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 .
This communication is response to claims filed on 11/11/24.
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement’s
4. The information disclosure statement(s) submitted on 11/11/24 have being considered by the examiner and made of record in the application file.
Priority
5. Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Drawing
6. The drawings filed on 11/11/24 are accepted by the examiner.
Specification
7. The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. Examiner suggested to change the title to “REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF A BASE STATION”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claims Objections
8. Claim 20 is objected to because of minor informalities:
9. Claim 20, in part, recites, “…a user equipment, comprising a processor and a memory…in line 1. It’s suggested to amend it to: “a user equipment comprising: a processor and a memory”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
10. 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.
11. Claims 1-6, 9-12, 14, 17 & 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Iwamura et al. (hereinafter referred as Iwamura) US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0048918 A1.
Regarding claims 1 & 20: Iwamura discloses a User Equipment (UE) (See FIG. 6; an apparatus (i.e., UE))/method, comprising
a processor (See FIG. 6; an apparatus includes controller) and
a memory (See FIG. 6; an apparatus includes database) storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a wake-up signal associated with a target cell (See FIG. 3 & Para. 0069; the UE receives wake up signal configuration, the WSU configuration indicating the nature of the signal, for example to wake up all small cells, to wake up only small cells with a bandwidth of x MHZ, to wake up only a certain CSG cell or the like); and
sending the wake-up signal (See Para. 0069-0071; the user equipment 112 receives the wake-up signal configuration it configures or generates the wake-up signal to be transmitted on the basis of the received wake-up signal configuration to the base station).
Regarding claim 2: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein before the obtaining, by the UE, the wake-up signal associated with the target cell, the method further comprises: determining, by the UE, the target cell (See Para. 0068-0070; t is assumed that the wake-up signal configuration received from the macro base station indicated that only sleeping CSG small cells should be activated, so that, as can be seen from FIG. 3, the wake-up signal, at 202, is only considered by the sleeping small cells 104.sub.2 and 104.sub.2).
Regarding claim 3: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the determining, by the UE, the target cell comprises: performing, by the UE, signal measurement on N first cells in an energy-saving mode, to obtain a measurement result; and selecting, by the UE, the target cell from the N first cells based on the measurement result, wherein the target cell is at least one of the N first cells, and N is a positive integer (See FIG. 3 & Para. 0067-0090; Fig. 3 it is assumed that the wake-up signal configuration received from the macro base station indicates that only the dormant CSG small cells should be activated, so that, as can be seen from Fig. 3, the wake-up signal is only considered by the dormant small cells 1042 and 1042 'at 202. Thus, in accordance with the embodiments described with respect to Figure 3, a configurable wake-up signal is sent from the macro cell 100 to the UE 112 to facilitate activation of only certain types of small cells 1042, 1042 '. As indicated by block 204 in Figure 3, once the target small cells 1042 and 1042 'receive the wake up signal, the user equipment is detected by these small cells and the small cell activation process will begin such that components (e.g. Hardware and software components) of the respective small cells transition from an inactive or low energy state to an active state which allows the user equipment to be served for data transmission in the network. As shown at 206, the activated sleep small cell starts. transmitting pilot signals which are received at the user equipment 112 performing the small cell measurements as shown at block 208. Measurements are sent from the user device 112 to the macro base station 100, as shown at 210, and the macro base station selects a small cell that best serves the user device 112 at block 211 and returns a small cell reconfiguration command to the user device 112, as shown at 212).
