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 .
The IDS has been considered by the examiner.
The specification and drawings have been accepted 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 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.
Claim(s) 53, 54, 57-62, 67, 68 and 71-72 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHI (US 2021/0068016) in view of Koskela (US 2021/0120458).
Referring to claim 53, SHI discloses an apparatus (FIG. 4, Par. 8, “a UE receives a radio resource control reconfiguration message sent by a source base station”), comprising: at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions (Par. 13 and 174, “ The electronic device includes a memory and a processor. The memory stores a computer program.” ) that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
cause transmission, to a source network node, of an indicator to trigger conditional handover (CHO) preparation to a plurality of target network nodes in a path along which the apparatus moves (FIG. 2, “report B,C,D”. FIG. 6, steps S410/S410′, Par. 54, 75, FIG. 2 and 6 and their descriptions, “the UE sends a measurement report to a source base station.”, “when the UE meets the “advance handover preparation condition”, the UE reports a measurement report to the source base station”, Par. 75, “ the source base station determines, according to the measurement reports received in step S410/S410′, that cells meeting the “advance handover preparation condition” are located on target base station T-gNB1 and target base station T-gNB2 separately. The source base station initiates handover requests to target base stations T-gNB1 and T-gNB2. Each handover request includes a list of target cells in addition to relevant configuration information of the UE on the source base station. The list of the target cells at least includes a CGI of each target cell, and may further include a measurement result of each target cell”, note that the UE sends measurement reports and the measurement reports can trigger a conditional handover, e.g., when the measurement report indicates the condition that the signal strength is below a threshold, a handover needs to be performed), and a list of cell identifiers of the respective target network nodes (FIG. 2 step 218, Par. 9, 35 and 36, “frequency information of the target cell, a physical cell identifier of the target cell”, note that UE reports the possible cells for handover and some identification in order to identify them, e.g., cell B,C);
evaluate wherein a respective CHO condition is associated with a respective one of the plurality of target network nodes according to the path (Par. 75, and FIG. 2-4 and their descriptions and particularly Par. 75, 77, “cells meeting the “advance handover preparation condition” are located on target base station T-gNB1 and target base station T-gNB2 separately. The source base station initiates handover requests to target base stations T-gNB1 and T-gNB2. Each handover request includes a list of target cells in addition to relevant configuration information of the UE on the source base station”, with regard to the limitation, “according to the path”, note that in FIG. 3, the UE moves from point A to point B and the conditional handover is triggered at point A as the UE is on the path to point B); and
evaluate a respective CHO condition for a next network node toward which the apparatus moves (Par. 56, Par. 80, “One RRC Reconfiguration may include conditional handover commands of multiple target cells. That is, the RRCReconfiguration includes a list of target cells for a conditional handover. The list of the target cells for the conditional handover includes frequency information of each target cell and a PCI of each target cell, a conditional handover command of the target cell generated by the target cell, and at least one piece of identifier information indicating a measurement configuration of a “conditional handover execution condition” of the target cell. ”, “send UE 201 a measurement configuration message, as shown in step 211. In step 212, UE 201 may determine that an entry network configured condition for a conditional handover has been fulfilled. The entry network configured condition may be an initial step in which the UE may determine that a condition has been met to place the UE on alert that a handing over to another cell may soon be warranted.” Note that source node sends an RRC configuration).
SHI is not relied on for disclosing receive from the source network node, an indication of CHO conditions to be evaluated
In an analogous art, Koskela discloses receive from the source network node (FIG. 2, 216 and Par. 56 and 80), an indication of CHO conditions to be evaluated (Par. 56, Par. 80, “One RRC Reconfiguration may include conditional handover commands of multiple target cells. That is, the RRCReconfiguration includes a list of target cells for a conditional handover. The list of the target cells for the conditional handover includes frequency information of each target cell and a PCI of each target cell, a conditional handover command of the target cell generated by the target cell, and at least one piece of identifier information indicating a measurement configuration of a “conditional handover execution condition” of the target cell. ”, “send UE 201 a measurement configuration message, as shown in step 211. In step 212, UE 201 may determine that an entry network configured condition for a conditional handover has been fulfilled. The entry network configured condition may be an initial step in which the UE may determine that a condition has been met to place the UE on alert that a handing over to another cell may soon be warranted.” Note that source node sends an RRC configuration).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of SHI by incorporating the teachings of Koskela so that both direct commands to the UE for specific CHO are provided according to the source cell evaluation, thus, avoiding ping ponging. Further, this is an example of use of known technique to improve similar devices, methods or products in the same way. MPEP 2143.
