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 Office Action is responsive to a response filed on June 29th, 2026. In this office action:
Claims 1-4 and 6-9 are pending.
Claims 1-4 and 6-9 are rejected.
Summary of Previous Office Action
In the Non-final Office Action mailed on March 27th, 2026:
Claims 1-9 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(2) as being anticipated by Sawai (Pub. No. US 2016/0219454).
Response to Amendment
The amendments filed on June 29th, 2026, have been entered.
Claims 1 and 9 have been amended.
Claim 5 has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on June 29th, 2026, regarding 35 USC § 102 rejection have been fully considered by the Examiner, but are not persuasive.
The Applicant argued that Sawai does not disclose or suggest that traffic is allocated in accordance with areas of respective cells. Claim 1 currently recites, "group traffic in accordance with areas of respective cells."
In response, the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Sawai discloses in Parag. [0074]: Referring to FIG. 3A, the macro cell 12 includes six sectors 14a to 14f divided into equal parts in an azimuth angle. The management area may be equal to the macro cell 12 or may be equal to each of the sectors 14a to 14f. The macro cell may be divided into sectors in a three dimensional manner. Referring to FIG. 3B, the macro cell 12 includes three sectors 15a to 15c divided in an elevation/depression angle. The sector 15a covers the vicinity of the ground, the sector 15b covers lower floors of a building 9, and the sector 15c cover higher floors of the building 9. The management area may be equal to each of the sectors 15a to 15c.
Therefore, the Examiner has reasonably interpreted the claimed “areas of respective cells” to be equivalent to the sectors taught by Sawai.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(2) as being anticipated by Sawai (Pub. No. US 2016/0219454).
Claim 1. Sawai discloses [a] control device comprising:
a predictor that predicts group traffic of a group including a plurality of base-station devices, with use of respective amounts of individual traffic of the plurality of base-station devices (See Parag. [0084-0085]; small cells 22 respectively belong to at least one of the plurality of small cell groups ... the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to increase density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that larger system capacity is required. Adversely, the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to reduce density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that only small system capacity is required ... the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include an actual traffic amount actually occurring in the management area. As another example, the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include a predicted traffic amount predicted to occur in the management area ... For example, the mode determining unit 154 can predict the traffic amount based on the QoS classes of the terminals existing in the management area (predicts group traffic). See Parag. [0063-0064]; the radio communication system 1 includes a macro cell base station 10, a plurality of small cell base stations, and a plurality of terminal apparatuses. See also Parag. [0094][0133]); and
a controller that determines whether to stop or operate a base-station device in the group, in accordance with the predicted group traffic (See Parag. [0130]; The mode determining unit 154 then adjusts the operation modes depending on statuses (such as, for example, normally operated/failed and a residual battery amount being small) of the individual small cell base stations. For example, when it is predicted that some small cell base stations cannot operate and the system capacity becomes insufficient, one or more small cell groups may be additionally activated (operate a base station device in the group). When the residual battery amount of a battery-driven small cell base station falls below a threshold, the small cell base station may be excluded from the small cell group (stop a base station device in the group) until the residual battery amount exceeds the threshold through charging), wherein
the group includes a base-station device that forms a macro-cell and a base-station device that forms a small cell (See Parag. [0063-0064]; the radio communication system 1 includes a macro cell base station 10, a plurality of small cell base stations, and a plurality of terminal apparatuses. See also Parag. [0074] [0083] [0094]), and
the small cell includes a region overlapping the macro-cell (See Parag. [0072]; FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 merely illustrate a small number of small cells for the purpose of simplicity, the number of small cell base stations deployed in the macro cell in an actual environment can reach several tens to several hundreds. See Parag. [0073-0074]; The control entities group a plurality of small cells disposed in a given management area into small cell groups ... the management area can correspond to a macro cell. See Parag. [0083]; each of the plurality of small cells 22 disposed within the macro cell 12 in units of the small cell groups. See also Parag. [0074] [0094]),
the controller allocates the group traffic in accordance with areas of respective cells that the plurality of base-station devices form to calculate respective amounts of corrected individual traffic of the plurality of base-station devices (See Parag. [0084-0085]; the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to increase density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that larger system capacity is required. Adversely, the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to reduce density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that only small system capacity is required ... the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include an actual traffic amount actually occurring in the management area. As another example, the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include a predicted traffic amount predicted to occur in the management area ... See Parag. [0063-0064] [0074] [0133]).
Claim 2. Sawai discloses [t]he control device according to claim 1,
Sawai further discloses wherein an entire region of the small cell overlaps a region of the macro-cell (See Parag. [0072]; FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 merely illustrate a small number of small cells for the purpose of simplicity, the number of small cell base stations deployed in the macro cell in an actual environment can reach several tens to several hundreds. See Parag. [0073-0074]; The control entities group a plurality of small cells disposed in a given management area into small cell groups ... the management area can correspond to a macro cell. See Parag. [0083]; each of the plurality of small cells 22 disposed within the macro cell 12 in units of the small cell groups. See also Parag. [0094]).
Claim 3. Sawai discloses [t]he control device according to claim 1,
Sawai further discloses wherein a proportion of the region of the small cell overlapping the macro-cell to an entire region of the small cell is a first threshold or more (See Parag. [0072]; FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 merely illustrate a small number of small cells for the purpose of simplicity, the number of small cell base stations deployed in the macro cell in an actual environment can reach several tens to several hundreds. See Parag. [0083]; each of the plurality of small cells 22 disposed within the macro cell 12 in units of the small cell groups. See also Parag. [0073-0074] [0094]).
