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 .
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.
This Office Action is response to the preliminary amendment filed on 08/26/24.
Claims 15 and 17-20 are canceled.Claims 1-14 and 16 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 11/01/24 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B).
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 1-7, 13-14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang et al. (U.S. 20210337443) in view of Yi et al. (U.S. 20240163951) and further in view of Fan et al. (U.S. 20240365201).
For claim 1, Chang et al. disclose a method performed by a user equipment (UE) configured to operate in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving a mobility command for a target cell group (CG), wherein the mobility command comprises an execution condition for a mobility to the target CG (at least [0033] and [0046]-[0047]. The source base station transmits to user equipment the received handover command including the handover condition. The UE performs detection according to a handover condition carried in the handover command message, and only when detecting that the configured handover condition is met, starts to execute the handover command and access a target cell.)
detecting a failure of a CG (at least [0007]. If an MCG failure is detected, then a handover is performed on the basis of the stored handover configuration, and a target cell is accessed.); and
performing the mobility to the target CG based on the execution condition being fulfilled (at least [0033] and [0046]-[0047]. The source base station transmits to user equipment the received handover command including the handover condition. The UE performs detection according to a handover condition carried in the handover command message, and only when detecting that the configured handover condition is met, starts to execute the handover command and access a target cell.) However, Chang et al. do not disclose recovery information informing that the execution condition is used as a condition for a failure recovery; and evaluating the execution condition based on the recovery information after detecting the failure of the CG.
In the same field of endeavor, Yi et al. disclose a handover command includes (at least [0081] and [0094]. A fast MCG link recovery includes failure information, which is MCG failure information (MCGFailureInformation). The failure recovery information is MCG failure recovery information, which includes at least one of a handover command.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Chang et al. as taught by Yi et al. for purpose of avoiding connection interruption, reducing data loss, and achieving network performance optimization.
In the same field of endeavor, Fan et al. disclose evaluating the execution condition based on the recovery information after detecting the failure of the CG (at least [0070]. When the terminal device performs conditional handover based on the conditional handover configuration information, if the terminal device fails to access the conditional handover target cell, the terminal device may not delete the foregoing conditional handover configuration information, but continue to execute the handover condition evaluation task related to the conditional handover, so as to continue to evaluate whether a conditional handover event that is associated with the conditional handover target cell and included in the conditional handover configuration information is met. For example, in a scenario of fast recovery of a connection to a cell after a failure of conditional handover of the terminal device, although the conditional handover fails, the terminal device may attempt to recover a connection to a PCell or a PSCell by using one conditional handover target cell instead of executing a reconstruction procedure because the terminal device still stores the configuration information of the one or more conditional handover target cells.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Chang et al. as taught by Fan et al. for purpose of reducing overheads occupied for transmitting the conditional handover configuration information, a consecutive conditional handover process may be used.
For claim 2, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 1. Chang et al. disclose wherein the failure of the CG comprises at least one of: a radio link failure (RLF) on the CG; a beam failure on the CG; or a failure of a mobility to the CG (at least [0007]. If an MCG failure is detected, then a handover is performed on the basis of the stored handover configuration, and a target cell is accessed.)
For claim 3, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 1. Fan et al. disclose wherein the failure of the CG comprises a failure of a special cell (SpCell) in the CG, wherein the mobility to the target CG comprises a mobility to a SpCell in the target CG, wherein the CG comprises at least one of a master cell group (MCG) or a secondary cell group (SCG), and wherein an SpCell in the MCG comprises a primary cell (PCell), and an SpCell in the SCG comprises a primary secondary cell (PSCell) (at least [0058]. The terminal device 503 or the terminal device 504 may implement dual connectivity to the network device 505 and the network device 502, where one network device is an MN and the other network device is an SN. One or more serving cells of the MN belong to a master cell group (MCG). Usually, the MCG may include a primary cell (PCell). In some implementations, in addition to the PCell, the MCG may further include one or more secondary cells (SCell). One or more serving cells of the SN belong to a secondary cell group (SCG). Usually, the SCG may include a PSCell. In some implementations, in addition to the PSCell, the SCG may further include one or more SCells.)
For claim 4, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 3. Fan et al. disclose wherein the mobility to the CG comprises at least one of a handover to a PCell in an MCG, a PSCell change to a PSCell in an SCG, or a PSCell addition of the PSCell in the SCG, and wherein the mobility to the target CG comprises at least one of a handover to a PCell in a target MCG, a PSCell change to a PSCell in a target SCG, or a PSCell addition of the PSCell in the target SCG (at least [0058]. The terminal device 503 or the terminal device 504 may implement dual connectivity to the network device 505 and the network device 502, where one network device is an MN and the other network device is an SN. One or more serving cells of the MN belong to a master cell group (MCG). Usually, the MCG may include a primary cell (PCell). In some implementations, in addition to the PCell, the MCG may further include one or more secondary cells (SCell). One or more serving cells of the SN belong to a secondary cell group (SCG). Usually, the SCG may include a PSCell. In some implementations, in addition to the PSCell, the SCG may further include one or more SCells.)
