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 statements (IDS) submitted on 10/17/24 and 3/27/25 are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the submitted drawings is unclear/hard to read and without labeling the number of the drawing. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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)(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) 1-3 and 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wang et al. (US 2022/0407664 A1).
Consider claim 1, Wang teaches a method of implementing an optimal handover of a user equipment (UE) in an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) system from a first serving cell subject to a shutdown to an optimal target cell for the UE before executing the shutdown (abstract and paragraph 30), comprising:
providing an event trigger style for an event trigger used to trigger an event in an E2 node of the O-RAN system when a configuration change is ongoing within the E2 node (Fig. 8, step 304 and paragraph 129-131, the list of cells to be activated and deactivated is updated based on information exchanged), wherein the event trigger style is provided as radio intelligent controller (RIC) Event Trigger Definition information element (IE) Style Type 5 (paragraph 96 and Table 1 and paragraph 8-9, RIC style type 5 is dual connectivity where the RT-RIC and the E2 node uses dual connectivity for communication);
sending the event trigger from the E2 node to a near-real time (near-RT) RIC (paragraph 91 and Fig. 4, step 405, the E2 node sends cell load KPI and status of the cells); and
sending, by the near-RT RIC, a control message to the E2 node to implement the optimal handover of the UE to the optimal target cell for the UE (Fig. 5, step 511 and paragraph 93, the near-RT RIC sends RIC control request to the E2 node).
Consider claim 2, Wang also teaches providing, by the E2 node of the O-RAN system, at least one of performance measurement data, trace data, and configuration management data to a non-real time (non-RT) RIC (Fig. 8, step 305 and paragraph 129-131); and
sending, by the non-RT RIC to the E2 node of the O-RAN system, a cell shutdown message containing information regarding the first serving cell to be shut down (Fig. 8, step 304 and paragraph 129-131).
Consider claim 3, Wang also teaches the E2 node comprises at least an O-RAN centralized unit control plane (O-CU-CP), and the E2 node sends the event trigger to the near-RT RIC in response to the cell shutdown message sent by the non-RT RIC (paragraph 30 and 64).
Consider claims 7-8, Wang also teaches RIC Event Trigger Definition IE Style type 5 is used to detect a configuration process in the E2 node based on a specific configuration process type identifier and a configuration process breakpoint identifier associated with the configuration (paragraph 96 and Table 1 and paragraph 8-9, RIC style type 5 is dual connectivity where the RT-RIC and the E2 node uses dual connectivity for communication).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 and 9-16 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 JUSTIN YE LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-5258. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30-8:00.
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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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/JUSTIN Y LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644 9/4/26
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