DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) was/were submitted on 08/27/2024, 10/17/2025, and 01/14/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Preliminary Amendments
The present Office Action is based upon the original patent application filed as modified by the preliminary amendment filed on 08/27/2024.
Claim(s) 16-34 are now pending in the present application.
Claim Objections
Claim 16 objected to because of the following informalities:
Change “a first handover request message” in line 3 to “transmitting, a first handover request message”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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) 16-34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee et al. ( US 2016/0142973 A1), hereinafter referred to as Lee, IDS submitted on 01/14/2026.
Regarding claim 16, Lee teaches: A method for wireless communication, performed by a first network element (NE) in a wireless network (see Abstract; ¶[0082]), the method comprising:
a first handover request message requesting to hand over a User Equipment (UE) from a source cell in the first NE to a first cell in a second NE (see FIG. 5, step 4 Handover request; ¶[0082], The source eNB issues a handover request message to the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side ), the first handover request message comprising at least one of:
an identifier of the first cell ( see ¶[0082], The source eNB issues a handover request message to the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side (UE X2 signalling context reference at source eNB, UE S1 EPC signalling context reference, target cell identifier (ID), KeNB*, RRC context including the cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE in the source eNB, AS-configuration, E-RAB context and physical layer ID of the source cell+short MAC-I for possible radio link failure (RLF) recovery));
a handover cause;
a load information of the source cell or cells managed by the first NE; or
a power saving mode associated with a power saving in the first NE.
(Note: The limitations of claim 16 are written in the alternative “or”, therefore, there only needs to be a showing that one of the alternative limitations is taught by the applied reference ).
Regarding claim 17, Lee teaches: The method of claim 16, wherein each of the first NE and the second NE comprises at least one of: a gNB, an eNB, or an ng-eNB (see Fig. 5: Source eNB and Target eNB).
Regarding claim 18, this claim recites: The method of claim 16, wherein the handover cause comprises at least one of:
a load aggregation from the first NE to the second NE;
a load balance between the first NE and the second NE;
an overload condition in the first NE;
network power saving in the first NE; or
cell shutdown in the first NE.
( The Examiner has given non-patentable weight because claim 18 further narrows a non-chosen alternative of claim 16 (a handover cause) ).
Regarding claim 19, this claim recites: The method of claim 16, wherein the load information of the source cell or the cells managed by the first NE comprises at least one of:
a Physical Resource Block (PRB) usage of the source cell or the cells managed by the first NE;
a Control Channel Element (CCE) usage of the source cell or the cells managed by the first NE; or
a number of active UEs in the source cell or the cells managed by the first NE.
( The Examiner has given non-patentable weight because claim 19 further narrows a non-chosen alternative of claim 16 (a load information of the source cell or cells managed by the first NE) ).
Regarding claim 20, this claim recites: The method of claim 16, wherein the power saving mode comprises at least one of:
a cell shutdown mode in which at least one cell is shutdown;
a carrier shutdown mode in which at least one carrier is shutdown;
a beam shutdown mode in which at least one beam is shutdown;
a slot shutdown mode in which at least one slot is shutdown;
a symbol shutdown mode in which at least one symbol is shutdown;
a deep sleep mode;
a light sleep mode; or
a normal mode.
( The Examiner has given non-patentable weight because claim 19 further narrows a non-chosen alternative of claim 16 (power saving mode) ).
Regarding claim 21, Lee teaches: The method of claim 16, further comprising:
receiving an acknowledge to the first handover request message (see FIG. 10, S220, Handover request Acknowledge), the acknowledge comprising redirection information indicating that the UE is to be redirected to a second cell in the second NE ( see ¶[0101], transmits a handover request acknowledge message to the eNB2. The handover request acknowledge message may include recommended cell list for other UE's handover ), and the acknowledge further comprising at least one of:
a cause (see ¶[0086] and Table 2 shows the cause information element (IE));
a load information of the first cell;
a load information of the second cell; or
an RRC reconfiguration information associated with the second cell.
Regarding claim 22, Lee teaches: The method of claim 21, wherein the cause comprises at least one of:
load balance between cells or between carriers (see Table 2, load balancing);
overload (see Table 2, Reduce load in serving cell);
network power saving; or
cell shutdown (see Table 2, Switch Off going).
