DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is a response to an application filed on July 2, 2024. Claims 1-11 are currently pending and ready for examination.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 2, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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, 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US Patent Publication No. US20250133488 )in view of 3GPP38.304R16(2021)1.
Regarding claim 1, . Liu et al. discloses a communication method performed by a user equipment (See, e.g., Fig. 1, #120 (UE), Figs. 4A-5 and ¶s[0005]), the communication method comprising the steps of:
determining a cell reselection threshold value (See, Fig. 5, #510 and ¶[0061], “network slice specific cell selection evaluation parameters,” ¶[0080] “network slice threshold”) according to an intended network slice of the user equipment (See, e.g., Fig. 4B, #440, and ¶s [0058] and [0060]);
measuring radio quality of a radio signal received by the user equipment from a network (See, e.g., ¶[0043], measuring the “RSRP” and “RSRQ;” and [0066], “S-criterion” evaluation); and
controlling cell reselection or cell selection according to a result of comparison between the measured radio quality and the cell reselection threshold value (See, e.g., Fig. 4D, #s472 and 474; and ¶s [0061], [0066] and [0070]-[0071], “network slice specific S-criterion to search a suitable cell”).
Liu et al., however, fails to explicitly teach that the communication method is performed by the UE in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.
3GPP38.304R16(2021) teaches that the communication method is performed by the UE in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state (See, e.g., §5.2.2 at pages 17-18).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that it would be necessary to modify the base station taught by Liu et al. to incorporate the above teaching of 3GPP38.304R16(2021) in order for the base station to be compliant to the 5G NR specification, which compliance is also contemplated by Liu et al., (See, e.g., Liu et al., ¶[0004]).
Regrading claim 2, Liu et al. further teaches that
the cell reselection threshold value is a threshold value to be compared with the radio quality of a serving cell (See, e.g., ¶[0061], “SIntraSearchP,” and “SIntraSearchQ “); and
the controlling comprises performing measurement in an intra-frequency and/or inter-frequency neighboring cell (See, ¶s [0079], [0095] and [0120]) in response to the radio quality of the serving cell being lower than the cell reselection threshold value determined according to the intended network slice (See, Fig. 3A and 3B; ¶s[0054]-[0055], [0058] and {0061]).
Regarding claim 3, Liu et al. further teaches that
the cell reselection threshold value is a threshold value to be compared with the radio quality of an inter-frequency neighboring cell (See, e.g., Figs. 3A and 3B, ¶[0061] and [0079]), and
the controlling comprises performing cell reselection to the inter-frequency neighboring cell in response to the radio quality of the inter-frequency neighboring cell being higher than the cell reselection threshold value determined according to the intended network slice (See, Figs. 3A and 3B; and ¶s[0064]).
Regarding claim 4, Liu et al. further teaches that the communication method further comprises:
receiving, from the network, configuration information configured to determine the cell reselection threshold value (See, Fig. 5, #510; and ¶s[0038] and [0061]),
wherein the determining comprises determining the cell reselection threshold value using the received configuration information (See, 4B, #442 and ¶s[0064]).
Regarding claim 5, Liu et al. further teaches that
the configuration information comprises a plurality of network slice-specific parameters associated with respective different network slices (See, e.g., ¶s [0062] and [0063]), and
the determining comprises determining the cell reselection threshold value using a network slice-specific parameter associated with the intended network slice among the plurality of network slice-specific parameters (See, e.g., ¶[0064]).
Regarding claim 6, Liu et al. further teaches that
each of the plurality of network slice-specific parameters comprises a network slice-specific cell reselection threshold value (See, e.g., ¶[0061], [0062] and [0070], “UE 120 may perform one or more of the aforementioned cell selection evaluations using one or more of the aforementioned network slice selection evaluation parameters specific to each network slice with each frequency priority,” Emphasis added).
Regarding claim 7, Liu et al. further teaches that
each of the plurality of network slice-specific parameters comprises a network slice-specific offset value (See, e.g., ¶[0061], “UE 120 may be configured with a network slice specific offset for Rs or Rn. …[and]… a network slice specific offset to Srxlev or Squal or a network slice specific value for Qrxlevmin or Qqualmin“) and
a network slice-specific cell reselection threshold value is configured by applying the network slice-specific offset value to a network slice-independent cell reselection threshold value (See, e.g., ¶[0058]).
