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 .
The Office Action is responsive to the communication filed on 08/29/2024.
Claims 1-9 have been amended.
Claims 1-9 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/29/2024 and 12/11/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 08/29/2024. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-3, 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhong et al (93985280 in view of Hong et al (US 12457649).
Regarding claim 1, Zhong discloses a power saving base station switching device that switches a base station that processes a wireless access signal, the power saving base station switching device comprising:
a traffic information collector that collects an amount of traffic flowing into a base station that is operating as traffic information (col. 3, ll. 14-18, FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of a method 20 for assisting energy saving in an operation, …; Figure 2, step 21, receive load report from a serving base station. e.g., traffic flowing);
a switching determiner that selects one of suitable base stations from a base station pool in which a plurality of base stations having different characteristics according to predetermined requirements are pooled and arranged in advance on a basis of the traffic information collected by the traffic information collector (FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method 300 for energy saving in a base station -- In the step 31, the base station 10 obtains energy saving priority information thereof and energy saving priority information of its adjacent base stations (i.e., the base stations 11 to 16) from the OAM unit. This step can be performed by that the OAM unit informing periodically about the energy saving priority information or by the base station 10 transmitting a request to the OAM unit according to the requirement, see col. 4, ll. 4-11).
Zhong does not expressly disclose a network switching control unit controller that switches a network between a network to be connected to a switching source base station and a network to be connected to a switching destination base station.
However, Hong network switching control unit controller that switches a network between a network to be connected to a switching source base station and a network to be connected to a switching destination base station (establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a base station; establishing a PC5 connection with a second device that relays communication between the first device and the base station; setting, on the basis of establishment of the PC5 connection with the second device, see Abstract).
The teachings of Zhong and Hong are related as both teach the concept of performing communication with the base station on the basis of the power saving mode. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Zhong to include Hong 's teachings of switching control unit controller that switches a network between a network to be connected to a switching source base station and a network to be connected to a switching destination base station for the purpose of power saving during network switching .
Regarding claim 2, in the obvious combination, Zhong discloses the power saving base station switching device according to claim 1, further comprising a resource allocation information synchronization control unit controller that synchronizes resource allocation information of the switching destination base station (Figure 2, a load can simply be equivalent to a physical resource block actually used by a base station) and the switching source base station selected by the switching determination unit determiner and takes over data of the resource allocation information from the switching source base station to the switching destination base station (FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method 300 for energy saving in a base station; In the step 31, the base station 10 obtains energy saving priority information thereof and energy saving priority information of its adjacent base stations (i.e., the base stations 11 to 16) from the OAM unit).
Regarding claim 3, in the obvious combination, Zhong discloses the power saving base station switching device according to claim 1,wherein in the base station pool, a performance-oriented base station [intended] to achieve high performance and a power-saving oriented base station [intended] to achieve power saving are pooled and arranged (In the step 32, the base station 10 determines whether the base station 10 is a candidate energy saving base station or a candidate compensating base station according to a load thereof, the energy saving priority information thereof and the energy saving priority information of the adjacent base stations (i.e., the base stations 11 to 16). A specific judgment result is determined from the load, energy saving priorities and three load thresholds. Wherein, the base station 10 is determined as a candidate energy saving base station when the energy saving priority of the base station 10 is the highest among the energy saving priorities thereof and of the adjacent base station 11 to 16 and the load of the base station 10 is below a first threshold or a second threshold, see Figure 3).
Claim 8 contains subject matter similar to claim 1, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale. (Zhong, Abstract: “system”).
Claim 9 contains subject matter similar to claim 1, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale. (Zhong, Abstract: “A method for energy saving”).
Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhong et al (93985280 in view of Hong et al (US 12457649) further in view of Chae et al (US 20170250736).
Regarding claim 4, Zhong in view of Hong does not expressly disclose wherein in a case where base station functions are separated into a radio device (RD), a distributed device (DD), and a centralized device (CD), in the base station pool, base stations are pooled in separation units of the RD, the DD, or the CD.
However, Chae discloses base station functions are separated into a radio device (RD), a distributed device (DD), and a centralized device (CD), in the base station pool, base stations are pooled in separation units of the RD, the DD, or the CD (relates to a distributed radio base station, and provides a distributed radio base station, including: one or more base units (BUs) configured to process digital signals; and one or more radio units (RUs) installed in one or more target service areas, and configured to wirelessly communicate with user equipment; wherein each of the BUs is coupled to a cell group, composed of a set of RU groups each formed by grouping one or more of the Rus, Abstract).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Zhong in view of Hong with the teachings of Chae for the purpose of dynamically managing and sharing its processing pool across multiple physical Radio Devices.
Regarding claim 5, in the obvious combination, Chae discloses the power saving base station switching device according to claim 4,wherein in the base station pool, the base stations are pooled in units of a CPU core, an accelerator, or a network interface card (NIC) in a server, which is a unit smaller than the separation units of the [[RU]]RD, the [[DU]]DD, or the [[CU]]CD (one or more radio units (RUs) installed in one or more target service areas, and configured to wirelessly communicate with user equipment; wherein each of the BUs is coupled to a cell group, composed of a set of RU groups each formed by grouping one or more of the Rus, Abstract).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhong et al (93985280 in view of Hong et al (US 12457649) further in view of Shimada et al (US 7835367).
Zhong in view of Hong does not expressly disclose the power saving base station switching device according to claim 1,wherein the network switching control unit controller changes a virtual LAN (VLAN) tag to switch the network in a case of VLAN connection.
However, Shimada discloses a method for interconnecting a virtual LAN distributed over plural sites via a network formed by plural layer 2 switches, a layer 2 switch monitors a first virtual LAN configuring frame sent from a site in the plural sites for configuring the virtual LAN.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Zhong in view of Hong with the teachings of Shimada for the purpose of identifying which virtual network the data packet belongs to when it travels across a shared connection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JULIO R PEREZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7846. The examiner can normally be reached 10Am - 6PM EST M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kathy Wang-Hurst can be reached at 5712705371. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JULIO R PEREZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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