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 action is in response to the communication filed on 03/03/2026
The claim(s) 3 and 11-13 have been canceled by the applicant.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/03/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments/remarks filed on 03/03/2026 with respect to claim(s) 1 and the similarly amended independent claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Therefore, new rejections have been formulated to address the limitations as set forth in independent claim 1 and the similarly amended independent and their respective dependent 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 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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-10 and 15-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #90, source CATT; R2-152321 "Relay Initiation" Fukuoka, May 25th - 29th, 2015, hereafter “CATT” in view of Chun et al. (U.S. Pub. 20200228951); further in view of Kim et al. (U.S. Pub. 20160088668).
Regarding claim 1 CATT disclose, for a wireless communication system, comprising:
wherein the relay UE is configured to provide functionality to support connectivity to a destination for at least one remote UEs of the wireless communication system section 2.1, “After the Relay UE selection, the eNB should inform the selected Relay UE to initiate its Relay function by dedicated RRC signaling”,
wherein, in response to a certain cause of reason, the transmitter is configured to transmit to at least one of section 2.1, “at least two kinds of assistant information should be reported by UE supporting Relay function: The UE preference information indicates UE’s preference on whether it wants to work as a Relay UE. It may be affected by UE speed, UE battery capacity”: the network section 2.1, “eNB cannot acquire this information unless the Relay UE report it to eNB after its Relay function is initiated”, to the remote UE and the destination. The claim list features in the alternative format. While the claim lists a number of optional limitations only one limitation from the list is required and needs to be met by the prior art. The Examiner has chosen the first of the alternatives,
wherein the assistance information supports at least one of: the network section 2.1, “two kinds of assistant information should be reported by UE supporting Relay function: Measurement result”, the remote UE and the destination to satisfy the requirements for service continuity, faster discovery of another relay, and load balancing when the remote UE ceases to provide the functionality, The claim list features in the alternative format. While the claim lists a number of optional limitations only one limitation from the list is required and needs to be met by the prior art. The Examiner has chosen the first of the alternatives.
CATT does not specifically disclose “a transmitter circuit read as: “RF module (transceiver; 135)”, and a controller circuit read as: “DSP/microprocessor (110)”, and a memory circuit read as: “memory device (130)” wherein the memory circuit is configured to store assistance information. However, Chun teach, “a remote UE having no record of transmission of the disaster information message stored in the relay UE among the at least one remote UE”, see para. 21.
Chun further, disclose, a signal indicating that the remote UE is no longer able to provide the functionality, and assistance information para. 170, “the relay UE may inform the remote UE connected to the relay UE of the presence/update of the disaster information”.
CATT and Chun are analogous because they pertain to the field of wireless communication and, more specifically, to configuration parameters for relaying communications.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the hardware elements taught by of Chun in the wireless communication system of CATT so it can perform the functions to support connectivity with the network and receive and transmit control signals. The motivation for doing so would have been to optimize the terminals communication for power consumption.
CATT and Chun does not specifically disclose “load balancing when the remote UE ceases to provide the functionality, However, Kim teach, “Referring to FIG. 9A, the remote UE 91 initiates relay revocation or relay release. In this case, the remote UE 91 may start the relay revocation procedure if the battery of the remote UE 91 remains insufficient. Upon determining to stop relay functions, the remote UE 91 may notify the revocation of the relay operation by transmitting a message for the relay revocation or relay release to the relay UE 92 in operation 903”. See para. 127 and Fig. 9A.
CATT, Chun and Kim are analogous because they pertain to the field of wireless communication and, more specifically, to configuration parameters for relaying communications.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Kim in the system of CATT and Chun so the network can dynamically control the relaying terminals in the network. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce the unnecessary functioning of relay terminals to optimize the terminals power consumption.
Regarding claim 2 CATT disclose, wherein the assistance information comprises a list of the at least one or more remote UEs the relay UE was serving section 2.1, “The measurement result should at least contain the Uu channel quality, and in addition, the number of Remote UEs requesting Relay can also be reported”, the number of remote UEs can inherently include an identification information of the UEs, requesting relay or other related information like the MAC address”.