Regarding claim 23, this claim recites: The method of claim 21, wherein the load information of the second cell comprises at least one of:
a PRB usage in the second cell;
a PRB usage per beam in the second cell;
a CCE usage in the second cell;
a CCE usage per beam in the second cell;
a number of active UEs in the second cell; or
a number of active UEs per beam in the second cell.
( The Examiner has given non-patentable weight because claim 23 further narrows a non-chosen alternative of claim 21 (a load information of the second cell) ).
Regarding claim 24, Lee teaches: The method of claim 16, further comprising:
receiving a response to the first handover request message, the response comprising redirection information indicating that the UE is to be redirected to a third cell in a third NE ( see FIG. 10, S200 (handover request for UE1); ¶[0099], In step S200, the eNB2, which intends to switch off its cell for energy saving, transmits a handover request message for handover of the UE1 to the macro eNB ), and the response further comprising at least one of:
a cause (see ¶[0086] and Table 2 shows the cause information element (IE));
a load information of the second cell; or
an identifier of the third cell.
Regarding claim 25, The method of claim 24, wherein the third NE comprises at least one of: a gNodeB (gNB), an eNodeB (eNB), or an ng-eNB (see FIG. 10; ¶[0099]-¶[0101]).
Regarding claim 26, Lee teaches: The method of claim 24, wherein the cause comprises at least one of: load balance between cells or between carriers (see Table 2, load balancing); overload (see Table 2, Reduce load in serving cell); network power saving; or cell shutdown (see Table 2, Switch Off going).
Regarding claim 27, this claim recites: The method of claim 24, wherein the load information of the second cell comprises at least one of:
a PRB usage in the second cell;
a PRB usage per beam in the second cell;
a CCE usage in the second cell;
a CCE usage per beam in the second cell;
a number of active UEs in the second cell; or
a number of active UEs per beam in the second cell.
( The Examiner has given non-patentable weight because claim 27 further narrows a non-chosen alternative of claim 24 (load information of the second cell) ).
Regarding claim 28, Lee teaches: The method of claim 24, further comprising:
transmitting, to the third NE, a second handover request message requesting to hand over the UE to the third cell in the third NE (see S240 in FIG. 10, perform UE2’s handover; ¶[0102], In step S240, the eNB2 performs handover of other UEs with the eNB1 according to the information included in the handover request acknowledge message. After completing handover of all UEs connected to the eNB2, in step S250, the eNB2 switched off its cell).
Regarding claim 29, Lee teaches: The method of claim 16, further comprising:
receiving a response to the first handover request message, the response indicating a failure to handover the UE to the first cell and a redirection to a target carrier ( see ¶[0104] and ¶[0106]; S300, S320 in FIG. 11), and the response further comprising:
a target carrier information of the target carrier selected for the UE for performing a hand over;
a cause (see ¶[0086] and Table 2 shows the cause information element (IE));
a load information of the second cell; or
a load information of cells managed by the second NE.
Regarding claim 30, Lee teaches: The method of claim 29, wherein the cause comprises at least one of:
redirection;
load balance (see Table 2, load balancing);
overload (see Table 2, Reduce load in serving cell);
network power saving; or
cell shutdown (see Table 2, Switch Off going).
Regarding claim 31, this claim recites: The method of claim 29, wherein the load information of the second cell comprises at least one of:
a PRB usage in the second cell;
a PRB usage in the second cell;
a PRB usage per beam in the second cell;
a CCE usage in the second cell;
a CCE usage per beam in the second cell;
a number of active UEs in the second cell; or
a number of active UEs per beam in the second cell.
( The Examiner has given non-patentable weight because claim 31 further narrows a non-chosen alternative of claim 29 (load information of the second cell) ).
Regarding claim 32, Lee teaches: The method of claim 29, further comprising: transmitting, to the UE, an RRC reconfiguration request comprising measurement configuration information associated with the target carrier, RRC reconfiguration request triggering the UE to perform a measurement based on the measurement configuration information ( see ¶[0082], 1. The source eNB configures the UE measurement procedures according to the area restriction information. Measurements provided by the source eNB may assist the function controlling the UE's connection mobility. 2. The UE is triggered to send measurement reports by the rules set by i.e., system information, specification, etc.; ¶[0084] Steps 7 to 16 in FIGS. 5 and 6 provide means to avoid data loss during HO. 7. The target eNB generates the RRC message to perform the handover, i.e., RRCConnectionReconfiguration message including the mobilityControlInformation, to be sent by the source eNB towards the UE. The source eNB performs the necessary integrity protection and ciphering of the message. The UE receives the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message with necessary parameters ).
