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 .
Proposed Allowable Subject Matter
In addition to the allowable subject matter noted below, applicant, alternatively, is encouraged to incorporate the concept found in Table 1 of their specification on p. 17 with respect to the specific options related to “processing of at least one protocol layer” (e.g., data recovery, re-establishment, resetting, and/or partial resetting noted in claim 8 ) and further how it is captured in the “first signaling” with respect to the bitmap shown in the table for each option for “first indication field”. Note that all of the above features should be considered.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 13 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.
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) 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20230397069 A1 to ZHANG et al. “ZHANG” in view of US 20230362986 A1 to LENG et al. “LENG” (supported by at least provisional 63/395,616)
Note: all citations drawn to ZHANG unless otherwise specified.
In the independent claims
As to claim 1, ZHANG teaches a terminal device (e.g., UE 111 or 112), wherein the terminal device comprises a processor (see e.g., Fig. 1A: 162) and a memory (see e.g., Fig. 1A: 161), wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program (see e.g., Fig. 1A: 164), and the processor is configured to execute the computer program to cause the terminal device to perform a method including:
receiving first signalling (see e.g., switch command and functions – e.g., Fig. 5:501) transmitted by a network device (see e.g., gNB 101 or 101), wherein the first signalling is used to indicate that a first candidate cell in at least one candidate cell is used as a target cell to which the terminal device is to be handed over, and the at least one candidate cell is used for layer 1 or layer 2 handover; and (see e.g., cell switch command [0043] and [0044]. In particular, for inter-DU inter-cell beam management, the UE is supplied with a list of pre-configured candidates [0044]. The cell switch command is L1/L2 triggered. )
ZHANG refers to a source cell and a target cell, but may not clearly disclose a configured set of candidate cells from which a “first candidate cell” is selected (see e.g., [0043] and [0044].
LENG teaches using targeting cells in the L1/L2 mobility HO request (see e.g., [0140-142] and Table 3 along with [0170]. See also pages 13-16 of provisional.).
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 teachings of ZHANG, which teaches a cell switching command and apply it to teaching of clarifying the command can further include selected candidate cell as taught by LENG. Doing so allows for better identifying specific candidate cells (LENG [0140]). Examiner notes reasonable expectation of success given both references involve L1/L2 mobility and L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (LENG [0170]).
handing over to the target cell based on the first signalling (cell switch command used for handover), and determining corresponding processing of at least one protocol layer of the terminal device in a process of handing over to the target cell (See e.g., Fig. 5/6 and [0043-44] with respect to re-establish RLC, reset MAC, and PDCP handling = processing of protocol layer. It is noted the claim does not further state how the protocols are processed.).
As to claim 9, ZHANG teaches a network device, wherein the network device (see e.g., gNB 101 or 101)comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program to cause the network device to perform a method including: transmitting first signalling to a terminal device to instruct the terminal device to hand over to a target cell based on the first signalling, and determining corresponding processing of at least one protocol layer of the terminal device in a process of handing over to the target cell, wherein the first signalling is used to indicate that a first candidate cell in at least one candidate cell is used as the target cell to which the terminal device is to be handed over, and the at least one candidate cell is used for layer 1 or layer 2 handover. See similar rejection to claim 1 where information is sent from gNB to UE.
As to claim 17, ZHANG teaches a cell handover method, applied to a terminal device, wherein the method comprises: receiving first signalling transmitted by a network device, wherein the first signalling is used to indicate that a first candidate cell in at least one candidate cell is used as a target cell to which the terminal device is to be handed over, and the at least one candidate cell is used for layer 1 or layer 2 handover; and handing over to the target cell based on the first signalling, and determining corresponding processing of at least one protocol layer of the terminal device in a process of handing over to the target cell. See similar rejection to claim 1 where the method is performed by the device of claim 1.
In the dependent claims
As to claim 3, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first signalling comprises second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the first candidate cell is used as the target cell. (See e.g., see e.g., [0140-142] of LENG. Same motivation applies as in the parent claim.).
As to claim 6, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein before the receiving first signalling transmitted by a network device, the terminal device is further configured to: receive first configuration information transmitted by the network device, wherein the first configuration information comprises configuration information of the at least one candidate cell (See e.g., Fig. 6 with respect to pre-configuration for list of candidate cells).
As to claim 8, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first signalling is carried by a medium access control control element and/or downlink control information; wherein the processing corresponding to the at least one protocol layer comprises RLC re-establishment, PDCP data recovery, MAC resetting, MAC partial resetting, and MAC no resetting (See e.g., Fig. 5 and [0042] with respect to MAC CE. Figure 5 further lists out the steps).
.