Regarding claim 4 CATT disclose, wherein the certain cause or reason comprises at least one or more of:
a location of the relay UE, a status of the relay UE, section 2.1, “at least two kinds of assistant information should be reported by UE supporting Relay function: The UE preference information indicates UE’s preference on whether it wants to work as a Relay UE. It may be affected by UE speed, UE battery capacity”, a limited processing power, a high occupation of radio resources of the wireless communication system, a capability of the relay UE, a pre-defined KPI measured at the relay UE, a pre-defined measure at the relay UE that is below or above a pre-defined threshold. The claim list features in the alternative format. While the claim lists a number of optional limitations only one limitation from the list is required and needs to be met by the prior art. The Examiner has chosen the second of the alternatives.
Regarding claim 5 CATT disclose, wherein the relay UE is configured to signal the certain cause or reason together with the assistance information section 2.1, “at least two kinds of assistant information should be reported by UE supporting Relay function: The UE preference information indicates UE’s preference on whether it wants to work as a Relay UE. It may be affected by UE speed, UE battery capacity”.
Regarding claim 6 CATT does not specifically disclose, wherein responsive to sending the assistance information, the relay UE is configured to: receive from the network a signaling to stop acting as a relay and stop acting as a relay. However, Chun teach, “the eNB may instruct the relay UE to stop providing a connection service to the remote UE using system information or a paging message. The relay UE operates based on the information”, see para. 168.
CATT and Chun are analogous because they pertain to the field of wireless communication and, more specifically, to configuration parameters for relaying communications.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Chun in the system of CATT so the network can dynamically control the relaying terminals in the network. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce the unnecessary functioning of relay terminals to optimize the terminals power consumption.
Regarding claim 7 CATT does not specifically disclose, wherein the relay UE is configured to inform the at least one remote UEs that it no longer acts as a relay. However, Chun teach, para. 170, “the relay UE may inform the remote UE connected to the relay UE of the presence/update of the disaster information”.
CATT and Chun are analogous because they pertain to the field of wireless communication and, more specifically, to configuration parameters for relaying communications.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Chun in the system of CATT to be able to terminate the relay function and notify the remote equipments that the service is no longer available. The motivation for doing so would have been to free the unused resources on the network.
Regarding claim 8 the limitations of claim 8 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 1.
Regarding claim 9 the limitations of claim 9 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 1.
Regarding claim 10 the limitations of claim 10 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 6.
Regarding claim 15 CATT does not specifically disclose, wherein the destination comprises another UE of at least one of the wireless communication system a core network of the wireless communication system, and an access network of the wireless communication system. However, Chun teach, para. 112, “Remote UE: This is a Prose-enabled UE connected to (Evolved Packet Core) EPC network, i.e. perform communication with a PDN, through Prose UE-to-Network Relay without service from E-UTRAN”.
CATT and Chun are analogous because they pertain to the field of wireless communication and, more specifically, to configuration parameters for relaying communications.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Chun in the system of CATT so the network can dynamically control the relaying terminals in the network serving other user equipments. The motivation for doing so would have been to maintain the coverage of the network beyond the reach of the base station area.
Claim 16 recites a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 1 and thus is rejected under the same reason set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim 17 recites a computer–program product corresponding to the apparatus of claim 1 and thus is rejected under the same reason set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 18 the limitations of claim 18 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 1.
Regarding claim 19 CATT disclose, comprising transmitting the certain cause or reason together with the assistance information section 2.1, “Relay UE is initiated based on the rules configured by eNB”.
Regarding claim 20 the limitations of claim 20 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 6.
Regarding claim 21 CATT disclose, wherein the assistance information comprises at least one of:
QoS profiles of the one or remote UEs that the relay UE was supporting,
a QoS profile of the relay UE, the at least one relay UE IDs that the relay UE supported for each remote UE connection section 2.2, Figure. 2, “while the UE-1 is announcing the message carries, among other indicators the Relay UE ID supported related to the group”, the UE IDs of the at least one remote UEs that the relay UE was supporting, a groupcast ID of a group of remote UEs that the relay UE was supporting, at least one services and/or service IDs with associated priorities that the relay UE was supporting, at least one PLMN IDs that the relay UE was supporting section 2.2, Fig. 2, “shows the message being sent from the Relay UE that includes several parameters like PLMN ID”, a list of IDs of at least one potential new relay UEs. The claim list features in the alternative format. While the claim lists a number of optional limitations only one limitation from the list is required and needs to be met by the prior art. The Examiner has chosen two of the alternatives, that are better disclosed by CATT.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Basu Mallick et al. (U.S. Pub. 20190109631) which disclose(s) prose relay UE activation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAUL RIVAS whose telephone number is (571)270–5590. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy K. Kundu, can be reached on (571) 272 - 8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571–273–8300.
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/R.R/ Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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