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 is in response to the Applicant’s arguments, and amendments filed on February 09, 202, in which claims 1 and 24 have been amended. Claims 1-8, 11-18, and 23-24 are currently pending
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.
Claims 1-4, 12, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gulati et al. (US 2016/0337954) in view of Zeng et al. (US 2020/0374857).
Regarding claim 1, Gulati teaches an apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories comprising instructions and one or more processors (UE 350, fig. 3), individually or collectively, configured to execute the instructions to cause the apparatus to: receive, from an entity in the wireless communication, relay selection assistance information identifying a plurality of relay UEs available for selection by the UE (i.e., The remote UE may select the best relay UE among many candidate relay UEs that may or may not be connected to the same base station. The remote UE may choose between a first potential relay UE, relay UE 1 and a second potential relay UE, relay UE 2. The quality of the link may be a function of both a link between the relay UE and the remote UE and a link between the relay link and the relay link's serving base station (e.g., eNB) [0010], [0011]); select a first relay UE of the plurality of relay UEs based, at least in part, on the relay selection assistance information (i.e., Selecting a potential relay UE 504, 506, 604, 606 based on the ranking of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 and the second potential relay UE 506, 606 may include comparing the rankings of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 and the second potential relay UE 506, 606 and choosing the potential relay with the highest ranking. Accordingly, the remote UE 508, 608 may compare the rankings of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 and the second potential relay UE 506, 606 and choose the potential relay UE 504, 506 604, 606 with the highest ranking [0056], [0086]-[0088]), wherein selecting the first relay UE of the plurality of relay UEs comprises selecting the first relay UE from a subset of the plurality of relay UEs, each relay UE in the subset being associated with a same cell as the UE and having a signal strength exceeding a threshold signal strength (i.e., When the UE, e.g., the remote UE, moves out of coverage, in order to continue the communication with the network, the UE may need to make use of a ProSe UE-to-Network Relay node. The remote UE may select the best relay UE among many candidate relay UEs that may or may not be connected to the same base station. The remote UE may choose between a first potential relay UE, relay UE 1 and a second potential relay UE, relay UE 2 [0010], [0052], [0059], [0066]); and connecting, via a sidelink/PC5 interface, to the selected first relay UE (i.e., At 828, the remote UE may connect to one of a first potential relay UE or a second potential relay UE based on the received information. For example, referring to FIGS. 5, 6, the remote UE 508, 608 may connect to one of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 or the second potential relay UE 506, 606 based on the received information [0089]-[0090]).
Gulati does not specifically teach receive, from a network entity, relay selection assistance information.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Zeng teaches configuring resources includes configuring a first set of resources for communicating control information. the resources may be automatically or autonomously selected by the relay device and/or accessory device. For example, the base station (e.g., the gNB) may configure and/or transmit a list of network resources for sidelink relay and notify relay devices (e.g., through SIB broadcast in downlink) ([0099]). For example, the relay device may receive an indication of a first pool of resources available for sidelink communication from the base station, and the relay device may automatically configure the first set of resources by selecting from the first pool of resources indicated by the base station. As another possibility, configuring the first set of resources may be performed in response to network assignment (e.g., by the base station) of the first set of resources for the accessory device (e.g., for communication between the relay device and the accessory device) ([0120]-[0121]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Zeng within the system Gulati in order to establish cellular communication with the accessory device includes establishing synchronization with the accessory device using a cellular sidelink synchronization channel and a cellular broadcast channel.
Regarding claim 2, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above. Gulati further teaches the relay selection assistance information is received in a discovery message (i.e., the spectral efficient of the PC5 link to the relay may be measured at the remote UE using a PC5 transmission (e.g., a discovery message broadcasting the relay availability) from the relay UEs [0012], [0048], [0060]).
Regarding claim 3, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above. Gulati further teaches the relay selection assistance information is received in a dedicated message received during a discovery procedure ([0048], [0060], dedicated RRC signaling (unicast) [0071]).
