DETAILED ACTION
This office action is responsive to communications filed on August 5, 2024. Claims 1-13 are pending in the application.
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 Statements filed on 8/5/2024 and 6/2/2026 have been considered.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-13 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,096,265. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims 1-13 of the present application are anticipated by claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,096,265.
Present application:
1. An electronic apparatus located at a user equipment for wireless communications, comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one memory including code, wherein the at least one memory and the code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least:
acquire a single measurement configuration message including a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment, wherein the single measurement configuration includes one or more measurement reporting formats, one or more measurement periods and one or more indications on whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events;
wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises: a first measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of new radio synchronization signals (NR-SSs) from each of a serving cell of the base station and a second cell, or a second measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) from each of the serving cell of the base station and the second cell; and
based on the acquired single measurement configuration: measure a signal strength of the NR-SSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a first measurement result, or measure a signal strength of the CSI-RSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a second measurement result; and
in accordance with the single measurement configuration, in response to determining that a triggering condition of a triggering event being satisfied, generate and transmit a single measurement report message including a single measurement report comprising the first measurement result or the second measurement result;
wherein the at least one memory and the code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least: determine the triggering event as being satisfied by evaluating whether any of the various triggering events has occurred based on the first measurement result or the second measurement result,
wherein one of the various triggering events is a trigger event for triggering a handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell;
wherein, the triggering event whose triggering condition is satisfied is the trigger event for triggering the handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell; and
wherein the at least one memory and the code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least: when measuring the signal strengths of the NR-SS or the CSI-RS of the second cell: perform a signal strength measurement with respect to each beam of a plurality of beams of the second cell, and select a beam from the plurality of beams of the second cell that has a highest measured signal strength as a target beam for the handover, wherein the single measurement report further comprises information about the selected target beam.
US 12,096,265:
1. An electronic apparatus located at a user equipment for wireless communications, comprising:
processing circuitry, configured to:
acquire a single measurement configuration message including a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment, wherein the single measurement configuration includes a single measurement reporting format, a measurement period and an indication whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events;
wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises each of: a first measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of new radio synchronization signals (NR-SSs) from each of a serving cell of the base station and a second cell, and a second measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) from each of the serving cell of the base station and the second cell; and
based on the acquired single measurement configuration; measure a signal strength of the NR-SSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a first measurement result, and measure a signal strength of the CSI-RSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a second measurement result; and
in accordance with the single measurement configuration, in response to determining that a triggering condition of a triggering event being satisfied, generate and transmit a single measurement report message including a single measurement report comprising each of the first measurement result and the second measurement result, the single measurement report including an identifier of the triggering event;
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine the triggering event as being satisfied by evaluating whether any of the various triggering events has occurred based on each of the first measurement result and the second measurement result,
wherein one of the various triggering events is a trigger event for triggering a handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell;
wherein, in a case that the triggering event whose triggering condition is satisfied is the trigger event for triggering the handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell, the single measurement report further comprises an identifier that identifies the second cell as a handover target cell of the user equipment; and
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, when measuring the signal strengths of the NR-SS and the CSI-RS of the second cell; perform a signal strength measurement with respect to each beam of a plurality of beams of the second cell and select a beam from the plurality of beams of the second cell that has a highest measured signal strength as a target beam for the handover, wherein the single measurement report further comprises information about the selected target beam.
2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to acquire, from the base station of the serving cell, information of the handover target cell and information about which of the plurality of beams of the second cell that the user equipment can access for the handover.
2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to acquire, from the base station of the serving cell, information of the handover target cell and information about which of the plurality of beams of the second cell that the user equipment can access for the handover.
3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the various triggering events comprise a set of triggering events, the set including each of the following: a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being higher than a predetermined degree; a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being lower than a predetermined degree; a cell-specific communication quality of a cell other than the serving cell being better than a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell by a predetermined degree; and a cell-specific communication quality of a particular target cell being higher than a predetermined degree.
3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the various triggering events comprise a set of triggering events the set including each of the following: a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being higher than a predetermined degree; a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being lower than a predetermined degree; a cell-specific communication quality of a cell other than the serving cell being better than a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell by a predetermined degree; and a cell-specific communication quality of a particular target cell being higher than a predetermined degree.
4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises an indicator indicating whether the user equipment is to include mobility information of the user equipment in the single measurement report.
4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises an indicator indicating whether the user equipment is to include mobility information of the user equipment in the single measurement report.