As to claim 11, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the network device according to claim 9, wherein the first signalling comprises second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the first candidate cell is used as the target cell. See similar rejection to claim 3 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 14, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the network device according to claim 9, wherein before the transmitting first signalling to a terminal device, the network device is further configured to: transmit first configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the first configuration information comprises configuration information of the at least one candidate cell. See similar rejection to claim 6 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 16, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the network device according to claim 9, wherein the first signalling is carried by a medium access control control element and/or downlink control information; wherein the processing corresponding to the at least one protocol layer comprises RLC re-establishment, PDCP data recovery, MAC resetting, MAC partial resetting, and MAC no resetting. See similar rejection to claim 8 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 19, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the method according to claim 17, wherein the first signalling comprises second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the first candidate cell is used as the target cell. See similar rejection to claim 3 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 20, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the method according to claim 17, wherein the first signalling comprises first indication information, and the first indication information comprises an index of a candidate cell group to which the first candidate cell belongs and/or an index of the first candidate cell. See similar rejection to claim 4 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
Claim(s) 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 15 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20230397069 A1 to ZHANG et al. “ZHANG” in view of US 20230362986 A1 to LENG et al. “LENG” (supported by at least provisional 63/395,616) as applied to claims above, and further in view of WO 2021161224 A1 to KOSKELA et al. “KOSKELA”.
As to claim 2, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first signalling comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the corresponding processing of the at least one protocol layer; wherein the first indication information comprises a first indication field, and the first indication field is used to indicate the corresponding processing of the at least one protocol layer. (See e.g., Fig. 5 and [0043]. For example, “ In some embodiments, the cell switch command includes an indication to enable or disable the UE self-detected PDCP retransmission.”).
ZHANG in view of LENG may be silent to expressly using a “field” as claimed.
KOSKELA discloses fields. See e.g., p. 4, ll. 24-26.
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 teachings of ZHANG in view of LENG, which teaches first indication information and broadly apply it to teaching that signally information can further include fields as taught by KOSKELA. Doing so allows for more granular definition of the signal. Examiner notes reasonable expectation of success given both references involve L1/L2 mobility and L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (KOSKELA p. 4 ll. 12-14).
As to claim 4, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first signalling comprises first indication information, and the first indication information comprises an index of a candidate cell group to which the first candidate cell belongs and/or an index of the first candidate cell.
ZHANG teaches first indication information but may be silent to an index as further claimed.
KOSKELA discloses that index with cell groups can be used in L1/L2 mobility. See e.g., p. 20 ll. 9-22.
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 teachings of ZHANG in view of LENG, which teaches first indication information and broadly apply it to teaching that a cell index can further be included as taught by KOSKELA. Doing so allows for configuration purposes (KOSKELA p. 20 ll. 9-15). Examiner notes reasonable expectation of success given both references involve L1/L2 mobility and L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (KOSKELA p. 20 ll. 9-15).
As to claim 7, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the terminal device according to claim 6, wherein the first configuration information further comprises configuration information of at least one candidate cell group, and configuration information of each candidate cell group comprises configuration information of the at least one candidate cell.
Leng teaches configuration information (see e.g., see e.g., [0140-142]).
KOSKELA discloses where configuration information can include cell group information. See e.g., p. 20 ll. 9-22.
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 teachings of ZHANG in view of LENG, which teaches configuration information and broadly apply it to teaching that the configuration information can include group cell information as taught by KOSKELA. Doing so allows for configuration purposes (KOSKELA p. 20 ll. 9-15). Examiner notes reasonable expectation of success given both references involve L1/L2 mobility and L1/L2-based inter-cell mobility (KOSKELA p. 20 ll. 9-15).
As to claim 10, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the network device according to claim 9, wherein the first signalling comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the corresponding processing of the at least one protocol layer; wherein the first indication information comprises a first indication field, and the first indication field is used to indicate the corresponding processing of the at least one protocol layer. See similar rejection to claim 2 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 12, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the network device according to claim 9, wherein the first signalling comprises first indication information, and the first indication information comprises an index of a candidate cell group to which the first candidate cell belongs and/or an index of the first candidate cell. See similar rejection to claim 4 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 15, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the network device according to claim 14, wherein the first configuration information further comprises configuration information of at least one candidate cell group, and configuration information of each candidate cell group comprises configuration information of the at least one candidate cell. See similar rejection to claim 7 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
As to claim 18, ZHANG in view of LENG teaches the method according to claim 17, wherein the first signalling comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the corresponding processing of the at least one protocol layer; wherein the first indication information comprises a first indication field, and the first indication field is used to indicate the corresponding processing of the at least one protocol layer. See similar rejection to claim 2 where signalling is sent between gNB (network device) and UE (terminal).
Conclusion
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/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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