Response to an Amendment
This office action is a response to a communication made on 12/10/2025.
Claims 2-4, 7-8, 11, 13-14, 19, 21, 25-27 are canceled.
Claims 1, 5-6, 9-10, 12, 16-17, 20, 23-24, 28, 30 and 33 are currently amended.
Claims 1, 5-6, 9-10, 12, 15-18, 20, 22-24, and 28-33 are pending for this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks on page 6, filed 12/10/2025, with respect to claims 10 and 20 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objection of claims 10 and 20 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 12 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks on page 6-7, filed 12/10/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 12 under 102(a)(1) have been considered and regarding the amened feature of “wherein the configuration information is used by the backup CU CP or the backup basestation CU to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure” are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Yeh et al. (US 2022/0124560) in view of Khanfouci et al. (US 2021/0243613).
For claim 28 and dependent claims, claim does not recite the feature of “wherein the configuration information is used by the backup CU CP or the backup basestation CU to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure”, and therefore claim 28 is still teaches by Yeh reference and rejected under 102(a)(1). For further clarification please see the rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 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.
Claim(s) 28-33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yeh et al. (US 2022/0124560).
with respect to claim 28, Yeh discloses a system comprising:
a backup basestation centralized unit (CU) for providing a backup wireless connection (¶0045, teaches the backup NAN 331-1 assesses whether it has sufficient resource(s) to provide the back-up support (303 a, 303 b), ¶0130, teaches UEs 801 with multiple radio interfaces can simultaneously connect to wireless infrastructure 833 a-c of different RATs such as LTE small-cell base stations (BS) 833 a ); and
a common storage node configured for storing configuration information for the backup wireless connection and for providing the configuration information to the backup basestation CU in response to receiving a request message for retrieving the configuration information (¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS), ¶0031, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as common storage node, ¶0045-¶0046, teaches sends a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b). The BackupBS-Rsp message can contain configurations for special support the backup NAN 331-1 can provide… the INSM 150 can collect the special configurations from all candidate backup NANs 331-1, and generates a backup configuration message or a summary report (BackupNAN-Config-Summary) (305 a), and sends the summary report to the serving NAN 331-2 (306 a) for the UE 701, ¶0054, teaches the UE 701 can quickly re-establish a connection to the backup NAN 331-1 based on the configurations sent in BackupNAN-Config-OTA message (307 b, , ¶0168, the used network and transport protocols (e.g., Transfer Control Protocol (TCP), ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE), ¶0249, teaches wherein the backup response message includes a backup configuration to provide the backup services to the individual UE), wherein common storage nodes are connected so that they are common to user equipment (UE) (¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS), ¶0031, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as common storage node, ¶0136, teaches UEs 801 can establish dual connectivity as specified in 3GPP and the edge intelligence resides in a CU).
With respect to claim 29, Yeh discloses the system of claim 28, further comprising:
a basestation distributed unit (DU) (Yeh, ¶0049, teaches the backup NAN 331-1 can be a DU belonging to a first CU);
a first basestation CU (Yeh, ¶0031, teaches one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as first basestation CU ); and
a user equipment (UE) configured to handover a wireless connection through the basestation DU with the first basestation CU for the wireless connection with the backup basestation CU based on the configuration information (Yeh, ¶0049, teaches the backup NAN 331-1 can be a DU belonging to a first CU, ¶0254, teaches the backup configuration includes handover parameters for the backup NAN to act as a target NAN for a handover when one or more HO trigger conditions occur).
With respect to claim 30, Yeh discloses the system of claim 29, wherein the common storage node provides the configuration information to the backup basestation CU as part of a response message after receiving a request message (Yeh, ¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS), ¶0031, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as common storage node, ¶0045-¶0046, teaches sends a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b). The BackupBS-Rsp message can contain configurations for special support the backup NAN 331-1 can provide… the INSM 150 can collect the special configurations from all candidate backup NANs 331-1, and generates a backup configuration message or a summary report (BackupNAN-Config-Summary) (305 a), and sends the summary report to the serving NAN 331-2 (306 a) for the UE 701).
With respect to claim 31, Yeh discloses the system of claim 29, wherein the configuration information comprises a user equipment (UE) context, a bearer context, Transport Network Layer (TNL) associations, or Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) routing information (Yeh, ¶0179, teaches measurements related to UE Context (UECNTX), ¶0185, teaches radio bearer management, ¶0121, teaches radio interface that can access one or multiple (radio) access networks ((R)ANs), ¶0133, teaches respective connections 830 b (also referred to as “backhaul paths 830 b”) may connect or communicatively couple the edge compute node 836 with one or more NANs 833, ¶0168, the used network and transport protocols (e.g., Transfer Control Protocol (TCP), ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE)).