Regarding claim 33, Lee teaches: A device for wireless communication comprising a memory for storing computer instructions and a processor in communication with the memory (see FIG .12, Processor 810, Memory 820), wherein, when the processor executes the computer instructions, the processor is configured to implement ( see ¶[0109], The processor 810 may be configured to implement proposed functions, procedures, and/or methods in this description. Layers of the radio interface protocol may be implemented in the processor 810. The memory 820 is operatively coupled with the processor 810 and stores a variety of information to operate the processor 810 ):
transmitting a first handover request message requesting to hand over a User Equipment (UE) from a source cell in the first NE to a first cell in a second NE (see FIG. 5, step 4 Handover request; ¶[0082], The source eNB issues a handover request message to the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side ), the first handover request message comprising at least one of:
an identifier of the first cell ( see ¶[0082], The source eNB issues a handover request message to the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side (UE X2 signalling context reference at source eNB, UE S1 EPC signalling context reference, target cell identifier (ID), KeNB*, RRC context including the cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE in the source eNB, AS-configuration, E-RAB context and physical layer ID of the source cell+short MAC-I for possible radio link failure (RLF) recovery));
a handover cause;
a load information of the source cell or cells managed by the first NE; or
a power saving mode associated with a power saving in the first NE.
(Note: The limitations of claim 33 are written in the alternative “or”, therefore, there only needs to be a showing that one of the alternative limitations is taught by the applied reference ).
Regarding claim 34, Lee teaches: A non-transitory computer-readable program medium with computer code stored thereupon, the computer code, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to implement ( see ¶[0109], The processor 810 may be configured to implement proposed functions, procedures, and/or methods in this description. Layers of the radio interface protocol may be implemented in the processor 810. The memory 820 is operatively coupled with the processor 810 and stores a variety of information to operate the processor 810 ):
transmitting a first handover request message requesting to hand over a User Equipment (UE) from a source cell in the first NE to a first cell in a second NE (see FIG. 5, step 4 Handover request; ¶[0082], The source eNB issues a handover request message to the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side ), the first handover request message comprising at least one of:
an identifier of the first cell ( see ¶[0082], The source eNB issues a handover request message to the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side (UE X2 signalling context reference at source eNB, UE S1 EPC signalling context reference, target cell identifier (ID), KeNB*, RRC context including the cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE in the source eNB, AS-configuration, E-RAB context and physical layer ID of the source cell+short MAC-I for possible radio link failure (RLF) recovery));
a handover cause;
a load information of the source cell or cells managed by the first NE; or
a power saving mode associated with a power saving in the first NE.
(Note: The limitations of claim 34 are written in the alternative “or”, therefore, there only needs to be a showing that one of the alternative limitations is taught by the applied reference ).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Henriksson et al. ( US 2025/0056367 A1) discloses is a method performed by a serving network node of a wireless communication network, the serving network node serving a UE, the serving network node handling a serving cell. The method further comprises, when the determined primary cell is handled by a target network node, which is different from the serving network node, sending a handover message towards the target network node
Jin et al. ( US 2019/0306761 A1) discloses a method includes the method includes: sending, by a source base station, a handover request to a target base station, where the handover request is used to request to hand over a session of a terminal device from the source base station to the target base station, and the handover request includes an identifier of a session requested to be handed over and indication information of a network slice corresponding to the session; and receiving, by the source base station, a handover response message from the target base station
Fujishiro et al. ( US 2021/0250823 A1) discloses a handover control method comprises: receiving, by the user device from the source cell, a handover command including a list of candidate cells which are candidates for the target cell and a handover condition specified for each of the candidate cells in the list; and when a handover condition corresponding to a specific candidate cell in the list included in the received handover command is satisfied, performing a handover to the specific candidate cell in which the handover condition is satisfied
Da Silva et al. ( US 2022/0007243 A1) discloses user equipment, target network node and methods in a wireless communications network
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANG BOI THAWNG whose telephone number is (703)756-4751. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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/MANG BOI THAWNG/Examiner, Art Unit 2476 /AYAZ R SHEIKH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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