Regarding claim 4, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above. Gulati further teaches the relay selection assistance information is received in a system information block (SIB) broadcast to the UE by the network entity (i.e., the information indicating the at least one of the first weighting factor or the second weighting factor is received in a system information block (SIB) from the serving base station [claim 36]).
Regarding claim 12, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above. Gulati further teaches establish a unicast connection with each relay UE in the subset of relay UEs (i.e., the at least one of the first weighting factor or the second weighting factor may be transmitted as a dedicated RRC signaling (unicast). The at least one of the first weighting factor or the second weighting factor may be transmitted as a part of a PC5 message [0071]).
Regarding claim 24, Gulati teaches a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from an entity in the wireless communication, relay selection assistance information identifying a plurality of relay UEs available for selection by the UE (i.e., The remote UE may select the best relay UE among many candidate relay UEs that may or may not be connected to the same base station. The remote UE may choose between a first potential relay UE, relay UE 1 and a second potential relay UE, relay UE 2. The quality of the link may be a function of both a link between the relay UE and the remote UE and a link between the relay link and the relay link's serving base station (e.g., eNB) [0010], [0011]); select a first relay UE of the plurality of relay UEs based, at least in part, on the relay selection assistance information (i.e., Selecting a potential relay UE 504, 506, 604, 606 based on the ranking of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 and the second potential relay UE 506, 606 may include comparing the rankings of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 and the second potential relay UE 506, 606 and choosing the potential relay with the highest ranking. Accordingly, the remote UE 508, 608 may compare the rankings of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 and the second potential relay UE 506, 606 and choose the potential relay UE 504, 506 604, 606 with the highest ranking [0056], [0086]-[0088]), wherein selecting the first relay of the plurality of relay UEs comprises selecting the relay UE from a subset of the plurality of relay UEs, each relay UE in the subset being associated with a same cell as the UE and having a signal strength exceeding a threshold signal strength (i.e., When the UE, e.g., the remote UE, moves out of coverage, in order to continue the communication with the network, the UE may need to make use of a ProSe UE-to-Network Relay node. The remote UE may select the best relay UE among many candidate relay UEs that may or may not be connected to the same base station. The remote UE may choose between a first potential relay UE, relay UE 1 and a second potential relay UE, relay UE 2 [0010], [0052], [0059], [0066]); and connecting, via a sidelink/PC5 interface, to the selected first relay UE (i.e., At 828, the remote UE may connect to one of a first potential relay UE or a second potential relay UE based on the received information. For example, referring to FIGS. 5, 6, the remote UE 508, 608 may connect to one of the first potential relay UE 504, 604 or the second potential relay UE 506, 606 based on the received information [0089]-[0090]).
Gulati does not specifically teach receive, from a network entity, relay selection assistance information.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Zeng teaches configuring resources includes configuring a first set of resources for communicating control information. the resources may be automatically or autonomously selected by the relay device and/or accessory device. For example, the base station (e.g., the gNB) may configure and/or transmit a list of network resources for sidelink relay and notify relay devices (e.g., through SIB broadcast in downlink) ([0099]). For example, the relay device may receive an indication of a first pool of resources available for sidelink communication from the base station, and the relay device may automatically configure the first set of resources by selecting from the first pool of resources indicated by the base station. As another possibility, configuring the first set of resources may be performed in response to network assignment (e.g., by the base station) of the first set of resources for the accessory device (e.g., for communication between the relay device and the accessory device) ([0120]-[0121]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Zeng within the system Gulati in order to establish cellular communication with the accessory device includes establishing synchronization with the accessory device using a cellular sidelink synchronization channel and a cellular broadcast channel.
Claims 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gulati et al. (US 2016/0337954) in view of Zeng further in view of Ohtsuji (US 2020/0008127).