Regarding claim 4: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the determining, by the UE, the target cell comprises: performing, by the UE, signal measurement on M second cells, to obtain a measurement result, wherein each second cell is associated with at least one first cell in an energy-saving mode, and M is a positive integer; and using, by the UE based on the measurement result, a first cell associated with a target second cell as the target cell, wherein the target second cell is a second cell with a measurement result satisfying a first condition in the M second cells (See Para. 0069-0090; selecting the target cell from a plurality of energy saving cells and receiving a target cell indicating to wake up from a macro base station, and the UE performing signal measurements on these woken up cells, resulting in measurement results; reporting the measurement result to the macro base station, selecting by the macro base station the best serving cell from the plurality of cells based on the measurement result. On this basis, it is within the ordinary skill in the art to determine the best cell serving the UE by measuring the second cell associated with the at least one first cell in energy saving mode, since the energy saving cell is not transmitting downlink measurement signals when it is completely turned off. Whereby the UE performs signal measurements on M second cells, resulting in measurement results; each second cell associates at least one first cell in energy saving mode; m is a positive integer; using, by the UE, a first cell to which a target second cell is associated as the target cell based on the measurement result).
Regarding claim 5: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the obtaining, by the UE, the wake-up signal associated with the target cell comprises: determining, by the UE, the wake-up signal based on a wake-up signal configuration associated with the target cell (See Para. 0069-0083; Once the user equipment 112 receives the wake-up signal configuration, it configures or generates a wake-up signal to be transmitted based on the received wake-up signal configuration and, as shown at 202, emits the wake-up signal. In the embodiment of Figure 3, it is assumed that the wake-up signal configuration received from the macro base station indicates that only the dormant CSG small cells should be activated, so that, as can be seen from Figure 3, the wake-up signal is only considered by the dormant small cells 1042 and 1042 'at 202. Thus, in accordance with the embodiments described with respect to Figure 3, a configurable wake-up signal is sent from the macro cell 100 to the UE 112 to facilitate activation of only certain types of small cells 1042, 1042).
Regarding claim 6: Iwamura discloses the method, further comprising: obtaining, by the UE, a first configuration configured for the UE by a network side device, wherein the first configuration comprises a cell configuration of at least one of the first cells; and a cell configuration of each of the first cells comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the first cell; or cell information of a second cell associated with the first cell (See Para. 0069-0090; Small cell base stations 104i, 1042, and 1045 are assumed to be in sleep mode, as indicated by the dashed circles indicating respective small cells 106i, 1062, and 1065. The SeNBs 1043 and 1044 are active. The macro base station 100 provides a configuration of WU signals, e.g. It indicates which frequency resources to use, e.g. Frequencies f1, f2, f3 or all frequencies. Further, according to an embodiment, it indicates the nature of the signal, such as waking up all small cells, waking up only small cells with x MHz bandwidth, waking up only CSG cells 1042, etc. Additional information may also be included, such as the duration of transmission of the wake-up signal, uplink resource allocation, etc).
Regarding claim 9: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the wake-up signal comprises a wake-up signal characteristic, wherein the wake-up signal characteristic indicates the target cell (See FIG. 3 & Para. 0069; the UE receives wake up signal configuration, the WSU configuration indicating the nature of the signal, for example to wake up all small cells, to wake up only small cells with a bandwidth of x MHZ, to wake up only a certain CSG cell or the like).
Regarding claim 10: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the obtaining, by the UE, the wake-up signal associated with the target cell comprises: determining, by the UE based on a second configuration, the wake-up signal associated with the target cell, wherein the second configuration is configured for the UE by a network side device, and the second configuration comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of at least one first cell in an energy-saving mode; a wake-up signal characteristic configuration corresponding to each of the first cells; the target cell is one or more cells in the at least one first cell; or the wake-up signal characteristic is configured based on a wake-up signal characteristic configuration corresponding to the target cell (See Para. 0069-0075; Macro base station 100 provides configuration of WU signals, e.g. It indicates which frequency resources are to be used, e.g. Frequencies f1, f2, f3 or all frequencies. Further, according to an embodiment, it indicates the nature of the signal, such as waking up all small cells, waking up only small cells with x MHz bandwidth, waking up only CSG cells 1042, etc. Additional information may also be included, such as the duration of transmission of the wake-up signal, uplink resource allocation).