5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, in a case that the single measurement configuration comprises the indicator, the single measurement report further comprises the mobility information of the user equipment, wherein the mobility information of the user equipment comprises each of the following: a moving speed of the user equipment, a location of the user equipment, and a moving direction of the user equipment.
5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, in a case that the single measurement configuration comprises the indicator, the single measurement report further comprises the mobility information of the user equipment, wherein the mobility information of the user equipment comprises each of the following: a moving speed of the user equipment, a location of the user equipment, and a moving direction of the user equipment.
6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target beam has a beam specific dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target beam has a beam specific dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit an access request on a first random access channel resource corresponding to the selected target beam and on a second random access channel resource corresponding to another beam of the plurality of beams of the second cell also having the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit an access request on a first random access channel resource corresponding to the selected target beam and on a second random access channel resource corresponding to another beam of the plurality of beams of the second cell also having the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the selected target beam and the another beam have beam indexes with a predetermined relationship, such that a base station of the handover target cell identifies the target beam selected by the user equipment based on the access request received on the first and second random access channel resources.
8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the selected target beam and the another beam have beam indexes with a predetermined relationship, such that a base station of the handover target cell identifies the target beam selected by the user equipment based on the access request received on the first and second random access channel resources.
Claims 9-13 are rejected in view of claims 9-18 of US 12,096,265 based on similar reasoning.
Claims 1, 4-9, and 12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-22 of U.S. Patent No. 11,477,677 in view of Chen et al. (US 2020/0022040).
Present application:
1. An electronic apparatus located at a user equipment for wireless communications, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including code, wherein the at least one memory and the code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least:
acquire a single measurement configuration message … wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises: a first measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of new radio synchronization signals (NR-SSs) from each of a serving cell of the base station and a second cell, or a second measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) from each of the serving cell of the base station and the second cell; and based on the acquired single measurement configuration: measure a signal strength of the NR-SSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a first measurement result, or measure a signal strength of the CSI-RSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a second measurement result; and
in accordance with the single measurement configuration, in response to determining that a triggering condition of a triggering event being satisfied, generate and transmit a single measurement report message including a single measurement report comprising the first measurement result or the second measurement result;
wherein the at least one memory and the code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least: determine the triggering event as being satisfied by evaluating whether any of the various triggering events has occurred based on the first measurement result or the second measurement result, wherein one of the various triggering events is a trigger event for triggering a handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell;
wherein, the triggering event whose triggering condition is satisfied is the trigger event for triggering the handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell; and
wherein the at least one memory and the code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least: when measuring the NR-SS or the CSI-RS of the second cell: perform a measurement with respect to each beam of a plurality of beams of the second cell, and select a beam from the plurality of beams of the second cell that has a highest measurement as a target beam for the handover, wherein the single measurement report further comprises information about the selected target beam.
including a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment, wherein the single measurement configuration includes one or more measurement reporting formats, one or more measurement periods and one or more indications on whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events
signal strengths
US 11,477,677:
1. An electronic apparatus for wireless communications, comprising: processing circuitry, configured to:
measure, based on acquired measurement configuration, new radio synchronized signals (NR-SSs) from a serving cell and one or more target cells, to acquire a first measurement result; measure, based on the measurement configuration, channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) from the serving cell and the one or more target cells, to acquire a second measurement result,
generate a measurement report as a single message comprising both the first measurement result and the second measurement result; and evaluate a plurality of triggering events based on the first measurement result and the second measurement result such that at least one of the plurality of triggering events is satisfied only when both the first measurement result and the second measurement result satisfy predetermined conditions.
2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to evaluate the plurality of triggering events based on the first measurement result and the second measurement result, wherein at least a part of the plurality of triggering events are used to trigger handover from the serving cell to a target cell.
4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein in the case that the triggering event whose triggering condition is satisfied is an event for triggering handover from the serving cell to the target cell, the measurement report further comprises an identifier of a handover target cell to be handed over to.
The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, when measuring the NR-SS and the CSI-RS of the target cell, perform measurement with respect to each beam of the target cell and acquire one or more target beams with the best measurement result, and the measurement result further comprises information of the target beams of the handover target cell.
