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 07/10/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
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) 1-3, 5-9, 12-16, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumar et al. (US 20220038934) in view of Jain et al. (US 20220201583).
Regarding claim 1, Kumar discloses a device for wireless communication, comprising at least one processor (FIG. 13, device 1305) that is configured to:
receive one or more measurement reports from a user equipment that is connected to a first cell (measuring, at the UE, a set of QoE and RRM variables associated with the communication link between the UE and the serving base station, and transmitting a measurement report to the serving base station indicating information associated with the QoE and the RRM variables; [0007]),
wherein the one or more measurement reports indicate that a quality of a radio link between the user equipment and the first cell is greater than a threshold (UE and/or serving base station may update or otherwise adjust the communication link (e.g., the active communication link) based on the set of RRM variables and/or the set of QoE variables. the communication link is performing at an unacceptable level (e.g., various parameters meet or exceed a threshold); [0056]),
wherein, upon the quality being equal to or lower than the threshold, a handover procedure or a reconfiguration procedure is triggered (a handover procedure may be event trigger-based. For example, handover procedures may be performed in response to various events being triggered. That is, various events are defined such that, if UE 205 determines that an event has been triggered (e.g., a RRM variable fails to satisfy a threshold performance quality and/or reaches a low performance quality threshold), UE 205 will perform certain measurements related to the RRM; [0126]); and
transmit, despite that the quality of the radio link between the user equipment and the first cell being greater than the threshold, a reconfiguration message to the user equipment to cause the user equipment to connect to a second cell (when the communication link is performing at an unacceptable level (e.g., various parameters meet or exceed a threshold), this may include performing a handover procedure of the UE from the serving base station to a target base station in order for the UE to establish a new communication link with the target base station; [0056].
serving base station 310 may transmit (and UE 305 may receive) a connection reconfiguration message in response to the measurement report that identifies the target base station to perform the handover procedure to. Accordingly, UE 305 may perform the handover procedure with the target base station to establish a new communication link; [0159]).
Kumar does not expressly disclose wherein the second cell has a higher frequency band or a higher bandwidth than the first cell.
In an analogous art, Jain discloses wherein the second cell has a higher frequency band or a higher bandwidth than the first cell (the UE 104 may use higher net throughput as a criterion for performing handover. The UE 104 may select a target base station for handover during a positioning session using the conditional reconfiguration information based on higher bandwidth; [0085]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Jain into the system of Kumar in order to minimize the number of measurements gaps that are required for positioning measurements, or to increase bandwidth or minimize self-interference (Jain; [0004]).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Kumar and Jain, particularly Kumar discloses determine a threshold time associated with a connection between the user equipment and the first cell (QoE variable may include the application layer measuring, monitoring, or otherwise determining a throughput rate at the application layer. That is, the application layer may determine the rate at which packets are communicated from the application layer of a transmitting device to the corresponding application layer of the receiving device. The throughput rate (e.g., AvgAppLayThrough) may be instantaneous and/or averaged over a time period; [0105]).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Kumar and Jain, particularly Kumar discloses determine that there exists no mobility event associated with the user equipment that causes a handover from the first cell to another cell (UE and/or serving base station may update or otherwise adjust the communication link (e.g., the active communication link) based on the set of RRM variables and/or the set of QoE variables. As another example when the communication link is performing at an unacceptable level (e.g., various parameters meet or exceed a threshold), this may include performing a handover procedure of the UE from the serving base station to a target base station in order for the UE to establish a new communication link with the target base station; [0056]).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Kumar and Jain, particularly Kumar discloses configure the user equipment to measure a signal quality of the second cell prior to transmitting the reconfiguration message (UE 115 may obtain, at an access stratum of the UE 115, a set of radio resource management variables associated with the communication link between the UE 115 and the serving base station and radio measurements of the neighboring base stations. The UE 115 may transmit a measurement report to the serving base station indicating information associated with the quality of experience variables and the radio resource management variables in a multi-layer readable format; [0100]).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Kumar and Jain, particularly Kumar discloses receive measurement reports from the user equipment about the signal quality of the second cell periodically or aperiodically irrespective of the signal quality of the second cell (PeriodicalReportConfig field descriptions maxNrofRS-IndexesToReport Max number of RS indexes to include in the measurement report. maxReportCells Max number of non-serving cells to include in the measurement report. reportAmount Number of measurement reports applicable for eventTriggered as well as for periodical report types reportQuantityCell The cell measurement quantities to be included in the measurement report. reportQuantityRS-Indexes Indicates which measurement information per RS index the UE shall include in the measurement report. useWhiteCellList Indicates whether only the cells included in the white-list of the associated measObject are applicable as specified in 5.5.4.1; TABLE- 8).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Kumar and Jain, particularly Kumar discloses wherein the first cell is in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and wherein the second cell is in a New Radio (NR) network (The wireless communications system 100 may utilize both licensed and unlicensed radio frequency spectrum bands. For example, the wireless communications system 100 may employ License Assisted Access (LAA), LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) radio access technology, or NR technology in an unlicensed band such as the 5 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band; [0090]).
