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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 7/25/2025 and 10/23/2024 have been considered by the examiner.
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, 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 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.
Claim(s) 16-35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2018/0115926) in view of Liu et al. (US 2025/0234254) .
Regarding claim 16, Wu discloses a method performed by a target master node (MN) in a wireless communication system (Wu, Fig. 7, T-MeNB), the method comprising:
receiving, from a source MN, a first message including second information on a second identity related to a source secondary node (SN) (Wu, Fig. 7, 1: Handover request from S-MeNB to T-MeNB; paragraph [0107], third node [S-MeNB] notifies the information of the first node [S-SeNB] to the fourth node [T-MeNB] in an X2 handover request message, fourth node acquires indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available; paragraph [0109], third node [S-MeNB] notifies the indication information to the fourth node [T-MeNB] in an X2 handover request message; paragraph [0111], first node is S-SeNB, second node is T-SeNB, third node is S-MeNB, fourth node is T-MeNB; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes GPRS TEID tunnel endpoint identifier);
transmitting, to a target SN, a second message including the second information, and third information related to a bearer terminated at the target SN (Wu, Fig. 7, 2: SeNB modification request from T-MeNB to T-SeNB; Fig. 18, 2: SeNB adding request from T-MeNB to T-SeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] notifies the information of the first node [S-SeNB] to the second node [T-SeNB] via an SeNB adding request message; paragraph [0326], information of the S-SeNB carried in the SeNB adding request message such that T-SeNB determines whether the X2 interface exists between T-SeNB and S-SeNB);
receiving, from the target SN, a third message including fourth information on a direct forwarding path availability (Wu, Fig. 7, 3: SeNB modification request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; Fig. 18, 3: SeNB adding request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] receives SeNB adding request confirmation message that carries indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available); and
transmitting, to the source MN, a fourth message including the fourth information and fifth information on a data forwarding tunnel (Wu, Fig. 7, 4: Handover request confirmation from T-MeNB to S-MeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node transmits the forwarding address of the second node to the third node in an X2 handover request confirmation message; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes GPRS TEID tunnel endpoint identifier; paragraph [0349], in the handover request confirmation message, the T-MeNB may carry the following information: indication information indicating that the X2 interface exists between the S-SeNB and the T-MeNB, or indication information indicating that data forwarding can be performed directly between the S-SeNB and the T-MeNB).
Wu does not explicitly disclose the first message including first information on a first identity related to the source MN; and the second message including the first information.
Liu discloses a first message including first information on a first identity related to the source MN (Liu, Fig. 4, S403 S-MN transmits handover request message to target base station; paragraph [0096], source primary base station transmits a handover request message to the target base station, source primary base station carries the address information about the source secondary base station for data forwarding (the second address information) and the address information about the source primary base station for relaying the forwarded data between the source secondary base station and the target base station (the third address information));
a second message including the first information (Liu, Fig. 5, S502 T-MN transmits addition request message to T-SN; paragraph [0104], Step 502: the target primary base station transmits SN addition request message to the target secondary base station (the second network side device, T-SN) the addition request message carries information about the source base station (that transmitted the handover request) for direct data forwarding, when direct data forwarding is supported between the target secondary base station and the source base station, an address of the source base station for data forwarding is added into the address list of base stations allowed to connect, so as to allow to receive the data directly forwarded by the source side).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Liu into the system of Wu in order to improve a data volume/throughput of the UE, and meet the requirement on the transmission of a high-rate service (Liu; [0067]).