Referring to claim 57, the combination of SHI/Koskela discloses apparatus according to claim 53, wherein the indication of CHO conditions is received in a radio resource control message (SHI, Par. 77, “The conditional handover command is generated … generates an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration), the generated RRCReconfiguration is directly included in the handover request acknowledgement in the form of a character flow (OCTETSTRING)”).
Referring to claim 58, the combination of SHI/Koskela discloses apparatus according to claim 57, wherein the radio resource control message comprises a radio resource control reconfiguration message (SHI, Par. 77, “The conditional handover command is generated … generates an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration), the generated RRCReconfiguration is directly included in the handover request acknowledgement in the form of a character flow (OCTETSTRING)”, note that the RRC configuration itself is the a radio resource control reconfiguration message).
Referring to claim 59, the combination of SHI/Koskela discloses apparatus according to claim 53, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to: in response to the respective CHO condition for the next network node is met, perform random access procedure to the next network node (SHI, Par. 61, “The information required by the UE to access the target cell includes random access configuration information for the UE to access the target cell in the manner of random access, public configuration information of the target cell”).
Referring to claim 60, the combination of SHI/Koskela discloses apparatus according to claim 53, wherein the apparatus comprises or is comprised in a user equipment (SHI and FIG. 4, Par. 8, “a UE receives a radio resource control reconfiguration message sent by a source base station”).
Referring to claim 61, SHI discloses an apparatus (FIG. 4, S-gNB) comprising:
at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (Par. 174, “memory and a processor. The memory stores a computer program”), cause the apparatus at least to:
receive an indication from a user equipment served by the apparatus in a network, to trigger condition handover (CHO) preparation with a plurality of target network nodes in a path along which the UE moves; (FIG. 2, “report B,C,D”. FIG. 6, steps S410/S410′, Par. 54, 75, FIG. 2 and 6 and their descriptions, “the UE sends a measurement report to a source base station.”, “when the UE meets the “advance handover preparation condition”, the UE reports a measurement report to the source base station”, Par. 75, “ the source base station determines, according to the measurement reports received in step S410/S410′, that cells meeting the “advance handover preparation condition” are located on target base station T-gNB1 and target base station T-gNB2 separately. The source base station initiates handover requests to target base stations T-gNB1 and T-gNB2. Each handover request includes a list of target cells in addition to relevant configuration information of the UE on the source base station. The list of the target cells at least includes a CGI of each target cell, and may further include a measurement result of each target cell”, note that the UE sends measurement reports and the measurement reports can trigger a conditional handover, e.g., when the measurement report indicates the condition that the signal strength is below a threshold, a handover needs to be performed) and a respective CHO condition is associated with a respective one of the plurality of target network nodes according to the path (Par. 56, Par. 80, “One RRC Reconfiguration may include conditional handover commands of multiple target cells. That is, the RRCReconfiguration includes a list of target cells for a conditional handover. The list of the target cells for the conditional handover includes frequency information of each target cell and a PCI of each target cell, a conditional handover command of the target cell generated by the target cell, and at least one piece of identifier information indicating a measurement configuration of a “conditional handover execution condition” of the target cell. ”, “send UE 201 a measurement configuration message, as shown in step 211. In step 212, UE 201 may determine that an entry network configured condition for a conditional handover has been fulfilled. The entry network configured condition may be an initial step in which the UE may determine that a condition has been met to place the UE on alert that a handing over to another cell may soon be warranted.” Note that source node sends an RRC configuration).
