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 statement (IDS) submitted on 10/31/2024 and 04/29/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being 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.
In 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 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 factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1, 3, 5-6, 8, 10, and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KOSKINEN et al. (US 20230164646 A1, hereinafter, Koskinen) in view of DALSGAARD et al. (US 20260222857 A1, hereinafter, Dalsgaard)
Regarding Claim 1, Koskinen discloses, a method performed by a terminal (Fig. 6, UE 202) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) release message including measurement configuration information (Fig. 2, ¶0035 recites, "...The UE may perform the EMR measurements based at least on the EMR configuration received from gNB 204 at 212 (e.g., via an RRC message or SIB11).", see also, Fig. 6, ¶0083-¶0084 recites, At 612, UE 202 may receive an RRC release message from gNB 204, described in detail earlier in reference to 212 of FIG. 2. In some implementations, the RRC release message may include several information elements (IEs) or parameters. In an example implementation, the RRC release message may include EMR configuration, enhanced EMR (eEMR) configuration, T331 timer value, etc. In an example implementation, the eEMR configuration may indicate to the UE to use EMR configuration to perform EMR measurements along with reselection measurements."); Here “EMR” is the “Early Measurement Reporting”.
entering an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, based on the RRC release message (¶0086 recites, “At 614, upon receiving of the RRC release message from the gNB, UE 202 may transition UE 202 to RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE state, for example, to conserve battery/power and/or network resources.”);
receiving, from the base station, system information including information indicating whether the terminal performs a measurement while camping on a cell and report an availability of the measurement in case of establishing or resuming a connection in the cell ([¶0087 recites, “At 616, UE 202 may receive system information (SI) from gNB 204. In some implementations, for example, the system information may indicate cell reselection configuration (or cell reselection information). For example, the cell reselection configuration may include neighbor cell information, e.g., cells [1, 3] and/or freqs [X, Z] so that the UE may perform reselection measurements for cells [1, 3] and/or freqs [X, Z].”);
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performing the measurement, based on the measurement configuration information in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state (¶0025 recites, "...While the UE is in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE, T331 is running, and SIB1 contains idleModeMeasurements, the UE performs EMR measurements. IdleModeMeasurements field in SIB1 indicates that the UE can include idle/inactive measurement report availability during connection establishment or resumption. EMR measurement configurations can be given in RRC Release or SIB11. When both RRC release and SIB11 contains the EMR configuration, the configuration in RRC Release takes precedence over SIB11 configuration." See also, ¶0089 recites, "Optionally, at 618, UE 202 may perform EMR measurements. In some implementations, for example, UE 202 may perform EMR measurements for cells [1, 2, 3] or freqs [X, Y, Z], as defined in 3GPP Specification TS 38.331, based at least on the EMR configuration. In some implementations, for example, UE 202 may perform EMR measurements while T331 timer is running (e.g., T331 timer not expired). See also, ¶0091 recites, "At 622, UE 202 may perform cell reselection measurements. In some implementations, for example, UE 202 may perform cell reselection measurements for cells [1, 3] and/or freqs [X, Z] based at least on the information received via the system information at 616...");
performing an RRC connection procedure with the base station (¶0096- ¶0098 recites, “In response to the detection of the availability of uplink data for transmission, UE 202, at 628, in an IDLE state may send an RRC setup request message to gNB 204. In some implementations, in response to the detection of the availability of uplink data for transmission, UE 202, at 628, in INACTIVE state may send an RRC resume request message to gNB 204. At 630, UE 202 may receive an RRC setup message (or RRC resume message) from gNB 204 in response to the RRC setup request message sent to the gNB. At 632, UE 202 may send an RRC setup/resume complete message to gNB 204. In some implementations, for example, the RRC setup/resume complete message may include an indication about EMR measurements being available.”);
Koskinen doesn’t explicitly disclose, receiving, from the base station, a user equipment (UE) information request message including a request for a validated measurement; and
transmitting, to the base station, a UE information response message including the validated measurement.