Regarding claim 8, Liu et al. further teaches that
when the user equipment comprises two or more intended network slices, the determining comprises determining the cell reselection threshold value using two or more network slice-specific parameters associated with the two or more intended network slices (See, e.g., ¶[0062]-[0063] and [0071], “UE 120 may determine that the cell reselection criteria, using the network slice selection evaluation parameters specific to the network slice, are satisfied for at least one network slice of the set of intended network slices and may reselect to a cell associated with the at least one network slice,” Emphasis added.).
Regarding claim 10, Liu et al. further teaches that the communication method further comprises:
receiving, from the network, support information indicating a network slice supported by a serving cell and/or a network slice supported by a neighboring cell (See, ¶[0060], receiving, e.g., NSSAI, S-NSSAI, SST or S_NSSAI group value),
wherein the determining comprises determining the cell reselection threshold value according to the intended network slice and the support information (See, Fig. 4B, #440 and ¶[0063]).
Regarding claim 11, Liu et al. discloses a user equipment (See, e.g., Fig. 1, #120 (UE)) performing cell reselection or cell selection (See, e.g., Figs. 4A-5 and ¶s[0005]), the user equipment comprising: a controller configured to perform processing of:
determining a cell reselection threshold value (See, Fig. 5, #510 and ¶[0061], “network slice specific cell selection evaluation parameters,” ¶[0080] “network slice threshold”) according to an intended network slice of the user equipment (See, e.g., Fig. 4B, #440, and ¶s [0058] and [0060]);
measuring radio quality of a radio signal received by the user equipment from a network (See, e.g., ¶[0043], measuring the “RSRP” and “RSRQ;” and [0066], “S-criterion” evaluation); and
controlling cell reselection or cell selection according to a result of comparison between the measured radio quality and the cell reselection threshold value (See, e.g., Fig. 4D, #s472 and 474; and ¶s [0061], [0066] and [0070]-[0071], “network slice specific S-criterion to search a suitable cell”).
Liu et al., however, fails to explicitly teach that the UE performs the cell reselection or cell selection process when the UE is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.
3GPP38.304R16(2021) teaches that the cell reselection or cell selection process is performed by the UE in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state (See, e.g., §5.2.2 at pages 17-18).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that it would be necessary to modify the base station taught by Liu et al. to incorporate the above teaching of 3GPP38.304R16(2021) in order for the base station to be compliant to the 5G NR specification, which compliance is also contemplated by Liu et al., (See, e.g., Liu et al., ¶[0004]).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. and 3GPP38.304R16(2021) in further view of Liu2 (US Patent Publication US2023/0254742).
Regarding claim 9, Liu et al. teaches a communication method for wireless communication performed by a user equipment comprising all elements recited in claim 4 as discussed above, but fails to explicitly teach that
the configuration information comprises a representative value defining a range of the cell reselection threshold value determinable by the user equipment, and
the determining comprises determining, according to the intended network slice, the cell reselection threshold value within the range defined by the representative value.
Liu 2 teaches a communication method (See, Liu2, Figs. 12 and 13) performed by a user equipment (Liu2, Fig. 1, #100), wherein
the configuration information (See, Liu2 ¶[0044], “For example, the preset threshold can be configured by the network terminal in the serving cell through a system broadcast message.”) comprises a representative value (See, Fig. 13, Threshold_1_Sr, Threshold_1_Sq, Threshold_2_Sr, or Threshold_2_Sq) defining a range of the cell reselection threshold value determinable by the user equipment (See, ¶s[0091], [0093] and [0105], Threshold_1_Sr, Threshold_1_Sq, Threshold_2_Sr, and Threshold_2_Sq, each defining the upper limit for a threshold range for the Srxlev or Squal); and
the determining comprises determining, according to the intended network slice, the cell reselection threshold value within the range defined by the representative value (See, Fig. 13; ¶s[0091] and [0105], The Threshold_2_Sr, for example, may be chosen as 8(dB), which is in the range of 0 to 10(dB) (i.e., the Threshold_1_Sr).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication method by Liu et al. to incorporate the above teaching of Liu2 in order to avoid a prolonged out-of-service period for the user device (See, e.g., Liu2 ¶s[0004], [0036] and [0037]).
Conclusion
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo R Jeong can be reached at (571) 272-9617. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/K.S.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2418 March 12, 2026
/Moo Jeong/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
1 3GPP TS 38.304V16.7.0, “3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; User Equipment (UE) procedures in Idle mode and RRC Inactive state (Release 16)”, published by 3GPP Organizational Partners, December 2021, Pp. 1-39.