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Wu and Liu, particularly Wu discloses wherein the fourth information includes at least one of a first direct forwarding path availability between the source MN and the target SN, or a second direct forwarding path availability between the source SN and the target SN (Wu, paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] receives SeNB adding request confirmation message that carries indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available between the second node [T-SeNB] and the first node [S-SeNB]; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes: GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by uplink data and GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by downlink data; the GPRS tunneling protocol information includes: a transmission layer address and a GPRS TEID).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Wu and Liu, particularly Wu discloses wherein the fifth information includes information on a data forwarding tunnel associated with the target MN and information on a data forwarding tunnel associated with a target SN (Wu, Fig. 7, 4: Handover request confirmation from T-MeNB to S-MeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node transmits the forwarding address of the second node to the third node in an X2 handover request confirmation message; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes: GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by uplink data and GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by downlink data; the GPRS tunneling protocol information includes: a transmission layer address and a GPRS TEID; paragraph [0349], in the handover request confirmation message, the T-MeNB may carry the following information: indication information indicating that the X2 interface exists between the S-SeNB and the T-MeNB, or indication information indicating that data forwarding can be performed directly between the S-SeNB and the T-MeNB).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Wu and Liu, particularly Wu discloses wherein the information on the data forwarding tunnel associated with the target MN includes first uplink (UL) forwarding tunnel information and first downlink (DL) forwarding tunnel information (Wu, paragraph [0080], forwarding address includes: GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by uplink data and GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by downlink data; the GPRS tunneling protocol information includes: a transmission layer address and a GPRS Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID)), and
wherein the information on the data forwarding tunnel associated with the target SN includes second UL forwarding tunnel information and second DL forwarding tunnel information (Wu, paragraph [0080], forwarding address includes: GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by uplink data and GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by downlink data; the GPRS tunneling protocol information includes: a transmission layer address and a GPRS Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID)).
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Wu and Liu, particularly Wu discloses wherein the first message includes a handover request message(Wu, Fig. 7, 1: Handover request from S-MeNB to T-MeNB),
wherein the second message includes a secondary node addition request message (Wu, Fig. 7, 2: SeNB modification request from T-MeNB to T-SeNB; Fig. 18, 2: SeNB adding request from T-MeNB to T-SeNB),
wherein the third message includes a secondary node addition request acknowledge message (Wu, Fig. 7, 3: SeNB modification request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; Fig. 18, 3: SeNB adding request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB), and
wherein the fourth message includes a handover request acknowledge message (Wu, Fig. 7, 4: Handover request confirmation from T-MeNB to S-MeNB).
Regarding claim 21, Wu discloses a method performed by a source master node (MN) in a wireless communication system, (Wu, Fig. 7, S-MeNB), the method comprising:
transmitting, to a target MN, a first message including second information on a second identity related to a source secondary node (SN) (Wu, Fig. 7, 1: Handover request from S-MeNB to T-MeNB; paragraph [0107], third node [S-MeNB] notifies the information of the first node [S-SeNB] to the fourth node [T-MeNB] in an X2 handover request message, fourth node acquires indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available; paragraph [0109], third node [S-MeNB] notifies the indication information to the fourth node [T-MeNB] in an X2 handover request message; paragraph [0111], first node is S-SeNB, second node is T-SeNB, third node is S-MeNB, fourth node is T-MeNB; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes GPRS TEID tunnel endpoint identifier);
receiving, from the target MN, a second message including third information on a direct forwarding path availability and fourth information on a data forwarding tunnel (Wu, Fig. 7, 4: Handover request confirmation from T-MeNB to S-MeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node transmits the forwarding address of the second node to the third node in an X2 handover request confirmation message; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes GPRS TEID tunnel endpoint identifier; paragraph [0349], in the handover request confirmation message, the T-MeNB may carry the following information: indication information indicating that the X2 interface exists between the S-SeNB and the T-MeNB, or indication information indicating that data forwarding can be performed directly between the S-SeNB and the T-MeNB).
Wu does not explicitly disclose the first message including first information on a first identity related to the source MN.
Liu discloses a first message including first information on a first identity related to the source MN (Liu, Fig. 4, S403 S-MN transmits handover request message to target base station; paragraph [0096], source primary base station transmits a handover request message to the target base station, source primary base station carries the address information about the source secondary base station for data forwarding (the second address information) and the address information about the source primary base station for relaying the forwarded data between the source secondary base station and the target base station (the third address information)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Liu into the system of Wu in order to improve a data volume/throughput of the UE, and meet the requirement on the transmission of a high-rate service (Liu; [0067]).
Claim 22 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 17.
Claim 23 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 18.