SHI is not relied on for disclosing cause transmission, toward the user equipment, an indication of a sequence of CHO conditions to be evaluated.
In an analogous art, Koskela discloses cause transmission, toward the user equipment, an indication of a sequence of CHO conditions to be evaluated (Par. 56, Par. 80, “One RRC Reconfiguration may include conditional handover commands of multiple target cells. That is, the RRCReconfiguration includes a list of target cells for a conditional handover. The list of the target cells for the conditional handover includes frequency information of each target cell and a PCI of each target cell, a conditional handover command of the target cell generated by the target cell, and at least one piece of identifier information indicating a measurement configuration of a “conditional handover execution condition” of the target cell. ”, “send UE 201 a measurement configuration message, as shown in step 211. In step 212, UE 201 may determine that an entry network configured condition for a conditional handover has been fulfilled. The entry network configured condition may be an initial step in which the UE may determine that a condition has been met to place the UE on alert that a handing over to another cell may soon be warranted.” Note that source node sends an RRC configuration).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of SHI by incorporating the teachings of Koskela so that both direct commands to the UE for specific CHO are provided according to the source cell evaluation, thus, avoiding ping ponging. Further, this is an example of use of known technique to improve similar devices, methods or products in the same way. MPEP 2143.
Referring to claim 62, the combination of SHI/Koskela discloses the apparatus according to claim 61, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to: trigger CHO preparation with the plurality of target network nodes by causing transmission, toward a respective recipient target network node, of a cell identifier of a next target network node of the recipient target network node, and a cell identifier of a preceding network node of the recipient target network node if the preceding network node of the recipient target node is not the apparatus (SHI, FIG. 1 and Par. RRCReconfiguration may include conditional handover commands of multiple target cells. That is, the RRCReconfiguration includes a list of target cells for a conditional handover. The list of the target cells for the conditional handover includes frequency information of each target cell and a PCI of each target cell, a conditional handover command of the target cell generated by the target cell, and at least one piece of identifier information indicating a measurement configuration of a “conditional handover execution condition” of the target cell. Note that handover preparation for each cell, e.g., target cell-2 would require additional conditional steps, e.g., additional measurements).
Referring to claim 67, the combination of SHI/Koskela discloses the apparatus according to claim 61, wherein the apparatus comprises or is comprised in a serving network node (FIG. 4, S-gNB).
Claims 68, 71 and 72 recite features analogous to the features of claims 53, 57 and 58 respectively, thus, they are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 55, 56, 63-66 and 69-70 is/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.
The following is the examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claims 55, 69, 63:
The prior art fails to disclose or suggest the limitations “wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to:cause transmission, toward a last network node triggered for CHO preparation by the apparatus, of an indicator to trigger additional CHO preparation toward other target network nodes and a list of cell identifiers of the respective other target network nodes”, along with the other limitations of the intermediate and/or base claims.
Regarding claims 56, 70, 64:
The prior art fails to disclose or suggest the limitations “wherein the path in which the user equipment is determined to move comprises a path from the apparatus, configured as a first network node, to a second network node, to a third network node, and to a fourth network node, wherein the CHO preparation further comprises: causing transmission, toward the second network node, of a cell identifier of the third network node; andcausing transmission, toward the third network node, of a cell identifier of the fourth network node and a cell identifier of the second network node. ”, along with the other limitations of the intermediate and/or base claims.
Regarding claim 65-66:
The prior art fails to disclose or suggest the limitations “wherein the CHO preparation further comprises: causing transmission, toward the second network node, of an indication of early data forwarding from the second network node to the third network node; and causing transmission, toward the third network node, of an indication of early data forwarding from the third network node to the fourth network node”, along with the other limitations of the intermediate and/or base claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRED A CASCA whose telephone number is (571)272-7918. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. 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, Kathy Wang-Hurst, can be reached at (571) 270-5371. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/FRED A CASCA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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