The claims US 11,477,677 do not recite that the measurement configuration message includes a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment, wherein the single measurement configuration includes one or more measurement reporting formats, one or more measurement periods and one or more indications on whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events. Nor do the claims recite that the electronic apparatus measures signal strengths of the beams off the second cell. However, Chen teaches that the single measurement configuration includes a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment, wherein the single measurement configuration includes one or more measurement reporting formats, one or more measurement periods, and one or more indications on whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events (“The measurement configuration parameters may include reporting configurations. The purpose of a measurement report is to transfer measurement results from the UE to the E-UTRAN. The UE may initiate this procedure only after successful security activation. A reporting configuration may include, for example, reporting criteria and reporting format information. A reporting criterion may be a criterion that triggers the UE to send a measurement report, for example. This may be periodical or a single event description, for instance. Reporting format information may include, for example, quantities that the UE includes in the measurement report and associated information, e.g., number of cells to report” – See [0060]; “The measurement configuration parameters may include measurement gaps, e.g., periods that the UE may use to perform measurements where no UL or DL transmissions are scheduled” – See [0063]; The measurement configuration includes a reporting format, a measurement gap period, and one or more indications of whether the reporting is periodic or event-triggered). Chen further teaches that the electronic apparatus measures signal strengths of the beams off the second cell (“First, the two types of measurement signals may have different characteristics such as beam width, periodicity, signal design, and required measurement duration for full beam sweep. For example, assume NR-SS is wide-beam based and the additional RS is narrow-beam based. Due to the different beamforming gain, measurement quantity/quality of NR-SS may be generally lower than that of additional RSs” – See [0147]; “In step 8 of FIG. 15, after handover (HO) decision, beam level measurements are forwarded to the target cell, e.g., in a HO request. These measurements may be used by the target cell to reserve resources for RACH access corresponding to the reported beams, e.g., assign contention free RACH resources that would be beam specific. In addition, target cell may prepare DL TX beam (target cell knows which DL TX beam is best for UE from the reported beam level information)” – See [0224]; “Beam Selection involves the selection of the measurement results for the best beams. Up to X best beams, for X≤K, may be selected based on a threshold. The threshold may be an absolute threshold or a relative threshold, e.g., relative to the measurement that corresponds to the serving beam, the strongest beam, the highest quality beam, etc. Alternatively, the X best beams may correspond to the X strongest beams. The output of the Beam Selection function may include the beam IDs and/or the measurement quantities, e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR” – See [0157]; “The information at Point F includes beam measurements of the best beams” – See [0158]; “The information at Point G is a measurement report information, e.g., a message, sent on the radio interface. The measurement report may include cell level measurements and/or beam level measurements” – See [0160]; “UE reports beam measurements of source and target cell. Beam information may consist of a beam identification (Beam ID or Beam index) and a signal level, such as RSRP” – See [0222]; The UE measures the signal strength of the beams of the target cell). 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 claims of US 11,477,677 such that that the measurement configuration message includes a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment, wherein the single measurement configuration includes one or more measurement reporting formats, one or more measurement periods and one or more indications on whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events, and wherein the electronic apparatus measures signal strengths of the beams off the second cell. Motivation for doing so would be to provide the UE with configurations such as measurement gaps for performing the measurements, a number of cells to measure, and a plurality of triggering criteria to trigger transmission of the measurement report (See Chen, [0060] and [0063]).
4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises an indicator indicating whether the user equipment is to include mobility information of the user equipment in the single measurement report.
13. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the measurement configuration further comprises an indicator on whether it is necessary to report mobility information of a user.
5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, in a case that the single measurement configuration comprises the indicator, the single measurement report further comprises the mobility information of the user equipment, wherein the mobility information of the user equipment comprises each of the following: a moving speed of the user equipment, a location of the user equipment, and a moving direction of the user equipment.
14. The electronic apparatus according to claim 13, wherein, in the case that the measurement configuration comprises the indicator that it is necessary to report the mobility information of the user, the measurement report further comprises the mobility information of the corresponding user, wherein, the mobility information of the user comprises one or more of the following: a moving speed of the user, a location of the user, a moving direction of the user.
6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target beam has a beam specific dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to select, based on the measurement result of the target beams, a beam to access in from among the part of beams of the handover target cell; and/or the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the selecting based on whether there is dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration on the corresponding beam.
7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit an access request on a first random access channel resource corresponding to the selected target beam and on a second random access channel resource corresponding to another beam of the plurality of beams of the second cell also having the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to select a beam with the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration, and configure so as to transmit an access request on the random access channel resource corresponding to the selected beam and on the random access channel resources corresponding to at least one other beams with the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the selected target beam and the another beam have beam indexes with a predetermined relationship, such that a base station of the handover target cell identifies the target beam selected by the user equipment based on the access request received on the first and second random access channel resources.
