DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
A preliminary amendment received on 7/29/2024 amending claim 3 and adding claims 6-7 has been entered by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 7/30/2024, 1/16/2026, and 5/27/2026 have been entered and considered by the examiner.
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 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.
Claims 1-2 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pezeshki et al (US2021/0212091 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant.
Regarding claim 1, Pezeshki teaches a communication system (Abstract), comprising:
a base station to be applied to a fifth-generation wireless access system; and a communication terminal to connect to the base station, wherein (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration):
when a cell that is a connection destination of a communication terminal in communication via any one of a plurality of cells constituted by the base station is changed (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration);
the base station transmits, to the communication terminal, setting information for measuring communication quality in a physical layer of the cell (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; it is contemplated that a gNB can signal a UE to preconfigure multiple candidate cells for L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (e.g., via RRC/MAC-CE/DCI). Candidate cells can be identified by a serving cell ID or PCI, for example, and can be selected based on an L3-based measurement report per neighbor cell);
the communication terminal measures the communication quality in another cell different from a cell being connected based on the setting information received from the base station, and transmits a measurement result to the base station (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107-0109; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; it is contemplated that a gNB can signal a UE to preconfigure multiple candidate cells for L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (e.g., via RRC/MAC-CE/DCI). Candidate cells can be identified by a serving cell ID or PCI, for example, and can be selected based on an L3-based measurement report per neighbor cell; it is contemplated that, for each candidate cell, a UE may be configured to perform measurements and report L1-based metrics or measurements); and
the base station determines a cell to be a new connection destination of the communication terminal based on the measurement result (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; Based on the reported L1 metrics, a gNB may then be configured to determine whether to select/deselect the candidate cell to serve a UE. It is also contemplated that, for each candidate cell, a UE may report L3-based metrics or measurements as well (e.g., L3-RSRP/SINR/RSRQ) from which a gNB may then decide whether a candidate cell should be added to or removed from the candidate cell list).
Regarding claim 2, Pezeshki teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Pezeshki further teaches wherein the base station determines one or more candidate cells that are candidates for a cell to be a new connection destination of the communication terminal from among a plurality of cells constituted by the base station, and notifies the communication terminal of the candidate cells determined, and the communication terminal measures the communication quality in the candidate cell (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; Based on the reported L1 metrics, a gNB may then be configured to determine whether to select/deselect the candidate cell to serve a UE. It is also contemplated that, for each candidate cell, a UE may report L3-based metrics or measurements as well (e.g., L3-RSRP/SINR/RSRQ) from which a gNB may then decide whether a candidate cell should be added to or removed from the candidate cell list).
Regarding claim 5, Pezeshki teaches a station to be applied to a fifth-generation wireless access system (Abstract), wherein:
when a cell that is a connection destination of a communication terminal in communication via any one of a plurality of cells constituted by the base station is changed (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration);
the base station notifies the communication terminal of setting information for measuring communication quality in a physical layer of another cell different from a cell being connected (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; it is contemplated that a gNB can signal a UE to preconfigure multiple candidate cells for L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (e.g., via RRC/MAC-CE/DCI). Candidate cells can be identified by a serving cell ID or PCI, for example, and can be selected based on an L3-based measurement report per neighbor cell);
acquires a measurement result of the communication quality from the communication terminal, (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107-0109; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; it is contemplated that a gNB can signal a UE to preconfigure multiple candidate cells for L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (e.g., via RRC/MAC-CE/DCI). Candidate cells can be identified by a serving cell ID or PCI, for example, and can be selected based on an L3-based measurement report per neighbor cell; it is contemplated that, for each candidate cell, a UE may be configured to perform measurements and report L1-based metrics or measurements); and
determines a cell to be a new connection destination of the communication terminal based on the measurement result acquired (Paras. 0028, 0102, and 0107-0109; It should be further appreciated that, in some L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility scenarios, it may be desirable for a gNB/UE to decide in advance one or more multiple candidate cells. Determining candidate cells in advance may be generally referred to as configuration or pre-configuration; Based on the reported L1 metrics, a gNB may then be configured to determine whether to select/deselect the candidate cell to serve a UE. It is also contemplated that, for each candidate cell, a UE may report L3-based metrics or measurements as well (e.g., L3-RSRP/SINR/RSRQ) from which a gNB may then decide whether a candidate cell should be added to or removed from the candidate cell list).
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.
Claims 3-4 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pezeshki et al (US2021/0212091 A1) IDS submitted by Applicant in view of Shimoda et al (US 2020/0077320 A1).
Regarding claims 3 and 6, Pezeshki teaches the limitations of the previous claims.
However, while Pezeshki teaches inter-cell mobility for a plurality of candidate cells, wherein the cells can be TRPs (Para. 0003-0006 and 0031), he does not specifically disclose wherein the base station includes a central unit and one or more distributed units, the distributed units constitute one or more cells, and the central unit determines a cell to be a new connection destination of the communication terminal.
Shimoda teaches radio resource management (Abstract). He further teaches wherein the base station includes a central unit and one or more distributed units, the distributed units constitute one or more cells, and the central unit determines a cell to be a new connection destination of the communication terminal (Para. 0158; FIG. 8 illustrates separation of the communicable space by the plurality of beams or TRPs. In FIG. 8, a gNB 800 includes one central unit (CU) and two distributed units (DUs). Each of a DU #1 801 and a DU #2 802 is connected to a CU 803. The DUs may be TRPs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Shimoda with the teachings as in Pezeshki. The motivation for doing so would have been to increase spectral efficiency and communication capacity by having a large number of small eNBs is installed to configure a large number of small cells (Shimoda at para. 0042).
Regarding claims 4 and 7, the combination of references Pezeshki and Shimoda teach the limitations of the previous claims. Shimoda further teaches wherein the central unit determines a cell for which the communication quality is to be measured, and transmits the setting information to the distributed unit constituting the cell determined and to the communication terminal (Paras. 0179-0185). Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Shimoda with the teachings as in Pezeshki. The motivation for doing so would have been to increase spectral efficiency and communication capacity by having a large number of small eNBs is installed to configure a large number of small cells (Shimoda at para. 0042).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENT KRUEGER whose telephone number is (303)297-4238. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00 MT.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached on (571) 272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENT KRUEGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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