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 .
DETAILED ACTION
a. Claims 1-20 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, are being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
b. This is a first action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 10/18/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/02/2025, 05/13/2025, and 10/14/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: grammatical error. Claim 12 recites the limitations: “A communication apparatus, comprising”. The Examiner suggests that this sentence should end with a colon: “A communication apparatus, comprising:”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: “a communication method, performing in a terminal device, comprising:”. Appropriate correction is required.
Dependent Claims 2-11 are also being rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) for the same reasons.
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 of this title, 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.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claims 1-6, 8-10, 12-17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yan et al. US Pub 2022/0264401 (hereinafter “Yan”), and in view of Wu et al. US Pub 2021/0105690 (hereinafter “Wu”).
Regarding claim 1
Yan discloses a communication method (“a communication method, apparatus, and system, to report recorded related information in a conditional handover procedure, thereby improving system reliability and robustness” [0007]) comprising:
receiving, in a first cell (i.e. “source cell”), configuration information of at least one candidate cell (“It may be understood that the conditional handover means that a network device to which a source cell belongs sends configuration information of at least one candidate cell to UE, and the UE determines a target cell based on the configuration information, and attempts to access or hand over to the target cell, where the target cell belongs to the at least one candidate cell.” [0109]) from an access network device (i.e. “network”);
selecting a second cell (i.e. “target cell or first candidate cell”) in response to determining a radio link quality of the first cell meets a first condition (“Case 2: Before the UE determines, based on the CHO configuration information, the target cell (where the target cell may be referred to as a first candidate cell) that meets the CHO execution condition in the at least one candidate cell, or before the UE determines the target cell (namely, the first candidate cell) but is not successfully handed over to the target cell, if a radio link failure (Radio Link Failure, RLF) occurs in the source cell, the UE performs cell selection (for example, selects a cell that meets an S criterion, where the S criterion may be an S criterion in existing cell selection, or may be an S criterion in subsequent cell selection, which is not limited herein).” [0138]);
in response to determining the second cell belongs to the at least one candidate cell (“the UE performs cell selection (for example, selects a cell that meets an S criterion, where the S criterion may be an S criterion in existing cell selection, or may be an S criterion in subsequent cell selection, which is not limited herein).” [0138]), performing a handover from the first cell to the second cell (“The handover message includes related information of the target cell and related configuration parameters required for the UE to access the target cell… After receiving the handover message, the UE accesses the target cell based on content included in the handover message.” [0107]), and communicating with the access network device in the second cell based on configuration information of the second cell (“In an implementation method, before step 201, after the UE completes recording a part or all of the first information, the UE may further send third indication information to the first network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the UE has completed recording the part or all of the first information. For example, the third indication information may include a plurality of pieces of indication information. For example, the third indication information may include indication information for indicating that the UE has completed recording the related information in the access/handover failure, and/or indication information for indicating that the UE has completed recording the related information in the access/handover success.” [0266]); and
Yan does not specifically teach in response to determining the second cell does not belong to the at least one candidate cell, performing radio resource control reestablishment to access the second cell.
In an analogous art, Wu discloses in response to determining the second cell does not belong to the at least one candidate cell, performing radio resource control reestablishment to access the second cell (“If the user device determines that the new cell is not a candidate target cell (i.e., not a cell associated with an immediate handover configuration), the user device performs (e.g., in event 620) the RRC reestablishment procedure with the new cell, and optionally releases (e.g., in any one of events 631, 731B) one or more conditional handover configurations corresponding to the one or more sets of conditions received from the source base station at block 1602.” [0172]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Yan’s conditional handover procedure to include Wu’s conditional handover procedure in order to perform the handover until the UE determines that a condition is satisfied (Wu [0007]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Wu’s conditional handover procedure into Yan’s conditional handover procedure since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 1, wherein the radio link quality of the first cell is determined to meet the first condition in response to determining one or more of:
Yan further discloses the radio link quality of the first cell is less than a first threshold (“In this case, when cell signal quality of the candidate cell B is greater than the second threshold, and cell signal quality of a serving cell is less than the third threshold, it may be considered that the candidate cell B meets the CHO execution condition, and the candidate cell B may be determined as the target cell.” [0126]); or
a radio link failure occurs in the first cell (“reporting the first information to the first network device, where when a radio link failure occurs in a source cell of the terminal device” [0008]).