With respect to claim 32, Yeh discloses the system of claim 29, wherein the wireless connection with the first basestation CU is replaced by a connection with the backup basestation CU when a failure is detected at the first basestation CU (Yeh, ¶0039, teaches a number of RRC connection failures, ¶0045, teaches a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b). The BackupBS-Rsp message can contain configurations for special support the backup NAN 331-1 can provide, such as prioritized RACH channel configuration to support fast HO for the UE).
With respect to claim 33, Yeh discloses the system of claim 29, wherein an availability indicator identifies when the configuration information is stored in the common storage node (Yeh, ¶0179, teaches measurements related to UE Context (UECNTX), ¶0185, teaches radio bearer management, ¶0121, teaches radio interface that can access one or multiple (radio) access networks ((R)ANs), ¶0133, teaches respective connections 830 b (also referred to as “backhaul paths 830 b”) may connect or communicatively couple the edge compute node 836 with one or more NANs 833, ¶0168, the used network and transport protocols (e.g., Transfer Control Protocol (TCP), ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE, ¶0289, teaches wherein each SLO of the one or more SLOs includes a set of service level indicators (SLIs), wherein the set of SLIs include one or more of availability).
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.
Claim(s) 1, 5-6, 9-10, 12, 15-18, 20, 22-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yeh in view of Khanfouci et al. (US 2021/0243613), hereinafter “Khanfouci”.
With respect to claim 1, Yeh discloses a wireless communication method comprising:
sending, by a backup basestation centralized unit (CU) control plane (CP) of a current basestation CU CP or a current basestation CU, or a backup basestation CU of a current basestation CU to a common storage node, a request message for retrieving configuration information (¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS), access points (APs), distributed units (DUs), etc.), edge compute nodes, and/or cloud computing clusters, ¶0031, teaches assigning dedicated network elements, NFs, and/or virtual NFs (VNFs) includes, for example, reserving (exclusively) for an individual slice one or more radio unit (RUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), one or more centralized unit (CU) user plane (UP) functions, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions, one or more core network NFs, ¶0045, teaches 0045, teaches sends a backup request message (BackupNAN-Req) (i.e. the backup basestation CU CP functions) to request a candidate backup NAN 331-1 (i.e. current basestation CU CP or the current basestation CU) to provide backup support (302 a, 302 b) (i.e. the backup basestation CU CP functions), ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE), wherein common storage nodes are connected so that they are common to user equipment (UE) (¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS), ¶0031, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as common storage node, ¶0136, teaches UEs 801 can establish dual connectivity as specified in 3GPP and the edge intelligence resides in a CU), and wherein the backup basestation CU CP functions as a back for the current basestation CU CP or the current basestation CU and the backup basestation CU functions as a backup for the current basestation CU (¶0045, teaches sends a backup request message (BackupNAN-Req) (i.e. the backup basestation CU CP functions) to request a candidate backup NAN 331-1 (i.e. current basestation CU CP or the current basestation CU) to provide backup support (302 a, 302 b) (i.e. the backup basestation CU CP functions), ¶0048, teaches the backup NAN 331-1 and the serving NAN 331-2 may both be DUs belonging to, or otherwise associated with a same CU in an NG-RAN 104); and
receiving, by the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU_from the common storage node, a response message to the request message that includes the configuration information stored at the common storage node (¶0045-¶0046, teaches sends a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b). The BackupBS-Rsp message can contain configurations for special support the backup NAN 331-1 can provide… the INSM 150 can collect the special configurations from all candidate backup NANs 331-1, and generates a backup configuration message or a summary report (BackupNAN-Config-Summary) (305 a), and sends the summary report to the serving NAN 331-2 (306 a) for the UE 701, ¶0248, teaches receiving a backup response message from the backup NAN including an acceptance or rejection of the backup request message).
However, Yeh remain silent on wherein the configuration information is used by the backup CU CP or the backup basestation CU to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure.
Khanfouci discloses wherein the configuration information is used by the backup CU CP or the backup basestation CU to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure (¶0084, teaches a backup CU-C is determined to be used for the reconfiguration of an access network node, the backup CU-C may advantageously be used as a common CU-C entity for providing CU-C functions to distributed units of both first and second access network nodes, ¶0091, teaches the Common-CU sends (3) a UE Context Setup Request message to the target DU (T-DU) to create a UE context and setup one or more bearers, ¶0168, teaches triggering the configuration of a common CU-C, including the configuration of the interface between the common CU-C and the DU entities to be controlled by the common CU-C).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Yeh’s backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN with wherein the configuration information is used by the backup CU CP or the backup basestation CU to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure of Khanfouci, in order to quickly rebuild the UE connection state and restore both control signaling and data transmission without forcing the UE to reconnect (Khanfouci).