10. The electronic apparatus according to claim 8, wherein, the beam indexes of the other beams have a predetermined relationship with the beam index of the selected beam, such that the base station of the handover target cell determines the beam selected by the user based on the received access request.
Claims 9 and 12 are rejected based on claims 1-22 of US 11,477,677 in view of Chen based on similar reasoning as given above.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 6, and 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (US 2020/0022040).
Regarding Claim 1, Chen teaches an electronic apparatus located at a user equipment for wireless communications, comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one memory including code, wherein the at least one memory and the code are configured, with the at least one processor (“As shown in FIG. 21, the example WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, … non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132” – See [0246]; “It is understood that any or all of the apparatuses, systems, methods and processes described herein may be embodied in the form of computer executable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on a computer-readable storage medium which instructions, when executed by a processor, such as processors 118 or 91, cause the processor to perform and/or implement the systems, methods and processes described herein” – See [0289]), to cause the electronic apparatus to at least:
acquire a single measurement configuration message including a single measurement configuration from a base station of a serving cell of the user equipment (“A wireless apparatus, such as a user equipment (UE) receives beam measurement configuration information from another network node, such as a gNB” – See [0003]; The UE acquires a single measurement configuration message from a serving gNB (base station)),
wherein the single measurement configuration includes one or more measurement reporting formats, one or more measurement periods, and one or more indications on whether the user equipment should report periodically or should report based on an occurrence of various trigger events (“The measurement configuration parameters may include reporting configurations. The purpose of a measurement report is to transfer measurement results from the UE to the E-UTRAN. The UE may initiate this procedure only after successful security activation. A reporting configuration may include, for example, reporting criteria and reporting format information. A reporting criterion may be a criterion that triggers the UE to send a measurement report, for example. This may be periodical or a single event description, for instance. Reporting format information may include, for example, quantities that the UE includes in the measurement report and associated information, e.g., number of cells to report” – See [0060]; “The measurement configuration parameters may include measurement gaps, e.g., periods that the UE may use to perform measurements where no UL or DL transmissions are scheduled” – See [0063]; The measurement configuration includes a reporting format, a measurement gap period, and one or more indications of whether the reporting is periodic or event-triggered);
wherein the single measurement configuration further comprises:
a first measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of new radio synchronization signals (NR-SSs) from each of a serving cell of the base station and a second cell, or a second measurement configuration to enable the user equipment to measure a signal strength of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) from each of the serving cell of the base station and the second cell (“source cell configures the UE to perform further measurements (e.g., a subset of additional RS corresponding to beams in one or multiple TRPs/cells) for more accurate measurement results. The further measurements may be configured using the QuantityConfig IE defined above under measurement object” – See [0220]; “the UE performs cell and/or beam level measurements on the newly configured additional RS from one or multiple neighboring TRPs/Cells as well as the serving cell” – See [0221]; “The term “additional RS” refers to signals such as CSI-RS” – See [0110]; The measurement configuration includes a second measurement configuration to enable the UE to measure CSI-RSs from the serving cell and a neighboring/second cell); and
based on the acquired single measurement configuration: measure a signal strength of the NR-SSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a first measurement result, or measure a signal strength of the CSI-RSs from each of the serving cell and the second cell, and generate a second measurement result (“the UE performs cell and/or beam level measurements on the newly configured additional RS from one or multiple neighboring TRPs/Cells as well as the serving cell” – See [0221]; “The term “additional RS” refers to signals such as CSI-RS” – See [0110]; Based on the measurement configuration, the UE measures signal strength of CSI-RSs from the serving cell and the neighboring/second cell to obtain a second measurement result); and
in accordance with the single measurement configuration, in response to determining that a triggering condition of a triggering event being satisfied, generate and transmit a single measurement report message including a single measurement report comprising the first measurement result or the second measurement result (“The measurement results are evaluated to see if any defined triggering event would be triggered” – See [0221]; “upon triggering a measurement reporting event based on additional RS, UE provides the RRC level report to the source cell, where the measurements may be reported using the NR MeasResults IE signaled via the NRMeasurementReport message as described above under report and content” – See [0222]; In accordance with the measurement configuration, the UE transmits a measurement report including the second measurement result in response to the triggering condition being met);