Regarding claim 3
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 2, further comprising:
Yan further discloses receiving, in the first cell, first information from the access network device, wherein the first information is used to configure the first condition (“receiving first indication information from a first network device, where the first indication information is used to request a terminal device to report first information, and reporting the first information to the first network device, where when a radio link failure occurs in a source cell of the terminal device, conventional handover fails, or the terminal device fails to access a first candidate cell that meets a conditional handover execution condition, a first cell selected by the terminal device by performing cell selection belongs to at least one candidate cell, and the terminal device successfully accesses the first cell, the first information includes one or more of the following: identification information of the first cell, index information corresponding to the first cell, signal quality corresponding to the first cell when the terminal device successfully accesses the first cell, a success cause value, or indication information for indicating that the first cell meets a cell selection criterion and the access succeeds.” [0008]).
Regarding claim 4
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 1, wherein a radio link quality of the second cell meets a second condition, and the radio link quality of the second cell meets the second condition in response to determining one or more of:
Wu further discloses the radio link quality of the second cell is greater than or equal to a third threshold (“In this case, when cell signal quality of the candidate cell B is greater than the second threshold, and cell signal quality of a serving cell is less than the third threshold, it may be considered that the candidate cell B meets the CHO execution condition, and the candidate cell B may be determined as the target cell.” [0126]);
Yan further discloses the radio link quality of the second cell is greater than the radio link quality of the first cell (“In response to the terminal device performing a handover (for example, the signal quality of the source cell becomes poorer, where the signal quality includes one or more of the following: the RSRP, the RSRQ, and the SINR), the terminal device hands over from the source cell to the target cell. The target cell belongs to the N candidate cells.” [0171]);
Regarding claim 5
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:
Yan further discloses receiving, in the first cell, second information from the access network device, wherein the second information is used to configure the second condition (“the second indication information may be included in the RRC reconfiguration message (where the RRC reconfiguration message may be an RRC message including CHO configuration information or an RRC message (namely, a handover message) for conventional handover).” [0017]).
Regarding claim 6
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 1, further comprising:
Yan further discloses sending third information to the access network device in the second cell, wherein the third information indicates that a terminal device has been handed over from the first cell to the second cell by way of a cell handover triggered by the terminal device (“sending, to the first network device, indication information for indicating that the recording of the first information has been completed. The indication information may be referred to as third indication information. The third indication information may be sent to the first network device.” [0016] and furthermore “the third information is used to indicate the UE to report related information in an access/handover failure, and the fourth information is used to indicate the UE to report related information in an access/handover success.” [0246]).
Regarding claim 8
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 6,
Yan further discloses wherein the third information is carried in a message in a random access procedure initiated by the terminal device in the second cell (“after the UE completes recording a part or all of the first information, the UE may further send third indication information to the first network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the UE has completed recording the part or all of the first information. For example, the third indication information may include a plurality of pieces of indication information. For example, the third indication information may include indication information for indicating that the UE has completed recording the related information in the access/handover failure, and/or indication information for indicating that the UE has completed recording the related information in the access/handover success. For example, the third indication information may be included in an RRC establishment complete message, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC re-establishment complete message, an RRC reconfiguration complete message, or another message.” [0266]).
Regarding claim 9
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 1, further comprising:
Yan further discloses sending fourth information to the access network device in the second cell (“the fourth information is used to indicate the UE to report related information in an access/handover success.” [0246]), wherein the fourth information is carried on a first resource corresponding to a cell handover triggered by a terminal device (“The handover message may be a radio resource control (RRC) message. For example, in an NR system, the RRC message may be an RRC reconfiguration message carrying a synchronization reconfiguration information element (reconfiguration with sync). For another example, in a long term evolution (LTE) system, the RRC message may be an RRC connection reconfiguration message carrying a mobility control information element (mobility control info). The handover message includes related information of the target cell and related configuration parameters required for the UE to access the target cell. For example, the handover message may include a physical cell identifier (PCI) of the target cell, frequency information corresponding to the target cell, a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) allocated by the target cell to the UE, random access channel (RACH) resource information (for example, a dedicated RACH resource and/or a public RACH resource) required for accessing the target cell, and the like.” [0107]).