With respect to claim 12, Yeh discloses a wireless communication method comprising:
receiving by a backup basestation centralized unit (CU) control plane (CP) of a current basestation CU CP or a current basestation CU or by a backup basestation CU of a current basestation CU from a common storage node (¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS), access points (APs), distributed units (DUs), etc.), edge compute nodes, and/or cloud computing clusters. ¶0031, teaches assigning dedicated network elements, NFs, and/or virtual NFs (VNFs) includes, for example, reserving (exclusively) for an individual slice one or more radio unit (RUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), one or more centralized unit (CU) user plane (UP) functions, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions, one or more core network NFs, ¶0045, teaches sends a backup request message (BackupNAN-Req) to request a candidate backup NAN 331-1 to provide backup support (302 a, 302 b). ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE), configuration information about the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU (¶0045-¶0046, teaches sends a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b). The BackupBS-Rsp message can contain configurations for special support the backup NAN 331-1 can provide… the INSM 150 can collect the special configurations from all candidate backup NANs 331-1, and generates a backup configuration message or a summary report (BackupNAN-Config-Summary) (305 a), and sends the summary report to the serving NAN 331-2 (306 a) for the UE 701, ¶0054, teaches the UE 701 can quickly re-establish a connection to the backup NAN 331-1 based on the configurations sent in BackupNAN-Config-OTA message (307 b, , ¶0168, the used network and transport protocols (e.g., Transfer Control Protocol (TCP), ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE), ¶0249, teaches wherein the backup response message includes a backup configuration to provide the backup services to the individual UE); and
configuring by the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU, a connection from the common storage node to the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU based on the configuration information stored at the common storage node (¶0045-¶0046, teaches sends a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b). The BackupBS-Rsp message can contain configurations for special support the backup NAN 331-1 can provide… the INSM 150 can collect the special configurations from all candidate backup NANs 331-1, and generates a backup configuration message or a summary report (BackupNAN-Config-Summary) (305 a), and sends the summary report to the serving NAN 331-2 (306 a) for the UE 701, ¶0054, teaches the UE 701 can quickly re-establish a connection to the backup NAN 331-1 based on the configurations sent in BackupNAN-Config-OTA message (307 b) ),
However, Yeh remain silent on wherein the configuration information is used by the backup basestation CU or the backup basestation CU CP to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure.
Khanfouci discloses wherein the configuration information is used by the backup basestation CU or the backup basestation CU CP to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure (¶0084, teaches a backup CU-C is determined to be used for the reconfiguration of an access network node, the backup CU-C may advantageously be used as a common CU-C entity for providing CU-C functions to distributed units of both first and second access network nodes, ¶0091, teaches the Common-CU sends (3) a UE Context Setup Request message to the target DU (T-DU) to create a UE context and setup one or more bearers, ¶0168, teaches triggering the configuration of a common CU-C, including the configuration of the interface between the common CU-C and the DU entities to be controlled by the common CU-C).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Yeh’s backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN with wherein the configuration information is used by the backup CU CP or the backup basestation CU to trigger UE context setup procedure and a bearer context setup procedure of Khanfouci, in order to quickly rebuild the UE connection state and restore both control signaling and data transmission without forcing the UE to reconnect (Khanfouci).
With respect to claims 5 and 15 , Yeh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises a UE context, a bearer context, Transport Network Layer (TNL) associations, or Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) routing information (Yeh, ¶0179, teaches measurements related to UE Context (UECNTX), ¶0185, teaches radio bearer management, ¶0121, teaches radio interface that can access one or multiple (radio) access networks ((R)ANs), ¶0133, teaches respective connections 830 b (also referred to as “backhaul paths 830 b”) may connect or communicatively couple the edge compute node 836 with one or more NANs 833, ¶0168, the used network and transport protocols (e.g., Transfer Control Protocol (TCP), ¶0248, teaches sending a backup request message (i.e. retrieving configuration information) to request the backup NAN, the backup request message requesting the backup NAN to provide backup services (i.e. configuration) to the individual UE)).