Regarding claim 11: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the wake-up signal characteristic configuration comprises at least one of the following: a start location of a wake-up signal sequence; an end location of a wake-up signal sequence; a quantity of wake-up signal sequences; a length of a wake-up signal sequence; an index or an index range of a wake-up signal sequence; an index or an index range of a wake-up signal scrambling sequence; a root sequence of a wake-up signal sequence, or a root sequence list of a wake-up signal sequence; or a transmit power of a wake-up signal, or a transmit power list of a wake-up signal (See Para. 0073-0078; a small cell activation process will be started).
Regarding claim 12: Iwamura discloses the method, wherein the sending, by the UE, the wake-up signal comprises: sending, by the UE, the wake-up signal on a target resource, wherein the target resource indicates the target cell, and the target resource comprises at least one of the following: a time domain resource; or a frequency domain resource (See Para. 0069-0080; a macro assisted wake-up (WU) signal configuration according to which macro cell base station 100 indicates when a UE can transmit a WU signal is proposed. As shown at 200, the macro base station 100 provides a configuration of WU signals, e.g. It indicates which frequency resources to use, e.g. Frequencies f1, f2, f3 or all frequencies. Further, according to an embodiment, it indicates the nature of the signal, such as waking up all small cells, waking up only small cells with x MHz bandwidth, waking up The State Intellectual Property Office of People’s Republic of China 210401 2010.2 only CSG cells 1042).
Regarding claim 14: Iwamura discloses a wake-up signal transmission method, comprising:
receiving, by a network side device (See FIG. 5; a base station) from a UE, a wake-up signal associated with a target cell (See Para. 0069-0071; the user equipment 112 receives the wake-up signal configuration it configures or generates the wake-up signal to be transmitted on the basis of the received wake-up signal configuration to the base station); and
waking up the target cell when a cell corresponding to the network side device comprises the target cell (See Para. 0069-0071; The main role of the wake-up signal configuration received at the user equipment 112, for example from the macro base station 100, is to configure the subsequent wake up signal which will be sent by the UE 112 so that certain small cells can be woken up).
Regarding claim 17: Iwamura discloses the wake-up signal transmission method, wherein the wake-up signal comprises a wake-up signal characteristic, wherein the wake-up signal characteristic indicates the target cell (See FIG. 3 & Para. 0069; the UE receives wake up signal configuration, the WSU configuration indicating the nature of the signal, for example to wake up all small cells, to wake up only small cells with a bandwidth of x MHZ, to wake up only a certain CSG cell or the like).
Regarding claim 19: Iwamura discloses the wake-up signal transmission method, wherein the wake-up signal characteristic configuration comprises at least one of the following: a start location of a wake-up signal sequence; an end location of a wake-up signal sequence; a quantity of wake-up signal sequences; a length of a wake-up signal sequence; an index or an index range of a wake-up signa l sequence; an index or an index range of a wake-up signal scrambling sequence; a root sequence of a wake-up signal sequence, or a root sequence list of a wake-up signal sequence; or a transmit power of a wake-up signal, or a transmit power list of a wake-up signal (See Para. 0073-0078; a small cell activation process will be started).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
12. 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 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 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 of this title, 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 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.
13. Claims 7, 13 & 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwamura, in view of Cui et al. (hereinafter referred as Cui) US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0070917 A1.
Regarding claim 7: Iwamura discloses all the limitations of the claimed inventio0n with the exception of wherein the cell information of the second cell comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the second cell; or a reference signal measurement threshold of the second cell.
However, Cui from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the cell information of the second cell comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the second cell; or a reference signal measurement threshold of the second cell (See FIG. 2 & Para. 0033; Physical cell identifier of the neighbor cell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include wherein the cell information of the second cell comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the second cell as taught by Cui in the system of Iwamura in order to increase network traffic and/or resources utilized to facilitate the transmission (See Para. 0004; lines 8-9).
Regarding claim 13: The combination of Iwamura and Cui disclose a method.
Furthermore, Cui discloses a method, wherein the wake-up signal carries a cell identifier of the target cell (See FIG. 2 & Para. 0033; Physical cell identifier of the neighbor cell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include wherein the wake-up signal carries a cell identifier of the target cell as taught by Cui in the system of Iwamura in order to increase network traffic and/or resources utilized to facilitate the transmission (See Para. 0004; lines 8-9).