Dalsgaard in related art relates, receiving, from the base station, a user equipment (UE) information request message including a request for a validated measurement (¶0123-¶0124 recites, A cell (e.g. SCell) conditional activation indication is received at the UE 302, as shown at S312. In this example, the conditional activation indication is received in a UE Information Request message. In some examples the UE Information Request message comprises a request for measurements from the UE. If the UEInformationRequest message includes an indication to conditionally activate the stored cell, the UE will initiate this. Hence, the UE will evaluate if the conditions for activating the cell are fulfilled, as shown at S313. More specifically, the UE 302 may perform measurements in the cell and then use those measurements to establish whether conditions are fulfilled for activating the cell.”); Here, the UE “validate the result” by establish whether “conditions are fulfilled for activating the cell”; and
transmitting, to the base station, a UE information response message including the validated measurement (¶0125 recites, “At S314, the UE replies to the request with the outcome of the evaluation. Hence, if the UE evaluated that the conditions for activating the cell are fulfilled, the UE includes information in a response message. For example, the UE 302 may include the measurement information in the response. In some examples the UE 302 may also include an index in the response, such as an SSB Index. The response message may comprise a UEInformationResponse message…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Koskinen with the teaching, where a base station (eNodeB or gNB) requests and receives specific logged or validated measurement data from a mobile device (UE) as disclosed by Dalsgaard. The rationale for doing this is to make sure “A benefit of the disclosed examples is that when a UE has measurements available from the idle-mode (whose validity may be checked by the UE in some examples), and the network knows which cell (e.g. (P)SCell) the measurements are associated to, the network is able to configure or activate the cell quickly without receiving the measurement results via UEInformationRequest.” [¶0134].
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Regarding Claim 3, combination of Koskinen and Dalsgaard disclose the method of claim 1.
Koskinen further discloses, wherein the performing of the RRC connection procedure further comprises transmitting an RRC setup complete message or an RRC resume complete message, and wherein the RRC setup complete message or the RRC resume complete message includes information indicating that the terminal has an available measurement result (0026 recites, "...However, if the UE is configured to perform measurements of NR/E-UTRA carriers while the UE is in an INACTIVE state, the network may request the UE to provide corresponding measurement results in an RRCResume message and then the UE may include the available measurement results in an RRCResumeComplete message. Alternatively, the UE may provide an indication of the availability of the measurement results to the network in the RRCResumeComplete message and the network may then request the UE to provide these measurement results.").
Regarding Claim 8, Koskinen discloses, a terminal (Fig. 6, UE 202) in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising: a transceiver (¶0133 recites, “…one or more RF (radio frequency) or wireless transceivers 802A, 802B…”) ; and
a controller connected to the transceiver (¶0133 recites, "...The wireless station also includes a processor or control unit/entity (controller) 804/808 to execute instructions or software and control transmission and receptions of signals..."), wherein the controller is configured to:
receive, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) release message including measurement configuration information(Fig. 2, ¶0035 recites, "...The UE may perform the EMR measurements based at least on the EMR configuration received from gNB 204 at 212 (e.g., via an RRC message or SIB11).", see also, Fig. 6, ¶0083-¶0084 recites, At 612, UE 202 may receive an RRC release message from gNB 204, described in detail earlier in reference to 212 of FIG. 2. In some implementations, the RRC release message may include several information elements (IEs) or parameters. In an example implementation, the RRC release message may include EMR configuration, enhanced EMR (eEMR) configuration, T331 timer value, etc. In an example implementation, the eEMR configuration may indicate to the UE to use EMR configuration to perform EMR measurements along with reselection measurements."); Here “EMR” is the “Early Measurement Reporting”,
enter an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, based on the RRC release message (¶0086 recites, “At 614, upon receiving of the RRC release message from the gNB, UE 202 may transition UE 202 to RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE state, for example, to conserve battery/power and/or network resources.”);
receive, from the base station, system information including information indicating whether the terminal performs a measurement while camping on a cell and report an availability of the measurement in case of establishing or resuming a connection in the cell ([¶0087 recites, “At 616, UE 202 may receive system information (SI) from gNB 204. In some implementations, for example, the system information may indicate cell reselection configuration (or cell reselection information). For example, the cell reselection configuration may include neighbor cell information, e.g., cells [1, 3] and/or freqs [X, Z] so that the UE may perform reselection measurements for cells [1, 3] and/or freqs [X, Z].”);
