DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This Office Action is in response to the submission filed 2026-07-29 (herein referred to as the Reply) where claim(s) 1-20 are pending for consideration.
35 USC §103 - Claim Rejections
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 non-obviousness.
Claim(s) is/are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LUO_627 (US20190373627) in view of MOCHIZUKI_874 (US20250175874), and further view of LIU_033 (US20190021033)
Claim(s) 1, 20
LUO_627 teaches
LUO_627 teaches
receiving, at a base station controller deployed at a base station of the RAN, at least one data input corresponding to a real-time operational status of the base station; DU 610-a and DU 6-10-b which may be located in respective base stations have a data input to receive Ll/L2 reports such as CSI reports, BSRs, etc., from UEs within their respective cells. <FIG(s). 6; para. 0125-0131>.
determining, by the base station controller using the at least one data input, a local signal parameter configuration of the base station; DU 610-a and DU 6-10-b may determine a tentative SPI based on Ll/L2 reports that include channel state information reports, buffer status reports, etc. SPI acts and functions in an equivalent manner as the claimed locally optimal signal configuration. <FIG(s). 6; para. 0125-0131>.
receiving, at an
determining, by the
causing, by the
However in a similar endeavor, MOCHIZUKI_874 teaches
causing the base station to implement the local signal parameter configuration; enB implements E-RAB configuration to establish a bearer. <para. 0697, 1107>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by MOCHIZUKI_874. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to provide a communication system enabling a normal change of a cell during communication without placing a load on a network even when high communication capacity is achieved through installation of, for example, a small eNB (cell) <para. 0104>.
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
a controller that is an edge controller deployed at an edge of the RAN
However in a similar endeavor, LIU_033 teaches
a controller that is an edge controller deployed at an edge of the RAN a MEC entity which includes at least one Mobile Edge ME controller and at least one ME host. <FIG(s). 1; para. 0003-0004, 0035-0037>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627 and MOCHIZUKI_874 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by LIU_033. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to provide an improved handover mechanism, such that the service connectivity can be maintained during the handover <para. 0004>.
Claim(s) 6
LUO_627 teaches
assisting, by the base station controller, at least one user equipment (UE) connected to the corresponding base station to identify a local beam for use with a currently implemented signal parameter configuration of the base station. a scheduling information state may indicate a set of UE indices, a set or range of beam indices, a set or range of relative or absolute angular values, a set or range of relative or absolute location values, etc., for scheduling <FIG(s). 1, 6; para. 0100, 0125>.
Claim(s) 7
LUO_627 teaches
wherein the step of determining the local signal parameter configuration and the step of determining the coordinated signal parameter configuration each include adjustment of at least one of
CSI-RS placement, or At 520 UE 115-e may transmit an RRM measurement report to CU 505, which includes a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, index that can be indicated in the RRM configuration; Fig. 5; [0113-0114]; at 525 CU 505 may determine an interference profile based at least in part on the RRM measurement report received at 520; Fig. 5; [0115]; at 625 CU 605 may add information to a tentative SPI based on an interference profile, as discussed above with reference to 525; Fig. 6; [0128]). <FIG(s). 5, 6; para. 0113-0115, 0128>.
Claim(s) 8, 10
The claim is directed to limitations that further narrow an alternative embodiment. As discussed herein, the base claim was anticipated using another embodiment (i.e., not the alternative embodiment). Consequently, the claim is rejected for the same reasons as the given for the base claim.
Claim(s) 9
LUO_627 teaches
wherein CSI-RS placement is adjusted by adjusting at least one of
time allocations for the CSI-RS at the base station, At 520 UE 115-e may transmit an RRM measurement report to CU 505, which includes a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, index that can be indicated in the RRM configuration; Fig. 5; [0113-0114]; at 525 CU 505 may determine an interference profile based at least in part on the RRM measurement report received at 520; Fig. 5; [0115]; at 625 CU 605 may add information to a tentative SPI based on an interference profile, as discussed above with reference to 525; Fig. 6; [0128]). <FIG(s). 5, 6; para. 0113-0115, 0128>.