Regarding claim 5, Gulati in view of Zeng further teaches all the limitations above except the relay selection assistance information comprises information related to UE-to-network entity relays, and wherein the relay selection assistance information is organized on a per-cell basis.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Ohtsuji teaches In Step 501, each relay UE 2 transmits selection assistance information to the remote UE 1. The remote UE 1 receives from the selection assistance information from each relay UE 2. Each relay UE 2 may transmit the selection assistance information in the relay discovery procedure (e.g., in Step 401 in FIG. 4). Specifically, according to the so-called announcement model (i.e., model A), each relay UE 2 may transmit a discovery signal containing the selection assistance information. In this way, the remote UE 1 can find relay UEs 2 by detecting their discovery signals and receive the selection assistance information from these relay UEs 2 ([0064]). In Step 502, the remote UE 1 performs a relay selection by using the selection assistance information received from each relay UE 2. In the relay selection in Step 502, the remote UE 1 may select at least one specific relay UE for the remote UE 1 from among one or more relay UEs 2 (i.e., relay UE candidates). For example, the remote UE 1 estimates uplink quality of each relay UE 2 by using the selection assistance information received from each relay UE 2 and performs relay selection while considering the estimated uplink quality of each relay UE 2 ([0066], [0068]-[0069], [0080]). The selection assistance information includes a type of cell, a relay terminal, and a name or identifier of a mobile operator providing the base station (abstr). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Ohtsuji within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to receive selection assistance information from each of one or more relay terminals, and select at least one specific relay terminal suitable for the radio terminal from among the one or more relay terminals based on the selection assistance information.
Regarding claim 6, Gulati in view of Zeng further in view of Ohtsuji further teaches all the limitations above. Ohtsuji further teaches wherein the relay selection assistance information for each cell comprises one or more of: cell identifier information, cell load information, minimum quality of service (QoS) metrics supported by a link between a relay UE and the cell; neighbor relay information; a connection status of each neighbor relay; public land mobile network (PLMN) information for the cell; or relay selection and reselection parameters for relay UEs connected with the cell ([abstr.], [0032]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 7, Gulati further teaches all the limitations above except , wherein the relay selection assistance information comprises information related to UE-to-UE relays that are in coverage of the network entity, and wherein the relay selection assistance information is organized on a per-UE basis.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Ohtsuji teaches In Step 501, each relay UE 2 transmits selection assistance information to the remote UE 1. The remote UE 1 receives from the selection assistance information from each relay UE 2. Each relay UE 2 may transmit the selection assistance information in the relay discovery procedure (e.g., in Step 401 in FIG. 4). Specifically, according to the so-called announcement model (i.e., model A), each relay UE 2 may transmit a discovery signal containing the selection assistance information. In this way, the remote UE 1 can find relay UEs 2 by detecting their discovery signals and receive the selection assistance information from these relay UEs 2 ([0064]). In Step 502, the remote UE 1 performs a relay selection by using the selection assistance information received from each relay UE 2. In the relay selection in Step 502, the remote UE 1 may select at least one specific relay UE for the remote UE 1 from among one or more relay UEs 2 (i.e., relay UE candidates). For example, the remote UE 1 estimates uplink quality of each relay UE 2 by using the selection assistance information received from each relay UE 2 and performs relay selection while considering the estimated uplink quality of each relay UE 2 ([0066], [0068]-[0069], [0080]). The selection assistance information includes a type of cell, a relay terminal, and a name or identifier of a mobile operator providing the base station (abstr). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Ohtsuji within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to receive selection assistance information from each of one or more relay terminals, and select at least one specific relay terminal suitable for the radio terminal from among the one or more relay terminals based on the selection assistance information.
Regarding claim 8, Gulati in view of Zeng further in view of Ohtsuji further teaches all the limitations above. Ohtsuji further teaches wherein the relay selection assistance information for each cell comprises one or more of: cell identifier information, cell load information, minimum quality of service (QoS) metrics supported by a link between a relay UE and the cell; neighbor relay information; a connection status of each neighbor relay; public land mobile network (PLMN) information for the cell; or relay selection and reselection parameters for relay UEs connected with the cell ([abstr.], [0032]-[0033]).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gulati et al. (US 2016/0337954) in view of Zeng further in view of Balachandran et al. (US 2015/0271765).