With respect to claims 6 and 16, Yeh discloses the method of claim 5, wherein the common storage node comprises the current basestation CU CP or the current basestation CU (Yeh, ¶0013, teaches one or more network access nodes (NANs) (e.g., base stations (BS) (i.e. current basestation), ¶0031, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as common storage node).
With respect to claims 9, Yeh discloses the method of claim 6, wherein the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU triggers reception of a handover request for the UE, so that the UE switches from the current basestation CU CP or the current basestation CU (Yeh, ¶0054, teaches When serving as a target NAN 331 for fast HO, the X message includes various HO parameters of the backup NAN 331-1 so that the serving NAN 331-2 (i.e. the current basestation) and the UE 701 can perform various HO procedures/tasks when one or more trigger conditions occur, ¶0254, teaches wherein the backup configuration includes handover parameters for the backup NAN to act as a target NAN for a handover when one or more HO trigger conditions occur).
With respect to claims 10 and 20, Yeh discloses the method of claim 6, wherein the receiving is by data forwarding or by Xn Application protocol (XnAP) signaling (Yeh, ¶0054, teaches the INSM 150 can configure proactive data forwarding (e.g., the CN 142 forwards additional copy of downlink traffic flow to backup NAN 331-1 so that, when HO occurs, data is readily available at target NAN 331 to be sent to UE 701), ¶0343, teaches two or more ng-eNBs are interconnected with each other (and/or with one or more gNBs) by means of an Xn interface).
with respect to claims 17, Yeh discloses the method of claim 16, wherein the connection is from a user equipment (UE) device that is originally to the current basestation CU CP or the current basestation CU and is now to the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU (Yeh, ¶0130, teaches UEs 801 with multiple radio interfaces can simultaneously connect to wireless infrastructure 833 a-c of different RATs such as LTE small-cell base stations (BS) 833 a, ¶0031, teaches one or more centralized unit (CU) user plane (UP) functions, one or more CU control plane (CP) functions as base stations, ¶0045, teaches sends a backup request message (BackupNAN-Req) to request a candidate backup NAN 331-1 (i.e. current basestation) to provide backup support (302 a, 302 b).
with respect to claim 18, Yeh discloses the method of claim 17, wherein the configuring comprises moving the connection to the backup basestation CU CP or the backup basestation CU (Yeh, ¶0054, teaches the UE 701 can quickly re-establish a connection to the backup NAN 331-1 based on the configurations sent in BackupNAN-Config-OTA message (307 b)).
With respect to claim 22, Yeh discloses the method of claim 6, further comprising:
triggering a backup procedure (Yeh, ¶0254, teaches one or more handover (HO) trigger conditions occur); and
sending, as part of the backup procedure, configuration information for a re-selection (Yeh, ¶0101, teaches determining the action α includes selecting a predetermined set of candidate configurations, and then the action space becomes a selection problem (or an optimization problem) to select the optimal configuration for a particular (R)AN slice and/or selecting optimal configurations for one or more (R)AN slices. For example, the set of configurations can include 10 different configuration options, and. the agent 540 (INSM 150) determines the optimal configuration(s) based on the current observation of the network environment)
With respect to claim 23, Yeh discloses the method of claim 22, wherein the triggering is by the current basestation CU or the current basestation CU CP for a connection to the backup basestation CU or the backup basestation CU CP (Yeh, ¶0054, teaches the UE 701 can quickly re-establish a connection to the backup NAN 331-1 (i.e. the backup basestation) based on the configurations sent in BackupNAN-Config-OTA message (307 b), ¶0254, teaches one or more handover (HO) trigger conditions occur, ¶0341, teaches a base station (i.e current basestation) can include an evolved Node B (eNB) or a next generation Node B (gNB). ).
With respect to claim 24, Yeh discloses the method of claim 23, further comprising:
detecting a failure (Yeh, ¶0039, teaches a number of RRC connection failures); and
selecting the backup basestation CU or the backup basestation CU CP for a switch over from the current basestation CU or the backup basestation CU CP (Yeh, ¶0045, teaches the backup NAN 331-1 assesses whether it has sufficient resource(s) to provide the back-up support (303 a, 303 b) and sends a backup response message (BackupBS-Rsp) to respond to the INSM 150 whether the backup request is accepted or rejected (304 a, 304 b), ¶0254, teaches the backup configuration includes handover parameters for the backup NAN (i.e. backup basestation) to act as a target NAN for a handover when one or more HO trigger conditions occur).
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 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 GOLAM MAHMUD whose telephone number is (571)270-0385. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8.00-5.00pm.
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/G.M/ Examiner, Art Unit 2458/UMAR CHEEMA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2458