Detailed Action
1. The Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s preliminary amendment filed on 02/12/2026. In virtue of this communication, claims 21-36 are currently pending in this Office Action.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
5. Claims 21, 23-25, 27-29 and 31-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chandrashekar Pub. No.: US 2024/0224137 A1 in view of Karimidehkordi et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0340717 A1 and Zhang et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0377622 A1.
Claim 21
Chandrashekar discloses a method (fig. 1-10 depict for handover triggered by layer1/layer2 mobility) performed by a source base station (gNB-DU 804 + gNB-CU-CP 808 in fig. 8a-e as a serving BS or a source BS, see fig. 3, 5a & 6a-b) in a communication system, the method comprising:
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transmitting, to at least one candidate target base station (target gNB-DU 806 in fig. 8a), a handover request message (requesting UE context set up for a new cell is a handover message in step 832 of fig. 8a) associated with a Layer 1 (L1) / Layer 2 (L2) triggered mobility (LTM) (preparing one or more target cells for LTM in step 824 of fig. 8a);
receiving, from the at least one candidate base station, a handover request acknowledge message associated with the LTM (UE context setup response in step 836 of fig. 8a serves an Ack);
transmitting, to the UE, a cell switch command message associated with the LTM (in step 848 in fig. 8a, UE receives serving cell change command); and
receiving, from the target base station, a handover success message (target gNB-DU sends serving cell change notification to gNB-CU-CP in step 854 in fig. 8a, i.e., HO success).
Although Chandrashekar does not disclose: “transmitting, to the at least one candidate base station, a first message including at least one first information on a user equipment (UE) identifier (ID) allocated at the source base station, or second information on a UE ID allocated at the candidate target base station; and transmitting, to a target base station among the at least one candidate target base station, a cell switch notification message”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to address the obviousness of the claim limitations “transmitting to the at least one candidate base station, a first message including at least one first information on a user equipment (UE) identifier (ID) allocated at the source base station, or second information on a UE ID allocated at the candidate target base station”, in fact, claim does not specifically define what the first and second information are. See MPEP 2111. Chandrashekar discloses that source gNB-CU-CP sends UE information such as serving cell timing advance for context setup in step 832 in fig. 8a. If this teaching is compared to the addressing claim limitation, UE ID may not be mentioned in Chandrashekar and claim does not specifically define what are required to be UE ID. In particular, Karimidehkordi teaches that the CU transmits a UE context setup request towards the target DU to prepare the target DU for handover by setting up the UE context in the target DU (par. 0102 and fig. 6). Furthermore, Karimidehkordi teaches UE ID allocated at serving base station as RA-RNTI (par. 0088).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify random access channel-less layer 1/layer 2 triggered mobility of Chandrashekar by providing timing advance acquisition for other cells as taught in Karimidehkordi. Such a modification would have provided a user equipment UE timing advance in a wireless network to remain connected while on the move so that user expectations for connection reliability and data speed would be met efficiently as suggested in par. 0002 of Karimidehkordi.
Secondly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “transmitting, to a target base station among the at least one candidate target base station, a cell switch notification message”, recall that Chandrashekar depicts that sending serving cell change notification (818 & 854 in fig. 8a). Similarly, the source base station SBS could send cell change notification to the target base station TBS. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale C. Sending message between SBS and TBS are intrinsic communications in a wireless communication system. The evidence could be seen in Zhang. In particular, Zhang teaches sending handover request from source gNB to target gNB and Ack for handover request from target gNB to source gNB (fig. 1 & 11). For these reasons, as explained above, in the same way, a cell switch notification and acknowledgement for success could be communicated between SBS and TBS as necessary.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify positioning SRS transmission of Chandrashekar in view of Karimidehkordi by providing low layer inter-cell mobility management as taught in Zhang to obtain the claimed invention as specified in the claim. Such a modification would have provided a 5G wireless communication system to handover a user equipment from a serving cell to a neighbor cell so that handover delays would be incurred insignificantly as suggested in par. 0002 Zhang.
Claim 23
Chandrashekar, in view of Karimidehkordi and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 21, further comprising:
receiving, from the at least one candidate target base station, a second message for cancel the LTM (Chandrashekar, LTM cancelling message could be sent from the target gNB in the same way sending serving cell change notification in step 854 in fig. 8a; Karimidehkordi, fig. 6-8; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious unless claim further recites what are required in cancelling LTM such as a specific format or a protocol; see handover cancel message in Wu et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0279412 A1).
Claim 24
Chandrashekar, in view of Karimidehkordi and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 21, further comprising:
receiving, from the at least one candidate target base station, a third message for updating a configuration of the LTM (Chandrashekar, cellgroupconfig in step 836 in fig. 8a; Karimidehkordi, fig. 6-8; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 25
Chandrashekar discloses a method (fig. 1-10 depict for handover triggered by layer1/layer2 mobility) performed by a target base station (target gNB-DU 806 in fig. 8a) in a communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a source base station (gNB-DU 804 + gNB-CU-CP 808 in fig. 8a-e as a serving BS or a source BS, see fig. 3, 5a & 6a-b), a handover request message (requesting UE context set up for a new cell is a handover message in step 832 of fig. 8a) associated with a Layer 1 (L1) / Layer 2 (L2) triggered mobility (LTM) (preparing one or more target cells for LTM in step 824 of fig. 8a);
transmitting, to the source base station, a handover request acknowledge message associated with the LTM (UE context setup response in step 836 of fig. 8a serves an Ack); and
transmitting, to the source base station, a handover success message (step 854 in fig. 8a means that handover is successful).