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perform the measurement, based on the measurement configuration information in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state (¶0025 recites, "...While the UE is in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE, T331 is running, and SIB1 contains idleModeMeasurements, the UE performs EMR measurements. IdleModeMeasurements field in SIB1 indicates that the UE can include idle/inactive measurement report availability during connection establishment or resumption. EMR measurement configurations can be given in RRC Release or SIB11. When both RRC release and SIB11 contains the EMR configuration, the configuration in RRC Release takes precedence over SIB11 configuration." See also, ¶0089 recites, "Optionally, at 618, UE 202 may perform EMR measurements. In some implementations, for example, UE 202 may perform EMR measurements for cells [1, 2, 3] or freqs [X, Y, Z], as defined in 3GPP Specification TS 38.331, based at least on the EMR configuration. In some implementations, for example, UE 202 may perform EMR measurements while T331 timer is running (e.g., T331 timer not expired). See also, ¶0091 recites, "At 622, UE 202 may perform cell reselection measurements. In some implementations, for example, UE 202 may perform cell reselection measurements for cells [1, 3] and/or freqs [X, Z] based at least on the information received via the system information at 616...");
perform an RRC connection procedure with the base station (¶0096- ¶0098 recites, “In response to the detection of the availability of uplink data for transmission, UE 202, at 628, in an IDLE state may send an RRC setup request message to gNB 204. In some implementations, in response to the detection of the availability of uplink data for transmission, UE 202, at 628, in INACTIVE state may send an RRC resume request message to gNB 204. At 630, UE 202 may receive an RRC setup message (or RRC resume message) from gNB 204 in response to the RRC setup request message sent to the gNB. At 632, UE 202 may send an RRC setup/resume complete message to gNB 204. In some implementations, for example, the RRC setup/resume complete message may include an indication about EMR measurements being available.”);
Koskinen doesn’t explicitly disclose, receive, from the base station, a user equipment (UE) information request message including a request for a validated measurement, and
transmit, to the base station, a UE information response message including the validated measurement.
Dalsgaard in related art relates, receive, from the base station, a user equipment (UE) information request message including a request for a validated measurement (¶0123-¶0124 recites, A cell (e.g. SCell) conditional activation indication is received at the UE 302, as shown at S312. In this example, the conditional activation indication is received in a UE Information Request message. In some examples the UE Information Request message comprises a request for measurements from the UE. If the UEInformationRequest message includes an indication to conditionally activate the stored cell, the UE will initiate this. Hence, the UE will evaluate if the conditions for activating the cell are fulfilled, as shown at S313. More specifically, the UE 302 may perform measurements in the cell and then use those measurements to establish whether conditions are fulfilled for activating the cell.”); Here, the UE “validate the result” by establish whether “conditions are fulfilled for activating the cell”; and
transmit, to the base station, a UE information response message including the validated measurement (¶0125 recites, “At S314, the UE replies to the request with the outcome of the evaluation. Hence, if the UE evaluated that the conditions for activating the cell are fulfilled, the UE includes information in a response message. For example, the UE 302 may include the measurement information in the response. In some examples the UE 302 may also include an index in the response, such as an SSB Index. The response message may comprise a UEInformationResponse message…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Koskinen with the teaching, where a base station (eNodeB or gNB) requests and receives specific logged or validated measurement data from a mobile device (UE) as disclosed by Dalsgaard. The rationale for doing this is to make sure “A benefit of the disclosed examples is that when a UE has measurements available from the idle-mode (whose validity may be checked by the UE in some examples), and the network knows which cell (e.g. (P)SCell) the measurements are associated to, the network is able to configure or activate the cell quickly without receiving the measurement results via UEInformationRequest.” [¶0134].
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Regarding claim 5, “Method (BS)”, is rejected under the same reasoning as Claim 1, Method (UE), where Koskinen, Dalsgaard, teach “Method (UE)/ Method (BS)”.
Regarding claims 6, 10, and 13, “Method (BS)/ UE/ BS”, are rejected under the same reasoning as Claim 3, Method (UE), where Koskinen, and Dalsgaard teach “Method (UE)/Method (BS)/ UE/ BS)”.
