indicates at least one of the two or more frequencies on which the UE has already performed measurements under its broadest reasonable interpretation.
Furthermore, in response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention (see Applicant’s remarks, page 9), it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., "an identifier of a frequency on which measurements were completed") are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Applicant argues “Ou and Malmirchegini fail to teach ‘wherein the receiving the measurement report is in response to providing a measurement configuration to the UE, the measurement configuration comprising information that indicates the two or more frequencies for which measurements are to be performed by the UE’ of claim 15” (see Applicant’s remarks, pages 9-10).
Examiner respectfully disagrees and points to Ou in col. 5, lines 46-53: Measurement configurations are controlled by the eNB. In other words, the eNB tells the UE when to perform measurements, what to measure, and how to report. Such controlling information sent from the eNB to the UE includes for example information regarding how measurements should be filtered, different thresholds for the triggers that trigger the measurement report, what to measure, how to report, and what to include in the measurement report, and col. 7, lines 12-15: The type of additional measurement results can be the measurement result for SCell. The measurement result for SCell may be the measurement result of all configured SCell(s) for the UE, and see col. 5, lines 30-34: A serving cell denotes the cell that the UE is connected to, while the neighbor cell may be another cell in close proximity on the same frequency (intra-frequency neighbor cell), or on a different frequency (inter-frequency neighbor cell)).
These sections teach a measurement configuration including when to measure, what to measure, and how to report measurements. Measurements are performed based on configured cells and cells each have corresponding frequencies, corresponding to the measurement configuration indicating frequencies for which measurements are to be performed.
Furthermore, in response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention (see Applicant’s remarks, page 10), it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., "an identifier of a frequency on which measurements are to be performed") are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Jung et al. (US 2012/0294184) teaches a method in which a terminal reports the results of quality measurement based on a specific reference cell from among a plurality of serving cells for the terminal in a mobile communication system using carrier aggregation.
Liang (US 2013/0336153) teaches a method and a device for reporting terminal measurement and for inter-system operation.
Eklöf et al. (WO 2022/211695) teaches a method performed by a wireless device for Quality of Experience (QoE) measurement reporting.
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 CALEB J BALLOWE whose telephone number is (571)270-0410. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI 7:30-5.
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, Nishant B. Divecha can be reached at (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
Prosecution Insights