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 .
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.
Claim(s) 26-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cain EP 1376939.
Regarding claim 26, Cain teaches a network node for supporting providing radio coverage within a plurality of cells
within a radio communication network, said network node comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the network node at least to perform:
evaluating a quality of service that may be provided to a user equipment within at least one area of radio coverage provided by said network node;
generating a corresponding at least one indication of said quality of service; and
transmitting said at least one indication to a further network node within said radio communication network (at each intermediate node of a potential route that can support QoS
parameters of the QoS route request, forwarding the QoS route request and temporarily reserving node resources according to the QoS route request; determining a plurality of potential routes between the source node (1) and the destination node (4) by replies generated and sent to the source node by the destination node (4) via the plurality of potential routes upon receiving the QoS route request and determining a QoS metric corresponding to each of the QoS parameters for each potential route responsive to the QoS route request; and characterised by ranking the QoS parameters in an order of importance, wherein the ranking leads to a determination of weighting factors for each QoS parameter based upon network performance objectives; weighting each of the QoS metrics with the respective weighting factor based upon the ranking of QoS parameters; comparing the weighted QoS metrics and selecting one of the potential routes based thereon by the source node, claim 1).
Regarding claim 27, (at each intermediate node of a potential route that can support QoS parameters of the QoS route request, forwarding the QoS route request, claim 1).
Regarding claim 28, (It should be noted that the route request used in the above manner with link and node metrics may be used to perform route discovery for QoS paths for a reactive routing protocol, [0017])
Regarding claim 29, proactive, routing, maintain optimal routes to destinations at all times, [0014], at each of the intermediate nodes and the destination node, it may be detected whether the node can continue to support the requested QoS parameter of the QoS route request and, if not, generating and sending a QoS error notification to the source node, [0021]
Regarding claim 30, (at each of the intermediate nodes and the destination node, it may be detected whether the node can continue to support the requested QoS parameter of the QoS route request and, if not, generating and sending a QoS error notification to the source node, [0021]).
Claim(s) 33, 40 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Matta US 20030069018.
Regarding claim 33, teaches a network node for supporting providing radio coverage within a plurality of cells
within a radio communication network, said network node comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the network node at least to perform:
receiving at least one indication of a quality of service that may be provided to a user equipment within at least one area of radio coverage provided by at least one further network
node;
storing said at least one indication;
using said stored at least one indication as a factor in selecting a target cell / (AP/R pair) in a handover procedure, cells providing a higher quality of service being prioritized over cells providing a lower quality of service (probing a plurality of AP/R pairs with the mobile terminal to obtain at least one QoS parameter that is defined by a communication traffic path between the mobile terminal and a correspondent node; classifying each AP/R pair into a group that passes a predefined QoS requirement associated with the QoS parameter; ranking the group according to a predicted level of performance by quantifying the QoS parameter; and generating a handoff trigger directing the mobile terminal to hand off to the AP/R pair providing the highest QoS to the mobile terminal, [0016]).
Regarding claim 40, (Matta: bit error rate, [0011]).
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) 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cain as applied to claim 26 above, and further in view of Matta.
Regarding claim 32, Cain is silent on receiving at least one indication of a quality of service that may be provided to a user equipment within at least one area of radio coverage provided by at least one further network node;
storing said at least one indication;
using said stored at least one indication as a factor in selecting a target cell in a handover procedure, cells providing a higher quality of service being prioritized over cells providing a lower quality of service.
Matta teaches receiving at least one indication of a quality of service that may be provided to a user equipment within at least one area of radio coverage provided by at least one further network node;
storing said at least one indication;
using said stored at least one indication as a factor in selecting a target cell in a handover procedure, cells providing a higher quality of service being prioritized over cells providing a lower quality of service (probing a plurality of AP/R pairs with the mobile terminal to obtain at least one QoS parameter that is defined by a communication traffic path between the mobile terminal and a correspondent node; classifying each AP/R pair into a group that passes a predefined QoS requirement associated with the QoS parameter; ranking the group according to a predicted level of performance by quantifying the QoS parameter; and generating a handoff trigger directing the mobile terminal to hand off to the AP/R pair providing the highest QoS to the mobile terminal, [0016]).
Therefore 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 system of Cain by receiving at least one indication of a quality of service that may be provided to a user equipment within at least one area of radio coverage provided by at least one further network node; storing said at least one indication; using said stored at least one indication as a factor in selecting a target cell in a handover procedure, cells providing a higher quality of service being prioritized over cells providing a lower quality of service, as shown by Matta. This modification would benefit the system by enabling the system to select an optimal target cell for handover.
Claim(s) 34, 35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matta as applied to claim 33 above, and further in view of Mitts US 5912885.
Matta is silent on prior to receiving said at least one indication: generating a request for said at least one indication; transmitting said request to said at least one further network node.
Mitts teaches prior to receiving said at least one indication: generating a request for said at least one indication; transmitting said request to said at least one further network node (Accordingly, an uplink connection, i.e. a connection from mobile terminal to network, begins with a connection request of the mobile terminal, including indication of the quality of service desired by the mobile terminal, same enquiry procedure is advantageously applied during handover, where the request of the mobile terminal for a handover is transmitted to the switch, col 3 lines 12-31).
Therefore 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 system of Matta by prior to receiving said at least one indication: generating a request for said at least one indication; transmitting said request to said at least one further network node, as shown by Mitts. This modification would benefit the system by informing the UE of the QoS of potential target cells for handover.
Regarding claim 35, (Mitts: col 3 lines 12-31).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 42-44 are allowed.
Claims 31, 33, 36-39, 41 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 RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
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/RONALD B ABELSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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