Regarding claim 24, Wu discloses a method performed by a target secondary node (SN) in a wireless communication system (Wu, Fig. 7, T-SeNB), the method comprising:
receiving, from a target master node (MN), a first message including second information on a second identity related to a source SN, and third information related to a bearer terminated at the target SN (Wu, Fig. 7, 2: SeNB modification request from T-MeNB to T-SeNB; Fig. 18, 2: SeNB adding request from T-MeNB to T-SeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] notifies the information of the first node [S-SeNB] to the second node [T-SeNB] via an SeNB adding request message; paragraph [0326], information of the S-SeNB carried in the SeNB adding request message such that T-SeNB determines whether the X2 interface exists between T-SeNB and S-SeNB);
determining fourth information on a direct forwarding path availability (Wu, Fig. 7, 3: SeNB modification request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; Fig. 18, 3: SeNB adding request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] receives SeNB adding request confirmation message that carries indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available; paragraph [0326], information of the S-SeNB carried in the SeNB adding request message such that T-SeNB determines whether the X2 interface exists between T-SeNB and S-SeNB); and
transmitting, to the target MN, a second message including the fourth information (Wu, Fig. 7, 3: SeNB modification request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; Fig. 18, 3: SeNB adding request confirmation from T-SeNB to T-MeNB; paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] receives SeNB adding request confirmation message that carries indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available).
Wu does not explicitly disclose the first message including first information on a first identity related to the source MN.
Liu discloses a first message including the first information on a first identity related to the source MN (Liu, Fig. 5, S502 T-MN transmits addition request message to T-SN; paragraph [0104], Step 502: the target primary base station transmits SN addition request message to the target secondary base station (the second network side device, T-SN) the addition request message carries information about the source base station (that transmitted the handover request) for direct data forwarding, when direct data forwarding is supported between the target secondary base station and the source base station, an address of the source base station for data forwarding is added into the address list of base stations allowed to connect, so as to allow to receive the data directly forwarded by the source side).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Liu into the system of Wu in order to improve a data volume/throughput of the UE, and meet the requirement on the transmission of a high-rate service (Liu; [0067]).
Regarding claim 25, the combination of Wu and Liu, particularly Wu discloses wherein the fourth information includes at least one of a first direct forwarding path availability between the source MN and the target SN, or a second direct forwarding path availability between the source SN and the target SN (Wu, paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] receives SeNB adding request confirmation message that carries indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available between the second node [T-SeNB] and the first node [S-SeNB]; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes: GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by uplink data and GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by downlink data; the GPRS tunneling protocol information includes: a transmission layer address and a GPRS TEID), and
wherein the fourth information is determined based on the first information and the second information (Wu, paragraph [0107], fourth node [T-MeNB] receives SeNB adding request confirmation message that carries indication information that a direct-forwarding path is available between the second node [T-SeNB] and the first node [S-SeNB]; paragraph [0112], forwarding address includes: GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by uplink data and GPRS tunneling protocol information forwarded by downlink data; the GPRS tunneling protocol information includes: a transmission layer address and a GPRS TEID; paragraph [0326], information of the S-SeNB carried in the SeNB adding request message such that T-SeNB determines whether the X2 interface exists between T-SeNB and S-SeNB).
Claim 26 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 16. Wu additionally discloses a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver (Wu, Fig. 25).
Claim 27 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 17.
Claim 28 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 18.
Claim 29 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 19.
Claim 30 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 20.
Claim 31 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 21. Wu additionally discloses a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver (Wu, Fig. 25).
Claim 32 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 17.
Claim 33 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 18.
Claim 34 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 24. Wu additionally discloses a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver (Wu, Fig. 25).
Claim 35 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 25.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Tang (US 20230362756) discloses (Fig. 12, S1201 Handover request carrying IP address of S-MN and IP address of S-SN; paragraph [0243], S-MN sends a handover request message to a T-MN, where the message carries a user plane IP address of an S-SN and/or a user plane IP address of the S-MN);
Purkayastha et al. (US 20210385897) discloses a source MN may 306 transmit a handover request message to target MN 308. The handover request message may carry or convey UE configuration information for UE 302, e.g., radio configuration information, quality of service (QoS) requirements, bearer configuration information, and the like. The handover request message may carry or convey an indication of UE 302 context in the source MN 306 and/or SN 304, SN ID (e.g., an identifier for SN 304), a target cell ID (e.g., an identifier for target MN 308), and/or an SN UE Xn application protocol (XnAP) ID.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALAN LOUIS LINDENBAUM whose telephone number is (571)270-3858. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Un Cho can be reached at (571) 272-7919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/A.L.L/Examiner, Art Unit 2413
/UN C CHO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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