Regarding claim 10
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 1, further comprising:
Yan further discloses receiving, in the first cell, enabling information from the access network device, wherein the enabling information is used to enable a terminal device to trigger the cell handover (“If related information corresponding to the re-establishment procedure is recorded/reported, a network device (for example, the candidate network device, the target network device, the source network device, or the re-establishment network device) may learn, based on a re-establishment cause value and indication information for indicating that the UE fails to access or hand over to the first cell that meets a cell selection criterion (or meets an S criterion), that the CHO procedure fails (or it may be understood as that the UE fails to hand over to the first candidate cell or the first cell in the CHO procedure)” [0288]) after a problem occurs on a radio link of a serving cell of the terminal device (“conditional handover configuration information corresponding to the first cell, signal quality corresponding to the first cell when the terminal device fails to access the first cell, a failure cause value, or indication information for indicating that the first cell meets a cell selection criterion and the access fails.” [0018]).
Regarding claim 12
Yan discloses a communication apparatus (“FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a terminal device” [0344]), comprising
at least one processor (“The signal processing part 530 may include one or more processing elements 5031, for example, include a main control CPU” [0346]; Fig. 5), and
a memory (“storage element 5032” [0346]; Fig. 5) having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the communication apparatus to:
receive, in a first cell, configuration information of at least one candidate cell from an access network device;
select a second cell in response to determining a radio link quality of the first cell meets a first condition;
in response to determining the second cell belongs to the at least one candidate cell, perform a handover from the first cell to the second cell, and communicate with the access network device in the second cell based on configuration information of the second cell; and
in response to determining the second cell does not belong to the at least one candidate cell, perform radio resource control reestablishment to access the second cell.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 12 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 1. Therefore apparatus claim 12 corresponds to method claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 13
The communication apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the radio link quality of the first cell is determined to meet the first condition in response to determining one or more of:
the radio link quality of the first cell is less than a first threshold;
the radio link quality of the first cell is always less than the first threshold in a first time window;
a quantity of out-of-synchronization indications consecutively detected by a terminal device is greater than or equal to a second threshold;
after the quantity of out-of-synchronization indications consecutively detected by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal device starts a timer, and detects no in-synchronization indication in a timing window of the timer; or
a radio link failure occurs in the first cell.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 13 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 2. Therefore apparatus claim 13 corresponds to method claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 2 rejection above.
Regarding claim 14
The communication apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the communication apparatus is further caused to:
receive, in the first cell, first information from the access network device, wherein the first information is used to configure the first condition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 14 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 3. Therefore apparatus claim 14 corresponds to method claim 3 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 3 rejection above.
Regarding claim 15
The communication apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a radio link quality of the second cell meets a second condition, and
the radio link quality of the second cell meets the second condition in response to determining one or more of:
the radio link quality of the second cell is greater than or equal to a third threshold;
the radio link quality of the second cell is always greater than or equal to the third threshold in a second time window;
the radio link quality of the second cell is greater than or equal to radio link quality of a candidate cell other than the second cell in the at least one candidate cell;
the radio link quality of the second cell is always greater than or equal to the radio link quality of the candidate cell other than the second cell in the at least one candidate cell in the second time window;
the radio link quality of the second cell is greater than the radio link quality of the first cell;
the radio link quality of the second cell is always greater than the radio link quality of the first cell in the second time window;
the radio link quality of the second cell is greater than a sum of the radio link quality of the first cell and an offset; or
the radio link quality of the second cell is always greater than the sum of the radio link quality of the first cell and the offset in the second time window.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 15 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 4. Therefore apparatus claim 15 corresponds to method claim 4 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 4 rejection above.
Regarding claim 16
The communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the communication apparatus is further caused to:
receive, in the first cell, second information from the access network device, wherein the second information is used to configure the second condition.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 16 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 5. Therefore apparatus claim 16 corresponds to method claim 5 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 5 rejection above.
Regarding claim 17
The communication apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the communication apparatus is further caused to:
send third information to the access network device in the second cell, wherein the third information indicates that a terminal device has been handed over from the first cell to the second cell by way of a cell handover triggered by the terminal device.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 17 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 6. Therefore apparatus claim 17 corresponds to method claim 6 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 6 rejection above.
Regarding claim 19
The communication apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the third information is carried in a message in a random access procedure initiated by the terminal device in the second cell.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 19 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 8. Therefore apparatus claim 19 corresponds to method claim 8 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 8 rejection above.