.
Although Chandrashekar does not disclose: “receiving, from the source base station, a first message including at least one first information on a user equipment (UE) identifier (ID) allocated at the source base station, or second information on a UE ID allocated at candidate target base station; and receiving, from the source base station, a cell switch notification message; transmitting, to the candidate target base station, the second information on the UE ID allocated at the candidate target base station”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to address the obviousness of the claim limitations “receiving, from the source base station, a first message including at least one first information on a user equipment (UE) identifier (ID) allocated at the source base station, or second information on a UE ID allocated at candidate target base station; and transmitting, to the candidate target base station, the second information on the UE ID allocated at the candidate target base station”, in fact, claim does not specifically define what the first and second information are. See MPEP 2111. Chandrashekar discloses that source gNB-CU-CP sends UE information such as serving cell timing advance for context setup in step 832 in fig. 8a. If this teaching is compared to the addressing claim limitation, UE ID may not be mentioned in Chandrashekar and claim does not specifically define what are required to be UE ID. In particular, Karimidehkordi teaches that the CU transmits a UE context setup request towards the target DU to prepare the target DU for handover by setting up the UE context in the target DU (par. 0102 and fig. 6). Furthermore, Karimidehkordi teaches UE ID allocated at serving base station as RA-RNTI (par. 0088), UE capability enquiry (705 in fig. 7A) and TA configurations (805 in fig. 5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify random access channel-less layer 1/layer 2 triggered mobility of Chandrashekar by providing timing advance acquisition for other cells as taught in Karimidehkordi. Such a modification would have provided a user equipment UE timing advance in a wireless network to remain connected while on the move so that user expectations for connection reliability and data speed would be met efficiently as suggested in par. 0002 of Karimidehkordi.
Secondly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “receiving, from the source base station, a cell switch notification message”, recall that Chandrashekar depicts that sending serving cell change notification (818 & 854 in fig. 8a). Similarly, the source base station SBS could send cell change notification to the target base station TBS. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale C. Sending message between SBS and TBS are intrinsic communications in a wireless communication system. The evidence could be seen in Zhang. In particular, Zhang teaches sending handover request from source gNB to target gNB and Ack for handover request from target gNB to source gNB (fig. 1 & 11). For these reasons, as explained above, in the same way, a cell switch notification and acknowledgement for success could be communicated between SBS and TBS as necessary.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify positioning SRS transmission of Chandrashekar in view of Karimidehkordi by providing low layer inter-cell mobility management as taught in Zhang to obtain the claimed invention as specified in the claim. Such a modification would have provided a 5G wireless communication system to handover a user equipment from a serving cell to a neighbor cell so that handover delays would be incurred insignificantly as suggested in par. 0002 Zhang.
Claim 27
Chandrashekar, in view of Karimidehkordi and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 25 further comprising:
transmitting, to the source base station, a second message for cancel the LTM (Chandrashekar, LTM cancelling message could be sent from the target gNB in the same way sending serving cell change notification in step 854 in fig. 8a; Karimidehkordi, fig. 6-8; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious unless claim further recites what are required in cancelling LTM such as a specific format or a protocol; see handover cancel message in Wu et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0279412 A1).
Claim 28
Chandrashekar, in view of Karimidehkordi and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 25, further comprising:
transmitting, to the source base station, a third message for updating a configuration of the LTM (Chandrashekar, cellgroupconfig in step 836 in fig. 8a; Karimidehkordi, fig. 6-8; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 29 and 23-24
Claims 29 and 31-32 are device claims corresponding to method claims 21 and 23-24. All of the limitations in claims 29 and 31-32 are found reciting for the structures of the same scopes of the respective limitations of claims 21 and 23-24. Accordingly, claims 29 and 31-32 are considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection to claims 21 and 23-24 respectively set forth above. Karimidehkordi discloses a source base station (gNB-Du 804 and gNB-CU-CP 808 in fig. 8a and see fig. 1d) in a communication system, the source base station comprising: a transceiver (136 + 312 in fig. 1d), and a controller (BBU in fig. 1d or eNodeb 106 would include at least a typical controller) coupled with the transceiver (fig. 1d, BBU, RRH are coupled or interconnected or connected).
Claim 33
Claim 33 is device claims corresponding to method claim 25. All of the limitations in claim 33 are found reciting for the structures of the same scopes of the respective limitations of claim 25. Accordingly, claim 33 is considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection to claim 25 set forth above. Karimidehkordi discloses a target base station (gNB-Du 806 in fig. 8a and see fig. 1d) in a communication system, the target base station comprising: a transceiver (136 + 312 in fig. 1d), and a controller (BBU in fig. 1d or eNodeb 106 would include at least a typical controller) coupled with the transceiver (fig. 1d, BBU, RRH are coupled or interconnected or connected).
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 22, 26, 30 and 34-36 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Contact Information
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAN HTUN whose telephone number is (571)270-3190.
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/SAN HTUN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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