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 .
Response to Amendment
This is in response to an amendment/response filed 7/23/2026.
No claims have been cancelled.
No claims have been added.
Claims 1-2 are now pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 7/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
On page 4-6 of the remarks, in regard to claim 1, the Applicant disagrees with the rejection 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”)
Specifically, the Applicant remarks:
The "identity of the eNB of Freda is different from "a cell identity or a cell global identifier of the serving cell"
Freda does not disclose "for both in-coverage remote terminal and an out-of-coverage remote terminal"
Freda does not disclose a cell identity or a cell global identifier of a serving cell being carried in Relay Discovery Additional Information; or that the Remote UE can still report a cell identity or a cell global identifier of a serving cell when out of coverage
The Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Regarding (1), this argument is not persuasive because it is not clear how "identity of the eNB" is different from "a cell identity". Also, Freda teaches "E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) announcements" as mentioned in [0228] and [0290].
Regarding (2), in [0075], Freda mentions "remote WTRU may or may not be out of coverage of the eNB and/or other network infrastructure".
Regarding (3), the claim and the specification do not explicitly mention anything about "Relay Discovery Additional Information". If the applicant is referring to "relay discovery information" then the combination of the teachings from Zisimopoulos and Freda teach this limitation. In addition, in [0075], Freda mentions "remote WTRU may or may not be out of coverage of the eNB and/or other network infrastructure".
On page 6 of the remarks, in regard to the dependent claims, the Applicant states that the claims are allowable at least due to the deficiencies of the ground of rejection applied to the independent claims.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees.
The Examiner kindly refer the Applicant to the reasoning pertaining to the independent claims, detailed above.
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 cell identity or a cell global identifier 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 processor circuitry 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 the first ID of the selected relay equipment, the cell identity or the cell global identifier 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 both an in-coverage remote terminal and an out-of- coverage remote terminal, 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 the first ID of the selected relay equipment, the cell identity or the cell global identifier 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 both an in-coverage remote terminal and an out-of- coverage remote terminal, (“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])
(“The remote WTRU may or may not be out of coverage of the eNB and/or other network infrastructure.”, Freda [0075])
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 as described above does not explicitly teach:
The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cell global identifier of the serving cell includes an ECGI (E-UTRAN Cell Global Identifier)
However, Freda further teaches ECGI which includes:
The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cell global identifier of the serving cell includes an ECGI (E-UTRAN Cell Global Identifier) (“The replacement mobile relay may start transmitting the TMGI and/or E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) announcements.”, Freda [0228]) (“The WTRU may send, to the eNB, an identification of the different eNB to which the mobile relay WTRU is connected. The identification of the different eNB may be obtained by the WTRU via eCGI announcement.”, Freda [0290])
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 ECGI as described in Freda into Zisimopoulos. By modifying the method to include ECGI as taught by Freda, the benefits of improved efficiency (Freda [0005]) and improved communication quality and reliability (Zisimopoulos [0048]) are achieved.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW C KIM whose telephone number is (703)756-5607. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM - 5PM (PST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy K Kundu can be reached at (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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/A.C.K./
Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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