wherein the at least one memory and the code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least:
determine the triggering event as being satisfied by evaluating whether any of the various triggering events has occurred based on the first measurement result or the second measurement result, wherein one of the various triggering events is a trigger event for triggering a handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell, wherein, the triggering event whose triggering condition is satisfied is the trigger event for triggering the handover of the user equipment from the serving cell to the second cell (“It has already been agreed that NR will support at least events like LTE A1-A6. RSRP, RSRQ, and RS-SINR may be used as trigger quantities in event triggering. The trigger quantities are measured on NR-SS or/and additional RS. In measuring any one of the two types of signals, TRP/cell level quantity is derived based on measurement results. Examples NR-A1 through NR-A8 include trigger events in NR networks affecting inter-cell mobility scenarios” – See [0172]; “In example NR-A4, the average value, or weighted sum, of trigger quantity of N best beams of a neighbor cell becomes better than a configurable threshold” – See [0176]; The UE evaluates the measurement results to determine whether one of the various triggering events (e.g., events A1-A6) is satisfied, wherein the triggering event is associated with inter-cell mobility/handovers of the UE from a serving cell to a target/neighboring/second cell); and
wherein the at least one memory and the code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to at least:
when measuring the signal strengths of the NR-SS or the CSI-RS of the second cell:
perform a signal strength measurement with respect to each beam of a plurality of beams of the second cell, and select a beam from the plurality of beams of the second cell that has a highest measured signal strength as a target beam for the handover, wherein the single measurement report further comprises information about the selected target beam (“First, the two types of measurement signals may have different characteristics such as beam width, periodicity, signal design, and required measurement duration for full beam sweep. For example, assume NR-SS is wide-beam based and the additional RS is narrow-beam based. Due to the different beamforming gain, measurement quantity/quality of NR-SS may be generally lower than that of additional RSs” – See [0147]; “In step 8 of FIG. 15, after handover (HO) decision, beam level measurements are forwarded to the target cell, e.g., in a HO request. These measurements may be used by the target cell to reserve resources for RACH access corresponding to the reported beams, e.g., assign contention free RACH resources that would be beam specific. In addition, target cell may prepare DL TX beam (target cell knows which DL TX beam is best for UE from the reported beam level information)” – See [0224]; “Beam Selection involves the selection of the measurement results for the best beams. Up to X best beams, for X≤K, may be selected based on a threshold. The threshold may be an absolute threshold or a relative threshold, e.g., relative to the measurement that corresponds to the serving beam, the strongest beam, the highest quality beam, etc. Alternatively, the X best beams may correspond to the X strongest beams. The output of the Beam Selection function may include the beam IDs and/or the measurement quantities, e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR” – See [0157]; “The information at Point F includes beam measurements of the best beams” – See [0158]; “The information at Point G is a measurement report information, e.g., a message, sent on the radio interface. The measurement report may include cell level measurements and/or beam level measurements” – See [0160]; “UE reports beam measurements of source and target cell. Beam information may consist of a beam identification (Beam ID or Beam index) and a signal level, such as RSRP” – See [0222]; The UE performs a beam sweep with respect to the beams of the target/second cell. The UE selects one or more best beams (beam having a highest signal strength) as a target beam for handover, and indicates the one or more best beams in the measurement report so that the target cell can prepare the best beam for the UE to use after handover is complete).
Regarding Claim 2, Chen teaches the apparatus of Claim 1. Chen further teaches that the processing circuitry is further configured to acquire, from the base station of the serving cell, information of the handover target cell and information about which of the plurality of beams of the second cell that the user equipment can access for the handover (“target cell performs admission control and provides the RRC configuration, where access assistance information may be included. The access assistance info may include the selected beam pair(s) for UE” – See [0225]; “target cell forwards the access assistance info in a HO request ACK message via Xn. UE receives the configuration via source cell” – See [0226]; “once the assistance information is forwarded to UE from source cell, UE may initiate random access on configured beam pair(s) and moves the connection to the target cell via RRC” – See [0227]; The UE acquires, from the serving base station, information of the handover to the target cell including information about which of the plurality of beams of the target/second cell the UE can use for the handover).
