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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-4, 9 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim et al (US 2015/0139017, “Kim”).
Re claim 1, Kim discloses an apparatus for a terminal device (figure 3, element 300) of a wireless communication network, receiving from an access node (figure 3, element 305) of the wireless communication network, minimization of drive tests, MDT, measurement configuration for one or more multicast and broadcast services, MBS (figure 3, step 310); performing MDT measurements on broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS associated with one or more cells of the wireless communication network based on the received MDT measurement configuration (figure 3, step 315); and transmitting an MDT report, formed based on the received MDT measurement configuration, to the access node or to another access node of the wireless communication network, wherein the MDT report comprises at least information on results of the MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS (figure 3, step 340), and wherein the results of the MDT measurements are indexed, in the MDT report, based on one or more cell identifiers of the one or more cells (paragraph [0020]).
Re claims 2 and 20, Kim discloses performing measurements of reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or reference signal received quality, RSRQ, based on the broadcast transmissions, wherein the broadcast transmissions comprise one or more reference signals of a pre-defined type (paragraph [0017]).
Re claim 3, Kim discloses the pre-defined type is a synchronization signal block or a tracking reference signal (paragraph [0021]).
Re claim 4, Kim discloses the MDT report comprises information on the pre-defined type of the one or more reference signals associated with the measurements of the RSRP and/or RSRQ (paragraph [0021]).
Re claim 9, Kim discloses the results of the MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS are indexed, in the MDT report, based on MBS delivery mode used for the MDT measurements (paragraph [0054]; figure 3, measurement sample).
Re claim 15, Kim discloses the MDT measurement configuration is comprised in a radio resource control message (paragraph [0026]).
Re claim 16, Kim discloses performing the MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS when the terminal device is operating in a radio resource control connected mode (paragraph [0027]; table 1).
Re claim 17, Kim discloses performing the MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS when the terminal device is operating in a radio resource control idle or inactive mode; and transmit the MDT report following switching of the terminal device from the radio resource control idle or inactive mode to a radio resource control connected mode (paragraphs [0026] and [0027]; table 1).
Re claim 18, Kim discloses performing the transmitting of the MDT report in response to receiving an MDT information request from the access node or said another access node of the wireless communication network when the terminal device is operating in a radio resource control connected mode (paragraph [0027]).
Re claim 19, Kim discloses an apparatus for an access node (figure 3, element 305) of a wireless communication network, transmitting, to a terminal device (figure 3, element 300) of the wireless communication network, an MDT measurement configuration for one or more MBS (figure 3, step 310), wherein the MDT measurement configuration defines a configuration for the terminal device for performing MDT measurements on broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS associated with one or more cells of the wireless communication network (figure 3, step 315), and forming an MDT report for transmission to the access node or another access node of the wireless communication network, the MDT report comprising at least information on results of the MDT measurements of the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS (figure 3, step 340), the results of the MDT measurements being indexed, in the MDT report, based on one or more cell identifiers of the one or more cells (paragraph [0020]).
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.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim in view of Krishnan et al (US 2023/0088234, “Krishnan”).
Re claim 10, Kim discloses performing the MDT measurements based on the received MDT measurement configuration figure 3, step 315); but fails to disclose determining block error rate after each received broadcast transmission. However, Krishnan discloses determining MBS-related BLER within the target MBS area according to the measurement configuration (paragraph [0133]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Kim with Krishnan for the benefit of providing reliable data communication by measuring network performance metric such as block level error rate.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim in view of Balasubramanian et al (US 2013/0128768, “Balasubramanian”).
Re claim 13, Kim discloses performing the MDT measurements based on the received MDT measurement configuration figure 3, step 315); but fails to disclose determining modulation and coding scheme used in decoding of the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS. However, Balasubramanian discloses utilizing MCS to decode multicast broadcast control data (paragraph [0013]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Kim with Balasubramanian for the benefit of providing reliable data communication by selecting MCS to decode broadcast transmissions successfully.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 11, 12 and 14 are 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 Hong Cho whose telephone number is 571-272-3087. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri during 8 am to 4 pm.
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/HONG S CHO/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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