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 .
Applicant’s RCE filed 1/28/26 is acknowledged.
Claim 1 has been amended.
Claims 1 and 2 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 (pages 3-9) in a reply filed 1/28/26 have been considered but are moot because the arguments are based on newly changed limitations in the amendment and new ground of rejections using newly introduced references or a newly introduced portion of an existing reference are applied in the current rejection.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/28/26 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zisimopoulos et al. US 20160286471 (hereinafter “Zisimopoulos”) in view of Freda et al. US 20180092017 (hereinafter “Freda”)
As to claim 1:
Zisimopoulos discloses:
A relay selection apparatus, applicable to a remote terminal, the apparatus comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit request information (“At 245, the UE may transmit a relay connection request to the ProSe relay candidate 135-b.”, Zisimopoulos [0057]) to a relay equipment for unicast traffic communication with a serving cell of the relay equipment; (“the base station 105-b may transmit a PRI to the ProSe relay candidate 135-b. The PRI may include a bitmap (i.e., a one-dimensional bit array) that may be used by UEs to determine whether they should select the ProSe relay candidate 135-b for communicating with a network to which the base station 105-b provides access. The meaning of each bit in the PRI may be operator specific. In some examples, the PRI may be received in a system information block (SIB) or a unicast RRC message.”, Zisimopoulos [0054])
a receiver configured to receive relay discovery information transmitted by relay equipment, (“the ProSe relay candidate 135-b may broadcast at least one ProSe discovery message 220 (e.g., in accordance with PC5-D discovery techniques). The at least one ProSe discovery message 220 may include a relay offer message 225 and/or a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) relay information message 230. The relay offer message 225 may include at least one relay radio layer condition and/or at least one upper layer condition.”, Zisimopoulos [0055]) the relay discovery information including a first identifier (ID) of the relay equipment (“The upper layer conditions 310 may be specific to relay offer messages and may include, for example, a ProSe Relay UE ID 330, a PLMN ID 335, relay connectivity information 340, relay status information 345, or an indicator of service continuity support 350.”, Zisimopoulos [0060]) and a second identifier (ID) of the serving cell of the relay equipment; (“ The MBMS relay information 410 may be specific to MBMS relay information messages and may include, for example, an E-UTRAN cell identity (ECI) 425, at least one temporary mobile group identity (TMGI) 430, or at least one ProSe Group ID 435. The ECI 425 may identify the Cell ID of the cell on which the ProSe relay candidate is camped or connected.”, Zisimopoulos [0064]) and a processor configured to measure sidelink (“Communications between UEs 115 and ProSe relay candidates 135 may be made using a Device-to-Device (D2D) communication protocol, such as a PC5 communication protocol.”, Zisimopoulos [0050]) channel quality for selection of the relay equipment, (“the relay selection rule may include at least one relay radio layer condition and/or at least one upper layer condition. The relay radio condition(s) may include, for example, a threshold relay-to-network reference signal received power (RSRP) (e.g., a threshold UuRSRP), a threshold relay-to-network reference signal received quality (RSRQ) (e.g., a threshold UuRSRQ), a threshold relay-to-UE RSRP (e.g., a threshold PC5RSRP), a provisioned ProSe Relay Indication (PRI) indicating a relay selection policy for accessing a network, a radio validity condition, or a combination thereof.”, Zisimopoulos [0053])
Zisimopoulos as described above does not explicitly teach:
and after selecting the relay equipment based on the measured sidelink channel quality, report a first ID of the selected relay equipment, a second cell ID of the serving cell where the selected relay equipment is located, and a measurement result corresponding to the selected relay equipment to a base station, and then proceed with performing traffic communication with the base station.
However, Freda further teaches reporting relay ID, cell ID, and measurement result to a base station which includes:
and after selecting the relay equipment based on the measured sidelink channel quality, (“A mobile relay may be selected based on selection criterion and other information. The selection criteria of the mobile relay may include one or more of: services (e.g., connection info) announced, PLMN ID announced, TMGI, and mobile relay specific information. Mobile relay selection may employ the measurements provided by lower layers and/or one or more thresholds associated with the measurements. The associated thresholds may be provided in the application layer and/or by lower layers. The associated thresholds may be provided as part of a RRC configuration. FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example of selection of a mobile relay WTRU.”, Freda [0098]) (“The remote WTRU may measure signal qualities of the mobile relay WTRU to which the remote WTRU is connected based on Model A or Model B discovery messages.”, Freda [0103]) report a first ID of the selected relay equipment, a second cell ID of the serving cell where the selected relay equipment is located, and a measurement result corresponding to the selected relay equipment to a base station, (“For autonomous mobile relay selection/reselection, the remote WTRU may inform the eNB of the identity of a selected mobile relay. For example, a mobile relay selection/reselection may occur while the remote WTRU is still in coverage of the eNB. The selection/reselection may occur autonomously. The WTRU may inform the eNB the identity of the selected mobile relay. The WTRU may inform the eNB of relevant information about the selected mobile relay. Relevant information about the selected mobile relay may include one or more of mobile relay identification information (e.g., Mobile relay L2 ID, PHY layer ID, and/or the like), the identity of the eNB to which the mobile relay is connected, measured signal quality (e.g., PC5 measurements) of the mobile relay, access point name (APN) or connectivity information broadcast by the mobile relay, and/or the signal quality of the Uu link between the mobile relay and the eNB.”, Freda [0111])
and then proceed with performing traffic communication with the base station. (FIG. 7 shows the relay forwarding request and accept messages to and from the remote WTRU after the remote WTRU selects the relay, Freda) (“The WTRU-to-Network Mobile relay 202 (e.g., a mobile relay) may provide other types communications between eNB 204 and remote WTRU 210. The WTRU-to-Network Mobile relay 202 may provide a layer 2(L2) relay forwarding function, and forward packets at a layer of communications between eNB 204 and remote WTRU 210. For example, WTRU-to-Network Mobile relay 202 may communicate with eNB 204 to send data to and/or receive data from Application Service (AS) 208 (e.g., via EPC 206). The data may be forwarded to and/or communicated on behalf of remote WTRU 210 (e.g., which may be out-of-network coverage). the WTRU-to-Network Mobile relay 202 may communicate with WTRU 210 (e.g., a remote WTRU) via a PC5 interface.”, Freda [0076])
Zisimopoulos and Freda are analogous because they pertain to handling communication between a mobile device, relay, and base station.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include reporting relay ID, cell ID, and measurement result to a base station as described in Freda into Zisimopoulos. By modifying the method to include reporting relay ID, cell ID, and measurement result to a base station as taught by Freda, the benefits of improved efficiency (Freda [0005]) and improved communication quality and reliability (Zisimopoulos [0048]) are achieved.
As to claim 2:
Zisimopoulos discloses:
The apparatus according to the claim 1, wherein the second identifier (ID) of the serving cell is a cell identifier (ID) of the serving cell of the relay equipment, a cell global identifier of the serving cell of the relay equipment, a physical cell identifier of the serving cell of the relay equipment, or other IDs identifying the serving cell of the relay equipment. (“ The MBMS relay information 410 may be specific to MBMS relay information messages and may include, for example, an E-UTRAN cell identity (ECI) 425, at least one temporary mobile group identity (TMGI) 430, or at least one ProSe Group ID 435. The ECI 425 may identify the Cell ID of the cell on which the ProSe relay candidate is camped or connected.”, Zisimopoulos [0064])
Conclusion
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/A.C.K./
Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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