Claim 4. Sawai discloses [t]he control device according to claim 1,
Sawai further discloses wherein the controller sums up the respective amounts of individual traffic of the plurality of base-station devices to calculate the group traffic (See Parag. [0138]; the mode determining unit 154 can count the predicted traffic amount ET using these attribute information for each of the QoS classes of the terminals. For example, it is also possible to calculate a sum of the guaranteed bit rates of terminals belonging to the “Conversational” class or the “Streaming” class which has high priority as the predicted traffic amount ET. Alternatively, it is also possible to calculate a sum of maximum bit rates of terminals of all the classes as the predicted traffic amount ET).
Claim 6. Sawai discloses [t]he control device according to claim 1,
Sawai further discloses wherein the controller calculates, with use of the group traffic, respective amounts of individual traffic of the plurality of base-station devices, and adds, as an addition, first individual traffic of a first base-station device that is a stopping target to second individual traffic of a second base-station device that is not a stopping target and determines whether to stop or operate a base-station device while taking the addition into account (See Parag. [0130]; The mode determining unit 154 then adjusts the operation modes depending on statuses (such as, for example, normally operated/failed and a residual battery amount being small) of the individual small cell base stations. For example, when it is predicted that some small cell base stations cannot operate and the system capacity becomes insufficient, one or more small cell groups may be additionally activated. When the residual battery amount of a battery-driven small cell base station falls below a threshold, the small cell base station may be excluded from the small cell group until the residual battery amount exceeds the threshold through charging).
Claim 7. Sawai discloses [t]he control device according to claim 1,
Sawai further discloses wherein the group traffic is output from a learning model that has learnt respective amounts of measured traffic of the plurality of base-station devices and predicts the group traffic (See Parag. [0084-0085]; the mode determining unit 154 can predict the traffic amount based on the QoS classes of the terminals existing in the management area (predicts the group traffic)).
Claim 8. Sawai discloses [t]he control device according to claim 1,
wherein the controller controls the base-station device, which is a stopping target, to stop (See Parag. [0130]; The mode determining unit 154 then adjusts the operation modes depending on statuses (such as, for example, normally operated/failed and a residual battery amount being small) of the individual small cell base stations ... When the residual battery amount of a battery-driven small cell base station falls below a threshold, the small cell base station may be excluded (to stop) from the small cell group until the residual battery amount exceeds the threshold through charging).
Claim 9. Sawai discloses [a] base-station control method comprising:
predicting group traffic of a group including a plurality of base-station devices, with use of respective amounts of individual traffic of the plurality of base-station devices (See Parag. [0084-0085]; small cells 22 respectively belong to at least one of the plurality of small cell groups ... the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to increase density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that larger system capacity is required. Adversely, the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to reduce density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that only small system capacity is required ... the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include an actual traffic amount actually occurring in the management area. As another example, the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include a predicted traffic amount predicted to occur in the management area ... For example, the mode determining unit 154 can predict the traffic amount based on the QoS classes of the terminals existing in the management area (predicts group traffic). See Parag. [0063-0064]; the radio communication system 1 includes a macro cell base station 10, a plurality of small cell base stations, and a plurality of terminal apparatuses. See also Parag. [0133]); and
determining whether to stop or operate a base-station device from among the plurality of base-station devices in the group, in accordance with the group traffic (See Parag. [0130]; The mode determining unit 154 then adjusts the operation modes depending on statuses (such as, for example, normally operated/failed and a residual battery amount being small) of the individual small cell base stations. For example, when it is predicted that some small cell base stations cannot operate and the system capacity becomes insufficient, one or more small cell groups may be additionally activated (operate a base station device). When the residual battery amount of a battery-driven small cell base station falls below a threshold, the small cell base station may be excluded from the small cell group (stop a base station device) until the residual battery amount exceeds the threshold through charging), wherein
the group includes a base-station device that forms a macro-cell and a base-station device that forms a small cell (See Parag. [0063-0064]; the radio communication system 1 includes a macro cell base station 10, a plurality of small cell base stations, and a plurality of terminal apparatuses. See also Parag. [0074] [0083] [0094]), and
the small cell includes a region overlapping the macro-cell (See Parag. [0072]; FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 merely illustrate a small number of small cells for the purpose of simplicity, the number of small cell base stations deployed in the macro cell in an actual environment can reach several tens to several hundreds. See Parag. [0073-0074]; The control entities group a plurality of small cells disposed in a given management area into small cell groups ... the management area can correspond to a macro cell. See Parag. [0083]; each of the plurality of small cells 22 disposed within the macro cell 12 in units of the small cell groups. See also Parag. [0074] [0094]),
the group traffic is allocated in accordance with areas of respective cells that the plurality of base-station devices form to calculate respective amounts of corrected individual traffic of the plurality of base-station devices (See Parag. [0084-0085]; the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to increase density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that larger system capacity is required. Adversely, the mode determining unit 154 determines the operation modes for each small cell group so as to reduce density of active small cells in the management area when the determination index indicates that only small system capacity is required ... the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include an actual traffic amount actually occurring in the management area. As another example, the determination index relating to the system capacity requirements may include a predicted traffic amount predicted to occur in the management area ... See Parag. [0063-0064] [0074] [0133]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Shimizu et al. (US 2022/0345978) – Related art in the area of controlling a communication route in a network, (Abstract; In a network having an edge server disposed therein, to appropriately construct a wireless communication route used in communication between the edge server and a user terminal, a processor of a network control device acquires group information related to grouped base stations in multiple base stations disposed in the network, acquires route information related to one or more wireless communication routes formed by multi-hop communication between the grouped base stations, and transmits the group information and the route information to an edge server connected to one of the base stations or to a user terminal).
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELBASST TALIOUA whose telephone number is (571)272-4061. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 7:30 am - 5:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Oscar Louie can be reached on 571-270-1684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Abdelbasst Talioua/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