Claim(s) 11
LUO_627 teaches
wherein determination of the coordinated signal parameter configuration of each base station includes selecting at least one of time, frequency, and spatial placement for synchronization signal transmission to using an intra-base station interference metric, and causing the base station controller to implement the selected placement. At 625, CU 605 may add information to a tentative SPI based on an interference profile as discussed in 525; Fig. 6; [0128]; at 525 CU may determine and interference profile based on an RRM measurement report which includes beam indices (which can be considered spatial orientation); Fig. 5; [0114]; DU 510 may identify UEs and beam directions as interfering based on the interference profile and assign interfering UEs and beam directions to different time units or different non-overlapping resource block allocations; Fig. 5; [0116]
Claim(s) 12
LUO_627 teacheswherein the at least one data input includes at least one of
channel measurements and estimations, or DU 610-a and DU 6-10-b which may be located in respective base stations have a data input to receive Ll/L2 reports such as CSI reports, BSRs, etc., from UEs within their respective cells. <FIG(s). 6; para. 0125-0131>.
Claim(s) 19
LUO_627 teaches
wherein the local signal parameter configuration and the coordinated signal parameter configuration are reference and synchronization signal parameter configurations. SPis may be used to coordinate beam sweep patterns; Fig. 3; [0109]; beam sweeping patterns are used to transmit information for cell acquisition and synchronization such as reference signals and synchronization signals; Fig. 3; [0107]).
Claim(s) is/are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LUO_627 (US20190373627) in view of MOCHIZUKI_874 (US20250175874), in view of LIU_033 (US20190021033), and further view of GOROKHOV_215 (US20100056215)
Claim(s) 2
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
detecting, from the at least one data input, at least one change to a deployment environment or user pattern corresponding to the base station;
determining, upon detection of the at least one change, a revised local signal parameter configuration of the base station;
causing the base station to implement the revised local signal parameter configuration.
However in a similar endeavor, GOROKHOV_215 teaches
detecting, from the at least one data input, at least one change to a deployment environment or user pattern corresponding to the base station; determining, upon detection of the at least one change, a revised local signal parameter configuration of the base station; causing the base station to implement the revised local signal parameter configuration. Various conditions such as positioning of mobile devices, buffer levels of mobile devices, and channel conditions between base stations and mobile devices can be considered when forming local strategies; at a next time, a differing set of local strategies can be formed depending on changes to the various conditions within the system. <FIG(s). 3; para. 0061>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627, MOCHIZUKI_874 and LIU_033 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by GOROKHOV_215. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow the selection of local strategies taking into account network-wide utility estimates, enabling base station to cooperate with neighbor base stations <para. 0010-0015>
Claim(s) 3
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
continuously or periodically repeating the steps of detecting the at least one change, determining the revised local signal parameter configuration, and causing the base station to implement the revised local signal parameter configuration to form a real-time (RT) control loop.
However in a similar endeavor, GOROKHOV_215 teaches
continuously or periodically repeating the steps of detecting the at least one change, determining the revised local signal parameter configuration, and causing the base station to implement the revised local signal parameter configuration to form a real-time (RT) control loop. Various conditions such as positioning of mobile devices, buffer levels of mobile devices, and channel conditions between base stations and mobile devices can be considered when forming local strategies; at a next time, a differing set of local strategies can be formed depending on changes to the various conditions within the system. Accordingly the embodiments continuously repeat and update <FIG(s). 3; para. 0061>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627, MOCHIZUKI_874 and LIU_033 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by GOROKHOV_215. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow the selection of local strategies taking into account network-wide utility estimates, enabling base station to cooperate with neighbor base stations <para. 0010-0015>
Claim(s) 4
LUO_627 teaches
receiving, at the
determining, by the edge controller from the at least one of the revised local signal parameter configurations, a revised coordinated signal parameter configuration of each base station; and CU 605 may modify or add information to the SPI <FIG(s). 6; para. 0125-0131>.
causing, by the
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
a controller that is an edge controller deployed at an edge of the RAN
However in a similar endeavor, LIU_033 teaches
a controller that is an edge controller deployed at an edge of the RAN a MEC entity which includes at least one Mobile Edge ME controller and at least one ME host. <FIG(s). 1; para. 0003-0004, 0035-0037>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627 and MOCHIZUKI_874 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by LIU_033. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to provide an improved handover mechanism, such that the service connectivity can be maintained during the handover <para. 0004>.