Regarding claim 11, Gulati further teaches all the limitations above except adjust radio link monitoring (RLM) parameters for performing measurements in respect of the network entity where the UE is in a connected mode.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Balachandran teaches a method for adjusting Radio Link Monitoring (RLM), and/or connection establishment failure detection for wireless devices in a cellular communications network depending on mode of operation. In one embodiment, a node in the cellular communications network determines whether a wireless device is to operate in a long range extension mode of operation or a normal mode of operation. The node then applies different values for at least one parameter depending on whether the wireless device is to operate in the long range extension mode or the normal mode ([0020]). In determining whether a wireless device is to operate in a long range extension mode of operation or a normal mode of operation, the node applies different values for at least one parameter depending on whether the wireless device is to operate in the long range extension mode or the normal mode ([0020]-[0022]). It should be noted that RLM, RLF detection (i.e., RLF triggering), and RLF recovery are functions executed when the wireless device 16 is in the Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected mode ([0116], [0118]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Balachandran within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to substantially reduced signaling overhead, and energy consumption when operating in the long range extension mode.
Claims 14-16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gulati et al. (US 2016/0337954) in view of Zeng further in view of Jung et al. (US 2017/0086114).
Regarding claim 14, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above except measure a signal strength of a connection with the selected first relay UE; and measuring signal strength for only the subset of relay UEs based on a determination that the measured signal strength of the connection with the selected first relay UE exceeds the threshold signal strength.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Jung teaches The candidate relay UE is selected as a relay UE only when a measurement of the candidate relay UE is greater than a minimum hysteresis value (minHyst) based on the threshold. When an upper layer of the remote UE instructs the remote UE to reselect a relay UE, the candidate relay UE may be selected as a relay UE only when the measurement of the candidate relay UE is greater than the minimum hysteresis value (minHyst) based on the threshold ([0014]-[0015]). The remote UE maintains a set of relay UEs satisfying the minimum condition, for example, UEs having connectivity and a sidelink measurement that exceed certain thresholds, (defined as a candidate set). To this end, the remote UE may use a discovery operation ([0259]). The remote UE generates a set of relay UEs satisfying the minimum condition, for example, UEs having connectivity and a sidelink measurement that exceed certain thresholds, (defined as a candidate set). To this end, the remote UE may use a sidelink discovery operation, that is, a procedure for attempting to receive a sidelink discovery signal transmitted from a relay UE ([0271]-[0273). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Jung within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to rank the candidate relay UEs included in the candidate set and select a candidate relay UE having the highest ranking as a relay UE.
Regarding claim 15, in view of Zeng Gulati teaches all the limitations above except measure a signal strength of a connection with a relay UE having a lowest signal strength in the subset of relay UEs; and measure signal strength for only the subset of relay UEs based on a determination that the measured signal strength of the connection with the relay UE having the lowest signal strength in the subset of relay UEs exceeds the threshold signal strength.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Jung teaches determining whether a measurement of a current relay UE is smaller than a threshold and selecting a candidate relay UE satisfying a specific condition as a relay UE when the measurement of the current relay UE is smaller than the threshold ([0014]). When the measurement of the current relay UE is smaller than the threshold, the remote UE selects, as a relay UE, a candidate relay UE having a measurement greater than the minimum hysteresis value (minHyst) based on the threshold (S1520) ([0282]-[0283]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Jung within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to rank the candidate relay UEs included in the candidate set and select a candidate relay UE having the highest ranking as a relay UE.
Regarding claim 16, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above except measure a signal strength of at least one of a connection with the selected first relay UE or a connection with a relay UE having a lowest signal strength in the subset of relay UEs; and measure signal strength for the plurality of relay UEs based on a determination that at least one of the measured signal strength of the connection with the selected first relay UE or the measured signal strength of the connection with the relay UE having a lowest signal strength in the subset of relay UEs is less than the threshold signal strength.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Jung teaches determining whether a measurement of a current relay UE is smaller than a threshold and selecting a candidate relay UE satisfying a specific condition as a relay UE when the measurement of the current relay UE is smaller than the threshold ([0014]). When the measurement of the current relay UE is smaller than the threshold, the remote UE selects, as a relay UE, a candidate relay UE having a measurement greater than the minimum hysteresis value (minHyst) based on the threshold (S1520) ([0282]-[0283]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Jung within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to rank the candidate relay UEs included in the candidate set and select a candidate relay UE having the highest ranking as a relay UE.