Regarding claim 15: The combination of Iwamura and Cui disclose a method.
Furthermore, Cui discloses a method, wherein the method further comprises: configuring, by the network side device, a first configuration for the UE, wherein the first configuration comprises a cell configuration of at least one of first cells, and a cell configuration of each of the first cells comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the first cell; or cell information of a second cell associated with the first cell (See FIG. 2 & Para. 0033; Physical cell identifier of the neighbor cell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include wherein the method further comprises: configuring, by the network side device, a first configuration for the UE, wherein the first configuration comprises a cell configuration of at least one of first cells, and a cell configuration of each of the first cells comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the first cell; or cell information of a second cell associated with the first cell as taught by Cui in the system of Iwamura in order to increase network traffic and/or resources utilized to facilitate the transmission (See Para. 0004; lines 8-9).
Regarding claim 16: The combination of Iwamura and Cui discloses a method.
Furthermore, Cui discloses a method, wherein the cell information of the second cell comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the second cell (See FIG. 2 & Para. 0033; Physical cell identifier of the neighbor cell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include wherein the cell information of the second cell comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the second cell as taught by Cui in the system of Iwamura in order to increase network traffic and/or resources utilized to facilitate the transmission (See Para. 0004; lines 8-9).
Regarding claim 18: The combination of Iwamura and Cui discloses a method.
Furthermore, Cui discloses a method, configuring, by the network side device, a second configuration for the UE, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of at least one first cell in an energy-saving mode; a wake-up signal characteristic configuration corresponding to each of the first cells; the target cell is one or more cells in the at least one first cell; or the wake-up signal characteristic is configured based on a wake-up signal characteristic configuration corresponding to the target cell (See FIG. 2 & Para. 0033; Physical cell identifier of the neighbor cell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include wherein the cell information of the second cell comprises at least one of the following: a cell identifier of the second cell as taught by Cui in the system of Iwamura in order to increase network traffic and/or resources utilized to facilitate the transmission (See Para. 0004; lines 8-9).
14. Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwamura, in view of Li et al. (hereinafter referred as Li) European Patent Application No. EP 3 941 117 A1.
Regarding claim 8: Iwamura discloses all the limitations of the claimed inventio0n with the exception of wherein the measurement result satisfies the first condition comprises any one of the following: the measurement result does not satisfy a cell reselection condition; or the measurement result does not satisfy the cell reselection condition, and the measurement result is higher than a reference signal measurement threshold of a second cell corresponding to the measurement result.
However, Li from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the measurement result satisfies the first condition comprises any one of the following: the measurement result does not satisfy a cell reselection condition; or the measurement result does not satisfy the cell reselection condition, and the measurement result is higher than a reference signal measurement threshold of a second cell corresponding to the measurement result (See Para. 0076-0077; the ranking submodule 331 is configured to rank cells participating in the ranking, based on the number of beams satisfying a second predefined condition in each of the cells, wherein the second predefined condition is that a measurement result is greater than or equal to a second predefined threshold or a measurement result satisfies a S criterion of corresponding beams).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include wherein the measurement result satisfies the first condition comprises any one of the following: the measurement result does not satisfy a cell reselection condition as taught by Li in the system of Iwamura perform cell selection/cell reselection based on the measurements result of each beam (See abstract; lines 5-6).
Conclusion
15. The prior art of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
A. Martin et al. 2026/0181489 A1 (Title: Method, apparatuses and systems for measurements…) (See Abstract, Para. 0012 & 0037-0038).
B. Ryu et al. 2026/0143393 A1 (Title: Mobility procedure using low power receiver….) (See abstract, Para. 0006 & 00813-0016).
C. Abedini et al. 2025/0184067 A1 (Title: Network energy saving cell communication ..) (See abstract, Para. 0006 & 00813-0016).
16. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEWALE A AMBAYE whose telephone number is (571)270-1076. The examiner can normally be reached on M.F 6a.m.-2p.m..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on (571)272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MEWALE A AMBAYE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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