Regarding Claim 3, Chen teaches the apparatus of Claim 1. Chen further teaches that the various triggering events comprise a set of triggering events, the set including each of the following: a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being higher than a predetermined degree; a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being lower than a predetermined degree; a cell-specific communication quality of a cell other than the serving cell being better than a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell by a predetermined degree; and a cell-specific communication quality of a particular target cell being higher than a predetermined degree (See events NR-A1 through NR-A4 described in paragraphs [0173]-[0176], wherein NR-A1 corresponds to a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being higher than a predetermined degree, NR-A2 corresponds to a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell being lower than a predetermined degree, NR-A3 corresponds to a cell-specific communication quality of a cell other than the serving cell being better than a cell-specific communication quality of the serving cell by a predetermined degree, and NR-A4 corresponds to a cell-specific communication quality of a particular target cell being higher than a predetermined degree).
Regarding Claim 6, Chen teaches the apparatus of Claim 1. Chen further teaches that the target beam has a beam specific dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration (“after handover (HO) decision, beam level measurements are forwarded to the target cell, e.g., in a HO request. These measurements may be used by the target cell to reserve resources for RACH access corresponding to the reported beams, e.g., assign contention free RACH resources that would be beam specific” – See [0224]; The target beam has a specific corresponding contention-free RACH resource configuration).
Claim 9 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 1.
Claim 10 is rejected based on reasoning similar to Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 11, Chen teaches the apparatus of Claim 10. Chen further teaches that the processing circuitry is further configured to acquire, from a base station of the handover target cell, the information of the handover target cell and the information about which of the plurality of beams of the second cell that the user equipment can access for the handover (“target cell performs admission control and provides the RRC configuration, where access assistance information may be included. The access assistance info may include the selected beam pair(s) for UE, assigned C-RNTI and random access parameters” – See [0225]; “target cell forwards the access assistance info in a HO request ACK message via Xn. UE receives the configuration via source cell. Assigning contention free RACH resources for UE potentially minimizing delays in completing the HO procedure” – See [0226]; As shown in step 10 of Fig. 15, the serving cell receives, from a base station of the target cell, the information of the handover target cell including information about which of the plurality of beams of the target/second cell the UE can use for the handover).
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 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2020/0022040) in view of Xie et al. (US 2009/0275334).
Regarding Claim 4, Chen teaches the electronic apparatus of Claim 1. Chen does not explicitly teach that the single measurement configuration further comprises an indicator indicating whether the user equipment is to include mobility information of the user equipment in the single measurement report.
However, Xie teaches that the single measurement configuration further comprises an indicator indicating whether the user equipment is to include mobility information of the user equipment in the single measurement report (“In the measurement configuration message which is only used for the UE or the broadcast message, the network side can instruct the UE to report the moving speed and the location information” – See [0109]; The measurement configuration comprises an indicator instructing the UE that it is necessary to report mobility information such as moving speed and location information).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen such that the single measurement configuration further comprises an indicator indicating whether the user equipment is to include mobility information of the user equipment in the single measurement report. Motivation for doing so would be to prevent unnecessary handovers by choosing an appropriate handover target cell (e.g., macrocell, microcell, etc.) having a coverage area size that is suited to a UEs mobility state/speed (See Xie, [0003]).
Regarding Claim 5, Chen in view of Xie teaches the electronic apparatus of Claim 4. Xie further teaches that, in a case that the single measurement configuration comprises the indicator, the single measurement report further comprises the mobility information of the user equipment, wherein the mobility information of the user equipment comprises each of the following: a moving speed of the user equipment, a location of the user equipment, and a moving direction of the user equipment (“In the measurement configuration message which is only used for the UE or the broadcast message, the network side can instruct the UE to report the moving speed and the location information” – See [0109]; “The moving speed (including direction) of the UE is obtained according to the distance Dg moved in a certain period Tg, Dg/Tg” – See [0111]; “The UE may transmit the fast moving information obtained by above methods to the destination eNodeB or the source eNodeB” – See [0113]; The mobility information includes a moving speed, direction, and location of the UE).
Claims 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2020/0022040) in view of Wu et al. (US 2021/0112539).
Regarding Claim 7, Chen teaches the electronic apparatus of Claim 6. Chen according to claim 6, wherein, the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit an access request on a first random access channel resource corresponding to the selected target beam (“target cell/TRP may prepare assistance information for UE, like RACH resource, or DL/UL TX/RX beam pair to be used. This information may be forwarded by source cell/TRP to UE, and help the UE to identify optimal beam pair fast and reduce the data/message interruption time” – See [0203]; “These measurements may be used by the target cell to reserve resources for RACH access corresponding to the reported beams” – See [0225]; The RACH resource reserved for the UE corresponds to the selected/reported target beam, and the UE transmits an access request on the RACH resource).