Regarding claim 12, “BS”, is rejected under the same reasoning as Claim 8, UE, where Koskinen, Dalsgaard, teach “UE/ BS”.
Claims 2, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KOSKINEN and DALSGAARD further in view of LEE; Oanyong (20210105647 A1, Hereinafter, Lee)
Regarding Claim 2, combination of Koskinen and Dalsgaard disclose the method of claim 1.
Koskinen doesn’t explicitly disclose, further comprising: in case that the transmission of the UE information response message is successful, discarding a measurement result.
Lee in related art relates, further comprising: in case that the transmission of the UE information response message is successful, discarding a measurement result. (¶0294 recites, "...Upon receiving the indication, the network can request the UE to report the available idle mode measurement (or early measurement) results via UEInformationRequest message. Then the UE may include the stored idle mode measurement (or early measurement) results in the UEInformationResponse message and discard the measurement results after the UEInformationResponse message is successfully transmitted.").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Koskinen and Dalsgaard with the teaching, where the UE deletes the stored measurement data immediately after the response message is sent successfully as disclosed by Lee. The rationale for doing this is to make sure once the early measurement data is successfully sent, the UE immediately discards it, freeing up its local memory and preventing unnecessary background processing.
Regarding claim 9, “UE”, are rejected under the same reasoning as Claim 2, Method (UE), where Koskinen, Dalsgaard, and Lee teach “Method (UE)/ UE”.
Claims 4, 7, 11 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KOSKINEN and DALSGAARD further in view of Kumar et al. (US 20220046456 A1, Hereinafter, Kumar)
Regarding Claim 4, combination of Koskinen and Dalsgaard disclose the method of claim 1.
Koskinen doesn’t explicitly disclose, wherein the measurement configuration information comprises at least one of a carrier list associated with new radio (NR), a carrier list associated with long-term evolution (LTE), duration information, and a frequency list.
Kumar in related art relates, wherein the measurement configuration information comprises at least one of a carrier list associated with new radio (NR), a carrier list associated with long-term evolution (LTE), duration information, and a frequency list (¶0096 recites, "The idle mode measurement configuration 210 may include an indication or carrier lists, such as NR carriers or E-UTRA carriers, as well as a validity area for performing the measurements. In some cases, the base station 105-a may transmit the idle mode measurement configuration 210 in RRC release signaling...", see also, ¶0100 recites, "...The MDT configuration 215 may indicate to the UE 115-a whether the idle mode measurement configuration 210 may also be used by the UE 115-a for MDT reporting. Further, the MDT configuration 215 may include frequency and cell information that the UE 115-a may use to perform idle mode measurements."). Also, examiner interprets that one of the claimed features to be mapped, because of the presence of “at least one of” in the limitation.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teaching of Koskinen and Dalsgaard with the teaching, where measurement configuration specifies parameters used by a user UE to perform idle or inactive mode measurements as disclosed by Kumar. The rationale for doing this is that, It outlines a flexible Measurement Configuration framework to increase data speeds, drastically reducing transceiver power consumption, and conserving both device processing power and network signaling overhead.
Regarding claims 7, 11, and 14, “Method (BS)/ UE/ BS”, are rejected under the same reasoning as Claim 4, Method (UE), where Koskinen, Dalsgaard, and Kumar teach “Method (UE)/Method (BS)/ UE/ BS)”.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Rugeland et al. (US 20240381145- Table 10/11, ¶0079) can be used for independent claims 1, 5, 8 and 12 in addition to the one used.
Da Silva et al. (US 20220150739 A1) can be used for independent claims 1, 5, 8 and 12 in addition to the one used.
Teyeb et al. (US 20220174593 A1) can be used for independent claims 1, 5, 8 and 12 in addition to the one used.
3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #123bis; R2-2310796; Xiamen, China, 09 – 13 October 2023 (IDS)
Agenda item: 7.4.5; Source: Nokia, Nokia Shanghai Bell
Title: Discussion on improvements on SCell/SCG setup delay
WID/SID:NR_Mob_enh2-Core - Release 18
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/MUHAMMAD AINUL HUDA/Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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