Regarding claim 8, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 3.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 5.
Regarding claim 13, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 6.
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Kumar and Jain, particularly Kumar discloses comprising a home internet router or an Internet of Things (loT) device configured for a non-mobile application (Some UEs 115, such as MTC or IoT devices, may be low cost or low complexity devices and may provide for automated communication between machines (e.g., via Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication). M2M communication or MTC may refer to data communication technologies that allow devices to communicate with one another or a base station 105 without human intervention. In some examples, M2M communication or MTC may include communications from devices that integrate sensors or meters to measure or capture information and relay such information to a central server or application program that makes use of the information or presents the information to humans interacting with the application program. Some UEs 115 may be designed to collect information or enable automated behavior of machines or other devices. Examples of applications for MTC devices include smart metering, inventory monitoring, water level monitoring, equipment monitoring, healthcare monitoring, wildlife monitoring, weather and geological event monitoring, fleet management and tracking, remote security sensing, physical access control, and transaction-based business charging; [0081]).
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 3.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 5.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 6.
Claim(s) 4, 11, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumar et al. (US 20220038934) in view of Jain et al. (US 20220201583) and in view of Ramachandra et al. (US 20210367876).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Kumar and Jain does not expressly disclose configure the user equipment to disable an inter-frequency measurement.
In an analogous art, Ramachandra discloses configure the user equipment to disable an inter-frequency measurement (the network can configure the UE with A1-A6 events. Typically A1 and A2 events are used for inter-frequency measurement disabling and/or enabling, A3 events for intra frequency handover, A4 event for inter-frequency load balancing and/or carrier aggregation etc; [0009]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Ramachandra into the system of Kumar and Jain in order to increase the probability of successful transmission of reports at challenging radio conditions in the serving cell (Ramachandra; [0036]).
Regarding claim 11, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 4.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 4.
Claim(s) 10 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumar et al. (US 20220038934) in view of Jain et al. (US 20220201583) and in view of Jang et al. (US 20230138415).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Kumar and Jain does not expressly disclose transmit capability information to the base station indicating that the device is a stationary device or a high bandwidth utilization device.
In an analogous art, Jang discloses transmit capability information to the base station indicating that the device is a stationary device or a high bandwidth utilization device (the UE may report a mobility state of the UE in the idle state in the connection setup complete message, and in this case, may notify that the UE is in a stationary state or in a fixed state; [0046]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Jang into the system of Kumar and Jain in order to reduce power consumption of a stationary fixed UE (Jang; [0011]).
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 10.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Rubio et al. (US 20110263255), “DETECTION OF EARLY INTER-RADIO ACCESS TECHNOLOGY (IRAT) HANDOVER TRIGGERING.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OUSSAMA ROUDANI whose telephone number is (571)272-4727. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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