Chen does not explicitly teach that the access request is transmitted on a second random access channel resource corresponding to another beam of the plurality of beams of the second cell also having the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration.
However, Wu teaches that the access request is transmitted on a second random access channel resource corresponding to another beam of the plurality of beams of the second cell also having the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration (“In various embodiments, the contention-free resource includes time and frequency domain resource information corresponding to a beam and a preamble. In certain embodiments, the preamble is enabled to be transmitted in each beam of the multiple beams. In one embodiment, the contention-free resource is indicated by an index. In some embodiments, the method 700 includes transmitting the preamble transmission using the beam” – See [0068]; The preamble (access request) is transmitted on each beam of the plurality of beams. Thus, the preamble is transmitted on a second random access channel resource corresponding to a second/another beam of the plurality of beams, wherein the resources are part of a contention-free random access resource configuration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen such that the access request is transmitted on a second random access channel resource corresponding to another beam of the plurality of beams of the second cell also having the dedicated Contention-Free based Random Access channel resource configuration. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the access request to be transmitted using multiple suitable beams having a best channel quality (See Wu, [0068]).
Regarding Claim 8, Chen in view of Wu teaches the electronic apparatus of Claim 7. Wu further teaches that the selected target beam and the another beam have beam indexes with a predetermined relationship, such that a base station of the handover target cell identifies the target beam selected by the user equipment based on the access request received on the first and second random access channel resources (“a dedicated preamble may be transmitted in all beams within one cell. In certain embodiments, contention-free resources for random access may be provided by DCI or RRC signaling. In some embodiments, a beam may be identified by a beam identification (“ID”), synchronization signal (“SS”) block, and/or a time index” – See [0061]; The beams have beam indexes with a predetermined relationship such that the target cell can identify preambles/beams based on receiving the preamble on a corresponding beam).
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2020/0022040) in view of Li et al. (US 2010/0027507).
Regarding Claim 12, Chen teaches an electronic apparatus located at a base station for wireless communications, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including code, wherein the at least one memory and the code are configured, with the at least one processor (“processor 118, … non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132 … Also, embodiments contemplate that the base stations 114a and 114b, and/or the nodes that base stations 114a and 114b may represent, such as but not limited to transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, a site controller, an access point (AP), a home node-B, an evolved home node-B (eNodeB), a home evolved node-B (HeNB), a home evolved node-B gateway, and proxy nodes, among others, may include some or all of the elements depicted in FIG. 21 and described herein” – See [0246]; “It is understood that any or all of the apparatuses, systems, methods and processes described herein may be embodied in the form of computer executable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on a computer-readable storage medium which instructions, when executed by a processor, such as processors 118 or 91, cause the processor to perform and/or implement the systems, methods and processes described herein” – See [0289]), to cause the electronic apparatus to at least:
receive a handover request message for a user equipment, wherein the handover request message is used to handover the user equipment from another serving cell served by another electronic apparatus to a current serving cell served by the electronic apparatus (“In step 8 of FIG. 15, after handover (HO) decision, beam level measurements are forwarded to the target cell, e.g., in a HO request. These measurements may be used by the target cell to reserve resources for RACH access corresponding to the reported beams, e.g., assign contention free RACH resources that would be beam specific. In addition, target cell may prepare DL TX beam (target cell knows which DL TX beam is best for UE from the reported beam level information) via something like pre beam pairing instead of regular beam sweeping process. This may significantly reduce handover latency” – See [0224]; See also Fig. 15; The target cell receives, from the source cell, an HO request for the UE, wherein the HO request is for handing over the UE from the source cell (another serving cell served by another electronic apparatus) to the target cell (a current serving cell served by the electronic apparatus));
transmit a handover request acknowledge message (“target cell performs admission control and provides the RRC configuration, where access assistance information may be included. The access assistance info may include the selected beam pair(s) for UE, assigned C-RNTI and random access parameters” – See [0225]; “arget cell forwards the access assistance info in a HO request ACK message via Xn. UE receives the configuration via source cell. Assigning contention free RACH resources for UE potentially minimizing delays in completing the HO procedure” – See [0226]; As shown in step 10 of Fig. 15, the target cell transmits an HO request ACK to the source cell); and
