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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 as being anticipated by ZTE CORPORATION ET AL: "Consideration on HO enhancements in NTN", 3GPP DRAFT; R2-2306296, 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (3GPP), MOBILE COMPETENCE CENTRE ; 650, ROUTE DES LUCIOLES ; F-06921 SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS CEDEX ; FRANCE vol. 3GPP RAN 2, no. Incheon, Korea; 20230522 - 20230526 12 May 2023 (2023-05-12), XP052390997 (from IDS filed by applicant on 12/18/24)
1. A method comprising (ZTE: see paragraph 2.2, "On supporting satellite switching without PCI change, since the satellite switch timing is predictable and is common for all UEs within the cell, we understand system information (e.g., SIB19) can be used to indicate UE when the switch will happens. Observation 8: The switch timing for PCI unchanged scenarios is predictable and is common for all UEs within the cell, therefore it is possible to use system information (e.g., SIB19) to inform UE the satellite switch timing. After the satellite switch, UE needs to obtain the DL synchronization to new satellite and regain UL synchronization if needed, where UE is needed to be informed with timing such actions are performed. And there are two options can be considered for this purpose:
Opt1: Explicit indication + reuse the t-Service field Opt2: New indication to indicate the satellite switch timing For option 1, since t-Service has been introduced in R17 to indicate the time current serving cell will stop provide service, it is possible to reuse this information to indicate the time when the current serving cell will stop provide service also for satellite switching without PCI to allow UE to know that the PCI would remain unchanged after service link switch, additional indication can be used together to inform UE that the same PCI is used, which can be easily done by introducing a one- bit indication in SIB19. Since legacy t-service is only used for idle/inactive UEs to initiate neighboring cell measurements while for PCI unchanged it is for connected mode UEs, therefore there shall be no confusions at UE is the same IE is reused. For option 2, a new t-service like IE is introduced, where the presence of this IE can be considered as implicit indication to UE that the same PCI is used. As discussed above, the switch timing is the same for UEs within the same cell coverage, once the configuration is given for UE supports this feature it will starts to switch to new satellite at the time indicated, there is no need to introduce UE dedicated signaling."):
receiving, by a wireless device, an indication of a time for switching (ZTE: Opt1: Explicit indication + reuse the t-Service field
- Opt2: New indication to indicate the satellite switch timing) from a first satellite of a first cell to a second satellite of the first cell, wherein the switching is without changing a physical cell identification of the first cell (ZTE: "satellite switching without PCI change", see paragraph 2.1.2, "Observation 5: The triggering timing configured for distanced/time-based CHO is normally set during the period when source and target cell are partially overlapped, which makes it possible to trigger CHO earlier without jeopardize the successful completion of HO to target.");
receiving a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message indicating handover from the first cell to a second cell (ZTE: see paragraph 2.1.2, NW to trigger UEs to CHO target cells before the triggering time configured to offload the traffic load from source to target. Observation 6: In case there is sudden increase of connection load to source (e.g., in case disaster when TN is not available) NW can handover UE to CHO candidate cells before CHO is triggered to off-load traffic from source. "); and
based on receiving the RRC reconfiguration message before the time for the switching, initiating the handover (ZTE: see paragraph 2.1.2, "Assuming the originally triggered timing is set as T2, while before T2 there is a sudden increase of connections to current source (e.g., due to shut-down of TN in case of disaster) In this case it shall be allowed for NW to trigger UEs to CHO target cells before the triggering time configured to offload the traffic load from source to target. Observation 6: In case there is sudden increase of connection load to source (e.g., in case disaster when TN is not available) NW can handover UE to CHO candidate cells before CHO is triggered to off-load traffic from source").
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 2-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE in view of Persson US 20250184854
2.The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, based on receiving the RRC reconfiguration message before the time for the switching, a request to handover the wireless device to the second cell (ZTE: see paragraph 2.1.2, "to trigger UEs to CHO target cells before the triggering time configured to offload the traffic load from source to target;).
ZTE merely disclose the term request
Persson teaches the term request (Persson: [0040] “CHO execution condition”)
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into ZTE’s invention in order to make the UE triggers a handover to that target cell, as taught by Persson.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the RRC reconfiguration message comprises receiving the RRC reconfiguration message after the receiving the indication and before initiating the switching to the second satellite of the first cell; and wherein the method further comprises: sending, based on the switching to the second satellite of the first cell not being initiated, a request to handover the wireless device to the second cell (ZTE: see paragraph 2.1.2, "to trigger UEs to CHO target cells before the triggering time configured to offload the traffic load from source to target; Persson: [0040] “CHO execution condition”).
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating the handover comprises sending a request to handover the wireless device to the second cell (ZTE: see paragraph 2.1.2, "to trigger UEs to CHO target cells; Persson: [0040] UE triggers a handover to that target cell).
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first satellite of the first cell is associated with a first physical cell identification, and wherein the second satellite of the first cell is associated with the first physical cell identification (ZTE: see paragraph 2.2, "satellite switching without PCI change").
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating the handover is further based on the wireless device being served by the first satellite of the first cell (ZTE: see paragraph 2.2, information to indicate the time when the current serving cell will stop provide service also for satellite switching without PCI change").
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating the handover is further based on a switch, to the second satellite of the first cell, not being initiated (ZTE: paragraph 2.1.2, "Observation 6: In case there is sudden increase of connection load to source (e.g., in case disaster when TN is not available) NW can handover UE to CHO candidate cells before CHO is triggered to off-load traffic from source).
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the indication of the time for switching from the first satellite of the first cell to the second satellite of the first cell comprises: receiving a system information block (SIB) comprising a parameter indicating the time for switching from the first satellite of the first cell to the second satellite of the first cell (ZTE: paragraph 2.2, "On supporting satellite switching without PCI change, since the satellite switch timing is predictable and is common for all UEs within the cell, we understand system information (e.g., SIB19) can be used to indicate UE when the switch will happens. Observation 8: The switch timing for PCI unchanged scenarios is predictable and is common for all UEs within the cell, therefore it is possible to use system information (e.g., SIB19) to inform UE the satellite switch timing").
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the indication of the time for switching from the first satellite of the first cell to the second satellite of the first cell comprises receiving: a first parameter indicating a first time to start the switching from the first satellite of the first cell to the second satellite of the first cell; and a second parameter indicating a second time for the second satellite of the first cell to start servicing the wireless device (Persson: [0050-0059] CHO for NTN).
Regarding claims 10-20, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-9, where the difference used is a “method” and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sulaiman Nooristany whose telephone number is (571) 270-1929. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9 to 5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski, can be reached on (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/SULAIMAN NOORISTANY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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