Regarding claim 18, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above except determine that a signal strength of a connection with the selected first relay UE has fallen below a threshold signal strength and that no relay UE in the subset of relay UEs is suitable for reselection; and based on the determination: release the connection with the selected first relay UE; and triggering a cell reselection procedure.
However, the preceding limitation is very well known in the art of communications. Jung teaches after the UE selects a specific cell through the cell selection process, the intensity or quality of a signal between the UE and a BS may be changed due to a change in the mobility or wireless environment of the UE. Accordingly, if the quality of the selected cell is deteriorated, the UE may select another cell that provides better quality. If a cell is reselected as described above, the UE selects a cell that provides better signal quality than the currently selected cell. Such a process is called cell reselection. In general, a basic object of the cell reselection process is to select a cell that provides UE with the best quality from a viewpoint of the quality of a radio signal ([0089], [0115]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Jung within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to prevent unnecessarily change/reselect a relay UE when there is no significant difference in channel quality.
Claim 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gulati et al. (US 2016/0337954) in view of Zeng further in view of Chen (US 2022/0167370).
Regarding claim 23, Gulati in view of Zeng teaches all the limitations above except adjust radio resource management (RRM) parameters for performing measurements in respect of the network entity and one or more neighboring network entities where the UE is in an idle, inactive, or connected mode using a first set of adjusted RRM parameters for the network entity and a second set of adjusted RRM parameters for the one or more neighboring network entities.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Chen teaches the measurement adjustment thresholds, that is, the first threshold and the second threshold, may be the same or may be different. At least one of the first threshold and the second threshold may be the same as or different from a threshold of an S-measure (S measure) mechanism for controlling RRM measurement of the neighboring cell currently in the connected state or idle state or inactive state. Optionally, when the measurement adjustment threshold is used to control adjustment of the RRM measurement mode of the current cell, the first threshold may be higher than or equal to the threshold of the S-measure mechanism, or the first threshold may be lower than or equal to the threshold of the S-measure mechanism threshold. Further optionally, when the measurement adjustment threshold is used to control adjustment of the RRM measurement mode of the neighboring cell, both the first threshold and the second threshold are lower than or equal to the threshold of the S-measure mechanism ([0090], [0162], [0174]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Chen within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to adjust a radio resource management RRM measurement mode based on the measurement adjustment related parameter.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gulati et al. (US 2016/0337954) in view of Zeng further in view of Khoryaev et al. (US 2018/0069664)
Regarding claim 5, Gulati in view of Zeng further teaches all the limitations above except the relay selection assistance information comprises information related to UE-to-network entity relays, and wherein the relay selection assistance information is organized on a per-cell basis.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Gulati teaches for UE-to-NW relay node selection, additional L1 assistance information can be provided to upper layers in order to facilitate an intelligent selection of the UE-to-NW node (or relay UE). In example, the UE-to-NW selection criterion can be left for UE implementation. Alternatively, one or more of the following metrics can be used as L1 performance indicators: RSSI/RSRP/RSRQ metrics, interference level at UE-to-NW nodes and/or channel state information (CSI), such as a channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI) and rank indicator (RI). In some cases, additional information can be added at upper layers, e.g., system loading or a number of active UE-to-NW connections, battery level, etc. In one example, for UE-to-NW relay node selection, the relay node (or relay UE) can be selected based on a maximum of the following indicators: RSRP, RSRQ, CQI or battery level ([0032]-[0034]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Khoryaev within the system of Gulati in view of Zeng in order to use D2D feature that enables the direct communication of data between user equipments (UEs) over the cellular radio spectrum, but without the data being carried by the cellular network infrastructure. This D2D feature can be referred to as a layer 3 (L3)-based UE-to-network (NW) relay function.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13 and 17 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-8, 11-12, 14-16, 18, and 23-24 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
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/JEAN A GELIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643