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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 17-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In particular independent claims 17, 25, and 33, the claims recite:
“the first manner comprises an L1 or an L2 based cell handover manner…… and the second manner comprises an L3-based cell handover manner”
The acronyms L1, L2, and L3 are not defined in the claim, and are therefore unclear and rejected.
Dependent claims 18-24, 26-32, and 34-36 are rejected for depending upon the rejected base claims and for failing to cure the deficiencies therein.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 17-21, 24-28, and 33-35, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Song et al. (US 2025/0048209 A1).
Regarding claims 17, 25, and 33, Deng teaches:
an apparatus (fig.11 a network side device, such as a DU or CU), comprising:
at least one processor (fig.11 depicts a processor element 114); and
a least one memory (fig.11 depicts a memory element 115) which is a non-transitory computer readable medium, coupled to the at least one processor (fig.11 depicts a processor element 114) and configured to store executable instructions for execution by the at least one processor to instruct the at least one processor to (par.[0327] which recites, in part, “As shown in FIG. 11, one of the chips is, for example, a baseband processor, and is connected to the memory 115 through the bus interface, to invoke a program in the memory 115 to perform the operations of the network device shown in the foregoing method embodiments.”):
perform a method, comprising:
after a distributed unit (DU) (par.[0041] which recites, in part, “ It should be understood that the first device and the second device are both access network devices. In an implementation, the first device may be a DU of the access network device” par.[0003] describes the DU as a Distributed Unit) sends a first handover message to a terminal device (fig.3 wherein the first device, the DU sends, to a terminal, a second message. The second message being a L1/L2 handover message, see par.[0004] which recites, in part, “Layer 1 (L1) or layer 2 (L2) handover is determined by a DU based on an L1 measurement result,”, and par.[0067 – 0068] and S201 of fig.3, which recites, in part, “The first device triggers the handover corresponding to the second command by sending the second message to the terminal”), receiving, by the DU (the aforecited DU as discussed above), a second handover message from a central unit (CU) (par.[0068] and fig.3 which recites, in part, “The first device triggers the handover…….by sending the second message to the terminal, and then receives the first message from the second device.” Par.[0041] describes the second device, and recites, in part, “the second device is a CU of the access network device.”),
wherein the first handover message (fig.3 and element S201 the second message, wherein the second message of Deng, is interpreted as the first claimed message. The par.[0068] describes the first claimed message as a handover message,) indicates to hand over the terminal device from a source cell to a first target cell in a first manner (par.[0068] the handover message as discussed wherein handover comprises transitioning a terminal from a source node to a target node), the first manner comprises an L1 or an L2- based cell handover manner (Par.[0036] which describes the DU determining or initiating a L1/L2 based handover),
wherein the second handover message (fig.3 element S210 and par.[0044] describes the L3 handover command) indicates to hand over the terminal device from the source cell to a second target cell (par.[0044] the handover command, wherein as discussed above handover is the process of transitioning a UE from a source node to a target node) in a second manner, and the second manner comprises an L3-based cell handover manner (par.[0044] describes the L3 handover command, and par.[0036] which describes the L3 handover command); and
determining, by the DU, that a cell handover manner of the terminal device is the first manner or the second manner (par.[0056 - 0057] describes the DU determining whether to perform L1/L2 handover or whether to perform a L3 handover).
Regarding claims 18, 26, and 34, Song discloses:
wherein in response to a first condition being met, the DU determines that the cell handover manner of the terminal device is the first manner, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:
the DU determines that the second handover message comprises priority information indicating a priority of the second handover message and the DU determines that the priority indicated by the priority information is lower than a preset priority; or
the DU determines that the terminal device is successfully handed over in the first manner (par.[0092] which describes the conditions for determining that handover using the first method has been successful or not by determining that the terminal has successfully been handed over to the target); or
the DU determines that a first response message is received from the terminal device, wherein the first response message indicates that the first handover message is successfully received.
Regarding claims 19, 27, and 35, Song discloses:
wherein after the DU determines that the cell handover manner of the terminal device is the first manner (par.[0092] which recites, in part, “The first device determines, by using a variety of judgment methods, whether the handover corresponding to the second command is completed.”. The second command corresponding to the L1/L2 Handover Procedure), the DU sends, to the CU, at least one of:
information indicating that the terminal device successfully completes cell handover in the first manner (par.[0123 – 0124] describes a first device sending to a second device an indication that the terminal has completed a handover corresponding to the second command, which corresponds to the L1/L2 Handover procedure), or
information indicating that the terminal device is successfully handed over to the first target cell in the first manner (par.[0123 – 0124] describes a first device sending to a second device an indication that the terminal has completed a handover corresponding to the second command, which corresponds to the L1/L2 Handover procedure), or
information indicating that the second handover message is discarded, or
information indicating that the DU does not send a third handover message, wherein the third handover message indicates to hand over the terminal device from the source cell to the second target cell in the second manner.
Regarding claims 20 and 28, Song discloses:
wherein after the DU determines that the cell handover manner of the terminal device is the first manner (par.[0092] which recites, in part, “The first device determines, by using a variety of judgment methods, whether the handover corresponding to the second command is completed.”. The second command corresponding to the L1/L2 Handover Procedure), the DU sends information indicating that a reason why a third handover message is not sent is that the terminal device performs the first manner (par.[0070] describes a fourth message with a first cause information element (IE), wherein, the message to the CU is a context modification failure, which is an indication that the DU has not sent the third handover message, par.[0068] which recites, in part, “the first device may reply to the second device with a fourth message, but does not execute the first command or send the third message carrying the first command to the terminal within a first time period after the second message is sent to the terminal” and par.[0060]), wherein the third handover message indicates to hand over the terminal device from the source cell to the second target cell in the second manner (par.[0068] which describes the third message carrying the first command. The first command corresponding to the first handover procedure which is the L3 handover, par.[0057]).
Regarding claims 24 and 32, Song discloses:
wherein the second handover message is a UE context modification request message (fig.3 element S210, the first device receives a first message, which is equivalent to the claimed second message. Par.[0049] describes the first message, (e.g. the claimed second message) as a UE context modification request).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21-23, 29-31, and 36, 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.
With regard to claim 21, 29, and 36, the prior art teaches that the DU can determine that the cell handover of the second manner should take place when a second condition is met, but does not disclose the conditions discussed in claims 21, 29, and 36. Thus, the claims are in condition for allowance.
Claims 22-23 and 30-31 which each depend from claims 21 and 29 respectively, are similarly objected to for their dependency on claims 21 and 29.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Chandrashekar et al. (US 2024/0334262 A1) “Interworking Between Layer 3 (L3) Handover and Layer 1 (L1)/Layer 2 (L2) Centric Inter-Cell Change” fig.4A and fig.4B
Deng et al. (US 2024/0064600 A1) “Handover Processing Method, Terminal, and Storage Medium”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMAAL HENSON whose telephone number is (571)272-5339. The examiner can normally be reached M-Thu: 7:30 am - 6:30 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at (571)272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
JAMAAL HENSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2411
/JAMAAL HENSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
