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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on January 06, 2025 and September 02, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on September 27, 2024. These drawings are acceptable.
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.
Claim(s) 20-21, 23-28, 30-33, and 35-38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Casati (US 2023/0345266) in view of Shen (US 2025/0274903).
Regarding claim 20, Casati discloses a method applied to a third node (i.e., Operations, Administration and Management (OAM) as described in paragraph 0034), the method comprising:
obtaining location information of a first node (i.e., tracking areas for mobile IAB nodes is determined based on a range of tracking area codes/tracking area identifiers that the Mobile IAB nodes advertise on the system information as described in paragraph 0103);
determining, based on the location information, tracking area information corresponding to a cell provided by the first node (i.e., tracking area code (TAC) as described in paragraph 0034. Also, obtaining the tracking areas and/or PCI values dedicated to mobile IAB CUs. The mobile IAB nodes advertises the tracking area codes/tracking area identifier as described in paragraph 0103); and
Casati, however, does not expressly disclose sending the tracking area information to a second node.
In a similar endeavor, Shen discloses information processing method and communication device. Shen also discloses sending the tracking area information to a second node (i.e., sending tracking area information from gNB to AMF as described in paragraph 0193).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to update the location information and ensure the correct routing.
Regarding claim 21, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Shen also discloses wherein obtaining the location information of a first node comprising: receiving, the location information of the first node from the second node (i.e., the location of the UE is indicated by the TA as described in paragraph 0070, and the AMF receives the location of the UE from gNB as described in paragraph 0193).
Regarding claims 23, 30, and 35, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Casati also discloses wherein the tracking area information comprises a tracking area identity (TAI), a tracking area code (TAC), or a RAN-based notification area identity (RNA ID) (i.e., tracking area code (TAC) as described in paragraph 0034).
Regarding claims 24, and 38, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Casati also discloses wherein the first node is an integrated access and backhaul (IAB)-distributed unit (i.e., to IAB-DU as described in paragraph 0003-0004).
Regarding claims 25, and 37, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Casati also discloses wherein the second node is an IAB-mobile termination (i.e., to IAB-MT as described in paragraph 0034).
Regarding claims 26, and 36, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Casati also discloses wherein the third node is an operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) (i.e., OAM as described in paragraph 0034).
Regarding claim 27, Casati discloses a method applied to a second node, the method comprising:
wherein the tracking area information is determined based on location information of a first node (i.e., tracking area code (TAC) as described in paragraph 0034. Also, obtaining the tracking areas and/or PCI values dedicated to mobile IAB CUs. The mobile IAB nodes advertises the tracking area codes/tracking area identifier as described in paragraph 0103), and the tracking area information corresponds to a cell provided by the first node.
Casati, however, does not expressly discloses receiving tracking area information from a third node.
In a similar endeavor, Shen discloses information processing method and communication device. Shen also discloses receiving tracking area information from a third node (i.e., sending tracking area information from gNB to AMF as described in paragraph 0193).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to update the location information and ensure the correct routing.
Regarding claim 28, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Casati also discloses sending the location information of the first node to the third node (i.e., tracking areas for mobile IAB nodes is determined based on a range of tracking area codes/tracking area identifiers that the Mobile IAB nodes advertise on the system information as described in paragraph 0103).
Regarding claim 31, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Casati also discloses wherein the first node is an integrated access and backhaul IAB-distributed unit (i.e., to IAB-DU as described in paragraph 0003-0004), the second node is an IAB-mobile termination (i.e., to IAB-MT as described in paragraph 0034), and the third node is an operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) (i.e., OAM as described in paragraph 0034).
Regarding claim 32, Casati discloses a communication system, comprising:
a third node (i.e., OAM as described in paragraph 0034) in communication with a second node (i.e., to IAB-MT as described in paragraph 0034), wherein the third node is configured to:
obtain location information of a first node (i.e., tracking areas for mobile IAB nodes is determined based on a range of tracking area codes/tracking area identifiers that the Mobile IAB nodes advertise on the system information as described in paragraph 0103);
determine, based on the location information, tracking area information corresponding to a cell provided by the first node (i.e., tracking area code (TAC) as described in paragraph 0034. Also, obtaining the tracking areas and/or PCI values dedicated to mobile IAB CUs. The mobile IAB nodes advertises the tracking area codes/tracking area identifier as described in paragraph 0103); and
Casati, however, does not expressly disclose sending the tracking area information to a second node.
In a similar endeavor, Shen discloses information processing method and communication device. Shen also discloses sending the tracking area information to a second node (i.e., sending tracking area information from gNB to AMF as described in paragraph 0193).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to update the location information and ensure the correct routing.
Regarding claim 33, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Shen also discloses the second node, wherein the second node is configured to send the location information of the first node to the third node (i.e., the location of the UE is indicated by the TA as described in paragraph 0070, and the AMF receives the location of the UE from gNB as described in paragraph 0193).
Claim(s) 22, 29, and 34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Casati in view of Shen, and further in view of Wu et al. (hereinafter “Wu”, US 2022/0191775).
Regarding claims 22, 29, and 34, Casati and Shen disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but do not expressly disclose features of this claim.
In a similar endeavor, Wu discloses cell search based on spatial temporal statistical information. Wu also discloses wherein the location information comprises longitude, latitude, or a height of the first node (i.e., longitude and latitude as described in paragraph 0032).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to identify the location of the node more accurately.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WAYNE CAI whose telephone number is (571)272-7798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KATHY WANG-HURST can be reached on (571)270-5371. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Wayne H Cai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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