Claims 7 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yan, in view of Wu, and further in view of da Silva et al. US Pub 2020/0059397 (hereinafter “da Silva”).
Regarding claim 7
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 6, wherein the third information comprises one or more of:
Yan further discloses an identifier of the terminal device (“a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) allocated by the target cell to the UE” [0107]);
an identifier of the first cell (“Specifically, the information about the cells (for example, the source cell, the target cell, and the re-establishment cell) may include: identifiers of the cells” [0162]);
indication information, wherein the indication information indicates the cell handover triggered by the terminal device (“the terminal device may report the recorded related information in the conditional handover procedure to the first network device, so that the first network device or another network device can adjust a handover parameter (for example, conventional handover configuration information or conditional handover configuration information) based on the obtained related information, thereby improving system reliability and robustness.” [0009]).
Yan and Wu do not specifically teach downlink beam information used by the access network device to send downlink data to the terminal device in the second cell.
In an analogous art, da Silva discloses downlink beam information (“On the network side, that configured CSI-RS is beamformed similarly to a fallback PDCCH i.e. that is how the network should reach the UE if the network does not have any more granular information such as a narrow beam used for PDSCH transmission.” [0214]) used by the access network device to send downlink data to the terminal device in the second cell (“There may be two cases depending on network configuration: If the network is performing beam sweeping of periodic CSI-RS(s) to cover the cell, the network may select one of the already transmitted DL beams based on that input i.e. the network will in fact select a CSI-RS resource transmitting in that direction. By doing that, the network makes sure that the UE will monitor a CSI-RS resource transmitted in a DL beam that is the best according to the UE selection during random access. The network may choose to use that configuration if the cell is loaded and many UEs will require to monitor many beams all over the cell coverage for these purposes. f the network is NOT performing beam sweeping of periodic CSI-RS(s) to cover the cell, the network has the flexibility to perform beam tracking. In that case, the network may choose any available resource, time, frequency, sequence, to transmit in that selected beam e.g. based on UE input during random access. The network may choose to use that configuration if the cell is not loaded to avoid the sweeping in all directions that may create interference to other cells.” [0214-0216]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Yan’s conditional handover procedure, as modified by Wu, to include da Silva’s method for beam monitoring, in order to effectively select best candidate cell for handover (da Silva [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate da Silva’s method for beam monitoring into Yan’s conditional handover procedure since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 18
The communication apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the third information comprises one or more of:
an identifier of the terminal device;
an identifier of the first cell;
downlink beam information used by the access network device to send downlink data to the terminal device in the second cell; and
indication information, wherein the indication information indicates the cell handover triggered by the terminal device.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 18 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 7. Therefore apparatus claim 18 corresponds to method claim 7 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 7 rejection above.
Claims 11 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yan, in view of Wu, and further in view of Damnjanovic et al. US Pub 2023/0156541 (hereinafter “Damnjanovic”).
Regarding claim 11
Yan, as modified by Wu, previously discloses the communication method according to claim 1,
Yan and Wu do not specifically teach wherein the at least one candidate cell comprises one or more of a candidate cell corresponding to a layer 1/layer 2 handover or a candidate cell corresponding to a layer 3 handover.
In an analogous art, Damnjanovic discloses wherein the at least one candidate cell comprises one or more of a candidate cell corresponding to a layer 1/layer 2 handover or a candidate cell corresponding to a layer 3 handover (“instructions for receiving, via the L3 handover command, a sixth indication of a subset of candidate primary cells (PCells) within the second set of cells, where the subset of candidate PCells includes at least one cell configured to be activated as a PCell via L1 signaling or L2 signaling.” [0010]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Yan’s conditional handover procedure, as modified by Wu, to include Damnjanovic’s technique for providing cell mobility information during handover, in order to effectively select best candidate cell for handover (Damnjanovic [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Damnjanovic’s technique for providing cell mobility information during handover into Yan’s conditional handover procedure since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 20
The communication apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the at least one candidate cell comprises one or more of a candidate cell corresponding to a layer 1/layer 2 handover or a candidate cell corresponding to a layer 3 handover.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 20 is drawn to the apparatus of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 11. Therefore apparatus claim 20 corresponds to method claim 11 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 11 rejection above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUONG M NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-8184. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00am - 6:30pm.
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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