Claim(s) 5
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
further comprising
continuously or periodically repeating the steps of receiving the at least one of the revised local signal parameter configurations, determining a revised coordinated local signal parameter configuration, and causing the base station to implement the revised coordinated local signal parameter configuration to form a near-real-time control loop.
However in a similar endeavor, GOROKHOV_215 teaches
continuously or periodically repeating the steps of receiving the at least one of the revised local signal parameter configurations, determining a revised coordinated local signal parameter configuration, and causing the base station to implement the revised coordinated local signal parameter configuration to form a near-real-time control loop. various conditions such
as positioning of mobile devices, buffer levels of mobile devices, and channel conditions between base stations and mobile devices can be considered when forming local strategies; at a next time, a differing set of local strategies can be formed depending on changes to the various conditions within the system; an overall strategy S within system 300 can be a direct sum or local strategies; <FIG(s). 3; para. 0061>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627, MOCHIZUKI_874 and LIU_033 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by GOROKHOV_215. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow the selection of local strategies taking into account network-wide utility estimates, enabling base station to cooperate with neighbor base stations <para. 0010-0015>
Claim(s) is/are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LUO_627 (US20190373627) in view of MOCHIZUKI_874 (US20250175874), in view of LIU_033 (US20190021033), and further view of RAYMOND_773 (US20230019773)
Claim(s) 16
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
wherein the RAN is an O-RAN,
the method further comprising
automating, via at least one of an rApp executing at a non-real-time RIC of the RAN or xApps executing at a near-real-time RIC, data exchange procedures over O-RAN interfaces between a plurality of distributed logic units of the RAN, including the base station controller and the edge controller.
However in a similar endeavor, RAYMOND_773 teaches
wherein the RAN is an O-RAN, the method further comprising automating, via at least one of an rApp executing at a non-real-time RIC of the RAN or xApps executing at a near-real-time RIC, data exchange procedures over O-RAN interfaces between a plurality of distributed logic units of the RAN, including the base station controller and the edge controller. O-RAN architecture includes using deployment of the “near-real-time” RIC, and other applications (referred to as “rAPP”) can be developed for deployment on the “non-real-time” RIC for communicating between O-RAN interfaces including DU, CU, edge controllers and base stations. Implicitly the communication between O-RAN interface does not require network operator input and therefore is considered automatic. <para. 0051-0053>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627, MOCHIZUKI_874 and LIU_033 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by RAYMOND_773. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to provide pooling of RAN resources in a disaggregated RAN (generally referred to herein as an O-RAN) in a manner that enables dynamic re-homing of RAN functions with minimal disruption to stateful communications. <para. 0004>.
Claim(s) 17
LUO_627 does not explicitly teach
transmitting combined data selected to be exchanged according to the data exchange procedures and excluding data irrelevant to the data-driven logic units.
However in a similar endeavor, RAYMOND_773 teaches
transmitting combined data selected to be exchanged according to the data exchange procedures and excluding data irrelevant to the data-driven logic units. Implicitly communicating between O-RAN interfaces within the system would include selecting, processing and combining data packets for communication (e.g., constructing packets using selected sub-fields and excluding other data/fields) <para. 0051-0053>.
Before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art to have modified the system/techniques disclosed by LUO_627, MOCHIZUKI_874 and LIU_033 with the embodiment(s) disclosed by RAYMOND_773. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to provide pooling of RAN resources in a disaggregated RAN (generally referred to herein as an O-RAN) in a manner that enables dynamic re-homing of RAN functions with minimal disruption to stateful communications. <para. 0004>.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) is/are indicated as having allowable subject matter and objected to.
Claim(s) 13, 18 and 14-15
The claim(s) is/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.
Response to Arguments
The Reply’s arguments with respect to the other matters have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the rejection(s), which was necessitated by the Applicant’s amendments, being used in the current rejection.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDRE TACDIRAN whose telephone number is 571-272-1717. The examiner can normally be reached on M-TH, 10-5PM EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached on 571-270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
/ANDRE TACDIRAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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