For claim 5, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 1. Chang et al. disclose wherein the evaluating of the execution condition comprises: performing a measurement on the target CG; and determining whether the execution condition for the target CG is fulfilled based on the measurement on the target CG (at least [0053]. The first condition refers to a handover condition. That is, only when the first condition is met would the UE perform a handover and apply the handover configuration generated on the basis of the handover command. For example, the first condition may be a measurement event. For example, the first condition may be that signal quality in a neighboring cell is superior to that in a serving cell by a value exceeding a threshold for a period of time. The neighboring cell corresponds to the target cell for handover.)
For claim 6, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 1. Fan et al. disclose delaying a transmission of failure information to report the failure of the CG after the failure of the CG, based on the recovery information (at least [0070]. When the terminal device performs conditional handover based on the conditional handover configuration information, if the terminal device fails to access the conditional handover target cell, the terminal device may not delete the foregoing conditional handover configuration information, but continue to execute the handover condition evaluation task related to the conditional handover, so as to continue to evaluate whether a conditional handover event that is associated with the conditional handover target cell and included in the conditional handover configuration information is met. For example, in a scenario of fast recovery of a connection to a cell after a failure of conditional handover of the terminal device, although the conditional handover fails, the terminal device may attempt to recover a connection to a PCell or a PSCell by using one conditional handover target cell instead of executing a reconstruction procedure because the terminal device still stores the configuration information of the one or more conditional handover target cells.)
For claim 7, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 6. Chang et al. disclose based on the mobility to the target CG being succeeded, further comprising: transmitting, to a network, a mobility complete message informing that the mobility to the target CG has been successfully completed after the failure of the CG; and determining not to transmit the failure information to the network (at least [0030]-[0031]. The source base station delivers the handover command to the UE, and starts to forward data to the target base station. Upon receiving the handover command, the UE immediately executes the handover command and accesses the target base station; for example, the UE accesses the target base station via a random access procedure. After confirming the successful access by the UE, the target base station sends a handover completion message to the source base station.)
For claim 13, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. disclose the method of claim 1. Chang et al. disclose wherein the UE is in communication with at least one of a mobile device, a network, or autonomous vehicles (at least [0046]. The source base station transmits to user equipment the received handover command including the handover condition.)
For claims 14 and 16, the claims have features similar to claim 1. Therefore, the claims are also rejected for the same reason in claim 1.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang et al. (U.S. 20210337443) in view of Yi et al. (U.S. 20240163951) and further in view of Fan et al. (U.S. 20240365201) and further in view of Kim (U.S. 20170164419).
For claim 8, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. do not disclose transmitting the failure information to the network; suspending the CG until receiving a signaling for recovery.
In the same field of endeavor, Kim discloses transmitting the failure information to the network; suspending the CG until receiving a signaling for recovery (at least [0212]-[0223]. Terminal reports the RLF of the small base station to the macro base station. If the RLF of the small base station is recovered before expiration of the multiple connectivity RLF recovery timer, the small base station (or, the cell) RLF of which is recovered is activated for multiple connectivity support.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Chang et al. as taught by Kim for purpose of activating, by the terminal, the multiple connectivity with the second base station by using the radio resource configuration information.
Claims 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang et al. (U.S. 20210337443) in view of Yi et al. (U.S. 20240163951) and further in view of Fan et al. (U.S. 20240365201) and further in view of Wallentin et al. (U.S. 20250007596).
For claim 9, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al. and Fan et al. do not disclose the transmission of the failure information is delayed while the timer is running, and wherein the timer is started upon the UE detecting the failure of the CG.
In the same field of endeavor, Wallentin et al. disclose the transmission of the failure information is delayed while the timer is running, and wherein the timer is started upon the UE detecting the failure of the CG (at least [0154]. The UE does not transmit the message indicating detected beam failures on the cell in the SCG when the timer is running. The UE starts the timer under the following conditions: [0155] upon the first detection a beam failure on the cell in the SCG; or [0156] upon subsequent detections of a beam failure on the cell in the SCG, when the timer is neither running nor expired.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Chang et al. as taught by Wallentin et al. for purpose of indicating the initial beam failure to a RAN node configured to provide the MCG.
For claim 11, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al., Fan et al. and Wallentin et al. disclose wherein the failure information is transmitted to the network upon an expiry of the timer (at least [0154]. The UE does not transmit the message indicating detected beam failures on the cell in the SCG when the timer is running. The UE starts the timer under the following conditions: [0155] upon the first detection a beam failure on the cell in the SCG; or [0156] upon subsequent detections of a beam failure on the cell in the SCG, when the timer is neither running nor expired.)
Claim 10 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang et al. (U.S. 20210337443) in view of Yi et al. (U.S. 20240163951) and further in view of Fan et al. (U.S. 20240365201) and further in view of Wallentin et al. (U.S. 20250007596) and further in view of Zhang et al. (U.S. 20240406811).
For claim 10, the combination of Chang et al., Yi et al., Wallentin et al. and Fan et al. do not disclose the timer is stopped based on the mobility to the target CG being succeeded.
In the same field of endeavor, Zhang et al. disclose the timer is stopped based on the mobility to the target CG being succeeded (at least [0007]. The timer is stopped based on a condition, wherein the condition comprises at least one of successful transmission of a communication to the identified candidate cell.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Chang et al. as taught by Zhang et al. for purpose of reducing interruption time and improve reliability.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 12 is 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.
Conclusion
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/DAI PHUONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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