receive, from the user equipment, an access request message for configuring a communication resource between the user equipment and the electronic apparatus (“In step 11 of FIG. 15, once the assistance information is forwarded to UE from source cell, UE may initiate random access on configured beam pair(s) and moves the connection to the target cell via RRC” – See [0227]; “During initial access, the UE may perform cell selection and registration with the network. Following initial access, UE may perform measurement configuration and measurement procedures” – See [0216]; The performs initial access to the handover target cell by transmitting a RACH preamble (access request message) for configuring communication resources between the UE and the target cell),
wherein the handover request message is transmitted based on a measurement report message, the measurement report message is generated by the user equipment in accordance with a measurement configuration, wherein the handover request message comprises: a first measurement result obtained from measuring a signal strength of new radio synchronization signals (NR-SSs) from each of the another serving cell and one or more target cells, or a second measurement result obtained from measuring a signal strength of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) from each of the another serving cell and the one or more target cells (“source cell configures the UE to perform further measurements (e.g., a subset of additional RS corresponding to beams in one or multiple TRPs/cells) for more accurate measurement results” – See [0220]; “In step 6 of FIG. 15, upon triggering a measurement reporting event based on additional RS, UE provides the RRC level report to the source cell, where the measurements may be reported using the NR MeasResults IE signaled via the NRMeasurementReport message as described above under report and content. In addition to cell quality, UE reports beam measurements of source and target cell” – See [0222]; “The term “additional RS” refers to signals such as CSI-RS” – See [0110]; “In step 7 of FIG. 15, once source cell have received UE measurement report, it may utilize the beam measurements to determine whether to handover UE to another cell (in this example figure, to the target cell)” – See [0223]; “In step 8 of FIG. 15, after handover (HO) decision, beam level measurements are forwarded to the target cell, e.g., in a HO request” – See [0224]; The HO request is transmitted based on a measurement report from the UE, wherein the measurement report is generated in accordance with the measurement configuration received by the UE in step 4. Furthermore, the HO request message includes beam level measurement results from measuring the CSI-RS of the source cell (another serving cell) and the target cell).
Chen does not explicitly teach in response to receiving the handover request message, determining whether to allow the user equipment to handover to the current serving cell, wherein the handover request acknowledge message is transmitted in a case of determining that the user equipment is allowed to handover to the current serving cell.
However, Li teaches in response to receiving the handover request message, determining whether to allow the user equipment to handover to the current serving cell, wherein the handover request acknowledge message is transmitted in a case of determining that the user equipment is allowed to handover to the current serving cell (“if the mobile terminal does not have service authority in the target eNB or the load of the target eNB is too heavy, the target eNB will not feed back a handover request acknowledge signal to the source eNB, and the handover is failed” – See [0006]; “After receiving the handover request from the source eNB, a neighboring eNB can make an access decision according to admission control criteria such as service authority and load. If it is determined that the handover request of the mobile terminal is acceptable, a handover preparation is carried out” – See [0015]; “In steps 103-104, the source eNB sends a handover request to each of the neighboring eNBs of the reported cell, any of the neighboring eNBs receiving the handover request feeds back a handover request acknowledge signal when determining that the neighboring eNB can be accessed by the mobile terminal, and carries out a handover preparation” – See [0013]; In response to receiving a handover request, the target base station determines whether to allow the UE to handover. When determining that the UE is allowed, the target base station transmits a handover request acknowledge).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen to determine whether to allow the user equipment to handover to the current serving cell in response to receiving the handover request message, wherein the handover request acknowledge message is transmitted in a case of determining that the user equipment is allowed to handover to the current serving cell. Motivation for doing so would be to enable the apparatus to perform admission control including allowing the handover request when it is acceptable and rejecting the handover request when the load of the target cell is too heavy (See Li, [0006] and [0015]).
Regarding Claim 13, Chen in view of Li teaches the electronic apparatus of Claim 12. Chen further teaches that the handover request acknowledge message comprises information indicating the current serving cell and one or more beams of the current serving cell (“In step 9 of FIG. 15, target cell performs admission control and provides the RRC configuration, where access assistance information may be included. The access assistance info may include the selected beam pair(s) for UE, assigned C-RNTI and random access parameters” – See [0225]; “In step 10 of FIG. 15, target cell forwards the access assistance info in a HO request ACK message via Xn. UE receives the configuration via source cell. Assigning contention free RACH resources for UE potentially minimizing delays in completing the HO procedure” – See [0226]; The access assistance information included in the HO request ACK includes information indicating the target/current serving cell and one or more beams of the target/current serving cell).
Conclusion
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/SCOTT M SCIACCA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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